- Nov 23, 2015
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- #1
Kingers was not happy with the game against the Swans. Apart from blowing up about the 6-6-6 violation, he saw that we certainly didn't adapt well enough to the wet conditions that arrived in the second quarter, although no doubt losing our biggest midfielder didn't help. But we just didn't play smart in the conditions, while the issue of the last few weeks (except for the Lions game) in respect of our midfield's lack of ability to compete and break even arose again. While we looked good in Q1, the rain certainly killed our running game, although can't take away from the Swans tactics that used the conditions well to assist in doing so.
Which brings us to next week's game against the Bombers. Like the Carlton game, it will be a battle of the gameplans, with Essendon's midfield thriving (Parish & Merrett certainly having great years) and a stoppage game on their agenda, while we will be happy for a dry game (Marvel Stadium, it has to be dry doesn't it?) to exploit our running game.
There will be at least 2 changes, with Tom Green likely to miss several weeks with his ankle, and Callum Brown likely to be suspended for some weeks. If Cogs was close for the Swans game, he should be back for next week's game. However, do we need other changes in the midfield? We've had midfield problems in several games, and our most dominant mid will be missing. I thought Peatling's game was good enough (both yesterday and the previous couple of games when coming on as sub), but do we need to bring Harry Rowston in for more firepower, and if so, who would go out for him? Some have suggested bringing Perryman into the midfield to bring Haynes into the team after some great performances in VFL, but I doubt that Kingsley would want to tinker with a reasonably strong defensive set-up (and Haynes doesn't do the same role as Pez does).
How do we replace Brown? What he brings to the team is speed and energy; he can leap high to take marks as he showed against the Swans for his two goals, and his speed troubles oppositions. The nearest like-for-like we have is Conor Stone, who has been playing very well in VFL, and sits amongst the top 6 goalscorers while playing that medium-sized forward role. We could go for Max Gruzewski, who has also been playing well, but at 192 cm (vs Stone's 189 cms) is that slightly too tall? Stone makes more tackles, but I'm unsure of their in-game speed comparison (doesn't seem that much in it). The alternative is to just go smaller, and for example bring Harvey Thomas back into the team from the sub role. Effectively, this would acknowledge that no-one can replace exactly what Brown brings to the team in terms of skills and balance.
For Kingers, there's a question of does he makes changes beyond those necessary to "shake things up", or does he just need to have the players getting consistent game time and incrementally improving over the year? In the end, the H&A battle is about securing a top 4 spot, then resetting for finals - hopefully hitting our straps late in the H&A season and into finals. So, which of those options open to Kingers gets us the best long-term outcome? As Maximus pointed out, we're still somewhat of a young and inexperienced team compared to others, so is it a case of just needing to continue putting games into the players we deem as best available?
We certainly won't want to drop a second game in a row, as we'll be back in the middle of chasing pack. Essendon is an interesting team - sitting 5th but with a sub-100 percentage, having scraped narrow wins over non-top 8 teams (West Coast, Adelaide) while getting smashed by Port (who themselves have now dropped a couple of games). But it's also an away game - we need to recapture our away form of last year to put them away, with more games against top 8 sides coming up.
So, what are your thoughts? What changes would you like to see, or envisage that Kingers will make?
Which brings us to next week's game against the Bombers. Like the Carlton game, it will be a battle of the gameplans, with Essendon's midfield thriving (Parish & Merrett certainly having great years) and a stoppage game on their agenda, while we will be happy for a dry game (Marvel Stadium, it has to be dry doesn't it?) to exploit our running game.
There will be at least 2 changes, with Tom Green likely to miss several weeks with his ankle, and Callum Brown likely to be suspended for some weeks. If Cogs was close for the Swans game, he should be back for next week's game. However, do we need other changes in the midfield? We've had midfield problems in several games, and our most dominant mid will be missing. I thought Peatling's game was good enough (both yesterday and the previous couple of games when coming on as sub), but do we need to bring Harry Rowston in for more firepower, and if so, who would go out for him? Some have suggested bringing Perryman into the midfield to bring Haynes into the team after some great performances in VFL, but I doubt that Kingsley would want to tinker with a reasonably strong defensive set-up (and Haynes doesn't do the same role as Pez does).
How do we replace Brown? What he brings to the team is speed and energy; he can leap high to take marks as he showed against the Swans for his two goals, and his speed troubles oppositions. The nearest like-for-like we have is Conor Stone, who has been playing very well in VFL, and sits amongst the top 6 goalscorers while playing that medium-sized forward role. We could go for Max Gruzewski, who has also been playing well, but at 192 cm (vs Stone's 189 cms) is that slightly too tall? Stone makes more tackles, but I'm unsure of their in-game speed comparison (doesn't seem that much in it). The alternative is to just go smaller, and for example bring Harvey Thomas back into the team from the sub role. Effectively, this would acknowledge that no-one can replace exactly what Brown brings to the team in terms of skills and balance.
For Kingers, there's a question of does he makes changes beyond those necessary to "shake things up", or does he just need to have the players getting consistent game time and incrementally improving over the year? In the end, the H&A battle is about securing a top 4 spot, then resetting for finals - hopefully hitting our straps late in the H&A season and into finals. So, which of those options open to Kingers gets us the best long-term outcome? As Maximus pointed out, we're still somewhat of a young and inexperienced team compared to others, so is it a case of just needing to continue putting games into the players we deem as best available?
We certainly won't want to drop a second game in a row, as we'll be back in the middle of chasing pack. Essendon is an interesting team - sitting 5th but with a sub-100 percentage, having scraped narrow wins over non-top 8 teams (West Coast, Adelaide) while getting smashed by Port (who themselves have now dropped a couple of games). But it's also an away game - we need to recapture our away form of last year to put them away, with more games against top 8 sides coming up.
So, what are your thoughts? What changes would you like to see, or envisage that Kingers will make?
