Collingwoods back six with 2 or 3 missing looked ordinary....what about rd 1 swans ?

[Auntie.Gerald]

did anyone get to see the NAB cup

now I know it was only one game................and one swallow doesnt make a byron sumner

but i felt that no Maxwell and no Reid.......... left the Pies with a different game plan ie they could not flood the opposition half with the same instensity nor effectiveness

I noticed how much they do rely on Maxwell to float thru the backline making the right calls on one on one or extra man defence.........but it also made me realise are we being naive to think that without our 4 key defenders that we are going to match the top 8 teams??

Our back six looked good enough in the pre season but when the comp starts can we truly expect our back 6 with 3 of them under 20 games experiences between them match it with the flooding pressure of the top 8 type teams?

[swansrob]

Our back six looked good enough in the pre season but when the comp starts can we truly expect our back 6 with 3 of them under 20 games experiences between them match it with the flooding pressure of the top 8 type teams?

Our staring back six will be something like
Everitt, Richards, Mattner
Smith, Grundy, Shaw

Rohan and maybe Sumner will go through there as well, but that starting six each have more than 20 games under their belts - three of them more than 100 each.

[Melbournehammer]

did anyone get to see the NAB cup

now I know it was only one game................and one swallow doesnt make a byron sumner

but i felt that no Maxwell and no Reid.......... left the Pies with a different game plan ie they could not flood the opposition half with the same instensity nor effectiveness

I noticed how much they do rely on Maxwell to float thru the backline making the right calls on one on one or extra man defence.........but it also made me realise are we being naive to think that without our 4 key defenders that we are going to match the top 8 teams??

Our back six looked good enough in the pre season but when the comp starts can we truly expect our back 6 with 3 of them under 20 games experiences between them match it with the flooding pressure of the top 8 type teams?

Yes.

Richards and grundy are more than adequate to play on most talls (jurrah, watts). In my view when all are fit grundy would be our second defender behind bolton anyway and there is little between lrt and richards. Mattner, Everitt will play on the third tall - as mattner did reasonably well last season. Smith, shaw, sumner play on the smalls and sort of in that order.

In any case for the first two rounds the key will be the midfield. Beat melbourne and essendon around the ball and we should win the games. Essendon's speed will be something for the back half to deal with but if we can stop the ball early enough it may not be as much of a problem. Win those games and we will have a fair bit of confidence around the place. Lose those games and there will be worries.

[giant]

We did cover no Bolts and no LRT for large slabs of last year. However, I agree it's not designed to inspire great confidence at this point.

My main concern is for our forward line however - we don't seem that much closer to have a fully functioning forward line 18 mths after the departure of our last spearheads.

[dimelb]

Whichever back six we field they will do well enough, provided the mids do their job. I hope the boys learned from their mistake last year when I sat there gobsmacked as the Demons turned on a clinic in the Q1 from which we never recovered.

[swansrob]

Whichever back six we field they will do well enough, provided the mids do their job. I hope the boys learned from their mistake last year when I sat there gobsmacked as the Demons turned on a clinic in the Q1 from which we never recovered.

I remember getting up that morning and turning on my radio stream and just being glad I was overseas, not having to witness that first hand...

[magic.merkin]

I remember getting up that morning and turning on my radio stream and just being glad I was overseas, not having to witness that first hand...

It was sickening .

I would have left, but that's weak.

[R-1]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, we had a bye that round... that game clearly never happened.

[wolftone57]

I don't know about Bolts as a 1st to Grundy on the talls. The really tall like Riewoldt & Kositski etc Grundy & LRT are the best bets after that the J's. Bolts is best on the FF style players or mid talls which is makes sense considering he has been playing way above his height for years due to necessity. He doesn't have to do that anymore & considering his age this is a good thing. I feel very confident about our talls & I think the speed we have picked up is great. But what I am more excited about is the cleverness of the players we have picked up. Clever players win premierships, note Bucenara, Matthews, Lloyd, Stevie Johnston, even Acca of course Andrew Mcleod. TDL, Byron, young Lewis, Rohan, Lamb etc the future looks good.

[aardvark]

Richards and grundy are more than adequate to play on most talls (jurrah, watts).

I don't really like the idea of Teddy playing on Jurrah. Half way through last year he couldn't get a game and now he's our best option for full back. Hurry back LRT please !!!!!

[Untamed Snark]

I don't really like the idea of Teddy playing on Jurrah. Half way through last year he couldn't get a game and now he's our best option for full back. Hurry back LRT please !!!!!

Don't sell Ted short, remember that at the beginning of the season he was coming back from a collapsed lung and broken ribs, both of which take a long time to heal, I'm not surprised he started the season quietly. However by the time Ted got back into the 22 he was playing at at least 100% and made a huge impact on the effectiveness of our defence, he and Reg made an good team

[Bleed Red Blood]

Last year vs the Dees, Richards had about 5 goals kicked on him in the first quarter alone.