Originally Posted by
Ludwig
I agree with your analysis, Liz, especially the part about the concentration of our problems being in our defence. We've been a bit unfortunate that 3 of our injuries have been to what would normally be our small forwards, with the entire contingent of Rohan, McGlynn and Heeney all out at the moment. We should be much better once they return.
Our ruck situation is just something we will have to work out in due course. With all the injuries now it's pretty difficult to know where we stand. It would be good if we could get Naismith up and running for a few games at the end of the H&A season.
Except for Grundy, as noted, there has been a general falloff across the board in the defence. We used to be so reliant on Ted when he was at the top of his game, now that he's fallen off it really shows just how valuable he was. The combination of Ted, Reg and Laidler is just too slow and fumbley to get by these days. We need to have either Reid or XR as one of our key backs just for their pace alone. In XR's case, we may just have to hope for the best that he can grow into the role. It may take a miraculous comeback from AJ to make things right. A well coordinated defence takes time to develop and we might as well bite the bullet and start now. Things are not going to get any better with our current crew.
A few years back Shaw was such a valuable player running the ball out defence over and over again. Mal was pretty good as well. Now we need to put Jetta back to do that. We really need a player that's a regular part of our defence that can run and carry the ball out of trouble so we don't have to rely on blind kicks in desperation that just come for goals.
Nic Newman's been playing well. I wouldn't mind fast tracking him a bit. We could send Tom Derickx in for shoulder surgery (whether he needs it or not) and put him on the LTIL and upgrade Nic. If Marsh is a chance we might as well give him a go in the seniors as well. Both have good pace and can kick the ball long. One thing for sure is that we are really struggling getting the ball out of defence these days, just kicking to a contest along the boundary is sort of safe but not winning football.
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