Rnd 15 Pre-Match Thread, vs St Kilda

[Ludwig]

So they bring back an unfit Cunningham to the position that Ollie had picked up really well. It appears he had found his spot but just got spat out by coaching/ selection conservatism.

Out Ladhams, Cunningham, Lloyd, COR, Wicks
In Hickey, Campbell, Fox, HHK Gould up forward, Amartey

The last 2 years they have been building speed and youth yet now have defaulted to the old conservative selection.

Get Jmac off the half back and let him regain his flare. They are trying to make a sow's ear out of silk purse. Don't try to make him something he is not. He is restricted for space on the HBF. It failed with Hewett and Kennedy and they keep making the same mistakes.

One of Cunningham or Lloyd have to go. They are both similar players who just kick the pill to nowhere. Get Ollie back into Cunningham's spot. He has way more hardness than those 2 blokes combined.

We are on the edge of the cliff and selecting olds and bolds will not turn this around. Show some balls at selection. If Wicks keeps his spot they are not serious.

Did Cunningham really play that poorly? I honestly don't remember. I don't know who he was playing on, but they didn't get much goal production from their small forwards, so hard to blame the lock down small defender. He did play on Jones for a while and Jones only got 5 possessions. Harry had 79% game time, which I think is just a bit down from normal.

Cunningham and Lloyd have been playing different roles over the past few years and I thought Harry was doing just fine until he got injured. Now that he's had a game under his belt, I don't think there should be a fitness problem, so it's hard to see a good reason to drop him.

There's been a big transition this year in backline personnel and the way we are playing because of it. We also need to find a way to get Gould into the side, as he's really earned his shot after 2 + seasons in the reserves. If we are aiming to have Gould and Florent in defence, as well as consider Fox and COR for selection, then we need to reposition Rampe and Lloyd and keep McInerney out of the defensive mix. It's either Blakey or JMac in defence, but not both.

It's hard to see us as a premiership contender when we are still working out where all the parts go. We might as well try to get this part right as much as possible this year and not drag it on longer than we have to. It would be nice to go into next season with a fairly set lineup, knowing we still have a few, like Sheldrick, Roberts, HHK and Sheather to challenge for spots in the side.

[Blood Fever]

Horse just mentioned Stephens in his presser. Just has some things to work on because they know he has high end talent.

The gap between VFL and AFL is a yawning chasm which explains why Clarke looks good at a level down but is diabolical under the real heat of AFL where opponents go just as hard and he gets half the amount of time to think.

I get the feeling from what Longmire said, that with the exception of Hickey there won't be a lot of changes since over the last block of games the blokes playing have done a good job.

Saw some vision of the VFL game. Williamstown were terrible and their pressure was non existent. Very poor preparation for the yawning gap you describe.

[SwanSand]

Did Cunningham really play that poorly? I honestly don't remember. I don't know who he was playing on, but they didn't get much goal production from their small forwards, so hard to blame the lock down small defender. He did play on Jones for a while and Jones only got 5 possessions. Harry had 79% game time, which I think is just a bit down from normal.

Cunningham and Lloyd have been playing different roles over the past few years and I thought Harry was doing just fine until he got injured. Now that he's had a game under his belt, I don't think there should be a fitness problem, so it's hard to see a good reason to drop him.

There's been a big transition this year in backline personnel and the way we are playing because of it. We also need to find a way to get Gould into the side, as he's really earned his shot after 2 + seasons in the reserves. If we are aiming to have Gould and Florent in defence, as well as consider Fox and COR for selection, then we need to reposition Rampe and Lloyd and keep McInerney out of the defensive mix. It's either Blakey or JMac in defence, but not both.

It's hard to see us as a premiership contender when we are still working out where all the parts go. We might as well try to get this part right as much as possible this year and not drag it on longer than we have to. It would be nice to go into next season with a fairly set lineup, knowing we still have a few, like Sheldrick, Roberts, HHK and Sheather to challenge for spots in the side.

I wouldn't drop Cunningham and don't think Ladhams should be automatically dropped to the bottom of the list just because he did what he did. They worked well to go under his skin and it worked. Move on. Cunningham is a good defender and I agree that one game under his belt is going to be good.
I reckon how we play the bits and pieces down there and how the moving parts of midfield cover the ground both forward and backward is the thing that we need to work on.
Our genuine concern is that we have individual players that are good enough to challenge for top 4 but collectively we are missing the cohesion that is necessary to take the next step. Complete buy-in, reading the game situation and flexibility within the game is what the young ones will need to learn and practise. Having said that we still have good enough players and probably plan to challenge this year !

But if we are not Top 8 this year, we may be out of the top 8 for a year or two and will have to be astute at the trade table to get the missing pieces in 2023/24.

[Aprilbr]

Whenever we have lost this season, its because our midfield is well beaten, especially in terms of clearances and contested possessions. Unlike most other top half sides, we do not possess a midfielder who gathers large numbers of possessions week in/out. The closest we have to that is Mills who we have often moved to the back half to shore up our defense in recent games. Robbing Peter to pay Paul!

Unfortunately, we probably do not have that midfielder we need currently on our list, or if we do, they are still developing. Bringing in Hickey will improve our clearance work but the contested possessions remain a concern. I think Campbell will develop but whether he can quickly become that guy is unlikely. There has to now be a huge question mark over Stephens. With experience and work on his speed maybe Roberts could develop into that high possession in and under player? Perhaps Sheldrick when he returns? Its a dilemma. We will just have to keep shuffling our minds this season to try and find an answer. I expect we will look for a quality mid to trade in at season's end to arrest this issue. In the meantime, this is my selections:

In Hickey, Ronke, Fox
Out Ladhams, Wicks, O'Readon

[RogueSwan]

Did Cunningham really play that poorly? I honestly don't remember. I don't know who he was playing on, but they didn't get much goal production from their small forwards, so hard to blame the lock down small defender. He did play on Jones for a while and Jones only got 5 possessions. Harry had 79% game time, which I think is just a bit down from normal.

Cunningham and Lloyd have been playing different roles over the past few years and I thought Harry was doing just fine until he got injured. Now that he's had a game under his belt, I don't think there should be a fitness problem, so it's hard to see a good reason to drop him.

...

I wouldn't drop Cunningham and don't think Ladhams should be automatically dropped to the bottom of the list just because he did what he did. They worked well to go under his skin and it worked. Move on. Cunningham is a good defender and I agree that one game under his belt is going to be good. ...

May be Harry needs to be moved into Wick's spot as a defensive fwd? Harry did play a similar position, and played it well, in the days of our "sling-shot" footy.

[Swanny40519]

Last weeks loss puts us in a really difficult game against the Saints. With the next 3 tough games against a revitalised Bombers, Dogs and Freo - this weekends game is one we cannot drop or the season is gone.

Our defence is buckling under the strain with Rampe in poor form and Lloyd giving away a couple of goals per game with his poor disposal and decision making, we need to bolster our defence. Either bring back Melican, or give Gould a try and move McInerney back to attack. Wicks has done nothing the past 3-4 weeks,

Out: Ladhams, O'Readon, Wicks, Lloyd

In: Hickey, Campbell, Armety,Gould/Melican

[Aprilbr]

You seem to be going very tall with that team, Swanny!

[Ocker]

May be Harry needs to be moved into Wick's spot as a defensive fwd? Harry did play a similar position, and played it well, in the days of our "sling-shot" footy.

This could be a good move, with Oli back to defence.

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8505F using Tapatalk

[The Big Cat]

If my memory serves me right, Cunningham has a long history of closing down Brad Hill.

[crackedactor 01]

Last weeks loss puts us in a really difficult game against the Saints. With the next 3 tough games against a revitalised Bombers, Dogs and Freo - this weekends game is one we cannot drop or the season is gone.

Our defence is buckling under the strain with Rampe in poor form and Lloyd giving away a couple of goals per game with his poor disposal and decision making, we need to bolster our defence. Either bring back Melican, or give Gould a try and move McInerney back to attack. Wicks has done nothing the past 3-4 weeks,

Out: Ladhams, O'Readon, Wicks, Lloyd

In: Hickey, Campbell, Armety,Gould/Melican

No one thinks Hall-Kahan with his 5 goals 2 behinds including one that hit the post is worth the gamble?

[Ludwig]

If my memory serves me right, Cunningham has a long history of closing down Brad Hill.

I think you are right. Maybe having Cunningham cover the opposition's best rebounding defender is good role for both Harry and the team. He can take Wicks' spot. We can then look to reshuffle some other players, like making Florent the #1 lockdown small defender.

I think the time has come when we have to try Gould in the seniors. He will find AFL defending challenging at first. He has a fair bit of development to go in reading the play, but he's probably gone as far as he can at VFL level and needs to grow in a real AFL game environment. There are a lot of factors that go into this kind of decision, but on balance, it's best for the team long term to find a spot for Gould now, or in the next few games.

Following this line of thought, the key roles in defence would be the McCartin brothers, Blakey as rebound defender and Florent as lockdown small defender. Gould probably as the third tall defender and Rampe as the loose defender or sweeper. Lloyd, Fox or COR to fill the 7th spot.

After 13 games, its hard to see the 2022 as serious premiership contenders and it's best to shift focus on next year and beyond. Last game hope had a head-on collision with reality. I wouldn't be sacrificing development for an unrealistic hope of a 2022 premiership.

[waswan]

Out - Cunningham,Wicks,COR, Ladhams
In - Campbell, Amartey, Stephens, Hickey

Reid to play defence, let Ramps do Harrys role and allows Mills to stay mid when either of those 2 can sweep if required
The picks 5s to play thru the middle, Hickey in Ruck.
Amartey to assist Hickey.

Lloyd no kick ins, he actually played well against Melb when the play was broken down and it was a scramble out of defence, lacks kicking depth when a team defence is set up like at a kick in.

If Bell or Wicks play, i will make it my mission to run the thread to a record amount of replies

Also dont mind the idea of playing Clarke, provided he is selected to get his own ball and not tag.
We need to start going head to head instead of all this negating sh8t, todays footy you always eventually get your own run at it without having to be so negating.