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Thread: Best 22 for 2020

  1. #1
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    Best 22 for 2020

    Now the trade period has finished, and with a pretty healthy list (all players meant to be training before Christmas), I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see how our best 22 is looking for next year.

    I have Naismith coming back in as #1 ruck, Cunningham to take over the small defender role that Nick Smith did so well for so long and have tried to mix our midfield up a little.

    McCartin Franklin Hayward
    Papley Reid Parker
    Blakey Heeney Florent
    Lloyd Aliir Dawson
    O'Riordan Rampe Cunningham
    Naismith Mills Kennedy
    Hewett Rowbottom Gray Taylor
    Emergencies: Fox, Brand/Melican (to come in against taller forward lines for O'Riordan), Sinclair, Ronke

    Pretty young and raw side but still one that I think is competitive. The rucks are our biggest weakness and the midfield the most intriguing. Will players like Heeney, Mills, Florent and Blakey step up to become absolute stars and win games off their own boot or are they still a few more years away?

  2. #2
    Senior Player Doctor J.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Captain View Post
    Now the trade period has finished, and with a pretty healthy list (all players meant to be training before Christmas), I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see how our best 22 is looking for next year.

    I have Naismith coming back in as #1 ruck, Cunningham to take over the small defender role that Nick Smith did so well for so long and have tried to mix our midfield up a little.

    McCartin Franklin Hayward
    Papley Reid Parker
    Blakey Heeney Florent
    Lloyd Aliir Dawson
    O'Riordan Rampe Cunningham
    Naismith Mills Kennedy
    Hewett Rowbottom Gray Taylor
    Emergencies: Fox, Brand/Melican (to come in against taller forward lines for O'Riordan), Sinclair, Ronke

    Pretty young and raw side but still one that I think is competitive. The rucks are our biggest weakness and the midfield the most intriguing. Will players like Heeney, Mills, Florent and Blakey step up to become absolute stars and win games off their own boot or are they still a few more years away?
    To fix the ruck weakness put Sinkers on the interchange, Gray to the Emergencies

  3. #3
    Veterans List aardvark's Avatar
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    Neither Naismith or Sinclair are A grade ruckmen but at least Sinkers contributes around the ground so I'd have him before Naismith.

  4. #4
    Naismith is the better ruckman by a fair bit. Sinkers does more around the ground. I'd' still prefer to play Naismith if fit and think he's got more improvement in him.

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    Quote Originally Posted by aardvark View Post
    Neither Naismith or Sinclair are A grade ruckmen but at least Sinkers contributes around the ground so I'd have him before Naismith.
    Naismith is first choice if fit, a big if I admit.

  6. #6
    The emergencies are confusing me.
    If Gray and Taylor are included they would be taking forward pressure space from Papley and Haywood - who do pretty reasonable jobs - or replacing Parker who is listed there in the team. Heeney should also have minutes forward.
    So one or both would not play many minutes IMHO
    If Sinclair is included he is another “tall” added to Franklin, Reid, McCartin with Blakey moving sometimes forward as well.
    Interesting times for the forward coach

  7. #7
    Fair effort, Captain. I'm taking Melican/Brand ahead of Taylor at this stage and we'll need the pre-season to determine whether Gray or Ronke gets that 22nd spot. Finally, do you make no allowance for our top 5/6 pick to make the best 22 for 2020? Blakey did it last year and our other last top 10 picks, Mills and Heeney, won spots in their first seasons too. It's hard to see who gets pushed out though. Will depend also on who we select. Serong might push out Gray/Ronke. Could Young take COR's spot? If it were Jackson then he probably will bide his time in the 2s for a while.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mountain Man View Post
    The emergencies are confusing me.
    If Gray and Taylor are included they would be taking forward pressure space from Papley and Haywood - who do pretty reasonable jobs - or replacing Parker who is listed there in the team. Heeney should also have minutes forward.
    So one or both would not play many minutes IMHO
    If Sinclair is included he is another “tall” added to Franklin, Reid, McCartin with Blakey moving sometimes forward as well.
    Interesting times for the forward coach
    Sinclair for Taylor is a good call. I probably missed that.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Markwebbos View Post
    Naismith is the better ruckman by a fair bit. Sinkers does more around the ground. I'd' still prefer to play Naismith if fit and think he's got more improvement in him.
    How do you figure that?

    He's a 27 year old coming off a two year injury lay off who has managed 27 games over five seasons. He hasn't shown anything to suggest that he has the ability to compete against the elite mobile ruckmen in the game (or the average ones for that matter). He can count his blessings that he is 206cm and we have woefully mismanaged our ruck stocks over the last five or so years.

    Sinclair is first picked every day of the week.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by caj23 View Post
    How do you figure that?

    He's a 27 year old coming off a two year injury lay off who has managed 27 games over five seasons. He hasn't shown anything to suggest that he has the ability to compete against the elite mobile ruckmen in the game (or the average ones for that matter). He can count his blessings that he is 206cm and we have woefully mismanaged our ruck stocks over the last five or so years.

    Sinclair is first picked every day of the week.
    I figure it based on the fact (1) Naismith was picked ahead of Sinkers in the past (2) He's three years younger than Sinkers (3) He's generally been rated more highly than Sinkers when you look at Ruckman rankings (4) He's better at winning hitouts.

    But he is coming off a 2 year ACL layoff. If both play at their best I say they'd play Naismith over Sinkers.

  11. #11
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    I prefer Sinclair too. Here is a comparison between Sinclair of 2018 and Naismith of 2017 when playing as our number 1 ruck:
    https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/...2=P&fopt2=2017

  12. #12
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    Aaron has hit the nail on the head

    It’s a myth that Naismith is as somehow the reason we made the gf in 2016.

    People conveniently forget that Buddy kicked 81 goals that year

    A ruckman that averages 8 possessions and less than 2 marks a game isn’t up to it

    Injuries have clearly hampered Sam throughout his career, but he turns 28 this year and I don’t hold out much hope for him as our saviour

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