Lets not forget that our small forward brigade was decimated last season. Butters, Fantasia, Rozee, Gray, Farrell.
I'm not a particular fan of the 'Dixon as a target 90% of the time so he marks it or brings it to ground' gameplan. But it was made less effective last season due to injuries to those at the fall of the ball.
We do need to be more versatile going forward though. If Dixon is playing, we need to spot up those forward whose defenders have peeled off to Dixon. And those forward need to get dangerous. Without Dixon we are going to need to create more space for our forwards to spread. Georgiades becomes our primary contested marking forward and even he prefers space to run and jump. Georgiades will be stronger and more experienced in his second season and there will still be tall forwards even without Dixon to spread the load so I am super excited to see what his second full season will bring. Finlayson is a leading forward and an opportunist, not a contested marking specialist and I would be surprised if it becomes a big part of his game. It will be interesting to see what the coaches come up with and how the players adapt. The only way a forward gameplan like last year might work without Dixon is if Hayes shows some ability to play a Dixon-like role bringing the ball to ground in contested marking situations.
Dixon as a decoy is a tactic that should have been better exploited over the last two seasons. We should always be looking to spot up forwards who might be free away from Dixon. However his stats speak for themselves. Players kick to him for a reason. He takes more contested marks than anyone against more opposition. He doesn't get outmarked even in packs and his second efforts as the ball comes to ground are very good. Using him as a pure decoy as a strategy is wasting the talents of one of the most feared, aggressive and effective forwards in the competition for the last couple of seasons. If there can be criticisms of him it would be that he drops easy marks he should, and misjudges the flight of the ball on occasion and he has patches where he doesn't kick straight.
We will know better in the near future the exact nature of his injury and how quickly he can be expected to recover from it.
As for Fantasia, I was hesitant about trading him because of his soft tissue inhuries and that is playing out exactly as I have feared. Its a pity because when fully fit he is the perfect addition to our small forward brigade and frees up Rozee and Butters to develop in the midfield. However I will be happy if we get fifteen games out of him this season as well.
I'm not a particular fan of the 'Dixon as a target 90% of the time so he marks it or brings it to ground' gameplan. But it was made less effective last season due to injuries to those at the fall of the ball.
We do need to be more versatile going forward though. If Dixon is playing, we need to spot up those forward whose defenders have peeled off to Dixon. And those forward need to get dangerous. Without Dixon we are going to need to create more space for our forwards to spread. Georgiades becomes our primary contested marking forward and even he prefers space to run and jump. Georgiades will be stronger and more experienced in his second season and there will still be tall forwards even without Dixon to spread the load so I am super excited to see what his second full season will bring. Finlayson is a leading forward and an opportunist, not a contested marking specialist and I would be surprised if it becomes a big part of his game. It will be interesting to see what the coaches come up with and how the players adapt. The only way a forward gameplan like last year might work without Dixon is if Hayes shows some ability to play a Dixon-like role bringing the ball to ground in contested marking situations.
Dixon as a decoy is a tactic that should have been better exploited over the last two seasons. We should always be looking to spot up forwards who might be free away from Dixon. However his stats speak for themselves. Players kick to him for a reason. He takes more contested marks than anyone against more opposition. He doesn't get outmarked even in packs and his second efforts as the ball comes to ground are very good. Using him as a pure decoy as a strategy is wasting the talents of one of the most feared, aggressive and effective forwards in the competition for the last couple of seasons. If there can be criticisms of him it would be that he drops easy marks he should, and misjudges the flight of the ball on occasion and he has patches where he doesn't kick straight.
We will know better in the near future the exact nature of his injury and how quickly he can be expected to recover from it.
As for Fantasia, I was hesitant about trading him because of his soft tissue inhuries and that is playing out exactly as I have feared. Its a pity because when fully fit he is the perfect addition to our small forward brigade and frees up Rozee and Butters to develop in the midfield. However I will be happy if we get fifteen games out of him this season as well.
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