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Backline

The main thing in our Backline is to keep the intercept power and athleticism but to also improve our two way run, carry and rebounding power which was sorely lacking in finals.  That's how we get our forward line really humming.  Fixing our ball movement, our connection between our defence and our forwards.  This is the first step to becoming less reliant on contested ball and clearances.

Weitering and Marchbank as key talls.  McGovern as the athletic smart third tall and three running defenders who can run hard at half back, and have a rest in the back pocket when needed.  Newman being a hybrid type.  That structure works and should work well for us.

B:    Boyd Weitering McGovern

HB:  Saad Marchbank Williams

IC:   Newman

Depth  Kemp, Cowan, Docherty, Cincotta, Fisher, Young, Durdin

Our backline depth is a little frail if Fisher goes and Docherty is not in the defensive plans.  Quality running defenders, 20+possessions of fast two way run and good kicking could be gone in the blink of an eye with an injury or two.  We will need Cowan and Cincotta to step up their games to a new level and/or Fisher to stay to keep our run up to top 4 standards.  Williams back is a huge bonus.  Boydy will no doubt get suspended at times.  But that there is a good backline, the issue is depth, who can we bring in to play at a high level off half back when we lose players?  We have the lower level and medium level options so we are just ok there.

Midfield

C:   Acres Cripps Hollands

OB: DeKoning Walsh Cerra

IC:  Silvagni Hewett Docherty

Depth: Kennedy, Binns, Carroll, O'Keefe, Pittonet, Dow

Our starting midfield is really good.  Strong wings and onball group.  Where things drop away is on the bench and even further in the depth department are change mids and in the reserves.  Depth is an issue.  The midfield is borderline for lack of leg speed, agility and two way run.  We keep swaying to the wrong side of the border in those departments.

Cripps, Hewett and Kennedy are one way runners who lack agility and pace.  They bring a strong inside game but having too many in the side exposes our defence and leaves us vulnerable to sides who are quicker on the outside and more agile on the inside.  Mid season we dropped one of these 3 out and gave the remaining 2 the license to one way run.  Worked well while we were winning clearance and rebounding from defence well, particularly with Kennedy who is strong forward of the ball but it doesn't hold up too well against the really strong midfield's of the game.

In an ideal team structure Cripps would be the only slow immobile mid.  We would surround him with lower set, quicker, two way runners with Cerra being the other big bodied mid.  We don't have the quality of depth to do that currently.  We also lack a forward who is good enough to go into the middle for long durations and have an impact.  What Rayner did to us when he went into the middle in that prelim is what I am talking about.  Cuningham and Fogarty have allowed our mids to rest which has improved the team but have been low to medium impact.

Binns is a player who will likely spend some time developing on the ball in the VFL.  A lower set ball magnet with nice leg speed, good tackler and good agility could be the answer.  Dow likely goes but in his short time offered both pace and agility which must be priority 1 when it comes to fixing things in there.  Carroll probably develops more into a Cerra type mid which is ok.  One thing is for sure our onball group needs a tune up from the bottom end.  A little more two way run, leg speed, run and carry from stoppage and agility in there would improve us significantly.

The type of player we need is not necessarily fast in the open but has the agility to sidestep into another universe so to speak.  Elite agility.  [PLAYERCARD]Lachie Neale[/PLAYERCARD], Greg Williams, Sam Mitchell etc.  Fast in close.  That is what we lack from our onball group badly.  I keep bringing Dow up because he has that and leg speed as well which would also be very good for us.  But the coach has kept him out of our plans.  I think Binns is a wait and see here, he may not be ready yet but could be a solution down the track.  Thing is we need to strike now.

Either way our bottom end of our onball group is weak and it lacks depth.  Best 22 we compete with most sides but this is an area of improvement for us.

I think Docherty has to become a part of our onball unit.  Two way runner with some leg speed and a great tackler.  He has to be in there.

We need to up our rotations.  Cerra is a mid who needs to rotate.  He has to be a two way runner in that team.   He is not an elite endurance player player like Walsh and our wingers.  He does hamstrings.  It's better to keep him fresh so his impact is high.  We need to look after him more with stints forward.  He did this at Freo, he's quite a good forward.

Forward

HF: Martin McKay Cuningham/Cottrell

F:   Owies Curnow Motlop

Depth:  Fogarty, Durdin, Lemmy, Cottrell

The forward line is ok.  Two Coleman medalists.  The smalls work well when the ball comes down quick.  This forward line has proven with good ball movement it kicks goals against all quality of teams.  Motlop needs to get fitter.  It lacks a player who can genuinely go into the middle and have an impact.  I'd like to see Durdin develop into a forward mid.  He's that quick lower set player we could do with in there and he does find the footy when he's on the ball.

I don't think our forward line is a huge problem.  I think the talent is there.  I think the ball movement is the problem.  Asking forwards to kick goals against the oppositions press is too much.  We simply do not get the ball past the press enough and go inside 50 with space to work in enough.  That starts down the back and in the middle with run and carry and come finals we were not good enough at these things to do that.  Hence why our forward line was not functioning and why the league's best and most form forward could not kick goals.

Predicted coach's Best 22

B:    Boyd Weitering McGovern

HB:  Saad Marchbank Williams

C:    Acres Cripps Hollands

HF:  Martin McKay Cuningham/Cottrell

F:    Owies Curnow Motlop

OB: DeKoning Walsh Cerra

IC:  Silvagni Hewett Docherty Newman

SUB: Cuningham/Cottrell

I think the weak spots in the team are probably the rotations and the bench.  Silvagni is just an ok forward/ruck.  Hewett adds some grunt but also adds to our issues with agility, two way run and lack of leg speed.  Docherty is a strong rotation.  Newman is a very good player.  Our onball group is weak on the outside and slow on the inside and that's a problem against the better teams and will be a problem next season as teams adjust to being quicker and better two way runners in there.  Our backline is an improvement.  Our forward line lacks a genuine forward/mid.

If was coaching Carlton I'd go with the following side but I doubt we will go that way and I doubt Dow will be at Carlton next season.  Should we find a similar player to Dow this is how I would go, just insert their name on the ball there.

My Best 22

B:    Boyd Weitering McGovern

HB:  Saad Marchbank Williams

C:    Acres Cripps Hollands

HF:  Martin McKay Cerra

F:    Owies Curnow Motlop

OB:  DeKoning Walsh Dow

IC:   Silvagni Hewett Docherty Newman

SUB: Cuningham or Cottrell

Wing rotations can be split between Docherty, Williams and Cerra.

Dow gives us the speed, agility and ball carry from stoppage.  Cerra gives us a genuine forward mid who can impact both areas.  Both these players need to rotate to be two way runners as neither have elite endurance which is fine, it's normal to have guys in your midfield like that.  IMO they would rotate really well together.  Cerra was a good forward for Fremantle when he played forward and for periods this year he gave us plenty up forward as well.  He's a massive upgrade on Fogarty and Cuningham.