Team Mgmt. 2024 Forward Line

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Question for me this year....regarding forward line and every other line....will we pick our best 22 rather than our 22 best players?

We have picked unbalanced teams for years to accomodate “big names.” That has to end.
That's what I mean about Stringer and Brad's penchant for experienced players. Stringer doesn't seem to be able to get through a season without a weeks-long injury and his effectiveness is inconsistent when he does play. I fear he's nearing the end but that Brad will keep playing him though it may be obvious to all.

Maybe Stringer will be just fine and the sky isn't falling.

Perkins then seems obvious as a forward-mid, but doesn't have the game breaking capacity that Jake has had. I also read somewhere that Caddy can play midfield. Surely we leave him in the forwardline?
 

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We need one of the next gen guys to take a big jump for this group to jump.

13th in 'points for' isn't great for a side wanting to push for finals, an extra goal a game would be nice. Maybe goal kicking accuracy improves and we get it through natural improvement but having a third guy kick 25 goals would be a great addition to this group.
 
We need one of the next gen guys to take a big jump for this group to jump.

13th in 'points for' isn't great for a side wanting to push for finals, an extra goal a game would be nice. Maybe goal kicking accuracy improves and we get it through natural improvement but having a third guy kick 25 goals would be a great addition to this group.

Top teams in the comp kicked about 350 goals last year.

If we very optimistically assume Wright, Langford and gresh are good for 150. That’s still 200 goals to find or about 1 goal a game from 10 players.

20x Menzie, Martin and Perkins takes it down to around 140 from the rest of the list over 24 games or about 6-7 goals a game from a combined 9 players. So the team has some work to do
 
Top teams in the comp kicked about 350 goals last year.

If we very optimistically assume Wright, Langford and gresh are good for 150. That’s still 200 goals to find or about 1 goal a game from 10 players.

20x Menzie, Martin and Perkins takes it down to around 140 from the rest of the list over 24 games or about 6-7 goals a game from a combined 9 players. So the team has some work to do
The big ace up our sleeve needs to be the wingers we've now got. Martin (0.8 goals a game career average) and Duursma (0.5 goals a game career average) improve to a goal a game would be huge.

Perkins needs to go from a 0.8 goal a game (18 goals/23 games) to a 1.2 goal a game (27 goals/23 games) and that takes a huge load off stringer imho. The midfield probably needs to help more and who doesn't love a packmen kicking goals
 
The big ace up our sleeve needs to be the wingers we've now got. Martin (0.8 goals a game career average) and Duursma (0.5 goals a game career average) improve to a goal a game would be huge.

Perkins needs to go from a 0.8 goal a game (18 goals/23 games) to a 1.2 goal a game (27 goals/23 games) and that takes a huge load off stringer imho. The midfield probably needs to help more and who doesn't love a packmen kicking goals

From my perspective it’s Draper/Goldy/Bryan that need to step up.

Ideally with one of them spending a fair bit of time forward you’d like to get 3 goals a game from whatever pair is playing any given game. As the 4th/5th forward target. That’s about 70 goals for the season

So if you have Wright, Langford, Gresh, Perk, Martin, Menzie, Draper, Goldy, Bryan getting you to about 270 goals your in a pretty good place to reach that 350
 
5th and 6th kicked less goals than 7th and 8th.

It also depends on how many goals let through and who you're mainly fixtured against.

Obviously if you're playing more of the better teams of the year you're more inclined to kick more goals to outscore them on the day.

I was just talking about attack/offence

Ie if you want to be one of the best offensive teams in the AFL 350 goals is the goal.

Like you said that doesn’t mean you win the most games for a variety of different reasons but if you’re goal is to do well you should be aiming to match the top teams offensively and defensively
 
From my perspective it’s Draper/Goldy/Bryan that need to step up.

Ideally with one of them spending a fair bit of time forward you’d like to get 3 goals a game from whatever pair is playing any given game. As the 4th/5th forward target. That’s about 70 goals for the season

So if you have Wright, Langford, Gresh, Perk, Martin, Menzie, Draper, Goldy, Bryan getting you to about 270 goals your in a pretty good place to reach that 350
Not sure that is realistic. Would be great but rucks really do not kick a lot of goals. Luke Jackson was the best as a ruck/ forward with 22. McStay kicked 20 but was more forward. Mason Cox kicked 17. Tim English 16.
Max Gawn kicked 10 despite played more forward early in the year.
Draper is the one who could kick 20 plus given he kicked 10 in 14 games but 3 a game from the ruck combo is way overs. The ruck combo will have had a good year if they kick 30 between them.
 
I'm in the minority but I think Jones offers something a bit different to the usual CHF given his ability to play up and down the ground. Early 2023 Brad seemed to be using him to open up the F50 by consistently leading up to and past the center-line dragging one of the key defenders with him. A bit of a sacrificial game style (and Jones seems the type to need hands on the footy to get going) but I suspect he's in the starting 6 round 1 if fit, with the hope that he can develop his game to still impact despite his role. We're obviously a bit too tall and medium-term we will want an extra small in there, but unless Jayden burns the grass this pre-season I'm not sure who we have to slot in. Maybe Shiel can re-invent himself as a relentlessly tackling pressure forward?

FF Menzies Wright Langford
CHF Perkins Jones Gresham

7th Guelfi

NB. Stringer should be super-sub more often than not. I reckon we can get 23+ games out of him this year if he's only playing in 1-2 quarter bursts each week.
 

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I'm in the minority but I think Jones offers something a bit different to the usual CHF given his ability to play up and down the ground. Early 2023 Brad seemed to be using him to open up the F50 by consistently leading up to and past the center-line dragging one of the key defenders with him. A bit of a sacrificial game style (and Jones seems the type to need hands on the footy to get going) but I suspect he's in the starting 6 round 1 if fit, with the hope that he can develop his game to still impact despite his role. We're obviously a bit too tall and medium-term we will want an extra small in there, but unless Jayden burns the grass this pre-season I'm not sure who we have to slot in. Maybe Shiel can re-invent himself as a relentlessly tackling pressure forward?

FF Menzies Wright Langford
CHF Perkins Jones Gresham

7th Guelfi

NB. Stringer should be super-sub more often than not. I reckon we can get 23+ games out of him this year if he's only playing in 1-2 quarter bursts each week.

I don’t think there’s any way Guelf gets games ahead of Stringer - I really like Guelf, but I think he plays a fair bit of VFL this year
 
I don’t think there’s any way Guelf gets games ahead of Stringer - I really like Guelf, but I think he plays a fair bit of VFL this year
I think he gets the sub a lot tbh
 
I don’t think there’s any way Guelf gets games ahead of Stringer - I really like Guelf, but I think he plays a fair bit of VFL this year
I don't think he ends the year in our best 23 but I'd be very surprised if he doesn't start in it. Stringer when fit is obviously ahead of him but that may only be a handful of games in any given year. Ideally some of our kids improve through the early rounds and eventually make Guelfi's "plug a gap" role redundant.
 
I don’t think there’s any way Guelf gets games ahead of Stringer - I really like Guelf, but I think he plays a fair bit of VFL this year
Does Guelf get games before Menzie? Same role and very similar stats for last year for goal average, marks and tackles. In fact, that's from 21 games for Menzie compared with 13 games for Guelf.

Obviously pre-season training will count for a lot but maybe Menzie isn't necessarily a walk-up start either.
 
I don't think he ends the year in our best 23 but I'd be very surprised if he doesn't start in it. Stringer when fit is obviously ahead of him but that may only be a handful of games in any given year. Ideally some of our kids improve through the early rounds and eventually make Guelfi's "plug a gap" role redundant.
In fairness, Guelfi's one of the best plug-a-gappers in the biz.
 
I think he gets the sub a lot tbh

Maybe - I think Scott rates him though. If healthy, I think he gets the first half of the year to prove himself. My comment was more that I think he’s a fair way ahead of Guelfi in the pecking order - I can’t really see Stringer as sub if Guelfi is in the 22.
 
Does Guelf get games before Menzie? Same role and very similar stats for last year for goal average, marks and tackles. In fact, that's from 21 games for Menzie compared with 13 games for Guelf.

Obviously pre-season training will count for a lot but maybe Menzie isn't necessarily a walk-up start either.

Mmmmm great point/question. I think right now Menzie is probably slightly ahead - as you said though, preseason training could change things. And whilst he’s obviously not an All Australian level footballer, I reckon Guelfi would look a million bucks on the track
 
Does Guelf get games before Menzie? Same role and very similar stats for last year for goal average, marks and tackles. In fact, that's from 21 games for Menzie compared with 13 games for Guelf.

Obviously pre-season training will count for a lot but maybe Menzie isn't necessarily a walk-up start either.

Menzies seems more natural as a forward to me, gets to better spots in my opinion.

But to be honest, Guelfis ability to play different positions likely has him ahead of Menzie.
 
Maybe - I think Scott rates him though. If healthy, I think he gets the first half of the year to prove himself. My comment was more that I think he’s a fair way ahead of Guelfi in the pecking order - I can’t really see Stringer as sub if Guelfi is in the 22.
I think it is more that he is one of the few that play with aggression than coaches rating him and to be fair up to now you can not blame Truck or Scott for wanting to play him given the number of flat track bullies we have. You would hope someone is going to step up and pass him sooner rather than later.
 
Menzies seems more natural as a forward to me, gets to better spots in my opinion.

But to be honest, Guelfis ability to play different positions likely has him ahead of Menzie.
Menzie definitely plays more like a forward, but those numbers are glaring.

I don't know what to make of Guelf tbh. He plays anywhere and puts in 100%. I guess that makes him a utility who was last seen in the forward line where natural forwards look like they should squeeze him out. He's like the best last picked.
 

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