A team of defensive footballers

[Paddy_Mac]

Why do we have so many defensive players in our team? We have Simpson, Power, Rawlings, Firrito, Harding all playing in the midfield and have either been a tagger or played in the backline. And none of them can kick. Pisses me off. The sooner we get more attacking players into the team the better we'll be.

 

[roos_fanatic08]

Its so frustrating when all they are doing is worrying about their players instead of winning the balla themselves and taking the game on.

Enter Ben Ross, Liam AnthonY, Jack Ziebell and Leigh Adams. All these players win their own ball and have good skills. They need to be given time in the midfield, to stop this negative, stop-start... shit game plan.

 

[DarwinRoo]

Why do we have so many defensive players in our team? We have Simpson, Power, Rawlings, Firrito, Harding all playing in the midfield and have either been a tagger or played in the backline. And none of them can kick. Pisses me off. The sooner we get more attacking players into the team the better we'll be.

Leigh Harding spent most of his career in the forward line and only went to the backline to save his career and he has done well as an attacking defender. Spud was a midfielder and can kick but went to the backline because of lack of options.

 

[Roos_Rule]

Why do we have so many defensive players in our team? We have Simpson, Power, Rawlings, Firrito, Harding all playing in the midfield and have either been a tagger or played in the backline. And none of them can kick. Pisses me off. The sooner we get more attacking players into the team the better we'll be.

I agree with you on having too many defensive players - in particular Power, Rawlings and to some extent I believe Ed is in the team for that reason as well. Firrito and Harding are probably a bit more attacking though wasn't Harding apparently tagging someone last night (Foley?) Our midfield is bad enough without going in with a defensive mindset.

 

[roos_fanatic08]

Leigh Harding spent most of his career in the forward line and only went to the backline to save his career and he has done well as an attacking defender. Spud was a midfielder and can kick but went to the backline because of lack of options.

I agree with you DR. Both of them are very good attacking defenders! Firrito hasn't showed that same sort of attack and composure whilst playing in the midifield this year, he should be moved to the back flank and given a license to break the lines a bit more. Leigh harding played excellent as an attacking mid during the first two games, but against the tigers last night that option was taken away from him because he was expected to tag. Last night he followed Foley around and didn't provide the drive that we so desperately needed. Harding should not be playing negative football when he plays so well attacking...

 

[Paddy_Mac]

We have too many HBF's in the team. Simple as that.

 

[DarwinRoo]

We have too many HBF's in the team. Simple as that.

And who are they?

 

[Paddy_Mac]

And who are they?

Firrito, Pratt, Harding, Gibson, McMahon, Harding, Smith, Urquhart. That's the main group. You can count Wells, Power, Rawlings, Greenwood, Lower as they've played there aswell. I counted Wells because he obviously can't play in the midfield so he's another player suited to HBF. All the others have played the HBF role.

 

[rooboy_88]

the all star midfield of simmo swallow and rawlings featured prominently in the centre square last night. sums it up really. Throw in power and thats complete.

 

[budge11]

the all star midfield of simmo swallow and rawlings featured prominently in the centre square last night. sums it up really. Throw in power and thats complete.

Simmo was one of our best and needed more support, Swallow played a great game and Rawlings ran his flipping heart out. If you were at the game and appriciated footy at all you'd notice those 3 blokes were 3 of our best. Rawlings absolutely ran himself into the ground and ended up having to do things he knows he's not that good at. i.e pumping the ball inside 50 and rebounding, but that is no fault of his own, he just ran so goddamn hard.

 

[Zvim]

Simmo was one of our best and needed more support, Swallow played a great game and Rawlings ran his flipping heart out. If you were at the game and appriciated footy at all you'd notice those 3 blokes were 3 of our best. Rawlings absolutely ran himself into the ground and ended up having to do things he knows he's not that good at. i.e pumping the ball inside 50 and rebounding, but that is no fault of his own, he just ran so goddamn hard.

How many of them would you say beat their direct opponent? There are a lot of rotations, but in general.

 

[pooley]

Our biggest trouble is that we have 3 players who are charged with the duty to run and carry thru the corridor (Harvey, Wells & Firrito). Whilst Urquhart and Ziebell have potential for the role they too often still go sideways (game plans?). We really missed Wells against a side with poor skills.

After Harvey went down and Firrito was hobbled our defensive players could not change their roles.

Did anyone else think Levi Greenwood seemingly looked out of his depth last night?

 

[rooboy_88]

Simmo was one of our best and needed more support, Swallow played a great game and Rawlings ran his flipping heart out. If you were at the game and appriciated footy at all you'd notice those 3 blokes were 3 of our best. Rawlings absolutely ran himself into the ground and ended up having to do things he knows he's not that good at. i.e pumping the ball inside 50 and rebounding, but that is no fault of his own, he just ran so goddamn hard.

I was at the game and would agree that those 3 were 3 of our best but it for us to be a better side, you cannot carry all 4 of the blokes I mentioned and have them as your best 3 players. You Cant have a plethora of slow, average skilled types controlling the midfield anymore.

Swallow played his best game in 2 years, Rawlings is only a tagger otherwise he is useless as his disposal is woeful and Simmo is argubly playing his best footy in the last 12-18 months, but to move forward you cannot carry all 4 in the side.

 

[NMFC Est 1869]

Dont you all get it? Its part of Deans dastardly plan. He is so arrogant he wants 22 Dean Laidleys, ie HBF's, cos he thinks he is the bees knees
He hates players with flair & skill, and will crush it given the chance, or at least the player's spirit to use it

 

[jezaroo]

Simmo was one of our best and needed more support, Swallow played a great game and Rawlings ran his flipping heart out. If you were at the game and appriciated footy at all you'd notice those 3 blokes were 3 of our best. Rawlings absolutely ran himself into the ground and ended up having to do things he knows he's not that good at. i.e pumping the ball inside 50 and rebounding, but that is no fault of his own, he just ran so goddamn hard.

Near the end when the game was lost, these three ran harder and attacked the contest harder then anyone. I know they haven't got the best disposal but they got heart and deserve respect we would be absolutely fked without these blokes in the team.

If only the rest of the team would follow their example (Big Drewy excepted)
'

 

[BRider]

"Did anyone else think Levi Greenwood seemingly looked out of his depth last night?"

err no..

why are ppl bagging him for.. first gamer and from what i saw was one of our best kicks.

 

[The Big H]

While i agree in principle that we have some defensive mids, i reckon when the planning for the season was done Laidley would have thought that Swallow will start taking more of Simmo's role, Brady will play more as the defensive back and Harding will attack of the wing. I expect he thought Wells, Smith, Harvey, Riggio and Urquhart, with Campbell and Thomas pushing up as well would be our attacking options with Spud adding grunt and penetrating kicking. Sounds good in theory, but as of next week most of those blokes are missing through injury, Urquhart looks like a kid with too much responsibility and LT is sadly out of form.

 

[DarwinRoo]

Firrito, Pratt, Harding, Gibson, McMahon, Harding, Smith, Urquhart. That's the main group. You can count Wells, Power, Rawlings, Greenwood, Lower as they've played there aswell. I counted Wells because he obviously can't play in the midfield so he's another player suited to HBF. All the others have played the HBF role.

Are you serious? Only a few of those players you mentioned are permanent HBFers or BPs being Pratt and Gibson.

Urquhart, Harding, Smith can all play in the midfield and Harding, who you mentioned twice, has played forward.

Wells, Power and Rawlings are not a HBFers either. Rawlings has played a total of what 2 games as a HBF and now suddenly he isn't a midfielder anymore.

 

[Paddy_Mac]

Are you serious? Only a few of those players you mentioned are permanent HBFers or BPs being Pratt and Gibson.

Urquhart, Harding, Smith can all play in the midfield and Harding, who you mentioned twice, has played forward.

Wells, Power and Rawlings are not a HBFers either. Rawlings has played a total of what 2 games as a HBF and now suddenly he isn't a midfielder anymore.

Well obviously not all of them can play at HBF at the same time. I'm just saying that we have a lot of players that are sorta HBF's and sorta midfielders. Any player can play in the midfield, Leigh Brown proved that. It's a matter of how good they are in that position. I'll go through the players.
Gibson - sorta FB, sorta third tall, sorta HBF, sorta midfielder.
Pratt - plays in the pockets and the flanks, they're pretty much the same now. He's the one that kicks in and is poor at it. His decision-making is poor.
Power - Has no specialty, sort of a winger, tagger, HBF.
Rawlings - Should be played as a tagger and doesn't. Has played in the backline before.
Wells - Has struggled in the midfield. People want him to play at HBF.
Firrito - Sort of a tagger, sort of a full back, sort of a CHB, sort of a third tall, sort of a HBF, sort of a winger, sort of a rover. Where's his specialty?
Urquhart - Has played the HBF role and the wing role. Don't know where he plays best yet.
Harding - HBF, Wing, HFF. Still don't know where his best football is.
Lower - Has played pretty much everywhere apart from KP and the Ruck of course.
Smith - Don't know where his future is going to be. Will it be HBF or the midfield.

Why can't we just have some players and say yep they go here and there. We're a team of utilities.

 

[DarwinRoo]

You really don't like Daniel Pratt do you?

The game has changed and traditional positions aren't what they once were. Andrew McLeod has played of HB his whole career but has he ever played as a tradition backman and stopped a bloke?

You say we are a team of HBFers but funnily enough I never hear anyone say we are a team of HFFers? There is sweet fa difference between most of the positions on the ground and its not suprising that some players can and have played in different positions.

 

[Paddy_Mac]

You really don't like Daniel Pratt do you?

The game has changed and traditional positions aren't what they once were. Andrew McLeod has played of HB his whole career but has he ever played as a tradition backman and stopped a bloke?

You say we are a team of HBFers but funnily enough I never hear anyone say we are a team of HFFers? There is sweet fa difference between most of the positions on the ground and its not suprising that some players can and have played in different positions.

I'm just not liking what he's bringing to the table at the moment. I don't know what it is, maybe he's always been like this. I don't know. I'm just commenting on what I'm seeing. There probably isn't much difference in positions. If the players are being moved around so much. They obviously aren't good enough because they can't find a position to play well in. Maybe what I'm getting at is the cattle isn't there. We have so many players that cannot kick a football, and they're getting hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's what pisses me off.