Strategy Aaron Naughton - Key Defender or Key Forward?

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Optimistic Dog said:
Slightly off the heading but in line with recent discussion here. Five points down siren goes in the GF we have a set shot from a mark 35 metres out slight angle who do you want to take the shot. Well not Bont, Astro, JUH or Lobb. I think it is between JJ, Dale, Libba or Weightman. Only one is playing forward at present I guess that says it all about our goal kicking. My choice is Libba.
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Ryan Gardner
 
Optimistic Dog said:
Slightly off the heading but in line with recent discussion here. Five points down siren goes in the GF we have a set shot from a mark 35 metres out slight angle who do you want to take the shot. Well not Bont, Astro, JUH or Lobb. I think it is between JJ, Dale, Libba or Weightman. Only one is playing forward at present I guess that says it all about our goal kicking. My choice is Libba.
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Libba for me aswell
 

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TiAn_ said:
His kicking has always been erratic but he’s still a 40-50 goal a year key forward even if he doesn’t improve his kicking. And 50+ per year if he does.

He had the sixth most scoring shots in the entire competition last year. You don’t move him to CHB because 6 of them were behinds instead of goals.
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Tian, it's every game mate. Opportunities continually wasted. Easy shots missed. There is no doubt what he brings, the marking power and the beast like ground attack but we just cannot afford to work our ar5es off and be continually be let down by wayward kicking.
Even when he kicks 4 generally he has kicked 3 behinds and an out on the full. It's demoralising and cannot be accepted. His misses cause the rest of the team to miss by putting extreme pressure on every single set shot at goal.
I can understand why people are thinking one way or another with Naughton. He is such an exciting player, but he is also the most frustrating player on our list. Wherever you sit with him is where you see him as exciting or frustrating.
I am on the extremely disappointed and frustrated side.
 
Chalky White said:
Tian, it's every game mate. Opportunities continually wasted. Easy shots missed. There is no doubt what he brings, the marking power and the beast like ground attack but we just cannot afford to work our ar5es off and be continually be let down by wayward kicking.
Even when he kicks 4 generally he has kicked 3 behinds and an out on the full. It's demoralising and cannot be accepted. His misses cause the rest of the team to miss by putting extreme pressure on every single set shot at goal.
I can understand why people are thinking one way or another with Naughton. He is such an exciting player, but he is also the most frustrating player on our list. Wherever you sit with him is where you see him as exciting or frustrating.
I am on the extremely disappointed and frustrated side.
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Yeah, not disputing the erratic kicking and that it can be particularly costly at times, but sending a 50 goal key forward to the backline because he also kicks 40 behinds, when we have no one else close to replacing him, is throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Max King was probably worse until this year. I’m sure he’d make a very good intercepting defender too. But the Saints would never do that and for good reason.
 
How to beat Naughton. Don't even put your teams number one defender on him. Dekoning and Allir, every single time.
 
How much more evidence do our coaches and supporters for that matter need before they work out he is not a forward.

His ability made it a limited success it is now starting to really impact us

At the same time we are crying out for a tall down back with his attributes.

If we are leaving him forward trade him to Sydney and cash in while we can

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I liked the wry smile from Aliir after finally getting caught manhandling or pushing Naughton under the ball all night. He knew the damage had been done.
 
No wonder our forward line is so messed up, as our number one guy up there is a dumb forward, as predictable as usual again he couldn't perform in big games as vs Cat and Power. Got so figured out and toweled up by a 10 gamer, why do we still put him up forward for? to kick a bag of cheap goals on Norf to make someone feel vindicated?
 
We have come full circle: Naughton has gone from the inspired key-forward experiment to a major detriment. After 5 years up forward, he has now been worked out by the opposition and cannot improve. He just doesn't have natural forward instincts. It's a testament to his athleticism and marking ability that he was still able to kick 45+ goals two seasons in a row, but all that isn't much good when he struggles badly when it counts.

The problem for us is: moving Naughton to the forward line is one of Beveridge's "masterstrokes". He's not going to move him back to defence, he's too proud of his "genius" to do that, and it would hurt his ego.
There was a similar case at the Bombers 10 years ago with Michael Hurley. Originally drafted as a defender, he was thrown up forward for a game against Hawthorn at the end of 2009, where he kicked 4 goals and fired Essendon up into the finals. This convinced Matthew Knights, then James Hird to try and make him the new #1 key forward at Essendon for the next 4 years, but it just didn't work. Eventually Bomber Thompson became caretaker coach and he had the good sense to move Hurley back to defence, where he remained a great fullback for several years.

The writing is on the wall now with Naughton. As exciting as he's looked at times, as much as people have compared him to Carey, he just can't be trusted to produce when it counts. He's not like a Tom Hawkins, who not only takes marks and kicks goals, but also plays smart, and helps everyone else in the forward line play better. Even after 5 years as a forward, Naughton is still getting in the way of teammates, still interrupting teammate marks, still leading to the wrong positions, and worst of all, still kicking like an absolute donkey.
 

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zucvv said:
No wonder our forward line is so messed up, as our number one guy up there is a dumb forward, as predictable as usual again he couldn't perform in big games as vs Cat and Power. Got so figured out and toweled up by a 10 gamer, why do we still put him up forward for? to kick a bag of cheap goals on Norf to make someone feel vindicated?
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I wouldn't say a dumb forward just not a natural forward who has been worked out.



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Having watched another week of Naughton, it's bleeding obvious he needs help. The upcoming bye gives the club the opportunity to get a coach to work with him and Jamarra for a week or two.

Naughton leads to the pockets, and Jamarra leads up the ground. Both players tend to push the ball to the left.

I'd look for a coach that is a left footer. Everyone knows lefties operate in a different mental space and it will take a leftie to sort them out.

The only one that I can think of to help them is Matthew Lloyd.

If that doesn't work, I'd be offering Naughton to WC for their 1st and 3rd round picks. The Jamarra/Lobb forward setup would be promising.
 
If we leave this 23 year old Gen Z mulleted pretender forward much longer he’s going to pass Dickson and Bont as our most prolific goal kicker of the last 15 years and once that happens we might be stuck with him up there, need to ship him back to defence where he belongs before he kicks too many goals and it’s too late. Rest of our front half is smashing it, get him out and we’ll be flying.
 
I’ve been patient and stuck with Naughton as a key forward, but i’ve opened up my eyes and realised it’s time to move back to defence.

If JUH improved his goal kicking he would be our #1 Key Forward by the length of the flemington straight, JUH has that natural forwards instinct, he knows where to lead and how to take a grab.

Aaron just gets in the way, crashes into the pack when our other forwards would probably take the grab. We need a another big key defender and Naughton is the one to fill the spot.

Even just for a week against a team like north to trail it would be nice
 
JUH going brilliant is more reason to keep Naughton forward lol, we potentially have two 50 goal key forwards on our hands for possibly the first time ever. Both have 10 years in front of them to play together.

Let’s get them the support they require by hiring a ****ing decent forward coach. If any other club had these two elite young forwards on their list they’d specifically hire every gun key forward to ever play the game to come and work with them. What have we actually done for them?

Norf have Brown working with Larkey, saints got Dermie in for King for example. There’d be 100s of examples of these sort of hires over the past few years. What do we do? Matthew Spangher to just be a mouthpiece for Bevo anyway. What specialised skills can this midget and shit defender teach these two?

It’s flipping arrogant.
 
doggies ftw said:
JUH going brilliant is more reason to keep Naughton forward lol, we potentially have two 50 goal key forwards on our hands for possibly the first time ever. Both have 10 years in front of them to play together.

Let’s get them the support they require by hiring a ******* decent forward coach. If any other club had these two elite young forwards on their list they’d specifically hire every gun key forward to ever play the game to come and work with them. What have we actually done for them?

Norf have Brown working with Larkey, saints got Dermie in for King for example. There’d be 100s of examples of these sort of hires over the past few years. What do we do? Matthew Spangher to just be a mouthpiece for Bevo anyway. What specialised skills can this midget and s**t defender teach these two?

It’s *ing arrogant.
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We can only hope Spangher leaves at the end of the year worst forwards coach In the league
 
Naughton playing forward is not helping Jamarra to any level suggested here. Jamarra's development is a massive credit to him and his work rate, interestingly when he acknowledged he has similar attributes to Jeremy Cameron than to Buddy so has watched and learnt how much ground Cameron covers and is working on replicating it.

Darcy will be the key forward to work in tandem with JUH unfortunately illness and injury has set him back a bit at the moment so a combination of Lobb and Bruce to play the deeper role which is natural to them.

Besides intercept marking Naughton has great speed when he carries the footy which in the short term will negate the loss of JJ and Ed but in the longer term will just be a weapon. Or we can keep playing sub par players in the backline and wonder why it gets exposed in big games, and it is not like even when we are winning our current forward line is humming



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doggies ftw said:
JUH going brilliant is more reason to keep Naughton forward lol, we potentially have two 50 goal key forwards on our hands for possibly the first time ever. Both have 10 years in front of them to play together.

Let’s get them the support they require by hiring a ******* decent forward coach. If any other club had these two elite young forwards on their list they’d specifically hire every gun key forward to ever play the game to come and work with them. What have we actually done for them?

Norf have Brown working with Larkey, saints got Dermie in for King for example. There’d be 100s of examples of these sort of hires over the past few years. What do we do? Matthew Spangher to just be a mouthpiece for Bevo anyway. What specialised skills can this midget and s**t defender teach these two?

It’s *ing arrogant.
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I’m not sure what’s the best way forward, but if Marra still needs support, there is no reason why Bruce can’t give this in the short term. Don’t forget we still have Darcy coming through which we’ll need to fit into the forward line.

The other reason to consider it is just how poor we are down back.

If Bruce played forward last night and Naughton back, Port don’t kick 6 goals in the first quarter.
 
The Inbetweener said:
I’m not sure what’s the best way forward, but if Marra still needs support, there is no reason why Bruce can’t give this in the short term. Don’t forget we still have Darcy coming through which we’ll need to fit into the forward line.

The other reason to consider it is just how poor we are down back.

If Bruce played forward last night and Naughton back, Port don’t kick 6 goals in the first quarter.
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That’s very debatable.

Good defenders are wasted in our defence too. We could have 3 LJs and we’d still suck, it’s just a terrible defensive system set up to fail. I’d personally prefer to fix the underlying issues whilst keeping our gun key forward pairing up front rather than just papering over the cracks.

Moving Naughty to defence doesn’t win us a flag but building a forward line around Naughy & Marra possibly does
 

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Strategy Aaron Naughton - Key Defender or Key Forward?

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