sr36
TheBrownDog
Yeah. It's about efficiency and being able to score from the range of different entry types and situations. As well as the defensive pressure to force more entries and more dangerous entries or opportunities.
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Yeah. It's about efficiency and being able to score from the range of different entry types and situations. As well as the defensive pressure to force more entries and more dangerous entries or opportunities.
Cumberland is cooked. Would be great at the sausage sizzles however...first picked IMO.
sr36
TheBrownDog
What's sausage sizzle selection criteria? You're clearly not going with those who would eat a heap of them, or Stringer would have been a cert - miles above Cumberland? I don't think you'd wnat Cumberland serving them either, as I suspect he'd struggle to work out to twist the top before squeezing, but he might be alright if someone else had pre-prepared the bottles for him and shown him that you needs to hold the bottle upside down.
- Oct 8, 2004
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The guy who was sorely missed all season, and whom there was very evidently no ready made replacement for on our list last year?
Unless Harry Perryman (or someone else, from the clouds) comes in ready made to be a productive clearance and contested beast from Day 1 and literally takes that role away from Mitchell, then I can't see a world in which Mitchell struggles to hold his spot while healthy.
sr36
TheBrownDog
We'll see.
It won't be a surprise at all to me if 3 years after getting squeezed out of a central role in Hawks midfield the same happens again at the Pies. I think his inside production will be down on 2023 as Nick Daicos will have forced him into a less central role in our midfield. And if we're fully fit, I'm not convinced he's good enough to make our team anymore in roles other than the initial contact point at a stoppage. Then add in that the obvious weakness in our team is pace in the midfield. I think he's likely to be in trouble.
Obvously it could play out very differently, but it's a pretty likely scenario in my opinion.
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It happened at Hawthorn because ALL of Hawthorn's good young midfielders were vying for the same role as Mitchell, and he was standing in the way of the development of Worpel, Newcombe, Day, MacDonald, etc.
We don't have that issue, as evidenced by how badly Hawthorn's midfield has slaughtered us on the inside over the last couple of years, with the worst hammering coming in Rd 19 2024, when Mitchell didn't play.
I'd love for us to have a tough group of young inside midfielders bursting through for opportunities, but we just don't.
Granit1962
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No doubt a fit and firing Mitchell would have helped in that match. Also consider, we had Sullivan, Long, Krueger, a poor performing Markov and Noble, Richards, Pendles with bicep tendon injury, Sidebottom had a shocker, and a groin restricted JDG, all play in that match. We will perform much better next time.
sr36
TheBrownDog
I wouldn't be using that game as a reason for Titch. Our issue that day wasn't stoppage. We couldn't cope with their run and spread. To me that game was a major alarm bell in terms of pace and running ability, which is my only concern about us next year.
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Stoppage or contested ball, if you let the other team get it 434 times to your 288, then you needed to stem the flow somewhere.
Hawthorn cheated forward of the ball a lot last year just expecting their mids to win contested ball every time, and that day it couldn't have paid off more - I'm waiting for someone to make them look ridiculous with that strategy though.
Port Adelaide, an extraordinarily average side, still beat them in the finals, but I think that a better team could've really punished their all-or-nothing approach to ball movement. They were lucky to play a Dogs side that didn't deserve to be there in the first week and had everyone believing they were worldbeaters.
I'm not really worried about the next time we play Hawthorn if we're anything close to full strength, but you're kidding yourself if you think the ability to run and spread has nothing to do with the confidence you have in your ball winners.
sr36
TheBrownDog
Stoppage wasn't their major score source. I agree that they're style will get targeted and become less effective next year.
However it's also clear that pace can be really significant. And that we did get slower this off season. There's a definite potential of it being an exploitable weakness of our running group.
- May 12, 2016
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The good thing with hawks is that they give you lots of chances
It’s high intensity high risk
I watched them live in that final and the bulldogs picked them off but their forwards let them down and hawks kept clearing
Need to cash in when the turnovers come and score
It’s high intensity high risk
I watched them live in that final and the bulldogs picked them off but their forwards let them down and hawks kept clearing
Need to cash in when the turnovers come and score
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Agree with your overall point, but I'll take issue with this one. Obviously, age will slow down the older members of the side, but nobody outruns a kicked ball, and bringing in one very good user of the ball in Perryman, and one absolute weapon with the ball in hand in Houston, I think we can gain meterage at a faster rate than we could last year.
If young guys like Parker and Allan can start pushing their way into the side they add a good bit of run, but particularly a guy like Houston getting it 23 times a game puts that ball out of our backline at a minimum and into our forward line if we're lucky, very very quickly.
I like the potential for what Houston can do to the way we move the ball up the field. His running and ball use combined with the long leash for aggressive movement through the middle that Fly gives the team has real potential to be something special.
sr36
TheBrownDog
Don't get me wrong. I love our moves this off season. I think we'll be outstanding, but pace is likely to be an issue if we're running all the oldies in the midfield together.
Running isn't just about moving the footy, as you've pointed out kicking moves it quicker. The biggest value of pace is when you haven't got the ball, it opens and closes space to attack and defend.
Daicosian silk
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Interesting that 5 of these 6 forwards listed above were traded in and only Checkers was drafted - and in the rookie draft as an experienced VFL defender at that. Seems like the Pies are only good at trading in forwards rather than drafting and developing them. Hopefully that’ll change with the future success of Charlie West!
sr36
TheBrownDog
We barely drafted any forwards for years, with nqr mids playing as small forwards. Changed in 2020 when we added Henry, McMahon, Ginnivan and McCreery. Since added a few more, but yes traded them in effectively.Interesting that 5 of these 6 forwards listed above were traded in and only Checkers was drafted - and in the rookie draft as an experienced VFL defender at that. Seems like the Pies are only good at trading in forwards rather than drafting and developing them. Hopefully that’ll change with the future success of Charlie West!
Daicosian silk
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Probably due to Hine’s obsession with small to medium half back flankers to the exclusion of nearly everything else!
sr36
TheBrownDog
Read this a lot, but considering we're talking pre Ryan and TJ, who are you actually referring to in this swag of small half back flankers
sr36
TheBrownDog
Worked for Lobb. How did Coxy go?
Elliott was drafted as well.Interesting that 5 of these 6 forwards listed above were traded in and only Checkers was drafted - and in the rookie draft as an experienced VFL defender at that. Seems like the Pies are only good at trading in forwards rather than drafting and developing them. Hopefully that’ll change with the future success of Charlie West!
sr36
TheBrownDog
Technically traded, but yeah I'd consider him a draftee - spotted and recruited from under 18s.
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Unfortunately he panicked and kicked it out on the full at a crucial stage in the last quarter. I didn't see til the end of the game.
sr36
TheBrownDog
Maybe we shouldn't follow your dreams.
Granit1962
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Interesting that 5 of these 6 forwards listed above were traded in and only Checkers was drafted - and in the rookie draft as an experienced VFL defender at that. Seems like the Pies are only good at trading in forwards rather than drafting and developing them. Hopefully that’ll change with the future success of Charlie West!
Good point, but Elliot was also drafted. Ignore comment already made.
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I don't like this argument, because it discounts the role 'speed' plays in many other facets of the game, outside of just a single player 'running and carrying'. You need to speed to approach and win a loose ball, you need speed to get to a contest and win a contested ball, you need speed to chase down an opposition player who has the ball, you need speed to man up a player who may be spreading to get loose, you need speed to separate from a player on a lead, you need speed to stay with a player who is on the lead, you need speed to run to receive a handball, you need speed to run 20 metres carrying the ball to break the lines to kick over the 'wall' that sits 50 metres down field, etc.
The fact that a kicked ball travels faster than a player running and carrying only nullifies one use case.
