I assume Flanders will play with us then, or would he be next door?
Bigman’s Training Reports
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I agree re freeing up Max. I suppose the thing is competition for spots next year will be very strong. Other backline small/mid “locks” of Hinge, Cumming (perhaps wing)and Max with plenty of other options like Milera, Jones, Ryan and yes
Laird who likely plays. Playing Bond as a “one trick pony” just may not be possible as someone else will need to make way. Someone else that can defend AND also has attacking flair.
That said, if Bond ends up being clearly our best tagger (Peatling also does this in midfield) or lock down defender then perhaps he does get picked.
Great position to be in with excellent depth across most lines as others have noted.
Tall KPD (inc Worrell as 3rd tall interceptor) - 5
Small forwards - ANB, Rachele, Keays, Rankine resting and hopefully Pedlar is quality and depth. Could do with another CC type project player though. Or poach a Pickett type if it’s the cream on top
Mids - best position we have been in for a decade or 2 projecting out and acknowledge it needs to be proven in many cases (Peatling, Draper, Curtin, Edwards) along with the 3-4 quality mids we know we already have. Plus lots of depth (Taylor, Dowling, Berry etc). Wings - Cumming, Sholl, leftovers mids like Dawson and Soli plus depth (Jones etc)
KPF / 3rd tall - probably now also a need to top up with Berg and Gollant gone and Burgess and probably Tex going end of 2025. Excellent quality if no injuries but not much depth if we were to lose one of Fog or TT for an extended time. Hopefully Welsh, T Murray and ideally Curtin can also play tall forward at the top level.
Ruck - yep. Needs updating - probably both players - in 2025
Excellent depth and quality youngsters coming thru. SANFL team should do well (flag?) in 2025
I think Dawson is the perfect player to drop back into defence when we are struggling. He is that level head that can take a good contested mark and get the game back onto our terms. I see him spending more time in defence in the back part of his career, playing a similar role to Tom Stewart.
I still want him to play majority midfield now, but he definitely has the skill set required to play stints forward or back when we need it. Especially as the young midfield group continues to improve.
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Why would you free Max up to be more attacking when he is so good at closing down the opposition best small / medium forwards.It is so rare to have a player who can go with the Charlie Cameron or Toby Green types. We don’t need 22 attacking footballers. We need a mix of half a dozen or so elite attackers and defenders. Max can be an elite defender and is well on his way there. Why change that?
I'm the opposite with Dawson. I want him playing half back or wing, using his kicking skills to maximum impact.
THEN he has short squirts in the midfield when we need him. Like Shaun Burgoyne did at Hawthorn.
I think it would make him the most dangerous player on the ground.
Dawson is going to be a gun wherever he plays. We should work out where the rest of our team lines up and then plug him in wherever the need is greatest.
Kane McGoodwin
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Dawson is smart enough to play himself where he is most needed during games... & we have enough flexibility to enable this.
Golumless
A bigger deal out west.
Yeah, this is a thing with our side, and saw us go from the the 12th most accurate team to the 4th most, with an upswing of 5.8% (nb: North, GWS and Carlton all beat us, with North posting a stupidly high 56% accuracy with ~100 less shots). This is matched with a increase in our xScore/Shot going up from 3.07 (18th in 2023) to 3.26 (8th in 2024). We're now taking a league average shot selection and sinking them at a very strong rate.
Though, and it could just be a bit of a statistical oddity, but our 2024 goal kicking would have been the most accurate team in 2023 by 0.7%.
Also, it's a harder shot. League wide averages with 40+ meters is 44.9% set shot, 34.5%
A lot of getting better at this type of shot is just passing off the lower percentage options. Yeah, he'll hopefully get better at the set shot and anything whilst the game is flowing that Rash hits from here is just a bonus.
That's where I sit with Dawson. Let him control the outside game and throw him into the coal face when a game is there to be won.
I suppose I valued Ben Harts, Mc Leods and Smarts attacking ability setting up so much play. Bond doesn’t have that it him - natural flair , skills etc - but may actually be a better lock down defender.
Not sure what the stats say but thought Bond kept most dangerous forwards to very few goals late last year. A real pleasant surprise to me.
Max is also an effective defender but perhaps not as effective as Bond (remember CC kicking 5 on Max but that’s possibly the exception) purely from a lockdown perspective
So you only do it if (1) you value more natural flair, skills and pace coming out of the backline and (2) Bond proves to be a better - or equal - lockdown defender.
If you accept the above, why wouldn’t you do it?
Lastly, I am suggesting you do NOT need 22 attacking footballers so perhaps you have misunderstood that. Bond clearly isn’t in that category
As long as it's not at FF where he found himself a few times to end the year
Gtowncrow
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I can't argue with your rationale but you ask "why change that?"
I wouldn't be locking Max into being a career lockdown defender. He's too young to limit his potential. He might become elite in the role and if he can, why not use his elite skills in other roles. For example, he's a perfect matchup as a defensive forward on Tom Stewart. I think Max's height and his defensive qualities make him versatile.
But until then, shutting down the small forwards is awesome from our perspective.
Gtowncrow
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I wonder who are our fastest over 10m...other than Izak.
A bloke that good overhead can play FF if he wants
Kane McGoodwin
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Peatling would be up there.
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I'm trying very hard to keep a lid on my excitement of Draper in our midfield mix.
But posts like this make it tricky.
Berry is probably not used to a Crows mid with so much footspeed in match sim.
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Or its been a real stumbling block of our side that we have not had that pace in the side, so while each preseason we hear such and such looks very good, training the house down etc - who are they really up against? and when the real stuff comes around we get found out a other sides have those point of difference midfielders we didn't. That may now start to change with Peatling and Draper to combine with Izak to give us that burst speed we have really lacked.
Golumless
A bigger deal out west.
How many players have been training the house down and not gone on to do so in the regular season? I can only really think of two in recent times (Berry 2023, Curtin 2024) but both had injuries derail the start of their campaign (i.e. Berry lost all power due to a groin injury, Curtin lost the intercept defender role due to a knee injury).
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I guess my point was, that due to a lack of quality in our midfield in comparison to most other sides, we get carried away with how player X or y looks in preseason, but come the real season, we have missed finals for the lat 7 years for a reason. Blitzing in internal trials, running drills etc in no way means they will do so when the season begins and the real stuff starts.
Yes, I'm excited about Draper too, but if we want a midfielder who can run down Berry there's around half a dozen of them on every list in the league.
Still, good to see him involved in match sim early! I remember some years where it felt like our draftees just did restricted training for 90% of the preseason.
Golumless
A bigger deal out west.
Sure, I got what you meant, which is why I threw out the question. The thing is if you've got excited about a Rachele, Thilthorpe, Soligo, Fogarty, Rankine etc, it's been justified. These are guys who have stepped through the ranks and who are building into impactful careers at a nice pace.
Though wasting that 2023 season hurt. That was atop 4 campaign that we squandered, with 2024 being potentially the step-back a few teams encounter. Other than that, a lot of it has just been a team deep in a rebuild being a team deep in a rebuild where you're just stuck waiting on your kids to be able to be A-graders.
Berry is rather quick, though it's more that explosive acceleration quick then a sustained top speed. Still, I'm pretty impressed Draper has that turn of speed.
Watching the Matildas last night it's noticeable the players that have that half a yard to get themselves clear of opponents for easier possession and the impact that allows.
I think the same principal applies in AFL today. If you're slow you're a liability unless you have an elite trait like contested marking (McGoverns), contested ball winning (Crouch) etc.
Berry is powerful. Nice take down by an 18 year old - shows a lot of intent and power in itself.
The type of thing we desperately need internally from our talented young players.
