Preview Changes vs. Richmond Tigers R13

[BRL121]

I’m not sure I’m too bothered about the where he’s been playing argument - either way.

I would note the official Telstra heat maps suggest he’s been playing a fair amount of wing though

Yes. The fact that his goals come from the square doesn't make him a deep forward, necessarily.
He is a very active runner who is seen both in the defensive and attacking goal squares, often.

 

[BACCS]

Club gear = Club commitment
Non-club gear = Personal commitment

I'm surprised people still don't get this. The only club media interviews most players do are either pressers before/after training or on a national footy program like AFL 360.

I do think Rachele's manager will cut back on at least one of his media commitments next year, went a bit over the top with both a Channel 9 and 5AA slot each week.

 

[1970crow]

Given we have 14 players out of contracts it feels inevitable that guys like McHenry, Hamill, Berry, Sholl and Cook get 1 year extensions at a minimum.

Cut Bond, Sloane, Parnell, lose Himmelberg as a FA and you've hit your required changes for the year.

Hamill is useful depth and I still think there might be something there. With Parnell gone and Smith (let’s hope) gone or retired to SANFL and Milera risky, we’re not exactly stacked with players behind the ball that can cover the ground and change direction in a hurry.

 

[1970crow]

Try anything once

And just have it reinstalled if you change your mind.

 

[1970crow]

Why McHenry is called i have absolutely no idea. Since i don't watch the sanfl , can someone here justify his call up? He has not played a decent afl game this year at all. Every game in his career he's played he's stunk it up big time bar maybe 1 game.

He is a known quantity at this stage. Surely our list is not that bad ? We don't have anyone else.

To be fair, he has provided some energy and even a bit of impact coming on as the sub. But how many times do these dimwits need to see that not translate to a full game before they call it?

I don’t dislike the kid, enjoy his segment on AA and have listened to his fishing show if I’m doing something and have the earphones in. I hope he gets to another club, with a good coaching group, turns it around and enjoys a few more seasons at the level. But surely we’ve seen enough to know he’s not going to help us in a contending phase. He can’t hold a spot in a side that has won 4 of 12 games.

 

[Geoffa32]

To be fair, he has provided some energy and even a bit of impact coming on as the sub. But how many times do these dimwits need to see that not translate to a full game before they call it?

I don’t dislike the kid, enjoy his segment on AA and have listened to his fishing show if I’m doing something and have the earphones in. I hope he gets to another club, with a good coaching group, turns it around and enjoys a few more seasons at the level. But surely we’ve seen enough to know he’s not going to help us in a contending phase. He can’t hold a spot in a side that has won 4 of 12 games.

Can he be permanent sub.

He is our best sub option, and good at it.

But can a guy do that every week.

On SM-A325F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[1970crow]

I think ROB is a better ruckman than Strachan which is really saying something. I don't rate Strachen as an AFL player but happy for him to have a run of games given how poor ROB has been.

Reality is that we don’t gain much on game day playing Strachan ahead of current form ROB. What we can achieve is the senior players, even leaders, being put on notice that you can’t just amble around performing at half your capacity.

How we don’t have a developing beanpole on our list by now is mystifying.

 

[OccamsRazorRay]

Couple of observations...

If i was Berry i'd be asking my manager to find me another club.

Played 44% game time last week, 5 tackles (1 more the Lairds total), 5 score involvements, 10 Pressure Acts.

I love the inclusion of Dowling but Berry was next cab off the rank to fill Crouch's spot. Send the wrong message to the team about selection.

ROB wasn't that bad last week, particularly in his defensive work, but an accumulation of poor performances has likely landed him on the chopping block. 0 Contested marks last week.... and with Strachan doing well in the SANFL it's a good call IMO.

With Hamills inclusion you'd imagine that the coaches didn't particularly enjoy us being unable to get out of our backline last week. I agree with Curtin not coming in, considering we are desperate for speed. Hamill gives us a bit of extra run, and i'd imagine Nankervis gets pushed further up the ground as a result, more into the wing position where I think his future lies. He was excellent for the few games on the wing and has lacked confidence at times off the HB. Who knows he might be asked to go up forward...

I agree somewhat with McHenry's inclusion, but I definitely would have preferred to see him come off the bench. He plays a pressure game outside the contest, and we looked absolutely miserable defensively last week, so i can see WHY he's been selected.

I would have preferred to see Berry and Dowling selected with McHenry sub.

 

[CrowBloke]

ROB can’t kick or mark, unfortunately they are prerequisites for playing AFL.

I gotta agree, they really are.

Bout time the club realised they won’t be getting anywhere until this unco is out of our team.

This!
Unco.
His ball-drop and kicking action are totally out of synch. It's a timing problem, because a bloke his size should have a booming kick but his limit is about 40m., with terrible accuracy.
Malcolm Blight was/is not a big fella but could kick a torp 60+m with ease. That's timing.

He also has no ruck craft, just bash and crash.

I've been a consistent critic, but his bodywork/positioning in ruck contests is pretty good.
There are 2 things happening:
--- he makes a lot of hit-outs/tap-downs to where he thinks a Crows mid should be based upon the flight of the ball from the bounce/throw-up/throw-in. The result is those taps (for which he gets a stat) are frequently sharked by oppo mids, whom our blokes then allow to waltz away with the ball.
--- our mids position themselves poorly when the ball is in the air. They seem not to read it well. The communication disconnect between ROB and our mids is clear, which is why they rarely get a tap down their throats when on the move or to a spot to their clear advantage.
My overwhelming impression is that ROB thinks his job is to bring the ball to ground, ie create a contest. If anyone has 'no ruck craft', it's Nicks (because Nicks loves a struggle, a fight for the ball), when it's obviously better to tap to a mid's advantage.

 

[1970crow]

If Dawson is injured, why are we playing him?

Get him right for Sydney - or they think we'll lose without him this week...

If we’re 2 goals better with him, it flows to our %. Which might be valuable in keeping us ahead of 13th in the race for 12th.

 

[rocket18]

He's probably 90% fit or something and with Tex out this week, they saw it as a chance to play him largely as a forward. I don't think they thought we would lose without him this week, but given our best two players are already out (Tex, Rankine) and our best clearance player is also out (Crouch), I can understand why we wanted to still play him even if not fully fit. His minutes were managed a fair bit last week too.

If Tex and Rankine were fit, I think we would've likely rested Daws.

Bit like against WC when Dawson was fit we rested Tex......

Nicks has shown he is clueless with managing players, youngsters he's happy to yo-yo, senior players are selected unless they go blind or a limb drops off.

 

[George Kramer]

You’ve got to question the sanity of our coaches.

I’m all for dropping ROB and giving Strachan a go, but the timing is very odd.

When you come off of a game where the effort of so many players wasn’t there, you’re dropping the bloke who busted a gut with 8 tackles?

In the first half we had something like 26 tackles, ROB had 6 and was equal to the tally count of 14 players, that’s a fair effort by him and shows how ****ed up the rest were.

Then you drop him as your statement player?

These coaches are ****ing morons.

 

[Jcpdragonx]

Fatty Harry named starting mid, that's a shock...

No excuse not to have a career game vs a team with 20 injuries at home

 

[jackster83]

You’ve got to question the sanity of our coaches.

I’m all for dropping ROB and giving Straghan a go, but the timing is very odd.

When you come off of a game where the effort of so many players wasn’t there, you’re dropping the bloke who busted a gut with 8 tackles?

In the first half we had something like 26 tackles, ROB had 6 and was equal to the tally count of 14 players, that’s a fair effort by him and shows how ****ed up the rest were.

Then you drop him as your statement player?

These coaches are ****ing morons.

Laird and Smith are the ones who should be in the gun.

Both are protected species though.

 

[crows dude]

Which means they both aren’t our future and we have no one behind them.

Thilthrope will be our ruck methinks

 

[crows dude]

I’m purely going on his games he’s played in the AFL where to me he looked competent.

Strachans previous matches

2020
Vs North Melbourne 1 kick, 3 hb, 10 HO, 4 tackles

2021
vs Melbourne 8 kicks, 5 marks, 3 HB, 25 HO, 2 tackles, 0.1
vs North Melbourne 5 Kicks, 2 marks, 13 HB, 34 HO, 1 tackle, 0.1

2022
vs Brisbane 3 Kicks, 3 HB, 2 Mark, 21 HO, 1 tackle
vs St Kilda 12 Kicks, 5 Hb, 4 Marks, 19HO, 5 tackles, 0.2

 

[glengowan]

Reality is that we don’t gain much on game day playing Strachan ahead of current form ROB. What we can achieve is the senior players, even leaders, being put on notice that you can’t just amble around performing at half your capacity.

How we don’t have a developing beanpole on our list by now is mystifying.

If Strauchan is somewhere in the vicinity of ROB in terms of contribution, then potentially we could use ROB to improve our draft position at the end of the season. Keep Strachan as back up. For that reason, I think it is worth giving Strachan a proper crack at it at least this game and next.

If Strachan is no good, we delist him at age 27... and trade in another ready made back up or draft a promising young ruck to develop (or both).

 

[FR0GGY]

Strachans previous matches

2020
Vs North Melbourne 1 kick, 3 hb, 10 HO, 4 tackles

2021
vs Melbourne 8 kicks, 5 marks, 3 HB, 25 HO, 2 tackles, 0.1
vs North Melbourne 5 Kicks, 2 marks, 13 HB, 34 HO, 1 tackle, 0.1

2022
vs Brisbane 3 Kicks, 3 HB, 2 Mark, 21 HO, 1 tackle
vs St Kilda 12 Kicks, 5 Hb, 4 Marks, 19HO, 5 tackles, 0.2

So in a position to score in 3/5 games and marks in 4/5 I’ll take something like that.

 

[Vader]

If Strauchan is somewhere in the vicinity of ROB in terms of contribution, then potentially we could use ROB to improve our draft position at the end of the season. Keep Strachan as back up. For that reason, I think it is worth giving Strachan a proper crack at it at least this game and next.

If Strachan is no good, we delist him at age 27... and trade in another ready made back up or draft a promising young ruck to develop (or both).

You do realise that Strachan is only 45 days younger than ROB? As for delisting him at age 27... he's currently 28 yrs 8 mths old. He turns 29 in October, roughly around trading time. I think we missed your window.

 

[weekend at bernies]

Filthys last AFL game he was sub and replaced ROB. I'd like to see that again when he is fit but play the whole game. offers something different to ROB and Strachan.

 

[Captain Furious]

Hamill is useful depth and I still think there might be something there. With Parnell gone and Smith (let’s hope) gone or retired to SANFL and Milera risky, we’re not exactly stacked with players behind the ball that can cover the ground and change direction in a hurry.

Missing out on Redman last year stings even more now. Let's hope Oscar Ryan can come on quickly.

 

[Mutineer]

Thilthrope will be our ruck methinks

Using essentially Pick 1 on a ruckman he needs to be the Nic Nat or Maxxy Gawn and I don't see that happening.

Going to leave us very undermanned for Key Forwards with Tex in the twilight and Darcy yet to really scruff the bull by the horns and be the number 1 man..

 

[Crows I Am]

No they aren't, but anyone thinking Strachan offers more than ROB simply hasn't watch a game of SANFL.

Prove me wrong Strachany!!

Which is why it is a massive fail that we have not bothered to draft a ruckman for so long. Excluding Thilthorpe (who you would assume was drafted primarily as a forward??) The last pure ruck we took in the main draft was John Meesen and Ivan Maric in 2004.

Below is a list of the pure ruckmen we have drafted in the last 20 years
2004 - John Meesen
2004 - Ivan Maric
2004 - Jon Griffin (Rookie draft)
2012 - Jack Osborn (Rookie draft)
2014 - ROB (Rookie draft)
2015 - Paul Hunter (Rookie draft)
2018 - Stachan (Rookie draft)

Every 3-4 years you should be bringing in a developing ruck to sit on the list with the aim to have them ready to take over from your number 1 ruck. If they don't work out you move them on and bring another in. We have put ROB into the role, drafted a backup in Stachan who will only ever be back up and decided we didn't need to develop anyone. This is what list management should be doing, making sure we have depth in each role and then also succession planning to have the next wave of talent ready to take over from the current team.

I know people make the argument that you can easily go and trade for a ruck, but we haven't even been able to do that. We are stuck with ROB and Strachan and no other option, unless we decide to move our best forward line asset in Thilthorpe into ruck.

 

[Slime Roy]

I'm surprised people still don't get this. The only club media interviews most players do are either pressers before/after training or on a national footy program like AFL 360.

I do think Rachele's manager will cut back on at least one of his media commitments next year, went a bit over the top with both a Channel 9 and 5AA slot each week.

He also mentioned on aa, that he'd just come down from Jody & Snowy upstairs at Nova.

 

[Crows I Am]

I like Tex being out, gives a chance for Fogarty to actually step up as the main key forward.

If they make Dowling the sub and have McHenry start I will be upset.

I think Fog plays better when he has a tall forward in with him. Fog and TT will work really well together, I am worried with Fog as our primary target he may struggle as he will always get the best defender. With TT in there they often will have to go with him.

Hopefully he steps up and takes that main forward role tonight to show he is capable of taking over from Tex once he is gone.