Knightmare
Brownlow Medallist
- Sep 22, 2010
- 19,533
- 19,542
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Chicago Bulls
- Thread starter
- Banned
- #476
Henderson is an interesting one. He is 28 and having a career best season, the first time he has averaged over 20 disposals in his career. He is a decent rebounder with his foot skills the big weapon. But would we be hitting him on the downward curve? He is an unrestricted free agent, so getting him cheap is the real appeal in a year we have little in terms of trade currency. We do lack defenders who can kick, even though we have a heap of defenders on the list. Is he much of an upgrade on a guy like Langdon though?
It is interesting going through the options and assessing who would be part of the back six, if an addition was made.
I'd be looking from a slightly different viewpoint with a view to expand the back six into a back seven of: Reid, Brown, Williams, Howe, Henderson, Langdon and Scharenberg to play weekly as best 22 players.
With that group of seven it would mean some times on the bench and that whole group or the majority of that group learning to play a second position, which overall in each case I view other than with Brown as achievable.
Williams with his ground ball winning ability I'd love to see pinch-hit on the ball. He can also play forward well.
Scharenberg can push forward and take marks and may also in time learn to play some midfield. Langdon may be similar to Scharenberg in practical usage.
Howe can obviously swing forward and could probably push up onto a wing if we wanted him to.
Maynard can play some forward and if he improves his endurance he could push onto the ball as with Williams.
So I'm not overall so set on just limiting that backline to a set back six.
Hey Knightmare I love your work, out of curiosity how many hours do you spend watching footy during the week?
By the way I still think the Cats will win the Premieship this year who is your pick at this point?
Around 10 hours each week on average over a season (between all levels of play). That might mean 1-2 junior games most weekends on average (highly variable though - sometimes up to four in one weeks, other weekends if games are in the country and hard to get to I'll just stick to AFL/state league matches).
AFL talent scouts have hard, often catching four games in a day. So they'd be getting in double the volume of games each weekend relative to what I'd consume if they're also watching some night AFL games or replays of any AFL games to go with all those junior matches.
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As for this years premiership, it's anyone's game with those top five sides (Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney, Adelaide and GWS) those only realistic chances. I'm back and fourth as to whether I favour Hawthorn or Geelong, but with the MCG advantage I favour those sides over the interstate teams.
My theory is the best, healthy team generally wins. Both Hawthorn and Geelong have injury lists that project going into finals to be lean, so if one or the other gets several key injuries heading into the finals or early in the finals, I'll be tipping the other way.
Ask me today, Hawthorn win, having the better formline. They're a very beatable and vulnerable team, lacking key position strength at both ends, but they're just so clutch (winning games when it is there to be won and having their good players lift in those moments).
Just being overprotective of those four consecutive premierships from 1927-1930, and not wanting Hawthorn to come any closer to Collingwood's 15 premierships, I'm supporting whoever Hawthorn face with those other premiership contenders behind Hawthorn on total premierships won.