After todays game, i've had a long, hard look at our list. Not one where i say we need to turn over 18-20 players on the list, it is not time for the panic button just yet, but simply to summarise where i think we are at. I think our future has plenty of strengths, being our key backs, key forwards, medium forwards and rucks. I will go into these later in detail. However, our weaknesses, they are blatantly obvious..Small defenders, and skillful midfielders.
The midfield one i'm a bit stumped on. Although badly beaten in this area today, i think winning the contested footy is not a big concern for us, with Watson, Welsh, Hocking, Lonergan, and yes Myers, play him there please Knights. However, this skill level of our group of midfielders is absolutely appalling. These guys above, to go along with Prismall, Stanton, Winderlich, can they hit a target? I must admit i've been one who's bought into the speculation that we were building a very nice midfield, but for f*** sake, it means nothing having a midfield that can win the ball if you can't hold onto the ball. This is an area that certainly needs attention paid to it if we are to have any success, and i see one way in doing this is Dempsey. Dempsey has a bit of class, a bit of polish and poise about him, and i'd be moving him from the backline onto the wing, and into the midfield. But that's a start. Guys like Prismall, Winderlich and Stanton, these 3 in particular who are probably our more 'outside' midfielders, simply need to hit targets consistently.
The second position is our small defenders. Now i have never hidden it, infact i've voiced it on several occassions that i am not a Slattery fan and do not believe he should be in the side. However, having thought about this deeply, i'd keep him in the side..match-up permitting. I'd be radical here and move Davey into the backline.
Let us look at Davey's game for a second. Quick, there is no denying that, continually praised for his defensive side and chasing, yet he cannot contribute on the offensive end. He fumbles, all round he is just shocking with the ball in his hands. Now Ballantyne is by no means a star, however he was very very impressive today. But why? Because poor Slattery can't keep up, he's no match for someone with Ballantyne's pace. Ballantyne, Betts, Byrnes, Rioli, are we expecting Slattery to play on these sorts of guys? He will get dominated, no question about it. Why not let Davey use his pace and defensive side to his game to shut out these sorts of players that consistently kill us?
But this is not a call to drop Slattery, he still has a role, he simply may be more suited to playing on the chapman type forwards, or the more solid, marking forwards. But simply saying Slattery is our best small defender, therefore we play him on the best small forward, no matter what type of player he is, is going to get us in strife.
I'm not sure if Davey has played defense before, but the way he is playing, you cannot continue to pick him as a forward. I see no harm in attempting to turn him into a defender, with the possibility of a massive gain to be had.
The midfield one i'm a bit stumped on. Although badly beaten in this area today, i think winning the contested footy is not a big concern for us, with Watson, Welsh, Hocking, Lonergan, and yes Myers, play him there please Knights. However, this skill level of our group of midfielders is absolutely appalling. These guys above, to go along with Prismall, Stanton, Winderlich, can they hit a target? I must admit i've been one who's bought into the speculation that we were building a very nice midfield, but for f*** sake, it means nothing having a midfield that can win the ball if you can't hold onto the ball. This is an area that certainly needs attention paid to it if we are to have any success, and i see one way in doing this is Dempsey. Dempsey has a bit of class, a bit of polish and poise about him, and i'd be moving him from the backline onto the wing, and into the midfield. But that's a start. Guys like Prismall, Winderlich and Stanton, these 3 in particular who are probably our more 'outside' midfielders, simply need to hit targets consistently.
The second position is our small defenders. Now i have never hidden it, infact i've voiced it on several occassions that i am not a Slattery fan and do not believe he should be in the side. However, having thought about this deeply, i'd keep him in the side..match-up permitting. I'd be radical here and move Davey into the backline.
Let us look at Davey's game for a second. Quick, there is no denying that, continually praised for his defensive side and chasing, yet he cannot contribute on the offensive end. He fumbles, all round he is just shocking with the ball in his hands. Now Ballantyne is by no means a star, however he was very very impressive today. But why? Because poor Slattery can't keep up, he's no match for someone with Ballantyne's pace. Ballantyne, Betts, Byrnes, Rioli, are we expecting Slattery to play on these sorts of guys? He will get dominated, no question about it. Why not let Davey use his pace and defensive side to his game to shut out these sorts of players that consistently kill us?
But this is not a call to drop Slattery, he still has a role, he simply may be more suited to playing on the chapman type forwards, or the more solid, marking forwards. But simply saying Slattery is our best small defender, therefore we play him on the best small forward, no matter what type of player he is, is going to get us in strife.
I'm not sure if Davey has played defense before, but the way he is playing, you cannot continue to pick him as a forward. I see no harm in attempting to turn him into a defender, with the possibility of a massive gain to be had.
