Training Pre-Season 2024

[AFC979810]

Well Schoey is out for now, so that would mean what? Dawson, Laird, Crouch and Pedlar/ Rankine as the main rotations?

Its going to be very interesting to see how Nicks allocates Midfield minutes.

We have 3 full-time midfielders in Laird, Dawson, Crouch. We then have 3 dynamic players who will be rotated mid/fwd in Rankine, Rachele and Pedlar. I think that will mean that Soligo will be pushed out to a wing and we will go with those 6.

 

[GreyCrow]

Its going to be very interesting to see how Nicks allocates Midfield minutes.

We have 3 full-time midfielders in Laird, Dawson, Crouch. We then have 3 dynamic players who will be rotated mid/fwd in Rankine, Rachele and Pedlar. I think that will mean that Soligo will be pushed out to a wing and we will go with those 6.

It will be interesting what the call is if Crouch goes backwards - do they drop him or do they hold faith because ''experience''

*this doesnt exclude Laird nor Dawson from examination but they will be given a whole season to find form if it drops off

My thinking ( of how Nicks and co think) is that experience will drive selection and as you note it leaves the rotations a bit mixed and/or non-existent in Rankines case

You say Soligo might be pushed out and I say Rankine may be the minimal player and Soligo gets more minutes ( form warranted)

 

[AFC979810]

It will be interesting what the call is if Crouch goes backwards - do they drop him or do they hold faith because ''experience''

*this doesnt exclude Laird nor Dawson from examination but they will be given a whole season to find form if it drops off

Absolutely.

I was very critical of him getting a game late last year, but he looked a lot more like 2017 Crouch than 2019-2022 Crouch.

On his form last year he is a walk up starter. Hopefully with a good preseason he continues.

My thinking ( of how Nicks and co think) is that experience will drive selection and as you note it leaves the rotations a bit mixed and/or non-existent in Rankines case

You say Soligo might be pushed out and I say Rankine may be the minimal player and Soligo gets more minutes ( form warranted)

I agree that Nicks will go more towards experience in the midfield, but I would love to see Laird go back to halfback. We have a very inexperienced group of Defenders (Smith is our only defender to have played 100 Games).

Rankine is a real point of difference and it would be fantastic to see him be used as a Shai Bolton type player.

 

[Gtowncrow]

Absolutely.

I was very critical of him getting a game late last year, but he looked a lot more like 2017 Crouch than 2019-2022 Crouch.

On his form last year he is a walk up starter. Hopefully with a good preseason he continues.




I agree that Nicks will go more towards experience in the midfield, but I would love to see Laird go back to halfback. We have a very inexperienced group of Defenders (Smith is our only defender to have played 100 Games).

Rankine is a real point of difference and it would be fantastic to see him be used as a Shai Bolton type player.

Izak is an enigma.
He would make a terrific midfielder but at the cost of most of his forward contribution.

On the other hand, if he focussed on hitting the scoreboard more and produced 50 goals per year, that would be hard to say no to.

I'm personally happy for him to use his burst, agility and evasion throughout the forward line as the reward of each of his micro victories often result in a score to us. Those wins in the midfield are less directly tangible.

Pedlar and Rachelle look more suited as midfielders before Rankine IMO.

 

[Crows I Am]

Absolutely.

I was very critical of him getting a game late last year, but he looked a lot more like 2017 Crouch than 2019-2022 Crouch.

On his form last year he is a walk up starter. Hopefully with a good preseason he continues.




I agree that Nicks will go more towards experience in the midfield, but I would love to see Laird go back to halfback. We have a very inexperienced group of Defenders (Smith is our only defender to have played 100 Games).

Rankine is a real point of difference and it would be fantastic to see him be used as a Shai Bolton type player.

I don't think Laird will ever go back to a full time defender now, but I do think there is merit to have him spending some time back there as a rotation out of the middle. With Crouch now coming back in to the mix, we are less flexible with the midfield rotations as he can really only play on ball. So it means either Dawson or Laird would need to reduce their minutes for us to increase minutes for the likes of Pedlar/Rachele/Rankine. Dawson can push back or forward if we need (not that we would want to reduce his midfield time too much) but Laird hasn't really rotated anywhere for the last few years. If we reduce his midfield time by say 10% and have him rotating down back, that will increase the time for the younger kids.

 

[Crows I Am]

Izak is an enigma.
He would make a terrific midfielder but at the cost of most of his forward contribution.

On the other hand, if he focussed on hitting the scoreboard more and produced 50 goals per year, that would be hard to say no to.

I'm personally happy for him to use his burst, agility and evasion throughout the forward line as the reward of each of his micro victories often result in a score to us. Those wins in the midfield are less directly tangible.

Pedlar and Rachelle look more suited as midfielders before Rankine IMO.

Even if Rankine doesn't increase his midfield time, I would still love to see him push up the ground more during general play and become a threat around general stoppages. He should be given license to play basically anywhere forward of the centre line to the goal line.

 

[Faaarrk]

It will be interesting what the call is if Crouch goes backwards - do they drop him or do they hold faith because ''experience''

*this doesnt exclude Laird nor Dawson from examination but they will be given a whole season to find form if it drops off

My thinking ( of how Nicks and co think) is that experience will drive selection and as you note it leaves the rotations a bit mixed and/or non-existent in Rankines case

You say Soligo might be pushed out and I say Rankine may be the minimal player and Soligo gets more minutes ( form warranted)

Unfortunately I don’t think Crouch will be given as much leeway as the others. If he does revert to the old Crouch then he should be dropped. If any other player isn’t performing then they should be too given our coverage now. We all know there are favourites and there are ‘ favourites’.

 

[Faaarrk]

Absolutely.

I was very critical of him getting a game late last year, but he looked a lot more like 2017 Crouch than 2019-2022 Crouch.

On his form last year he is a walk up starter. Hopefully with a good preseason he continues.




I agree that Nicks will go more towards experience in the midfield, but I would love to see Laird go back to halfback. We have a very inexperienced group of Defenders (Smith is our only defender to have played 100 Games).

Rankine is a real point of difference and it would be fantastic to see him be used as a Shai Bolton type player.

Who would you have him replace at half back?
Both Hinge and Milera use the ball extremely well and read the play beautifully. Hinge is strong overhead as well while Milera’s dodging and weaving can cut through the lines.
I would love to see Hinge on the wing but who to move from there?
It’s nice to have good headache selections.

 

[tinman]

Good to see the lads wearing their compression stockings on the flight..

I wouldn’t have thought it would make much, if any, difference on such a short flight. But perhaps a good habit for the players to get into.

 

[GROTTO]

I wouldn’t have thought it would make much, if any, difference on such a short flight. But perhaps a good habit for the players to get into.

Probably just getting into a routine/habit of wearing compression garments while flying.

 

[GreyCrow]

Pizza night didnt end well for Pyke

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Not picking McLeod first would be a sackable offense.

 

[cleanhands]

think he’s just in such a good space since returning

 

[50BC]

It will be interesting what the call is if Crouch goes backwards - do they drop him or do they hold faith because ''experience''

*this doesnt exclude Laird nor Dawson from examination but they will be given a whole season to find form if it drops off

My thinking ( of how Nicks and co think) is that experience will drive selection and as you note it leaves the rotations a bit mixed and/or non-existent in Rankines case

You say Soligo might be pushed out and I say Rankine may be the minimal player and Soligo gets more minutes ( form warranted)

Yeah, it will be interesting. Laird, Dawson and Crouch have all been regulars in the "A team" according to Bigmans training reports. So there are 3 centre square positions to be filled 100% od game time each. If those 3 play full time in the centre square than they cover roughly 240% ( assuming roughly 80% of game time on ground) if Pedlar spent roughly half his on ground time there than its up to 280% leaving maybe 20% for Rankine. So for Soligo or Rachele to come in as well then someone has to go out. Maybe Dawson spends some time on a wing, maybe Laird spends time behind the ball in defence, maybe Crouch goes out entirely or they just give Pedlar and/or Rankine much less time than indicated

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

INTERVIEW: Mark Keane - 15 February 2024 - The FIVEAA Sports Show

omny.fm

Does this come with sub-titles?

 

[Carmo]

Not picking McLeod first would be a sackable offense.

Surely Mods or Rehnny could be picked without it being sackable??

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Absolutely.

I was very critical of him getting a game late last year, but he looked a lot more like 2017 Crouch than 2019-2022 Crouch.

On his form last year he is a walk up starter. Hopefully with a good preseason he continues.




I agree that Nicks will go more towards experience in the midfield, but I would love to see Laird go back to halfback. We have a very inexperienced group of Defenders (Smith is our only defender to have played 100 Games).

Rankine is a real point of difference and it would be fantastic to see him be used as a Shai Bolton type player.

I like our backline better without Laird in it and reckon Laird is a good midfielder

Crouch I’d play in our secondary midfield rotation from the bench and he’d likely to be one of our lowest TOG players like 65-70% high quality between bench and mid

Opening bounce I’d go with Laird Dawson and one of Rankine/ Rachele

Dawson I’d very occasionally rest forward for a chop out

Pedlar Soligo the others to get mid minutes …. Soligo prob starts on the wing

 

[50BC]

I like our backline better without Laird in it and reckon Laird is a good midfielder

Crouch I’d play in our secondary midfield rotation from the bench and he’d likely to be one of our lowest TOG players like 65-70% high quality between bench and mid

Opening bounce I’d go with Laird Dawson and one of Rankine/ Rachele

Dawson I’d very occasionally rest forward for a chop out

Pedlar Soligo the others to get mid minutes …. Soligo prob starts on the wing

I guess if we are gonna play Crouch that little you'd be hoping to sub him out late for a fresh running player

 

[Jcpdragonx]

crouch is not being subbed, he is clearly in our top 3 mid rotations.

 

[AFC979810]

I like our backline better without Laird in it and reckon Laird is a good midfielder

Crouch I’d play in our secondary midfield rotation from the bench and he’d likely to be one of our lowest TOG players like 65-70% high quality between bench and mid

Opening bounce I’d go with Laird Dawson and one of Rankine/ Rachele

Dawson I’d very occasionally rest forward for a chop out

Pedlar Soligo the others to get mid minutes …. Soligo prob starts on the wing

Opening bounce I would prefer to go with Laird, Crouch, Rachele. Dawson/Soligo pushing into the middle from the wing.

Rowell/Anderson completely dominated us in clearance work last time we played in Darwin so getting our hands on the pill first is vital. Laird / Crouch are by far most likely to get their hands on it first.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

crouch is not being subbed, he is clearly in our top 3 mid rotations.

Yep agree he will play full games but low time on ground % as he’s a midfielder and nothing else

He was playing 70% ish TOG end of last year and doing it very well

 

[AFC979810]

Yep agree he will play full games but low time on ground % as he’s a midfielder and nothing else

He was playing 70% ish TOG end of last year and doing it very well

Very interesting. That sounded low initially, but I checked it and you are correct.

It shows how massive of an impact he had the last 5 weeks of the year. In our last 5 games of the year - he was top 3 in possessions on the ground and he was in the bottom 4 non sub Crows for TOG in 4 of those games (the 5th he was 5th least Time on Ground).

 

[LoBu]

Opening bounce I would prefer to go with Laird, Crouch, Rachele. Dawson/Soligo pushing into the middle from the wing.

Rowell/Anderson completely dominated us in clearance work last time we played so getting our hands on the pill first is vital. Laird / Crouch are by far most likely to get their hands on it first.

Not the last time, you mean the Darwin game where they dominated.

On SM-S928B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[AFC979810]

Not the last time, you mean the Darwin game where they dominated.

On SM-S928B using BigFooty.com mobile app

Edited

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Very interesting. That sounded low initially, but I checked it and you are correct.

It shows how massive of an impact he had the last 5 weeks of the year. In our last 5 games of the year - he was top 3 in possessions on the ground and he was in the bottom 4 non sub Crows for TOG in 4 of those games (the 5th he was 5th least Time on Ground).

I think it’s the smart way to use him as he doesn’t have another position other than inside midfield and it means when he comes on he’s sharp and not gassed with his transition running

Also seems / looks super fit these days so is covering ground better

Just means we don’t have much drop off with our second rotation also and makes our first rotation more dynamic with a Rachele / Pedlar / Rankine type in at opening bounce with Laird and Dawson