Unofficial Preview Round 1, 2024: Bombers v Hawks, MCG 1:10pm Sat 16th March

[grumbleguts]

I like this side.

Backline - are there enough genuine defenders? not sure it has the right balance yet.
Fwdline - looks much better. Will take time to gel
Mids - looking good - one more dynamic x factor mid pls.

Seems a little Finn free.

 

[Sixpence]

Seems a little Finn free.

Are you saying it's un-finn-ished?

 

[The Messenger]

Frost plays in Round 1. The back 6 will be:

Frost Blank Hardwick
Weddle Sicily Impey

Scrimshaw will be the 7th defender.

I just think this line up provides a good balance of defence/attack and I think the old guys get first crack to lock in a spot. If Scrim can't rectify the areas he was asked to fix last year during preseason then I think CJ comes in as the 7th back.

 

[TylerDurden]

Frost. Jesus. Good luck.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Nah, the Frost era is over.

 

[KermitJagger]

Frost. Jesus. Good luck.

Must admit, I don't think there's much wrong with Frost when we're not conceding an ungodly amount of I50s.

He didn't look great when he played early last season but I'm willing to chalk that up to the league leading amount of clean inside 50s we allowed. He's no star, he's no player for the future, but we do have to get to the point where our performances can't be blamed on one guy.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

The Frost melts have begun in November. Brilliant.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Yeah just so much melting going on.

 

[lyger]

Must admit, I don't think there's much wrong with Frost when we're not conceding an ungodly amount of I50s.

He didn't look great when he played early last season but I'm willing to chalk that up to the league leading amount of clean inside 50s we allowed. He's no star, he's no player for the future, but we do have to get to the point where our performances can't be blamed on one guy.

Agree, in absence of a better option, I think Frosty still has a role to play next year. Will be very interesting to see how Blanck performs over the pre-season.

 

[MasterSamurai]

Frost man handles his opponent way too often, when balls in the air, doesn't follow the ball drop at all. His size isn't the issue as he's a kpd size , seems strong enough and definitely quick enough to compete with kpf's but it just doesn't suit his game to be playing as a kpd. Also, it doesn't help that he's quite average with ball in hand unfortunately. Let's hope he has a better season once he gets his chance this year.

 

[barbster]

Would play DGB over Frost.

 

[threesixpio]

The Frost melts have begun in November. Brilliant.

It snow joke he’s done ok

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

It snow joke he’s done ok

Always gets an icey reception.

 

[tommyk72]

Frost gives away a couple of goals a game through ill discipline and poor skills. The negating he does on bigger bodies is off set by those elements, and the way he leaves us exposed with his inability to keep the ball in our possession coming out of 50.

Didn’t have a role in the great end to last year, so I don’t see him having a role at the start of 2024. There’s no coincidence the points against started going down when he went out of the team.

 

[Iceman!]

Would play DGB over Frost.

sure if he improves over the summer, on exposed form absolutely not.

 

[FB19]

Frost has a role to play but it will be matchup and injury driven I don’t think he’s in the starting 23.

 

[SSSSSS]

We went ahead with Scrimshaw as our KPP with Blanck over Frost late in the season last year.

I will be very surprised if Frost plays more than 10-12 games next season.

 

[threesixpio]

I’ll go early:

Hardwick Blank Seamus

Jiath Sicily Weddle


Amon Newcombe Ward

Day Worpel Reeves


Moore Chol Ginnivan

Wizard Lewis Bruest



Impey, Nash, CMac1, MacGuiness

Sub: CMac2


Depth

Denver, B MacDonald, Butler, OSullivan, Gunner, Hustwaite, Scrimshaw, Morrison, Frost, McCabe, Ramsden, Meek

CMac2 and Morrison to fight over spot. Ward to make the wing his own. McCabe to breathe down the neck of Blank. Frost to back up if both go down. Hustwaite, Scrimmerz and Seamus to battle it out for a backline position. Butler to fight like hell against Wizard and Ginnivan. Gunner and Denver also trying to edge in. Ramsden and Meek fighting like hell against Chol\Reeves for either first or second ruck

We have depth people

 

[cs61]

I’ll go early:

Hardwick Blank Seamus

Jiath Sicily Weddle


Amon Newcombe Ward

Day Worpel Reeves


Moore Chol Ginnivan

Wizard Lewis Bruest



Impey, Nash, CMac1, MacGuiness

Sub: CMac2


Depth

Denver, B MacDonald, Butler, OSullivan, Gunner, Hustwaite, Scrimshaw, Morrison, Frost, McCabe, Ramsden, Meek

CMac2 and Morrison to fight over spot. Ward to make the wing his own. McCabe to breathe down the neck of Blank. Frost to back up if both go down. Hustwaite, Scrimmerz and Seamus to battle it out for a backline position. Butler to fight like hell against Wizard and Ginnivan. Gunner and Denver also trying to edge in. Ramsden and Meek fighting like hell against Chol\Reeves for either first or second ruck

We have depth people

Decent effort.

Selections will be interesting with the influx of forwards. Will be some good players missing each week. I think all of Watson, Breust, CMac, Ginnivan, Moore look like they should be round 1 starters, but not often we play that many small forwards at once. Gunston and Ramsden offer some height and put pressure on the opposition in different ways by having more height and structure. I think we might be playing 4-5 of Reeves, Lewis, Chol, Gunston, Ramsden each week.

 

[threesixpio]

Decent effort.

Selections will be interesting with the influx of forwards. Will be some good players missing each week. I think all of Watson, Breust, CMac, Ginnivan, Moore look like they should be round 1 starters, but not often we play that many small forwards at once. Gunston and Ramsden offer some height and put pressure on the opposition in different ways by having more height and structure. I think we might be playing 4-5 of Reeves, Lewis, Chol, Gunston, Ramsden each week.

Yeah need another tall probably in my line up

 

[naysayer]

Decent effort.

Selections will be interesting with the influx of forwards. Will be some good players missing each week. I think all of Watson, Breust, CMac, Ginnivan, Moore look like they should be round 1 starters, but not often we play that many small forwards at once. Gunston and Ramsden offer some height and put pressure on the opposition in different ways by having more height and structure. I think we might be playing 4-5 of Reeves, Lewis, Chol, Gunston, Ramsden each week.

I agree with you, the players who may struggle to get picked across all lines are the ones who haven't developed a secondary role. CMac and Moore have the ability to play between the arcs, Chol and Ramsden have the ruck, Gunston and DGB can both play down back.

My starting forward line looks like:
Gunston - Lewis - Breust
CMac - Chol - Moore

But the exciting thing is we have so many highly talented players who could cement a place this year.
Ginnivan
Watson
Denver
Butler
Ramsden

 

[Tony3163]

Decent effort.

Selections will be interesting with the influx of forwards. Will be some good players missing each week. I think all of Watson, Breust, CMac, Ginnivan, Moore look like they should be round 1 starters, but not often we play that many small forwards at once. Gunston and Ramsden offer some height and put pressure on the opposition in different ways by having more height and structure. I think we might be playing 4-5 of Reeves, Lewis, Chol, Gunston, Ramsden each week.

Amon will be on HBF.

 

[burner1]

Yep - despite the coaches, the player and training watchers saying Amon will be hbf people keep naming him on wing.

The mix of talls down back will be interesting. I reckon frost is still a better FB than Blanck - but is very poor in a 2nd tall role. Scrim did okay as a tall late in season but wouldn’t be surprised if serong pushes past - he’s a more natural defender.

Forward mix is also interesting. We have a lot of options but an optimal mix is hard to pick. Complicated further by Hardwick training with forwards. Forward pressure looks the obvious issue on paper. With a new faces wouldn’t be surprised if takes a while for forward mix to click and we try a few different set ups over first half of season.

We have a few guys like C MacDonald and C Mackenzie who’s re arguably best 22 on talent but without a clear set position.

There’s also generally a few new faces for round 1.

 

[Dewnior]

A lot has changed with us since Round 1 last year.

Of course, that was over 20 months ago

 

[Dewnior]

It’s really not that big of a problem, and I feel like the clubs interest in McKay has completely spooked Hawthorn supporters into feeling like we’ve got some grand issue in the back half with key backs, when we do not.

We wanted McKay to come onto the list as a transition or upgrade from Frost according to McCartney, but we’re also comfortable with our back group. Would we like to improve it? Of course, that can be said for every area of the ground, but it doesn’t mean the defense is a major concern.

Just look at how we handled the talls of the Lions, Dogs, Pies and Saints in the back half of the year and you’ll see that we’ve got an improving system. Most of those sides got the better of us, if at all, from goal kicking mids and smalls.

Agree. We just need Blanck to come on. He absolutely has it in him to replicate what Balta did at the Tigers. It's really all between the ears for him, he just has to believe.

And if it happens, it instills so much confidence and creates so many possibilities for the backline.