Integration of new players?

[Dry Rot]

Anyone else a bit nervous about fitting 5 "new" players into the side come rd1?

[alwaysadog]

Anyone else a bit nervous about fitting 5 "new" players into the side come rd1?

Who's the fiifth? Aker, Doogs, Bob and Darce are all I can recall. Picking them all for round one certainly allows us to confront some of the key issues early on.

They will all take a while to get to their best, but Aker will still be worth his place immediately because he is a smart and highly skilled player with great vision, provided his body is sound.

Bob Murphy appears to be ready although whether there are any lingering doubts in his mind is an issue.

Darce has a strong mind but he can't be sure about the knee. If it holds up then he will soon get his confidence back. It would be nice to see him mark strongly in a pack during the first 1/4.

Doogs is more of an imponderable for me. If we go on exposed form so far then you would expect him to play sufficiently well to justify his place and to build form and confidence over the next month or so.

I can see why we didn't chase other potential targets, like Whitnal but waited till someone like Doogs became available. He offers more long term, genuine big at 197cm and a developed frame, has pace, reasonable endurance and pretty good skills. Just needs a bit of TLC and a team environment that is accepting of him.

While practice form is not a complete guide all have justified their places. I'm not so worried about the new guys as I am about the absence of Harris and Grant.

It will IMHO be more a test of our midfields ability to shut down their runners and therby prevent the ball being delivered into the Cats forward fifty with speed and precision.

In the NAB cup semi final that is exactly what the Lions were able to do and Geelong struggled to score all night.

[bornadog]

I think Doogs will play CHB if Mooney plays CHF and Wight will go to Ottens. Will be an interesting backline without Harris and Grant.

[GVGjr]

I think Doogs will play CHB if Mooney plays CHF and Wight will go to Ottens. Will be an interesting backline without Harris and Grant.

I tend to agree that there is a big chance of Doogs playing in defence and Eade going in with the small forward set-up again

[alwaysadog]

I tend to agree that there is a big chance of Doogs playing in defence and Eade going in with the small forward set-up again

Probably spend quite a bit of time there but I doubt Eade will play static position football.

Also suspect that at the first bounce he will line the team up differently to his intentions for the day to try to catch Bomber snoozing.

[bornadog]

Probably spend quite a bit of time there but I doubt Eade will play static position football.

Also suspect that at the first bounce he will line the team up differently to his intentions for the day to try to catch Bomber snoozing.

Spot on, the starting line up was very different with both West and Cross not playing in the centre, Darcy on the bench. He sure threw them around a bit for most of the day. We even had the short forward line going for awhile there.

[alwaysadog]

Spot on, the starting line up was very different with both West and Cross not playing in the centre, Darcy on the bench. He sure threw them around a bit for most of the day. We even had the short forward line going for awhile there.

Yes bornadog that is what our current depth allows us to do, we can be flexible and unpredictable without detracting from our strengths.

We can now play in a variety of ways and that not only makes matching up on us difficult but provides us with a variety of ways to maintain momentum and the initiative.