Our biggest challenges for Beveridge in 2016

[GVGjr]

I think most of us would agree we had a terrific 2015 season. Exciting and winning football and a final was probably above our expectations at the start of the year.

It got me thinking about how we can maintain that type of form for next season and the challenges that will come our way throughout the 2016 season.

Challenge #1 - The hunters will become the hunted.
I think we caught a few teams early in the season by surprise and it got us off to a fast start but in 2016 I think all teams will be better prepared for us. They will have a look at the way we set-up defensively and try and work out ways to counter it. They will also have a closer look at ways our dynamic midfield can be curbed.

How Beveridge and the coaches counter vastly better prepared opposition coaches?

Challenge #2 - Providing opportunities for our younger players
The depth of our playing list is possibly the best I have seen in 20 years. We have a pretty good best 22 but we also have another 10 guys that could easily make claims for spots in the best 22 and on top of that we have have a few youngsters that could also push for spots. When you have the likes of McLean, Campbell, Hrovat, Honeychurch, Daniel, Dale, Biggs, Roberts, Jong, Webb, Cordy, Adcock, Minson and Redpath who aren't necessarily in our best 22 I don't think we can question the depth of our squad.
Having that sort of depth does pose a number of challenges especially given we have a number of experienced players likely to leave by the end of the 2016.

How does Beveridge continue to develop the playing list and provide enough opportunities for our younger players?

Challenge #3 - How do we best set-up our rucks
If I had a criticism of LB in 2015 was the way he played funny buggers with our rucking throughout the season.
Minson was sent to Coventry, A.Cordy given and extended run at and then de-listed at the end of the year and Campbell struggled a bit throughout the season but his best was pretty good. Players like Jong and Bontempelli chip in and help as midfielders who are used as 3rd men up and Boyd and Redpath are often the players who provide a chop out.
This year the plan appears to use Roughead as the number #1 ruckman and a lot of seasons fortunes could rest on how that decision pans out. As a ruckman Roughead intrigues me, he has a great leap and decent mobility but offers little when used in the forward line. There is also a question on his durability. Minson can handle the job but I think LB wants a more mobile option. Campbell appears to me as the best option so hopefully he has an injury free preseason.

How should we set-up our rucks this season? Who provides the chop outs?


I've listed just 3 challenges and I'd be interested to hear your views on those and if there are others to consider.

[Ghost Dog]

These are good points GvGjr.
Living up to expectations and keeping everyone happy. I have read that some will be satisfied if we hold our position on the ladder, but a lot of our rusted on crew are getting quite old now, and the supporters are really keen to get some silverware. With this many quality players, it will be very hard to keep a lid on it. A second year coach, carrying an enormous weight of expectation.

The Talia saga exposed some player dissatisfaction that may or may not have led to some poor decision making. Ensuring that this many quality players are engaged, and involved, not running amuck and doing stupid things might be a concern, because not everyone is going to be getting games. We have a heap of depth.

[always right]

I think Bevo will simply do what he did last season. If you play well in the VFL you'll be given opportunities at the expense of those whose form drops off. What a great position to be in.

As for our ruckmen, Roughy looks to be our preferred option and whilst he adds little when he goes forward, he will give great support to our defenders. Neither Minson or Campbell do this.

Whilst opposition coaches will do their homework on our game plan....which game plan? Bevo has made statements that we need to evolve our style further after Adelaide exposed some flaws in the final. You know he won't be content to just do more of the same.

[bulldogtragic]

How we stop Jarrad Grant when we play the GCS.

Also, how to deal with younger players confidence, development and expectation. Port players last year by the account of Hinkley took things a little too easy sometimes, 'believing the hype' and expectation natural development would take them to the next level. Some of their kids probably didn't kick on as hoped for. If Bonts, Macrae, Stringer, T. Boyd and other contemporaries can put the preseason and full season application in Bevo might not need worry too much. But keeping them in the right head space and team requirements is what he did well this year, so in Bevo I trust.

He will also need to manage 'Dads Backline Army'. Those guys can't play full years and I think Bevo has said something like that. If he can manage them a couple of games off during the year at seperate points, that takes the pressure off the backline team from week to week. Or younger guys take the spot on form and don't give it back.

How to play numerous big or inside mids. Libba, Wally, Stevens, Jong, Smith etc, etc. - that's a lot of inside types. So he might need to have a gameplan with a role for them as he seems to love flexibility and similar types to have numerous roles.

Make some hard calls next post season. He was true to his public comments in wanting to make minimal changes with his belief in the group. But if we do well again, all 4 older guys may want to stay and trades and/or free agents might want in and fringe types might just have to be cut. Will be tough making the calls with our core players hitting around 100 games in 2017 (ie. good likelihood of success) but he and JMac are up for it.

Keep being awesome.

[F'scary]

Great thread GVGjr

Challenge #1 Becoming the Hunted: Try to find a genuine lead-up & kick-to-position CHF among the obvious candidates on the list. I don't mean Stringer or Crameri, I mean someone from the likes of Redpath, Roberts, Hamling or Adams or perhaps best choice of all, former star centre half forward...Bob Murphy! Last year, as it seems to me, we created a game plan that deliberately avoided CHF by a) switching the play, often patiently and sometimes to open the centre corridor, often to go round the outside to HFF; b) fast breaks using lots of handball that aimed to make centre or forward of centre before the longer pass or bomb to position deeper in the forward line was attempted; c) holding up the play and looking to lateralise into the centre corridor within the square to then go deep. All of these methods involved the backline pushing up higher than most teams dare but we were exposed a few times in the year, including the EF. This year, if we can have a Riewoldt approach to playing CHF, it may offer alternatives for moving the ball upfield that we didn't have last year. Easier said than done but Bevo is something of a miracle worker.

Another thing we will have to look out for is countering of our run and spread from stop plays (marks, frees). Teams will try dirty tactics to slow us down, we need to be ready.

Challenge #2 Opportunities for young players: This might not be as great a problem as it may seem. In 2015, if you rank our players by games played for the season, you find our first 22 played 390 games out of the total 506 available (includes EF), averaging 17.7 games. The second 22 (players ranked 23-44 on the list by games played) played a total 116 games averaging 5.3 games. What is more, focusing on the core group and not outliers (such as out-all-season injured players and 1 game rookies, etc), we see that players ranked 23-38 (a count of 14 players) played 110 games between them at an average of 7.9 games.

Still, given the strength of the list, retiring Morris and Boyd at the end of 2016 to open up opportunities and retain emerging players may be more likely than if we had a weak list.

Challenge #3 Ruck Set Up: The key is if Tom Boyd can successfully play 2nd ruck for 5 minutes per quarter so the first ruck can go to the bench, I think we can go with best fit, best form from the 3 rucks we have on our list. I actually think they are not a bad trio to choose from for the 1st ruck position.

[GVGjr]

He will also need to manage 'Dads Backline Army'. Those guys can't play full years and I think Bevo has said something like that. If he can manage them a couple of games off during the year at seperate points, that takes the pressure off the backline team from week to week. Or younger guys take the spot on form and don't give it back.

That was going to be my 4th Challenge. Morris, Murphy and M.Boyd will need 3 games off during the season perhaps even a 4th. I suspect that's one of the reasons why Adcock was a target of ours because he can play a defensive role and possibly cover Boyd and Murphy.

Also, how to deal with younger players confidence, development and expectation. Port players last year by the account of Hinkley took things a little too easy sometimes, 'believing the hype' and expectation natural development would take them to the next level. Some of their kids probably didn't kick on as hoped for. If Bonts, Macrae, Stringer, T. Boyd and other contemporaries can put the preseason and full season application in Bevo might not need worry too much. But keeping them in the right head space and team requirements is what he did well this year, so in Bevo I trust.

I'm not as concerned about the potential for over confidence to set in because of the fact we fell away late in the season and lost a final. There is plenty of incentive for the younger players to keep improving. What I gave LB a big tick for last season was the way he was prepared to drop the likes of Crameri and Macrae until they demonstrated the right type of form.
In short I think we have the depth within the playing group to keep the better players motivated.

[Ghost Dog]

Hope he keeps the selections as entertaining as it was last year. Had no idea who he was going to bring in for a while there.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

The big challenges would seem to come in our ruck division and attack.
Will Roughead be physically capable of being our number one ruck man given his shoulder injuries in the past?
Will Tom Liberatore quickly become the elite midfielder following missing the entire 2015 season?
What can we expect from Tom Boyd in 2016?
Can we expect the same dominance from Wood and has been mentioned the aging bodies of Murphy M Boyd and Morris?
Stringer Dickson and Dahlhaus were standouts in attack, can we be confident of it continuing.
These are some of the challenges IMO that will go a long way if successful to move us into the top 4 of the competition and ultimately a flag contender.

[ledge]

Personally I thought we started off slow and I think it will be a different selection process this year as he obviously gave games to players who had been on the list a few years and it was time to see what he had on his list whether they stayed or went (Cordy)
He knows his list now after a year and I don't think that will happen again.

[GVGjr]

The big challenges would seem to come in our ruck division and attack.
Will Roughead be physically capable of being our number one ruck man given his shoulder injuries in the past?
Will Tom Liberatore quickly become the elite midfielder following missing the entire 2015 season?
What can we expect from Tom Boyd in 2016?
Can we expect the same dominance from Wood and has been mentioned the aging bodies of Murphy M Boyd and Morris?
Stringer Dickson and Dahlhaus were standouts in attack, can we be confident of it continuing.
These are some of the challenges IMO that will go a long way if successful to move us into the top 4 of the competition and ultimately a flag contender.

Great questions, and I will try and answer a couple of them

- I'm not expecting Liberatore to be in our first round game and I think it's likely he will be a late starter to the season. I have modest expectations for Libba in 2016.

- In my opinion Roughead should be our FB having the occasional run in the ruck to support Campbell.

- Boyd's main focus in 2016 is to establish himself as our key forward and play 15 games plus. It's going to take another season before we start to see what he is capable of. 30 goals in 2016 would be a positive outcome.

- Wood won't be given the same space he enjoyed in 2016 in fact teams will focus on the whole defensive unit to see how they can curb the drive it provided the team. It's going to be most interesting to see how we counter that.

- I'm confident our forward line can still be productive and a nightmare for opposition teams but it does hinge a bit on Crameri's availability.

[Remi Moses]

Keeping it simple
3. maintaining an attitude, and not getting ahead of themselves
2. No inuries to major players
1. Handling expectation.

Great thread G

[stefoid]

The answer to 2 and 3 is the same - play the best performing players

[Ghost Dog]

One Challenge for Bevo is getting us enough games at the G.
Think of all the luck and good management you need to get to the final, only to underperform by being not familiar with the ground. Like the Eagles. Can you say they were THAT much worse than Hawthorn? I think they just capitulated on the day.
Is it possible to get practice matches at the G? I want our young group to be familiar with the ground, but with our fixture it's not possible.

[GVGjr]

One Challenge for Bevo is getting us enough games at the G.
Think of all the luck and good management you need to get to the final, only to underperform by being not familiar with the ground. Like the Eagles. Can you say they were THAT much worse than Hawthorn? I think they just capitulated on the day.
Is it possible to get practice matches at the G? I want our young group to be familiar with the ground, but with our fixture it's not possible.

While I get the point you are making I don't think the draw is within his control for next season nor is getting practice games.

[bornadog]

I agree with everyone's thoughts on the challenges facing Bevo for 2016.

The biggest challenge we have is how do we improve and go one better in 2016. This will be the expectation of supporters, the media and the FFC Board of directors. The pressure will be on in 2016 and Bevo needs to manage the expectations and the added pressure that brings on him and the players.

It is going to be an exciting year and a very interesting season.