Bruce, Hunter and JJ back make us a far better team because our bottom 6 all of a sudden look much stronger. Can't play all your depth i.e Scott, McNeil, Khamis, McComb and West and expect to match it with a top 4 team.
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Bruce, Hunter and JJ back make us a far better team because our bottom 6 all of a sudden look much stronger. Can't play all your depth i.e Scott, McNeil, Khamis, McComb and West and expect to match it with a top 4 team.
Lost too many Senior Assistants last year. Coupled with a restricted Football Dept Salary Cap (Caroline Wilson wrote about this in The Saturday Age) its harder to attract the right people for the roles. Remember how long it took to settle on Webb, in-terms of finding someone with experience?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullies
As for a solution for an Assistant, should the Foot Dept be expanded for next season: Leon Cameron?!?!
Bevo needs to be challenged in the inner sanctum. (All coaches have to). Can Chris Grant organise this?
Which Bruce? The 2020 unfit slow as a snail Bruce or the 2021 Bruce who had a mega pre-season?Quote:
Originally Posted by 1eyedog
Bruce is not a panacea to our ills and its negligent by the recruiting staff to rely on an ACL recovery player to underpin a forward structure
Why would it be negligent of the recruiting staff do you mean the MC or do you mean we should have drafted a ready made AFL key forward to take his spot for season 2022?Quote:
Originally Posted by FrediKanoute
Bruce will take time to integrate back into the group and may take longer to find touch but he has a solid backload of 150 games and 230 goals to his name. He makes us better. I'm not advocating for him to underpin anything he'll take time but his presence will help Naughton I think. It's been proven they work really well together. Bruce knows what he's doing and will be a far superior asset than Khamis. When fit he commands the best key defender because he's disciplined, has well-versed leading patterns and is a big body with genuine forward craft. He can also kick straight.
As for which Bruce we'll get 20/21 who knows difficult for anyone to postulate but he looks slim and eager.
He looks fit and ready to roll. No reason why he won't be the player we want him. Can't wait to have him back out there.
It would be good to have Bruce back in the forward line to give Naughton support
It will also allow Buku/JUH ato take the third tall
We just need to sort out the fwd leading patterns and protect space
I would like to see the small fwd more get into position when the ball drops
Not convinced the smaller should be flying for pack marks
Agreed. Fit Bruce gave us so much, and he is the ultimate booster.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMahatma
***bump***
I don't think the combination of Bont and Jacko is great for on field leadership, given both of these guys are major reasons for much of our malaise when we don't show up at the start of the game or adjust to really obvious trends in game.
We need to beef up our coaching ranks as well, and have had enough runway to do so.
Today there were so many instances of players being selfish and wanting to be the player to kick the football. I don't think I've ever seen so many players on the one side give each other sprays for not sharing the football in a single game, it was really obvious on the telecast with the multiple replays.
The players need to lift. Possibly the coaching does too but it's hard to tell.
On every metric, 2022 has been a miserable failure across all aspects of the footy dept. They have failed woefully to get even close to their on-public record expectations. It is akin to the massive failures of Geelong 2006 and Richmond 2016 - the only silver lining is that we are now forced to conduct the utterly necessary full-scale review of every single aspect of the footy dept, and give ourselves the chance to come away with a similar result in 2023 to the other above examples in 2007 and 2017 respectively.
There isn't a real problem with the playing list but I agree there are some questions that need to be asked about if our leaders are both setting and demanding the required standards.Quote:
Originally Posted by jeemak
An extra 500K in the footy department soft cap next won't go far but it's a start.
Perhaps one assistant, someone in the fitness area and a couple of part timers.
The most telling part will be making the correct decisions on the players who are de-listed and recruited.
If we get a first rounder for Dunkley, assuming he's gone, I want it split and actual role players found who have clear positional strengths and can allow us to stop playing the likes of Williams on the wing and Treloar in defence.Quote:
Originally Posted by GVGjr
Sure, we might get Duryea back but he's falling apart so we have a clear issue that needs to be addressed in defence outside of needing an intercepting defender.
I'm not confident Hunter will be there next year or if he is can get back to controlling one side of the ground from the wing.
It's easy to concentrate on our tall defencive issues, but we lack hardened and quality mid sized role players both forward and back at the moment.
I'll save a lot of the playing list comments for the list management thread but we have plenty of needs.Quote:
Originally Posted by jeemak
A good defensive minded defender, a young KPD and a bit more grunt and class around the middle of the ground wouldn't hurt.
As soon as we find out what is happening with a few unsigned players we can identify the real requirements.
Letting go of some players has typically been a challenge for us but we need to be prepared to let a couple of them go.
Along with beefing up the coaching and footy department, our list management decisions will be more critical than in the last few seasons.
Perhaps having our hand forced on a few of them will do the trick. Playing around the edges and moving on 18-28 listed players will only deliver marginal changes. Losing quality should enable us to recruit quality based on needs.Quote:
Originally Posted by GVGjr
Reading over my initial post, my opinions remain the same.
Mini plug I mentioned Lobb as a target, Hannan back and Williams to the wing ;)
I have to think about it more but I'm starting to wonder if our list is further back than I thought. Perhaps we need to hit the draft harder, which is a hard pill to swallow when we're coming off a GF and have key players in our history in their prime.
We haven't cut deep enough into this list. Martin, Crozier, McComb, McNeil, Butler, R Smith, Wallis I'd rather off the list.
Question marks on Dunkley, Hunter, Williams, JJ staying. Question marks on the ability of Cordy, Schache, West, Duryea (done?), Bruce (done?) TOB, Parker, Hannan, Sweet, Keath (done?). Could add a few others here.
We can't make the 7-10 changes the list needs. Given it DOES need it, are we actually anywhere near contention?
I hate to say it but I don't think we are, in which case it's hard to see the point of getting somebody like Lobb.