Thanks, be interesting to see how this unfolds
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Add in Dickson fully fit and ready to go, and we'd look a lot better on paper heading into round one.
Sure we've dropped the ball in a lot of ways, but not being able to get a settled team resembling our best on the park consistently over the last couple of years has really hurt us.
Wait for the media narrative next week claiming us to be virtually at full strength too. Happens all the time with us, but with Essendon and Collingwood one of their injured players seem to be worth 2-3 of every other teams.
Naughton to stay forward
The Western Bulldogs will persist with playing developing tall Aaron Naughton as a forward in Round 1, as they attempt to find a spike in scoring.
Naughton showed promising signs in the Dogs’ JLT Community Series match against St Kilda recently, kicking three goals and providing a strong target.
Despite a knee injury to experienced defender Dale Morris, senior coach Luke Beveridge will deploy the 19-year-old in attack against the Swans at Marvel Stadium.
“You’ve got to win games, you can’t save them from the start,” Beveridge told SEN Breakfast.
“We see Aaron (Naughton) at the moment as a promising key forward and he’s got all the attributes that tell us that there’s a big chance that he’s going to be a significantly influential player down there - we’d like to persist with that.”
Depending on the make-up of the opposition, and the state of each game, the Bulldogs will be able to use Naughton at either end of the ground.
“At the moment, we’d like Aaron to play forward and at different times you come up against some threatening key forwards who you have to cater for,” Beveridge said.
“But if it happens in a game that we’re going down a path where we’re struggling back there and we can move Aaron back, that’s always an option.
“There are always contingencies, but we’ve got to find a way to score and in the four years that I’ve coached, we haven’t been able to piece together any uniformity for various reasons.”
Then why play him back in JLT1?
Their forward plans didn't work as they would have liked in JLT1 so they tried something different in JLT2? That's what the pre-season comp is for after all.
I'm open to them trying it, horses for courses depending on the opposition and state of the game. Interesting to see if a) Roberts or Young will come in, or b) Trengove goes back, or c) we go with an undersized backline. I'm betting on c (not my preferred option).
Well that'll teach him for showing any sort of nouse up forward. We're now going to 'Chris Grant' him at the ripe old age of 19.
Not much of an expression of confidence in the other forwards on the list though at least we know the coaches share everyone else's concerns about where the hell our goals are going to come from.
Naughton to stay forward
The Western Bulldogs will persist with playing developing tall Aaron Naughton as a forward in Round 1, as they attempt to find a spike in scoring.
Naughton showed promising signs in the Dogs’ JLT Community Series match against St Kilda recently, kicking three goals and providing a strong target.
Despite a knee injury to experienced defender Dale Morris, senior coach Luke Beveridge will deploy the 19-year-old in attack against the Swans at Marvel Stadium.
“You’ve got to win games, you can’t save them from the start,” Beveridge told SEN Breakfast.
“We see Aaron (Naughton) at the moment as a promising key forward and he’s got all the attributes that tell us that there’s a big chance that he’s going to be a significantly influential player down there - we’d like to persist with that.”
Depending on the make-up of the opposition, and the state of each game, the Bulldogs will be able to use Naughton at either end of the ground.
“At the moment, we’d like Aaron to play forward and at different times you come up against some threatening key forwards who you have to cater for,” Beveridge said.
“But if it happens in a game that we’re going down a path where we’re struggling back there and we can move Aaron back, that’s always an option.
“There are always contingencies, but we’ve got to find a way to score and in the four years that I’ve coached, we haven’t been able to piece together any uniformity for various reasons.”
We also have to stop goals. Losing Morris and essentially losing Naughton to the forward line our defence will be very light on. Don't like moving Naughton forward, at his age I'd rather he learn his craft in his natural position rather than pinch hit him forward. I should have expected this though, our coach doesn't want to play anyone to their strengths since 2016.
Nahhh, it'll be fine.
We have Trengove who can go back ... provided nine-gamer English can stay intact in the meat grinder as our #1 ruck.
Or there's Roberts ... who has two arms and two legs.
Or there's Lewy Young ... who was last spotted flying over the Bermuda triangle.
Or there's Cordy ... as long as he doesn't have to stand any gorillas.
Or there's the likes of Wood, Crozier and Duryea who'll need weekly counselling after regularly standing blokes a foot taller than them.
Or there's last-line-of-defence-specialist Caleb Daniel.
See? Nothing to worry about.
With Morris out, Naughton to forward, Mclean to play forward then here is another go:
B. Suckling Cordy Duryea
HB Wood Trengrove Crozier
C. Hunter Macrae Richards
HF. Lloyd Schache Maclean
F. Wallis Naughton Dunkley
R. English Bontempelli Liberatore
Int. Daniel, Williams, Dickson, Gowers