Daniel. He’s been practicing his jumping. He’s really getting some height now after the free advice.
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Hawks went ultra tall on the weekend: McEvoy, Reeves, Hartigan, Frost, DGB, O'Brien, Koschitzke, Lewis and Jeka. Subsequently, the ball got brought to ground and their mids and smaller forwards had very productive nights.
We regularly get murdered in contested marks (and marking in general the past month). We need MORE height, imo.
Young has to play.
Honestly the best way to go about this is to treat Ben Brown with the respect he deserves (none) and play a small defender on him. No one can stop when the ball gets put lace out to him so he can do that one thing he does (drop the mark and get paid a free kick because it looks so unco that the umpire thinks he couldn’t have possibly done it without being impeded), but we absolutely can make them hurt when the ball hits the ground.
Will allow us to play tighter and with more support on the actual threats.
The thread title and original post has now been updated to reflect the change in the fixture :)
We had a great win in Perth but ever since have looked cooked
I agree, however our opponents aren't looking great as well.
- Lions lost two in a row to sides outside of the 8
- Dees just drew with the Hawks
- Port lose to anyone in the 8
- Cats on a 3 game winning streak and looking really good but they got smashed before that
- Swans looked brilliant in last 3 but lost 2 more that
All looking a bit 3-2ish over the last 5 kind of form. Our game Sat Night will define how we are going at the moment.
I guess our opponent changes this up a bit.
Wood might be okay to play. I would definitely consider if the return isn't conditional to reduced TOG. Yeah a risk he might break down, but if it's just how his body is now, I would rather that risk than Crozier/Cordy.
In/ Woody, Lewy, Libba, Scott
Out/ Crozier, Zaine, Dunks, Roarke
I know we won't drop Zaine but yeah.
I had a look at the replay on the way the Hawks played Melbourne and I'm almost of the belief we need to go into the game with a very small forward line which would mean sending Naughton to the back line especially if there is a high chance of rain.
We should kick the ball low into the forward line in nearly every entry creating ground level contests negating May, Lever and Petty's strength of taking marks.
We won't do it mind you but before the finals I'd love to seem them tested like that.
FWIW, I'd consider Naughton and Keath minding the resting ruckman.
I am not sure what the current stats are, but up to (I think) Round 14 we had the meanest defense in the comp. Yep that defense included Crozier, Cordy and Gardner, all of whom seem to be constantly pilloried on this site. Maybe something has changed since those games. Perhaps its the backline, or more likely its the way the ball repeatedly comes so easily out of our forward 50, and rapidly transfers up the ground without pressure on the ball carriers.
There is certainly no lack of F50 entries in recent games, but it just doesn't seem to stay there, or get scored from.
Libba at the coalface will also restrict the oppositions first use clearance from stoppages as well.