Brian's Back

[MrMahatma]

Welcome back, Brian!

Great to see him chirpy and smiling again. Fingers' crossed for a massive year from the big guy.

[LostDoggy]

I loved it when one of the interviewers quizzed him on his mental toughness in playing through injuries, and although you could see him bear up slightly, he really rolled with the punch and just reiterated all the times he had played with painkillers, and just put the bloke right in his place, I thought. No better way to show up a journo than highlight a lack of research.

You could tell that was the question he wanted to be asked so he could clear it up and tell his side of the story.

[bornadog]

Good game (half) from Brian, he looked like his old self tonight.

[jeemak]

I'm not so sure we are heaping too much expectation on him but I think we should be getting excited about the possibility of having a back line of a fit and in form Lake and Hargrave and the arrival of Morris in the not too distant future.
Lake, Williams, Morris and Hargrave are great building blocks that can be topped up by the likes of Wood, Howard, Veszpremi and Markovic.
Getting Lake back to somewhere near his best is vital for us this season.

It's such a shame we're back to not having all our talls fit, or approaching fitness. I fear that even with Lake working back towards match fitness and potentially his best that we're still massively exposed due to Morris still being a huge uncertainty and Williams being out for around 12 weeks of the home and away season.

In a list transition period your backline is desperately important. I hope neither Williams or Morris miss a beat in their recovery, because one more injury to a tall in the first half of the season would be disasterous.

[ledge]

It's such a shame we're back to not having all our talls fit, or approaching fitness. I fear that even with Lake working back towards match fitness and potentially his best that we're still massively exposed due to Morris still being a huge uncertainty and Williams being out for around 12 weeks of the home and away season.

In a list transition period your backline is desperately important. I hope neither Williams or Morris miss a beat in their recovery, because one more injury to a tall in the first half of the season would be disasterous.

Its only one tall who is injured and we have Markovic to cover Williams, not a bad replacement, if we lose another, even with Williams gone we are still going to find it hard to give Cordy, Minson and Roughead all a game at once.
Cordy has already been mentioned as one who could play CHB

Apart from that have you seen our Rookie list?
Campbell I think is a deadset gun ready to go
Redpath from what I have seen goes well.

We are in a better position than most i would think if we had another tall go down

[Sockeye Salmon]

Its only one tall who is injured and we have Markovic to cover Williams, not a bad replacement, if we lose another, even with Williams gone we are still going to find it hard to give Cordy, Minson and Roughead all a game at once.
Cordy has already been mentioned as one who could play CHB

Apart from that have you seen our Rookie list?
Campbell I think is a deadset gun ready to go
Redpath from what I have seen goes well.

We are in a better position than most i would think if we had another tall go down

Dale Morris is also out. The only rookie with AFL experience is Austin who is also out. The rest haven't played a game between them.

If we lose another best 22 tall we are in big trouble.

[ledge]

Dale Morris is also out. The only rookie with AFL experience is Austin who is also out. The rest haven't played a game between them.

If we lose another best 22 tall we are in big trouble.

Morris is a tall?
Im confused he said tall, I was talking Talls, Cordy has played.
Just because the others havent played makes them no good?
Look at Tutts first game and Dahlhaus, we could all name heaps who come in and make an impact straight away.
Its called grabbing the bull by the horns, one might come in and be better than the old guard straight away, if your not going to move on where are you headed?
My point is we dont lack talls who COULD do the job.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

We haven't got the luxury of being able to cover our better players, particularly in the form of a Morris. Williams is a big blow too, even though I don't consider him in our top 10. Structurally speaking, he's up there though.

I'm not overly disappointed despite these injuries because it allows us to develop (and test out) a few of our younger types. It forces us to fast track 'em in a year where we were never going to challenge, anyway.

Not ideal, but there is an upside.

[Greystache]

We haven't got the luxury of being able to cover our better players, particularly in the form of a Morris. Williams is a big blow too, even though I don't consider him in our top 10. Structurally speaking, he's up there though.

I'm not overly disappointed despite these injuries because it allows us to develop (and test out) a few of our younger types. It forces us to fast track 'em in a year where we were never going to challenge, anyway.

Not ideal, but there is an upside.

Agree. The biggest issue we have with Morris out is we really lack someone who can play on the dangerous small forwards, Betts carving us up early last week really highlighted that. We have some creative halfbacks, a solid number of key defenders, but are very limited in small shutdown defenders. Hargrave is probably our next in line given it's not Murphy's strength and we would miss his creativity if he played that role regularly, and I'm not sure Shaggy is a great option.

[jeemak]

Ledge I consider Morris to be a tall, as he can play that way when required.

The reason why I think we can ill afford to be left wanting for taller options in our back six is because I think that area of the ground is going to see a lot of footy due to our other issues across the ground and the fact we're in a development phase.

Getting experience in to players is great, of course, but throwing them to the wolves can be tough on their deveopment.

[ledge]

I think our biggest problem in the back line is stopping opposition smalls, we need another Picken.

[Mantis]

I think our biggest problem in the back line is stopping opposition smalls, we need another Picken.

But is Picken a good small defender? I would have thought he is better suited up the field.

[jeemak]

But is Picken a good small defender? I would have thought he is better suited up the field.

I'm hoping Picken can add another string to his bow rather than just being a stopper, and soon. He's shown glimpses of what he can do in different roles, but through opportunity probably hasn't been able to demonstrate other strengths consistently.

I don't think he's what we need in defense either.

[ledge]

But is Picken a good small defender? I would have thought he is better suited up the field.

Thats why we need another Picken he is a great tagger.

[Mantis]

Thats why we need another Picken he is a great tagger.

We need another Morris, not another Picken.