Current depth of the playing list

[Dancin' Douggy]

DEPTH AT THE BULLDOGS.

I’ve been following the bulldogs for a looooooong time like many people here on woof.

I don’t believe I can recall us ever having so much depth of talent before.

Nathan Burke rued our lack of ‘superstars’, and then we went on to win a flag.
We did have stars, they were just too young to be considered stars yet.
And I believe our list has improved since then. I MEAN NAUGHTON JUST WIPES THE FLOOR with all of the following. Hamling, Fletcher, Dad, The specimen…..etc. And let’s face it, Richards is a class above Dalhaus…… several postcodes of class actually. Dalhaus was a much loved and committed player but he totally stank last year. TOTALLY. And Stringer of course is one of the players who WAS a young superstar in the making. Gowers is now doing pretty much what Stringer was for us then………….with a little less ‘sizzle’ of course.

I’m optimistic that we are close to doing it again. A flag I mean.

As I try and name the best 22 for 2019, there are certain positions that are easy to lock down, but there are some positions that have a ‘conga line’ of applicants. A conga line of seriously capable players.

I must admit a lot of my optimism revolves around Tim English, a player I believe will be THE dominant ruckman for the next decade. We simply have to keep him. He releases Boyd and Trengove to be key position players. And suddenly we have a strong solid structure end to end.

So here’s my starting 22.

WOOD. NAUGHTON. MORRIS.

JOHANISSEN. TRENGOVE. SUCKLING.

HUNTER. LIBERATORE. RICHARDS.

MACLEAN. BOYD. LLOYD

GOWERS. SCHACHE. DICKSON.

FOLL. ENGLISH. BONTEMPELLI. MACRAE.

INT. Wow……….where do you start?
HERE GOES.

INT. DANIEL. WALLIS. DUNKLEY. CORDY.

Now naming that bench wasn’t easy because here’s the players who I believe all have a legitimate claim to a senior spot. Most of these players would walk into a senior AFL team

DURYEA, (Premiership player……. Proven performer at senior level, certainly no weak link in the chain if he gets named)
CROZIER, (Just got better and better for us last year. maybe deserves the half back flank spot over Suckling, but Suckling was playing so well before his Achilles I’ve given Suckling the gig., Crozier is easily good enough to make the 22, maybe over Cordy, but Cordy has the height).
PICKEN. Walk up starting 18 in a normal world, but after a year out……..probably needs a run in the seconds for a month (ish). And I do worry about him playing at all, for his own sake.
BAILEY WILLIAMS. A genuine talent, but who does he replace?.........Another one in the line for Sucklings spot.
BRAD LYNCH Ditto. A genuine talent, but who does he replace?.........Another one in the line for Sucklings spot.
BAILEY DALE. Showed some big signs at the end of 2017. Seemed to be an emerging leader to me, 2018 wrecked by injuries……..but another proven senior contributor knocking on the door.
BAILEY SMITH. Probably not a straight up start with the Achilles………..but probably good enough to force his way in somehow when fully fit. Once again…….. who does he force out.
LIPINSKI. Looks a very good long term prospect
JONG. Can hold his own at senior level.
And maybe even FERGUS GREENE. Who really showed some signs towards the end of last year.

FLETCHER ROBERTS and ROURKE SMITH both have senior experience and though they’re probably both unlikely to be on the list next year they can perform a role at senior level.


That’s some serious depth.

[Mofra]

We have depth in the running types, not so much with talls but it was our running depth last year which was a serious problem in the middle of the season.

Trengove has trained all summer with the rucks and played his best football last year as a ruck. He's no CHB, Cordy will be.
I'm not sure we see Boyd at all this year sadly, and with Schache English & Trengove there's no place in the best 22 for him anyway.

Crozier plays.

[Dancin' Douggy]

We have depth in the running types, not so much with talls but it was our running depth last year which was a serious problem in the middle of the season.

Trengove has trained all summer with the rucks and played his best football last year as a ruck. He's no CHB, Cordy will be.
I'm not sure we see Boyd at all this year sadly, and with Schache English & Trengove there's no place in the best 22 for him anyway.

Crozier plays.

I'm not sure I agree with your assessment of Trengove.
He won a best and fairest at Port Adelaide as an (and I quote from the AFL season guide 2012) ..."elite defender who can help out in the ruck"

All the descriptions of him around his draft and early years were of him being a key defender.

I think he's playing ruck for us simply because Bevo didn't rate any of our other ruckmen.
At 197 cm he's not really tall enough to compete with the genuine ruckmen out there long term..

I think he's just a finger in the dike 'til English is ready to take over. A bit of footy polyfilla.
I think he would be great as a permanent CHB. I also think Cordy is slightly too short and lean to be that big key defender.

I do agree with you that Crozier should play, but who do you kick out for him?

Maybe Boyd is the one who won't be playing?

[hujsh]

I'm not sure I agree with your assessment of Trengove.
He won a best and fairest at Port Adelaide as an (and I quote from the AFL season guide 2012) ..."elite defender who can help out in the ruck"

All the descriptions of him around his draft and early years were of him being a key defender.

I think he's playing ruck for us simply because Bevo didn't rate any of our other ruckmen.
At 197 cm he's not really tall enough to compete with the genuine ruckmen out there long term..

I think he's just a finger in the dike 'til English is ready to take over. A bit of footy polyfilla.
I think he would be great as a permanent CHB. I also think Cordy is slightly too short and lean to be that big key defender.

I do agree with you that Crozier should play, but who do you kick out for him?

Maybe Boyd is the one who won't be playing?

Trengrove was a defender but is a bit slow for it now. He can take the job in a pinch or if the matchup is right but he's not first choice.

Cordy has grown to proper KPD height and is probably taller than Naughton.

[bornadog]

All the descriptions of him around his draft and early years were of him being a key defender.

I think he's playing ruck for us simply because Bevo didn't rate any of our other ruckmen.
At 197 cm he's not really tall enough to compete with the genuine ruckmen out there long term..

When Port had a few ruckman injured, Trengove ended up playing in the ruck for the whole year and did very well. Bevo merely used him when he needed a ruckman and knew Trengove had played that role,

[Dry Rot]

Our ruck depth is now dodgy and we have no depth at all with tall forwards and defenders.

[soupman]

I think he's our ruck.

When he first arrived he trained and played all preseason as a forward/ruck, but due to injuries and inexperience found himself playing as a key defender for the first half of the year, where he was fine. Uninspiring, but fine.

The second half of the year we swung him into what i believe was the role intended (except with possibly more emphasis on ruck than intended) and he performed better than any other ruckman on our list aside from flashes from English. Funnily enough him playing as a competitive ruck who could contribute around the ground coincided with our improvement.

And now people want to put him in defence again?

Besides, where does he fit? We already have Cordy, Naughton, Morris and Wood as locks for our best 22 and they are all tall types with little hurt factor. We can't possibly cram Trengove down there to be mediocre again.

So that leaves two options, ruck/forward or forward/ruck.

I think he is our main man. It works on a number of levels.

English is clearly going to play, and should. And the club clearly rates him as being able to play anywhere. Initially he lined up on a wing, and he has had promising moments as a key forward. I have greater hopes for him there than I do Boyd, last year they both struggled to hold marks as key targets but you can see unlike Boyd English's biggest problem is strength in the marking contest, his technique is fine and I believe he will grow into the role.

I think we try to play Trengove 60% ruck and resting forward, with English covering the other 40%, while spending time as a key forward who can work his way up the ground.

It means Trengove can be the grunt ruck who breaks even at worst with the opposition ruck, is competitive everywhere and does all the heavy lifting. Up forward we have two mobile talls who can use the ball well up the field in Schache and English, and English when rucking either gets to go against a second ruck who is either a liability up forward or a liability in the ruck.

So basically i question why people here seem keen to send Trengove to a position where we don't need him, don't really want him and where by playing him there it would be to the detriment of the forward half of the ground, forcing us to either have just one key forward or play Boyd is far inferior than Trengove in the ruck.

And thats not even taking into account all the other threads lamenting our lack of rucks.

[bornadog]

Our ruck depth is now dodgy and we have no depth at all with tall forwards and defenders.

In our defence we have Naughton, Cordy, Young and Roberts - I think we are covered.

For tall forwards we have Schache and an injured Boyd - plus the resting rucks.

With Boyd looking like he will be out for awhile, Rucks are a little thin and the pressure will be on Sweet as the replacement.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

Great post DD and great team selected. I've got to agree that the depth of this group is great and competition for spots is hot.
I like the idea of Trengove at CHB with Cordy as backup. With JJ, Suckling and onballers to initiate attack from defence. Your team backs our homegrown players above our imports with them as backups which speaks well of our development.

[Mofra]

Great post DD and great team selected. I've got to agree that the depth of this group is great and competition for spots is hot.
I like the idea of Trengove at CHB with Cordy as backup. With JJ, Suckling and onballers to initiate attack from defence. Your team backs our homegrown players above our imports with them as backups which speaks well of our development.

I think we'll try and push JJ and Suckling up a little to be in the middle of the scoring chain rather than in deep defence starting it.
I wouldn't be surprised to see them rotate on the wing at times with Hunter and Richards.

Wood and Crozier have shown real signs at being medium defenders who can intercept, with them there was can get away with only two genuine KPDs allowing Morris to play lockdown and give us another small rebounder to play in the last spot (JJ/Daniel/Duryea/Richards can rotate there).

Some of our F50 problems can be helped by better F50 entry.

[Dancin' Douggy]

Our ruck depth is now dodgy and we have no depth at all with tall forwards and defenders.

yes that's true. Lewis Young is pretty much our only tall depth

[BornInDroopSt'54]

As Tom Hafey said: Its your six worst players who win you the premiership, so our depth bodes well.

[Axe Man]

yes that's true. Lewis Young is pretty much our only tall depth

Fletcher Roberts is the very definition of depth.

[Dancin' Douggy]

Fletcher Roberts is the very definition of depth.

of course. he is depth personified!
I guess Lewis Young was the only tall 'depth' I didn't cover in my post.

[Eastdog]

That’s a strong interchange bench DD.

All potentially walk up starts. Bevo will select players who deserve it based on their form as we know. Happy Wallis stayed. He is one who embodies the Bulldog spirit. Hoping to see Jack Macrae get more involved on the scoreboard kicking more goals this season otherwise Jack has been excellent.

Important year coming for Bailey Dale and Lewis Young - he had a great debut.

Looking forward to watching Libba back carving it up in the midfieild