Always Right Match Committee Thread Round 4, Vs Collingwood

[Mofra]

Who do we have to play on Mason Cox? We might be best removing Young for Trengove, and give it to the latter.

I think Ed needs a spell, and I'd bring in Williams for him. If JJ is fit it might be that he needs a run at Footscray, it's been a long while now and I'm not sure this is the week to bring him in underdone.

Post match press conference - Bevo indicated Boyd will play VFL, JJ can come back in the seniors after a long layoff as we've done it before. English will remain first ruck.

I imagine JJ & Williams come in. Suspect Richards goes out and possibly one of Dickson/Lloyd. Lippi must be close to a recall too.

[Mantis]

I agree with you, but who comes in and who goes out?

Defence:

Cordy & Young - both have to play. Both make mistakes, but we need some height down there given how high we defend. Young is as raw as they come, but we need to get him to 50 games ASAP. He will continue to make errors and frustrate us at times, but he is only 20 and will be a very good player when he matures.

Crozier, Wood & Duryea - only need 1 or 2 of these, take your pick.

JJ, Suckling & Daniel - play all 3

Midfield:

Too many slow & poor kicking players in there with limited ability to spread. Great at winning the ball, but often nothing comes of it. It took us all of last year to work out that Wallis is completely ineffective as a mid, but was reliable as a small/medium forward, but I guess with Lloyd & Dickson added/back in the side we have enough of this type and he's back in the midfield making the same mistakes as he usually does.

The use of the mid on the defensive side of the stoppage was poor yesterday.. got sucked into the contest and didn't allow us cover or an outlet. We won the clearances easily, but there was no flow and often just a hack kick forward.

Bailey Smith showed what he is capable of yesterday with his ability to spread and then deliver effectively.

Betting the same drum here, but Hunter & Macrae are incredible with their work-rates, but their hurt factor isn't high.

Forwards:

Too many slow medium sized players who aren't applying enough defensive pressure. Dickson is very limited in what he offers and Lloyd is hit or miss.

Dunkley & McLean not capable of playing the lead up role we require.. perhaps they play more midfield or don't play at all??

Gowers floats in and out of the game way too often and doesn't make the most of his (limited) opportunities.

Schache needs space which wasn't on offer yesterday and can't just be a battering ram in the air which isn't his go at all.

-------------------------------

So it's a bit of a mess!

Need to get more midfield time into McLean & Williams - offer some ability to spread which we don't have at the minute.

Can't play all of Dickson, Lloyd, Wallis & Dunkley.

Can't play all of Wood, Crozier & Duyrea.

#inbevowetrust

[Mofra]

Can't play all of Dickson, Lloyd, Wallis & Dunkley.

Can't play all of Wood, Crozier & Duyrea.

#inbevowetrust

Crozier has been fantastic for us and Duryea solid. Wood is showing glimpses but is far, far off his best. I'm really not sure he's best 22 right now.

Dunkley has shown he can put up elite numbers (late last year) and is a big body that helps us.
Wallis covers a lot of ground but has 1-2 howlers per week.

Dickson is going to have 1 good game every two, Lloyd had a shocker after two decent games. I suspect one of Lloyd or Dickson comes under real pressure this week.

JJ comes back in, flagged post match. I suspect Bailey Williams comes in and we drop Richards and one of Dickson/Lloyd, especially considering Bevo preaches versatility and Lloyd took a rotation or two on the wing and behind the ball.

Lippi is killing it at VFL level but his legspeed may not help our issues with defensive pressure.

[Mantis]

Crozier has been fantastic for us and Duryea solid. Wood is showing glimpses but is far, far off his best. I'm really not sure he's best 22 right now.

Dunkley has shown he can put up elite numbers (late last year) and is a big body that helps us.
Wallis covers a lot of ground but has 1-2 howlers per week.

Dickson is going to have 1 good game every two, Lloyd had a shocker after two decent games. I suspect one of Lloyd or Dickson comes under real pressure this week.

JJ comes back in, flagged post match. I suspect Bailey Williams comes in and we drop Richards and one of Dickson/Lloyd, especially considering Bevo preaches versatility and Lloyd took a rotation or two on the wing and behind the ball.

Lippi is killing it at VFL level but his legspeed may not help our issues with defensive pressure.

Crozier has been very good and probably goes into the safe category, but how many small/ medium sized defenders do we actually need? JJ goes back down there.. where is Williams playing?

Dunkley did put up some great numbers as mentioned, but with Libba back in there he is seeing limited time in the midfield.. Wallis is also playing a lot more midfield minutes than the second half of last year. McLean is seeing virtually no midfield time and was excellent in there during the first half of 2018.

As I said the mix is all out of whack.. just trying to fit our best 22 players into the team with what it seems, no regard for the roles they will play.

[bornadog]

Crozier has been very good and probably goes into the safe category, but how many small/ medium sized defenders do we actually need? JJ goes back down there.. where is Williams playing?

Dunkley did put up some great numbers as mentioned, but with Libba back in there he is seeing limited time in the midfield.. Wallis is also playing a lot more midfield minutes than the second half of last year. McLean is seeing virtually no midfield time and was excellent in there during the first half of 2018.

As I said the mix is all out of whack.. just trying to fit our best 22 players into the team with what it seems, no regard for the roles they will play.

We announced Mclean is going to be more a small forward but it isn't working. Yesterday he had 2 touches to half time and I think he finished up with 10 or so. I think he has to go back to more midfield time.

I am really worried about Dickson, and I am not sure why we picked up Lloyd.

As for Macrae, why oh why does he have to think he needs to centre the ball in the forward 50. He should be heading towards the goal square and even taking a shot, otherwise find a cheat to hit. So frustrating watching him do this.

[mjp]

Defence:

Cordy & Young - both have to play. Both make mistakes, but we need some height down there given how high we defend. Young is as raw as they come, but we need to get him to 50 games ASAP. He will continue to make errors and frustrate us at times, but he is only 20 and will be a very good player when he matures.

Crozier, Wood & Duryea - only need 1 or 2 of these, take your pick.

JJ, Suckling & Daniel - play all 3

So...I'm not sure Young can play.

And I know it was only one week ago that I said he had to play, but he is so spooked with his kicking it is really killing us.

I am not sure if he has decided he can't kick, whether the coaches have told him not to kick or if he has had one turnover too many and has decided not to even try any more, but he wins the footy (he is doing that pretty well), scans for options...and ON PURPOSE waits so long to pull the trigger that they are all covered and he has to go long down the line. You could mount a reasonable case that the lack of 'imagination' we showed with the footy yesterday cost us the game.

I agree he will be a very good player - I like him - but if he can't fix this then he can't play.

[Mofra]

Crozier has been very good and probably goes into the safe category, but how many small/ medium sized defenders do we actually need? JJ goes back down there.. where is Williams playing?

I suspect JJ plays on the wing (for Richards) and Williams spent all pre-season with the mids only to be thrown back as a last minute measure.

Of course, we don't know if Suckling plays on Friday as we don't know how severe his broken nose is.

[Mantis]

So...I'm not sure Young can play.

And I know it was only one week ago that I said he had to play, but he is so spooked with his kicking it is really killing us.

I am not sure if he has decided he can't kick, whether the coaches have told him not to kick or if he has had one turnover too many and has decided not to even try any more, but he wins the footy (he is doing that pretty well), scans for options...and ON PURPOSE waits so long to pull the trigger that they are all covered and he has to go long down the line. You could mount a reasonable case that the lack of 'imagination' we showed with the footy yesterday cost us the game.

I agree he will be a very good player - I like him - but if he can't fix this then he can't play.

He's clearly spooked... and has been since the game against GWS in late '17 when he made some poor kicking errors which cost us badly and was mocked by amongst others Jon Patton and hasn't really been comfortable with ball in hand since.

I guess it's up to the coaches & his team-mates to build up his confidence and give him some clear directions on what he needs to do in these situations. Some movement from the players further afiled will definitely help too.. we were extremely stagnant yesterday.

Anyway I hope we persist with him as it's going to be another developing year for the team, but with Naughton, Young, Cordy, Schache & English we have a nice group of developing talls and we will be a much better team when they're established.

[Jeanette54]

I can't wait for the commentator hilarity when Cox ends up isolated one-on-one against Daniel in the goal square.

My money would be on Caleb, somehow he just seems to find a way.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

Other than the first quarter, we dominated this game everywhere around the ground except the scoreboard, and even then we kicked 7 goals to their 4.

I doubt Bevo will be making wholesale changes

Scoring 6 goals in 3 quarters is hardly dominating the game. Apart from Naughton we didn’t have a winner on the forward line and was sadly beaten in the ruck. There were many poor players on the day and we were saved by the ball getting abilities of Bont Libba Macrae and Hunter in a pretty lack lustre performance.

[Murphy'sLore]

Our team is very even in ability. When everyone fires, as they did against Hawthorn in the last quarter, they are very very good. When everyone is flat, as they were this week, they are horrid.

[Axe Man]

Ins:
JJ - straight in if deemed right to go
Williams - suited to Collingwood's plethora of mid sized forwards

Outs:
Richards - struggling to get involved, let him get plenty of touches in the VFL for a week or 2
Young - just prefer Williams for matchup reasons against the Pies

Wouldn't mind Roberts coming in to play on Cox but not sure how to get him in and it won't happen anyway.

[AshMac]

I’d love another tall in, or to play schache in ruck more which I don’t see happening. Grundy and thier midfield will be a tough match up.

Out

Richards - pains me to say but he’s form has been off last 2 weeks and JJ is a likely replacement
Young - maybe too big an ask to play on Cox, bit unlucky, but should make way if Williams is back in form

In

Williams - no idea how he played on Friday and might be idealistic but he loves open spaces
JJ - because he is JJ

[Eastdog]

JJ - because he is JJ

JJ does like playing at the G but only if he is 100% ready to go.

[westdog54]

Defence:

Cordy & Young - both have to play. Both make mistakes, but we need some height down there given how high we defend. Young is as raw as they come, but we need to get him to 50 games ASAP. He will continue to make errors and frustrate us at times, but he is only 20 and will be a very good player when he matures.

Crozier, Wood & Duryea - only need 1 or 2 of these, take your pick.

JJ, Suckling & Daniel - play all 3

Midfield:

Too many slow & poor kicking players in there with limited ability to spread. Great at winning the ball, but often nothing comes of it. It took us all of last year to work out that Wallis is completely ineffective as a mid, but was reliable as a small/medium forward, but I guess with Lloyd & Dickson added/back in the side we have enough of this type and he's back in the midfield making the same mistakes as he usually does.

The use of the mid on the defensive side of the stoppage was poor yesterday.. got sucked into the contest and didn't allow us cover or an outlet. We won the clearances easily, but there was no flow and often just a hack kick forward.

Bailey Smith showed what he is capable of yesterday with his ability to spread and then deliver effectively.

Betting the same drum here, but Hunter & Macrae are incredible with their work-rates, but their hurt factor isn't high.

Forwards:

Too many slow medium sized players who aren't applying enough defensive pressure. Dickson is very limited in what he offers and Lloyd is hit or miss.

Dunkley & McLean not capable of playing the lead up role we require.. perhaps they play more midfield or don't play at all??

Gowers floats in and out of the game way too often and doesn't make the most of his (limited) opportunities.

Schache needs space which wasn't on offer yesterday and can't just be a battering ram in the air which isn't his go at all.

-------------------------------

So it's a bit of a mess!

Need to get more midfield time into McLean & Williams - offer some ability to spread which we don't have at the minute.

Can't play all of Dickson, Lloyd, Wallis & Dunkley.

Can't play all of Wood, Crozier & Duyrea.

#inbevowetrust

This is a good post.

JJ/Suckling/Daniel - With JJ back in the mix does one of these push up to the wing? Daniel was moved to a wing for the last quarter against GC and it allowed him to press forward and put some pressure on the GC defence in the dying minutes, dragging us back into the game in doing so. With JJ, Suckling and Crozier all viable kick-in options I'd be more than happy if Daniel pushed up the ground.

Young needs to be persisted with. Yes, his pace and kicking are suspect but he competes well in the air and seemed to keep his feet reasonably well. He needs experience playing in a back 6 unit at top level and I'm not sure playing at Footscray does anything further for his development.

Wood is in serious strife but won't be dropped.

Good observation about the defensive side midfielder being drawn towards the ball. I saw it numerous times and GC got plenty of easy clearances from it. With their marking power up-forward that last midfielder just needed to be a bit more defensively minded, at least for the initial contest.

As has been well documented here Dickson's kicking penetration has fallen away badly and Lloyd had a very forgettable day.

You're also dead right with Schache. He needs to be a lead-up-the-ground forward and our structure gave him no leading space whatsoever. Give him some room to work, get the ball and use that left foot of his to deliver sharply and accurately into the 50 and he'll be a far more effective player.