Your biggest POSITIONAL concern heading into 2025 is:

[distinctive_]

A quality small defender for sure.

We have Duryea as a 34 y/o who will be on his last legs this coming season. Prefer bramble and dale to be freed up to play their rebounding roles.
Desperately need cleary/jaques to come along to play on the dangerous speedy small forward types.

[dog town]

Bont, Liber and Kennedy aren't ticking the box for you?

It feels like the club tried to address this with the out Macrae/in Kennedy decision...

I agree with this. We lost the territory battle against Hawthorn which didn’t happen often last year. I felt the accumulator out for a guy that can impact at half forward but also provide grunt inside when needed was acknowledging that.

It’s a tricky one to address when the 4-5 guys going through the midfield are notionally in our best 8-10 players and were largely responsible for getting us there in the first place. Did they just have a bad night?

I never liked the midfield match up against the hawks. Their smaller guys have a habit of getting inside us and have caused up problems in 2 of the last 3 games.

[GVGjr]

Don't seem to be able to vote on my phone. Am I missing something?

Thanks for advising, I will check the settings.

It should be fixed now. Thanks for raising this.

[josie]

Wing - Seems like it is a position we cannot settle players in.

I also feel it is a position that needs the role description identified clearly and choose players that can execute the role.

I watched our 2016 elimination & qualifying finals a few days ago. Geez Hunter was so good and so very important for us. I voted for small lockdown defender but also agree with you Dishlickers, we just cannot lock down some decent wingers.

[josie]

Don't seem to be able to vote on my phone. Am I missing something?

Me too.

[GVGjr]

Me too.

Have you already voted?

[josie]

Have you already voted?

just realised voting buttons are within first post by MJP. (I mistakenly thought it would appear near top of screen no matter what page you are reading).

I’ve voted now, thanks GvGjr.

[GVGjr]

just realised voting buttons are within first post by MJP. (I mistakenly thought it would appear near top of screen no matter what page you are reading).

I’ve voted now, thanks GvGjr.

You can't abstain from voting here in WOOFland

[LongWait]

Bont, Liber and Kennedy aren't ticking the box for you?

It feels like the club tried to address this with the out Macrae/in Kennedy decision...

Bont and Libba couldn't get it done in 2021 against Melbourne and again in 2024 against Hawthorn. The same thing happens in the H&A season against the bigger, aggressive mids. We are a pretty soft midfield group, to be honest. Kennedy will help. Will he be enough? Let's see, but I doubt it (although Kennedy is a step in the right direction). Harmes should also have helped, but we have yet to see him impact at CBC's.

[bulldogSimmo]

Thanks for advising, I will check the settings.

It should be fixed now. Thanks for raising this.

Thanks all good now

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Every team has positional vulnerabilities. My main concern is still where this group is at mentally week after week, quarter after quarter and our leaders in moments when the game is getting away from us.

But I understand the question is more positional.

It's the lockdown defenders, or lack of. Duryea was poor in the EF and 34, but we also haven't replaced Morris with that medium lock down player. I suppose JOD is the closest to it but I'm not convinced. Jones and Lobb can defend but are at their best when they can intercept, but to take it to the next level, they need a Morris type IMO. If JOD has a big year it would make the world of difference and it sets us up going the other way with the likes of Dale/JJ/JF/Bramble running and receiving.

[Rusty12]

Bont and Libba couldn't get it done in 2021 against Melbourne and again in 2024 against Hawthorn. The same thing happens in the H&A season against the bigger, aggressive mids. We are a pretty soft midfield group, to be honest. Kennedy will help. Will he be enough? Let's see, but I doubt it (although Kennedy is a step in the right direction). Harmes should also have helped, but we have yet to see him impact at CBC's.

Each to their own, but if your view of footy is that our inside mid group are no good or soft, it must be hard to find something exceptional to watch in sport and or joy in the same.
I don't mean it as a criticism, more, you must be bloody hard to impress!

[LongWait]

Each to their own, but if your view of footy is that our inside mid group are no good or soft, it must be hard to find something exceptional to watch in sport and or joy in the same.
I don't mean it as a criticism, more, you must be bloody hard to impress!

Why don't we have three or more flags in the last decade? It's because we have been belted in the middle in crucial games.

[jeemak]

And won finals with Lewis Young/55yo Stef as our no 1 ruckman. Save for 2021, the no 1 ruck/stoppage/clearance issue has hurt us consistently and fatally in every final since 2019. Our experienced core of mids during that time have the share some of the blame - their defensive work setting up at stoppage or in transition without the ball has been disgraceful in some of these finals losses. Losing finals virtually the same way for 6 years has been incredibly frustrating but sadly predictable.

Finals are a completely different beast to H&A - if you don't have 100% unflinching competitive intent at every single contest (stoppage, groundball or in the air) you're finished. Our 2016 team was full of ultra-competitive hard-arses - there were a good half-dozen more ''talented'' teams that year but none of them stood a chance against us in September.

It's funny how we remember things, and don't stress, this isn't at all an attempt to change your mind about English.......because that isn't happening!

Hit outs in the 2021 SF vs. Brisbane - McInerny 40, English 22 and Young 10
Hit outs in the 2021 PF vs. Port Adelaide - Lycett 26, Ladhams 18, Martin 13, English 11 and Dixon 5

Weirdly, the season stopped after the preliminary final, but the point is Lewis Young played forward, back and in the ruck vs. Brisbane but Tim took a lot of the rucking duties. It was an amazing win, as was the next week when we were completely shat on by Port's ruckmen if you go by hitouts with ruck duties being carried more by Martin.

So, you could make an argument that focusing so much on Tim and the ruck (and I do acknowledge you have had a crack at our inside midfielders, which I completely agree with) means a lack of focus on the myriad additional reasons we've lost finals since 2019. It is easy for the media and supporters to just hone in on one position, maybe a few players here and there when looking back at our finals losses, but that kind of gives the rest of our issues a glossing over.

[jeemak]

Why don't we have three or more flags in the last decade? It's because we have been belted in the middle in crucial games.

We've also had poor defensive and forward structure and cobbled together personnel a lot of the time.