What's our weakness?

[Dry Rot]

Re: What's our weakness?

Hall may not be zippy, but IIRC he is pretty good defensively.

[Go_Dogs]

Re: What's our weakness?

Hall may not be zippy, but IIRC he is pretty good defensively.

True, but I wouldn't want to be relying on a 30+ year old key position player to spear head our defensive pressure in the F50.

[Dry Rot]

Re: What's our weakness?

True, but I wouldn't want to be relying on a 30+ year old key position player to spear head our defensive pressure in the F50.

Agreed, but I think he'll do his job. He has intent. Dunno whether the other vets are so defensively minded.

I quite like the idea of having Picken down there - he'll kick a few goals while pressuring the defenders.

[Rocco Jones]

Re: What's our weakness?

I quite like the idea of having Picken down there - he'll kick a few goals while pressuring the defenders.

Yeah I would really like to see Picken having a go as a defensive forward, especially when we play sides without an obvious match up for him.

[Dry Rot]

Re: What's our weakness?

Yeah I would really like to see Picken having a go as a defensive forward, especially when we play sides without an obvious match up for him.

He has the defensive side down pat (and a bit of a nasty streak ), but I've been pretty impressed with his shots on goal when the opportunity has arisen. He could really surprise everyone on the last point.

I suppose that begs the question possibly of Moles' role - could he be a tagger?

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: What's our weakness?

He has the defensive side down pat (and a bit of a nasty streak ), but I've been pretty impressed with his shots on goal when the opportunity has arisen. He could really surprise everyone on the last point.

I suppose that begs the question possibly of Moles' role - could he be a tagger?

Not sure on Moles but you probably don't need a tagger for every game. Definitely going to be times when Picken will be better suited to a forward role as opposed to a tagging role.

FWIW I think Reid could play the tagging role. He did well on Bartel in Round 21 and they're the types you usually look to quell. Near impossible to keep Ablett out of the game so looking towards the next best midfielder is the go. The two (Picken/Reid) can rotate through the midfield but it could allow us to use Liam in a defensive role up forward, especially as Geelong love to run the ball through the lines.

[Go_Dogs]

Re: What's our weakness?

Not sure on Moles but you probably don't need a tagger for every game. Definitely going to be times when Picken will be better suited to a forward role as opposed to a tagging role.

FWIW I think Reid could play the tagging role. He did well on Bartel in Round 21 and they're the types you usually look to quell. Near impossible to keep Ablett out of the game so looking towards the next best midfielder is the go. The two (Picken/Reid) can rotate through the midfield but it could allow us to use Liam in a defensive role up forward, especially as Geelong love to run the ball through the lines.

Good points.

I think Picken forward is a good move. He has good vision too, and a pretty good leg - so if he isn't kicking them himself he can give someone else a shot on goal.

Reid did do a great job lining up on Bartel, and that could certainly be a role that we see him play more often. Hopefully his pace can improve on what we saw last year too given he's now over the groin complaint.

I'd also like to see Crossy and Boyd take more defensively minded roles this year, and also be more mindful to block and sheppard for the likes of Cooney, Griffen and Higgins. They can still work hard to create the options offensively, but a tighter defensive mindset could be used, with a good amount of offensive, attacking options now playing more midfield, and allow Picken to perhaps experiment in a role in the F50.

[stefoid]

Re: What's our weakness?

Structure is our weakness. A decent big CHB and a decent big long target in the forward line. Despite all the protestations to the contrary, we all know that without a decent long target up forward, we have to work too hard to score goals when the pressure is on, and we are too predictable about how we bring the ball forward. when we aren't predictable (by kicking long to small forwards), we fail to score against the quality defences.

Our strength is we are very even across the whole 22. I think our last 5 players are the best last 5 players in the league.

[Mantis]

Re: What's our weakness?

I'll take a different tack - dropping intensity/focus

Think 1st half vs WCE last year & large chunks of the QF against Geelong.

I'm waiting to see if we lose 2 or 10 games this year. We've never finished top of the ladder, and I don't think we've ever been in a better position list wise or better prepared to set some club records this year....if we play to our optimum more consistently

* Edit - first half last week, albeit NAB Cup, reminded me of this problem - Gia mentioned in the post game they copped a bake at 1/4 and half time, and the group responding to that (or perhaps needing that bake) is a recurring theme

Agree with all this.

It's a bit of an indictment that it seems we only fire up after a 'rev up' from the coach. Surely the 'leaders' of the team should be able to fire us up if they see our intensity levels aren't where they are supposed to be?

[Greystache]

Re: What's our weakness?

Yeah I would really like to see Picken having a go as a defensive forward, especially when we play sides without an obvious match up for him.

What about Picken as a small lockdown defender? It's probably one area of concern for me, Callan's inability to keep his feet under pressure and poor disposal rule him out, and I don't think Addison looks like he's going to come on like we'd hoped either.

[Bornadog]

Re: What's our weakness?

Biggest weakness is still CHB, we have struggled to find a top line, consistent, player for this role since Foster (excluding when Grant went down back).

As GVGjr mentioned, the other weakness will be if Lake goes down. Without the CHB, and god help us if Lake goes down, we will once more be shorties trying to punch above our weight.