2018 VFL Rd 20: Northern Blues vs Sandringham

Re: 2018 VFL Rd 20: Northern Blues vs Sandringham

Reply #30 – August 18, 2018, 10:22:17 pm

Ben S ?

Re: 2018 VFL Rd 20: Northern Blues vs Sandringham

Reply #31 – August 19, 2018, 07:50:55 am

Quote from: crashlander on August 18, 2018, 10:06:57 pm

The only time I've seen JGM play forward until 2 weeks ago was last year against the U18's. JGM actually looked better as a forward than he has a defender. I was hoping that we would persevere with it, but it never happened. We had too many tall defenders out and needed him down back.
At this point I think it is too little too late: I think his papers are done. But, who knows? Stranger things have happened.

Whether we keep him or not, we MUST recruit a kid to be the next tall defender. I don't want to depend on Weitering when Rowe, Alex Silvagni and Jones go. I can't see Marchbank doing the job at this time. But that is another tale.

Understand where you are coming from, Rowe is the only gorilla-minder we have and he is at best nearing the end. All the others are shorter and/or more suited to athletic types. But with the way the modern game is evolving do we need the gorilla minder that often, or to put it another way is the gorilla as a species in danger of extinction? To me they are already at near-extinction and the only thing that is likely to reverse that is the introduction of 666. So will the number of the beast lead to an increase in the number of beasts down forward? Quite possibly, and allied to that is the trend towards one ruckman with a back-up who contributes forward - although Clarkson's one-man campaign to save the 2 ruckman model may get some supporters if it troubles teams in the finals.

I think a club probably does need one gorilla-minder on the list for when the need arises even if there may be games where that player misses selection (or has to play a different role, eg up forward) due to the absence of a match-up. And perhaps am apprentice to hopefully take over is not a bad use of list space - the question is where to find them. Sam Collins at Werribee is one name that keeps cropping up at 194/97 he has a bit of size about him, dominates 1-on-1 at VFL level and has improved his mobility since his time at Freo who had him bulked up too much. Agility is no doubt his weakness along with disposal but I am pretty sure someone will give him a spot on at least a rookie list and I would mind if it was us. Any other names come to mind?