Be interesting with Jones this week, will probably get 2 metre Peter as an opponent or Chris Burgess.....the latter is a good mark for a 191cm smaller key forward and can play at both ends of the ground but has been used a bit as a decoy/stopper so far and might take Jones or Weitering in a negative role and try and drag them away from play and leave room for players like Sexton to do his thing.
Jones -> Wright Weitering -> Burgess Marchbank -> Sexton
The theory I’ve heard postulated regarding the Irish guys and even Cox is that they have never developed bad habits so they are basically learning the correct way to kick from day dot. I don’t really know either way, I am really just regurgitating what I hear.
The benefit is as you said, learning to kick without bad habits. The down side is learning how to do everything that is basically instinct for everyone else playing the game.
Actually, it looks like we now have 3 'fit' ruckmen. Exactly how fit they are is an interesting conundrum, but all three will be available. Last year Kreuzer got smashed by Witt, but he wasn't 100% fit. It the game in Qld Kreuzer didn't play. I think we rucked Lobbe that day. Phillips played in neither through injury. Who we play this time will be very interesting.
As for Preuss, the only reason I can think of as to why we were not interested is the potential in de Koning. And he does have it in spades. Also there are a number of really good ruck prospects coming through the U18's.
I can think of another. He didn't want to come here, and only wanted to go to Melbourne.
re obrien... There was one bit of play in either the 3rd or 4th quarter where i saw some bloke sprinting and dodging his way down the ground where i thought, gee, who is that bloke! Then i saw it was Obrien and i was pleasantly surprised.
Thats about as close to 'it' as i've seen from him thus far.
I'm getting a bit shat off how the new franchises can cannibalise the existing clubs with no compensation. History repeats with some of these clubs: Norp with ten years rule, the tiges with the 80s self destructive trade war.
It only happens because everyone is a free agent all of the time.
From this season, clubs can sign players for 2 years. So it will mean that a lot of players are off limits.
Apart from that, if you have a happy, healthy club with upside, players won't leave.
So far the only carlton name i've heard thrown up as any chance of really going has been Rhiannon Watt. She was a late in for Tayla Harris in R2, and may have played the next week. She didn't show much worth persisting with IMO so if she wants to go to St. Kilda, good. Means that we can only lose 3 other players from our list to this system....if clubs can find 3 that will leave.
Nankervis, Lycett/Ryder and Sinclair all were influential against us....you can play one ruckman only for sure but there is one caveat...they have to be Good ruckman....not C and D grade hackers...
....or more to the point, no point playing 2 c-grade ruckmen.
Bulldogs, despite that, won the centre clearances 14-8 and overall 44-30. So much for the big tapout advantage. Just have the mids in the centre square ready.
I've been banging on about that for a while now. There simply is no need for 2 ruckmen, they are just not dominant enough in the modern game. McKay as a key forward is more than capable of standing in as a ruck when required. I'd happily throw Jones, McGovern (both good leap) and even Charlie as backup rucks if required, obviously Casboult too if he is playing (which i prefer not). The amount of contests they'd have any meaningful contact in (centre square mainly) is minimal, and the rest of the ruckwork is nothing more than a push and shove like a marking contest. Very little chance of injury.
Yet the benefits of not carrying an extra ruckman around the ground, and with rotations that frees up, certainly will make a difference to your team.
That quote from Marc McGowan was basically a complaint that Bolton was making it hard for him to write a story because he wasn't answering the questions in the way McGowan wanted. Honestly - who could care less.
I couldn't care about his pressers. I'm just trying to point out that of all times for EB to start complaining about them, he chooses the one time where people (paulp started it i think, Mcgoawan continued it) have started praising him for his change of attitude.
EB pushing a barrow, and nobody else is buying it. He's hung up on one line about him saying the blokes will train hard tuesday and thursday. His implication is that it suggests they don't train hard otherwise.
Anyone who has ever played footy knows there are times you get absolutely flogged on the training track compared to other weeks and it doesn't mean you are not training hard otherwise.
Also there is the fact that players and fitness staff are aware of 'heavy weeks' and 'light weeks' on the track. Perhaps the week coming up is a scheduled heavy week.
All that i'm certain of is that those comments from Bolton mean SFA in the scheme of things, and EB flogging that dead horse is getting tiresome.
Krud.... I'll give it a rest when Comrade Bolton can stop delivering party line Pravda responses and actually answer the questions.....I did enjoy his unprompted rambling where he discussed an awkward silence sitting with the players who are driven to train well next Tuesday and Thursday...is he serious or just taking the piss?
In our three spoon years under Pagan our percentages were 73, 75 and 74%. In 2018 it was 59%.
2018 was our worst season in our history, so i'm not surprised.
Despite our 3 losses so far this year, and all the doom and gloom that it has brought with it, our % is currently 75.5%
So people struggling to see any improvement for you need to look no further.
BTW, Tigers finished 1st in H+A last year Swans finished 6th Port finished 10th, but had a winning 12-10 record. That would've been enough to finish 7th in 2017!
So its not like we've had any easy games to start of the year, yet we have still been in every game up to this point. Why is the sky falling again?
