Re: AFL Rd 3 2024 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs North Melbourne
Reply #86 –
None of the other 'midfield' players played KP, so not sure why you bring that up, i think it hurts your argument more than helps it.
Kemp gets beaten by taller opponents....and by stronger opponents......does that not clearly point to the fact that is because is not a KPP? He doesn't have the size or strength to play there and be effective. Rather, he plays there because he is the best we've got at any given time, but is largely undersized.
Young is a better matchup, because he is an actual KPP. I think the 'errors' made by Young playing that role vs the 'errors' by Kemp playing that role mean that Kemp is the better player to have in the side.....even if it means you sacrifice some ability against the taller opponents that he'll be beaten one on one with. Mostly due to the fact that Young makes some silly errors that almost directly cost us goals.
To summarise, just because a player is played in a position, doesn't mean he is right for that position. If all our 190cm players got injured, someone would still have to play as a ruck on game day.....but just because we've shoehorned someone into that position, doesn't mean he is a genuine ruck. Same with Kemp, Marchbank......as KPPs.
Kemp and Young did OK against Daniher and Hipwood and Lynch and Balta. They would probably do OK against Larkey and Coleman-Jones. Weitering and Kemp would be a better combination and Weitering and Young an even better combination.
Against other key forward pairs, Weitering and Kemp might be a better defensive combination than Weitering and Young. When you have several KPDs with different attributes, you can have a horses for courses approach. With the North game, Kemp would probably be our best match up for Zurhaar. McGovern could do the job but at the expense of his intercept marking and helping out the KPDs.