Charlie

[Unforgiven]

Anyone else reckon there will be an issue with Charlie gardiner being in the best 22. On NAB cup form I think he is well within the best 22, but with: Fraser, Kosi, Roo and Him. I cant see a logically spot on the forward for him. Ideally Riewoldt would be playing the ead up roll, and Roo will do it better, in kicking more goals, probably getting even more of the ball, and takin the mark first grab. Meanwhile Kosi and Fraser are playing deeper, where does this leave Gardiner in terms of what position/role he plays.

I reckon even if you have Roo and Gardiner leading out from the 50, Gardiner spot won't be justified unless he continues to get 20+ possesions and 10 marks, and I cant see him doing it with Roo in the team

Thoughts?

[SaintBot]

he plays more up the field than as a medium tall in the forwardline

similar to ryan o'keefe...swans have hall, o'loughlin and everitt/jolly along with ryan as listed forwards

[iceman]

I know Gehrig's spot is unlikely to be questioned, but if we have King and M Gardiner firing in the Ruck, Kosi playing well deep and Roo at CHF, then there is no reason ( other than match commitee) Why C Gardiner can't be putting pressure on the Gerhrigs spot (it will mean constant pressure to perform, which is what he probably needs)

[plugger66]

I know Gehrig's spot is unlikely to be questioned, but if we have King and M Gardiner firing in the Ruck, Kosi playing well deep and Roo at CHF, then there is no reason ( other than match commitee) Why C Gardiner can't be putting pressure on the Gerhrigs spot (it will mean constant pressure to perform, which is what he probably needs)

Gardener will never be a leading FF like G. Also his kicking is average at best.

[Animal Enclosure]

Chuckles will play a high half forward role (not in the way Cousins played a high midfielder).

IMO Charlie has given us a new look at something we could have done with last year. Roo spent way too much time creating options on the wing, which caused Fraser to lead out past the fwd 50 as the next target. If Charlie can be that option up on the wing that leaves Roo around 50, Fraser 20-30 out & Kosi-osko as the deep option.

Lots of nice structure there with Yapper, Schneider & the small mids buzzing at their feet.

[vacuous space]

Kosi and Gehrig deep, Roo and Charlie further up the ground. Milne, Schneider or a resting midfielder in there for the crumbs. Charlie takes some of the pressure off Roo by giving us another avenue to goal. Very doubtful he'd put up 20 touches and 10 marks a game. If he can get about 15 and 7, he'll be doing okay.

[Ralphy]

maybe 2 goals a game,

i think place ball up there, in the last quator to rest him

[rexy]

There is 2 questions. 1 is he good enough?
2 Who doesnt get a spot?

I'd like to see him added to the forward line options but fear we would be one mid field option short if we picked him the 3 big forwards and 2 designated ruckmen.

Try and put a 22 together with him in it. Its hard.

Good problem to have though.

[plugger66]

Gardiner will play early but I doubt a player who couldnt make it in 6 years at the Cats will become a regular player and I am not sure he will suit our structure if the other talls play all the games. Hope I am proven wrong though.

[Ralphy]

Raf Clarke, i dont like him keep him out of the 22..... or birsse

[rexy]

Raf Clarke, i dont like him keep him out of the 22..... or birsse

Only problem is I cant fit Raph or Birss in either. Not straight up with everyone available anyway.

[Ralphy]

gotta have,
goddard, schneider, dempster(remember he kept cousins to no touches in the grand final)

i think armo is the best Rookie we have!

[plugger66]

gotta have,
goddard, schneider, dempster(remember he kept cousins to no touches in the grand final)

i think armo is the best Rookie we have!

Dempster will struggle to play the early rounds due to injury and then will have play well to break into hopefully a winning side.

[rexy]

This very topic was what made me try and pick a best 22. Its difficult, guys who I wanted in I could not pick in front of guys who were either more experienced, more versatile. It will be interesting to see what the coaches consider our best 22. Last year I would have thought rd 1 Voss was automatic but I was wrong and because of this we saw the impact of Gilbert which was very posotive. Could a Fiora, Milne, Birss, L Fisher or even Gherig have to make way this year for the likes of Gardiner, Geary or Armo. Only time will tell. I know one thing though, If a couple of young guys can take the place of a couple of older guys it will mean that our list has improved which is what it is all about I guess.

[Ralphy]

i think it will be a winning side we gotta do it for harvey. ! send him out on a winning note, what a end Harves ends his carrear after winning the premiership!

[vacuous space]

dempster (remember he kept cousins to no touches in the grand final)

When did he do that? Cousins had 27 touches and a goal in 05 and 18 touchs and 2 goals in 06. According to the 07 AFL Prospectus, Dempster played most of the 06GF on Norm Smith medallist Andrew Embley.

[Ralphy]

oh

well he kept him to no disposals i heard

[stinger]

charlie is our secret......

[Ghost Like]

I know Gehrig's spot is unlikely to be questioned, but if we have King and M Gardiner firing in the Ruck, Kosi playing well deep and Roo at CHF, then there is no reason ( other than match commitee) Why C Gardiner can't be putting pressure on the Gerhrigs spot (it will mean constant pressure to perform, which is what he probably needs)

Plenty of room for all four, the beauty of the G being there is that a quality back has to take him. Basically Kosi or G will have to contest against a weaker opponent. Charlie and Roo have good motors and naturally Roo will have the better opponent, leaving Charlie the 4th best medium to tall defender...got to be a win, especially when the oppos small to medium defenders will have their hands full with Schneider and Milne.

Ruckman dropping back will have to watch King and Gardiner this year, two rucks who can kick goals.

I like the way it's shaping up. Our mids Dal, Goddard, X, Joey, Harves, Ball, Hayes, Gram, Armo, Fiora) should have enough in the tank through rotations to either spot up targets or kick from 50 or just inside.

[rexy]

I know Gehrig's spot is unlikely to be questioned, but if we have King and M Gardiner firing in the Ruck, Kosi playing well deep and Roo at CHF, then there is no reason ( other than match commitee) Why C Gardiner can't be putting pressure on the Gerhrigs spot (it will mean constant pressure to perform, which is what he probably needs)

Plenty of room for all four, the beauty of the G being there is that a quality back has to take him. Basically Kosi or G will have to contest against a weaker opponent. Charlie and Roo have good motors and naturally Roo will have the better opponent, leaving Charlie the 4th best medium to tall defender...got to be a win, especially when the oppos small to medium defenders will have their hands full with Schneider and Milne.

Ruckman dropping back will have to watch King and Gardiner this year, two rucks who can kick goals.

I like the way it's shaping up. Our mids Dal, Goddard, X, Joey, Harves, Ball, Hayes, Gram, Armo, Fiora) should have enough in the tank through rotations to either spot up targets or kick from 50 or just inside.

This is the problem Ghost man, you have named 18 without including a defence, there is not plenty of room there is 22 spots, you have to justify every player that is picked, and that every set of positions is well enough covered. Its hard.

[Rickabee]

I like the fact that Charlie does have a good motor and he could even do some rotation through the mid-field.
I see the fowards, at this stage (always subject to revision based on form), to be Roo, Kosi, Gehrig, Milne, Schneider and Charlie. I'd like to see this tried at some stage but these are all real possibilities for these postions. Like others, I see the availability of Charlie to allow Roo to stay a bit closer to the Forward line and score more goals.
Aside from Gehrig, all of these can also be effective when they roam beyond the forward line (Milne is improving) for lots of rotations & variations with the mid-fielders.

Gilbert, Goddard, Charlie and Blake are all similar sized and have variations of skills to offer for the best match-ups.

We have much more flexibilty this year and I certainly hope we will not be as one-dimensional as in the prior three years!

[mad saint guy]

Plenty of room for all four, the beauty of the G being there is that a quality back has to take him. Basically Kosi or G will have to contest against a weaker opponent. Charlie and Roo have good motors and naturally Roo will have the better opponent, leaving Charlie the 4th best medium to tall defender...got to be a win, especially when the oppos small to medium defenders will have their hands full with Schneider and Milne.

Disagree. Rather than Kosi having an unco 18 year old flnker line up against him, he is likely to be confronted by half the opposition side within 50m of him. Opposition coaches are not going to let us single out Kosi and Gehrig against lesser opponents, and having all of them forward will just trigger a major flood every week.

If both Riewoldt and Gardiner are constantly leading up from half forward then the opposition will simply place a couple of players on the wings/center and cut them off every time.

With 4 tall, marking forwards in the side constantly you will end up with a very predictable game plan and have no chance once the ball hits the ground in the forward line (Milne is not much of a crumber and can't tackle, while Schneider doesn't have the pace/tank to catch the elite running half backs).

If we want to play all of the talls, Gehrig and Kosi will need to learn how to chase, tackle and run up the ground. While Fraser may well kick 40-50 goals this year, I don't think he is in our best forward setup.

Modern footy is favouring the powerful, athletic forwards who play in between FF and CHF (Pavlich, Brown, Hall when fit). Roo is a player who is so fit that very few players who can keep up with him are good enough to beat him in the air. I think he and Kosi would be best used if they both started roughly in the same area (30m out from goal) and they both had the license to either lead hard and strong up ground, stay back in the goal square or even move up into the midfield. Gardiner would provide a nice secondary avenue into the forward line and Milne can always find some space in the forwadr line if Roo and Kosi are covered. Schneider would essentially play as a goalkicking midfielder.

[iceman]

I know Gehrig's spot is unlikely to be questioned, but if we have King and M Gardiner firing in the Ruck, Kosi playing well deep and Roo at CHF, then there is no reason ( other than match commitee) Why C Gardiner can't be putting pressure on the Gerhrigs spot (it will mean constant pressure to perform, which is what he probably needs)

Gardener will never be a leading FF like G. Also his kicking is average at best.

Exactly, so if Kosi is Firing, and Roo and Gardiner are getting plenty of footy up the field! All I'm getting at is there will be pressure on the forwards to perform, rather than just go through the motions. It's very hard to see all 4 fitting in.

[Armoooo]

I think it has been covered, Kosi and Gehrig deep with Gardiner and Roo leading from 50, I also wouldn't be surprised to see Roo spend a bit more time on the wing ala Adam Goodes...

However this all depends on whether or not Gardiner can make the 22, I'm not so sure...

Perhaps Kosi can spend a bit of time down back aswell? with the 4 of them rotating on and off the bench with Kosi going down back every now and again and Charlie and Roo spending time in the midfield I don't believe we will be too predictable, and with Milne, Schneider, Xavier and resting midfielders I don't think we will be too tall either...

But again, Charlie is not in our 22 YET!!
Don't get your hopes up, he has been doing this to Geelong supporters for years.... We can hope he is our next Gram but we shouldn't expect it...

[Ghost Like]

I know Gehrig's spot is unlikely to be questioned, but if we have King and M Gardiner firing in the Ruck, Kosi playing well deep and Roo at CHF, then there is no reason ( other than match commitee) Why C Gardiner can't be putting pressure on the Gerhrigs spot (it will mean constant pressure to perform, which is what he probably needs)

Plenty of room for all four, the beauty of the G being there is that a quality back has to take him. Basically Kosi or G will have to contest against a weaker opponent. Charlie and Roo have good motors and naturally Roo will have the better opponent, leaving Charlie the 4th best medium to tall defender...got to be a win, especially when the oppos small to medium defenders will have their hands full with Schneider and Milne.

Ruckman dropping back will have to watch King and Gardiner this year, two rucks who can kick goals.

I like the way it's shaping up. Our mids Dal, Goddard, X, Joey, Harves, Ball, Hayes, Gram, Armo, Fiora) should have enough in the tank through rotations to either spot up targets or kick from 50 or just inside.

This is the problem Ghost man, you have named 18 without including a defence, there is not plenty of room there is 22 spots, you have to justify every player that is picked, and that every set of positions is well enough covered. Its hard.

I see the wings and hbf as mids these days rexy, so add Max, Sam, Gilbo and Raph or Blake or Geary (in Goddards place) and we have a round one side. So for mine Maguire can take Blake or Raph's spot when fit and firing.

MSG, if we are silly enough to bomb it in to Kosi and G when they have 4 defenders and an entire midfield on them then we don't deserve to be lucky enough that an extra 'crumber' will scoop up the spoiled ball.