Simple Structure for the Rest of the Year

[bergholt]

It's pretty simple to pick a team across the next couple of months, just by laying out the structure and the players who could slot into it. Hopefully the four small forward experiment is gone and forgotten so it'll look something like this. (Injuries aside, obviously.)


Forward line

1 big forward who can ruck from these 4: Koschitzke, Maister, Hickey, McEvoy
2 mobile forwards from these 5: Riewoldt, Lee, Maister, White, Stanley
2 small/medium forwards from these 9: Schneider, Milne, Saad, Siposs, Milera, Dunell, Dennis-Lane, Murdoch, Curren

Back line

2 strong defenders from these 6: Stanley, Fisher, Blake, Gwilt, Ferguson, Simpkin
2 mobile defenders from these 8: Dempster, Roberton, Gilbert, Fisher, Simpkin, Siposs, Ray, Webster
1/2 small defenders from these 5: Geary, Wright, Newnes, Ray, Saunders

Midfield

2 ruckmen from these 5: McEvoy, Hickey, Stanley, Koschitzke, Maister
10 mids from these 18: Hayes, Montagna, Dal Santo, Armitage, Steven, Jones, Gilbert, Ross, Dunell, Siposs, Milera, Newnes, Wright, Saunders, Murdoch, Ledger, Webster, Curren


This also gives us a good luck at where our deficiencies are, not too unexpected:

- Big forward who can ruck. Kosi's still the best of these. We need Hickey to improve as a forward.
- Strong defender. They're mostly reasonably strong but also too short, and there's no depth there.
- Mids. A lot of numbers but the good ones are aging. The good news is even if the oldest 7 play, there are still at least three spots for kids.

[bergholt]

My best side from this is something like:

FB: Dempster, Stanley, Fisher
HB: Geary, Roberton, Wright
C: Steven, Hayes, Montagna
HF: Schneider, Riewoldt, Siposs
FF: Lee, Hickey, Milne
R: McEvoy, Dal Santo, Jones
IC: Armitage, Ross, Dunell, Milera
(E: Maister, Saad, Gwilt, Newnes)

A fair bit of youth there, enough old heads to keep them in line and a relatively solid structure. No doubt big forwards are still going to get hold of us, and the midfield still looks thin, but hopefully by the end of the year there are a few mids coming through to give the forwards and backs a bit more of a chance.

[Teflon]

My best side from this is something like:

FB: Dempster, Stanley, Fisher
HB: Geary, Roberton, Wright
C: Steven, Hayes, Montagna
HF: Schneider, Riewoldt, Siposs
FF: Lee, Hickey, Milne
R: McEvoy, Dal Santo, Jones
IC: Armitage, Ross, Dunell, Milera
(E: Maister, Saad, Gwilt, Newnes)

A fair bit of youth there, enough old heads to keep them in line and a relatively solid structure. No doubt big forwards are still going to get hold of us, and the midfield still looks thin, but hopefully by the end of the year there are a few mids coming through to give the forwards and backs a bit more of a chance.

I still think Gilberts in our best 22 - was also good again against Swans and can play small and provide HBF run. I would move Geary to the midfield and play Gilbert in his role on smalls down back aka Harry O. I'd move on from Jones in the middle - I actually reckon if we need a stopper we know Geary has the defensive attributes with probably improved disposal on Jones....dont think we lose that much and Geary is younger/future. Milne doesnt pick up soon and Im almost inclined to go with Saad as the no 1 small...Siposs...not sure hes starting 22 tbh and would love to squeeze a Murdoch/Saunders in as well.....but I guess HF we've not ha d a true goal kicking option there for a while so worth a shot. Tough for Gwilt but just had little impact back from knee sadly and Roberton been good. Milera would be my sub - does provide some run late in game.

FB: Dempster, Stanley, Fisher
HB: Gilbert, Roberton, Wright
C: Steven, Hayes, Montagna
HF: Schneider, Riewoldt, Siposs
FF: Lee, Hickey, Milne
R: McEvoy, Dal Santo, Geary
IC: Armitage, Ross, Dunell, Milera
(E: Maister, Saad, Gwilt, Newnes)

[bergholt]

I still think Gilberts in our best 22 - was also good again against Swans and can play small and provide HBF run. I would move Geary to the midfield and play Gilbert in his role on smalls down back aka Harry O. I'd move on from Jones in the middle - I actually reckon if we need a stopper we know Geary has the defensive attributes with probably improved disposal on Jones....dont think we lose that much and Geary is younger/future. Milne doesnt pick up soon and Im almost inclined to go with Saad as the no 1 small...Siposs...not sure hes starting 22 tbh and would love to squeeze a Murdoch/Saunders in as well.....but I guess HF we've not ha d a true goal kicking option there for a while so worth a shot. Tough for Gwilt but just had little impact back from knee sadly and Roberton been good. Milera would be my sub - does provide some run late in game.

Fair point on Gilbert, not sure how I forgot him - I'd probably get him to replace Dunell on the bench. I'm still not sure if Geary can be a midfielder but he's definitely worth a try for a few weeks. Small forward I'm not too worried about, at the moment they're about all on par so I don't really care who plays as long as there aren't too many of them. I saw nothing from Murdoch so I'm in no hurry to force him in, Saunders can definitely go through the midfield. Siposs gives something different in the forward line, I like the idea of a medium down there. Not sure where Gwilt fits in at the moment though I do like him, same with Ray. And I'm very unsure about Milera especially if he might be leaving later.

[plugger66]

I still think Gilberts in our best 22 - was also good again against Swans and can play small and provide HBF run. I would move Geary to the midfield and play Gilbert in his role on smalls down back aka Harry O. I'd move on from Jones in the middle - I actually reckon if we need a stopper we know Geary has the defensive attributes with probably improved disposal on Jones....dont think we lose that much and Geary is younger/future. Milne doesnt pick up soon and Im almost inclined to go with Saad as the no 1 small...Siposs...not sure hes starting 22 tbh and would love to squeeze a Murdoch/Saunders in as well.....but I guess HF we've not ha d a true goal kicking option there for a while so worth a shot. Tough for Gwilt but just had little impact back from knee sadly and Roberton been good. Milera would be my sub - does provide some run late in game.

Fair point on Gilbert, not sure how I forgot him - I'd probably get him to replace Dunell on the bench. I'm still not sure if Geary can be a midfielder but he's definitely worth a try for a few weeks. Small forward I'm not too worried about, at the moment they're about all on par so I don't really care who plays as long as there aren't too many of them. I saw nothing from Murdoch so I'm in no hurry to force him in, Saunders can definitely go through the midfield. Siposs gives something different in the forward line, I like the idea of a medium down there. Not sure where Gwilt fits in at the moment though I do like him, same with Ray. And I'm very unsure about Milera especially if he might be leaving later.

While i have got you here Berg you said Kosi was the best option as forward ruck but put Hickey in there. I would rather Hickey But I am easily confuse. Please explain.

[Saintlester]

As an Adelaide based fan I don't get to see live games that often but after going on Thursday night I saw a couple of things. First Kosi for such a big man gets pushed out of marking contests far too easily, can't work out why. If Hickey was bought from GC to be forward back up ruck, I believe they now have to play him there ahead of Kosi for a few games in row for future reference. Either he learns to play as a tall forward or he goes to Sandy as No1 ruck and plays only if Benny Mac gets injured.

Second I thought Gilbo had been playing well this season from what I'd seen on TV. Live on Thurs his game was outstanding. Made Reid look second rate. May not be able to take the monsters like Cloke but could easily play on the tall mobile forwards like Buddy etc. Disposal will never be elite but was adequate.

Roo is a champion. A travesty that he was not awarded the Anzac Day Medal. What a work ethic. Any new player should be sat down and given an isolate Roo video to watch to see how hard this guy works.

Really liked Wright who looks to have the body already to be an AFL player. Loved how he took it on a couple of times. Very promising.

Saunders and Murdoch showed glimpses. Saunders looks like a mean little dude. Ross showed enough to suggest he could be very handy in the future.

Finally what I liked was that the effort was full on. Pity the execution didn't match. We dominated periods of that game but expened so much energy for so little result. I know some of these blokes have been poor in disposal all their careers but it really is frustrating to watch tremendous effort ruined by hitting a Swine on the chest with no Saints within 40 metres.

[bergholt]

While i have got you here Berg you said Kosi was the best option as forward ruck but put Hickey in there. I would rather Hickey But I am easily confuse. Please explain.

Fair point. I reckon Kosi and Maister are both much better forwards than Hickey, Hickey's better in the ruck than Kosi and much better than Maister. So it's hard to split them. I think if we're trying to win games then Kosi should be picked ahead of the other two, but that's not the only criteria. For us to be competitive in the next five years it'd be really handy if Hickey learned to play forward well, so given we're not going to make the finals I reckon we play him up there as much as possible and see how he develops. (Sounds like last week at Sandy was the start of that.)

[saintsRrising]

We need to be focussing on our future...this year is already gone if it ever was.

Of the big blokes:

Hickey does not have to play every game, but you would want him by the end of the year to have played at least roughly 11 or more.

Ditto for Lee.



White and Ferg (rookie) will hopefully debut with several games to get a look at them and for them to have a taste of the higher level so that they know how hard they have to work.

Kosi looks done. But if gets for more game for his 200th good luck to him. But i would be more keen for our younger talls to learn.