Did Our Backline Look Better W/O Howard?

[TheGreatZacsby]

All the fans on reddit and big footy reckon we did. Want to hear your thoughts?

[Life Long Saint]

Nope. Webster was found out a bit by Breust...He was the only forward looking remotely dangerous for them.
That would have been Wilkie and Howard would have played on Lewis.

Surprised that Cordy didn't go to Lewis and move Wilkie on to Breust.

[bakes]

Yes, trade him out.

Gresham can go too.

[Mr Magic]

IMHO, whatever his faults, Howard is very important for our structure down back and until we have an alternative 200cm defender he is always going to play.

I thought Battle didn't have a great game (defensively) and I attribute that to us being 1 tall defender short.

Jimmy had a nightmare game against Breust - seemed to get lost repeatedly.

[magnifisaint]

Didn't notice him not playing except that the backline made less errors with him not there.

[Saint2]

IMHO, whatever his faults, Howard is very important for our structure down back and until we have an alternative 200cm defender he is always going to play.

I thought Battle didn't have a great game (defensively) and I attribute that to us being 1 tall defender short.

Jimmy had a nightmare game against Breust - seemed to get lost repeatedly.

Probably been one of my concerns about Jimmy is that is strong and takes on the play, but he plays a long way off his man and can get caught out by quick turnarounds- we saw that yesterday.

[Life Long Saint]

Didn't notice him not playing except that the backline made less errors with him not there.

[magnifisaint]

Ok. Fewer!

[6621104]

well if he does not play who do we have to take Charlie Curnow? Not a great match up for either Battle or Wilkie.

[Mr Magic]

well if he does not play who do we have to take Charlie Curnow? Not a great match up for either Battle or Wilkie.

IIRC, when both McKay and Curnow play, Howard takes McKay and Wilkie takes Curnow.
Given that McKay is out then Wilkie should go to Curnow and Battle to TDK, so hopefully we won't lose too much with Howard being out.

[The G Train Legacy]

No. Lewis and a 25 yo 200cm beanpole playing his first game, tore us out a new one. With the Doog we won by 10 goals plus and Hawthorn wouldn't have troubled us for a minute.

[n1ck]

Thought we missed Doogs tbh. I know he makes some bonehead decisions with ball in hand but as a pure 1v1 defender he's rarely beaten one-out against the monster forwards and is super important for our structure allowing Battle to play looser / 3rd man up and Wilkie to take the less powerful/more mobile forwards. McKay out for Carlton is a godsend in this regard this week.

[Saints58]

Nope. Webster was found out a bit by Breust...He was the only forward looking remotely dangerous for them.
That would have been Wilkie and Howard would have played on Lewis.

Surprised that Cordy didn't go to Lewis and move Wilkie on to Breust.

Yes I was think ng the same about Cordy he will have to play KPD next week you would think on Carltons big forwards or we would get killed down back.

[Saints58]

well if he does not play who do we have to take Charlie Curnow? Not a great match up for either Battle or Wilkie.

Cordy he has played as KPD for over 100 games and this is the exact reason we got him if Dougal or battle go down like last season.
He has more size then Battle and is able to read the play well he generally doesn't give away 50 penalty's like battle that end up being goals only 1 yesterday he is improving.

[older saint]

Looked small with key big forward .
Least Mckay out so shouldn't be exposed this week.

[Teflon]

IMHO, whatever his faults, Howard is very important for our structure down back and until we have an alternative 200cm defender he is always going to play.

I thought Battle didn't have a great game (defensively) and I attribute that to us being 1 tall defender short.

Jimmy had a nightmare game against Breust - seemed to get lost repeatedly.

Thought same re Battle….just lost sone of his game - intercept abilities

[Yorkeys]

Yes.
Boys and coaches did a good patch job, but.
Lewis is very tall and needs similar to contain him.

[bigcarl]

No, the backline didn’t look better without Howard. Structurally it looked worse. We looked as though we went in one big man down overall.

Ideally Cordy would have been a straight replacement for Howard down back.

Someone else - Hayes maybe if he were fit - would have helped with the triple-team on Sicily and added height/strength/experience up forward.

But all’s well that ends well … for round 20 at least.

Felt sorry for Webster in his mismatch with Breust. Jimmy’s a reliable, tough defender, but better suited on smaller players. I hope he is not forced into that sort of a mismatch again any time soon.

[TheGreatZacsby]

IMHO, whatever his faults, Howard is very important for our structure down back and until we have an alternative 200cm defender he is always going to play.

I thought Battle didn't have a great game (defensively) and I attribute that to us being 1 tall defender short.

Jimmy had a nightmare game against Breust - seemed to get lost repeatedly.

Well… watching the Sandy game, Oscar Adam’s had a massive game. I was really impressed.

[The Fireman]

I think it looked better, less damaging mistakes.
I'm still a fan of Webster.

[Saintmatt]

We've got very lucky with Howard's injury. He's needed when we play teams with 2 or more big forwards. We can cover one with Battle and Wilkie but not two. We'd be in all sorts this week if Harry was playing; Hawkins AND Cameron pose a problem but Hawkins looks injured now; Jack R AND Lynch would be a problem but Lynch isn't playing.

As much as I think Dougal is a complete space cadet with ball in hands - he's a good defensive defender and we might get found out against Hipwood and Daniher with Big O resting forward in R24

[CQ SAINT]

Ok. Fewer!

Yes. There were definitely fewer more mistakes.

[Saintmatt]

No, the backline didn’t look better without Howard. Structurally it looked worse. We looked as though we went in one big man down overall.

Ideally Cordy would have been a straight replacement for Howard down back.

Someone else - Hayes maybe if he were fit - would have helped with the triple-team on Sicily and added height/strength/experience up forward.

But all’s well that ends well … for round 20 at least.

Felt sorry for Webster in his mismatch with Breust. Jimmy’s a reliable, tough defender, but better suited on smaller players. I hope he is not forced into that sort of a mismatch again any time soon.

Surprised a move wasn't made to shift Stocker onto Breust as Jimmy was getting a bath. Would've been worth a try as it couldn't have got much worse.

[SAINT-LEE]

Howard is a very reliable B+ defender that we, that every team needs. If we somehow let him go he'd get scarfed up immediately.

Lewis is a great emerging forward for Hawks & Wilkie actually did a decent job.

Battle & Webster struggled being mismatched but you have to go with your best ( most reliable) on the day.

We need Howard, if anyone was going out it'd be Wilkie for my money. If we have a young lad ready ( not too confident) great if not we need to trade in asap.

[CQ SAINT]

Windhager and Stocker are better off falling into gaps and running the ball out.

Breust was never going to win the game in a shoot out. Every other player was covered.

So he got a few cheap ones ducking out the back after turnovers. Good on him.