Excess of running players?

[dog town]

I have read a few times that we have an excess of these type of players and I am not sure I agree. I thought our running depth got completely exposed for the way we play the game when we had a few injuries and I actually tipped before the season that it could happen. When we lose 2 or 3 runners we just struggle to play the style of game that we were looking to play. With Mcmahon falling in a hole after round 6, Griffen dislocating his patella , Cross doing his medial and others having assorted niggling injuries like Gilbee and his calf we lost the ability to break the lines or in the case of Cross run into space to create a link. It happened in 2005 as well when we were smashed twice in a row when we had Mcmahon and Smith out for consecutive weeks. We simply had too many guys on the list this year who were not contributing. Some were just way too young, some were part of our huge list of spindly developing talls and others just were not up to it.

If we are going to trade one or two of guys like Mcmahon, Ray or Guido then we would want to be damn sure that guys like Lynch, Harbrow and Everitt are going to take a huge step or we would be wanting to get the neccesary personel to change our style of game quite a bit. The lack of development from guys like Faulkner and McCormack really started to hurt us this season. For this reason I am sceptical about Eade seeing many of these guys as trade bait unless they are really keen to go home. Eade himself has said that we found it harder to replace our runners this year then the year before where most of our injuries were to tall players.

[mjp]

Yep. Agree 1000 percent with everything you have said.

Just as we dont have a shortage of talls, we dont have an excess of runners. What we have is a shortage of proven, quality Key forwards and ruckman, and an excess of unproven 190cm plus guys still finding their way. We also have a number of unproven young runners who are very light and may or may not make it.

If we trade the likes of McMahon and Gia, I hope we have a good plan B. These guys may not be everything we had hoped for, but if I was picking a round 1 team today they are still miles ahead of guys like Hill, Stack and Lynch.

[Raw Toast]

Agree as well and it's a point that needs emphasising. Our injuries this year seem to have had a significantly bigger impact on our results than the injuries we had last year. And for those who ask whether we can afford to have West, Cross and Boyd in the team, I don't think it's a coincidence that we really struggled when West and Cross were out and/or not completely fit. I don't think it's reasonable to label McMahon an outside player anymore either.

FWIW our draft selections last year indicate that Eade and Clayton thought our running stocks needed significant re-inforcement (a judgement that was then born out in the season).

Is McMahon still under contract? If he is I suspect we'll play hardball (if he does ask to go home) and won't let him go unless we get something closely approaching adequate compensation.

[Sockeye Salmon]

I posted a week or so ago that we didn't really have a whole heap of quick, outside guys that everyone says we do.

If we traded McMahon and Ray we would start to look very pedestrian indeed.

[Mantis]

If we trade the likes of McMahon and Gia, I hope we have a good plan B. These guys may not be everything we had hoped for, but if I was picking a round 1 team today they are still miles ahead of guys like Hill, Stack and Lynch.

But if you were picking a team for rd 1 would these 2 players be in your team. for me McMahon definitely is, I really like him running off half back with the likes of Gilbee, Griffen, etc.. I can't find a spot for Gia, I have Higgins and Harbrow ahead of him as small forward options in the starting 18 and Akermanis on the bench as back up.

I think Lynch will be a handy back up as a small forward as he offers something that Gia doesn't, pace.

Our lack of run is more a problem in lack of run the other way. This is due to our hard running offensive game style which it makes it hard to run both ways and from a far the lack of effort in some players to push back as hard as they push forward.

[Go_Dogs]

Good thread. Agree that we can't afford to trade to many runners. We were shown up to be very short in quality runners this year once we had a few injuries to key play makers. If we do trade away a runner for a ruck/forward, I guess the upside is we could select a good runner with our first round pick.

The thing that will determine our success this coming season is the leaps that guys like Higgins, Addison, Harbrow, Everitt, Stack, Hill and Lynch make. If they can all play a role, we'll have more depth than we thought.

[LostDoggy]

macmahon might provide run off the backline, but he isnt a 'backman'. he get's caught behind his player to often, giving away free kicks. he is out bodied and coughs the ball up under pressure. we need at least one traditional back pocket player (strong bodied, hard nosed) eg campbell brown, waters, a slightly better josh hunt

[Go_Dogs]

Perhaps though, he's under instruction to run forward of the ball at every opportunity and try to make his opponent more accountable as we're running the ball forward?

As far as a traditional back pocket, why not Morris?

[LostDoggy]

morris is more of a shut down player. taking players like robertson, oloughlin,johnson. Every player in your backline has to be a 'defender'. Defend first ,rebound second. Our backline is way to leaky. Trade jordy

[dog town]

http://www.woof.net.au/forum/showthread.php?p=6968&highlight=depth#post6968

I posted something similar in post 4 of this old thread and commented on it before the season on both of the other sites. I am actually a little worried as to how we will go if we trade some of these guys.

[southerncross]

Yep. Agree 1000 percent with everything you have said.

Just as we dont have a shortage of talls, we dont have an excess of runners. What we have is a shortage of proven, quality Key forwards and ruckman, and an excess of unproven 190cm plus guys still finding their way. We also have a number of unproven young runners who are very light and may or may not make it.

If we trade the likes of McMahon and Gia, I hope we have a good plan B. These guys may not be everything we had hoped for, but if I was picking a round 1 team today they are still miles ahead of guys like Hill, Stack and Lynch.

I echo your comments to DT.
We just lack the overall quality of the tall's we have on our list.
Like it or not, the game is very much a running one and unless the tall's you have are quality you are often better to add the extra runners.

As our results would indicate, we need to improve the quality of our KPP but not decimate or diminish the midfield brigade.

[LostDoggy]

Giansiracusa is going nowhere. Finished somewhere around fourth in the competition for goal assists and is one who can the thing straight. He is a victim of the way we bring the ball into the forward line.

Given oppportunities as on the day he completely cleaned up Wirripunda, he is a good player and a lot more gutsy than people give him credit for. Playing on a HFF for us is a big ask when the game plan is to have the forwards running into tthe backline to get behind the ball.

[LostDoggy]

hear hear! watch the game agianst north when petrie kicked 6 goals in the first quarter. gia got belted and still was the only dog to have a dip. his courage is underrated