How will our defence hold up this year

[Eastdog]

This I believe now is more an area of concern than the forward line. Morris and Murph will be great and I'm interested to see how Hamling and Biggs goes. Hopefully Roughead get some form back for us down there.

[F'scary]

The keys are Talia, Hamling, Roberts coupled with Roughead's fitness. If between the three of them we get 1 in good form to play KPB along with an injury-free Roughead, that will make all the difference. Morris & Wood can play then HBF or BP. Massive bonus Murphy HBF and then there is one more spot with quite a few who should be in serious contention, so there should be consistent selecting based on form. If Hamling is any good (& he's shown some signs) then there is the 3 tall backman option, when required, taken care of, provided Talia or Roberts is doing a good job as a KPB.

In all honesty, after our first NAB cup match I am more worried about the other outstanding bogeys from last season: low returns on investment into the 50m arc, much hurt on the turnover and overdoing the possessions in general play (the hot-potato style that lacks incisiveness). On the bright side, we should be able to take a few marks in the 50 metre arc this year.

[boydogs]

Our defense will be much better than last year. Roughead isn't injured and Talia & Roberts should finally be ready to step up and be better options than Austin & Young were last year. Morris should be able to play on some shorter guys and Murphy has looked as good as ever over pre-season. Wood is going well now and we've got Biggs, Darley & JJ to choose from now as rebounders

[G-Mo77]

In short it won't. Unless there us drastic improvement in Roberts and Talia or Hamling breaks out we'll bleed a lot of goals. Morris is still a rock and can take anyone, he needs more help.

[Bulldog4life]

It will be interesting to see how we line up our back 6. Bevo was the Hawk's backline coach last year and often they went in undersized and just looked not good enough especially with Lake & Gibson out. But they still managed to get the job done.

[ratsmac]

We look like we will be struggling down back again, but it's a problem that won't go away and will only get better with getting games into the kids. There is definitely a lot hinging on Talia, Roberts and probably Hamling. We need one of those to step up. More teams are having 2 genuine talls up forward these days so we need defenders to suit.
A fit Roughead makes things easier but he still needs to get better in those one on ones. He will be serviceable but he needs help.
The worry for me is having Matty Boyd in defence. His turn overs will cost us if he doesn't clean up his disposal. He lacks leg speed as well.
We know what to expect with Morris but he isn't getting any younger. This is where we need Wood, Biggs or Hamling to take over. A genuine stopper (or 2). It would be great to see Morris struggle to get a game because others have gone past him.
Our run out the backline has to come from Captain Murphy, JJ, Darly and Biggs. Wood is capable in this role as well but seems to lose his man in the process. He's better off concentrating on being more accountable. I would like to see Fuller demand a spot in this position but that seems a long way off atm.
Overall I feel we have definitely have enough to work with but it will take some time. Our midfield need to stop those fast break balls coming in otherwise it doesn't matter who we have down back. We are in for an interesting year IMO, but I believe we will see a few players arrive.