Lake forward against Geelong?

[Scorlibo]

Last time we played the Cats, Brian struggled on Cam Mooney, Milburn and Scarlett murdered us with their run from the back half, Harley picked off everything and Geelong's pressure forced us to bomb long into our small forward line - making Harley's job easier. If Lake went forward all these issues would theoretically be less of an issue. Lake would force Scarlett to be more accountable, would bring more defensive pressure to our forward fifty, would provide a legitimate marking target, might be able to stop Harley picking off the bombs (would be interesting to see Lake and Harley, the two best readers of the flight and two best mark-off-opposition-kick-ers in the league, go head to head) and of course Lake is an exceptional contested mark, so he may even be able to contribute a few goals. Thoughts?

[The Coon Dog]

Seems like it's robbing Peter to pay Paul. I reckon we need him down back far more. Interesting thinking though.

[Happy Days]

He was started off as a forward...I remember one game against Adelaide where he looked fairly impressive as a full-forward, and even kicked the first goal IIRC. Would be interesting to see how the Cats would respond.

[hujsh]

I'd be happy to see that but would would take Mooney/Lonergan/Ottens (when there)

[dog town]

If we had Williams it would be an option but the cats have a few tall forwards for us to contend with. Not only that but some of the cats small forwards will probably be picked up by one of our taller options in Ryan Hargrave so it leaves us further short of tall options down back. Morris or Hargrave will go to Johnson. We just dont have the cover to push Lake forward.

A big issue for us is whether Lake plays on Mooney. Mooney will just run him all over the place which robs us of Lake and his big presence inside our defensive 50. I wouldn't mind us coming up with something else for Mooney so we can keep Lake in a more attacking role.

[Ozza]

We just have to be smarter with Brian this time. He can't play on Mooney if Mooney is going to be up the ground.

It is essential he is in the backline though. Never seen him do well up forward anyways.

Hopefully he can find another running goal this week thougH!

[Bulldog Revolution]

His form has been good the last two weeks,

He has had a couple of games on Mooney where he just hasn't been switched on

I am very confident Lake will play well on Friday night

[LostDoggy]

I think Lake played a bit of footy in his younger days as a forward and I think that would probably be his best position. Unfortunately we don't have anyone else in the back line to cover for him.

[Go_Dogs]

Seems like it's robbing Peter to pay Paul. I reckon we need him down back far more. Interesting thinking though.

Yes, at this stage we can't afford to do it.

Hopefully over the coming seasons it might be something we can look at doing. Lake seems to read the ball coming in well when it's bombed long, and did play junior footy as a forward so probably has some understanding of where to lead etc. So a worthwhile experiment I think, if we have some other tall options down back.

[Scorlibo]

I'd be happy to see that but would would take Mooney/Lonergan/Ottens (when there)

Morris - Mooney
Hargrave - Lonergan
Tiller - Ottens

Does look short.

[LostDoggy]

I think we should leave him down back. When he turned up at half time and played on Buddy he was good and played really well last week. He and Gilbee give us alot of run from behind which is what we need when rebounding the ball from defence this week.