Bulldogs should inspire us!

[inxs88]

Last nights first quarter highlighted more than anything the crucial need to restructure our backline. West Coast's ability to block us in, force us to kick backwards, pass off to "standing still" Ruckmen and look second rate. This should be alarm bells for our coaching panel and a "wake up call" for many of Nick's BB sycophantic apologists for the misdemeanours of our backline.

So lets breakdown the backline selected yesterday and fairly surmise their respective flaws that inhibit ball flow and counter attack:

1. Nathan Brown: lost pace, good neutraliser at contest but with ball in hand = heart in mouth. Prone to skyballs or lateral kicking with no offensive weapons.

2. Alan Toovey: a shadow of his negating best. 10 possession avg at best, getting caught out by the small more than ever and his disposal?? Well can be summed up by that putrid forward entry with 8 minutes to go that's et up the Eagles "game sealing goal". No offensive weapons outside closing speed in neutralising contests.

3. Jack Frost: a fast negating Presti type that despite positives, lacks any offensive weapons especially by foot

4. Paul Seedsman: wouldn't surprise if it is his last game for the club. Bucks was visibly pissed off with his efforts (lack of) in every body contest and his supposed offensive run and carry is a mere memory. Can't combine the defensive elements with the offensive and is bereft of confidence.

5. Marley W: respect this guys journey, week in week out commitment and prolific ball getting ability. He isn't an elite kick and this was evidenced by his inability with the "kick ins" yesterday failing to exit our defence area time after time. Still a necessary servant their but "no more kick ins".

6. Travis Varcoe: a revelation this season off half back. Elite pressuring skills, elite by foot and a great addition and win fir the Harry O deal. The only gripe is that it wasn't in Buckley's plan to play him there this season. He wanted him on the wing/half forward giving us quality forward entries.
I guess with Goldsack, Ramsay, Sinclair, Young etc not available it forced Buck's hand and move Travis there.

So what does this mean. Well lets examine the Bulldogs transformation this year and see how their defence has been re aligned with masterful effect.

In's:

M Boyd: now most efficient kick league says Champion Data
E. Wood: moved from wing, injury free and All Australian bound
Johannisen: clean, efficient and offensive style
Bob Murphy: full time there, captain, inspirer and clean!! Great example
D Morris: the rock, not overly offensive, rarely beaten. Complements well
J. Roughead: solid, safe and reliable
Lin Jong: when not injured a great offensive weapon and back up

backup: Joel Hamling

Outs:

L Picken: to the midfield with astonishing results and All Aust bound
B Goodes: not relevant
L. Jones: tried back and forward there and got flick: Suffer Blues
T. Young: delisted after 2: we took 4 years to make same decision
B. Lake: bravely traded 3 years ago: Dogs Roughead the beneficiary
C Howard: former first rounder delisted
Mark Austin: delisted this plonker, slow dud

Their preseason game against us when Greenwood went down showcased this massive overhaul with the net gain being a skilful, slick, fast and great balance of "defensive intent" and "offensive weapons". Their ladder surge hasn't been a coincidence.

So what do I propose?? Well am sure the last 7-9 games (if we played finals) should be geared towards a platform of sustained success. I think the following should occur;

Backs:

Marley W
J Marsh
T Goldsack

HB:

M Scharenberg
J Frost or N Brown (both don't fit) *
T Langdon

* B Reid if was fit (yes I know: may never happen)

We release Varoce and maintain Oxley on the wings with an ability to drop back into defence where necessary.

In 2010 Mick was brave in putting a line through:

* Lockyer
* O'Bree
* Medhurst
* Fraser etc...
* J Anthony

Am sure Nathan realises that messrs Seedsman, White, Toovey etc.. are letting him down in 2015 they'll be doing it 2017. Over to you Bucks!

[yin-YANG]

I think Marsh should be considered for a run at some stage but Brown and Frost have done a good job all year on the opposition tall forwards.

Langdon, Williams and Oxley are all young and stepping up and are playing their best footy right now - with more to come I suspect.

Varcoe down back now and then is also very good - the problem this year has been the form of Tooves and Goldsack. Both are below par this year and given they are 28 they are the players who should be stepping up and showing the newbies how it is done. Goldy is injured so it is hard for him to do any more.

I don't think Shazza has the pace to replace Tooves - he might play the sweeper role that Oxley does so well - but for now the back 6 or 7 seems pretty settled. Of course if Brown or Frost are injured or if needed maybe Marsh gets a run.

The real problem for the Pies is our forward line - with Elliot and CLoke out we lack goal-kickers. Moore gets another chance with Cloke out - but the big rucks and WHite need to be more imposing when they go forward. PK also need to be given a go to see if he can snag a few.

Ultimately I am looking forward to seeing the start of next year with Cloke, Reid and Moore up forward. But again Moore has to push WHite out not just on potential. As far as recruiting goes it is the tall KPF we need to focus on because one injury and we are really exposed!

[slangman]

[thompsoc]

Inxs88 why was Marley kicking in?

[inxs88]

Yeah but the point I'm trying to make is that the way we transition vs team like the Bulldogs and the Hawks from defence has a direct bearing on the "quality" of entries to the forwards. How often do we find ourselves going inside 50:

* under pressure
* kicking skyballs
* to contested situations where we are 1 forward on 3 backs
* and generally aiming towards the boundary vs the corridor??

It all starts with defence. Wouldn't say the Dogs have an A list forward line yet their backs seem to assist their forward efficiencies.

[Duff Soviet Union]

Agreed. Our defence is far more of a problem than people realise. We don't often give up big scores because our midfield is good (mind you we gave up 32 scoring shots yesterday when our midfield actually got beaten which should ring alarm bells) but we'd have to be one of the worst teams in the league at setting up attack from defence.

Agree that Seedsman and Toovey have both run their races. I haven't seen anything in Maynard either at VFL or AFL. He doesn't get it much, is an average user, can't keep his feet in a contest and struggles to stick tackles. We can't sack all of them at once, but Sinclair should definitely come in for Maynard and I'd even rather see Clinton Young than Seedsman.

It baffles me that Scharenberg hasn't been given a go. He's supposed to be exactly what we need. A good ball user out of defence.

Reid's injuries are killing us. People forget how damaging his "3 iron" kicks were out of defence, despite the occasional shank. It's really tough to play two offensive non-factors in Brown and Frost (and Toovey and Maynard) together.

[yin-YANG]

I disagree with both INXS and Duff - i think .

Firstly our transition is quite good from defence and secondly our defence is one of the best in the comp. We held Weagles and Hawks to low scores. Yes the mids had a part in that but our defence is high quality.

What we lacked was link players who present and find space etc from the back line. Weagles had us pinned down back and looking poor in moving the ball out of defence - this had not been the case the previous weeks. Maybe INXS is calling this transition and then I would agree that against the Eagles we did not transition the ball out of defence well. But this year overall our ball movement has been good and our defenders - especially Marley, Oxley and Langdon have been good in attack as well as defence. Brown and Frost have not been beaten or have been very competitive all year. The backline was more settled when Goldy was there - even when his form was poor because his pressure cleared the way for some of the younger guys. Varcoe is doing a similar job when he goes back now.

I have always thought Keefe needed to be one of our defensive talls because Brown and Frost are too defensive, however we have to accept that these are our leading guys. Marsh might be ready soon though.

Maybe give shazza a go - but only at the expense of Maynard - too many kids will hurt the team balance - when we are still competitive against the very best teams in the comp.

[Hiss]

If lin Jong is in we are finished. Good bye finals for Magpies.

[Duff Soviet Union]

[yin-YANG]

Quite simply Frost and Brown have to stop their opponents getting goals or assists etc - they have been doing that.

The kids - Oxley, Williams and Langdon are doing great. That's 5 backs doing well and Tooves has a role to play on smalls or talls and provide some run etc - he has been a bit up and down but overall you could not get much more from a defence.

I would turn your argument around and highlight that perhaps our newish mids -who may be a tad slow are getting caught out now and then on transition and allowing running teams to get the ball inside the forward zone without enough pressure.

And our mids are doing Ok when it comes to the contested ball and clearances but the teams that move the ball quickly and have good outside runners can exploit our mids with a high efficiency. This is possibly why people are floating the idea of pacy mid for the Pies…

Overall when the Pies have made the games a tight contest we have not been too badly hurt but the really effective fast break teams found some gaps and took advantage of that. Weagles did not take full advantage of their breaks but there advantage was in the middle when they found space and run.

I could not care less about the saints circa 2009 however I agree that they relied on their mids to help create defensive pressure - most good teams do anyway!

[Piesnchess]

IS there any likelihood, at all, before this decade ends, that freeman and schrenberg may get a game or two soon. ????

[What'sinaname]

[Mugwump]

[Pies4shaw]

[SwansWay]

I tend to agree, even though I love both Brown and Frost, they're both stoppers who don't get much of the ball and when they do they're not good users. Right now we have little choice for tall defenders. It would be nice if either of these guys could add another dimension to their game but I don't think that is likely.

Really missing Ben Reid right now. I hope he makes a complete recovery and gets back to his 2010 best.

It's not all doom and gloom in my opinion. Sure, I was really disappointed that we lost for the fourth week in a row but we really missed Adams and Cloke going down hurt us and that notwithstanding, I think we competed pretty well considering. We didn't deserve to win yesterday unlike the three games prior and even though West Coast played all over us, we didn't get thumped which is a great sign especially when you take a look at what happened to Sydney last night and Fremantle the week before.

The games against the Tigers, Dockers, Hawks and the Power could have gone either way so we could just as easily be 12-3 which would have us 2nd or 3rd. Sure we didn't get the points and there are manifold areas of our game that need work, but I think we've done well with some key personnel not playing and others missing crucial shots or poor with disposal.