Its time.... Again.

[burnsy17]

Circa 2009 i started a thread about us never winning a flag with the likes of Tarks, Fraser, O'Bree, Johnson and a couple of others in the side. Yes, they were all great servants of our club, but they weren't going to lead us to ultimate glory.

As it turned out, only Johnson won a flag from that group.

Its time again, Pies.

Toovey, Blair, Brown... Your time is up.

[RudeBoy]

[John Wren]

you will awaken susan who claims to have contributed to the collective demise of the three amigos.

[surfer1]

Yep maybe, except the Caff hasn't played this season in top grade, me I would add Cloke

[woftam]

Pretty sure Brown just gave Hawkins a touch up. Still a valuable member of our side in my opinion.

[daicos from the boundry]

Ive said before on threads can't have Brown,Frost and Toovey play together. That's half your backline that can't kick. To much pressure coming out. How good was it on Friday night with Reid and Pendlebury setting up at half back hitting targets on the rebound.
Blair has really been disappointing in the second half on the year. Thought he and Goldsack started the year well with their tackling pressure but has really dropped off. Just hasn't got enough tricks to be a small forward. We really need that specialist small forward in our team like a Leon Davis or even a Medhurst type.

[Mugwump]

[doriswilgus]

Brown's been very good this year.He's rarely beaten,and holds the backline together.We saw how bad it was the week he didn't play.

The other two you could make a case for to pension off,but not Brown.

[swoop42]

Brown no.

The other two I'd expect to be overtaken sometime next year.

Add in Goldsack also.

If we land Treloar and gain further improvement out of the kids then a resting mid will probably take the spot of Blair.

Plenty of options across half back going forward to replace the other two.

[Dave The Man]

Brown Retire?????

He had a Great Season and had his first injure free one for awhile

[AN_Inkling]

This only ever makes sense if you have older players holding out younger ones. That's not the case here. Brown and Blair are still 25 or so. Brown is clearly our number 1 defender, so that's an odd one. Blair is a limited player and will probably be overtaken by others but it's certainly not essential for us to win a flag (2010 comes to mind).

Toovey's form hasn't been great and we have a lot of half back flankers, so it will be difficult for he and Goldsack to consistently keep their spots. They're far from done though and we all know that young players won't get the job done every week, so there needs to be a balance. And again, at 28, he's not at pension age yet.

We've been playing plenty of young players the last couple of years so there's no fair criticism to be made there. Over the next couple we'll continue to play them and continue to work out our best 22. At the moment Brown is clearly a part of that, Blair and Toovey may be more towards the edge but certainly not out of consideration and there's no reason for them to be so.

[Pies2016]

Brown ! You're takin the piss, right ?

[burnsy17]

[Piesnchess]

Brown is ok, leave the lad be, thankyou.

[Az]

Perplexed as to the knocks on Brown. This year has been his best year to date, been an absolute rock in defense. Sure he can't kick, but a key defender who can beat the big power forwards like Hawkins, you take that.

I can agree with OP in the capacity that as a collective unit, some players named are pretty poor users of the footy. Seems too many times this year the reliability of Toovey to shut down his man is nowhere near the standard of seasons passed, especially after his knee reco. Luckily we have Marsh who can fit the role of taking both smalls and talls, although I haven't seen enough of him to suggest he can improve the back 6 with better disposal.