Player wise, what are our biggest weaknesses?

[piedys]

If we are brutally honest here, we fall short in most areas on the field, bar none. And we have precious little trading currency coming up to correct it.

[Raw Hammer]

Watch Haw and see how they all set up 1 to 2 steps ahead of each play. Richmobd just kicked out, Gibson waited a few metres behind the contest outside 50, immediately knew his team mate was at the wing, kicked back to him, he then had 3 defenders lining up across the centre to enable an easy switch, then back into corridor and back inside 50. We are SO far off it.

[piedys]

[RudeBoy]

[Raw Hammer]

Um, if you watch the Top 8 teams, inc North on Fri, they all set up with some semblance of structure. Hence why they're in the 8. I watched North under pressure inside D50, and they instinctively knew that they had supper around them in certain areas. Conversely, whenever a Pies player was under pressure, he simply wanted to get rid of it immediately like a hot potato, surrounded by 2-3 team mates standing around sh!tting themselves with their thumbs in their butts instead of setting up to provide an easy exit. I know this cos I sat directly behind the goals on the third tier and could see the panic snd hack kick mentality vs having s cool head with senior support in the right places. Maybe Bucks does coach a structure and maybe our players are too dumb to follow instructions.

[piedys]

[qldmagpie67]

I think we have the basis of a decent side but it needs some tweaking and some changes in positioning and structure

Firstly I think we are using the players we have with decent skills wrong.
I've been harping on for weeks about playing Sidey forward as this to me seems to be his best place. He doesn't have line breaking speed, he isn't the best mid we have by a long stretch but what he does have is a good tank to run his opponent around, decent kicking skills when not pressured and he reads the game better than most our players.
Varcoe plays his best footy off the HBF or wing were he can get back and break lines and move it quickly. The other night when we lost Sinclair we lost all speed out of defence but Varcoe say in a forward pocket for ages getting a cold.
Adams is our best in and under type but he can't do it all so why not use Maynard in rotation. Maynard isn't the best kick but if he can win it and feed it out to Pendles or Varcoe then he's done a great job.
I've said for ages we have to many 180-185cm HBF types with limited skills and speed which we need to address. Scharenberg has potential but he's going to be another year of hard work getting used to footy again after another long rehab. Ramsay will be similar he won't be at his best next season but showed enough early to warrant a spot.
There's no guarantee Elliott will be back to anywhere near his best with his back condition.
Moore is a lock up forward along with Faz but after that it's anyone's guess. Can Reid play forward and Keefe back or are we robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Is Howe and White better suited swapping roles ?
Can Treloar learn to kick on the run in the off season ?
Will JDG improve again next season ?
Will Crisp fire up again like his first season ?
Will Swan retire ?
Will Cloke stay or go ?
The other thing is one you can't coach and that's composure under pressure and we have so many players who hear foot steps and panic and kick or handball without thinking
So many questions
For mine there's to many unanswered questions over the coach as well. Not sure if he's the sort of person who can coach the basics as they came to him so easily he may expect all the players to be much better prepared for AFL footy than they are.
I know one thing if we can't hold our structures under pressure then it wouldn't matter if we had 22 buckley's out there to kick the ball we will get slaughtered again and again

[Raw Hammer]

Yep, agree with all of that.

[Mugwump]

1. A seasoned ruckman. Grundy will be good but he is too young and his poor starts to games largely explains our poor starts to games.

2. A strong KPP at either CHF or FF. I am tempted to think that Cox needs to be blooded as a rukman fast, so Grundy can play the role of CHF.. He is not the gratest mark in the world, but he is not a dummy in that department either, and he would be a good target. Otherwise white needs to make it as a CHB allowing Reid to move forward. Our lack of a pipeline of talls coming through is a worry, especially as Cloke is well into the twilight.

[kymbo5@yahoo.com.au]

Its far from the complete answer to our problem but I would have liked to to pursue Mitch Robinson when he left Carlscum. He is a strong mid, good endurance, overhead skills are good and he can attack or tag. He has the mongrel in him we lack at times. Wouldn't have been expensive either.

[Dave The Man]

[Dave The Man]

Some Real Classy Players.

Outside of Pendles,Aish.Broomhead and Oxley. We don't have many

[Jezza]

[jackcass]

[jackcass]

Another 2 years and 50 games into our kids. I think we've got most of the pieces together, just not quite ready.

A change of luck with injuries.

KP players. We need to be looking to lock in additional longer term development types. Cloke may already be cooked. Can't hang our hats on Frost and Cox or Wyatt being the longer term answers.

Small-medium creative forward with pace. Brown and Daicos may be the answer here but unrealistic to expect them to step up immediately.

I'd be watching closely to see who falls out of the GCS and GWS trees.