#41 Brody Mihocek

[themonk]

agree

seems WHE avoids this topic every week

[inxs88]

He is the captain of the forward line and has showed zero leadership or presence for 6-8 weeks. I love what he has been but not what he is at the moment. Would both Kreuger and Henry up forward be better than an invalid Mihocek?

[Piesnchess]

YEH, CHECKERS needs a rest to recharge his batteries for the swannies.

[RudeBoy]

Checkers will not be dropped....no ifs, no buts, no maybes. However, I'd love to see 'Freddy' Kreuger in there as well, perhaps by moving WHE further up the wing. A forward line with Checkers, Kreuger, Ginni, Elliott, 'Magic' Johnson and McCreery would give us more aerial strength.

This would obviously necessitate Cameron, Cox and Kreuger being rotated thru the bench.

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

Its not a matter of dropping, its a question of 'is he injured, and if so, how badly, is it effecting his potential output'.

His confidence in his body is a key component of the question, and the play on from 30m may indicate his kicking has been affected.

If that is the case, well the old adage about not playing injured players in finals comes to mind.

If he is not injured, than he gets another run

[Damien]

I think this week is the toughest selection week for the club this entire season.

I get the impression that Checkers is the kind of guy who will put his hand up if he thinks he can’t guarantee that he can see the game out. Maybe he becomes Medical sub. Sort of dropping him without dropping him.

[Mr Miyagi]

Will Nick give Checkers the 35?

[MAY-Z]

just watching Leigh Montagna's clips of us stuffing up our inside 50s and Checkers was involved in all of the worst of them

I think its quite similar to Aaron Finch in the one-day team, over the bulk of his career Finch's career says he deserves a spot, on his current form he doesn't.

as was mentioned by someone earlier, maybe you switch him and Kruger between Sub and onfield

[mudlark]

[What'sinaname]

If you are going to drop a forward, it would be Ginnivan based on form.

Compare the last 6 weeks,

Checkers is
+1 goals
+6 disposals
+8 tackles

[pietillidie]

Unless he's majorly injured, you would doubt a tall and a team workhorse like Checkers gets dropped. More likely they work a better forward strategy even if he's hampered somewhat and may even bring in Kreuger as well anyhow.

Also, if it's going to be wet, Checkers is very good below his knees for a big and kicks a lot of goals off the ground or out of packs.

[pietillidie]

[Skids]

[woodys_world69]

would we even be talking about this if checkers went back and took the set shot in the last? lol

i trust checkers kicking for goal over Kruegers at present, and we still dont know how well his leading patterns and positioning fits into our structure.

krueger is up and coming talent but not for this season with limited game prep/experience. We had the same problem with carmichael..fantastic for 10 mins of sub time but wasnt working in a full game and was dropped by the coaches.

[David]

I have always loved Mihocek and everything he brings to the team (I don't remember the specific game off the top of my head, but it's not long ago that he was putting his body on the line repeatedly in the dying minutes to help us get over the line in one match) – but it's hard to ignore the fact that he has been less effective in recent weeks.

He's kicked an average of 1.3 goals per game since the bye (never kicking more than 2 in a match) vs 2.2 goals per game in the first half of the season (kicking 4 on three occasions and 3 once), so there's definitely been a noticeable decline. Marks have tailed off too: he's taken an average of just 2.2 marks per game since the North Melbourne game vs 4.5 in his first fourteen matches of the year.

What was most saddening though was watching clips on AFL 360 last night of around half a dozen of our worst missed opportunities in front of goal against Geelong: Mihocek featured prominently in almost all of them, and nearly all of those could be put down to – as much as I hate to say it – poor decisionmaking or execution on his part.

I wouldn't go as far as to say he should be dropped, but, for whatever reason, be it injury or form, I also don't think he's doing enough to be the focal point of our forward line at the moment as he has been earlier in the season and in previous years. Whether it's Henry or Kreuger, I really do think we need to bring somebody else in and shuffle things around.