TOPIC:

Mr AFL, I'm with 30+ on this one. Your backlines are too small. I cannot see Irons and Hunt in our first 22 at this stage and Bateman wont start in a back pocket IMO.

With the lack of a tall KPP on the recruiting list we will have to play Nick Kane and possibly Joel Houghton and Billings down back. I suggest that Cale Morton will start on a HBF and run the lines. At 192cm he does provide a little more height to the defence.

No way can I see #3 Mortons across the centre. Cale will start on HBF with Jarryd on a wing. Mitch will play up forward where I expect he will score at least 50 goals to compliment the 50 each from Bevan and Stack.
We need a fit Busher to see out a full season in a key attacking position.

The one player I'm interested in is Ugle and where he will fit into the scheme of things. I suspect that he will be in our best 22 and start in the midfield.

30plusyeardrought wrote:

Mr AFL wrote: Just throwing a couple of different line-ups out there:


B: Irons Risol Kane
HB: Sinclair Houghton Hunt
C: J.Morton M.Morton C.Morton
HF: Leeson Busher Boyle
FF: Bateman Stack Bevan
Ruck: Eyres Hodge Moody
Int: Leyendekkers O'Sullivan Richardson, Ugle, Florio, White, Borrett

B: J.Morton Risol Bateman
HB: Sinclair Houghton C.Morton
C: Florio Moody Boyle
HF: M.Morton Busher Leeson
FF: Stack Bevan Leyendekkers
Ruck: Eyres Hodge White
Int: O'Sullivan Richardson Ugle Irons Kane Hunt, Borrett

I know you are only selecting likely line-ups with the players currently on our list.

Thats a pretty small back line in your first line-up Mr AFL.
Irons,Hunt and Sinclair are all on the short side as well as lacking in league games played,they'd be lucky to have played a combined game tally of 30.
Im not sure they are all suited to the backline.
I stated in an earlier post that imo both Mortons should be playing off half back and i stick by that.

In both your line-ups what is the midfield make-up??
I think we are going to get smashed in the guts by the looks of it.
What i can see happening(which is nothing new to our game plan make-up) is robbing Peter to pay Paul because of our shortfalls all over the ground eg.The Mortons playing everywhere,midfield,forward,back shit they'll probably even ruck at some stage.

smokey wrote: Mr AFL, I'm with 30+ on this one. Your backlines are too small. I cannot see Irons and Hunt in our first 22 at this stage and Bateman wont start in a back pocket IMO.

With the lack of a tall KPP on the recruiting list we will have to play Nick Kane and possibly Joel Houghton and Billings down back. I suggest that Cale Morton will start on a HBF and run the lines. At 192cm he does provide a little more height to the defence.

No way can I see #3 Mortons across the centre. Cale will start on HBF with Jarryd on a wing. Mitch will play up forward where I expect he will score at least 50 goals to compliment the 50 each from Bevan and Stack.
We need a fit Busher to see out a full season in a key attacking position.

The one player I'm interested in is Ugle and where he will fit into the scheme of things. I suspect that he will be in our best 22 and start in the midfield.

30plus/Smokey I was just putting a couple of different scenarios up there about what they side could look like. I agree the first line up does look small down back, whoever I don't think it loos any smaller that what we had for most of the season this year in Risol and Kane as the key backs. Risol, Houghton, Billings, Kane and Morton are all over 190cm. Yes it might not strike fear into opposition forwards but at least we have five names to through around. Don't forgot David Johnston either. I know that some on here have questioned his ability to the side but he just couldn't get going last season and I still believe that he is quite capable of playing as a second defender or third and he does have the ability to pinch hit in the ruck.

Irons missed a large chunk of the season but I do think he got better in the last 5-6 games of the season. With a good pre season behind him and with the experience of a couple of years in the AFL system I believe that he can add something either in a position down back or a rotation through the middle.

Hunt has improved a lot as a footballer over the last 24 months. Has now played 50 reserve games and 8 league games, including 6 in last year. Won the reserves best and fairest and when playing league last year impressed me with some of the things he did. If he can continue with the improvement that he has shown over the last two years then I expect him to play more league football this season.

We have lost Matt Tedesco and I am unsure about Julian Jacobs but I see Irons and Hunt as the two players to potentially come in as replacements.

With regards to the Morton's I was getting at that Jarryd and Cale could play different positions. I would love to see them play in a more permanent role but sometimes different opposition requires different thinking. Ideally I would have Jarryd of a half back flank and Cale either on the other flank or the wing. Both would have stints in the middle from time to time. Something I don't think we use enough is rotations through the middle of the ground, especially at home. Lathlain is a massive oval and the more "Fresher" players we have through there the more we might be able to capitalise on the opposition catching there breath.

Getting back to the midfield setup. Predominately I would be playing Christian Eyres, Matthew Moody, Brett Hodge, Dene White, Daniel O'Sullivan, Michael Florio through the guts. Chance Bateman to spend 50-60% of game time there. All would depend on how is body is holding up and as Is said earlier his leadership on the field is brilliant in regards to helping the younger members of the team. Other players to rotate through there would be Jarryd, Cale, Matthew Boyle for his pace and hard at it attitude, Joel Leeson for his pace, Irons and maybe even Bevan (very rarely though just mixing it up a bit).

Someone that attended the AGM told me that Mitch Morton believes he has been played out of position his whole career and that he wants to play either in the middle or of a half back flank. He has good foot skills so maybe playing in either position could be useful for team if we are able to get the ball in his hands often enough. Before people squash this and say bollocks he'll kick 50-60 if he played up front, all I'll say is remember some of the things that were being said about Matt Moody's move to the middle. He had a pretty good year before getting injured and he still managed to kick 14 goals.

Gerard Ugle interests me. Can he come back and have a good solid season after recently being delisted from an AFL team. Being a young man and just going on past experience with other sides, it usually takes them a season to adjust to live back in the state league. Stack, Bevan were solid but not spectacular in their first seasons but as we know had ripper 2013 campaigns.

With Busher I work on the theory that if he is fit then great but if he isn't then so be it. Fit, definitely adds something to the team. If Borrett has signed and I presume he must be close having trained for around 2 months at the club then it could be interesting to see how he fits in and there is also Leyendekkers who for a big bloke is very mobile and good at ground level. I said towards the end of 2013 that we need a tall that is capable of holding there own in a marking situation. Doesn't have to kick 50-60 goals but if he is able to make another option other than Stack or Bevan (which became pretty predictable in the second half of the season) and bring the ball to ground then you have the likes of Lesson, Boyle, Bevan, Stack, Moody, M.Morton or maybe even Callum Collard who are all capable crumers. A tall forward that can keep the ball inside 50 or cause a stoppage that would be great. I still expect Stack and Bevan to kick the majority of our goals but were the real improvement will come will be from who can step up and share the load. Moody and Florio kicked the most goals from the midfield last season with 14 each, while Leeson kicked 12 from 7 games. If these players are able to increase there tallies to around 20 and Boyle and others can step up and share the load then up front we might be able to cover our deficiencies.

All said we like other clubs do have deficiencies in our squad. However I do think that we should be able to cover some of those deficiencies with the players recruited during the offseason. There is still room for a couple of more players I think and who's to say that a diamond in the rough from either the colts or reserves might appear in 2014 and surprise a few.

As Big Sam would say I'M EXITED

Where are you going!!!???

Custodian wrote: Where are you going!!!???

I think Mr AFL has 'left the building' Custy!!

i love the optomism of the people at this club

And what about your club mate tell us abit about your supporters!

I'm exited about the fact that football is just around the corner.

Also I believe I was fair and reasonable in my explanations towards 30plus and Smokey regarding player positions and what I think might happen and will freely admit that the squad has deficiencies.

I'm sure there are players at your respective clubs that you are hoping to take the next step.

Looking at 2013 from a stats perspective we won 10 games for the year, the most since 2003 and for 75% of the season we were in the top four.

Yes we fell away badly in the second half of the year and our game plan became a bit stale and predictable and more often than not we looked to Stacky and Bevo going forward.

At the start of last season heaps of people wrote us off and said we would do nothing. Yes not playing finals AGAIN was a big disappointment considering our good start to the season and the fact we were in the top four for majority of the season.

However I chose to have a little optimism about 2014 and maybe a player or two may surprise, a ball or umpiring decision goes your way in the final minutes of a game etc... and of course we win more games than we lose. And after that is all said and done that is why we rock up week after week to watch our respective teams play.

Mr AFL wrote: I'm exited about the fact that football is just around the corner.

Also I believe I was fair and reasonable in my explanations towards 30plus and Smokey regarding player positions and what I think might happen and will freely admit that the squad has deficiencies.

I'm sure there are players at your respective clubs that you are hoping to take the next step.

Looking at 2013 from a stats perspective we won 10 games for the year, the most since 2003 and for 75% of the season we were in the top four.

Yes we fell away badly in the second half of the year and our game plan became a bit stale and predictable and more often than not we looked to Stacky and Bevo going forward.

At the start of last season heaps of people wrote us off and said we would do nothing. Yes not playing finals AGAIN was a big disappointment considering our good start to the season and the fact we were in the top four for majority of the season.

However I chose to have a little optimism about 2014 and maybe a player or two may surprise, a ball or umpiring decision goes your way in the final minutes of a game etc... and of course we win more games than we lose. And after that is all said and done that is why we rock up week after week to watch our respective teams play.

I was at the game at Lathlain v EF early in the season that you lost by a few points, you were stitched up good and proper in the dying seconds, firstly, Lester-Smith was within 5 metres of the bloke he smothered and the Mark given was clearly not a mark, theres 4 points gone begging !

Mr AFL wrote: I'm exited about the fact that football is just around the corner.

Also I believe I was fair and reasonable in my explanations towards 30plus and Smokey regarding player positions and what I think might happen and will freely admit that the squad has deficiencies.

I'm sure there are players at your respective clubs that you are hoping to take the next step.

Looking at 2013 from a stats perspective we won 10 games for the year, the most since 2003 and for 75% of the season we were in the top four.

Yes we fell away badly in the second half of the year and our game plan became a bit stale and predictable and more often than not we looked to Stacky and Bevo going forward.

At the start of last season heaps of people wrote us off and said we would do nothing. Yes not playing finals AGAIN was a big disappointment considering our good start to the season and the fact we were in the top four for majority of the season.

However I chose to have a little optimism about 2014 and maybe a player or two may surprise, a ball or umpiring decision goes your way in the final minutes of a game etc... and of course we win more games than we lose. And after that is all said and done that is why we rock up week after week to watch our respective teams play.

I think you may mean you are EXCITED (looking forward to) not EXITED (as in left the building) mate!!