bondiblue wrote:
Sidefx wrote:
Our wings are still weak, Chesser will be a gun if he gets going but if Florent, Walsh or Smith aren't on the other we are still one short.
That's IF, you don't rate 20yo Ollie Hollands, for a start (which I know you don't) think 30yo Acres is shot, and 19yo Lucas Camporeale and 23yo Chesser wont make it.
I thought you liked mids, and you are hopeful 2 of our best mids (pick 1 & 3) can make a fist of the wing?????
I also think that Ollie is miles ahead of Chesser was at the same age, let alone, ahead of Chesser. The proof is in the eating. Ollie has played 65 games and winning Finals teams playing on the wing in his first year. Chesser just got going in the last 5 games this year.
I'm going to say it again, Ollie is only 20yo and has heaps of growth to come; upside. He will continue to grow his game (on a wing) in terms of speed, strength and skills. He will learn to steady before he kicks. For now, he goes at full pace and takes on all comers such is his confidence. I can live with that. Watch the kid grow. He turns 21yo this year.
You do like mids Sidey, so do I, but, you cant keep bringing them in, only to have no room in the midfield and push them out onto the wings or other specialist spots (HB, small forward). I know Williams was recruited as a mid, but we have a $900K mid playing as a small forward who has stints in the midfield, but he's a damn good small forward.
I want Walsh and Smith in the midfield mix. I dont think we rotate through there enough.
Ollie turns 22 in January Bondi, you missed a year.
You can only marginally build on burst speed, you either have it or you don't and there are a lot more players coming into the system that do.
That kid you like Onley, 2.88s 20m, he'd make Ollie and pretty much our whole midfield look like they're standing still.
And at 195cm, that would be impressive to watch.
I'll ask one question about Ollie, do you trust him to hit a target in the F50 under pressure and to a pressure spot most if not all of the time?
For me, I'm surprised if he does and even if he did it once a game, it is still not enough to be competitive with the other teams that have players doing it multiple times a game.
He is not reliable in that way.
Like I've said before, he has the running, is great defensively, not afraid to hit or get hit and does not give up - a defender.
But for the wing, he is too light and gets brushed off the ball or drops tackles easily, especially in open space, he has no burst speed and although his kicking is getting marginally better, let's not kid ourselves, most of his kicks are 'safe' kicks.
Our biggest issue is between the arcs, we are slow, poor kicking and can't make space to open games up.
Ollie will not fix that, as much as we would like him to, he is not that kind of player IMO.
And because our midfield is pretty much 1 geared still (not counting Smith chickens until they hatch) we especially need outside speed on the wings, HF and HB to offset that.
We need a wing that can open a game up and create options going into F50 instead of just bombing or hitting safe options and slowing ball movement down to let defenders set up properly.
We are a fast ball moving team, that is not fast or accurate by foot and that is why our F50 entries are high and our scoring is low.
Chesser, although less experienced (mainly because of injuries) is exactly what we need on the wing, the big question is if he can deliver.
Rotating Florent (who I would prefer) or Hayward into the mix is also great but like we have been doing for years, we are robbing Peter to pay Paul.
For the centre I still think we are 2 quick mids too short in our rotation, 1 young and another mature.
That is why I was hoping we'd get Bailey, he would've been perfect for us.
I like the Campo boys but they are not lighting quick either and from what I've seen, they are not elite kicks, much like their old man.
I hope they can build on this but I'm not putting all my eggs in that basket.
I will put them in the Cody basket though.
I agree about having Smith and Walsh in the midfield mix but my suggestion for them on the wing is out of desperation I guess.
We need outside run and damage and what we have will not produce that, I think the club knows this also and is why a comment was made about the wings (can't remember who, maybe Voss) and is why they dumped Binns and targeted Chesser. It is an area of weakness, Ollie and Acres didn't fix it (just remember the prelim against Brisbane) when they were on them and in fact it has evolved again and they would be even less effective IMO.
If Ollie was the answer, they wouldn't have put him in defence all year this year, he was training with them before Newman went down too.
I disagree we can't keep bringing more mids in, obviously there is a limit, but we are not there yet because our balance is wrong.
Our midfield is slow and they need support, we have tried to rotate backs and forwards into the centre and it has not worked.
We need to bring in mids that can play back or especially play forwards.
For example Grlj is a mid that can play HB and has the attributes our midfield lacks.
Cumming is another, that can go forward and hit the score board.
Just think of what Rayner can do and ask who we have that can produce what he does, that is what we are lacking in the centre.
Williams would be our closest but so far that has not worked and his body can't be relied upon.
We are only missing a few pieces IMO, fix the midfield (wings and centre) and we fix most of our problems with ball movement into F50.
Ison is a good prospect, I'm hoping he can start on ball and push up to HFF also but if he can get his work rate up he could be that tall wing we both like that is also damaging going forwards.
On another note and going against what I've just said about mid first, if we want speed off of HB, Oskar Taylor looks like a Saad replacement.
Very quick HB, 2.82s 20m and 7.84 agility, the kid has wheels, moves and can kick the footy.
Could be a good wing option also.
Sorry for the long post, but this is the way I see our between the arcs problem.
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