bondiblue wrote:
Most important, we have to win the midfield. A smart game plan and match up for the small and fast leading FF Williams. Bannister for mine, with Rucks filling the hole...and whatever happens lets not leave the FF whether its Kennedy or Setanta in a 1 against 4 situation like last week.
The opinion of a few others is that Bannister is not fast as a defender trying to keep pace with a leading forward. He doesn't have the anticipation to avoid them opening up a break. He is, however, good when he is moving constantly as a defensive midfielder does, as he doesn't need to accelerate from a standing possie. If this is so, then he is hardly ideal for a forward such as Williams.
If we have a man filling the hole in front of Williams, you have to accept that Hawthorn will play a loose man in our F50. This is part of the reason you are concerned about Fev competing against a couple of opponents.
Against Sydney and Barry Hall, it was probably inevitable that we would drop back a tall to allow Lance to corral him. Otherwise, the Swans would have tried to isolate Hall and Whitnall in F50, and he has an impressive combination of strength, pace and stamina which makes him hard to control in one-on-ones. It would also have been too much to expect a small mobile player like Skinny or Scotland to fill the hole in front of him but Barney had the bulk to hold his own.
Against Hawthorn, why would you play a ruckman down back? Much better to play a mid-size defender/midfielder who can set up play from defence. Remember that this will only work if the loose Hawk in the our F50 is less damaging than our loose man. So playing Houla or Scotland might be the go.
But the alternative is to play man-on-man rather than flooding or playing with loose defenders. If Hawthorn initiates it, so be it. But apparently against Geelong, they rattled Geelong precisely becasue they played man on man.
It may well be a perfect time to play Santy. Far from Fev taking the load off him, I would think that forcing Santy to play a peripheral role and create space as he would need to do to give Fev space to lead into would hardly play to his strengths. He is a very good lead from the goalsquare, and Hawthorn doesn't have any elite tall defenders. His size and speed would create nightmares for defenders who can't take his arms in a spoil. This is a very simple task which minimises his lack of experience in the finer arts like blocking and screening, and drawing defenders out of the F50. And he has the athleticism to create defensive pressure when the Hawks get it in our F50.