It was interesting watching Box Hill v Werribee in the context of next year for Hawks listed players. I agree with comment Jeka played ok. I wonder why we don’t try Kosi down there? He’s big, strong and very mobile. His marking as a forward is hot and cold as is his kicking accuracy. Maybe someone from HI can throw some light on whether that is an option and if not why not?
We have two classy small forwards in Brockman and Butler but for me they are both so laconic they need an urgency injection. Assuming Brockman is gone Butler needs to lift or do we go hard for young Nick Watson?
Stephens is not pushing his cause well, Husthwaite looks the goods, Ramsden looks good needs more bulk, Serong I like. Ryan is classy but needs more strength got pushed off the ball too easily v Freo although there may have been excuses.
Scrimshaw is a best 22 lock defender for me I don’t understand why he’s under pressure. Glad Morrison wasn’t in your 22 Brad. CJ has a big year ahead of him but he can be sensational at his best.
DGB looked good up forward and played ok on Saturday. Unless we get a crazy offer for him or he’s worked into a suitable package I’d like to give him one more year. He needs to reduce the tough guy jostling though and focus on his football.
Good stuff Brad, no such thing as too much selection dissection. Not sure if you watched the Box Hill game, but Emerson Jeka played another good game as a key defender. He took a number of excellent marks and used the ball very well. Would love to see him get a new contract and have a big pre-season. With Chad out for most of the season and Brockman returning home, we desperately need a small forward. Do we back Butler in for that role? Do we try CJ playing as a forward? We do need to come up with something though, as the ball bounces out of our forward line too easily. If we're willing to back in Denver as Mitch Lewis' partner, we need one high quality key defender who marks the ball and a quality small forward.
One of the challenges is we appear to have a number of players who are similar in certain positions, which, while great for list depth, leaves a few positions where we still appear to have gaps. I would like to see Weddle play wing next season and use his amazing tank and almost become an extra mid. No doubt he'll do this in the future. That may open the door for a fit CJ in 2024. I reckon with a good pre-season, Scrimshaw should be given the nod in front of Frost. Jeka is a very good ball user so could also fill one of these key defensive roles. Presumably, we'll land McCabe jnr and he will develop for the majority of next season.
The midfield turn-around this season has been remarkable and apart from the key mids, we have built admirable future depth with Ward, Macdonald, Mackenzie and the 'Ice Block / Cooler' (Finn). Reeves needs another good pre-season but looked really good in some key moments in the second half of the season. Meek is a decent back-up, however I don't think a two-ruck approach worked for us at all this season.
Up forward, we really need to see more consistency from Kosi (he is a big lad at 22 and I always remind myself of how long Drew Petrie took to develop) and one of Ramsden or Ryan could play the David Hale type role with decent development. The small forward is an issue with The Chad out and Punky closer to the end than the beginning (albeit still bagging 2 per game!) Hopefully Butler can continue to develop and perhaps we even look to the draft for a gun small forward.
I think you may see us more active on the trade front at the end of next season to try and fill any gaps once we have 40-60 games into a lot of the younger guys.
It was interesting watching Box Hill v Werribee in the context of next year for Hawks listed players. I agree with comment Jeka played ok. I wonder why we don’t try Kosi down there? He’s big, strong and very mobile. His marking as a forward is hot and cold as is his kicking accuracy. Maybe someone from HI can throw some light on whether that is an option and if not why not?
We have two classy small forwards in Brockman and Butler but for me they are both so laconic they need an urgency injection. Assuming Brockman is gone Butler needs to lift or do we go hard for young Nick Watson?
Stephens is not pushing his cause well, Husthwaite looks the goods, Ramsden looks good needs more bulk, Serong I like. Ryan is classy but needs more strength got pushed off the ball too easily v Freo although there may have been excuses.
Scrimshaw is a best 22 lock defender for me I don’t understand why he’s under pressure. Glad Morrison wasn’t in your 22 Brad. CJ has a big year ahead of him but he can be sensational at his best.
DGB looked good up forward and played ok on Saturday. Unless we get a crazy offer for him or he’s worked into a suitable package I’d like to give him one more year. He needs to reduce the tough guy jostling though and focus on his football.
Good stuff Brad, no such thing as too much selection dissection. Not sure if you watched the Box Hill game, but Emerson Jeka played another good game as a key defender. He took a number of excellent marks and used the ball very well. Would love to see him get a new contract and have a big pre-season. With Chad out for most of the season and Brockman returning home, we desperately need a small forward. Do we back Butler in for that role? Do we try CJ playing as a forward? We do need to come up with something though, as the ball bounces out of our forward line too easily. If we're willing to back in Denver as Mitch Lewis' partner, we need one high quality key defender who marks the ball and a quality small forward.
Only 3 on the bench? Who comes in?
Good work Brad.
One of the challenges is we appear to have a number of players who are similar in certain positions, which, while great for list depth, leaves a few positions where we still appear to have gaps. I would like to see Weddle play wing next season and use his amazing tank and almost become an extra mid. No doubt he'll do this in the future. That may open the door for a fit CJ in 2024. I reckon with a good pre-season, Scrimshaw should be given the nod in front of Frost. Jeka is a very good ball user so could also fill one of these key defensive roles. Presumably, we'll land McCabe jnr and he will develop for the majority of next season.
The midfield turn-around this season has been remarkable and apart from the key mids, we have built admirable future depth with Ward, Macdonald, Mackenzie and the 'Ice Block / Cooler' (Finn). Reeves needs another good pre-season but looked really good in some key moments in the second half of the season. Meek is a decent back-up, however I don't think a two-ruck approach worked for us at all this season.
Up forward, we really need to see more consistency from Kosi (he is a big lad at 22 and I always remind myself of how long Drew Petrie took to develop) and one of Ramsden or Ryan could play the David Hale type role with decent development. The small forward is an issue with The Chad out and Punky closer to the end than the beginning (albeit still bagging 2 per game!) Hopefully Butler can continue to develop and perhaps we even look to the draft for a gun small forward.
I think you may see us more active on the trade front at the end of next season to try and fill any gaps once we have 40-60 games into a lot of the younger guys.
Pre-trade and pre-draft
Ok for now
Let's see what happens
Interesting 90 days ahead