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- Thread starter BrisTiger24
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I'd hate to move a player out of a position he's dominating in but it may well be what they do.
If it was my call I'd throw Kmac in for some relief in the ruck, won't win the tap out but he's hard as a cats head and you'd at least have a bigger body around the contest if its halved.
Yep. Saints score heavily from stoppage. Cannot willingly concede the ruck in this instance.
The Balta/Astbury set up hasn't worked. Astbury to King, Broad to Membrey, Nankervis and Balta to share ruck duties.
He overhauled the strongest part of the team in round 23 v Adelaide when he brought Dave back and played 2 tall key defenders.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but pretty sure we've played with 2 tall key defenders only 3 times in the last 2 years:
Round 1 2019 - Rance and Astbury
Round 23 2020 - Astbury and Balta
QF 2020 - Astbury and Balta
Both 2020 games Balta has looked a bit lost being in there with Astbury. Taking one out will put us back to what worked for two years
Balta hasn't been as conspicuous since Astbury's return so I think we can get away with moving him into a different role, we have the backup for his position. At the very least we have more flexibility. Kmac is a no for me, he has done very well in that wing role and to me moving him out of that role would be a net negative for us.
Disagree. Grimes ably took on the role that was left behind by Rance. Grimes only 1cm shorter than Balta and Rance. Then Broad is only another cm shorter. Grimes, Astbury, Balta, Broad give us plenty of match up options on Saints tall forwards.
Yes but Grimes and Broad played the last two years as well. We've still added another tall. One of them needs to come out with Vlastuin, Baker, Houli and Short in defence as well.
Balta just feels like the most obvious one to play elsewhere as he's done it effectively before
I reckon we should play Broady back and use Noah in the back up ruck role. He and Nank can both spend a bit of time forward as well. In a perfect world you would leave Noah back but without big Soldo I would run with him in that role.
Agree with you on Kmac on the wing but that's my point, Kmac chopping out at a centre bounce just centralises him from his wing position.He can easily move from the stoppage to his main role. Taking Balta out of his position for the sake of a tap out is backward mentality IMO. His worth as a backman is far greater than as a chop out ruck. Winning a tap out doesn't mean you'll win the stoppage is probably what I'm trying to say.
As long as we can cover him down back I'd have no problem with him as a chop out but I still would prefer Balta in that backline more often than not.
Broad in to free up Balta is a good change imho. Balta hasn't had enough time to adapt to the structure playing alongside Astbury, I don't see it being an issue next season as they will be able to develop continuity throughout the year. The change will allow Balta to provide a marking option down the line and guard the space one kick out from our offensive arc while Nank rests forward or is off the ground. I don't see Balta taking many centre bounces or playing forward of the ball but he will compete nobly around the ground when required.
We won a premiership with 2 tall defenders.
In fact I would argue that we have always played with 2 tall defenders in Astbury and Grimes. We just now have the luxury to have Grimes play on talls or smalls.
Great ins - we will be much stronger whilst the saints are injured, clearly lacking depth and now look underdone (Savage 1 game this year, Marsh not many more and Battle struggling with injuries) with 3 key outs.
I know people are wary of an injured but young saints team but I just can’t see how the sainters can win - Melb, Eagles and lions beat them and they have only managed wins against GWS and hawks in their last 5 H&A games and then just made it to the line over the doggies.
If the tigers play a normal finals game - tight, high pressure and physical game (which the doggies didn’t do for 3 qtrs) then it will be over by half time.
If we turn up to play, stay focused and disciplined and play near our best then tigers by 49 pts.
Beware of an injured tiger (we were wounded last week, lowered our colours, pride hurt, embarrassed by our performance) we won’t do that again this week and then after that anything can happen.
I know people are wary of an injured but young saints team but I just can’t see how the sainters can win - Melb, Eagles and lions beat them and they have only managed wins against GWS and hawks in their last 5 H&A games and then just made it to the line over the doggies.
If the tigers play a normal finals game - tight, high pressure and physical game (which the doggies didn’t do for 3 qtrs) then it will be over by half time.
If we turn up to play, stay focused and disciplined and play near our best then tigers by 49 pts.
Beware of an injured tiger (we were wounded last week, lowered our colours, pride hurt, embarrassed by our performance) we won’t do that again this week and then after that anything can happen.
