Which (if any)premiership heroes need to start making way?

[RoarEmotion]

Dimma shows tremendous loyalty to his players. Which ones will ’come good’ and which ones probably need a more permanent spell. with the cavalry returning and the likes of stack and CCJ and maybe even MRJ starting to put some serious heat on with AFL attributes - who makes way for these guys and how?

my list

cooked

astbury > CCJ and shuffle deck

cooking / may be one last desert

houli > stack (markov would be nice)
caddy > sub / Ross

need to go back to cooking school to get the recipe right

rioli > Rioli
castagna > ?


not baked but will be fine

vlaustin
lynch
returning cavalry > kids

 

[Tony Braxton-Hicks]

For Astbury there have been some promising signs at last from Miller, though against weak opposition. I doubt it will be this year but it may be telling that Dimma's not concerned about moving Astbury out of defence mid-game.

Biggie also has some promise but he still has a lot of physical development and game day experience to come.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Too early for threads like this.

 

[Carter]

Too early for threads like this.

Disagree. You can’t win flags year to year without doing something fresh structurally and keeping players on the edge.

In 2018 it was Lynch and Soldo, last year it was Balta and Bolton.

RCD will keep his spot and we need to find a way to get CCJ, MRJ and Stack firing.

As much as I love them, Astbury, Houli and D Rioli/Castagna might be shaky.

 

[Harry]

I would re-shuffle the forward line. I'd look at playing 3 talls (Lynch, Jack, CCJ/Chol) and change it up with the smalls - Aarts, Baker, with Bolton Lambert and Dusty rolling through.

it would mean one of dan or george miss out, but reckon we've become too predictable and we're not getting much value from the pressure high forwards.


FB............Grimes..................Balta...............Broad
HB...........Short....................Valstuin............Houli
C..............Pickett................Cotchin.................KMac
HF...........Baker..................Lynch..................Aarts
FF............Chol/CCJ............Jack........................Dusty
R.............Nank..................Prestia.................Bolton
Int...........Graham............george/dan.........Astbury...........Edwards

 

[Ian4]

i said on a Facey group on Saturday that Astbury is cooked. people jumped down my throat and said he is being played out of position. But wouldn’t that suggest there isn’t a place for him in the side because others are better than him in his position? I did watch him closely in the GWS game and he looked very uncertain for mine. Butchered the ball more than once.

 

[tigersnake]

I think we can call Caddy as officially already made way, unless I'm missing something.

Houli still contributing more than any replacement would. Its bizaare with Houli, he's still pretty much the same as he's always been, but because he's near the end people want to sink the boots in whenever he has an off game by his lofty standards. He one of our best last week, and has been generally solid/ one of our best all year.

 

[Carter]

I think we can call Caddy as officially already made way, unless I'm missing something.

Houli still contributing more than any replacement would. Its bizaare with Houli, he's still pretty much the same as he's always been, but because he's near the end people want to sink the boots in whenever he has an off game by his lofty standards. He one of our best last week, and has been generally solid/ one of our best all year.

I am one of his biggest defenders but he’s been shaky I reckon. No confidence.

Hopefully just needs another run or two like Vlastuin.

 

[AngryAnt]

I think we can call Caddy as officially already made way, unless I'm missing something.

Houli still contributing more than any replacement would. Its bizaare with Houli, he's still pretty much the same as he's always been, but because he's near the end people want to sink the boots in whenever he has an off game by his lofty standards. He one of our best last week, and has been generally solid/ one of our best all year.

Agree, he was at least running as the supporting player on transition and got a heap of ball, fumbled a few but that's just a minor form thing. Showed good burst, still penetration on his kicks.

 

[T-Shirt Tommy]

Too early for threads like this.

Agree.

Late last year Taylor Walker looked absolutely gone.

To his credit, this year he's made a remarkable career recovery. No reason why a couple of our boys can't do the same.

 

[T-Shirt Tommy]

Disagree. You can’t win flags year to year without doing something fresh structurally and keeping players on the edge.

In 2018 it was Lynch and Soldo, last year it was Balta and Bolton.

RCD will keep his spot and we need to find a way to get CCJ, MRJ and Stack firing.

As much as I love them, Astbury, Houli and D Rioli/Castagna might be shaky.

Not sure how shaky Castagna is considering that he just signed a contract extension.

 

[Carter]

Not sure how shaky Castagna is considering that he just signed a contract extension.

He did, but we talkin about contracts or best 22?

I think he’s important as a defensive forward but we’re not looking great up forward at the moment. The return of midfield stars is not an automatic panacea.

Probably stays for mine with D Rioli in the crosshairs if we drop one of the next two games.

 

[123cups]

Too early for threads like this.

I couldn't disagree more, it's the perfect time to start a vent thread. There won't be many other opportunities to start one this year.

 

[The_General]

I couldn't disagree more, it's the perfect time to start a vent thread. There won't be many other opportunities to start one this year.

There's another 13 rounds to start a thread like this. What a bunch of over the top poppy *smile*.

Our entire game plan looks weak currently, yet the first thing we see these boards do is look for scapegoats. That's the exact same behaviour that has people writing off Rance, Houli, even RCD.

We've basically been struggling all year. We rely on system. The system is struggling because we lack people with either the form, the physical attributes or the experience to hold it together right now.

I did a ladder predictor on the AFL website, and without looking at margins, we stuck into 4th spot. All is not lost.
There's no need for lifeboats just yet. I think we've seen how big a gap there is between the AFL standard players and the long term VFL. Give our senior players a chance to finish the dynasty they helped create. The second it looks over, then start turning players over. At the moment, we can't get our best on the park. One or two we could cover, but an entire midfield? Give me a spell.

 

[Smoking Aces]

Too early for threads like this.

Sorry TOO but cant agree.

Astbury for mine is the clear stand out on someone who we should be fazing out.

He is no longer our go to person to take the big key forward. This is now Baltas role.

The match committee are shuffling him everywhere to find the right spot for him. However this is impacting us bringing in a genuine second ruck.

Astbury started in the forward line last Friday and at times competed in the ruck. He was then sent down back as that forward / ruck experiment failed - again.

He has been a fantastic servant but he is now surplus to our defensive needs.

 

[DavidSSS]

Agree, he was at least running as the supporting player on transition and got a heap of ball, fumbled a few but that's just a minor form thing. Showed good burst, still penetration on his kicks.

The fumbling of late has been a real worry, but also contributed to by things like handballs to the feet of a player and the like.

Not sure why this is happening but clearly something which can be worked on and fixed.

DS

 

[AngryAnt]

The fumbling of late has been a real worry, but also contributed to by things like handballs to the feet of a player and the like.

Not sure why this is happening but clearly something which can be worked on and fixed.

DS

It's coming back from injury, high pressure game when we had no midfield, lots of reasons no doubt. But yeah, can definitely be fixed.

 

[Brodders17]

Sorry TOO but cant agree.

Astbury for mine is the clear stand out on someone who we should be fazing out.

He is no longer our go to person to take the big key forward. This is now Baltas role.

The match committee are shuffling him everywhere to find the right spot for him. However this is impacting us bringing in a genuine second ruck.

Astbury started in the forward line last Friday and at times competed in the ruck. He was then sent down back as that forward / ruck experiment failed - again.

He has been a fantastic servant but he is now surplus to our defensive needs.

I dont think they are moving Astbury to find the right spot for him, I think they are trying to work out our best backline mix- Do we play the 4 "talls"- Dave, Balta, Grimes and Broad, which allows Grimes and/or Broad to play on the Camerons and Tony Greenes when needed, or do we just play 3 which means Broad and Grimes will need to play on 200cm forwards at times, and Vlastuin will need to take a tall at times too.

At the moment they are sitting on the fence by starting Dave, or Balta as the 2nd ruck/forward.

 

[yandb]

About four years ago Houli improved the hardness in his game, the short steps and pull outs became rare and he began to put his head over the hard ball.

This season those traits that were rare in his game have now returned and become common, this combined with the lack of penetration in his kicking and deplorable one on one defensive skills are detracting from the positives in his game to the point that for sections of the game he is a liability.

 

[wayne]

i said on a Facey group on Saturday that Astbury is cooked. people jumped down my throat and said he is being played out of position. But wouldn’t that suggest there isn’t a place for him in the side because others are better than him in his position? I did watch him closely in the GWS game and he looked very uncertain for mine. Butchered the ball more than once.

Balta flourished during the absence of Astbury last year, the when Dave came back, Balta seemed a little lost. On Friday they may have passed the torch to Noah.