WellardSaint wrote:skeptic wrote:1. Shane Savage is a serious worry in my opinion.
He's in the team to be a play maker and he seems to lack composure and smarts... very concerning when you consider that we know he's weaker than others in the backline at the defensive aspect of his game.
He's my official under the microscope player for 2017
There have been times when Gears used to quite often kick poorly out of defence, and caused the ball to come back with interest, or he would hold the ball for 2 seconds too long, and get caught;
those habit seems to have dissipated last year.
His
many supporters say it was not usually his fault, as team-mates had not run to position correctly, and not supporting him, thus putting undue pressure on him;
and an improved understanding and/or different gameplan/tactics from the team in 2016 are the reasons for the purple patch.
I don't believe (and I could be wrong) that Savage can be excused in a similar way.
Just in my own memory, his fumbles and turnovers appear to be an ongoing issue, and have not improved at all.
Gears seems to perform helicopter kicks, but Shane can kick much better and further, therefore increasing the number of potential targets.
Shane doesn't appear to think quickly and is easily pressured. A defender needs to be composed under pressure or he is a liability, no matter how nicely he kicks the Sherrin.
To add to this, Geary is not in the team as a playmaker.
Whilst Geary's disposal comes into the spot light at times, his defenders often point out that regardless of the odd clanger, he almost always beat his man.
Add to that that in the second half of the season, at least to some degree, instances of bad turnovers from Geary reduced substantially.
I think a good prototype model player for Savage is Aussie Jones or perhaps a Leon Davis (when he was a half back)... with those players, you were never expecting that their opponents wouldn't on occasion exploit their lack of accountability. Rather, you back them into to do more damage to them then their opponents did to your own team.
My real worry here is that Savage is simply not damaging enough and it's costing us run.
HBF to me is an area of real concern. You're looking for players that are either really good defenders or provide heaps of run... I feel like we have too many types that don't excel at either.
Savage
Webster
Gilbert
Not loving these guys.
Lonie tried last night and by all accounts wasn't great.
Roberton seems to have stepped up.
Newnes improving all the time
Lot of buzz about Dmac at the moment.
Am very keen to start getting more of a look at guys like White, Rice, Sinclair (on a HBF), and Ben Long too