BAM! (shhhh) wrote:st_Trav_ofWA wrote:borderbarry wrote:If Raph is fit and has a good pre-season he will be in the starting 18.
i agree raph if fit will be in the starting 18 but for round one i reckon RL will err on the side of caution with raph
Has something happened to Raph? He was fit and healthy enough to play the final 3 games of '07 (not the most ringing endorsement, but...) so not having heard of an injury, I've been assuming Raph healthy.
I agree on Gardiner. Long, further injury ridden layoff, surviving the NAB cup games is not enough. Let him ruck out a couple of VFL games as the #1 and we can put him in.
raph is fine, in fact from most reports from training he is looking fitter and stronger in the upper body. I expect him to hold down a spot in defence for 18+ games next year.
Agree on the thoughts on working Gards into match fitness. Personally I would hope they aim to have him fit and firing by the second month of the season. Give him as much ruck time as possible in the preseason then instruct him to go out for casey and ruck all day. He will only get a spot in the first 22 if he plays 2-3 good games.
Personally I see fish ahead of dempster and others because he is being turned into a replacement for attard. His ability to not only play tall in the back pocket but also move into the midfield to run with a player gives us defensive flexbility.
I would like to see us develop a settled back six. I am confident that maguire, max and chips will be our 3 defensive talls. Fisher and raph for mine give us flexibility and rebound. I would use the 6th position to teach one of armatage, geary, howard, steven etc. how to run with a player and also learn the speed of the game from the backline. This worked really well with X and grammy in the past. My money would be on geary to get this spot, with the option to moving gram back there or the swingman gilbert.
I hope these closed sessions are allowing SOS to work with the back 6 and develop them into a good unit. Always agreed with jeansy that you build from the backline, get that stiched up and half the work is done.
The midfield is an interesting one. IF BJ had not done his knee I would have been looking for him and gram to be moving into more of a midfield role. BJ can come back via the bench and work his way into the season via a drifitng back role as the extra defensive midfielder.
Fiora had a good year and it would be great if he just kept that standard for the whole of next season. joey and dal will benefit from a fitter ball and hayes. Armatage is the interesting one, if he gets fitter and relise it's not just going to happen then he could be that 2nd year player that moves into a starting 18 (ie gilbert). Right now eddy and geary had better 2007 form wise then armo but armo has the lot. Is not slow, clever inside player and damaging with the ball in space. Will be a big X factor next year.
The forward line is an interesting one. Everything points to a forward line of kosi, gehrig, schneider, milne with roo pushing up to the wing. Xavier clarke is very important to this forward set up in that his tackles stick, is happy to get hard ball gets and can play tall and short. How he performs will have a big say in how much football we can keep in the forward 50.
Schneider will allow milne to be a little more creative and make the forward line a little ore unpredictable. Look for milne to play more as a leading forward which was a big basis of his 2004/05 game. The best thing we got out of guerra was that oppositions had two unpredictable small forwards, which is a nightmare.
So I am leaning towards something like this for round 1, but it's still weeks to xmas.
FB Fish Max raph
HB chips goose geary
C fizz joey gram
HF Harvs Roo schneider
FF milne Kosi G
R: King, Hayes, dal
I from: gilbert, BJ, blake, ball, xavier, armo, birss, CJ, Rix,
