The back six.

[F111]

Quite a few changes happening back there.

1. Mckay 202cm, mobile. NEW
2. Ridley. 195cm. Always in if available. Injured, unavailable.
3. McGrath. Looking like a BP lock.
4. Reid 202cm, mobile, promising, but inexperienced. Hopes are high he gets lots of game time in 2024.. NEW
5. Martin. 192cm. Playmaker. Wing or HBF? Listed as a midfielder.
6. Redman. Proven.
7. Laverde. Tries hard, has been much better back than forward but might be a tad undersized. Consequently he's always playing under immense pressure. It's about the matchups I think.
8. Cox. 200cm. Listed as a midfielder.
9. Hind. Has been trialed forward. Where's his best spot?
10. Heppell. The most experienced and it should count. He gets his hand on the ball lots but we're often hurt on the disposal. Deserves a spot on last years performances but is no longer the future.
11. Baldwin. Has been looking great, seems to have worked very hard. Unfortunately an injury takes away his chances for the moment.
12. Kelly. Mid size, also injured.
13. Hayes. 199cm, inexperienced and slight. Needs time and muscle. Likely a looong wait for selection.
14. Roberts, Archie. Team lists him as a defender. Small but smart footballer by his game time v St.K. Likely a looong wait for selection.
15. Lual. Untried, unknown entity but looked ok in the game v St.K. Likely a looong wait for selection.

So 3 are injured and unavailable. Ridley is likely the only one of those 3 who'd get selected first up.

Maybe it'll be:
McGrath, McKay, Reid,
Redman, Laverde (Ridley), Martin

Bench rotations???: Cox/Heppell/Hind

[nudder12]

I think you've probably nailed the Round 1 group.
But I can imagine it'll change semi-regularly, depending on oppo matchups and form.
Roberts looks a decent prospect and I think he'll get game time this year.
Hayes also looks close to AFL ready, but has a few ahead of him - he'll be sad we recruited McKay.
Hind seems to be destined for the forward half.
At this stage I have doubts about Martin in the back half. I don't doubt he could be an asset there, but I worry about his defensive skills and whether oppos will try to expose that.
The selection choices - especially for defence and midfield - will be very interesting this year

[F111]

Ridley still a couple weeks away.
Redders out suspended.

Maybe??:

McGrath, McKay, Heppel,
Martin, Laverde, Cox

[BenDoolan]

I’m not a fan of Marto in defence. To me, it’s stupid having a guy with natural flair and skill to win the ball, create space, then nail passes or goals with precision, sitting in defence.

Throw Duursma back there for drying out loud. Marto is a far better offensive player than XD.

[nudder12]

I’m not a fan of Marto in defence. To me, it’s stupid having a guy with natural flair and skill to win the ball, create space, then nail passes or goals with precision, sitting in defence.

Throw Duursma back there for drying out loud. Marto is a far better offensive player than XD.

I have my doubts about him being there too - because I'm not sure he's defensive enough.
But I think he's there to try to give our back half a bit more flair and speed of ball movement.
So the things you mentioned are exactly the tools required for that role - natural flair and skill to win the ball, create space, then nail passes with precision.
And when I think about all that, I think we need to start thinking of the back half as a group of 7/8, because others need to be able to backup for Martin when he's caught out on the attack. Duursma quite possibly fits that role, even though technically on a wing.

[stryper]

Sorry but Hind is Not AFL standard...

[F111]

Our defense was not helped by the regular quick exit of the ball from our forward zone and rapid transition.

[F111]

Our defense was not helped by the regular quick exit of the ball from our forward zone and rapid transition.

Rinse, repeat.

Having Riddles, Reid, Baldwin unavailable has demolished the start to the season. Three big bods...
Saints game gave some hope, albeit late in the game.

McKay and Heppell have battled hard. Laverde and Cox have a good crack I think but are up against taller or stronger in every contest. McGrath 3 good games so far.

I'm afraid it'll be at least mid season before the troops settle in. In the meantime, they need huge help from up the ground.

[grassy1]

I’m not a fan of Marto in defence. To me, it’s stupid having a guy with natural flair and skill to win the ball, create space, then nail passes or goals with precision, sitting in defence.

I'll try the same line regarding a couple of Indigenous kids my way,Benny.

Throw Duursma back there for drying out loud. Marto is a far better offensive player than XD.

I have my doubts about him being there too - because I'm not sure he's defensive enough.
But I think he's there to try to give our back half a bit more flair and speed of ball movement.
So the things you mentioned are exactly the tools required for that role - natural flair and skill to win the ball, create space, then nail passes with precision.
And when I think about all that, I think we need to start thinking of the back half as a group of 7/8, because others need to be able to backup for Martin when he's caught out on the attack. Duursma quite possibly fits that role, even though technically on a wing.

[F111]

I’m not a fan of Marto in defence. To me, it’s stupid having a guy with natural flair and skill to win the ball, create space, then nail passes or goals with precision, sitting in defence.

I'll try the same line regarding a couple of Indigenous kids my way,Benny.

Throw Duursma back there for drying out loud. Marto is a far better offensive player than XD.

I have my doubts about him being there too - because I'm not sure he's defensive enough.
But I think he's there to try to give our back half a bit more flair and speed of ball movement.
So the things you mentioned are exactly the tools required for that role - natural flair and skill to win the ball, create space, then nail passes with precision.
And when I think about all that, I think we need to start thinking of the back half as a group of 7/8, because others need to be able to backup for Martin when he's caught out on the attack. Duursma quite possibly fits that role, even though technically on a wing.

Seems to me that Redders was the flair player. He appears to have pulled back from that.

[s'dreams]

I’m not a fan of Marto in defence. To me, it’s stupid having a guy with natural flair and skill to win the ball, create space, then nail passes or goals with precision, sitting in defence.

Throw Duursma back there for drying out loud. Marto is a far better offensive player than XD.

Everyone is trying to replicate a Nick Daicos type player.

Though is isn't working so well for the pies this year either. Scrounging a very close win against the Hawks isn't a vote of confidence.

[F111]

heppell.jpg (413.1 KiB) Viewed 95 times

[F111]

Our defense was not helped by the regular quick exit of the ball from our forward zone and rapid transition.

This is still an issue despite some improvements. Unsure if the larger and slower front 6 made this more obvious. Occasionally they seem to switch off momentarily whenever there's a score. Meanwhile, the opposition sets up and spreads leaving our blokes a tad behind.
Switch off and relax for a moment only once the goal is signaled please.

[BenDoolan]

Our defense was not helped by the regular quick exit of the ball from our forward zone and rapid transition.

This is still an issue despite some improvements. Unsure if the larger and slower front 6 made this more obvious. Occasionally they seem to switch off momentarily whenever there's a score. Meanwhile, the opposition sets up and spreads leaving our blokes a tad behind.
Switch off and relax for a moment only once the goal is signaled please.

Spot on.

You’d notice the Collingwood comeback started when we starting kicking behinds.

We had 6 straight, and they couldn’t get a sniff. Then Jones missed one, and then bang.

From 6.1 at quarter time, we then kicked an additional 3.10 to 3Q time. They were hammering us on the transition and run out of defence.

[s'dreams]

It is worth noting that, despite missing key members of the back six, Essendon has only conceded more than 100 points in a game twice this year (so far). These were against Sydney (131) and Port (111). The overall average is 83.26 points a game.

Since the "Gather Round" drubbing at the hands of Port, the back six has conceded an average of 72 points a game.

Not bad when Ridley and Reid have missed much of the past 5 weeks.

[F111]

GWS last score was a point at the 11 minute mark. Hind scored the last goal of the game on the rebound from that point. We scored the last score, a point, at 18:15.

Q4 is worth watching again. Hard tense footy from both teams. It was a real battle of the backlines and ours held up very well with some great assistance upfield..

[F111]

Selectors nightmares are looming for the back 6.

Ridley will be a definite when he's ready. Reid maybe too as his height could be invaluable.

McKay won't drop out. McGrath won't drop out. Redman won't drop out. Martin won't drop out.
That leaves Kelly, Heppell, Cox and Laverde. Cox has Duursma's spot for another 3 weeks at least.

McG McK .....
Redman Ridley Martin

Considering bench rotations, someone will be missing out of course. I like Laverde. I think he's been doing a thankless job playing on bigger forwards but he might be the one at least. Maybe Hind losses his spot and Laverde rotates.

Heppell has been very good too. The usual problem for him has been his inaccurate disposal and turnovers but I think he's turned that around very well.

Kelly did a great job on TobyG yesterday too. He's done that before on others and plays that role reasonably well.

Selectors pressure nightmares are supporters dreams aren't they!

[MH_Bomber]

Heppell has been very good this year. Just seems to have have gone a new level.

Marto may be moved further up the ground.

Ridley won’t be an automatic inclusion until we know his quad is completely right. I’d imagine he’ll have few games in the 2s to build match fitness.

This is what we want true competition for spots.

[F111]

Heppell has been very good this year. Just seems to have have gone a new level.

Marto may be moved further up the ground.

Ridley won’t be an automatic inclusion until we know his quad is completely right. I’d imagine he’ll have few games in the 2s to build match fitness.

This is what we want true competition for spots.

Ridley will be an automatic selection when he's deemed fit and ready. How it should be. He'd be one of the names on the board added first I would've thought.

Martin will get a defensive tag soon enough, like Guelfi did on Whitfield yesterday. The coaching response will be interesting when that happens.

[BenDoolan]

Ridley ran down the stairs fairly quickly at Marvel before the game yesterday. Nearly bowled me over.

Couldn’t be too far away…