amazonstud wrote:
My hopes for next year.
1 That the team spends a lot of time in the gym. Youngsters but a lot of them need to bulk up.
2. That we unearth some more of the missing elements of our team.
IMO we need a small defender and another big tall defender so Waite can be used as a utility up forward down back or on ball. Whether that tall defender is O' Hailpin, Austin, or someone else the MC will indicate through trades or drafting so we'll have to wait and see. Another key forward as well as a half forward flanker and a small quick crumber. A ruckman, who can win at the centre bounces and give our midfield more first opportunities, and an inside midfielder with very good skills who can win clearances.
3. Some defensive structures around set plays.
During some games this season our players either went to sleep or didn't position themselves properly to stop the opposition. That must be practised and preached during practice over summer.
4. Further improvement from Murphy Gibbs Kreuzer Grigg Bower Russell Armfield Betts Anderson and Jamison.
5. Sam Jacobs promoted onto the senior list so that we hend up with 5 possible ruckmen on the senior list.
Me too!
I think the addition of a 200cm ruckman will do wonders for our ruck stocks (Kreuzer, Warnock, Hampson and hopefully Jacobs). This will give us an extra 6 cms in height plus an extra 5 cm in reach in the middle by replacing Cloke in the ruck. The result is obvious given the 30 odd taps we were behind the opposition in most games. Furthermore, it enables us to fix Kreuzer in a forwardline role do add another dimension there as well as doing the rucking duties there, whilst the other ruckman can play a kick behind play, or help out in defense.
The addition of Betts and walker in the forwadline will do wonders for our forwardline pressure.
As long as we have someone in the BP/ backline to match up on the 196-205 cm forwards we should be able to stop another leak in our team. Setanta's recouperation from surgery is very important.
Overall, we missed out on a Top 4 finish by 3 only games.
Given we lost a few close ones against Swans (2) and Crows (8) which we should have won (if we had Setanta and Walker playing), and a few games we lost our concentration for a quarter (many), we could have achieved a Top 4 spot in our 'development' year.
Next year, we will step up another level as a team in strength, stamina and experience (let alone personnel, with at least one big fish), so there's no reason why at the very least we should set the bar for finals, and the Top 4 as our target.
We have a few teams ahead of us to pass in order to achieve those goals: Brisbane, Richmond and Adelaide for a Top 8 finish and Sydney, Foostcray, North Melb, Collingwood and St Kilda for a Top 4 finish.
I have no doubt we will be playing finals in 2009. If we have an injury free preseason for all our troops, and hit the ground running come round 1 (as opposed to having half a dozen underdone players as we did in 2008), we should be confident of achieving our goals.
13-15 wins in 2009 is a strong proposition for the Blues; it is my expectation.
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