As its the "norm" to start a thread wantonly, here I go.

Houlihan... GET THE POOR BUGGER OUT OF THE BACKPOCKET.

WE WERE AT OUR BEST WITH HIM RUNNING OVER THE WING

START USING HIM ACTUALLY ON THE WING, OR ON A FORWARD FLANK, RUNNING ONTO BALL ONTO THE WING.

NO MORE OF THIS HOULIHAN AT HALF-BACK CRAP

AS SOON AS HE STARTS GETTING TOUCHES, THEY DROP HIS MAN INTO THE GOALSQUARE.... AND HOULA STAYS THERE!!!!!!

Lappin can play the defensive role. OR, give Kade Simpson a go there.... its the role he's been playing for the Bullants. Pick Kade Simpson and stick him on Harry Miller, and give him space/time/opportunity to run.

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Love Cricket? Love me

In my opinion Kade should be in. He hits targets.
Houlla is a super player. Why people bag this guy is beyond me...

Or even that-bloody-good-player Andrew Walker at Halfback.

Good learning experience.... and he's brought into the play.

He's quick, has good skills, smart player.

Learning experience....... and it won't wear him down as much as an onball role.

AW for HBF!

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Love Cricket? Love me

Seriously, he is looking like our best player at the moment.

He always seems to have a ton of time when he has the ball.

If he keeps developing like this you could almost look at him as Captaincy material. He's certainly showing some great leadership at the moment.

I think on the wing as an Embley type goal kicker, with a few stints in the middle would be perfect.

Played well, when not dragged back to the goal square. I don't mind him on the HBF, but if his opponent drags him back to the square then we need someone else who can play deep in defence. Sporn is the obvious choice. Play Houlihan at HBF and Sporn in the BP.

Norman looked lost yesterday - it's obvious that he's only there because we have no one else.

Enjoyed his Phil Manassa-like run up the wing with about 7 bounces. We had no-one yesterday who could carry the ball and break the lines. Houlihan was one of the few who looked like they could do it.

Bring Kade in to play HBF or move Walker back to HBF and push Houlihan to the wing. We have more options but we're not using them.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Thought after his great game in the midfield last week he might start playing there a bit more but for some reason it was back to defence for most of the game, where he didn't get a lot of the ball and then later on the forward line where he kicked 2 great goals. Would think he'd eventually need to play in the midfield as Campo isn't going to be around forever.

Yeah, i would be a lot more concerned if i was an opposition coach if you see Houla running hard carrying the ball caus they know he will be able to hit targets more often than not from both sides, that is exactly what we need and he will get better and better at it if given the opps...He also needs to know how to fight his way back into a game and not hang his head when things are NQR.

Houla will play at lot more in the midfield in the future.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

As stated after the Port game, Houla is one that can actually kick to a forward on a lead. Why did he start in the backline? he showed late rin the game when he went forward/midfield that he can actually find space and set up goals.

Houla has to be released from defence.

By the way as we discuss bad kicking - SPORN needs to spend an extra hour after training learning how to kick to a leading Carlton player - his two turn overs in the second quater lead to Freo goals which inturn handed them the confidence that they did not have.