Teddy Hopkins wrote:
Young should not play back under any circumstance.
Our back line has performed superbly without him.
Weitering is back to his absolute best.
Why play with what has improved since he left?
You seem to be blaming Weitering's form on Young. Is that right?
I know Young's shortfalls at a backman. But dropping Young from the backline isn't the reason for our recent improvement.
Whilst the backline has been good recently, I'd like to remind everyone that our backline hasn't been the problem this year.
Our mids leaked like a sieve and the onslaught the backs faced was not their doing. Have a look at the recent change in attitude from our midfield group, and in particular Cripps. He is playing team first footy, bringing in other players and the whole midfield group is playing selfless and great defensive footy. That alone improved us more than Young does and doesn't do.
Not only that, in the last few weeks we have seen the introduction of 3 new forwards: Fogarty, Cuningham and Martin.
I dont know anyone who suggests they haven't made a huge difference to our team. I'm sure those changes have had a lot more to do with our change in fortunes than Young. Getting rid of the fan faves, the midgets who were not contributing enough, Fisher Motlop and Durdin, has had a bigger impact on our change of fortune than Young and the backline.
And Harry and Charlie have changed with their 'team first' footy, looking for players in better spots to shoot for goal instead of pinging them from difficult angles and kicking more behinds than any other players in the comp. Ive also noted, like others, Harry's newfound confidence. Kicking winning scores has been the big difference. Our backline is still the 4th best in the AFL, with or without Young.
I want to defend Young, because he's still young, who lost a bit of form, a ong with confidence after facing a barrage in the backline most of the year because of an out of form or selfish midfield group, and isnt as useless as some think. I don't want Young to be a whipping boy aged 23yo. He hasn't been the problem.
Cincotta has pushed out Cowan at HBF. I wouldnt mind either. Cincotta's running is what we expected from Cowan and that will come. In fact Cowan's found his mojo in the VFL.
Boyd has filled the role Williams would be playing, but has also freed up Doc. He was always in many Best 22 teams at the start of the season.
Lets face it, the only change of note to the backline has been Kemp replacing Young. That's it. Kemp played well in GCS game, OK in another couple, but if all his panic stricken moments (like Young), clangers and kicks to the opposition were committed by Young, its really obvious you wouldn't hear the end of it. Does anyone remember the Sydney game with Kemp as the 3rd tall? We lost that game because of bad kicking by the forwards, but we also let the Swans big boys off the leash to kick 4 goals.
IMO, the omission of Young from the backline, for Kemp is not the reason for our wins. Both are young players learning their craft. I'm happy to be trying things, and imo Kemp, like Young is on trial. Kemp has only played 8 games, so for me, the jury is still out. Like it is with Cowan, and Young. Kemp will be reminded what its like to be playing against huge forwards this week, if Port win the midfield battle.
For me, Young is much taller than Kemp, and with that there's advantages. Young is the better mark, but doesn't take the game on and plays it safe (high efficiency, slow decisions), whereas, Kemp is more mobile and is a risk taker. He takes the game on and hits the opposition with his kicking too often for my liking, (turnovers in our defensive half) but he's still young. Both offer positives and negatives. Neither is a star. Neither are the reason for our recent improvement imo. Wouldn't make a difference to me which was selected TBH.
Lets win the midfield battle. Kennedy will be a huge loss.
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