yes iam bored, but i have a couple of questions,

1. do we need a key defender? one who can hold down players like hall, brownie, roughead and pavlich?
- bower and thornton are not strong enough.

2. a skillful half forward?
- yarran may come on, fingers crossed.

i was talking to my mate on the weekend and we believe that we are two players short of being real contenders.
the first was a key defender, harry taylor, ben rutten, tayte pears, graig bolton etc,
the second was a skillful half forward, chapman, o'keefe, higgins, didak etc,

bower is a good running defender,
thornton is good at setting up the attack,
jamison is very good at holding down one key forward,
compare ours with cats defence, mackie, scarlett, taylor, dasher and corey e.
i believe we have better talls in our forward line, but not half forwards,
johnson and chapman,

not sure if i am along way of the mark, maybe we have these two players in yarran and austin?

It's not how many of each type you have, it's how good they are.

Geelong's key backs and HFFs are brilliant.

Hopefully Bower, Austin, Yarran, Lucas etc can reach a high level. A few more players need to reach elite level if we're to win a flag

I also think that it's the number of games together that is the key. Cats have been a very settled unit for a long time. Makes it much easier when you automatically know what your teamates are going to do with the ball, where they're going to run to or drop back etc. This knowledge or intuition helps raise individuals to the elite. We can only get better this year once we sort out the front end.

I think a backline is as good as the midfield help it to be.

Scarlett can't stop Brown if he's got good supply from skilled midfielders. No one can.

We have the backmen for modern forwards. As for the big ruckmen going forward, well I guess it takes big ruckmen to man them, and that's an area all teams fall short.

2010 is a new season, and we see the return of Jamsison, Waite, Austin, Setanta who were all missing at the end of last years (including the final), plus we had Bower on one leg, after showing AA form throughout the year. That's a lot of big men missing...a lot of tall backmen which you are referring to as a shortfall.

It's a new season. It's a different team to the one you last saw.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

The list might be there for the most part but there is a lot of unproven potential

1.- Genuine Ruckman- Not sure if Kreuzer is a big bodied September Ruckman

2.- Two Proven Key Forwards (Hopefully Kreuzer, Hendersen come on

3. Big Bodied Defender

4. Half Forward. I think between Betts, Garlett and Yarran we have that covered

5. Killer Disposal off wing and half forward

6. Pace in the middle (If Mclean can help Hadley fill the Judd in and under role--Judd may become the extra runner)

7. Toughness and Killer instinct- we just don't have that aura. There is always 2 or 3 soft efforts every game that give the opposition the psychological edge. It does not happen in top sides.

The list might be there for the most part but there is a lot of unproven potential

1.- Genuine Ruckman- Not sure if Kreuzer is a big bodied September Ruckman

2.- Two Proven Key Forwards (Hopefully Kreuzer, Hendersen come on

3. Big Bodied Defender

4. Half Forward. I think between Betts, Garlett and Yarran we have that covered

5. Killer Disposal off wing and half forward

6. Pace in the middle (If Mclean can help Hadley fill the Judd in and under role--Judd may become the extra runner)

7. Toughness and Killer instinct- we just don't have that aura. There is always 2 or 3 soft efforts every game that give the opposition the psychological edge. It does not happen in top sides.

Good post. Honest appraisal imo.

1. If not, we have Sauce, Warnock who should be able to do the job, and Hammer he has thge potential to play anywhere. But your point is that K and I'll add Hammer at this stage are unproven.

2. Whilst agreed they are unproven...imo K has shown signs and the pedigree of Hendo speaks volumes of his ability.

3. Agree. Hopefully a superior midfield with a defensive mindset help out the backline moving forward.

4. Plenty there agree

5. Yarran, Betts, Scotland, Gibbs

6. Agree about releasing Judd, then there's AJ and Lucas who have plenty of pace, and if we really need pace in the guts we also have Armfield, Russell, Betts...there's a few with pace on the list now.

7. This is an area I think we'll really improve in as the kids stack on more muscle and it must be pay back time. Add McLean, AJ to the mix....if Cachia makes the grade I'm sure there's a bitof mongrel there...Robinson has it. I'm sure it's there just waiting to come out

Good post.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue