Blue Vain wrote:
Blue Sombrero wrote:
Cloke is young, big, hard at it (except against Setanta) leads and marks well and his kicking has improved out of sight.
Sorry BS but IMO as soon as the ball hits the ground, we're playing with 17 players when Cloke's in the forward line.
+1
Cloke can mark, but lets be serious here, he also fluffs alot of gimmes.
He is sluggish at best when defending. There's enough evidence from games against the top 10 teams in the past to back that up.
Cloke and Fisher should be considered, but only as a last resort.
There's enough talls on the list to play forward (Waite, Kreuzer, Hampson and Setanta)and others who we can develop like Austin and Hendersen.
I like Austin as a CHB and would prefer him as our long term CHB. Having said that, it all depends on how many talls we play down back, 3 or 4, and that is dependent on the pace and mobility of those in line:Jamison, Thornton, Bower are all pretty mobile. And who plays on the 200cm Tippett types? Setanta?
The backline's success, as we know, is dependent on the success of our midfield in getting the ball and providing defensive support going the other way. The midfield hasn't gone backwards for 2010, in fact with the inclusion of McLean and the return of Hadley, along with the natural progress from maturity and another preseason under the belt of Murphy, Gibbs, and even Betts and Robinson.
I am more excited with our prospects post Fevola than I was in the Fevola era. So much choice, so much upside. We can see trees for wood now.
Stop us if you can.