bondiblue wrote:
bluedog wrote:
Rod Spooky Galt wrote:
Plowman's had two very poor games.
Gee...I am far from his biggest fan, but thought he played well last week.
As for tonight's game...
His best game ever last week imo ... and I have always preferred a fit Marchbank over a fit Plowman.
I don't know who Plowman was on but he seemed to have alot of different opponents: Elliot, DeGoey, Daicos.
The backline didn't look well oiled last night. I think they play too loose when defending. Jones' stupidity doesn't help Plow either.
I need to watch the game again some time today.
I thought keeping Plowman on Martin too long in the last quarter was the difference in the result. No shame in getting toweled up by the best in the game, but that was Shanahan/Jarman like.
As for last night - he played on De Goey one out till Elliott got carried off, then it got a bit murky between Grundy going off the ground/Cox trucking. I thought his last quarter when he was pushed up the ground a bit more was very handy, but De Goey smacked him in that first half.
Too often, we get scored on by leaving Plowman one out against someone he's just not physically suited to minding. Martin had him for strength, De Goey had about 5m on him on the lead. It's an interesting bigger picture that we're scoring wins by having favourable matchups for Weitering, and Saad smashes them offensively, but it results in Docherty being asked to play a lot more accountable on a small forward than he's capable of, and too often leaves Plowman one out.
The issues I bring up, aren't exactly attributes that Marchbank is fantastic for either, and I don't think we can really swing bringing him in as a third tall without losing some of the above benefits. I think the solution is to move Jones into Plowman's role, as a means of eventually moving him out of the side, and play Casboult in Jones' role down back, and Oscar forward. Not the ideal scenario/solution - a makeshift defender and a makeshift forward to arguably replace our best defender of last year, but feel it makes sense holistically, given what we'd be otherwise giving up.
Can Oscar up forward play Levi's role ie smash packs? The rule changes this year appear to have had a massive impact to the game strategies and I am not sure our coaches have got it right. I was interested to hear that Clarkson has completely changed Hawthorns game plan based on the rule changes - says a lot I think. Its more important now than the last 20 years to have players who can beat their direct opponent 1 on 1 and that should be the basis of selecting the back 6. If Plowman has no winnable match up then select someone better whether it be Cottrell, Stocker, Marchbank or even Williams.