Code: FB: M Hibberd B Lake D Myers HB: D Thomas T McDonald S Gilbert C: S Sidebottom D Cross L Jetta HF: L Breust L Franklin H Ballantyne FF: C Mayne J Roughead A Goodes R: M Pyke S Grigg J McVeigh Int: M Rosa C Bird Lobbe Sub: T Bugg
Native Tongues Round 4 FB Sean Dempster - Jared Rivers - Steven Morris HB Cyril Rioli - Harry Taylor - Mitch Brown C Gary Rohan - James Kelly - Ryan Bastinac HF Shane Edwards - Nathan Vardy - Jimmy Bartel FF Jack Gunston - Jesse White - Michael Walters R Mitch Clark - Dion Prestia - Dayne Beams Int Liam Picken - Taylor Duryea - Jake Stringer Sub Mitch Wallis Out: Hurn (inj), Brown (inj) In: Rioli, Duryea Liam Picken to med-hard tag the best performing "elite" midfielder of the first quarter, change onto another player if they begin to run a muck Rioli to play semi-loose in defence, if its not working swap him with Jimmy Bartel to a HFF Move Rioli into the middle if x factor needed Sean Dempster to lock down any opposition small forward looking too dangerous Sub Mitch Wallis on with half of the 3rd quarter left, for Nathan Vardy Left out: Shaun McKernan Josh Walker Jack Hannath Brent Renouf Sam Shaw Jono O'Rourke Jackson Thurlow Jordan Schroder Injury list: James Frawley (1 week) Jonathan Brown (1 week) Shannon Hurn (5 weeks)
Only 3 elite rucks in the league IMO cox sandilands and naitanui. Lobbe is in the next group down though.
CPL MVP: 5 - Harry Taylor: Cut off any attack before it had legs 4 - Mitch Clark: Acted as an extra midfielder today and it was what helped the midfield domination of the Tongues 3 - Jack Gunston: He was good. Really good 2 - Cyril Rioli: Had two kicked on him while he was at the other end of the ground but just worked with Taylor well to set up attacking moves out of defence 1 - Dayne Beams: Racked it upn through the middle
Wow, didn't expect that. I guess that forward line balance really is that important. Vardy out for Brown I suspect.
Mitch Clark is a decent ruck, to be honest. He's pretty much a more physical/less athletic version of Paddy Ryder - their careers have just taken different paths. Both were top 10 draft picks as versatile talls. Both started off as key defenders before being thrown forward for a season or two and both started rucking in about their 3rd/4th season due to serious injuries to other talls at the club. in 2009 Clark averaged 16 disposals, 4 marks, 4 tackles and 22 hitouts a game. That's more touches than nearly all the rucks nowadays. He was the definition of a mobile ruckman; offered heaps. Really I think his best position is in the ruck but over the last 2-3 years we've had a massive boost of quality rucks in the comp and very few quality forwards. A decent KPF > a great ruck today so he's been played there. However I don't doubt that he's still a capable ruck despite being used as a KPF nowadays. Even in his prime the tap wasn't his strength, 22 hitouts a game is underwhelming for a #1 ruck but his mobility was beyond. And that's what he did today; lost the tap but made up for it with his mobility.
Jabba's got a team who'll win big and lose big. Your midfield well outdid his today which has no elites and 2 greats with 3-4 okays. Probably a bottom 3-4 midfield. Look at the inside 50s and all that, really. He just got far less supply. Attack is his strength and Morris and Dempster just destroyed Breust and Ballantyne. Taylor did the job on Franklin and Roughead just lacked supply. Jabba's defence was also limited; no 3rd tall so Gunston had Myers/Gilbert all day as did stringer which aren't great matchups - and his small defenders aren't accountable anyway. Was a great matchup for your team really, would have been surprised if you'd lost I don't think this is a reflection of your forward line as much as it is your defence.
