Pick your best 22 of 2024 - PART 6 - pre-finals bye

[kruddler]

I just picked my team for the EF, assuming that Charlie, Harry, Tom, Zac are fit but Cerra isn't.  It is:

FB - Kemp - Weitering - Newman
HB - Saad - Young - McGovern
C - Acres - Cripps - O. Hollands
HF - Williams - McKay - De Koning
FF - Owies - Curnow - E. Hollands
R - Pittonet - Walsh - Hewett
Int: Cincotta - Lord - Cowan - Kennedy - Binns

For your exercise, Binns comes out and Cerra replaces Lord.  Ollie Hollands' good form gets him the nod over Cottrell and I can't fit Fogarty in.

I don't want this discussion to continue in here, but i just wanted to point something out. Since it is so clearly demonstrated here.

I've been arguing all year about team balance, only needing 1 ruck and suggesting pressure is better value to the team.
People always argue that adding a ruck doesn't deminish the ability to provide pressure.

The above team shows exactly that. Playing Pittonet shows that De Koning is literally taking the spot Fogarty in this team.

As Lods said...

and Fogarty in..because he is reliable and applies forward defensive pressure

Couldn't have scripted that any better.

[kruddler]

Thinking about it....
He should probably be added to the 'end of season' list
Doc is more chance of playing again this year.

There is reason to the madness.

Its to keep an even playing field when it comes to analysis.
If we lose a player early on, i just wipe them from all the votes to keep it simple.
If we lose a player mid-year for the rest of the year, then it becomes too messy with the analysis and determining overall trends on best 22.

[madbluboy]

Staggered Cottrell hasn't got at least one vote.
I tried hard to squeeze him in.
He had a bit of a lacklustre return from injury and that may have pushed him to the back of folks minds.
At his best though he'd be ahead of some of the players picking up 1 and 2 votes.

I went by this year's form.

[kruddler]

I went by this year's form.

Early on there was talk about AA form.

That certainly evaporated after the injury though....didn't help we rushed him straight back into the team.

[DJC]

I don't want this discussion to continue in here, but i just wanted to point something out. Since it is so clearly demonstrated here.

I've been arguing all year about team balance, only needing 1 ruck and suggesting pressure is better value to the team.
People always argue that adding a ruck doesn't deminish the ability to provide pressure.

The above team shows exactly that. Playing Pittonet shows that De Koning is literally taking the spot Fogarty in this team.

As Lods said...
Couldn't have scripted that any better.

Actually, De Koning has taken Fantasia’s spot and Williams has Fogarty’s place.

I opted for Williams over Fogarty because the former is more versatile, is a better mark, kicks goals and offers similar defensive pressure.

You apply pressure to the opposition by stretching their defence, running their first ruck into the ground and exploiting their second stringer.

[kruddler]

Actually, De Koning has taken Fantasia’s spot and Williams has Fogarty’s place.

I opted for Williams over Fogarty because the former is more versatile, is a better mark, kicks goals and offers similar defensive pressure.

You apply pressure to the opposition by stretching their defence, running their first ruck into the ground and exploiting their second stringer.

You do you.

Just saying Fogarty gets named most on a HF flank and you have De Koning on a HF flank.
You can justify it however you want, but you don't need to.
It wasn't a shot at you or your team.
Just perfectly summarised hours of arguments into 1 post.

[Lods]

I don't want this discussion to continue in here, but i just wanted to point something out. Since it is so clearly demonstrated here.

I've been arguing all year about team balance, only needing 1 ruck and suggesting pressure is better value to the team.
People always argue that adding a ruck doesn't deminish the ability to provide pressure.

The above team shows exactly that. Playing Pittonet shows that De Koning is literally taking the spot Fogarty in this team.

As Lods said...
Couldn't have scripted that any better.

I only had De Koning in my final side...
Just to play Devil's advocate though.

If we play both rucks we lose Fogarty's pressure....but both Pittonet and DeKoning can apply pressure at the contest.
So pressure is not lost altogether.
It's lost in one area, but bolstered in another.

What one player brings as a strength has to be seen in terms of what you lose by playing them.
The cost of a decision isn't a case of losing everything in an area
You lose some, you gain some.

That's the key to team balance.
Working out the optimal combinations... and we all see that differently (as we've seen over the season), and the gap isn't a wide one...it's a marginal choice in many cases across the field.
And can change from game to game depending on current circumstances.

It would be interesting to see our pre-season teams up against our current sides.

[kruddler]

I only had De Koning in my final side...
Just to play Devil's advocate though.

If we play both rucks we lose Fogarty's pressure....but both Pittonet and DeKoning can apply pressure at the contest.
So pressure is not lost altogether.
It's lost in one area, but bolstered in another.

What one player brings as a strength has to be seen in terms of what you lose by playing them.
The cost of a decision isn't a case of losing everything in an area
You lose some, you gain some.

That's the key to team balance.
Working out the optimal combinations... and we all see that differently (as we've seen over the season), and the gap isn't a wide one...it's a marginal choice in many cases across the field.
And can change from game to game depending on current circumstances.

It would be interesting to see our pre-season teams up against our current sides.

We don't need pressure at the contest though. We have that in spades by our bulls. We need pressure (and speed) around the ground.
Other teams run away from us, run by us, run around us. Look at what Hawks did. We were traffic cones. Yes, we were injured, but that leads to less pressure....and it was clear of the effect of that on a large scale.
Its harder to see on a smaller scale (when we are fit, but lack the right balance) but the result is still the same.

Defensive 50 pressure is huge.
We beat the eagles because of it. With so many smalls, they didn't get a chance to breathe down back.
When we have Charlie, Harry and someone else (Silvagni, TDK, Kennedy) who are slower and cannot provide the same kind of speed and pressure, it hurts us. It hurts us more than losing an extra 5% of ruck contests might hurt us.

As i said, i didn't want to have this debate here.
Just wanted to highlight that the 2nd ruck literally took 'Mr. Pressure' out of our side....which is what i've said all along.

[Lods]

As i said, i didn't want to have this debate here.
Just wanted to highlight that the 2nd ruck literally took 'Mr. Pressure' out of our side....which is what i've said all along.

Yep
If we want to continue it we'll move it over to the ruck thread.
Just copy and paste to reply.
We have enough to discuss with the" who is in, who is out of the 22"

[Sub-Zero]

B: McGovern Weitering Cowan
HB: Saad Young Newman
C: Acres Cripps Binns
HF: E. Hollands McKay Cincotta
F: Owies Curnow Williams
R: de Koning Hewett Walsh
I: Boyd O. Hollands Kemp Kennedy
S: Cerra