Post Game Parlay: AFL 2019 Rd 3: Carlton vs Sydney

[LP]

EB...agree on the drafting of quality users of the ball but have we missed the boat in the last 4 drafts? In 2015 we went for talls in Weitering, McKay, Curnow and then Cunningham with the last pick in the first 20. In 2016 it was SPS and Fisher (then Polson). In 2017 it was Dow and O'Brien. Walsh was the unanimous pick as number 1 last year but if there was a knock on him, it was his finishing.

I still get frustrated with blowing pick 10 on O'Brien. I had the misfortune to attend the game against Brisbane last year at the Gabba and I lost count of the number of times he kicked it STRAIGHT to an opponent. He did much the same on the weekend apart from one pass that hit Casboult. The club had it's eyes on Tim Kelly but he was gone by the time our next pick came....hindsight is wonderful in AFL Drafts but he was one we missed (along with a few other clubs) badly.

As an aside, talked about top-up players prior to this season and in a number of posts I said the club should be looking at Jye Bolton from Claremont.....first weekend of WAFL games just gone and another BOG for Claremont. I'd be staggered if he's not picked up as part of this supplemental/mid-season draft.

It's not that simple, Kelly has guys like Hawkins, Ablett Jnr and Dangerfield playing forward and running in good patterns to the right positions. It makes space which makes the target easier to hit without a kick being intercepted. Our KPFs just aren't doing our mids any favors, which means in our team you have to be better than average by foot just to get an average result.

One example of this is McKay and Casboult closing up space at the weekend by pressing too far up the field and leaving all the free space behind them! So what happens, the mids kick the ball long to free space but the Swans defenders are first back onto the ball! It makes the mid look bad, but if the KPF has closed up the space in front of him that will happen 90% of the time! Look at the flip side, start McKay or Casboult back and the mid drops the ball in the space in front of them and the KPF then gets a run at a contested mark, it's that simple.

So why doesn't it happen, McKay and Casboult didn't work hard enough, on their 2nd or 3rd efforts they often defaulted to shallow runs and so no space is created in front of them. They have to run deeper on those repeat leads and that will spread defenders and create space.