(08-14-2024, 08:47 AM)kruddler link Wrote:Personally i'd put Weitering forward, at least for part of the game. Nobody will be able to push him off the ball and he'll read the ball better than anyone else.
We have Gov (hopefully he's fit) and Kemp to do their usual role and we can have Young to play Weitering role, which he seems to be able to do better than any other defenders role.
We need to be able to score and we are just about missing our complete first choice forwardline, so why not add a joker into the mix with Weitering?
If we lose, it doesn't matter if its 1 point or 100.
Without kicking a score though, we have no hope.
One thing we have to our advantage going into this game is that the West Coast brains trust will have absolutely no idea how we will line up.
The more unpredictable we can make it the better.
Weitering forward is an out of the box move...but it just might come off.
It's just a perception but with the chops and changes down back Weitering's 'generalship' just seems to not be as effective as it has been.
With the added pressure the defence has been under he's probably needed to keep his focus on his own opponent rather than directing others.
There's an elephant in the room too that we're probably bit reluctant to address.
There were rumours circulating last year about an apparent 'rift' with Young and Weitering.
Not a personal thing, but more a professional, confidence thing.
We have no idea of the strength of those rumours but it's been interesting with all our defensive woes that they haven't played a lot together in defence in the last twelve months.
When they have played in the same team Young has often been bought in as much as a backup ruck rather than a pure defender.
The explanation may be as Kruddler suggests that they are similar types of defensive players (key forward opponents), albeit Weitering is a couple of levels above.