04-06-2016, 11:31 AM
(04-06-2016, 06:35 AM)crashlander link Wrote:Jamo is one who is definitely polarizing opinions at the moment. A number of people voted for him for his effort against Sydney: he received a couple of 5 vote mentions. However, his stats were ordinary and, for the 2nd week in a row, he struggled to get 10 possessions.
According to many he is really struggling. Others think he is doing not too badly.
To me, our new game plan often leaves our key defenders exposed. That isn't a surprise, it is almost par for the course. Most teams are playing a similar deference now and it does leave the opportunity to be caught out on the rebound as a high probability when we turn the ball over. This is also the case when we get beaten in the middle of the ground, something that was very much the case last week.
Jamo is used to a different way of dealing with things and a 1 on 1 defence. In fact, he has been an excellent 1 on 1 defender.
Rowe is in a similar position. He played OK in round 1, but for dropping too many marks. For his fumbles, he was almost dropped (even though he had more impact that Jamo did and more than twice the number of possessions). He was saved only by injury to Walker.
That may not have done him that much good, as he had very few possessions against Sydney, while the Sydney tall forwards got go
As a result, both Jamo and Rowe are under considerable pressure.
On the other hand, Weitering is doing a pretty good job, both in shutting down his man and getting the ball himself. However, this game plan is basically his 1st. Given that he is a top ranked recruit (neither Jamo nor Rowe was so ranked), he is coping with that game plan better.
Plowman, when he gets into the side, may well fit into a taller defensive role as well. He has more running ability than either Jamo or Rowe and is more of a run - off option as well.
In some ways we are seeing the changing of the guard in our defence. It will be interesting to see how our defence evolves this season and who ends up in the main roles.
Another point of interest in considering Rowe especially, and to a lesser extent Jamo, is that neither of these guys has a history of starting the year off strongly. Jamo started pretty well early in his career, but has struggled early for the last few seasons (due to injury as much as anything else). Rowe has not started well in ANY of the seasons he was been with us. He has taken 3 - 6 weeks to find form and confidence, but has usually played better the longer the season has progressed. If that is to be the case again, and it would not be a surprise, then he should start to perform better in the next couple of weeks.
The question is, can we wait? Do we take the time and keep these guys in, waiting for Weitering to be able to take on the key role, or do we drop one or both and ask the kid to take on the League's best each week?
I don't have a good answer.
If the other team has a couple of decent marking talls then thats usually the end of the road for us as it is for the other bottom teams..Tippet, Buddy and Sinclair overwhelmed us...to beat teams with that setup you need team defense..the powerful Geelong teams specialised in it with Milburn often providing the extra player at the contest..........Hawks have Gibson who does/did that role assisting Lake..its always 2 on 1 or even 3 on 1. With us its 1on 1 and in some cases that one is totally undersized like Docherty vs Tippett as our key defenders just lose touch with their man and the opposing teams always find the mismatch as one of our smalls has to cover...happens later in games mainly when we tire and the concentration slips.
We need a smart tough 190cm defender who can help our KP defenders and also provide some run and good kicking from defense...Touhy aint smart, White cant kick etc , Everitt is too timid...maybe Plowman can be our Milburn/Gibson...