NAB Challenge: Carlton vs. Sydney at Etihad

[PaulP]

Pretty fair summary Jim.

[jeza]

Desperately short in the forward line once you factor in the resting ruckman and Gorringe as useless.

Jaksch is potentially the most important player on our list (structurally) which makes it a big concern that he's so out of favour.

FF Lamb / Walker / Jaksch
HF Everitt / Casboult / Wright

I think that's our best forward line for the season but we're replacing Jaksch / Everitt with Phillips / Gorringe. Pretty depressing first 3 weeks ahead while Bolton figures this out.

[blue4life]

Wood's better than both those rucks............

They're both young and can improve, we and the rest of the football world know what Wood's capable of and it's not much.
We're setting up a team for five years from now, playing Wood would be a backwards step in my opinion.
Casboult isn't the answer either, he's neither a good forward nor a decent ruckman and his field kicking is terrible, we need to recruit or rookie another young ruckman at the end of this season and keep persevering until we find someone capable of supporting Kreuzer.

[Lods]

lOT OF BIG CALLS BEING MADE AFTER 3 scratch matches.

Yep
Silly stuff is over.

If our senior players didn't just use that as a "track gallop" they'd also be silly.

The intensity will shoot up considerably when the real stuff starts and we'll see whether the "March stars" are up to it.
At the same time the 'veterans' will also lift considerably....then we can make some sound assessments.

[PaulP]

Desperately short in the forward line once you factor in the resting ruckman and Gorringe as useless.

Jaksch is potentially the most important player on our list (structurally) which makes it a big concern that he's so out of favour.

FF Lamb / Walker / Jaksch
HF Everitt / Casboult / Wright

I think that's our best forward line for the season but we're replacing Jaksch / Everitt with Phillips / Gorringe. Pretty depressing first 3 weeks ahead while Bolton figures this out.

If Bolts doesn't want to play Cas as ruck / forward (as Jim suggests) then he should play as true FF in the goal square. He's not quite CHF material IMO.

[laj]

They're both young and can improve, we and the rest of the football world know what Wood's capable of and it's not much.
We're setting up a team for five years from now, playing Wood would be a backwards step in my opinion.
Casboult isn't the answer either, he's neither a good forward nor a decent ruckman and his field kicking is terrible, we need to recruit or rookie another young ruckman at the end of this season and keep persevering until we find someone capable of supporting Kreuzer.

Prefer Wood many times over than the other two. Held up our rucks nicely last year.

Casboult showed last year he was decent enough to fill a role. Kicked goals and rucked ok. Not a star at all in either role but decent and as a combined role he is valuable. marking around the ground is certainly a strength even if he's not as good in the tap ruck department as the others. Hence he got quite a bit of interest last year. Just not sure playing him full time forward as it seems to get bogged down and it saps his confidence. A run on the ball tends to change that in both roles.

[laj]

If Bolts doesn't want to play Cas as ruck / forward (as Jim suggests) then he should play as true FF in the goal square. He's not quite CHF material IMO.

CHF mightn't be too bad actually if it comes to  a choice between FF and CHF. Gets a chance to run around more. When he does that he takes marks. Doesn't do that at FF. Prefer the combined ruck and forward role though. Means we don't have to play Phillips or Gorringe.

[laj]

Desperately short in the forward line once you factor in the resting ruckman and Gorringe as useless.

Jaksch is potentially the most important player on our list (structurally) which makes it a big concern that he's so out of favour.

FF Lamb / Walker / Jaksch
HF Everitt / Casboult / Wright

I think that's our best forward line for the season but we're replacing Jaksch / Everitt with Phillips / Gorringe. Pretty depressing first 3 weeks ahead while Bolton figures this out.

It was mentioned on BF that Jaksch was recently hospitalised as he was ill and lost a bit of weight/conditioning. Might explain his absence from the squad if true. Is playing forward in the VFL today.

[PaulP]

CHF mightn't be too bad actually if it comes to  a choice between FF and CHF. Gets a chance to run around more. When he does that he takes marks. Doesn't do that at FF. Prefer the combined ruck and forward role though. Means we don't have to play Phillips or Gorringe.

Fair enough. My reasoning has to do with a couple of factors :

1. If he is closer to goal, it increases the chance of him kicking goals, which is a confidence booster for him and a morale booster for the team. He has no trouble clunking marks - it's what happens after that is the problem. Having him at FF would also save some gas, which is no bad thing with the new reduced rotations.
2. I also think it plays into opposition hands to have him further from goal. Clearly the rest of the comp know he is an elite mark, so I reckon they'd be less worried if he was clunking them 50 out rather than 20 out. I know if I was the opposition coach, I wouldn't want Cas playing at FF. If he gets double or triple teamed, it creates problems for the defense and chances for our other forwards.

My 2cents.

[jeza]

Yep
Silly stuff is over.

If our senior players didn't just use that as a "track gallop" they'd also be silly.

The intensity will shoot up considerably when the real stuff starts and we'll see whether the "March stars" are up to it.
At the same time the 'veterans' will also lift considerably....then we can make some sound assessments.

I don't know... as far as preseason games go that was pretty intense. That was Sydney's best available team and they played full minutes to all their good players.