I didn’t really comment on the Essendon game, because it was all very predictable and disappointing. It’s the same old issues, and I didn’t really think I had anything to add (I know it’s rare). But with the benefit of a few days and seeing how others saw it, it turns out I do have some views.
The main view is that I think the team is fine. Our backline is holding up despite being cobbled together by second-stringers (Essendon scored some cheap goals that defenders like Hamling or Ryan would have prevented). Our midfield looks solid. Darcy would be my tip for the Doig this year, and is flat-out clowning other ruckmen.
The problem is we have an inefficient forward line while playing in an era where there has never been a worse time to have an inefficient forward line.
Tabs is a good player, but his scoring output to opportunities ratio isn’t elite; yet he is the focus of almost every attack. It’s too predictable. Lobb is a good player, but there’s too much overlap with Tabs. Fyfe is a superstar who has been incredibly wasteful this year. Walters was the one guy in the forward line you could rely on to take his chances, and it’s just not there for him at the moment (at his worst he’s still a useful player).
Our other small forwards don’t create enough chances. You could talk me into any one of our small forwards being a useful player, but their inability to collectively hit the scoreboard is a worry. Crowden, for example, has played exclusively as a forward and has scored 0.2 in 5 games. How is that even possible?
Henry has been disappointing. It’s still really early and he’s struggled to get continuity, but he’s just not getting near it at the moment. Looking at his draft, it’s difficult not to look at Kysaiah Pickett taken a few picks later and think that the gap between the two shouldn’t be so great (Henry is averaging 7 touches, 0.5 goals and 1 tackle a game to Kozzy’s 14 touches, 1.7 goals and 3.8 tackles).
Where I differ from a lot on here is the solutions. I don’t understand how Lobb has become such a whipping boy. He’s come off an interrupted pre-season, and is third in the team for contested marks behind Tabs and Fyfe (and just ahead of Darcy), down a bit from last year when he was top 5 in the league. His marks per game (5.2) are streets head of guys like Treacy (3.0) and Meek (1.0). The only way those guys make life easier for Tabs is if their opposition hasn’t read the pre-game scouting report. Darcy is close to the best ruckman in the league at the moment. Just let him do his thing. In the middle.
What I don’t understand is the strategy of slowing up our entries into the 50 just to lob it up to Tabs with a million blokes around him. It’s a horribly inefficient way to score goals. It’s seems like the sort of strategy you have when you don’t want the ball rebounding to the other end, but when scoring has been the issue for JLo’s entire stint (and about 5 years before that), why wouldn’t you open the game up a little?
And I know there’s nothing to be done about it now, but Shane’s right that we need a Kennedy, but the closest we had Freo gave up on. A Hogan/Tabs (and occasionally Lobb) forward paring is a near perfect blend.
There’s a version of the current forward line that works, but it needs a bloke like Sturt or Henry to turn into a goal-scoring threat, and we need Fyfe and Walters to pull their finger out playing forward. We also need a way to get easy goals, and that means an option other than looping the ball on Tabs or Lobb’s heads. Personally, I think it needs faster ball movement and a player leading at the ball. I don’t think it needs big goombas like Meek who are slower than our other big goobas but who can’t mark.
Our injuries haven’t allowed it, but if even half of our defenders are fit, then you’d have to consider moving Cox or Logue forward to see how it looked. Cox has the smarts and timing to get easy goals, and Logue has the athleticism to scare defenders.
