Not convinced on the Sandi forward move. Might work with a different game plan when he is just one of say 6 forwards but wont work in our cleared out forward line. We dont have any crumbers as it is.
If you really wanted to try something different you would put Fyfe as Centre Half Forward, McCarthy full forward, drop Sandilands and replace Fyfe in the midfield with Connor Blakely who needs although needing development, is a workhorse who just loves the physical combat and is just languishing in no mans land as a defensive forward, whatever that means. Ok he cant kick like Dustin Martin or Old Man Mitchell but neither can Fyfe. Ive said it before McCarthy, Fyfe, Bennell and Walters is a real forward line that you could actually back to win a whole stack of contests, as long as they actually are in the forward line of course. Fyfes a natural forward. The fact he is a very good midfielder is just clouding the issue.
I love Sandi, one of my all time faves but if you are wanting to try a few things, lets not even have a ruckman, force a midfield rethink. I seriously believe the plan A of Sandi dropping the ball to his feet so our bigger bodied midfielders can muscle our way out of congestion is part of the problem. Sandi through little fault of his own has given our midfielders a cruisy run, has papered over our midfield defects and propped up our poor strategies. For years we had a kick it down the boundary line to Sandi get out of jail card for defenders in the back line under pressure. With that now gone we dont have any plan B.
Sandilands is poorly coached. He has no aggression for one thing. Secondly he could be trained to jump, even 10cms would be good. Also, how hard is it to coach him to go back off his mark quickly, stay on his line so he doesnt get called for play on, and then look for a proper option? At least 50% of the time Sandi panics into an immediate handpass to the first Docker he sees who more often than not gets tackled immediately. When it happens once a year this is the players fault. When it happens for 4 years repeatedly its coaching.
Of course with a normal coach none of this would be necessary, you would have Sandilands belting the ball 30 m out of congestion at bounce downs, we would have a semi permanent forward line of at least 5 players and Sandi and Griff would then be a bit dangerous lurking in a pocket for that SURPRISE long bomb.
Scores of other ways this team could be transformed into something competitive over night. Malthouse had a book of 100 one percenters. The coaching panel needs to get a copy and do some reading.
