2023: SC Planning Thread

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Even to play quick you need guys to win first possession and extract the ball to the outside runners, would have thought thats exactly what Cogs and Green are there for.
True, but this is the narrative also around why Tom Mitchell isn't a good pick playing for Collingwood. Can't have one without the other. Cogs IMO just has a better rounded game and if there's less stoppages, then there's obviously less opportunity for the extractors.
 
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I've been thinking about this but I think Cogs will be okay. His outside game will help him much more, I just worry with Green that we saw him tail off significantly last season as the year went on, It's another pre-season under his belt but it seems the new game plan will test him early in terms of covering the ground. Obviously the forward status helps him, if fit he'll be top 6 for sure and likely top 3.
Thanks. I’m hoping that it works out that way for Cogs as well.
 
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This is interesting - has me re-thinking Tom Green. Could be good news for Josh Kelly though and also Finn Callaghan. Will need to watch pre-season pretty closely. This I guess is pretty predictable with the change in coach and how other teams like Collingwood showed how successful the style can be.

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Kelly has been seriously tempting me, with a new coach. But just seems to be in a general scorung decline. Reliability the other issue.
 
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This is interesting - has me re-thinking Tom Green. Could be good news for Josh Kelly though and also Finn Callaghan. Will need to watch pre-season pretty closely. This I guess is pretty predictable with the change in coach and how other teams like Collingwood showed how successful the style can be.

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I wouldn't read too much into it tbh.
'Less basis on stoppages' means nothing imo. They won't be instructing their players to not tackle nor pressure their opponents. GWS last year were bottom 6 for clearances anyway, and Green averaged 3.05/game putting him at 26th in the league. Both of which have scope for improvement.
If anything, an emphasis on speed to break through packs/stoppages makes them more dangerous and places more importance on their extractors getting the ball out to a good option. Hence more scope for score involvements or whatever too.
 
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There’s been talk of Kysaiah Pickett playing midfield this year. Richardson added: “He’s done a bit more work through the midfield. We felt we’d become a bit too predictable through the middle. We’re going to rotate a few more through there and Kossie is one of those.”

This is of interest to me from that Honeyball article.
This could have big implications on their mids, especially because Viney can't do anything else so he kind of just sits in one spot while both Clarry and Petracca can play forward more.

Worth watching but this is the time of year everyone is saying this and then when the game is on the line it's going to be the better players because it's not like any of Petracca, Oliver and Viney are actually slow to replace them with a guy who is only better than them at speed.


Josh Ward will make a lot of sense as a pick one day, hard sell at $350k mid only with Hopper right there.

Has the game to pull out an 80+ average but that's not perhaps enough at that price.
I'm actually watching him very closely. He could definitely do an Oliver/Macrae type second year, imo. Was held back role wise last year early on but after they pushed the older guys out and gave him some minutes he was very good.

Now Newcombe is the only returning midfielder clearly ahead of him, Amon and Wingard could be if they use them there but have heard nothing to indicate it on either, and Ward is a quality player with some serious natural fantasy attributes.

Probably not worth the risk but grab him in draft leagues, imo.

This is interesting - has me re-thinking Tom Green. Could be good news for Josh Kelly though and also Finn Callaghan. Will need to watch pre-season pretty closely. This I guess is pretty predictable with the change in coach and how other teams like Collingwood showed how successful the style can be.

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Someone still needs to win the stoppages to start that outside style and teams that design that way tend to put more focus into a single extractor to allow the others to cheat a bit more on the spread. There's also two sides and I dare say that most teams would look at a Coniglio, Kelly and Green group as one that could be had at stoppages given only Kelly even realises he can run defensively in that group and their 2nd group looks very inexperienced/low quality on paper.

On a flipside, it's definitely a positive for Whitfield (DPP incoming), Kelly and Coniglio who all love some cheap outside ball and a bit of waxing. Could also be good for Cumming as one of their few great kicks.

Definitely something to watch but the more important aspect for GWS remains their midfield mix and balance, are they going to go their best 3 heavily, are they going to throw random potatoes in there or what?
 
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The GWS midfield mix will be much more stable now. With Hopper and Taranto gone this automatically stabilises things and makes it much more balanced. This new game style of moving the ball faster and following the likes of Collingwood and Tigers from years before wouldn't have worked with Taranto and Hopper in that team.

I do find it funny though how we build narratives around players just to justify our selections. One minute we're all really happy to see players with more CBA's and the next where all happy with a reduction in stoppages to focus on a single extractor. The truth is we won't really know until we see a few pre-season games but for me, the players that spend more time around the ball and running out games the better. Again I come back to the Tom Mitchell rhetoric where people are quick to jump on him as being a bad selection due to him needing a high CBA/contested game and not suiting a Collingwood game plan to...................
 

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Again I come back to the Tom Mitchell rhetoric where people are quick to jump on him as being a bad selection due to him needing a high CBA/contested game and not suiting a Collingwood game plan to...................
I thought with Mitchell it was moreso related to his dependence on accumulating a large amount of uncontested ball rather than a contested game as his CPR historically has not been as high as those registering close to or above 50% and averaging 115 odd in SC.

T Mitchell:
CPR%:
2022: 45.6
2021: 33.5
2020: 40.7
2018: 45.5
2017: 40.9

T Mitchell:
2017= 5th in Total Uncontested Possessions
2018= 4th in Total Uncontested Possessions
2020= 9th in Uncontested Possessions per game
2021= 3rd in Total Uncontested Possessions
2022= 46th in Total Uncontested Possession (34th per game)

Uncontested Possesions:
2022:
https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_stats_team.html
League average= 216.3 per game
11th= Hawthorn= 208.5 per game
14th= Collingwood= 204.5 per game

2021= 2nd= Hawthorn
2020= 9th= Hawthorn
2018= 6th= Hawthorn
2017= 2nd= Hawthorn
 
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I thought it was moreso related to his dependence on accumulating a large amount of uncontested ball rather than a contested game as his CPR historically has not been as high as those registering close to or above 50% and averaging 115 odd in SC.

T Mitchell:
CPR%:
2022: 45.6
2021: 33.5
2020: 40.7
2018: 45.5
2017: 40.9

T Mitchell:
2017= 5th in Total Uncontested Possessions
2018= 4th in Total Uncontested Possessions
2020= 9th in Uncontested Possessions per game
2021= 3rd in Total Uncontested Possessions
2022= 46th in Total Uncontested Possession (34th per game)

Uncontested Possesions:
2022:
https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_stats_team.html
League average= 216.3 per game
11th= Hawthorn= 208.5 per game
14th= Collingwood= 204.5 per game

2021= 2nd= Hawthorn
2020= 9th= Hawthorn
2018= 6th= Hawthorn
2017= 2nd= Hawthorn
Yeah I think that's true, but I imagine a lot of that uncontested ball was a result of those 1 & 2 handball and chip kicks around and from stoppages where now the extractors will really have to work hard around the ground to make up those numbers as teams look to go forward quickly.

The knock on Tom Green last season was fatigued related as the season went on, the reality is that this year these players need to work harder and harder to get from one stoppage to another IMO. Maybe, maybe not, we'll see I guess. Just something I'm conscious of early in the pre-season.
 
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