To Phantom

[Tubytiger]

Graham (sp?) kept john brown to 0 goals at the Gabba...and we won by a couple of points.

Exactly .... along with many other benefits his recruitment was canny

The Claws bagging of this move is both non-sensical and un-educated .

Going into 2005 our 2 key backmen were A. Kellaway who has had the misfortune of fighting out of his weight division for the most of his career and Darren *smile* who was almost a dead man walking after an horrendous 2004 coming back from a knee Reco .

Where did that leave us ???? Up s..t creek without a paddle thats where .

Graham took the heat off both *smile* and Kellaway ,which can be partly credited to the gasman regaining some of his AA form .

It also allowed us to bring in and take a punt on Thursfield without throwing him to the wolves .

There are many other intangibles that only those on the inner sanctum would know about Grahams presence at Richmond but i think it is safe to say that even though he only spent 12 months at our club he left both highly respected not only as a player but as a person and his influence at punt rd. was nothing but  a positive .     

Spot on BS - he was great for the club both on and off the field no doubt.

 

[Bill James]

One more thing, I wonder how many of the guys who are now sucessful KP backmen were actually recruited for that purpose as 18 yo? I would suspect not many.

Hit the nail fair on it's big fat head.
Didn't Plough mention in one of his articles that junior players are all either midfielders or forwards and that only the failures go to the backline.
The development and coaching of junior players as specific defenders is non existant, everyone wants to be a matchwinner not a match saver.
Jay is a classic example of trying to turn a forward into a defender after he reaches AFL level.

Second that, a lot of key backmen started life as key forwards.

 

[thomas the tiger]

Totally agree that the best backmen are made from the best junior forwards and miofielders. It has always seemed odd to me that PPhantom and the other good judges here often want to recruit junior backmen. The best juniors are always forwards and midfielders.

 

[pahoffm]

Totally agree that the best backmen are made from the best junior forwards and miofielders.  It has always seemed odd to me that PPhantom and the other good judges here often want to recruit junior backmen.  The best juniors are always forwards and midfielders.

Not so sure about that.
Certainly there have been some very good forwards/midfielders who have developed and excelled in defense, but some of the best names have been junior defenders. I could be wrong, but David Dench played his junior footy as a defender. I think Steven Silvagni was the same. Kelvin Moore, the Hawthorn great, was the same too.

To me, the keys to a great defender are:
1. Ability to read the ball, (this Gaspar does very well.)
2. Mobility, ability to close ground on a forwards lead,
3. Leap, ability to go with a forward when he jumps for the ball,
4. Ability to dispose of the ball well under pressure.
Gaspar had the first 3 before he wrecked his knee, but not the 4th, which has kept him from greatness.

So, to me, if you keep recruiting the best junior forwards, midfielders and defenders, you're going to come across some good defenders amongst them.

 

[the claw]

Graham (sp?) kept john brown to 0 goals at the Gabba...and we won by a couple of points.

Exactly .... along with many other benefits his recruitment was canny

The Claws bagging of this move is both non-sensical and un-educated .

Going into 2005 our 2 key backmen were A. Kellaway who has had the misfortune of fighting out of his weight division for the most of his career and Darren *smile* who was almost a dead man walking after an horrendous 2004 coming back from a knee Reco .

Where did that leave us ???? Up s..t creek without a paddle thats where .

Graham took the heat off both *smile* and Kellaway ,which can be partly credited to the gasman regaining some of his AA form .

It also allowed us to bring in and take a punt on Thursfield without throwing him to the wolves .

There are many other intangibles that only those on the inner sanctum would know about Grahams presence at Richmond but i think it is safe to say that even though he only spent 12 months at our club he left both highly respected not only as a player but as a person and his influence at punt rd. was nothing but  a positive .     

as you said going into 2005 our 2 key backmen were gaspar and kellaway who were both coming off atrocious yrs with no young replacements to take their place. and what is wallace and millers solution to this dilemma of a lack of kpd young or old put a bandaid on the problem for 1 season by recruiting a bloke who wasnt even guaranteed playing more than a handful of games.to give credit where credit is due yes graham did play well for us but the issue is not wheather he played well or not or he won us a game its all about the long term good of the list ffs the better clubs are putting as many talls as possible on their rookie lists or using late picks on talls in the draft.to my way of thinking graham cost us at least 2 rookies or we could of taken a younger guy in the psd whose experience would be available to the club for 3 or 4 yrs.
and lastly wheres the criticism of wallace and miller when they acknowledge we have a problem with key defenders by getting graham and then proceed to utilise just 3 picks in this draft just gone and not one is a defender and only 1 is a tall even though graham has retired.its almost as if they are saying the problem we had at the start of last yr will magically fix itself at the start of this yr.

 

[TOT70]

Actually, the biggest problems with our defence are lack of pace and poor disposal. Whether the players are KPPs or smaller is irrelevant. That is why recruiting Graham for a year did very little to improve things. He was slow and had poor disposal as well. Finding a CHB is not as important o our side as finding players who can close in on the leading forwards and can then use the ball well when they get it.

A player like Kelvin Moore can help address these issues if he can slot into a defensive role. Unfortunately, he has shown little sign of this so far. Hopefully, he is given an opportunity alongside Gaspar in 2006 and he will take it.

If Moore and Schulz can step up our defence will look much tighter because both are reasonably quick and have good skills. The query with each player is on their intensity and ability to perform under the pressure of AFL standard footy. If Moore and Schulz had half of Andy Kellaway's commitment they would already be very good players.