Phillip "Molly" Malone is one of the most prolific Web pundits on Aussie Rules footy with his blog Mollyzine and podcast Molly's Monday Machination. He's an engineer and a Hawk fan, and you'll see his name everywhere.
CB AFL Dream Team and Super Coach Podcast #76: Post Round 17, 2009
There’s a big CB exclusive to start this week’s show: Timmy Cahill to Hawthorn! Time to move Jesus to centre half forward…
No, actually the big news already came out about Karmichael Hunt going to the Gold Coast, and the boys discuss the fantasy implications for 2011, including comparisons to Marty Clarke and a couple of defensive forwards.
Then it’s onto the round review. Andrew Carrazzo and Heath Scotland scored well for Carlton this week, raising hopes for next year. At Collingwood the big news is the power-sharing deal between Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley, which has implications for fantasy as well.
Molly gives a Simon Hogan update, and m0nty asks why Joel Selwood was allowed to dominate to the tune of 185 DT points by his opponent Brad Sewell, followed by an appraisal of Josh P. Kennedy.
From the Derby, the boys discuss the two combatant’s respective small defender stocks: Paul Duffield, Greg Broughton, David Mundy, Michael Johnson and Roger Hayden of the Dockers; plus Brett Jones, Shannon Hurn, Matt Spangher, Scott Selwood, Will Schofield and the recently re-signed Andrew Embley for the Eagles.
Josh Drummond’s up and down season is reviewed, and with Adam Simpson’s imminent retirement Molly swerves past Daniel Harris and Andrew Swallow as his direct replacement and looks towards Jack Ziebell, with Liam Anthony also mentioned.
m0nty can’t find any upside in 2010 for the rampaging St Kilda list, but Molly can see some value. Daniel Cross is having a decent run, while Cale Morton had a poor one against the Swans. Again, m0nty can’t see many Sydney players he would wan’t in fantasy next year as they bottom out, but a few names are scraped off the bottom of the barrel.
Then the boys launch into an in-depth discussion of which team is preparing their key defenders better: Essendon by continuing to play Dustin Fletcher in a loose role, or Richmond who have consigned Joel Bowden to Coburg and left their kids to fend for themselves.
Speaking of old farts, m0nty attacks the longevity of Andrew McLeod, Simon Goodwin and Brett Burton, with differing reactions by Molly. Shaun Burgoyne is assessed for 2010, and m0nty wonders why he’s hearing some coaches choosing Robbie Gray as their last trade-in.
There’s a full captains segment as well.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Great listening material guys, but your analysis about Fletcher and his role in the Essendon line-up is very, very wrong. For starters, he is certainly not “Essendon’s version of Joel Bowden”, he’s a genuine key position player (not someone who just racks up possessions across half-back) who does the one-percenters week in, week out, without any credit from the football world.
He’s definitely not hindering the development of Pears and Hurley - if he was, he’d be taking the no.1 forward each week, like Essendon knows he can, and not letting the young defenders (Pears, Hurley, Hooker, Daniher) get the experience they do from playing on the competition’s best.
You also implied that Fletcher is being dragged along by the younger defenders until he gets his “gold watch”, which suggests to me that you haven’t seen any of Essendon’s last six games - he has been the glue that holds the backline together, and is preparing these youngsters for his retirement by giving them the big jobs, not the opposite.
You say he hasn’t had an opponent for years, which is incorrect in that he just takes a weaker forward so that he can play this all-encompassing role and take a man out of the game at the same time. Look at last weekend’s example (from FanFooty, monty): “Moved from Post to Riewoldt in Q4″. You guessed it, Post kicked two in the last quarter to seal the game for the Tigers.
He’s played on guys like Lockett, Carey, Modra, Dunstall, Kernahan and Ablett Sr as a youngster and even last year he was playing on Brown, Fevola, Pavlich and Riewoldt, so he certainly has the ‘flexibility’ to take a star forward.
The Bombers lost 3 out of 5 games while he was injured (not when Essendon had its good run of wins), proving his worth to the side. Re James Hird’s comments, Fletcher was easily Essendon’s best player for the whole day (in my opinion), which is to be expected, in that a defender was our best player in game where the team was beaten, because the ball is always down there! It certainly doesn’t suggest that he is detrimental to the team, if you said that about Dom Cassisi in PA’s loss to Melbourne, for example, you’d be called a fool: a player playing well in a loss and then being blamed for it is ridiculous.
If you’d watched Essendon this year, you’d notice that Pears and Hooker have both stepped up (like Bower, as you mentioned), and with the presence of Fletcher, and they take the opposition’s best forwards each week and consistently win. Bower’s also two years older than Hurley and Pears, who are both just 19, so that comparison is slightly flawed. And if you look at Pears’ stats, he’s been averaging 17.5 disposals a game since Fletcher came back in round 12, which is fairly impressive for any 19-year-old, let alone a key position defender, so he certainly does get the opportunity to rebound and attack.
Its not a curse that we have to play Fletcher - he’s one of the most underrated players in the AFL, and I’m sure Matthew Knights is in a better position than you guys to know whether Fletcher should or should not be playing. Sure, Knights’ job is to get rid of the dead wood (see Jason and Mark Johnson, Peverill, Michael etc) but his decision to continue playing Fletcher shows that he is not dead wood at all, and still playing a vital role in the development of a successful backline.
I’d like to take issue with your definition of bottoming out, too. Essendon have finished 12th, 15th, 13th and 13th in the last four season, and that, to me, is also bottoming out - a common misconception is that you have to do a St Kilda or a Carlton, and get all these number one draft picks to build a successful side. Look at Geelong as a prototype: their lowest position in recent years was 12th in 2003, and their side will go down as one of the best, even if there’s only one flag to their name.
Anyway, keep up the (mostly) good work! Just had to get that all off my chest.
August 1st, 2009 at 1:04 am
Well said Sam.
Still, can you really expect much from a couple of Dawk supporters?
:p