[RAMBLE] Bevo Going Backwards to Go Forward

As you all know, I can’t half ramble about the Dogs - so I’m going to subject you to it again with a thought I’ve had over the 6 competitive games we’ve played so far this year. I promise I’ve only raided afltables for an obscure stat once for this, see if you can pick it out.

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I reckon Bevo is going backwards to go forward. We all know that he’s a bit of a footy revolutionary. Over his first three years in charge he eschewed ruckmen altogether at times. He played players in new roles (Boydy, Picko etc.). I think he brought around a fully-fledged paradigm shift from Hawthorn’s surgeon-like footskills to a chaotic, hands-based game.

But after the failures of last year I think he’s had a bit of a rethink about how far he needs to deviate from the axioms of the game to overcome the 17 other teams. You could probably put this down to the comp catching up (I maintain that Richmond owes us a lot).

Essentially I think he’s returning to a traditional spine - partly because he has the right personnel to do so, but partly because it’s different to the lead he set for the comp in 2016.

Tim English is a traditional around the ground ruckman. He has the fitness to contest nine out of ten centre bounces & follow the ball all day. This will only improve, & I reckon he’ll be our undisputed top ruckman by the end of the season, & one of the best in the comp within a couple of years.
Bevo’s decision to run with him in this traditional role is in stark contrast to the days of Jongy going up against Naitanui, the exploitation of the third-man-up & the deployment of Roughy & Campbell at once to negate stars like Mumford & Goldstein.

This one I’m not so sure about yet, but I reckon Zaine Cordy is going to be a very good full-back. It comes down to his tenacity, which is his greatest trait. He’s not a fantastic kick, but he’s tough in one-on-ones, has great hands & has the guts to run off his man like Matthew Scarlett did. We’ll see where this goes as Naughton improves & when taller, stronger options like Marcus Adams come back into the fold.

But my main prediction is that he’s decided to value a traditional full-forward.
Jake Stringer was probably the closest we’ve had to a full-forward during Bevo’s reign, but he didn’t play it in a traditional way. Instead the CHF (Red or Boyd) would have to fulfil some of that role whilst also trying to get up the ground. This allowed Stringer to do his mercurial stuff, but as we know he could go missing a lot which created a hole (often filled by our smalls).
But I think two players especially are shaping up as traditional F50, full forward animals - Billy Gowers & Josh Dunkley. These guys are super strong, work hard &, unlike Stringer or Red, pluck pack marks. Apparently Dunkley is one of the hardest trainers at the club & you can see it in his follow up work. Gowers has mongrel & must have worked his arse off to play the first month after coming from the clouds. He’s got to get his fitness up, but he's had ten scoring shots in his first four games (Lockett only had seven, just quietly). There’s one issue that is rectifiable - they’re both pretty iffy kicks. If we’re smart we’ll invest in a specialist coach or at least get Gia to spend a lot of time on it with them.

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So how do you guys see this playing out? This is really just a prediction at the moment, but Bevo’s success came as a result of differentiating us from the other sides, rather than simply try & beat them at their own game (like the great Geelong & Hawthorn teams did for the decade beforehand). I reckon he’s doing the same thing by returning to some fundamentals, & some unfashionable team roles. We’ll see how it comes together over the course of the season.