Claw is having to loosen his definition of "tall" because his original theory of "you must play three talls in attack to win" isn't a very good one.
I havent loosend a thing as a guide to seperate smalls mediums talls i have constantly given my idea on what is a tall small or medium.
By your definition Hawthorn had a small fwd line in 2015 with
Gunston 193cm, Shoenmakers 195cm and roughead 193cm. the dogs tall set up stacked up very well to that of the dogs
Cordy 192cm Boyd 200cm Stringer 192cm.plus Bontompelli rotating thru there.
They both won premierships they both had THREE TALLS.
Your not big enough to concede the dogs players are actually talls but throw out the dumb argument that they arent 195cm plus so they are short.
What is irrefutable is they are talls but are not at the top end of the scale when it comes to talls.
Remember the Vickery debates and the 200cm fwd debates
I was constantly saying we cant play two blokes who are dinosaurswho are 200cm tall and are neither very good in either role we ask them to play. but we need three talls but they have to be in the lower spectrum of the tall scale have pace agility take a mark and offer some defensive attributes to the team.
So dont make poo up im not changing a thing.Playing three talls has been a constant with me.It just shows how small you are.
Its pointless having a debate with a bloke who is so small minded and shallow that he wont concede clear and obvious facts those facts are by anyones definition when classifying a tall boyd Stringer Cordy and Bontompelli are all talls.
from my observations a lot of clubs have actually gone to the Hawthorn model of three talls combined with three smalls who are quick and manic.We have taken it to the extreme where structure and flexabilty goes out the window where we play just one tall sometimes and at best two but one has to share ruck duties.
Some of this is due to us having poor tall stocks and some of it is due to the need to find enough players who will apply pressure both situations are not ideal.
It's not just height tbough. It's how good their hands are above their head. As you said claw, Wood is only 187cm yet he plays tall. Other guys are taller but play short.
I think that we need one more quality tall in our forward zone who can give Nankervis a chop out. We are developing our own brand with lots of pace and pressure up forward. I think that's great because we are setting our own trend rather than a blatant copy of another team.
of course its not just about height i would have thought that is a given.Surely it is better to say grimes at 193 cm play on a bloke like cordy 192cm than a bloke like Batchelor at 188cm be asked to do the job.
Surely in the name of flexability and all that it implies it would be better to have grimes play on say Richards 195cm than Batchelor at 188cm your asking blokes to fight out of their division..
Your never going to play Grimes on say a bloke like Hawkins does that mean Grimes is a short or a tall who is not quite tall enough or more to the point big enough to play kp but still a tall.
Grimes imo is considered a 3rd tall and not a KPD. He plays predominantly on medium or even small forwards like Eddie Betts.
The Bulldogs did have a small forwardline last year with their only real tall forwards in Stringer who plays more as a medium tall as he isn't a great overhead mark and extremely agile for a player of his size.
The other is Boyd who especially in the finals played more ruck/forward than forward/ruck.
Their forwardline is full of player like Picken, Dahlhaus, Jong, Daniel, Smith, Dickson and Dunkley all of which are small to medium forwards.
Cordy, Hamling, Roberts and even Roughead are defenders with Roughead play in the ruck as well.
Isnt that what i said Grimes is a third TALL
He has genuine height at 193cm a whopping 1/2 inch taller than Stringer and a whopping 1 inch shorter than Richards.Stringer who actually played kp for them because of injuries to blokes like redpath who would only be 1 inch taller than stringer at 194cm.
Cordy played as a fwd for them because of those injuries.
Roughhead used to be a defender who has become a servicable competitive ruckman for them who is 199cm about the norm nowdays for a ruckman.
Hamling Roberts are both 195cm plus and they used Morris at 190cm as the third tall who also provided run.
Dunkley is 189cm Ling Jong is 188cm Picken 184cm and Dickson is 184cm all mediums. Dalhaus played midfield and has predominately played there for a while now and the same goes for Daniel who plays predominately as a mid.
Its a fact they had heaps of guys who you would classify as genuine talls even Dunkley has grown and is now 190cm plus.
FMD Sydneys Grundy is only 192cm and no one questions weather hes a tall or not.Hes TALL who happens to play kpd because he has the size to go with the adequate height to play that role
Their G/f side lined up like this
Cordy 192cm - Stringer 192cm - Dunkley 189cm
smith 181cm - Boyd 200cm - Dickson 184cm
I dont see a lot of runts in that fwd line do you.