Over the course of this week, we'll be doing a mid-season review, line-by-line. Second up is Garry Hocking with the forward line.

RIGHT from the start we set about trying to be more competitive and that’s come out in some of our stats. We’ve been able to mark the ball a little bit more inside 50 - both contested and uncontested - so their ability to win hard ball gets has been better, but it’s all about getting continuity with those forwards working together and learning patterns.

It makes it more dangerous and exciting when the players can all play together.

[ Related: Gotch reviews the backs ]

We haven’t really had a group of six or seven guys that have played consistently together week in, week out. It’s good for the players to be able to develop a bit of awareness about each other.

The overall thing for us is that you need a group of 5-7 players to play together regularly, learn each others patterns and avoid having your best players having on-and-off games. We need all our players to be firing consistently.

Have your say on the forward line at the bottom of the article

Player reviews
NOTE: Only players who played three or more games were assessed in this review

Matt Thomas
7 games, 39 kicks, 6 kicks per game, 20 marks, 3 marks per game, 62 handballs, 9 handballs per game, 101 disposals, 14 disposals per game, 1 hit out, 38 tackles, 3 goals and 4 behinds.
Has come into the forward line and has played seven games for the season. He played the last four or so matches up forward and his pressure has been outstanding. His contested possession - which is the pressure stuff - is up on last year. He is also averaging five tackles forward of centre so his ability to work between the arcs (inside the 50s) has been really good for us.

Justin Westhoff
12 games, 116 kicks, 10 kicks per game, 65 marks, 5 marks per game, 63 handballs, 5 handballs per game, 179 disposals, 15 disposals per game, 21 hit outs, 31 tackles, 17 goals and 5 behinds.
Westy’s been a little bit up and down, his contested possession has dropped off but his uncontested work remains high. He’s actually kicked more goals than this time last year so that’s been a plus - and his kicking efficiency is up 4% on 2011. He’s played more forward, wing and down back and has worked extremely hard throughout those changes, which is something people probably don’t see. His ability to get inside 50, take marks and kick goals has been evidenced throughout the year.

Jay Schulz
10 games, 87 kicks, 9 kicks per game, 66 marks, 7 marks per game, 24 handballs, 2 handballs per game, 111 disposals, 11 disposals per game, 0 hit outs, 23 tackles, 28 goals and 11 behinds.
Jay has been our best forward both in pressure inside the forward 50, his disposals are up on last year and his marking inside 50. As a key forward he needs to bring heaps of pressure to the opposition, he’s nearly doubled last year’s goals and his accuracy remains pretty high. He’s been one of our best, if not the best forward so far this year.

John Butcher
6 games, 29 kicks, 5 kicks per game, 13 marks, 2 marks per game, 18 handballs, 3 handballs per game, 47 disposals, 8 disposals per game, 0 hit outs, 8 tackles, 10 goals and 1 behind.
Johnny has only played six games - only 50% of matches so far - and as with the others he brings pressure to his game and is effective at ground level. He rarely gets beaten in the air but we would like to see him take more contested marks going forward into the second half of the season. He’s been out for a few weeks and it’s a decision that we need to make through the match committee to determine whether he’s going to come straight back in or still develop in the SANFL.

Daniel Stewart
7 games, 41 kicks, 6 kicks per game, 24 marks, 3 marks per game, 20 handballs, 3 handballs per game, 61 disposals, 9 disposals per game, 50 hit outs, 9 tackles, 7 goals and 5 behinds.
Started off the year really well and was able to play the ruck-forward role which is a very difficult job to do. There’s been some good improvements there, his disposals are up and he’s been doing a lot more work around the ground. His performances inside 50 have been pretty good but he probably now just needs to find a way to get back into the side. He’s been in good form for North Adelaide in the SANFL so he’s doing everything he can.

Brett Ebert
6 games, 51 kicks, 9 kicks per game, 28 marks, 5 marks per game, 24 handballs, 4 handballs per game, 75 disposals, 13 disposals per game, 0 hit outs, 17 tackles, 6 goals and 4 behinds.
Ebo came in for the Fremantle game, quarter of the way through the year and the reason was that he needed to work on his pressure stuff. Since returning it’s gone up and he’s brought some real pressure to the his game - the way he jumps in the air - now he needs to get back and get into his best form. He probably found it last week against the Bulldogs where he took five marks inside forward 50. Hopefully that’s a sign that he’s coming back into form and can show some flair.

Chad Wingard
10 games, 47 kicks, 5 kicks per game, 13 marks, 1 mark per game, 61 handballs, 6 handballs per game, 108 disposals, 11 disposals per game, 7 hit outs, 28 tackles, 3 goals and 8 behinds.
Chaddy’s been really good for his age in the game. He’s played 10 out of 12 games, he’s having shots on goal - just converting 3.8 - but that’s averaging over a shot a game. He’s showed some really quality footy for us and is definitely a player of the future for us.

Aaron Young
3 games, 12 kicks, 4 kicks per game, 4 marks, 1 mark per game, 9 handballs, 3 handballs per game, 21 disposals, 7 disposals per game, 0 hit outs, 5 tackles, 1 goal and 0 behinds.
Young has played three games for us, but he’s not been brought in to affect the scoreboard for us, rather to bring pressure and delivery to forwards coming through from the middle. He can provide us a bit of run between the arcs and his kicking efficiency has been pretty good. He’s had good form at North Adelaide and will hopefully get opportunities during the remainder of the year.