Preview 2025 Best 22 Discussion

[DocT]

Coaches do indeed make changes to optimise the best 22 for critical games. Two irrefutable examples:

• under Lyon we did not take our best side to Tasmania, so they could be cherry ripe for the next game. That's about as disruptive as you can get.
• Geelong focused on having Ottens in form and available for the second half of the season and finals. They gambled they could make finals without him, but not win finals without him.

The word 'managed' has crept into common usage as well, and indicates not selecting a player who otherwise could have played if the stakes demanded it.

I think Fyfe and Walters should both be managed. We have seen that they struggle to play an entire season, and I think there is greater value having them later, when we fell away this year.

I like your big picture thinking wrt both players and the season.

 

[eastfreo75]

Coaches do indeed make changes to optimise the best 22 for critical games. Two irrefutable examples:

• under Lyon we did not take our best side to Tasmania, so they could be cherry ripe for the next game. That's about as disruptive as you can get.
• Geelong focused on having Ottens in form and available for the second half of the season and finals. They gambled they could make finals without him, but not win finals without him.

The word 'managed' has crept into common usage as well, and indicates not selecting a player who otherwise could have played if the stakes demanded it.

I think Fyfe and Walters should both be managed. We have seen that they struggle to play an entire season, and I think there is greater value having them later, when we fell away this year.

Great points.

Players having an interrupted preseason tend to have au underwhelming season. Maybe, it would be better in the long term to start the season later for them. Give an opportunity to have full training before they play.

Clubs tend to play players when they are ready and that might that be not a great idea long term.

Devil is detail for sure and nothing is ideal.

 

[Dale147]

 

[freo84]

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As usual Dale147 cheers for the news mate!

 

[Hamann188]

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Why did Quarters mention Raz amongst the midfield group but not MJ? Curious.

 

[Mr Cheese]

All of them. Having Aish, Banners, Switta, Ras, Draper, Fyfe and Walters as our bottom 6 or 7, not sure that’s premiership class in 2025. I Might be harsh on Switta but he needs an outstanding season from here on in.

That's as good a bottom 6 or 7 as you'll see in the league (would love a breakdown of who has better).

As someone else pointed out, only Switta is a walk-up start currently, the rest make up spots 23-29 (and you can probably add JOM there if you're including NOD as best 22). That's some serious and versatile depth. Even Reidy, I think, will have come on to at least AFL standard ruck for next year, which will allow us to hold formation and help improve Jackson's output.

Edit: Forgot about Voss; got a feeling he'll end up a good forward who we'll end up trading out for something decent or as quality cutlery in a player trade. Strong as an ox and good depth to have either way.

As for Sturt and Freddie, as others have said, they're going to benefit massively from Bolton's presence in the team. Sturt, in particular, will have a mismatch in most every game, given his combination of height, speed and marking ability and I'm expecting a huge season from him next year. As for i50 stoppage, I'd play him around the 50 arc as a shallow mop up mark who also has the speed to stop/disrupt run out of defence, or be available as a quick shallow i50 reentry point if the clearing mark is longer. Given his ball use, and ability to roost them with accuracy, I think he'd excel at this.

Freddie will just be unleashed; with him Switta, Sturt and Bolton, plus the relative speed of Amiss and Treacy as talls, we'll be the fastest end-to-end team in the comp. Look for a lot of transition Joe the gooses, or one on one mismatches next year

TLDR - We're ****ing stacked and have excellent depth in 2025. No reason why we can't go all the way.

PS - Walker is the best lockdown defender in the comp, and more than handy coming out of defence. Criminally underrated by some here. Walk up start 8 days a week.

On SM-G988U1 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Vintage]

re walker. I really wonder if people in here watch footy sometimes.

 

[Purple Jesus]

**** me, can the season just start already?

 

[King Huskii]

My best 22/23

Ryan Pearce Walker
Clark Cox Chapman
Sharp Young NOD
Switta Treacy Bolton
Sturt Amiss Jackson

Rucks Darcy Brayshaw Serong

Int Wagner Fredrick Johnson Draper
Sub Erasmus

Emg Fyfe Aish Walters

Simpson just over Reid as he has been more productive in the training sims that I have watched. If a young gun was to.get early game time. I can't wait for both to become best 22.

Banners and O'Meara need massive pre seasons.

 

[bellie4pm]

Yes, good observations.
Obviously first prize is to play the same 23 week in week out with occasional changes for specific match-ups. The pro-side to that is connection/unity. But the concomitant con-side is rigidity. And it is obviously also impossible - s**t happens.
So team flexibility is a key part of success - especially for a team that travels far and wide and often.
I would like to see a change in match-committee mentality. Replace the best 23 concept with a best 30. Treat players missing a week as genuinely being rested for their personal good and the good of the whole. I think we'd have a stronger team overall as a result.

In terms of resting players…

Find it fascinating how many recent gf winners lose a number of games at the start of the season… then come home strong.

And how many bolters dont go on to win regardless of how strong they were during the season.

Personally believe a few of the coaches arent going hard for the first few rounds to avoid burn out later.

Way around this is team selection includes the need to rest most players at least occasionally. Two or three less games is two or three weeks more recovery during the season.

Just musings at the moment, but do think there is something in this for the dockers given our depth, our schedule and the ages of different players.

 

[88mph]

In terms of resting players…

Find it fascinating how many recent gf winners lose a number of games at the start of the season… then come home strong.

And how many bolters dont go on to win regardless of how strong they were during the season.

Personally believe a few of the coaches arent going hard for the first few rounds to avoid burn out later.

Way around this is team selection includes the need to rest most players at least occasionally. Two or three less games is two or three weeks more recovery during the season.

Just musings at the moment, but do think there is something in this for the dockers given our depth, our schedule and the ages of different players.

100%

Look at Sydney on the opposite end of the scale.

 

[theGav56]

In terms of resting players…

Find it fascinating how many recent gf winners lose a number of games at the start of the season… then come home strong.

And how many bolters dont go on to win regardless of how strong they were during the season.

Personally believe a few of the coaches arent going hard for the first few rounds to avoid burn out later.

Way around this is team selection includes the need to rest most players at least occasionally. Two or three less games is two or three weeks more recovery during the season.

Just musings at the moment, but do think there is something in this for the dockers given our depth, our schedule and the ages of different players.

It's also about development opportunity. We will be better equipped for 2025 because Draper got some games at the top level. Much better for us if that wasn't because of injury.

Similarly, Erasmus, Simpson, Voss, Murphy, Reid and Reidy could all could get the opportunity to develop.

 

[Piggy Smalls]

In terms of resting players…

Find it fascinating how many recent gf winners lose a number of games at the start of the season… then come home strong.

And how many bolters dont go on to win regardless of how strong they were during the season.

Personally believe a few of the coaches arent going hard for the first few rounds to avoid burn out later.

Way around this is team selection includes the need to rest most players at least occasionally. Two or three less games is two or three weeks more recovery during the season.

Just musings at the moment, but do think there is something in this for the dockers given our depth, our schedule and the ages of different players.

I couldn't agree more with this.

Brisbane three-peat in the 2000s did this to perfection.

 

[Vintage]

In terms of resting players…

Find it fascinating how many recent gf winners lose a number of games at the start of the season… then come home strong.

And how many bolters dont go on to win regardless of how strong they were during the season.

Personally believe a few of the coaches arent going hard for the first few rounds to avoid burn out later.

Way around this is team selection includes the need to rest most players at least occasionally. Two or three less games is two or three weeks more recovery during the season.

Just musings at the moment, but do think there is something in this for the dockers given our depth, our schedule and the ages of different players.

I think a large part of the reason eventual GF winners lose early games is because they went deep into finals the year before and therefore had a delayed start to preseason. Because of this they are still building in the early rounds and not as complete a package as the bottom 10-12 teams from the year prior.

Brisbane this year played Carlton (lost by 1 point) then us, then Collingwood off the break. Its fairly understandable that they struggled.

I agree though that you don’t want to peak too early as teams spend more time figuring you out, and players can get a bit over-confident from winning too much.

 

[Dockeroo]

I think a large part of the reason eventual GF winners lose early games is because they went deep into finals the year before and therefore had a delayed start to preseason. Because of this they are still building in the early rounds and not as complete a package as the bottom 10-12 teams from the year prior.

Brisbane this year played Carlton (lost by 1 point) then us, then Collingwood off the break. Its fairly understandable that they struggled.

I agree though that you don’t want to peak too early as teams spend more time figuring you out, and players can get a bit over-confident from winning too much.

Agree with this but it’s important to differentiate between peaking too soon and winning early games.
You can bank early wins without peaking. We don’t need to be playing incredible football in April but we do need to be winning regularly.

Geelong have been masters at this over the years. Last season they went 7-0 to start the season and I can hardly recall a less heralded unbeaten start to a season by a team.
Then when they had a mid season slump (remember the hiding Gold Coast gave them in June for example) it didn’t really matter. They hit the throttle late in the season again and before you know it they are in the top 4 with a double chance.

Good AFL teams grind out wins each week with 7/10 performances. Collingwood and Sydney have been excellent at this in recent years too.
This is what Fremantle need to become

 

[chaosball32]

Agree with this but it’s important to differentiate between peaking too soon and winning early games.
You can bank early wins without peaking. We don’t need to be playing incredible football in April but we do need to be winning regularly.

Geelong have been masters at this over the years. Last season they went 7-0 to start the season and I can hardly recall a less heralded unbeaten start to a season by a team.
Then when they had a mid season slump (remember the hiding Gold Coast gave them in June for example) it didn’t really matter. They hit the throttle late in the season again and before you know it they are in the top 4 with a double chance.

Good AFL teams grind out wins each week with 7/10 performances. Collingwood and Sydney have been excellent at this in recent years too.
This is what Fremantle need to become

Yep, winning early games ≠ peaking too early. Collingwood were 11-2 by the mid-season bye in 2023 and were pretty clearly the best team from the beginning of that season.

Brisbane were lucky this season was so even and their 4-1-6 record by the mid-season bye didn’t affect them as much as it usually would’ve. They should not be the blueprint.

We need to be winning those 50/50 games as you said. We went 1-1-6 this year in games decided by 15 points or less. That Collingwood team I mentioned went 11-1 in that same metric. A good team finds ways to squeeze out wins. You don’t need to be playing your best footy every game and smashing teams week in and week out, but you need to find ways to keep winning. We haven’t been doing that.

 

[King Huskii]

I think people over analyse things. Freo need to win enough games to.be top 4, preferably top 2 to give themselves enough chance to win the premiership and make sure the players are in the best mindset for finals.

 

[eastfreo75]

I think people over analyse things. Freo need to win enough games to.be top 4, preferably top 2 to give themselves enough chance to win the premiership and make sure the players are in the best mindset for finals.

Do you think bringing back Pearce too early cost us a final birth?

 

[Hamann188]

Do you think bringing back Pearce too early cost us a final birth?

I reckon once he'd broken it the first time, we were knackered either way.

Bring back too soon and he's only half cooked, bring him back any later and we'd be missing our key defender in AA form.

Saying that, I think we might still have made finals, but losing Darce and JT in pretty quick succession as well pretty much spelt doom for dream. All 3 of those guy were our most important players last year. Losing one was rough, losing all 3 was catastrophic.

 

[theGav56]

I think people over analyse things. Freo need to win enough games to.be top 4, preferably top 2 to give themselves enough chance to win the premiership and make sure the players are in the best mindset for finals.

We're discussing how to get into that situation. Sure it's by winning. You may be under analysing things.