Training 2018 - Preseason training

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How's the pecking order of the rucks at Freo? Sandi, Darcy, Meek, Jones? Or is it a bit closer with Darcy, Meek and Jones?
 
How's the pecking order of the rucks at Freo? Sandi, Darcy, Meek, Jones? Or is it a bit closer with Darcy, Meek and Jones?
Darcy has the AFL experience over Meek and Jones. Meek has the workload under his belt from preseason, both Jones and Darcy have been recovering from injury (although both played last weekend). Jones plays best of the three as the forward option.
 
How's the pecking order of the rucks at Freo? Sandi, Darcy, Meek, Jones? Or is it a bit closer with Darcy, Meek and Jones?

I'd say in the minds of the coaches it is probably in that order but personally I would have Jones ahead of Meek purely for the fact that I have seen Jones dominate at WAFL level and I want to see how he will go in the AFL.
 

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How's the pecking order of the rucks at Freo? Sandi, Darcy, Meek, Jones? Or is it a bit closer with Darcy, Meek and Jones?
I think we would have two main drivers in terms of our rucks.

Sandilands is undeniably in another league to the others, and potentially will be here next season as well, pending injury and desire. But the first driver in our ruck pecking order will be about developing his replacement(s). There is no doubt Darcy is ahead here. He showed class as a ruckman; smart and contested hard. He has trimmed down a bit in acknowledgement that his fitness base needs development. Being a left hander seems to provide a nice edge in the contest which I am sure we like. Meek and Jones seem well behind until they show something at Peel.

The second driver is for a forward/second ruck. An avenue to goal. It is the role Taberner is currently taking but which is not ideal for him with his limited rucking ability, and the reduction in marking ability in our forward line when he rucks. If any of Darcy, Meek or Jones show prowess in the forward line they could become the second ruck to Sandilands. Jones has the higher credentials in this regard as he is older and has some kind of forward record, but Darcy looked okay forward at times last year.

My theory is that our future is potentially a two pronged ruck/forward combo, likely Darcy and Jones.
 
I'm not the biggest fan of Tabs in the ruck because it means we don't have a geniune tall forward in the F50. But it does mean Tabs gets involved in the play a bit more.

If things aren't going great up forward it can be good just to get your hands on the ball and lay a few tackles. Keeps the confidence levels up which is important for Tabs at the moment I think.
 
I'm not the biggest fan of Tabs in the ruck because it means we don't have a geniune tall forward in the F50. But it does mean Tabs gets involved in the play a bit more.

If things aren't going great up forward it can be good just to get your hands on the ball and lay a few tackles. Keeps the confidence levels up which is important for Tabs at the moment I think.

Robert Walls wants his only strategy back.
 
Cox will play mostly back for Peel and swing forward at times.

I have Jones ahead of Meek at the moment. Jones is a little under done due to niggling injury/fitness but still impacting on games more than Meek. Jones will have to increase his tank and improve skin folds.

At end of the year we will rebalance the excessive number of talls. I expect Sandi to go and then probably 1-2 of Strndika, Apeness, Jones to go. Bit rough on Jones but he is a mature age pick-up and a lot depends on Apeness. If Apeness gets on the park for a sustained period and shows a bit I expect him to stay on and will put pressure on the others. The high number of talls is prob some cover for Apeness and the expected loss of Sandi at the end of the year.
 
I'd say in the minds of the coaches it is probably in that order but personally I would have Jones ahead of Meek purely for the fact that I have seen Jones dominate at WAFL level and I want to see how he will go in the AFL.

Jones is going to be our Rory Lobb, he just needs the opportunity.
 
Until West Coast trade their first round pick for him to replace Lycett.
Lycett. Urrrk. And then recruiting injury prone ruckmen to cover injury prone ruckmen.... And McInness. Sad. So sad. Their recruiting obviously missed Jones. Somehow.

Our backend of that draft looks like what they should have done (Jones and Banfield). In fact, you can throw Crowden and North in there too. They are weird. Can't believe they did not prioritise Kelly, who would be in their best mids immediately.
 

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Lycett looked so good as an 18yo. And as a 19yo for that matter, but has stalled big time!
I wonder if they just assumed Nicnat is the answer to everything, so left Lycett in the corner?

Regarding guys like Banfield and North, I wonder if they realise that they have some of the most vanilla midfielders going around and decided to try and things up a bit with Ryan and Petracculle, instead of doing the obvious?
 
This thread should be re-named “Pre-season Crowing” with all our hype post one successful JLT game and a couple of Peel scratchies.

The hype is not, that we are off to win the next GF.

We are just jubilant that we aren't going to suck as much as we have in the last 2 years - that is cause for celebration (and cellar-bration, I'm happily typing in our forum with a cold frothie).
 
post script...

Most people would be thinking that we have reloaded our team with enough talented youthful upstarts that we will be in the finals and probably in contention you no doubt posted about things in immediate terms, but the crowing is long term if we think we are finals bound again (next year and beyond), we haven't got there yet, but I don't think it misplaced to think that we have acquired some serious footy talent, so, too right we're in a happy place.
 
I wonder if they just assumed Nicnat is the answer to everything, so left Lycett in the corner?

Regarding guys like Banfield and North, I wonder if they realise that they have some of the most vanilla midfielders going around and decided to try and things up a bit with Ryan and Petracculle, instead of doing the obvious?

I suspect you're right but not just vanilla in the midfield, they're quite vanilla all over the ground. Rioli, Petracelli, Venables and Ryan add a bit of X factor but in getting them they took the eye off the ball and missed addressing what most think is their real need.
 
How can you not be hyped about the prospect of seeing a full season of what Banfield and brayshaw did in a couple of games. What they can do for the team and who else we can unearth in our other recruits. If there is no hype or optimism for the season we may as well throw up a white flag. The facts are it’s the start of a new season and everyone starts off at 0-0 bring on round 1 and hopefully a year we can see growth and belief a flag is not too far off.
 
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