Changes V Hawthorn

[Steve Dore]

Looks like there won't be wholesale changes, which i agree with. After all, can't drop half the team. The best players are mostly in now, just need them to settle back in and start having an impact.

Rucci goes on to describe the players as mentally weak with choco trying to protect them by showing endless faith - quite a destructive cycle.

Contrast Choco's never ending faith in under performing players with this article about St Kilda, 'Trademark' costs Ball his place with Saints.

I agree you can't drop half the team but sometimes a statement needs to be made and an under performing player's gold pass needs to be revoked. If it was good enough for Rodan why isn't it good enough for others who contribute even less.

St Kilda don't accept sub-par performances regardless of a player's reputation and look where it has got them

 

[Forzaport]

That's just it Rodan has been dropped, but so has Pettigrew, Carr, P.Burgoyne, Salopek, Krakouer

I wish we had the luxury of only having 1-2 players needing to be dropped. Not 10.

 

[2121]

OUT: LOWER, EBERT
IN : SALTER, BROGAN


TEAM & MATCH UPS

BACKS: CHAPLIN CARLIE STEWART
SURJAN CORNES THURSTANS

CENTER: DAVENPORT CORNES BOAK
FOLL: BROGAN CASSISI RODAN

FORWARDS: WESTOFF SALTER KRAKOUR
BURGOYNE TREDREA GRAY

INTER LADE, SALOPEK, BROADBENT, PEARCE

MATCH UPS
Backs: Carlie on Franklin
Surjan on Rioli
Chaplin on Roughhead

Center : Cornes on mitchell
Cassisi on hodge

Forwards: Krakour on Ellis- Krakour to play as a 5th centermen give him the option to run around the whole ground creating run.


Port to win by 23 points

 

[Power King]

Ebert back in the middle.

Back?

Was he ever there in the first place?

 

[240volt]

Honestly i don't give a **** who comes in or out anymore,

it seems to make no difference and has made no difference all year...

and least in the previous few years there has been shining lights when after round 14 it was obvious our season is shot...

but now there is no light, nothing to turn to nothing that will make the slightest of difference, yes I am losing hope and faith in this current list, maybe a new game plan thats really all i can think of thats going to make any difference to our side.

our youngsters were supposed to take the step and come through the ranks...if anything they have taken a step back.

Salopek Kraks Pearce and Boak......have stayed the same level and in sal's/pearce's case gone backwards. Though to sal's defense he is being played way out of position.

You have just about said it all and i'm sure many have your thoughts right now,like you i don't see a lot in the future as we have recruited poorly,to many project players( new way of saying getting someone that will play lots of sanfl footy) and players that just have not got and never will have the body for AFL football 21st century.At the next draft we need to look at guys in the 21 to 23 age that may have played at a state league level and have the right type of body to take the next step, players that can play football would be a benefit also. No more Project or injury riddled types and for god's sake no more Hoff's

 

[spookism]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/81635/default.aspx

If the light duty guys don't get up, we will get smashed.... most are on the defensive line!

 

[Russian]

Cassisi on hodge

If we do that, what does Clarkson do? And which team can least afford for those two to be somewhere other than the guts?

 

[Henry Jr]

If we do that, what does Clarkson do? And which team can least afford for those two to be somewhere other than the guts?

Your right - Hodge will just wander down to the goal square if he gets Kane or Cassisi

 

[malph]

How long do we need to carry that hack Ebert. Cant mark, cant kick, cant chase... what the **** can he do????? And westhoff, **** off.You get pushed out of contests and you cant take a mark .If he is a part of our next premiership side, then all i can say is goodluck.And then Salter was ommited while playing a decent game for Shaun who is coming off a 13 week break.Get ****ed Choco , i have had enough of your shit.I bet we will be looking for another small marking forward come next draft


Out: Ebert, Westhoff,Pearce,Chappy (inj), Lower,Krakouer
In: Salter, Brogan, Hartlett, Thomas, Trengrove, Carr

P.S Finally as Macca said, congrats choco for turning Sala into a seagull... well done.

If Salter doesn't play, well, I don't know. Some fans will be angry? Whatever. That would be different.

How could a 21 year old forward, with good size, putting up Chambers-like numbers in the SANFL not be selected this week in a side so lacking in forward options? Dropping him after after one match of two goals and sensational defensive effort was Choco's single-worst selection crime of this year. Hands down.

He lined up in round 1, 2 and 3 in the half back line... so it has nothing to do with his shoulder. People are right, Choco turns our players into seagulls, he is a cancer killing our club.

If I can play Devil's Advocate, he's had shoulder problems since his first year.

However, you and every one else is still right. He's been nearly ruined. Put him in the middle and risk the injury - either he gets injured, or he wastes away in Mark Williams' ridiculous experiment that went wrong two years ago yet he still won't change. Either way, we won't get the best of Sal.

Salopek is the most disappointing player on our list if you ask me. Talk about unfulfilled potential. Trade bait for mine.

And did anyone see Selwood's game? Unbelievable. Not drafting him was the biggest draft blunder yet by the PAFC...

Hard to fathom how you could write those two paragraphs one after the other. Choco could probably ruin anyone right now. We can speculate all we like and marvel at 'how Selwood plays,' but he's enjoyed the confidence of having the best support from day one. No midfield draftee could ever hope to walk into a better system.

IMO we need to persevere with Krak AND Lower. Logan is there if either become FAIL in a erm, 'relatively stable' team. Logan is a great utility fallback for those two as HBF, but he isn't a replacement for 'the outsider', the enigma that is 50% of Pearce. I know who's first up against the wall when SB returns to the midfield.

KEEP S Burgoyne in the forward lines as a "Motlop-lite" pending Motlop's return from injury (and SB's return to midfield-level match fitness).

I would favour Stewart over Krakouer. His game was as bad as you could see anyone play, but he's never played like that before, and a defence with him and Lower in it fills me with more (albeit, slightly) confidence than any with Krak. He's a ghost in defence. Either he plays forward of centre, where his shoddy disposal doesn't hurt so much, or he can take his non-existent defence back to the Maggies.
Also, if Shaun is going to be eased back into it, that's how I would do it too. I think back to the '07 Qualifying Final, remembering how dangerous Judd was just camped in the forward pocket despite not being able to do very much at all . . .

As I posted last week, I pity the fool who plays in our forward line. It's a shifting shapeless mass, no defined structure, with smalls playing as talls and vice versa.

However, having said that ... Bock 27 disposals at 89% (19d to half time), 1 goal and Showdown medal, Doughty 27d at 85% (20d to half time) 2 goals runner up in Showdown medal, McLeod 30d at 73% (bog according to Mr Capel), Johncock 28d at 89%, =3rd in Showdown Medal.

Where the **** was our half forward line? Who was on Doughty, Bock and McLeod? Sure there's a case to be made for bad delivery, bizarre structures and set ups stopping our scoring, but what's the excuse for the sort of non-existent defensive pressure that allows players those sort of numbers? And they weren't dinky little 1-2s building up the stats, they were incisive thrusts that filleted us like fish.

*Yawn*

If most every "fringe" player was selected at the expense of a senior/gold-pass holder, like Giles-Salter-Banner-Lobbe-Trengove for Lade-Ebert-Chad-Pearce, or whoever, I don't care, would performance improve? Would they put on the pressure that we're asking of them? How could they possibly be more inconsistent than what we have right now? We're in such a hopeless place right now, does anyone really care if we're completely shit for a couple of years if that means we won't ever be as flaky as this again?

 

[SodaPop]

Salopek is the most disappointing player on our list if you ask me. Talk about unfulfilled potential. Trade bait for mine.

And did anyone see Selwood's game? Unbelievable. Not drafting him was the biggest draft blunder yet by the PAFC...

I'll raise you one Mitch Thorp. Picked up one selection before Selwood.

Anyway, good luck on Sunday.
It's just one of those games i wish i could fall asleep at 2 and wake up at 5 to see the scores.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

*Yawn*

If most every "fringe" player was selected at the expense of a senior/gold-pass holder, like Giles-Salter-Banner-Lobbe-Trengove for Lade-Ebert-Chad-Pearce, or whoever, I don't care, would performance improve? Would they put on the pressure that we're asking of them? How could they possibly be more inconsistent than what we have right now? We're in such a hopeless place right now, does anyone really care if we're completely shit for a couple of years if that means we won't ever be as flaky as this again?

I care inasmuch as:

1) We didn't need to be this completely shit for the next couple of years if the hard decision was made a month ago. And can you be sure that we won't be this flaky again after that time? A lot of damage can still be done to the list over the next two years, and how easily can it be corrected by someone new?

2) If we continue to plateau at this level of inconsistency - or worse still start spiralling further downward - what does this mean for the future of this football club as we know it? Attendances will fall, membership will drop off, and don't think for a moment the ghouls in the media and the bowels of the SANFL won't use that to try and suck the last of the lifeforce out of us.

As for the question of whether performances would improve with mass changes ... I really doubt it. If we haven't worked out by now that Bock's eyes turn saucer-sized at the sight of Westhoff, that Doughty will run through our paper-thin defence, that the crows workrate and structure trumps us regularly in a Craig vs Williams head-to-head contest, then it doesn't matter much which names are thrown into the mix.

 

[Macca19]

The fact that their half back line outscored our half forward line still has me shaking my head.

 

[Steve Dore]

...... How could they possibly be more inconsistent than what we have right now? ....

We could become very consistent just like Melbourne have been over the last couple of years.

...... We're in such a hopeless place right now, does anyone really care if we're completely shit for a couple of years if that means we won't ever be as flaky as this again?

If you can guarantee me that after two more rubbish years we will never ever be this bad again I will take it but there is no way you can.

As Ford has pointed out above the deaper a hole we dig over the next two years the harder it is going to be to climb out and it may even be a task that is beyond the PAFC.

 

[Peck]

drop ebert.
where are matt thomas and logan!
salter should come back in.. thats obvious.

personally i love westhoff, he's very small though, and doesnt look to be getting bigger.. hopefully he will bulk up before he's 26 :S


imho: brogan in for lower/stewart/broadbent and salter in for ebert

a tough preseason before next year could make us a decent side.. but it would have to be VERY tough

of course, who knows what could happen this year, we still aren't out of it, and we can probably match geelong/st kilda if they play bad and we play well =D

 

[Alberton_Magpie]

I wonder how Nick Salter feels being told hes only as good as a 50% Shaun?

 

[crazy_big_al]

PORT ADELAIDE v HAWTHORN
Port Adelaide
B: Alipate Carlile, Toby Thurstans, Jacob Surjan
HB: Nathan Krakouer, Chad Cornes, Troy Chaplin
C: Shaun Burgoyne, Domenic Cassisi, Travis Boak
HF: Robert Gray, Warren Tredrea, David Rodan
F: Matthew Thomas, Brendon Lade, Justin Westhoff
Foll: Dean Brogan, Kane Cornes, Danyle Pearce
I/C (from): Matthew Broadbent, Paul Stewart, Jason Davenport, Tom Logan, Nick Lower, Nick Salter, Hamish Hartlett

In: Brogan, Hartlett, Logan, Salter, Thomas
Out: Brett Ebert, Steven Salopek

 

[FishingRick04]

PORT ADELAIDE v HAWTHORN
Port Adelaide
B: Alipate Carlile, Toby Thurstans, Jacob Surjan
HB: Nathan Krakouer, Chad Cornes, Troy Chaplin
C: Shaun Burgoyne, Domenic Cassisi, Travis Boak
HF: Robert Gray, Warren Tredrea, David Rodan
F: Matthew Thomas, Brendon Lade, Justin Westhoff
Foll: Dean Brogan, Kane Cornes, Danyle Pearce
I/C (from): Matthew Broadbent, Paul Stewart, Jason Davenport, Tom Logan, Nick Lower, Nick Salter, Hamish Hartlett

In: Brogan, Hartlett, Logan, Salter, Thomas
Out: Brett Ebert, Steven Salopek

I would hope Stewart, Lower & Logan miss out

 

[Fritzorro]

Tredrea really needs to fire this weekend. He kicked 6 last time against the Hawks.

This year, Fev has kicked 8 against them, and J. Brown kicked 5. They can't handle the big forward, and Tredrea is due.

 

[Joelie]

Tredrea really needs to fire this weekend. He kicked 6 last time against the Hawks.

This year, Fev has kicked 8 against them, and J. Brown kicked 5. They can't handle the big forward, and Tredrea is due.

and that my friend if you had any nous would be due to the fact they had no key defender. No Croad... No Gilham. It is no fluke that since Steven Gilham has come back into the side our structure and ability to hold key forwards (in recent weeks Hale, Petrie, Cloke, Anthony, Hawkins and Mooney) has improved dramatically.

 

[Waspy79]

and that my friend if you had any nous would be due to the fact they had no key defender. No Croad... No Gilham. It is no fluke that since Steven Gilham has come back into the side our structure and ability to hold key forwards (in recent weeks Hale, Petrie, Cloke, Anthony, Hawkins and Mooney) has improved dramatically.

Gilham is hardly a rock in defence, and those names you bandy about are hardly elite footballers. The game will be won in the middle anyway and if you cant smash us there with Mitchell, Sewell, Hodge, Lewis and Bateman then there is really something wrong at Launceston/Waverly/MCG/Glenferrie.