Mega Thread Non-Freo AFL Discussion 2023

[largebus]

Darcy is looking like a generational talent as a forward to me. JUH is going to be at least very good to elite. Naughton is the best contested marking forward in the game. It’s crazy.

Jones was excellent today. Hasn’t missed a beat.

Honestly if the Dogs can’t win another flag with this side it’s as big a waste as our Connelly coached teams. They have elite talent everywhere. English is going to be crazy good. Smith is a freakish talent, Daniel.

Wonderful squad.

I'm bearish on them given their reigning B+F Dunkley's departure and his importance to their midfield, but if Jones can step up they'll go a long way to being a threat.
I was at the elimination final last year and their defensive structure completely fell apart when we started the comeback a put a bit of pressure on them. We had Frederick and even Aish bombing down the wing into forward 50 and they went all over the place. They seem to have the cattle but I'm not sure about the scheme

 

[freo_leo29]

It’s because they poached 2 high draft pick midfielders from GWS.

The media barely watch GWS so just assume they must be good because of their draft position and drool over the coup. They never look back on this same scenario with Treloar, Shiels or countless Carlton players that failed spectacularly.

The two plodders they picked up who couldn’t finish in the GWS to 10 B&F aren’t going to stop their decline. If they go on a bad run I can see the wheels fall off.

Only reason those two weren't top 10 b & F was injury, Taranto won a B & F in their grand final season, bloke is a gun.

Hopper was top 5 B&F the 3 prior years (including top 3 in their GF season, finishing behind TT and the coleman medalist), only played 7 games last season


Calling them plodders is literally not watching GWS, I've pointed out their finishes in seasons where Giants were competing, so you cant say that did it in a dud team...

 

[FreoRicci]

I'm wondering how Lobb even gets a game if they can get that forward line to gel. His saviour might be the need to move one of them back because they are way better offensively than in defence.

Perplexed that Bruce, who kicked 48 goals in 2021, and even 50 goals in 2015, has to be moved back to accomodate Lobb. Yikes

 

[FreoRicci]

Darcy is looking like a generational talent as a forward to me. JUH is going to be at least very good to elite. Naughton is the best contested marking forward in the game. It’s crazy.

Jones was excellent today. Hasn’t missed a beat.

Honestly if the Dogs can’t win another flag with this side it’s as big a waste as our Connelly coached teams. They have elite talent everywhere. English is going to be crazy good. Smith is a freakish talent, Daniel.

Wonderful squad.

Not particularly.
Lose Dunkley and reliable winger Hunter. Midfield isn’t defensive. Fremantle walked over them after little pressure in the elimination final. Ditto in the GF 2021.
Bonts is elite, but he ll have to have a Fyfe 2015 season to carry the squad.
Their backline is still a worry. Cordy sucks. Bruce and Jones are their interceptors. Outside of that, not much else.

 

[FreoRicci]

I'm not writing Richmond off just yet. I have learned my lesson from a decade of writing Geelong off and then having them not bottoming out.

Solid midfield with a fitter Dustin Martin.

Would love Tom Lynch. Far out having him would elevate Fremantle to top 2.

 

[E Shed]

Not particularly.
Lose Dunkley and reliable winger Hunter. Midfield isn’t defensive. Fremantle walked over them after little pressure in the elimination final. Ditto in the GF 2021.
Bonts is elite, but he ll have to have a Fyfe 2015 season to carry the squad.
Their backline is still a worry. Cordy sucks. Bruce and Jones are their interceptors. Outside of that, not much else.

Have you watched Sam Darcy play? Had a look at JUH lately?
I'm not being sarcastic I'm genuinely curious. Darcy is 208cm, plays like a midfielder with his skills and has a brilliant pair of hands to mark.
JUH looks live living up to his freakish talent billing he had before being drafted.
English gets better every season. Bont is Bont. Naughton is Naughton.
They have some of the very best players in the game coming through.

I think its fair to question their depth and certainly to ask questions about the coaching.

If we had just one of Darcy, JUH or Naugton I reckon we could go all the way. They have all 3. Of course they don't have our back 7 which is pretty hard to top.

I think they've underachieved for a few years now but we'll see.

 

[FreoRicci]

Have you watched Sam Darcy play? Had a look at JUH lately?
I'm not being sarcastic I'm genuinely curious. Darcy is 208cm, plays like a midfielder with his skills and has a brilliant pair of hands to mark.
JUH looks live living up to his freakish talent billing he had before being drafted.
English gets better every season. Bont is Bont. Naughton is Naughton.
They have some of the very best players in the game coming through.

I think its fair to question their depth and certainly to ask questions about the coaching.

If we had just one of Darcy, JUH or Naugton I reckon we could go all the way. They have all 3. Of course they don't have our back 7 which is pretty hard to top.

I think they've underachieved for a few years now but we'll see.

The overload of talls means something has to give.

JUH has to play the Buddy role and Naughton the Roughead and compromise to maximise their potential. They’re high flying contested markers. All the talent but the team still need to gel and give space
Darcy is special however Lobb there means he goes back?

Lobb/Naughton/JUH with English floating. Scary.

Their midfield genuinely needs defensive minded players. Treloar, Bonts aren’t exactly great at halting momentum. Losing Dunkley will hurt IMO.

 

[Purple Jesus]

Darcy is looking like a generational talent as a forward to me. JUH is going to be at least very good to elite. Naughton is the best contested marking forward in the game. It’s crazy.

Jones was excellent today. Hasn’t missed a beat.

Honestly if the Dogs can’t win another flag with this side it’s as big a waste as our Connelly coached teams. They have elite talent everywhere. English is going to be crazy good. Smith is a freakish talent, Daniel.

Wonderful squad.

Their midfield is an issue now that Dunkley’s left. Almost zero two way running going on in there. If Libby gets injured they’re completely ****ed. Losing an elimination final after being up by 42 is practically wrapped in red flags too. Something not right there. I reckon it’s bevvo.

 

[Purple Jesus]

Perplexed that Bruce, who kicked 48 goals in 2021, and even 50 goals in 2015, has to be moved back to accomodate Lobb. Yikes

Isn’t Lobbs career best 35/36ish?

 

[Joao]

Bruce looks a shadow since his ACL. Fair enough, doing one at 30 can't be good.

I agree the sentiment around the Dogs. They should be better and this year they don't have any excuses. I watched 10 minutes of their game and Jones was the best defender on the ground. They've got more decent to quality talls than they need now. If they're not in it this year (with a decent injury run) I'm sacking Beverage.

And Richmond fans (as a collective) are hilarious. I'm guessing the flags pumped up their supporter ego so high, the only way they can process a loss/flogging is an AFL conspiracy. Could just be that the team didn't play well...

 

[Superkoops]

Have you watched Sam Darcy play? Had a look at JUH lately?
I'm not being sarcastic I'm genuinely curious. Darcy is 208cm, plays like a midfielder with his skills and has a brilliant pair of hands to mark.
JUH looks live living up to his freakish talent billing he had before being drafted.
English gets better every season. Bont is Bont. Naughton is Naughton.
They have some of the very best players in the game coming through.

I think its fair to question their depth and certainly to ask questions about the coaching.

If we had just one of Darcy, JUH or Naugton I reckon we could go all the way. They have all 3. Of course they don't have our back 7 which is pretty hard to top.

I think they've underachieved for a few years now but we'll see.

They have a very good forward line. One of the strongest in the comp. That should see them through to the finals.

I have concerns about their midfield. Take out Dunkley who was B&F (and effectively replace with more talls in the off-season - Busslinger, Lobb, Jones) and that is my query. They also lost Hunter who is a good winger and a few injuries in the midfield and they are in trouble for mine.

Freo took some time to build the midfield after losing Neale. You can’t replace your B&F grunt midfielder.

 

[ilikepotatoes]

Bar the year they got umpired to a flag - I've never really understood the Dogs.

Beveridge seems to be such a random coach - if anything losing a couple of midfielders may benefit them by adding stability to that part of the field - however it looks like they've just pushed that extra depth into the forward line.

It should be pretty easy to run the ball out of their forward line if they persist with those 4 talls.

 

[Quazar]

Their midfield is an issue now that Dunkley’s left. Almost zero two way running going on in there. If Libby gets injured they’re completely ****ed. Losing an elimination final after being up by 42 is practically wrapped in red flags too. Something not right there. I reckon it’s bevvo.

nah, I reckon it's Jake Stringer.

they haven't been able to re-package their loss of the Package, clearly

 

[Scham]

They have a very good forward line. One of the strongest in the comp. That should see them through to the finals.

I have concerns about their midfield. Take out Dunkley who was B&F (and effectively replace with more talls in the off-season - Busslinger, Lobb, Jones) and that is my query. They also lost Hunter who is a good winger and a few injuries in the midfield and they are in trouble for mine.

Freo took some time to build the midfield after losing Neale. You can’t replace your B&F grunt midfielder.

Libba, Bont and Smith are all A grade contested stoppage players. Losing Dunkley won't affect them much as they were over catered for in that area.

 

[Joao]

Libba, Bont and Smith are all A grade contested stoppage players. Losing Dunkley won't affect them much as they were over catered for in that area.

Bont and Libba are, not sure I'd call Smith a contested stoppage player.

Regardless, I think the general knock was that it was only really Dunkley and Libba that defended and now its just Libba. So I reckon if that's true, they'll smack some teams (especially bad ones) when they get right on top but will be at risk against two way midfields.

 

[Superkoops]

Bont and Libba are, not sure I'd call Smith a contested stoppage player.

Regardless, I think the general knock was that it was only really Dunkley and Libba that defended and now its just Libba. So I reckon if that's true, they'll smack some teams (especially bad ones) when they get right on top but will be at risk against two way midfields.

Spot on. I’ve never seen Bont to defend. Bit like Fyfe in the middle really. Genuine quality but relies on others to have the defensive component. Whereas I think each of midfield have a good defensive balance.

I think both teams (Freo, WB) along with likes of Richmond, Carlton, Sydney and a few others like Port etc. will be playing for that 5-10 spots. For mine Geelong, Melbourne, Brisbane are top 3. Prob Collingwood next but could fall back to the aforementioned group. It will be tight around the second half of the top 8. Bulldogs could well elevate themselves to 4th/5th.

Darcy looks real good but he has played what 3 games. He will be inconsistent still and have games where he goes missing. Good defensive teams will structure up well against WB. Also as someone mentioned they don’t want to go too tall and have no defensive pressure.

 

[tonygeeks]

I’m pretty much a don’t really care much about what players get up too besides their football ( good and bad ) type

But jeez mate …… do you even want to play footy ?



Not a big deal on its own but just dumb petrol on the fire stuff considering some of the things he’s accused of

 

[ManOfClay]

Their backline is still a worry. Cordy sucks. Bruce and Jones are their interceptors. Outside of that, not much else.

Keath is a good key defender.

I do agree Cordy sucks. He also plays for St Kilda now

 

[Purple Suit]

Only reason those two weren't top 10 b & F was injury, Taranto won a B & F in their grand final season, bloke is a gun.

Hopper was top 5 B&F the 3 prior years (including top 3 in their GF season, finishing behind TT and the coleman medalist), only played 7 games last season


Calling them plodders is literally not watching GWS, I've pointed out their finishes in seasons where Giants were competing, so you cant say that did it in a dud team...

The examples I gave did that too. Wait till they hit Melbourne with the blow touch on them and see how they perform. Not many have made it before and Richmond is seriously on the decline, a few injuries and I see them imploding.

Geelong I’m not writing off but it could be them too. They have to hit the cliff eventually but maybe 2-3 more years of records.

 

[FreoRicci]

Keath is a good key defender.

I do agree Cordy sucks. He also plays for St Kilda now

Completely forgot about that one.. Keath goes okay. Still not a convincing defensive set up.
Bulldogs have been defensively fragile the last 5-6 years. That’s where teams will exploit them. Darcy will probably be the spare man in order to get game time

 

[freo_leo29]

I’m pretty much a don’t really care much about what players get up too besides their football ( good and bad ) type

But jeez mate …… do you even want to play footy ?

View attachment 1622215

Not a big deal on its own but just dumb petrol on the fire stuff considering some of the things he’s accused of

Am I missing something? Is he just posting a pic of his new tat?

I must be missing something right?

 

[AstonSouffle]

Am I missing something? Is he just posting a pic of his new tat?

I must be missing something right?

The quality of the photo looks like the tattoo shop took it, and Thomas just tagged them at their request - plus a Tattoo like that usually has a bit of planning involved, unfortunately, people are capable of doing multiple things (even if one of those things happens to be quite heinous).

 

[theGav56]

Geelong I’m not writing off but it could be them too. They have to hit the cliff eventually but maybe 2-3 more years of records.

Geelong are pretty much the gold standard for keeping their list relevant and they just had an amazing off season bringing in Bruhn, Henry and Bowes, 3 great young players, and a grabbing pick 7. They also picked up the best of the Irish internationals. Selwood gone and they won't miss a beat. That's on top of the refresh they did on their forward line a season ago with Cameron and Stengle.

 

[King Huskii]

Geelong are pretty much the gold standard for keeping their list relevant and they just had an amazing off season bringing in Bruhn, Henry and Bowes, 3 great young players, and a grabbing pick 7. They also picked up the best of the Irish internationals. Selwood gone and they won't miss a beat. That's on top of the refresh they did on their forward line a season ago with Cameron and Stengle.

How do they manage to refresh their list and still be top 4 so often?

Most clubs rely on bottoming out

List management and trade negotiations are incredible

 

[wakojako]

How do they manage to refresh their list and still be top 4 so often?

Most clubs rely on bottoming out

List management and trade negotiations are incredible

Unlimited salary cap