Training Pre-Season 2023 (First game 18/3 v North)

[CountryLad]

gut feel only I am afraid, far too many variables to be precise.

I think North, Hawks, GC, and Bombers look possibilities to finish below us then two with a bad injury run. I have a bad vibe about GC and the Bombers this season. Saints could have internal reuctuions and tank regardless of injuries.

My ambitiouss feel is that Nic plays a decent number of games, Yoe and Shuey have strong years taking the pressure of Kelly and Sheed allowing them to be more effecticve. Allen develops well, Hough adds run of half back/woig as he has evidenced, Chesser pace and class. Ginbey looks a goer and we have a few other notables kids who should develop better and quicker than the past crop who unfortunately were not up to it.

I think new blood adds energy across the list.

A caviet is that palyers who missed a season will take a few week to gain touch and our commitment to the contest, mentally, will improve to match out improved fitness.

I’m probably not feeling as positive as you and that’s fine it’s all guess work atm.

Saints, Bombers, North GWS all have new coaches and that usually results in a short term improvement from a fresh game plan, fresh messaging and players needing to impress new coaching staff. I would expect at least some of those sides to improve.

Suns could be an interesting one could go in any direction are a hard read atm.

Worry for us is that whilst we seem fitter and appear to be carrying a little less belly fat inside the jumpers, most of our ageing stars are a year older and most are susceptible to injury.

Wouldn’t take much for a few to go down like Nic Nat and JD already have and our list starts to look really thin.

The struggle for Simpson will be getting the balance right with how many kids he plays at once. Play too many and that will lead to blow outs like last year.

If he doesn’t play enough of them then he will be criticised for not getting enough games into youth.

I honestly think Simpson will play what he thinks is his best 22 for the first 4-8 weeks to see if this group has one more finals effort left in them. If they don’t bank wins early then it will become a development year.

Hope your right and we do have a crack at finishing around 8th I’m just struggling to see it at the moment.

 

[Farang83150]

I'm struggling to see how this year can be anything but a development year and will be PO if it's not.

 

[Dark Sharks]

I'm struggling to see how this year can be anything but a development year and will be PO if it's not.

SHOULD* Be a development year.

Simpson and Nesbitt can chest beat about having Sheed, Allen and a fit Yeo back like that suddenly makes them flag contenders and we're going for "one last push" for the fourth year in a row...

But the fact of the matter is wins are less important right now than getting games into Hough, Bazzo, Culley, Ginbey, Hewett, and Chesser.

Simpson can keep his job if it's a development year. Roll out the oldies constantly though, and still be uncompetitive, I'd rather he was shown the door asap.

 

[dinnaz]

Our best guess is load management?

He isn't the saviour we all want

 

[garlic munchers]

I'm struggling to see how this year can be anything but a development year and will be PO if it's not.

It will be more than that when we win the 2nd Derby and cause Freo to drop out of the top 4.

 

[Goroyals22]

If anyone at the eagles believes this year will be like 2018 then we are in more trouble than people think

 

[Animaluke]

I know it's been kinda mentioned already but it's still really weird that still like 4 days after we haven't heard anything re Culley. It's this time of year that the media are all over the new/breakout players making differences to teams of which Culley had been flagged and talked about with his preseason body of work. Then all of a sudden things go completely quiet and we hear nothing? Almost like something significant has happened and the Eagles as a club have done a "please don't ask so to respect player involved" kind of thing.

I just find It weird that not one reporter would have enquired, given the hype that was around him.

On SM-G988B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[FKASC]

Culley smokes pot

 

[WCErevival]

Culley smokes pot

He's a white guy with dreadlocks. There's no way he doesnt.

 

[Ishmael_]

The OTT reaction to a pre-season drubbing by Adelaide is pretty funny.

Like did you all expect us to finish top 4 after beating Port?

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

“ More than once in recent weeks I have heard West Coast people make the comparison between the Eagles of 2023 and the 2018 team.”

That never, uh, happened, did it Duff?

 

[WCErevival]

The OTT reaction to a pre-season drubbing by Adelaide is pretty funny.

Like did you all expect us to finish top 4 after beating Port?

This is a representation of this board over the preseason

 

[Dark Sharks]

“ More than once in recent weeks I have heard West Coast people make the comparison between the Eagles of 2023 and the 2018 team.”

That never, uh, happened, did it Duff?

Yikes, we have some real nuffie fans if this is actually the case.

 

[FKASC]

The comparisons would have just been that both years involved some doubts around ageing players along with some promising youth being debuted.

 

[FKASC]

And you cumpaigners know what happened next

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Difference is that to start 2018 we’d done the right thing by cutting slow established midfielders so we could evolve.

This year we’re doubling down on most of them.

Ironically the one who produced the most last season is the one who retired himself.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

2018 we were coming off a semi-final berth.

2023 we’re coming off the worst season in club history.

 

[shooshka]

The OTT reaction to a pre-season drubbing by Adelaide is pretty funny.

Like did you all expect us to finish top 4 after beating Port?

Yes, we were absolute certainties for top 4 after last week.

Now we are guaranteed pick 1 and Harley Reid after the game on the weekend.

Par for the course around here TBH.

On SM-G986B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Rowan18]

We have a squad with plenty of talent to win more than 2 games in a season. Last year we were hit hard by injury which affected availability and fitness and we were also well behind the 8 ball in terms of strategy and gameplan (though it can be argued that this was due to lack of availability and inability to implement changes).

This season we can already see that the first issue is resolved (ie injury/fitness). This will allow us to see if the coaches can do something about how we play.

I feel like a lot of the supporter anxiety is linked to a worry that Simmo has NFI anymore and can't get the team playing the way they should. It's hard to tell at this stage, because teams often take a while to get a new game going. Look at Collingwood last year -we caught them early when they didn't have things quite right and then they went onto a prelim.

I still think we have enough talent on paper to jump to around mid table if we get everything right (which could even be scraping into 7/8) but that relies on us sorting out our ball movement ASAP. From what I saw on Friday, that looks unlikely. My gut feel is that we won't get it right and a bad start to the season could quickly kill our confidence, given we play finalists from round 3-9.

If we hit the mid season bye with 1 win, we should also be looking at a fill-in coach and new CEO as well. Simmo sunk what looked like a winning season in 2021 (we were 8-5 at the bye) and the team has been the worst performed in the 18 months since (yes - actually worse than North). He's at the end of the line to show he can adapt.

 

[WA footy mad]

It wasn't the loss that worried me, it was the ball movement it was very slow & we got caught to many times in the backline with no options. Oscar Allen

12

Oscar Allen

Age

25

Ht

196cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.8

2star

K

6.6

3star

HB

3.2

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.4

4star

G

1.1

4star

No current season stats available

D

8.6

3star

K

5.8

3star

HB

2.8

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.0

4star

G

1.2

4star

was in the backline leading with the rest of his forward line. This is not going to help fast ball movement, so the back had to start bombing the ball to a competition i knew this game wasn't going to finish well. They need to open up the game so our backs can move the ball faster. Our forwards should have a line marked across the CHF line and they cant pass it. Same issue as last year our backs looked poor because they only had packs they could kick too. Please open the game up even if we lose our players need to have room to move so many times i saw WCE kick out to a pack only to come back faster. I would say the backs of opposition teams kicked more goals against WCE than any other team last year.

 

[ConcreteWaters]

I have to say, the game on Friday was average, but the melts over a preseason game have been highly entertaining!

 

[Bender_]

It wasn't the loss that worried me, it was the ball movement it was very slow & we got caught to many times in the backline with no options. Oscar Allen was in the backline leading with the rest of his forward line. This is not going to help fast ball movement, so the back had to start bombing the ball to a competition i knew this game wasn't going to finish well. They need to open up the game so our backs can move the ball faster. Our forwards should have a line marked across the CHF line and they cant pass it. Same issue as last year our backs looked poor because they only had packs they could kick too. Please open the game up even if we lose our players need to have room to move so many times i saw WCE kick out to a pack only to come back faster. I would say the backs of opposition teams kicked more goals against WCE than any other team last year.

Not getting any bites? Try posting it in a few more threads mate.

 

[DanWCE]

DS has broken me. Can't even scroll the gram any more

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

If anyone at the eagles believes this year will be like 2018 then we are in more trouble than people think

A bit of a gutless tweet by Duffield. Sensational and eye catching enough to get retweets but not actually putting his balls on the table and spelling out where he thinks the club is at and where he thinks we will finish.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

If you ignore the false premise at the start where he justifies comparing the 2023 side with the 2018 side by saying Eagles people are doing just that (no they’re not, Duff), he makes a lot of valid points.

But unless I see a ladder prediction from him it’s all worthless, basically.