Prediction R2 - CHANGES vs Essendon

[Taylor]

North had a shoulder twinge/knock/dead arm/stinger. I'm not sure what it's called.

Bit of bruising in an inconvenient place, shoulder wise.

Rested.

 

[Dirty_banchez]

Training well last week and into full training this week

Is he ready to come back after only a week of training? I think they brought back Brad Hill too early as he looked well off the mark on Saturday.

 

[Carson Dial]

Think he just had a bad day at the office. Don’t think he would have been risked if he wasn’t 100%

 

[Moo]

Tucker and Langdon disappointing. Deserve another game but didn't notice them at all. Sutcliffe, Pearce must go for S Hill and either Hughes or Logue. Hamling for Johnson. Lot of respect for Johnno but Father Time has caught up. B Hill was rubbish but won't be replaced. Kersten is not up to it and Balla is hanging on by the skin of his teeth. Interesting selection night next Thursday.

Pretty much this.

I'd give Balla another shot ...he wasn't our worst.

MJ is in the habit of holding now, he could of given away a couple more on the weekend.

Just hope Mundy, B Hill, Tucker, Langdon lift.

 

[ydraw]

I'd give Balla another shot ...he wasn't our worst.

That's arguable.

 

[Moo]

That's arguable.

Sure ...argue away.

Effort was there, I thought we missed using him a couple of times and just chose to kick it high and long.

Not saying he was anywhere near good but looking at who we have to call upon ...I think D Pearce and MJ are ahead of him in the chopping priority.

 

[ydraw]

Sure ...argue away.

Effort was there

Everyone gives effort, it's a meaningless thing to say.

I tried really hard in all my footy games but I never got picked for Freo either. Because I was shit.

According to stats, Ballantyne was worst on ground for Fremantle. I watched the game and I can't think of any obvious errors in that assessment. Was certainly the worst small forward.

 

[Moo]

Everyone gives effort, it's a meaningless thing to say.

I tried really hard in all my footy games but I never got picked for Freo either. Because I was shit.

According to stats, Ballantyne was worst on ground for Fremantle. I watched the game and I can't think of any obvious errors in that assessment. Was certainly the worst small forward.

No - everyone doesn't give effort, and here's a shock it is not the sole determinant of a player getting selected.

If you're going to pick your team off stats alone, let's just hire the next Supercoach winner as chairman of selectors and save ourselves a lot of grief.

We all see games differently, to me it was a shit day to be a small forward - I preferred Matera and Walter's games ...however when I look at where we sucked most ...Balla avoids this listing (caveat of not by much).

I'd rather waltz Hamling and Darcy in for MJ & Kersten ....Hamling because he is better and Darcy for development. If S Hill is fit, D Pearce or Balla would be in the gun.

 

[Kunna17]

I think realistically S.Hill (hopefully) and Hamling will come in. Somebody mentioned speaking to Ross on the training thread and him mentioning Crowden as a good chance for an early debut, so I'd hope that comes as well.
Anything more than 3 changes I'd say is quite unlikely and we'll wait until at least a game of proper WAFL footy has been played to make.

Outs - Sutcliffe, D.Pearce, Ballas/Johnson (depends If they want to go taller with Hamling or stay small)
In - Hamling, Hill, Crowden.

For mine that's actually quite a decent rotation, and I think looking at the line-up most would be happy with it (bar maybe Kersten + Ballas/Johnson(whoever stays))

In the first 7/8 rounds we should see a bit of rotation going on with the aim of playing at least 4/5 of -
Crowden, Cerra, Apeness, Darcy, Duman, Hughes, Logue and North.

We only really have 4 obvious ones (on bigfooty they're conisdered obvious anyway) to go - being the 4 i had in the outs, so pressure for spots should heat up and we should hopefully by the midway point of the season have seen the last of these guys.

I am a bit torn on Johnson still though as I love the guy and with Spurr gone, he really is all the experience we have down back, which could be really beneficial to the kids coming through. I'm not against him playing at least half the games this year for that reason.

 

[free at last]

I just wish jonno,DP & ballas would say to the MC,we're done/cooked ,just play the youngsters at our expense...

 

[Deathly]

I just wish jonno,DP & ballas would say to the MC,we're done/cooked ,just play the youngsters at our expense...

More chance of the second coming of Jesus happening than Ballantyne doing that.

 

[Scham]

In:
Hamling
S Hill
Hughes
Crowden

Out:
Johnson
Pearce
Sutcliffe
Kerstin

Play Blakely in the guts FFS!!!

Last ever chance for Balla! We've played Dawson, Spurr, DP and now Jonno for too long after they've shown they're cooked, Balla gets one last chance imo and then it's the red line through his name for good!

I'd give Tucker and Langdon 1 more chance but Cerra and North are hovering!

Stick with 1 ruck but Sandi needs to be more influential otherwise he should make way for Darcy.

I've changed my mind. I'd leave Jonno in.

Out: Pearce, Sutcliffe, Kerstin and Balla.
In: Hamling, Hughes, Hill and Cerra.

B: Wilson Hamling Hughes
HB: Ryan Pearce S Hill
C: Hill Blakely Tucker
HF: Langdon McCarthy Mundy
F: Walters Tabs Matera

M: Sandi Fyfe Neale

I: Jonno Cerra Brayshaw Banfield

 

[free at last]

I've changed my mind. I'd leave Jonno in.

Out: Pearce, Sutcliffe, Kerstin and Balla.
In: Hamling, Hughes, Hill and Cerra.

B: Wilson Hamling Hughes
HB: Ryan Pearce S Hill
C: Hill Blakely Tucker
HF: Langdon McCarthy Mundy
F: Walters Tabs Matera

M: Sandi Fyfe Neale

I: Jonno Cerra Brayshaw Banfield

Jeez I hope Hamling is good to go...

 

[Son of a Wizard]

It was the first round. Let's not push the panic button as yet.

B Hill, Fyfe etc cannot play that badly again.

They will bring in Hamling and S Hill.

And we will be up for the first game at the new stadium.

For me the most worrying thing is playing players in the wrong position. Tabs has to be deep forward unless in the ruck. Blakely has to be a mid. Tucker if playing needs to be part of the mid mix. Fyfe is our best mid - play him there. If Mundy can't be a mid then don't play him. Walters needs to play forward more.

Cobblers need to cobble.

Play the players in their positions bring in Stephen and Joel and lose D Pearce/Sutcliffe or Kersten and we will push the bombers.

Heave ho!

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

Also i like to add is Rosco's coaching, he seems to play players out of position. I have yet to seem him try something different in out forward line. Every time we go forward we seem to have all the small players in there & devoid of tall players, no tall targets to kick to consequently the ball keeps getting rebounded time and time again ...

One of the reasons for this is that the forward line presses up the ground when it is in D50. So now we have the ball and are transitioning it forward. Ballantyne, Walters, Langdon, Banfield etc are going to be first back into F50 because they simply move faster than the talls. That is why the targets look small when the transition is fast.

If the transition is slow, then the talls have time to get deep in F50. But then again, so to does the oppo defenders. So now the F50 is congested. And that is why it becomes a game of kick long to the hot spot and hope for a contested mark.

The faster you want to move the ball from D50 to F50 the more you need your "deepest line" of players in the zone to hang back closer to your goal.

Hmm, but then you don't have as many players pressing up around the ball and so the pressure around the ball is supposed to be less. Whether this line of thinking is right or not is open for debate. Perhaps you don't need all your forwards pressing up to create good pressure around the ball if the midfield is offering a lot pressure themselves.

And (at the risk of potting the midfield again) perhaps this is a bit of an unrecognised weakness. When our midfield is good, it is very good at clearance work. Winning the clearances makes them a great offensive weapon (which is why I think we should play 2 rucks to double-down on our clearance-winning ability). But perhaps Fyfe, Mundy, Neal, Sandi, B.Hill, etc lack a little bit of defensively (most probs in defensive speed so that they can shut down the oppo mids).

Probs we could do with some more pace in and mongeral in the midfield (B.Hill has one but not the other). To be really hard to play against you need that defensive pressure in the midfield. Perhaps if that happened, our forwards could hang back a bit, have more space to work and the forward line might look a lot different.

It all starts in the midfield. If Fyfe, Mundy, and Neale tear it up offensively next week, we could look a lot different.

 

[malpaso]

Fyfe had a bad game however he had Ebert tagging him. This is my biggest worry. We are now very reliant on Fyfe and Neale having stellar games each week. We do not have a third and fourth inside midfielder that can bob up in a big way anymore.
I think the problem is that Mundy is not in the middle as much, we need 3 solid inside midfielders as Fyfe is constantly going to get tagged.

Looking back at the game, most if not all of our players were below par and that was not due to anything Port did, just one of those days in a lot of ways. We all know there are 2-4 players in the side on Saturday that shouldn't be there.

I'd expect a big lift in our new stadium against Essendon but I'm very wary of Daniher and Hooker against our backline. They just have to loft the ball in there for those 2 to mark it pretty easily.

 

[wayToGo_]

If I could change just one thing in our team at the moment it would be the delivery inside 50. It is appalling. 3 marks i50 vs 18 for Port (from 49 v 62 i50s). It's the the same story over and over again. How can you expect to be competitive, let alone win a game of football when you're giving such a massive comparative advantage to your opposition? What's worse for Freo is how many scoring transitions for Port started from turnovers as a result of poor i50 kicking.

On the weekend Peel played a ginormous forward line with 3 rucks (Darcy, Meek, Jones), a ruck/fwd (Apeness) and a true KPF (Dixon) rotating through. If you played that kind of forward line at Freo currently you'd expect to see some kind of circus act where 4 x 200cm+ guys all scramble around on the ground trying to get their hands on the ball - if they are lucky enough that it hasn't already rebounded back the other end yet. So how has Peel dominated every game this pre-season? Firstly they've had a couple of forwards that lead well at the ball, secondly their other forwards generally haven't been dumb enough to lead back drawing their defender into the same space the other forwards are leading into, thirdly they've structured pretty well forward of centre (well spread), fourthly, and perhaps most importantly, they've had midfielders who can not just hit the side of a barn (unlike most of Freo's players on the weekend) but actually kick it to the advantage of the forwards - whether that be honouring a lead or kicking to an even contest (1-on-1) in the spot the forward wants it, and lastly the smalls position themselves well to crumb or clean it up if it hits the ground (and not let the opposition rebound like an elastic band).

Relating to this I've always felt Stephen Hill is a lot more important to our team than it may seem on the surface. He's a player who is willing to carry the ball and use some evasion outside 50 to conjure up a better i50 entry. I'd personally rather players risk a HTB than just bomb it in randomly. I'm hoping we see him back on the weekend for this reason. But we can't rely just on him. Existing b22 players like Tucker and Walters are both great kicks in space and when these three are the ones kicking i50 I expect a better scoring efficiency. We need them played in that role - either on a wing or at half forward. Cerra and Crowden are (imo) similar reliable i50 kicks and imo a big reason why Peel's forward line has been so efficient this pre-season. Do either have the endurance to play out a full AFL game? Definitely not but I'd still be willing to debut one or maybe even both and rest guys forward to make up the TOG deficiency.

We can play Tabs solely at deep forward (which I think we should), bring in Apeness or Dixon, or one of the rucks but it won't make a lot of difference until we finally fix the coordination between the midfield and forward line and start seeing some more marks inside 50. I'm all for fast movement through the corridor to exit d50 when possible but once we approach half forward, take a breath and don't force the i50 entry because it's the easy "not my problem anymore" option.

In: SHill, Crowden/Cerra, Hamling, Hughes
Out: DPearce, Kersten/Ballas, MJ, Sutcliffe

 

[Wally Walpamur]

I know it's easy to say but surely the message should be to lower the eyes before aimlessly bombing it in long; if nothing's on, hold onto the ball for another 1-2 seconds (space, presure and time permitting) and wait for an option to open up, if nothing, then kick it to the hot spot.

 

[PurpleReign95]

Does anyone else think there should be a Royal Commission into D Pearce getting a game this weekend?

 

[salim malik]

Does anyone else think there should be a Royal Commission into D Pearce getting a game this weekend?

I hate knocking any of our players but Daniel and Sutty have reached their used by date. Terrible balls up by the selectors to play them It was always going to end in tears.

 

[salim malik]

Duman had another good game for Peel, he must be close to a call up.

 

[PurpleReign95]

I hate knocking any of our players but Daniel and Sutty have reached their used by date. Terrible balls up by the selectors to play them It was always going to end in tears.

Don't you find it interesting that nearly every dockers fan doesn't understand why both DP and Sutcliff got a game on the weekend. I know ppl aren't going to actively come out and support them, but i didn't read a single comment on the selection that supported the selection of DP and Sutcliff and as a matter of fact most of them lamented the selection.

I feel for both Sutcliff and DP but they just aren't up to AFL standard anymore.

I don't understand however how Ross and the selection panel think that they are?

 

[wayToGo_]

Duman had another good game for Peel, he must be close to a call up.

Yeah I'm assuming he must have played as a defender on the weekend? Didn't kick any scores nor inside 50s - after kicking 3g the week prior. Can anyone confirm?

 

[Taylor]

Don't you find it interesting that nearly every dockers fan doesn't understand why both DP and Sutcliff got a game on the weekend. I know ppl aren't going to actively come out and support them, but i didn't read a single comment on the selection that supported the selection of DP and Sutcliff and as a matter of fact most of them lamented the selection.

I feel for both Sutcliff and DP but they just aren't up to AFL standard anymore.

I don't understand however how Ross and the selection panel think that they are?

They quite clearly said that the group was going to reward those who had done the full summer of work over those who hadn't.

Sometimes it's better to let someone sleep a night in a bed they made for themselves so they are on side when you flip the mattress.

 

[theGav56]

Don't you find it interesting that nearly every dockers fan doesn't understand why both DP and Sutcliff got a game on the weekend. I know ppl aren't going to actively come out and support them, but i didn't read a single comment on the selection that supported the selection of DP and Sutcliffe and as a matter of fact most of them lamented the selection.

I feel for both Sutcliff and DP but they just aren't up to AFL standard anymore.

I don't understand however how Ross and the selection panel think that they are?

I'm probably the closest thing on this board to that poster you describe, and am not unhappy with those selection decisions. Reality is that in no time Cerra, Crowden, North etc will be in, and I see the team as in development mode, so am OK with that.

Other posters get excited by the list and think we should be winning and are a chance for the flag, so are unhappy. The idiotic suggestion that Dixon should be playing epitomises this. He isn't ready so Kersten is playing .

The other factor is the anti-Lyons. They know we have 2 debuts (which is remarkable), they know Cerra etc isn't ready. And we all know Pearce and Sutcliffe have deficiencies. So in any games those guys play they see only the errors, and mentally substitute them with perfect passes from Cerra and Crowden. But in no time at all B Hill will become their new D Pearce, and S Hill is suggested as a trade. They see an exciting 19 year old ruck and think Sandilands 52 hit outs were meaningless. They say Lyon doesn't play the youth, doesn't have the game plan etc, when the reality is we are in rebuild mode.

Rebuilding is a longer game. Our 2 debuts showed that things like that take time.