Prediction Rd 1 (you know: the first round after the opening round) team

[Mogumber]

Fred on Ch 10 saying he'll be right, (Ashleigh Nelson, ex hockeyroos, goes alright I reckon, good journo) Walker looking like playing, and a test on Cox.
Almost full strength without Darcy & Chapman.
Pretty fit after a ****ing long summer running like shit.
Hopefully our mids are up to dominating, coz that is the only way we win this game imo

 

[Sturty2Hurty]

Bit worried about Cox being underdone

 

[E Shed]

Fred on Ch 10 saying he'll be right, (Ashleigh Nelson, ex hockeyroos, goes alright I reckon, good journo) Walker looking like playing, and a test on Cox.
Almost full strength without Darcy & Chapman.
Pretty fit after a ******* long summer running like s**t.
Hopefully our mids are up to dominating, coz that is the only way we win this game imo

I’d probably have NOD on a wing in best 22. When he’s fully fit we’ve seen him really create plays. I know his worst is awful but I still have hope for him.

 

[mattis117]

Bit worried about Cox being underdone

Why? He's the most laconic player we have. He is so good because of his brain. He's the one guy that could come straight in I reckon.

 

[freo1997]

Why? He's the most laconic player we have. He is so good because of his brain. He's the one guy that could come straight in I reckon.

Probably right. I would go Macca over Hughes though. Have to reward Omac body of work this pre season.

Who is Lions third tall fwd?

 

[ilikepotatoes]

Probably right. I would go Macca over Hughes though. Have to reward Omac body of work this pre season.

Who is Lions third tall fwd?

Darcy Gardiner

 

[Purple Jesus]

I reckon we don't play a ruck and go an extra mid and rove the Big O. C'mon JL.

 

[Dockernut]

I reckon we don't play a ruck and go an extra mid and rove the Big O. C'mon JL.

I like it, but you’re dreaming. JLo is too conservative to be that attacking.

Realistically, he could have used that Port scratchie to test out a few more forward options (ie. give Delean a bit of a longer run / sample Odin Jones as the deepest fwd), but no he wheeled out Tabs again, he made Banners the sub, left Treacy to battle it out solo and fail. So, rather than experimenting and discovering something new that might create an unexpected avenue to goal, he tries nothing new, we learn nothing, repeat a flawed forward structure and get pantsed anyway.

 

[Sturty2Hurty]

Why? He's the most laconic player we have. He is so good because of his brain. He's the one guy that could come straight in I reckon.

I’m worried he will trail Hipwood/Daniher to every contents and be out of sync with the other defenders

 

[Superkoops]

Walker as sub?

 

[arsesmart]

I’m worried he will trail Hipwood/Daniher to every contents and be out of sync with the other defenders

Why would he be out of sync? They've played nothing but scratchies to this point.

No one has had the chance to build any real match fitness either. If Cox is ready to go, "round 1" is as good a time to bring someone in fresh off an injury layoff.

 

[The Lobbster]

I like it, but you’re dreaming. JLo is too conservative to be that attacking.

Realistically, he could have used that Port scratchie to test out a few more forward options (ie. give Delean a bit of a longer run / sample Odin Jones as the deepest fwd), but no he wheeled out Tabs again, he made Banners the sub, left Treacy to battle it out solo and fail. So, rather than experimenting and discovering something new that might create an unexpected avenue to goal, he tries nothing new, we learn nothing, repeat a flawed forward structure and get pantsed anyway.

It was only a 26 man squad and it was the last hit out before round 1. At this point of the preseason, you play your best team available. Messing around with structures and players is for the unofficial games and intraclubs. It’s fair to call JL conservative but if you think it’s a genuine problem that we weren’t playing rookies with no chance of playing R1 in the last practice match, then I can’t agree with that

 

[MadMundy]

Thursday is the day of reckoning, will we be happy? Will we melt and already give up on the season before it even begins?

 

[SiempreFreo]

Has there ever been a more maddening start - make that non-start - to a season?

Instead of edge-of-the-seat "They're off and racing!" we got "Hunnnhh??? Where is everybody?"

Good to see something I wholly endorse in the uber-partisan West with Anna Hay's piece AFL is Missing in Action.

 

[Duz97]

Surely OMac back with cox fwd is better then Voss or craberner and that way we can keep a mobile fwd line and I trust omac to do the job on hipwood

 

[Joose]

Would rather Cox came back with a Peel game under his belt rather than thrown in right away.

 

[MadMundy]

Cox is too valuable to bring back through the WAFL, we need him down back. McDonald and Pearce isn't going to cut it.

 

[The Feeder Club]

OK having seen the injury list and assuming Cox and Frederick pass their tests, and they want to if possible give Walker limited minutes, I would do this:

B Aish / Pearce / Clark
HB Ryan / Cox / Hughes
C Johnson / Young / Brayshaw
HF Frederick / Treacy / Emmett
F Switkowski / Amiss / Walters
R Jackson / Serong / Fyfe
I O'Meara / McDonald / Banfield / Sharp
S Walker

If Fred doesn't get up - replace with Sturt
If Cox doesn't get up - McDonald back and Tabs to the bench
If they don't want to risk Walker as sub - replace with Erasmus

 

[MadMundy]

OK having seen the injury list and assuming Cox and Frederick pass their tests, and they want to if possible give Walker limited minutes, I would do this:

B Aish / Pearce / Clark
HB Ryan / Cox / Hughes
C Johnson / Young / Brayshaw
HF Frederick / Treacy / Emmett
F Switkowski / Amiss / Walters
R Jackson / Serong / Fyfe
I O'Meara / McDonald / Banfield / Sharp
S Walker

If Fred doesn't get up - replace with Sturt
If Cox doesn't get up - McDonald back and Tabs to the bench
If they don't want to risk Walker as sub - replace with Erasmus

I like the look of this team, honestly alone it could produce some good football if all the cogs work together

 

[GingerDocker]

Our first lineup is going to suck.

We're going to lack rebound and pace from our half back line and our forward line will be under sized.

 

[GingerDocker]

I like the look of this team, honestly alone it could produce some good football if all the cogs work together

Disagree.

The half back line is slow and meh and were too short up forward.

 

[MadMundy]

Disagree.

The half back line is slow and meh and were too short up forward.

I don't know, we've seen that shorter forward lines can work well in the past, we may have a mosquito fleet on our hands here.

Remains to be seen what happens, I'm quietly optimistic.

 

[GingerDocker]

I don't know, we've seen that shorter forward lines can work well in the past, we may have a mosquito fleet on our hands here.

Remains to be seen what happens, I'm quietly optimistic.

I want to close my eyes and see the ball pinging about all over the place with speed and precision and lots of leads being hit up in the forward half.

But all I see is slow ball movement and long bombs onto the heads of our small forwards.

And to think, before now I thought I was one of the more positive ones!

 

[MadMundy]

I want to close my eyes and see the ball pinging about all over the place with speed and precision and lots of leads being hit up in the forward half.

But all I see is slow ball movement and long bombs onto the heads of our small forwards.

And to think, before now I thought I was one of the more positive ones!

I mean hey, season hasn't started yet, as far as I know we've worked hard and will produce a new gameplan come Round 1, it's a fresh start and I'd like to hope the boys are hungry to start off strong and pick off a wounded but angry Brisbane. It's going to be a tough challenge but I think we're in with more of a chance than people think.

 

[Big Animal]

i'm just interested to see what JLo does in terms of the big man structure to fill the Darcy gap and any concerns over Cox's fitness.

i.e.

• does he have LJ ruck and send in Tabs to the corner pocket for the 3 pronged tall attack;
• have Reidy come in to ruck and leave MJ forward;
• add OMac and have Cox play interceptor to take pressure off his body or have the option to move him forward if we only play Amiss/Treacy; and/or
• assume Cox is fine, MJ to ruck solo, and leave Amiss/Treacy with the mosquito fleet forward.

We usually went with option 4 last year so predict the same R1. But, my concern is there will not be enough goals scored from our forward lines and mids. Only Amiss is assured to kick multiples in that lineup. None of the others have previously been consistently good for a bag (yes, Sunny back in the day). Don't think we will be able to score enough to win, particularly if Treacy is not a goal scoring threat and pressure all goes on Amiss. Need three KPF to foil for each other.