Preview Rd.18 West Coast Eagles vs Brisbane Lions

[Nathan Barley]

So it's Morris and now Fort to go back. Do you really think Fort has the pace and the mobility to be anywhere near effective as a tall defender? As for Morris, come on, grasping at straws there. Why not Big O or Joe or Hippy? How about Brandon Ryan? All ludicrous ideas. Just because a player is tall it doesn't mean they can instantly become a defender.

Joyce is the man we have, let's show him a bit of support. He's had one game, it wasn't horrible. We give our regular first graders when they come back from injuries or start the season time to find form, get acclimatised. Yet we expect Joyce to come in to a key position and be flawless straight up. He'll be better for the run, he'll get more settled, develop better cohesion after a game or two more.

I think there's some concern if Andrews goes down and questions for why we don't have 10 AFL quality key defenders on our list

 

[Sproj]

What's Yao Ming up to? He's tall, should be fine to defend.

 

[mpal6]

So it's Morris and now Fort to go back. Do you really think Fort has the pace and the mobility to be anywhere near effective as a tall defender? As for Morris, come on, grasping at straws there. Why not Big O or Joe or Hippy? How about Brandon Ryan? All ludicrous ideas. Just because a player is tall it doesn't mean they can instantly become a defender.

Joyce is the man we have, let's show him a bit of support. He's had one game, it wasn't horrible. We give our regular first graders when they come back from injuries or start the season time to find form, get acclimatised. Yet we expect Joyce to come in to a key position and be flawless straight up. He'll be better for the run, he'll get more settled, develop better cohesion after a game or two more.

Joyce is a easy pick, nice whipping boy to go after this season.

I believe he can get the job done. There were moments even in Melbourne game where he was able to do the high press and missed a handball in the middle by meters. He is still adjusting to the pace of the game in my opinion, he is a solid depth option who can do the job.

 

[mpal6]

I think there's some concern if Andrews goes down and questions for why we don't have 10 AFL quality key defenders on our list

10 AFL quality first choice defenders who are each worth $700k !! Bloody list management sitting on their arses doing nothing around here !

What ? oh there is something called salary cap is it ?

 

[Section 5]

FB: Reville Joyce Lester
HB: Wilmot Andrews Zorko

McKenna and Fletcher in the defensive rotation. You can expect Joyce to improve given a solid run in the seniors. Reville is hard at it and can get the ball, no problem there. McKenna is the only worry, because he is not playing his opponents close enough. He needs to actually defend and not spend the game losing his man and trying to bolt off through the midfield at every opportunity.

You have 8 in defense.
You could run 8 through defense but that takes away other position rotations.
I doubt the coaches will do that.
Take Reville out and i agree with the other 7 for this game

 

[Section 5]

Andrews, Joyce & Lester to matchup up on Allen, Darling & Waterman as others have mentioned.
Wilmot to Ryan
Zorko, McKenna & likely Fletcher to take the other Eagles.

 

[3KZ is Football]

You have 8 in defense.
You could run 8 through defense but that takes away other position rotations.
I doubt the coaches will do that.
Take Reville out and i agree with the other 7 for this game

I would have McKenna in as a dedicated defender and Fletcher dropping in as a defensive wingman when he comes on. I actually think Starcevich is more of an ‘out’ than Payne. I think Reville has the strength, smarts and weapons to play that lockdown role.

 

[NotQuiteJezza]

Why wouldn't Lloyd be eligible?

I was thinking Daniel not Luke.

 

[3KZ is Football]

I think there's some concern if Andrews goes down and questions for why we don't have 10 AFL quality key defenders on our list

Lester is worth two good men!

 

[Perrip]

I was thinking Daniel not Luke.

He's not, we'd have got him in the MSD if he was. Though, he did complete the 3 VFL game requirement after the MSD. Which was weird if he's not just doing coaching for us

 

[twhowler]

I think one can overthink how much we need 3 genuine talls in defence.

Obviously the ideal is having players who can match the height of the opposition. Hence our first choice is 2 very tall blokes, and a lester or gardiner or doedee or joyce who can play relatively tall.

If we lose say Joyce or Lester, i don't think we should be thinking okay who else is 200cm? Hipwood is a much needed forward. Fort would get murdered on the lead and ground level. Ditto Ryan. The draftees are way too raw. Dunkley has been absolutely crucial to our revival so taking him out of the midfield would be madness.

I think the best candidates if we lose Joyce or Lester would be Rayner or Berry or Ah Chee. They can all play tall and are not structural players. It's not an ideal fix but we don't want to be bringing in lower quality players just to get a few cms.

I think the doomsday scenario from here is Harris going down. We would then have our only tall defender as a very inexperienced Joyce at 195cm. I could see a possibility that we get a taller bloke in (honestly no great options, who has some mobility to do it? Smith?) and they just play as the deepest defender to make sure the oppo isn't taking the piss with easy marks close to goal. If a team got hold of us in that scenario the plan b could be Hipwood goes back, Smith or whomever goes forward.

 

[Jimmy Two Hands]

Yeah none of our forwards are natural swingmen like McStay was.

I dont think its panic stations quite yet, modern footy is much more focused on team defence and defending as a back unit, rather than 1-1 battles. So if we can defend better in the midfield and transitions, we will do our best to make sure that Joyce isnt exposed and tbh, if hes going to be in the team for 6+ weeks, Eagles is probably the best place to start.

 

[twhowler]

Yeah none of our forwards are natural swingmen like McStay was.

I dont think its panic stations quite yet, modern footy is much more focused on team defence and defending as a back unit, rather than 1-1 battles. So if we can defend better in the midfield and transitions, we will do our best to make sure that Joyce isnt exposed and tbh, if hes going to be in the team for 6+ weeks, Eagles is probably the best place to start.

McStay such good versatility. Ruck too! Tbf he never managed to average enough goals to really demand to be kept.

Bradshaw was an incredible swingman.

Lynch and Leppitsch used to be swapped if we were struggling.

Joe and Hippy really don't fit that bracket at all. Although tbf the swap move doesn't seem as common as it used to be?

 

[McIvor]

Still think this is a real danger in the too many d’s Brad Dalziell Cup. Having had a look at our away record versus the Eagles we are 3 wins and 10 losses in Perth in what is our second worst away record against all teams (Tigers the worst). Of course wants to win but have tipped the Eagles as confidence is ridiculously low for reasons previously stated earlier in the week.

 

[mpal6]

I think one can overthink how much we need 3 genuine talls in defence.

Obviously the ideal is having players who can match the height of the opposition. Hence our first choice is 2 very tall blokes, and a lester or gardiner or doedee or joyce who can play relatively tall.

If we lose say Joyce or Lester, i don't think we should be thinking okay who else is 200cm? Hipwood is a much needed forward. Fort would get murdered on the lead and ground level. Ditto Ryan. The draftees are way too raw. Dunkley has been absolutely crucial to our revival so taking him out of the midfield would be madness.

I think the best candidates if we lose Joyce or Lester would be Rayner or Berry or Ah Chee. They can all play tall and are not structural players. It's not an ideal fix but we don't want to be bringing in lower quality players just to get a few cms.

I think the doomsday scenario from here is Harris going down. We would then have our only tall defender as a very inexperienced Joyce at 195cm. I could see a possibility that we get a taller bloke in (honestly no great options, who has some mobility to do it? Smith?) and they just play as the deepest defender to make sure the oppo isn't taking the piss with easy marks close to goal. If a team got hold of us in that scenario the plan b could be Hipwood goes back, Smith or whomever goes forward.

Hipwood played defense in juniors so won't be a total novice out there.

You raise an interesting point, may be just like midfield rotation we should swap Harris and Hipwood in the upcoming rounds for some minutes. There is no other way to gain exposure and we just have to include it to our rotation policy depending on how we're going in the game.

 

[BuntonRules]

Don't worry about Darragh. His whole career has been building to this. In my Supercoach team already.

 

[DreadBat5701894]

Sounds like Darling has been dropped

 

[3KZ is Football]

Joyce could be OK - we just don't want him up the ground making decisions or assisting with transition. He needs to make a contest and spoil, spoil, spoil 'Saucy Merrett' style. He is exactly the same height as Merrett and he should be watching all the old tapes that the club has available so that he can learn to perform the same role.

 

[ZoBlitz]

Still think this is a real danger in the too many d’s Brad Dalziell Cup. Having had a look at our away record versus the Eagles we are 3 wins and 10 losses in Perth in what is our second worst away record against all teams (Tigers the worst). Of course wants to win but have tipped the Eagles as confidence is ridiculously low for reasons previously stated earlier in the week.

To be fair, we haven't played the Eagles in Perth recently (ie., since we haven't been completely awful) and we've never played them at Optus Stadium.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Still think this is a real danger in the too many d’s Brad Dalziell Cup. Having had a look at our away record versus the Eagles we are 3 wins and 10 losses in Perth in what is our second worst away record against all teams (Tigers the worst). Of course wants to win but have tipped the Eagles as confidence is ridiculously low for reasons previously stated earlier in the week.

I thought it was the Dale Kickett Cup.

 

[Perrip]

Brain and Joyce are the only two changes

 

[Jim Stynes11]

Darling dropped

 

[Nathan Barley]

Wonder if Brain will be the sub again

 

[BuntonRules]

Darling dropped

Not Simpson making the decisions then.

 

[On the quiet]

Darling dropped

have not really rated him for a couple of years now, and Eagles have little to lose, which might be a concern.