Game Day Round 1, 2023: West Coast Eagles vs North Melbourne - “A Walk in the Park”

[Yeahnahmate]

Barnett debuting as a first season ruck is both pathetic and promising at the same time

Wrong, more ready made than most. Big unit already and held his own in SANFL even last year. Not your more typical skinny but skilled young ruck prospect. Bit of a stud already

 

[Youdy]

Main takeaways from the game

Game was lost in the second and third quarters when our midfield got completely dominated. Gone are the days when we had a top 3 Fwd line to keep us in the game.

We have a lot of players who aren't up to AFL standard atm

Chesser, Williams, Jamo, O'Neil, Long were non entities for most of the game. Long worked his way into it a bit.

Williams/Jamo are not up to the level, better off playing another small to help with run. Couldn't even give us an advantage playing against part timers.

Darling didn't look right, was not covering the ground well. The combination with Allen + resting tall meant we didnt have enough defensive pressure for large periods. Ryan picks and chooses his effort.

Allen doesn't have a big presence yet, and doesn't make enough contests, seemed to prefer to double back rather than lead at the ball carrier.

Kelly was very poor, sloppy, looked unfit, offered nothing defensively.

Midfield looked a lot better in the last quarter which made the game easier for our forwards.

I think we will look a lot better when we can always have one of Ginbey/Yeo on the ball. Sheed/Kelly don't offer enough defensively.

As always the McGovern/Barrass combo is feast or famine, need to halve more contests.

 

[JackOutback]

Match set the tone for the season, I reckon. It’s gonna be frustrating. Some really bright spots mixed in with some utter garbage. The fight suggests we should at least win a few. The second and most of the third quarters show we’ll still get spanked a few times though.

Ginbey looked good, Ryan lifted, Allen ok in his first game back. NN will make a difference.

 

[Mop]

Wrong, more ready made than most. Big unit already and held his own in SANFL even last year. Not your more typical skinny but skilled young ruck prospect. Bit of a stud already

All the same it shouldn’t have to happen, and yet… here we are

 

[DickDunn]

Main takeaways from the game

Game was lost in the second and third quarters when our midfield got completely dominated. Gone are the days when we had a top 3 Fwd line to keep us in the game.

We have a lot of players who aren't up to AFL standard atm

Chesser, Williams, Jamo, O'Neil, Long were non entities for most of the game. Long worked his way into it a bit.

Williams/Jamo are not up to the level, better off playing another small to help with run. Couldn't even give us an advantage playing against part timers.

Darling didn't look right, was not covering the ground well. The combination with Allen + resting tall meant we didnt have enough defensive pressure for large periods. Ryan picks and chooses his effort.

Allen doesn't have a big presence yet, and doesn't make enough contests, seemed to prefer to double back rather than lead at the ball carrier.

Kelly was very poor, sloppy, looked unfit, offered nothing defensively.

Midfield looked a lot better in the last quarter which made the game easier for our forwards.

I think we will look a lot better when we can always have one of Ginbey/Yeo on the ball. Sheed/Kelly don't offer enough defensively.

As always the McGovern/Barrass combo is feast or famine, need to halve more contests.

Interesting point re: Allen. Hoping it’s just down to rust but he seemed like he was struggling to get any separation. Logue was pretty good on him

 

[amazingjoshy]

Our rucks weren't great, in fact they were bad

They weren't the reason for the loss. Unless you have a gun ruck, ruck is the most pointless position on the ground. Our non existent midfield in the first 2 and a half qtrs was the reason. Senior players getting absolutely slaughtered at clearances and contested ball, like they have for 4 years.

Ditch Sheed and Gaff, too slow. Give the keys to the kids

 

[Mop]

If Elliot Yeo

6

Elliot Yeo

Age

31

Ht

191cm

Wt

91kg

Pos.

D/M

Career

Season

Last 5

D

19.5

5star

K

11.7

4star

HB

7.8

5star

M

4.6

4star

T

4.5

5star

MG

377.9

5star

D

18.9

4star

K

10.9

4star

HB

8.0

4star

M

2.1

2star

T

5.8

5star

MG

287.4

4star

D

16.6

4star

K

9.4

4star

HB

7.2

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

0.6

3star

plays we win by three goals.

 

[Westend]

Match set the tone for the season, I reckon. It’s gonna be frustrating. Some really bright spots mixed in with some utter garbage. The fight suggests we should at least win a few. The second and most of the third quarters show we’ll still get spanked a few times though.

Ginbey looked good, Ryan lifted, Allen ok in his first game back. NN will make a difference.

spot on 100%

good post

 

[Cuzz09]

lock him in for min 20 poss and 2goals

On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

not 2 goals but a lazy 34 possies and BOG.

Lackey 6 goals like last year obvious shit

 

[Mop]

Our rucks weren't great, in fact they were bad

They weren't the reason for the loss. Unless you have a gun ruck, ruck is the most pointless position on the ground. Our non existent midfield in the first 2 and a half qtrs was the reason. Senior players getting absolutely slaughtered at clearances and contested ball, like they have for 4 years.

Ditch Sheed and Gaff, too slow. Give the keys to the kids

When your ruckman is rucking against a midfielder and still loses, yeah it’s a reason

 

[Evil Eagle]

Three ******* losses in a row to North Melbourne. **** this team.

 

[amazingjoshy]

When your ruckman is rucking against a midfielder and still loses, yeah it’s a reason

We won hitouts 49-32

We lost clearances by 15

 

[Monocle]

As simple as it is unpleasant to understand, we didn't deserve to win that game.

Too many brain farts.
Too much fumbling.
Too many unforced errors.
Too much poor decision making.
To f****** slow as a collective.

Some very likeable signs from Ginbey and Long.
Good to have Oscar back.
Ryan looked very switched on.
Hunt and his pace will help us.

Same old same old, hard to win a game ( even against the winner of last two seasons wooden spoons ) when the side doesn't put in for four quarters.

The new game plan was very well hidden because I didn't spot it.

Going to be a long season, as others have rightfully said.

We now have first fingers touching the Harley Reid Cup.

 

[Jukes]

In preseason I thought Long moved and looked/built like 18 year old Ablett Jnr. Now I think he’ll be better.

 

[Westend]

Hi I'm Bailey Williams.

I'm a ruckman.

I'm 23 years of age and have been on an afl list for 4 years.

Today I was faced with challenge of rucking against... literally nobody. The equally inexperienced ruckman who was kicking my ass got injured so I spent 3 quarters rucking against someone who had never done it before. And I got my ass kicked. I had 8 touches and my team got flogged 2:1 in the clearances. But that's okay because late in the game when they really needed me, um..Dom sheed ended up taking the centre square ruck, then I got caught holding the ball and then I gave away a ruck free kick. Because the one standout thing about me this far in my career is as well as being generally s**t, I'm also a dreadful choker.

I'm the future of this club!

Hi I am Oscar allen

I'm a gun forward

I'm 23 years of age and rated as the best prospect at the club as a key forward

Today I missed a goal from dead in front with no one on me 5 metres out in the first quarter....we lost by 5 points.. I had an opportunity to kick a goal with 1.30 remaining I kicked a point

But f**k it lets all slay Bailey Williams instead

 

[amazingjoshy]

In preseason I thought Long moved and looked/built like 18 year old Ablett Jnr. Now I think he’ll be better.

Ha no pressure

He'll be very good though when he gets some size. There's alot things he did today that will come off with more strength. Knows where to be

 

[Mop]

We won hitouts 49-32

We lost clearances by 15

That’s not winning against a midfielder. That’s barely breaking even.
context helps

 

[KERRPOW]

Ginbey 26 possies and 12 tackles on debut

We've got an absolute ripper

Edit: oops I can't read stats, 15 touches

How many tackles did sheed have?

Off to the WAFL u **** sheed

 

[swingdog]

To those saying once we have Yeo and Nic back, remember we lost to the other worst team in the comp. Other teams will be better.

 

[WCErevival]

That’s not winning against a midfielder. That’s barely breaking even.
context helps

He was rucking against 200cm Comben but yeah

 

[KERRPOW]

Kelly was very poor, sloppy, looked unfit, offered nothing defensively.

We've said this more about Kelly's perfomance over the 3 years hes been with us thank id like.

 

[amazingjoshy]

That’s not winning against a midfielder. That’s barely breaking even.
context helps

I didn't say they won, I literally said they were bad.

Doesn't explain how our senior mids lost clearances so badly when our rucks were getting first hands to it. They are way too used to Nic putting it on a plate for them. If they have to do any sort of work they get smacked all the time

 

[amazingjoshy]

To those saying once we have Yeo and Nic back, remember we lost to the other worst team in the comp. Other teams will be better.

Also Nic has 2 years left (being optimistic, at most)

We need to get past relying on him to even have a sniff at clearances

 

[BeeTee]

Going to be a long season....

Smashed in the midfield. Broke even in the last qtr and a bit and looked ok. Same old problem, no consistent intensity in the middle.

 

[Feeling Groovy]

First game and whilst some positives, it was more of what was expected.

We really are too slow for the modern game but particularly down back. I love Hurn and he is wily enough to drop in the holes and be useful (was good last year) but if he is still playing in the tail end of the season, we are not serious about rebuilding.

Hurn, Witho, Duggan (in current form), Cole (to a lesser extent) is a very slow, non-dynamic backline. Hurn (mostly because of age and slowing down) and Witho are the easy choices to replace at some stage. The sooner Hough is back in the team down there (fitness permitting) the better.

There were a few positives but how we can completely go missing for the second quarter and half of the third is ridiculous. Only to see the effort that was applied thereafter.

I defended Jamo in the practice game but our rucks were trash today. Sure, Bailey had some ok moments but the bad is really bad and the lack of competitiveness body on body is a real worry.

Hunt, Ginbey, Ryan, JJ, Sheuy were all decent. Gaff was ok too (although I still think the game has passed him by). But regardless, it is clear that our list won’t come close to competing with the best. We obviously won’t go all in on youth this early in the season but it is inevitable and obvious we need to move past some of the senior and mid age players on our list.

I would be looking at replacing O’Neill and Witho for sure next week. With who, depends on fitness I guess. The rucks we may have no choice with but a stick stuck in the middle of the ground couldn't be much worse.