Thanks Toshowyouwhy for last year's great previews. Round 1 is on the way and I will begin the season previews starting with the West Coast Eagles vs Western Bulldogs. Thanks to the three fine posters who previewed the NAB games.
WOWEE! what a start to this year, undefeated in the 3 pre-season matches we have had and already 2 derby victories under our belt. I rate this pre-season 6 out of 5 jubilant house destroying Masto’s!!!
This picture shows how damaging Masten's pre-season was:WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE
After a unanimously disappointing season last time around, it is time for the eagles to show their fans and themselves that they have what it takes to go deep in September. After a promising pre season and with footy personalities tipping a premiership for the coasters, last year was devastating for fans. Between the injuries, close losses and off field rumours the eagles finished a very underwhelming 13th. An extra preseason of experience for our promising young brigade, a new coach, new tactics and possibly the last year watching the Glass Cox combo are reasons why we need to climb the ladder.
We have a good amount of players now in the 50-100 game zone and we need players like Shuey, Wellingham, Scooter, Gaff, Yeo and Hurn to step up to a more elite level and not just bullies of the bottom teams. The usual suspects such as Masten and Scooter have torn up the preseason and the destruction they caused training the houses down was seen during the off season. It will be interesting to see how the new brigade in Ellis, Yeo and Sheed in particular go.
Things need to be switched on straight away from Round 1. We were slow out of the blocks last season and it hurt us badly. Our record vs the bulldog’s is quite impressive over the last two years and at home we should win this game by at least 30 points. We cannot underestimate the Bulldogs midfield, led by Boyd, Griffen and now Liberatore it is shaping up as a very tough midfield to come up against, so our rucks will need to compete strongly against Minson to give us first use. The bulldogs do have some defensive and attacking deficiencies and will struggle to match up on our tall forwards in particular Josh Kennedy, who has repeatedly carved up the Bullies in seasons past. The Bulldogs have recruited Crameri, who is still under the threat of *injunction* however, he will be a stronger marking option than they have had for a few years.
Key match ups are likely to be the effectiveness of our midfield and whether we can hold Griffen and Liberatore. The rucking situation with Cox and NicNat vs Minson and how our small defenders can handle Dahlhaus are also crucial. Now to delve into some of the stats last year both overall and in the two matches we played against the bulldogs.
Bulldogs were number one at handballs per game, which suits their developing speed through the midfield and lack of tall targets to kick to up forward. In contrast the West Coast were ranked 16th for the same statistic, which shows the eagles reluctance to spread by hand from congestion and the emphasis on the ineffective long bomb last year. Both teams were strong in the tackles per game and the hitouts per game and I think this is due to the strong ruckmen and the effectiveness of in and under players such as Priddis and Liberatore. The eagles need to lift their total disposal stats this year, we need more possession and to provide our forwards with better service. Look to Shuey, Gaff, Masten, Wellingham or Yeo to be used to ping the ball onto the tit of Kennedy, Darling or our resting ruckman rather than a Priddis or Rosa Helicopter.
The two games last year were a tale of two halves of the season. Round 6 Eagles lacked consistency, but there were signs that they were still a player in 2013. Eagles thumped the Bulldogs at home by 11 goals with a polished performance instrumented by our midfield dominance. Priddis, Wellingham, Shuey and Masten all had great days and Darling, Cox and Kennedy all kicked a bag. The return game in round 18 couldn’t be any more different, with the Bulldogs midfield and in particular Dahlhaus dominating the game and further cementing the terrible season the Eagles were having, both at home and away.
West Coast vs WB recent history:
LWWWW with a 123 point win in 2011, which made my day at Pattersons that much sweeter. The loss in Round 18 last year was just another of the poor losses we had against opposition we should have been beating and pretty much summed up our season.
The start of a new Eagles era begins this round. There are a lot of unknowns, both tactically and with the new players and coaches recruited in the summer. The talent is there, I believe the ambition is there. Can the boys piece it all together to get our season on track. Look out for Kennedy to kick a bag, Shuey to rack up some possessions and Gaff to tear up a wing in a similar fashion to Richmond’s KFC boy.
"Here Gaffy, have a wing!!!"
TLDR – Eagles by 32, Danger players we need to control are Libba, Griffen and Dahlhaus.
WOWEE! what a start to this year, undefeated in the 3 pre-season matches we have had and already 2 derby victories under our belt. I rate this pre-season 6 out of 5 jubilant house destroying Masto’s!!!
This picture shows how damaging Masten's pre-season was:WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE
After a unanimously disappointing season last time around, it is time for the eagles to show their fans and themselves that they have what it takes to go deep in September. After a promising pre season and with footy personalities tipping a premiership for the coasters, last year was devastating for fans. Between the injuries, close losses and off field rumours the eagles finished a very underwhelming 13th. An extra preseason of experience for our promising young brigade, a new coach, new tactics and possibly the last year watching the Glass Cox combo are reasons why we need to climb the ladder.
We have a good amount of players now in the 50-100 game zone and we need players like Shuey, Wellingham, Scooter, Gaff, Yeo and Hurn to step up to a more elite level and not just bullies of the bottom teams. The usual suspects such as Masten and Scooter have torn up the preseason and the destruction they caused training the houses down was seen during the off season. It will be interesting to see how the new brigade in Ellis, Yeo and Sheed in particular go.
Things need to be switched on straight away from Round 1. We were slow out of the blocks last season and it hurt us badly. Our record vs the bulldog’s is quite impressive over the last two years and at home we should win this game by at least 30 points. We cannot underestimate the Bulldogs midfield, led by Boyd, Griffen and now Liberatore it is shaping up as a very tough midfield to come up against, so our rucks will need to compete strongly against Minson to give us first use. The bulldogs do have some defensive and attacking deficiencies and will struggle to match up on our tall forwards in particular Josh Kennedy, who has repeatedly carved up the Bullies in seasons past. The Bulldogs have recruited Crameri, who is still under the threat of *injunction* however, he will be a stronger marking option than they have had for a few years.
Key match ups are likely to be the effectiveness of our midfield and whether we can hold Griffen and Liberatore. The rucking situation with Cox and NicNat vs Minson and how our small defenders can handle Dahlhaus are also crucial. Now to delve into some of the stats last year both overall and in the two matches we played against the bulldogs.
Bulldogs were number one at handballs per game, which suits their developing speed through the midfield and lack of tall targets to kick to up forward. In contrast the West Coast were ranked 16th for the same statistic, which shows the eagles reluctance to spread by hand from congestion and the emphasis on the ineffective long bomb last year. Both teams were strong in the tackles per game and the hitouts per game and I think this is due to the strong ruckmen and the effectiveness of in and under players such as Priddis and Liberatore. The eagles need to lift their total disposal stats this year, we need more possession and to provide our forwards with better service. Look to Shuey, Gaff, Masten, Wellingham or Yeo to be used to ping the ball onto the tit of Kennedy, Darling or our resting ruckman rather than a Priddis or Rosa Helicopter.
The two games last year were a tale of two halves of the season. Round 6 Eagles lacked consistency, but there were signs that they were still a player in 2013. Eagles thumped the Bulldogs at home by 11 goals with a polished performance instrumented by our midfield dominance. Priddis, Wellingham, Shuey and Masten all had great days and Darling, Cox and Kennedy all kicked a bag. The return game in round 18 couldn’t be any more different, with the Bulldogs midfield and in particular Dahlhaus dominating the game and further cementing the terrible season the Eagles were having, both at home and away.
West Coast vs WB recent history:
LWWWW with a 123 point win in 2011, which made my day at Pattersons that much sweeter. The loss in Round 18 last year was just another of the poor losses we had against opposition we should have been beating and pretty much summed up our season.
The start of a new Eagles era begins this round. There are a lot of unknowns, both tactically and with the new players and coaches recruited in the summer. The talent is there, I believe the ambition is there. Can the boys piece it all together to get our season on track. Look out for Kennedy to kick a bag, Shuey to rack up some possessions and Gaff to tear up a wing in a similar fashion to Richmond’s KFC boy.
"Here Gaffy, have a wing!!!"
TLDR – Eagles by 32, Danger players we need to control are Libba, Griffen and Dahlhaus.
