Prediction Round 2: Changes Vs St Kilda + pre-match discussion

[theGav56]

Hoping we see a bit of positional creativity and at least 2 changes Meek/Darcy and Banfield/Erasmus.

 

[VolgaBoatman]

My guess is Darcy in for Meek will be the only change.

 

[332docker]

Darcy & Wilson for Meek & Banfield

I see what people see in Henry, but he needs to do more.

Walters is looking like Ballas in his final year! he needs to Left. Crowden would be better option

 

[blue shark]

Hoping we see a bit of positional creativity and at least 2 changes Meek/Darcy and Banfield/Erasmus.

I think that was a wake up call, and probably our weakest team to start, but most experienced, besides Colyer, Aish not playing.
Missing key players in the spine in Tabs, Darcy.
So room for improvement and if we are honest some of them wont be around to see finals, unless it’s this year?
For me that includes Acres, Colyer, Banfield, Walters? Unfortunately that could also include Mundy
So we need to find mids,wings, forwards, with a list full of half back flankers.
What’s strange is that we have experimented with Banfield, Crowden as forwards.
While others are set in stone.
Young appears wasted down back, coasting, and who is our running back when you have 3? That can’t all play loose.
Spine when depleted is also straight out of the playbook, go small forward and then wonder why they fail.
Oscar Allen has played forward, back and ruck, yet we refuse to try something different.
Lastly bad kicking at goal, destroys morale and gives the opposition a lift.
15m from the sticks should be a given.

 

[Van_Dyke]

I'm all for positional flexibility, but we have to draw the line somewhere...

i'd back 2013-14 Mitch to be one hell of a pressure forward

 

[WaywardSonSon]

It's Perth, a light drizzle = we need to prepare an Ark to make sure we survive as a species

Sydney test matches say hold my beer!

 

[theGav56]

I think that was a wake up call, and probably our weakest team to start, but most experienced, besides Colyer, Aish not playing.
Missing key players in the spine in Tabs, Darcy.
So room for improvement and if we are honest some of them wont be around to see finals, unless it’s this year?
For me that includes Acres, Colyer, Banfield, Walters? Unfortunately that could also include Mundy
So we need to find mids,wings, forwards, with a list full of half back flankers.
What’s strange is that we have experimented with Banfield, Crowden as forwards.
While others are set in stone.
Young appears wasted down back, coasting, and who is our running back when you have 3? That can’t all play loose.
Spine when depleted is also straight out of the playbook, go small forward and then wonder why they fail.
Oscar Allen has played forward, back and ruck, yet we refuse to try something different.
Lastly bad kicking at goal, destroys morale and gives the opposition a lift.
15m from the sticks should be a given.

Building flexibility is good player development. Most if not all players should have some capacity to play multiple positions.

 

[Dayts]

Colyer for Henry. More defensive pressure and Hunger.
Darcy for Banfeild.

Meek deserves another crack. And gives Darcy more time to build into the full time ruck minutes.

Tabs & Fyfe following week for Meek and worst performing mid.
Easy

 

[Bring back Drum]

I think Aish could be an important in defensively to take the oppositions small forwards. He offers that defensive quality, but also can play elsewhere if needed. Perhaps gives us a bit more structure down back & doesn’t have to start there but can be moved there if necessary.
Not sure Walker offers that flexibility & I’d like to think we could have Clark & Wilson in the same team, but not sure we can unless Clark plays wing.

 

[Freomaniac]

T

True this. Small forwards having a day out against freo is like death and taxes

Yep because i am glad Eddie betts is retired. Still remember that Freo vs crows game in 2018… could of easily kicked 4-5 goals on a good day but kicked 2 goals and 6 behinds.

 

[Freomaniac]

Having a list clogged in Banfield getting games instead of Erasmus is just painful.

That shank was just horrendous.

Banfield reminds me of Nick Suban. He is an experienced role player or depth player.

He will kick his 10-15 goals a season.

Saying that Erasmus, could and should get a debut game in eith rounds 2, 3 or 4 in perth stadium

 

[JohnnieHutton]

Banfiled should ONLY play as a tagger in the midfield. If not required as that he shouldn't be anywhere near best 22.

 

[purplerunsdeep2]

For me, Ryan looked lost at the weekend. Seems to love the challenge playing on a monster forward and it suits him being not overly quick

Cox wasn’t much better either


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[Freoboy in Melbs]

I dont get the perceived worthlessness of Banfield from many of the Freo fauthful. He's been way more serviceable than Henry or Walters. Why do we apparently want to get rid of Banfield who can kick a goal, while Henry and Walters go on doing not much at all? Just sayin'.

 

[theGav56]

I dont get the perceived worthlessness of Banfield from many of the Freo fauthful. He's been way more serviceable than Henry or Walters. Why do we apparently want to get rid of Banfield who can kick a goal, while Henry and Walters go on doing not much at all? Just sayin'.

Wait... you haven't noticed any criticism of Walters or Henry on here?

 

[blue shark]

I dont get the perceived worthlessness of Banfield from many of the Freo fauthful. He's been way more serviceable than Henry or Walters. Why do we apparently want to get rid of Banfield who can kick a goal, while Henry and Walters go on doing not much at all? Just sayin'.

They can all kick a goal, that’s setting the bar pretty low. Nothing wrong with Banfield playing a run with role. But you could insert Crowden’s name in this discussion.
I don’t see a finals team. Or even a GF team with such low production in front of goal.
Unless we go back to the manic pressure and restricting the oppositions scoring and it still only got us 1 GF appearance.
Games changed, so we have to create score board pressure, and that includes accuracy.

 

[Spirit Level]

As much as I would love to see Erasmus this week, I don't see them giving him a game until at least one game with Peel, especially since he didn't play any of the preseason games

 

[blue shark]

As much as I would love to see Erasmus this week, I don't see them giving him a game until at least one game with Peel, especially since he didn't play any of the preseason games

It would be nice to see players who actually have forward craft play.
Maybe Sturt is ready to reboot?
Good forwards create space for others, lead into space and direct the incoming
ball to be kicked in front.
Stand in players just don’t have the patterns to be creative, or natural instinct to
read the play.
Round one last year we played the Dees and Pearce was playing forward. As usual
Lobb was out.
Round one this year Tabs is out, forward line is still lacking talls, no medium talls unless you count Banfield.
Some things stay the same, maybe Mundy forward and we find another mid?
Always have 2 talls forward, Lobb went into the ruck and Meek? Not Meeks
fault he isn’t Sean Darcy.
We are not finals bound unless we find a way to score, or win by some miracle.

 

[Freoboy in Melbs]

Well, who ever JLo drops sooner or later, its nice to know we have a degree of depth in waiting. I'm a fan of Crowden and Colyer. Even Blakely's pretty darn handy. I thought Colyer had something of a breakout year last year. also, and I've always wondered why Blakely's so out of favour when he adds a lot of hard grunt, IMO. He's rarely quiet. Not commenting on Erasmus because I'm not familiar with where he's at.

So for me, whenever it is that Crowden, Colyer or Blakely come back in, I think we'll be ok, and hopefully even improve the strength of our team if they're replacing out of form players. Crowdens kicking, Colyers pace, and Blakelys grunt all bring something to the table, IMO.

If it were me, I'd drop Walters and Henry first. Reckon they'd come back better players for the reality check in the WAFL they both need. Just my take.

 

[wayToGo_]

Even Blakely's pretty darn handsy.

EFA

I've always wondered why Blakely's so out of favour

There you go.

 

[Scham]

Building flexibility is good player development. Most if not all players should have some capacity to play multiple positions.

Some just aren't capable. For some, their best position is much better than other positions so it's about getting the best out of them for the team's best.

Re development, early in a young players AFL career it's best to get a player settled, comfortable and confident at the level before progressing their skillset too quickly.

 

[Freoboy in Melbs]

EFA

There you go.

Potential can of worms here. Yeah, I had heard the rumour about Langdons girlfriend, and also that Langdon, Weller and Blakely all lived together and Blakely came out looking the villain when Weller and Langdon departed. But that was about three of four years ago now, wasnt it?

I always thought that whole debacle was a window to Blakelys attitude and effect at the club (not great), and was possibly the main reason why he's still on the outer. But geez, I thought he's been doing a pretty good job of letting his footy do the talking. And now he's lost weight as well. To my knowledge, he hasnt put a foot wrong in recent years. Give him another go, I say. The way I see it, the bloke is working his butt off to make amends and he really does add grunt.

 

[arsesmart]

I dont get the perceived worthlessness of Banfield from many of the Freo fauthful. He's been way more serviceable than Henry or Walters. Why do we apparently want to get rid of Banfield who can kick a goal, while Henry and Walters go on doing not much at all? Just sayin'.

Banfield wasn't all that bad. Obviously the fluffed shot sticks in people's minds, but he contributed in some significant ways, which probably doesn't stick in the mind so much in the emotional experience of watching the game.

As for Henry, it just doesn't make sense to only invest 1 solitary AFL level game on the wing, now you've done it. If it were me, I'd be wanting to invest another 2-3 at least, to make that initial outlay worthwhile. You're either committing to him there or not. I can understand some looking in from the outside not committing to him on the wing, but from a coaching perspective, it seems they have. Looking at the "almost" of his game, he just needs to feel like he really has a key role and belongs out there. Break-out performance would help.

Walters showed on the weekend his vision and skill hasn't dimmed. He needs to accept he isn't going to get a fair deal from the umpires and should just pretend they don't exist and be all tooth and nail. Losing his feet a little too often isn't a good sign, but that might be something he works through as the season warms up and he's fitter. Maybe a WAFL stint might help at some stage, later or sooner.

 

[wayToGo_]

Potential can of worms here. Yeah, I had heard the rumour about Langdons girlfriend, and also that Langdon, Weller and Blakely all lived together and Blakely came out looking the villain when Weller and Langdon departed. But that was about three of four years ago now, wasnt it?

I always thought that whole debacle was a window to Blakelys attitude and effect at the club (not great), and was possibly the main reason why he's still on the outer. But geez, I thought he's been doing a pretty good job of letting his footy do the talking. And now he's lost weight as well. To my knowledge, he hasnt put a foot wrong in recent years. Give him another go, I say. The way I see it, the bloke is working his butt off to make amends and he really does add grunt.

I think they've given him plenty of goes. His disposal unfortunately isn't AFL quality. I don't mind him as matured depth but he is limited to playing as an inside mid and is well behind a heap of other options we have there - Brayshaw, Serong, Brodie, Mundy, Fyfe, Erasmus... And I'm expecting we will use Switta (and maybe Tucker) in there more as well. Credit to him for putting in the effort to dominate in last week's WAFL pre-season game though - if he can continue doing that the selection pressure it puts on our inside mid options is great.

 

[SupermanCapes]

As for Henry, it just doesn't make sense to only invest 1 solitary AFL level game on the wing, now you've done it. If it were me, I'd be wanting to invest another 2-3 at least, to make that initial outlay worthwhile. You're either committing to him there or not. I can understand some looking in from the outside not committing to him on the wing, but from a coaching perspective, it seems they have. Looking at the "almost" of his game, he just needs to feel like he really has a key role and belongs out there. Break-out performance would help.

I agree we should persist with Henry. I think it was the Purple Reign boys (or maybe Restump) were saying he went at 100% disposal efficiency from his 8 touches? I want that in the team over someone who wins double the ball but butchers it half the time.

The only criticism I had of him during the game was how small he looked - when he did contest the pill it looked like he was getting pushed off it way too easily. I know he's not an inside bull, but tell me with a straight face that Ed Langdon and Porridge Brayshaw are getting thrown around at the contest.