Preview **UPDATE** Changes vs. Sydney - Saturday 11.45am WST

[Carbine Chaos]

Duggan plays as a stopper .
Hurn and jetta who don't stop sh*t are our rebounders.

Hurn doesn’t stop sh*t? He’s been one of the best intercept defenders for the best part of a decade.

 

[FreeTK]

Caddy and Astbury in doubt for Thursday.

Without Astbury, their defense is lacking in talls. Probably Balta comes in. Given Richmond will only play Nankervis in the ruck, it could be a good opportunity to get Oscar in as 3rd tall/2nd ruck.

 

[ziad]

Hurn doesn’t stop sh*t? He’s been one of the best intercept defenders for the best part of a decade.

He certainly has been. But thats the issue, is he a has been or part of the team wide malaise?

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Caddy and Astbury in doubt for Thursday.

Without Astbury, their defense is lacking in talls. Probably Balta comes in. Given Richmond will only play Nankervis in the ruck, it could be a good opportunity to get Oscar in as 3rd tall/2nd ruck.

Surely we don’t return to the Allen as second ruck well.

Allen in for Darling, Williams in as second ruck. It’s the change that has to happen.

 

[Yamumluvsbigcox]

Xneil isn’t in the hub definitely won’t be seeing anytime soon

It's the other O'Neal that isn't in the hub

Hurn doesn’t stop sh*t? He’s been one of the best intercept defenders for the best part of a decade.

Not this year . Hurns leg speed is all but gone . He is also taking an eternity to move the ball on . Never taking the hard option that will break open the zone .

Him and jetta are almost a liability defensively.

Lucky Jetta's slowed down speed is normal speed but jetta is not very good above his head . Jetta has also been off with his kicking. Still going for the hard option but not hitting it as much

 

[wce4premiership]

If it is another slippery night game, we don't want the talls anyway.

Darling is due a big game, but it all starts in that midfield. The ball movement is horrid. The handballs are shit. We haven't had many plays, if any, where we have kicked the ball the length of the ground without it touching the ground.

Either there's a lack of run/separation up forward, or the kicking skills have gone to shit.

I think it is all because of the fumbles and lack of clean ball movement in close, which then leads to delays with the first options being closed down after the lost time created by a fumble or missed handball. It is this massive snowball effect and the whole team is infected with it.

Onus is on that midfield to be clean. Not just get a clearance, but a clean clearance. There is also the issue of the entire team being outworked.

 

[FreeTK]

Surely we don’t return to the Allen as second ruck well.

Allen in for Darling, Williams in as second ruck. It’s the change that has to happen.

Ok, maybe we just go the two talls, and have Bailey in the ruck.

Darling isn't getting dropped. Just saw an article in the west (posted it in the insightful media thread) where Shue backed in Darling and put the responsibility squarely on the mids for supply.

With Astbury out, it gives Kennedy a chance to get off the chain.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Ok, maybe we just go the two talls, and have Bailey in the ruck.

Darling isn't getting dropped. Just saw an article in the west (posted it in the insightful media thread) where Shue backed in Darling and put the responsibility squarely on the mids for supply.

With Astbury out, it gives Kennedy a chance to get off the chain.

Simpson praised the midfielders in his post match press conference.

What does it mean when the captain and coach aren’t even on the same page?

 

[FreeTK]

Simpson praised the midfielders in his post match press conference.

What does it mean when the captain and coach aren’t even on the same page?

He said he thought they were better and they clicked, and that is partly true.

We won clearances 35-23, and yet only had 36 inside 50's to 48.

 

[Cuzz09]

just have nobody over 6 foot.



On SM-G925I using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[sey666]

If we can fly home after round 6 ...3-3 we've done well , should be our goal .

Same as what we were after 6 rounds last year - 12-5 and in top 4 after 17 rounds in 2019.

 

[KERRPOW]

Win on appeal and not select him anyway. Arrogance.

Didnt we do that with Schofield before?

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Will Schofield has given us two of the great tribunal night performances of all time: vs Clayton Oliver and the players code during Masten/Barnacle.

Is he guilty? Quite obviously. Do I give a ****? Absolutely not. Get Grace on the phone this instant.

 

[DJMac]

Win on appeal and not select him anyway. Arrogance.

should appeal for it to be increased to 2 weeks.

 

[xInfected_Virus]

Balta has the size and athleticism to play on JK, Darling, whoever the third tall is and Ryan but lacks game smarts overall. Garthwaite is close to AFL ready but is undersized to take on JK, probably he's best suited on Darling or Ah Chee/Allen.

 

[KERRPOW]

Dunno who the in should be but cole and hickey should be outs aswell as shoey thru suspension.

 

[BrotherDodge]

- McGovern in for Schofield. Tbh I don't want to see Schofield selected again barring an injury apocalypse. Play Allen or Brander as key defenders instead. That ankle grab and headbutt were the actions of a guy who just doesn't give a shit anymore.
- Nelson in for Cole. Nelson's decision making is so much better than it was a couple of years ago. I'd like to see him take over Hutchings' role as tagger eventually.
- Allen in for Darling. Darling is a gun when he's on a roll, but when he's low on confidence and rubber-chested he's basically useless. Give him a couple of weeks to get his head together and bring him back at Optus.
- Williams in for Hickey. We need a backup ruck who isn't Allen. But if they're only going to play 40% TOG and get a handful of touches, it might as well be a kid who'll benefit from the experience.

 

[leroyeagle]

Change the coaches box up. I'm not a subscriber to the ridiculous notion that 2018 was all Mitchell, but I also don't think the current line-up is working.

I think you can logically infer that our midfield hasn't been functioning as well as it has and perhaps Van Berlo (?) isn't up to it.

I'd like to see Simpson take over the midfield role for a while. That's where he finished up assistant coaching at Hawthorn and he was the one with the ruck idea in the 2018 finals series, he knows what he's doing.

Think that spotlight should be on Mr Rosa surely!?

 

[Mulldogg]

If there is to be any change this week I would have thought that Cripps deserves a spell. Has been woeful in the games since the Covid break.

Only problem is who is lining up to take his spot with Cameron yet to be fit to play? There are no other small forwards on our list available to play. Would kill to have Willie available for selection.

 

[Monocle]

IN
McGovern, Allen & Ainsworth

OUT
Schofield, Darling & Cole

 

[CM9000]

TBF mate, you kept saying once we had a return date, all would be good and we still were putrid.

I don’t think I ever said that, I just said I thought we’d respond against Brisbane. Obviously, the issues are far more severe than I realised, but I still reckon we’ll beat Richmond.

Based on what? All we've shown so far is that we're as far off the pace as we've ever been. We're not competitive in the slightest

I’m just saying that I reckon we’ll go better than you expect against Richmond - this season isn’t done, and I reckon we’ll beat the Tigers.

It's tough to say. While not playing well, Richmond are a pressure team that do a lot when not in possession. We could see a lot of rushed kicks and turnovers.

Hard to say which way it goes given both teams are in bad form.

I agree completely, though, for me, things have been pushed to the edge for us. To lose to Port like that, after all we’ve done to them, is insulting to both the players and the fans. I think this game would sting much more than the others for our B22 IMO.

 

[Ok Boomer]

He said he thought they were better and they clicked, and that is partly true.

We won clearances 35-23, and yet only had 36 inside 50's to 48.

The clearances were mostly very poor quality though, time and time again Port half back flankers were able to rebound off the back of the square because of a shallow or hacked clearance. Shuey and Yeo the main culprits with Sheed and Nic Nat being guilty of this too.

 

[Ok Boomer]

Darling will not be dropped. He wasn't dropped in 2015-17 and he won't be now, rightly or wrongly. When he is too lazy to even bend over and is shinning the ball on the lead he needs a rocket.

 

[Dale Doback]

If it was me in Simmo's shoes I'd be returning to a taller forward setup like we used in the 18 finals. Naitinui and Williams rucking and both rotating through the bench and forward 50 to give our hack kicking mids a second actual tall target to kick too.

At 191 Darling has always been short for a CHF and if he doesn't get it on the lead, which is rare with our slow ball movement or hack kicks, he is struggling to have an impact. His tackling and pressure which were the real highlight of his game in his first 6 years are mostly gone. Team defenses are closing space down faster every year so he isn't getting as many one on ones, which are his bread and butter.

Too often him and Kennedy are going for the same marks. Our forwards coach needs to get him to change his leading patterns as he leads like he's the primary option each time. Get him leading laterally, away from Kennedy and the congestion, doing hook leads to the fat side, pushing up to the wings more often. He needs to be told that unless he gets on the move and more mobile then his minutes will go to Allen.

 

[Dale Doback]

I swear Cripps has incriminating pics of Simmo. Cement hands gets a game no matter what. We'll be watching him double and triple grab every possession until he's ready to retire on his terms.