We got trounced

[Pheret]

Lost by 88 points, were down by 50 at the half after only kicking 1.2. Only kicked 4 goals the whole game and additionally we lost Wooden with a fairly bad shoulder injury. Doesn't sum up to be a good night. Only thing we can take out of it was that we were a shadow of our regular side and that it was good for the kids.

 

[noodle]

johnson kicked half our goals. it's probably the most positive spin that i can put on things.

 

[Mead]

I don't think we planned to take much of anything out of these last two preseason matches. Given our injury issues, I just think we're going to play the weakest possible set of players we can, and try and get through them without copping any injuries. I don't doubt the hawks will beat us comfortably next week unless they do likewise.

 

[Streaker]

Originally posted by Mead
I don't think we planned to take much of anything out of these last two preseason matches. Given our injury issues, I just think we're going to play the weakest possible set of players we can, and try and get through them without copping any injuries. I don't doubt the hawks will beat us comfortably next week unless they do likewise.

I disagree. I think we will have our strongest team on the park and will use the hitout to gauge where we are at. Woosha is already quoted as saying that the players who missed out against Adelaide will have a run next week.

 

[Stakes]

I think its a great sign... we showed in the first game against Collingwood that with our half decent side in we are awesome. Sure we've lost and from all accounts the players were lack lustre well as far as I am concerned thats great. They understand that its a very long season.. no use busting a gut like Melbourne, Geelong and the West Bulldogs have been trying to... they'll be burnt out by round 6. I'd rather we got our form towards the end of the year this time.

I do see a hell of a lot of similarities though.... 2002 reminded me a hell of a lot of 1990... nobody expected us to make the finals..... 2003 reminded me of 1991.... started off the season like a house on fire (We won 15 of our first 16 in 1991) only to run out of gas at the end of the year.... and 2004? well lets hope its like 1992..... because in 1992 we started the year with 2 wins 3 losses and a draw from the first 6 games.... everyone was talking about being no chance.... and won 8 of the last 9 games of the year to win the flag. Woosha was there and knows what it takes to get teams up for finals. We no longer need to prove outselves in March and gain respectability... we need to do it in August and Sept.

 

[jod23]

We got trounced but I expected it. Even with all our top players we always struggle at AAMI against either Adelaide side so with our top players removed I knew what was coming.

Doesnt bother me though, Jako was named among our best so that was good. Whoosh says our stars will be back against Hawthorn next weekend so expect a win at home to take us into the season.

 

[oos]

Anyone else see that flying pig?

 

[juddy03]

Originally posted by oos
Anyone else see that flying pig?

Yeah, as a matter of fact I did.. There were a few Police Helicopters around the place last night, so i guess i did see a flying pig..

 

[Streaker]

From what I can gather from Macca23's report
1. Johnson was played at FF and Doogs at CHF and it didn't work. 2. Lynch did well on Carey but Carey used his experience to advantage.
3.Jako played in a pocket against an inexperienced player byt was good for our team.
4. Seaby showed potential against an experienced Adelaide ruck.


Positions to stay Johnson CHF and McDougall FF
Lynch needs more experience (obvious)
Use Jako as the third tall?
Seaby to continue as second ruck until Gardiner is 100%

It was a good game i the fact that Woosha experimented with our KPP and found some answers.

 

[TheRealBuzz]

Originally posted by oos
Anyone else see that flying pig?

Yeah, better late than never.

http://thegame.thewest.com.au/20040306/afl/news/tg-afl-new-sto121031.html

 

[error404]

oooh you little b|tch

 

[Nitro82]

Not many positives that you can take out of a game like this, but at least we are giving the kids a go and giving our stars some time off before the real stuff gets underway. As a few people have said, I'd rather us hit top form towards the end of the season, and be on a roll coming in to the finals (give the finals a real red hot go), rather than starting off like a flash in the pan and stumbling towards the end of the season, with a massive injury list.

There's no doubt that the likes of Lynch, Johnno, Doogs and Seaby would have benefited from the game time they got, even though we did get beaten by 88 points. Obviously the more time they play against experienced AFL players, the better they will be.

Tis a bugger about Josh Wooden as well. Showed some good form against Collingwood a few weeks ago and looked like he was really staking a claim for a spot in rd 1. Get well soon mate.

 

[jess-jess]

hey everybody! a friend of mine reciently told me about Big Footy so i thought i might come and check it out!

i wasn't suprised or that disappointed about last nights game. although it would have been nice to win, i don't think anyone would have tipped it had we been full strength, let alone with the side we took over! Seaby played well again and i think he is going to be a good player. But it begs the question, do we need three good ruckmen? i know it's not even the start of the season, and way too early to talk about trading, but i'ld like to hear everyone's opinion. Do you think there will be room for all three in the future?

 

[harlean]

Originally posted by jess-jess
But it begs the question, do we need three good ruckmen? i know it's not even the start of the season, and way too early to talk about trading, but i'ld like to hear everyone's opinion. Do you think there will be room for all three in the future?

Welcome on the boards J-J, it's an active place.

I am concerned that Michael Gardiners injury worries will continue all season. When he's fine no doubt about his ability but I'm just not sure we can count on that for the full season. If that is the case then we will need an extra option. Coxy is terrific but any one ruckman doing a whole season on his own is too much.

Really hope I am wrong about Gardy though, I wouldn't mind that at all.

 

[Streaker]

Originally posted by jess-jess
Seaby played well again and i think he is going to be a good player. But it begs the question, do we need three good ruckmen? i know it's not even the start of the season, and way too early to talk about trading, but i'ld like to hear everyone's opinion. Do you think there will be room for all three in the future?

Like you sy it is probably a little early to be talking about trades, but it bodes well for us come the end of the year if we have 3 great Ruckmen and need to look for a KPP.

Welcome to BigFooty

 

[Mead]

Originally posted by harlean
Welcome on the boards J-J, it's an active place.

I am concerned that Michael Gardiners injury worries will continue all season. When he's fine no doubt about his ability but I'm just not sure we can count on that for the full season. If that is the case then we will need an extra option. Coxy is terrific but any one ruckman doing a whole season on his own is too much.

Really hope I am wrong about Gardy though, I wouldn't mind that at all.

Welcome JJ!

I more or less agree with you, Harlean. Gardie is an outstanding ruckman, but would be an excellent CHF as well if we could spare him there. Additionally, it seems fairly clear that Gardie's knees are a bit dodgy- to prolong his career, it makes sense to move him away from the ruck.

By the end of this season, if Seaby and Cox come on as much as we hope, I think the likely combination will see those two as the 'pure' ruckmen in the side, whereas I can see Gardiner gradually being played less and less in the ruck, and more as a full time CHF- I would think that one or two years down the track, when Gardie is in his late 20s, he'll be a forward who rucks a bit rather than the other way round.

 

[theorangeapple]

i agree mead but i feel that gardiner is too good a player ....and the ruck is too important a position for us to play safe with him. his tap working is second to none and his work around the ground is tops. cox is a very able backup. seaby adds a bit of a spin on the situation though...and realisically we may need to trade cox or seaby to get a quality KPP either established or through the draft. anyway we will no by the end of this season how far cox and seaby have come on.

 

[Mead]

Originally posted by theorangeapple
i agree mead but i feel that gardiner is too good a player ....and the ruck is too important a position for us to play safe with him. his tap working is second to none and his work around the ground is tops. cox is a very able backup. seaby adds a bit of a spin on the situation though...and realisically we may need to trade cox or seaby to get a quality KPP either established or through the draft. anyway we will no by the end of this season how far cox and seaby have come on.

True I suppose, but the way I look at it is Gardies' career thusfar has proven a few things-
1.) He's an absolutely outstanding ruckman

2.) He's an excellent CHF if required.

3.) He cannot stand up to a full season of AFL footy in the ruck. Not once has he got through a year without getting injured.

I think its worth noting that Cox, who has been an able backup to date, is only just reaching the age where ruckmen typically start to play their best footy- interestingly enough, statistically he's actually been better in his first 3 years than Gardiner was in his first three. On the basis of his preseason form (comprehensively dominating the McKee/Fraser/Richards, and clearly beating Jeff White) I think its fair to expect Coxxy to step up this year.

I see Gardiner's role this season as being a CHF, and our 'plan B' ruckman if Cox gets into difficulty. That gives us a huge tactical advantage, in that when games are in the balance, we can bring on a fresh, elite ruckman in Gardiner to swing the game, but it also means that Gardiner's ruck work is limited to when it is absolutely necessary- say we go up against a team with a weak ruck division, and Cox is comprehensively on top, then we can let him (and perhaps Seaby) ruck out the game, and save Gardiner.

I'm hopeful that Cox will have come on enough that we can play Gardiner up forward and not lose a lot of drive out of the centre- and if by doing that, we have a fit and fresh Gardiner going into September, rather than the situation last year, then that could be the difference for us this season.

 

[theferrett]

I wouldnt be to concerned with the 88 point thrashing. Adelaide is a good side

 

[Streaker]

Originally posted by Mead
I see Gardiner's role this season as being a CHF, and our 'plan B' ruckman if Cox gets into difficulty.

I think that young Johnson has shown enough at CHF to warrant leaving him there. Let Gardi play second fiddle to Cox for a while until he builds up fitness.

 

[Mead]

Originally posted by West Coast Stre
I think that young Johnson has shown enough at CHF to warrant leaving him there. Let Gardi play second fiddle to Cox for a while until he builds up fitness.

Same diff really, just so long as Gardiner gets lighter duties for the first half of the year. It'd be nice to have him waiting in the wings as a plan B up forward if either of Doogs or Johno are in trouble, or if the game suits, even play him out of the pocket, just to see which oppositions can handle a 199, 197, 199cm forward line.

 

[thegur]

can someone actually post some details from the Friday night game??

From what I can gather, we ran without our top-line midfield, hence we were going to get spanked regardless, but I would be interested to know who we did rotate through there ...

anyone?

thegur

 

[Pheret]

The Gardi debate

Welcome to the board JJ. Good to have a fellow newbie around. This topic had been done to death by the end of last season on Buzz's board, but I haven't yet included my two cents on the matter, so here I go: It is very risky moving arguably the best ruckman through the first 16 rounds of last season out of the ruck, yet I think the more we analyse the situation, the more beneficial the move looks. Gardiner doesn't have the risilience to be a full time ruckman. He'll be crippled or have chronic arthritis in the knees by the time he's 29, and will become alike a McIntosh or McKenna at the time of his twilight years, missing every second game. Ruck is a very demanding position where you get banged up quite a bit.

Cox is an excellent backup who could shoulder the majority of the work if required and could infact already be the starter at a number of other clubs. And trust me, Seaby will be a great player. I've seen him a lot at my beloved Falcons to know how he'll impact our game. We even have Beeck to take over the 3rd string ruck role if needs be. While we could easily trade away one of our excess ruckmen, ultimately I think we would make better use of keeping them all and moving Gardi up to CHF. We've already seen how good he is up forward and what a strong overhead mark he is...he's a perfect fit for CHF. Who could match-up on a 199cm CHF? I'm telling you, not many clubs. This could be the answer to our KP problems, the answers to which are becoming more apparent every week of this pre-season. Glass at FB, Lynch at CHB, Gardi at CHF, Doogs at FF and Cox in the ruck. The only problem in this is that Johnno would have to be exluded, and his form in these past three games is enough to warrant a spot on the field.

Historically if you look at the club, you'd see we never really had a star, standout ruckman. And now that we do (several in fact), we don't really know how to use it properly to our advantage. Looking back, most of our ruckmen have originally been tall forwards, gradually moved into the centre, alike Harding, Hynes and Turnbull. Perhaps we should try the reverse tact this time around.

 

[GoEagles]

Originally posted by jess-jess
hey everybody! a friend of mine reciently told me about Big Footy so i thought i might come and check it out!

i wasn't suprised or that disappointed about last nights game. although it would have been nice to win, i don't think anyone would have tipped it had we been full strength, let alone with the side we took over! Seaby played well again and i think he is going to be a good player. But it begs the question, do we need three good ruckmen? i know it's not even the start of the season, and way too early to talk about trading, but i'ld like to hear everyone's opinion. Do you think there will be room for all three in the future?

Gday JJ (easier to call you that!) Welcome to BigFooty.

I know we will never be able to play all 3 ruckmen in the same game (unless we used Gardiner as CHF and Seaby down back), but I think we need to have Seaby primed as a back-up ruckman. Gards has shown he isn't quite safe throughout the whole 22 rounds and if he can't play it would be a big ask to get Cox to ruck for us in the entire year. I wouldn't be suprised if Seabs makes his AFL debut for us this year.

 

[pauljam]

HI all,

I'd actually like to see Gardy left as a forward for as long as possible. The fwd line would look a bit like this;


Matera, McDougall, Gardy
Sampi, JOhnson, Jones / Chick

That way the oppositions best defender would have to go to Gardy, leaving Doogs and Johnno a bit of time to develop. I'd have Gardy leading one side, Doogs the other. We often fall down with targets in fwd 50 when mf is not on top. This would give us a few with some smalls who tackle well, Fido, Jones, Chick, Sampi available to lock the ball in on the ground.

As others mentioned having Gardy avail to throw in the ruck would be awesome, while letting Cox get most of the time on ball helps him get better also. Seaby would be an ideal back up as he could also rotate out of the fwd pocket - he takes a nice grab also.

This would be my structure for round 1-4 or so until Gaspar comes back (if ever....)

Cheers