We made the finals… Changes VS Dockers

[Foxman98]

I went to the Sydney game. Schache had a crack and put his head in dangerous places. He was one of the 2-3 that appeared to be up for the fight. Getting a knock was extremely untimely. By the way, if Bruce was able to 10 possessions and a goal you would be talking up how great a ‘warrior’ he is, when it is clear that he has no right to be out there (currently).

Bruce competes and bring a the ball to ground, Schache when the heat is on rarely does this last years prelim being the only exception but given we dominated from start to finish it was in his favour. I challenge you watch the Brisbane/Melbourne games from this year The Richmond one from last year and the Carlton one from 2 years ago and tell me honestly you think he has the ticker to stand up when the going gets tough

 

[Optimistic Dog]

Does anyone know if there will be any open training sessions before we fly to WA to play the dockers.

 

[stefoid]

After the weekend Darcy has to be in for mine. There is just too much potential for him to disrupt opposition structures.

Freo would be very keen for their best tall defender, Pearce, to take Naughts, but if Darcy clunks a couple early, then Pearce is the only one tall enough to compete with him

If Naughts gets a lesser defender, that's obviously a massive plus.

Nothing worse than seeing a guy like Naughts standing in a crowd, waiting for the long high ball to come in. He is waaay harder to stop if he is moving, which is why , I guess, Bruce has been getting a gig regardless of his actual output - to stand under the high ball and let Naughton off the leash. Someone has to take on that role if we dont want the oppositions best defender taking 15 intercept marks. Its the chris grant scenario - you dont want your rolls royce ploughing a field.

The question is, is a green, twig-like Darce better at that role than a beefy, sluggish Bruce?

Its out of those three players - not Schache who just isnt suited to that role. If anything Marra has taken Schaches role, and is a more rounded version.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

Its pretty obvious that we have no intention of going into a final with two recognised ruckman.

So, I think we will forgo what Scahche may bring to a forward line that should already have enough firepower, for what Bruce may bring should Sean Darcy

4

Sean Darcy

Age

26

Ht

203cm

Wt

111kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.1

3star

K

3.4

1star

HB

6.6

4star

CL

2.4

4star

HO

28.8

5star

D

6.8

1star

K

2.0

1star

HB

4.8

3star

CL

1.8

4star

HO

20.3

5star

D

11.4

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

6.8

5star

CL

2.6

5star

HO

32.0

5star

wear down English with his physicality. We all know that dealing with this type of opponent is the one aspect of the game that English can be found wanting.

Adding what we might get out off Schache forward of the ball will do nothing to address this issue. However, an out of sorts Bruce might.

VDM for JJ (if fit)

Or. No Change

 

[stefoid]

Bev in his presser said Darce was moved forward not because Bruce was doing his job poorly but because Darce was being exposed by smaller, faster opponents in defence, and they wanted to make a change - and it worked. That isnt to say that Bruce was doing an amazing job, just that he wasnt the reason to move darce out of defence.

Bruce and English can swap places to give English a chop out. Can Darce ruck at his age/weight? I feel like he is FF or nothing (In time, he will be a killer combo with English playing 70/30 fwd/ruck.)

Can the team afford to have Darce and Bruce in the side at the same time? I could easily see a swap of a fit Keath for one of them, and I could easily see Darce being omitted because Bruce can also play ruck.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Nothing worse than seeing a guy like Naughts standing in a crowd, waiting for the long high ball to come in. He is waaay harder to stop if he is moving, which is why , I guess, Bruce has been getting a gig regardless of his actual output - to stand under the high ball and let Naughton off the leash. Someone has to take on that role if we dont want the oppositions best defender taking 15 intercept marks. Its the chris grant scenario - you dont want your rolls royce ploughing a field.

The question is, is a green, twig-like Darce better at that role than a beefy, sluggish Bruce?

Its out of those three players - not Schache who just isnt suited to that role. If anything Marra has taken Schaches role, and is a more rounded version.

Bruce needs to body out the defenders and enable Darcy to use those long arms and a spring.

I'm hoping against hope there won't be any long high balls, but low accurate passes to whoever is leading.

 

[Sentinel]

Imagine how boring it would be to go into a finals series comfortably in the top 4 without any late season twist.

 

[ScottyDogg]

Would anyone else agree that English has been notably less monstered in the last 4-5 weeks. There were stretches after he came back this year and last from the head knocks where he just was not competitive in the ruck, especially at centre clearance. From my view he has been really competent in the centre square the last month.

 

[Foxman98]

Would anyone else agree that English has been notably less monstered in the last 4-5 weeks. There were stretches after he came back this year and last from the head knocks where he just was not competitive in the ruck, especially at centre clearance. From my view he has been really competent in the centre square the last month.

His centre clearance work by himself grabbing it and kicking i50 got us the win against GWS and is really starting to improve. Hopefully he can get a full run at it next year health wise and explode completely

 

[doggies ftw]

Would anyone else agree that English has been notably less monstered in the last 4-5 weeks. There were stretches after he came back this year and last from the head knocks where he just was not competitive in the ruck, especially at centre clearance. From my view he has been really competent in the centre square the last month.

Yep I thought he was really good against Darcy who is one of the best in this part of the game, which was a promising sign.

 

[doggies ftw]

Bev in his presser said Darce was moved forward not because Bruce was doing his job poorly but because Darce was being exposed by smaller, faster opponents in defence, and they wanted to make a change - and it worked. That isnt to say that Bruce was doing an amazing job, just that he wasnt the reason to move darce out of defence.

Bruce and English can swap places to give English a chop out. Can Darce ruck at his age/weight? I feel like he is FF or nothing (In time, he will be a killer combo with English playing 70/30 fwd/ruck.)

Can the team afford to have Darce and Bruce in the side at the same time? I could easily see a swap of a fit Keath for one of them, and I could easily see Darce being omitted because Bruce can also play ruck.

Whether he was sent forward because of Bruce or not he still performed better than him up there. Dropping Darcy & keeping Bruce would be a disaster tbh

 

[Testekill]

Would anyone else agree that English has been notably less monstered in the last 4-5 weeks. There were stretches after he came back this year and last from the head knocks where he just was not competitive in the ruck, especially at centre clearance. From my view he has been really competent in the centre square the last month.

He's been much better, it just always takes him a while to get back in the groove following a concussion. There have been quite a few games where his influence in the ruck has been a huge turning point when we started poorly.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Would anyone else agree that English has been notably less monstered in the last 4-5 weeks. There were stretches after he came back this year and last from the head knocks where he just was not competitive in the ruck, especially at centre clearance. From my view he has been really competent in the centre square the last month.

Looking a lot bigger and stronger. We knew it would take time, many were too impatient. He will get even better over the coming seasons.

 

[yebiga]

I mean Keath got through a full VFL game on the weekend and had 23 touches. He's at least playing full match minutes so he has to be fit enough for that at least.

I still think we should roll the dice and bring Keath in for Bruce and allow Darcy to play forward. We always have the option of moving Darcy back (& say Cordy forward yuck) if we are needing some extra height temporarily during stages of the game.

Who gives English a chop out in the Ruck?

 

[Golden_6]

Who gives English a chop out in the Ruck?

Darcy does. English is playing 85%+ of the game in ruck anyway so it’s about 4 minutes a quarter.

 

[bobs head soup]

Darcy does. English is playing 85%+ of the game in ruck anyway so it’s about 4 minutes a quarter.

Reckon that'd be okay. Lobb gives Darcy the chop out for Freo who'd be ok as a match up for Sam.

 

[stefoid]

Bruce needs to body out the defenders and enable Darcy to use those long arms and a spring.

I'm hoping against hope there won't be any long high balls, but low accurate passes to whoever is leading.

We dont need 2 players with hardly any defensive contribution playing the same role.

And there will always be long kicks to the hotspot. The problem is if thats the only type of entry to the forward line. Same for kicking to a lead - if thats all we do, they can clog up the space.

Not being predictable with forward entries is the key.

 

[stefoid]

His centre clearance work by himself grabbing it and kicking i50 got us the win against GWS and is really starting to improve. Hopefully he can get a full run at it next year health wise and explode completely

absolutely - the disposal to a player running forward of the centre bounce is something that kills us pretty regularly, and something we dont do enough of - but if we can have the actual ruckman doing that, it would be huge offensively and defensively for us. Once he gets going, english would be hard to stop and harder to strip of the ball with those long arms

 

[stefoid]

Yep I thought he was really good against Darcy who is one of the best in this part of the game, which was a promising sign.

Its really hard to tell. Darce kicked 2 goals in 5 minutes before hawthorn worked out what was going on. Good stuff, but Freo will have taken notes.

His first mark was excellent though - eyes on the ball, some deft body work, and caught the ball at its very highest point. Very classy. It would be nice to think he could take a couple of those a game if left at FF, isnt it. But how often do very young players show a bit one game and then go missing?

The match committee might be thinking, for a final, - better the devil you know

 

[doggies ftw]

Its really hard to tell. Darce kicked 2 goals in 5 minutes before hawthorn worked out what was going on. Good stuff, but Freo will have taken notes.

His first mark was excellent though - eyes on the ball, some deft body work, and caught the ball at its very highest point. Very classy. It would be nice to think he could take a couple of those a game if left at FF, isnt it. But how often do very young players show a bit one game and then go missing?

The match committee might be thinking, for a final, - better the devil you know

I just think Darcy offers a nice point of difference to our forward line tbh, I get what you’re saying and I think we’d be crazy to think he’s just going to be smooth sailing from here, but it doesn’t matter what Freo do he’s still going to have his height and marking advantage.

I think he offers enough there to keep the spot, if Bruce was at full strength it’s a different story but Naughty can do enough of the crash and bash required especially with the help he’s now getting from Marra too.

The way I’d look at it is this, the ‘known’ of Bruce of probably doesn’t help us do any serious damage in finals, whilst sure the unknown of Darcy may offer nothing, but also the odd chance of him firing and adding value to our forward line is the only way this team goes to another level required to do some real damage.

It’s risky but I don’t think we have anything to lose tbh

 

[Optimistic Dog]

Early weather prediction for Perth is 9.5 mls of rain Saturday 3rd September. Probably favours us if it happens and effects the game.

Sat 3 Sep		19 / 12 °C	A few tstorms. Overcast.	19 °C	23 km/h	↑	89%	65%	9.5 mm

 

[Northernsoul74]

Dogs open training at Port Melbourne Friday morning, 9.30.

 

[Maverick Dog]

Early weather prediction for Perth is 9.5 mls of rain Saturday 3rd September. Probably favours us if it happens and effects the game.

Sat 3 Sep		19 / 12 °C	A few tstorms. Overcast.	19 °C	23 km/h	↑	89%	65%	9.5 mm

Rain is a massive advantage to us. Stops teams 1 wood against us hitting up targets and our outdated defensive rolling zone will work. If we play all our finals in the wet we are a big chance this September. Game plan in the wet is straightforward. Not even Bevo can stuff that up

 

[Claudonious]

It gets lost a little because of Boyd’s goal and Picken’s sealer, but his goal late in the GF was a beauty. Quick snap with swans defenders hanging off him but amazing contact and sailed through. Think Buddy had just kicked one and game was in the balance.

Might go and watch the highlights now

It was a great snap , but was the only thing he did all game . He was worst on ground for us. I watched the game a few weeks ago , he was terrible. Out on the full, fumbles, almost marks…..

I loved Jakey boy - but he was poor in the 16 finals series and never recovered.


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[ScragCity]

It was a great snap , but was the only thing he did all game . He was worst on ground for us. I watched the game a few weeks ago , he was terrible. Out on the full, fumbles, almost marks…..

I loved Jakey boy - but he was poor in the 16 finals series and never recovered.


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

He was a net negative on the day. He literally kicked it out on the full 3 or 4 times.