Game Day West Coast V Adelaide Friday March 3rd 4.40PM @ MRP

[Keys]

My fear with Hurn continues. He's a smart old dog and that's good enough for him to be best 22. Adequate defender and intercept mark because he can use his smarts and positioning. I get that he's also a vocal influence on the team out there which may accelerate the development of our youth, but I think he is offering less and less offensively, and our ball use stagnates through him which is counter intuitive to the supposed game plan.

If he really wants to impart his knowledge on the youth I think 20 games in the WAFL teaching the kids would help. They'll be seeing plenty of ball in the backline too.

No disrespect to our elder statesmen, but we can't prioritize Hurn unless he finds his offensive flair, and I won't even start on Shuey carrying on as captain.

That aside, all aboard the Ginbey

I think Hurn earned the right to decide if he wanted to go on - he was still a very solid defender in 2022.

The concern was he’d be going on one year too many, unfortunately that concern seems well placed about now. Looked his age tonight

 

[Balls In]

Don’t get the anger tbh. We need another good draft hand before we make a serious rebuild.

Yep another draft raid is a necessity this year. Agree the comments about our dire ruck situation, our defence still leaks and our midfield still not competitive. All need refresh at the top end of the draft.

 

[DanWCE]

I think Hurn earned the right to decide if he wanted to go on - he was still a very solid defender in 2022.

The concern was he’d be going on one year too many, unfortunately that concern seems well placed about now. Looked his age tonight

I can still justify a role for him in 2023, which is part of the problem. He's smart and seasoned enough to do half of his job quite well. But offensively he's costing us, and that's without considering who we could be blooding in his place.

He's also Captain of the old game plan. Is that stifling the others ability to take the game on while he's out there urging the boys to kick to the boundary?

There's no better break glass in case of emergency players to have on the list, but I really hope frank conversations were had about where Bung might be lacing up his boots this season. And he would impart so much knowledge playing for the Beagles.

 

[WCErevival]

Hurn should have never gone on. Why we gave a 35 year old another contract when we are rebuilding is bizarre. Its not like our backline is full of 18 year olds.

 

[bh90210fan]

We were missing plenty of big fellas out there through the middle and up front which made it hard to find marking targets in transition but the mids got terribly outworked on the spread and defensively which made it worse.

Add to that the fumbles, dropped marks, iffy handballs when we did attack and it was a bit of a dog’s breakfast all up.

Hopefully we can clean up our ball use and bring some heat on the oppo’s when the real thing starts.

 

[Marlin01]

We were missing plenty of big fellas out there through the middle and up front which made it hard to find marking targets in transition but the mids got terribly outworked on the spread and defensively which made it worse.

Add to that the fumbles, dropped marks, iffy handballs when we did attack and it was a bit of a dog’s breakfast all up.

Hopefully we can clean up our ball use and bring some heat on the oppo’s when the real thing starts.

That’s the most disappointing thing of all. Our mids simply got outworked in the first quarter.

 

[Keys]

We looked a lot like a side playing a preseason game looking to just get a hitout and some miles in the legs

Adelaide looked a lot like a side doing some fine tuning to a side wanting to make a statement early in the season

After this little preseason round robin, Port should be genuinely worried. Unlike us, they had designs on a finals charge but on exposed form look a ways off

 

[Shuestar13]

It was certainly a comprehensive loss, in many ways though could be somewhat of a “blessing”, a dose of reality perhaps. As better as the preseason may have been, we are coming from a long way back. It’s not going to be an easy road forward.

I think there is still a spot for a few of the more senior players… but if Simpson and the club are serious, then we should see the prioritisation of youth. If not, then Simmo may well start preparing for a nice big payout as the end will be coming very soon.

Ginbey and Chesser should be debuting Round 1, hopefully both Culley and Hough are also in the side and possibly a Hewett debut as the sub. All of which is a nice starting point.

 

[Evo47]

O

Adelaide screwed their 2018 and 2019 drafts, drafted 3 of the same type of player in 2021, and traded their first 2022 pick for exactly the same type of player again.

Adelaide may have been in rebuild for the last 5 drafts, but they've drafted a lot of the same type of players.

Going back to 2017, they've drafted 3 talls that look good in Fogarty, Thilthorpe and Michalanney, otherwise they've drafted 5 small inside mids and 4 small half forwards, and traded for Rankine, another small half forward.

They have a fair amount of pace and skill around and ahead of the ball, but almost no size. Their still short of quality KPP's at either end, and don't yet have one or two young potential superstar mids they need.

If West Coast nail their next two drafts, and there's a lot of luck in the right players being available at your picks, you're probably only a year behind Adelaide in terms of rebuild. Adelaide might be more competitive in the short term, but their current ceiling isn't a potential finals team yet. I'd take Norths or Hawthorns list ahead of Adelaide's right now.

Its not Adelaide I’m particularly worried about tbf

 

[Nuke Fremantle]

Duffield reporting a suspected fractured elbow for Rotham after a collision with Dawson in the 3rd term

The one where Dawson came back with the flight of the ball and crashed into Rotham who was coming up to meet it inside 50. No free kick of course

I did notice him coming off looking pretty sore afterwards and Waterman spent time in the ruck following it

Good news Gary reporting HEdwards had a back spasm in the warm up. Looks lie we're even running out of emergency 2nd ruckmen.

 

[Evo47]

My fear with Hurn continues. He's a smart old dog and that's good enough for him to be best 22. Adequate defender and intercept mark because he can use his smarts and positioning. I get that he's also a vocal influence on the team out there which may accelerate the development of our youth, but I think he is offering less and less offensively, and our ball use stagnates through him which is counter intuitive to the supposed game plan.

If he really wants to impart his knowledge on the youth I think 20 games in the WAFL teaching the kids would help. They'll be seeing plenty of ball in the backline too.

No disrespect to our elder statesmen, but we can't prioritize Hurn unless he finds his offensive flair, and I won't even start on Shuey carrying on as captain.

That aside, all aboard the Ginbey

Agree…playing Hurn in a backline that lacks leadership would be fine, but we have Gov, Barrass, Duggan, Hunt and Cole all with plenty of experience.

As much as I hate the idea of us kicking our champs out the door, I feel he should have seen the writing on the wall at the end of last year.

 

[WCE_phil]

Jamieson will become a quality second ruck or even potentially a key defender if needed. Whilst a very similar age to Bailey Williams he is still at least 12 months physical development behind bailey and 2 years of physical development away from where he needs to be. But outside of one bad brain fade he actually performed really well tonight.

Ginbey had a very impressive first run and his attack on the ball, man or athleticism will never be questioned. He has come a very long way in 18 months but his kicking still needs work and he doesn't have a strong overhead game either. If his development continues at this rate we do have a star but he will still need to find more of the ball and become a better kick and much better on the short to mid range kicks, set shot goal kicking and making sure he doesn't get too much height on long range kicks. What he does create going forward will be a very devastating inside combination with Culley. Both absolutely as hard as nails, hard tacklers and each one helps mask the other ones weaknesses. Culley isn't athletically blessed, but he's not priddis slow. He is however very good at getting the ball, overheard and kicking goals. Ginbey is one of the most athletically blessed players in the game but his kicking whilst mostly at it's best tonight, he will have worse kicking nights and he isn't great overheard or at this stage a natural accumulator and outside player. Hewett will need a couple of years to develop but has a great all round game as well as being very athletically gifted (although not top 5 in the league like Ginbey) and will need to focus his development on endurance, consistency and playing his role for the team. Hewett's balanced midfield ability and elite skills, goal kicking ability and when on, ability to accumulate inside or out will bring a really balanced inside trio.

We probably still need to find 3 more very high quality midfield prospects, an elite half forward and another top tier Key Forward prospect.

Our coaching and midfield structures are just horrendous and don't take into account umpires continuing to allow the 'knocked out' ball all the time and they not only contest too tightly but then commit the cardinal sin of leaving the driving lane straight forward of the contest open to the opposition.

I don't care how much money he is on, if we can restructure some of the higher paying contracts of 2023 partly into 2024, Gaff would be delisted at the end of the year if I had my way. I'd go as far as saying he is at least as slow as priddis was in his last couple of years now.

I still expect a much better year this year than last but finishing outside the bottom 4 is looking like a pipe dream and I still think the two worst years are to come in 2024 and 2025. With the way we get opened up at times while I expect significantly more wins I still think we will cop some massive blowouts and looking at the lowly ranked teams around us Norths biggest strength is our biggest weakness so we probably don't match up well there. It'll be interesting seeing how we match up against Essendon, Saints, Hawks, GWS this year as they seem to be the only sides that have genuinely looked to be tracking in the wrong direction. It's hard to see us winning 8 or more games with a % high enough to get above say 15th.

 

[Dark Sharks]

We looked a lot like a side playing a preseason game looking to just get a hitout and some miles in the legs

Adelaide looked a lot like a side doing some fine tuning to a side wanting to make a statement early in the season

After this little preseason round robin, Port should be genuinely worried. Unlike us, they had designs on a finals charge but on exposed form look a ways off

Would be curious to hear your extended thoughts on that game dad.

The new game plan, the senior players, our midfield efforts, personnel changes, what Culley is doing in the magoos, who would you bring in/out?

Feel free to vent. We're friends here. Time to let it out. Cleansing js good for the soul. Also your blood pressure.

 

[WCErevival]

I like how the media team just gave up on the scrimmage.

 

[PremiershipNo4]

It’s pretty obvious that we just need more Synergy, Simmo said so.

 

[Yeahnahmate]

Re: Ginbey

“…. but he will still need to find more of the ball”

“…. or at this stage a natural accumulator”

Tell me you don’t know what the hell you are talking about without telling me you don’t know what the hell you are talking about. 17d in 56% game time for an 18yr old in his first hitout? Pretty sure the kid can find the footy. We well and truly saw that from him tonight. Close to best on in just over half a game!

 

[WCE_phil]

Re: Ginbey



Tell me you don’t know what the hell you are talking about without telling me you don’t know what the hell you are talking about. 17d in 56% game time for an 18yr old in his first hitout? Pretty sure the kid can find the footy. We well and truly saw that from him tonight. Close to best on in just over half a game!

I've only been watching him for 5 ****ing years dickhead.

 

[NSLK]

Hurn retiring last year would’ve netted us the next player after Long? Who was?

If by the halfway point he’s not up to it, I’m confident he’ll retire, open up a MSD spot, and get us a free swing at the next Culley type.

Calm down.

 

[bUCKET__]

I've only been watching him for 5 ******* years dickhead.

Didja mean finding the ball on the outside?

I was just kinda happy to see someone around the contest act like they wanted it, no idea what he was doing outside of that.

 

[Evo47]

Hurn retiring last year would’ve netted us the next player after Long? Who was?

If by the halfway point he’s not up to it, I’m confident he’ll retire, open up a MSD spot, and get us a free swing at the next Culley type.

Calm down.

I’m not sure anyone is saying we would’ve netted a player of merit if he had retired. More concern about having an unchanged backline with no young players developing in a single backline starting position.

 

[dinnaz]

Adelaide screwed their 2018 and 2019 drafts, drafted 3 of the same type of player in 2021, and traded their first 2022 pick for exactly the same type of player again.

Adelaide may have been in rebuild for the last 5 drafts, but they've drafted a lot of the same type of players.

Going back to 2017, they've drafted 3 talls that look good in Fogarty, Thilthorpe and Michalanney, otherwise they've drafted 5 small inside mids and 4 small half forwards, and traded for Rankine, another small half forward.

They have a fair amount of pace and skill around and ahead of the ball, but almost no size. Their still short of quality KPP's at either end, and don't yet have one or two young potential superstar mids they need.

If West Coast nail their next two drafts, and there's a lot of luck in the right players being available at your picks, you're probably only a year behind Adelaide in terms of rebuild. Adelaide might be more competitive in the short term, but their current ceiling isn't a potential finals team yet. I'd take Norths or Hawthorns list ahead of Adelaide's right now.

Michalanney isnt a tall. Mcasey was always a bust and TT was a go home factor pick. Other than that they've drafted the richmond archetype small pressure players. I hope we avoid this as they are easy to find and compliment a good side.
Ginbey coming good will be a big plus but we can still use the Culley(Priddis) muscle. Add another KPF x1 quality and we are on our way again

 

[garlic munchers]

Good kick, nice pace, strong tackler. He’s not elite at much which limits his ceiling but no reason he can’t get to a redden level.

Rubbish.

Redden was a standout in his first years at Brissie.

Top 5 in Brissie’s F & B multiple times, regularly over 30 possessions and adapted to a different role at WC.

Copped a fair bit of criticism about his early career at WC and he was easily outperforming O’Neill best.

O’Neill is a C- and wouldn’t get a game anywhere else.

O’Neill, Rotham, Witho add nothing to our future and that is why you drop down until you can stock up with exciting kids like Hough, Bazzo, Ginbey, Hewett, Chesser

 

[Feeling Groovy]

Ginbey was a shining light and I don’t get the Jamieson negativity. I thought he was really good tonight given his development and basically rucking solo. Still think our rucks are a worry but he had a decent night.

I don't see a role for Gaff going forward. The game seems to have passed him by but guess we will see if he is played solely as a wing. Would pick a more dynamic player if up to me.

Kelly was terrible but am sure will improve.

Would be picking Culley and Hough in my R1 team and unsure why they didn’t play first game.

Petro ok too, in patches, and Hunt was good.

 

[Yeahnahmate]

I've only been watching him for 5 ******* years dickhead.

Even worse then you goose. The rise and rise of him since the move to the middle for the champs when he was AA capped showed how formidable he could be around the contest - and in a weak side.

He’s been on the sharp build since last year in becoming a contested beast, though you’d know this. With that and what we saw about how he’s come on again in that area it’s so weird you point out not once but twice that he is going to have to work on finding the footy more. Pretty sure that’s not what those that are actually in the know would list as a weakness of his at this point

 

[WCE_phil]

Didja mean finding the ball on the outside?

I was just kinda happy to see someone around the contest act like they wanted it, no idea what he was doing outside of that.

Long term it's both inside and outside. If people want him to be that superstar inside mid he's going to need to average in the modern game around 28 disposals. Even with an extremely highly contested ratio of say 65% that is 19 contested and 9 uncontested possessions per game. The truth is if the club is to become a premiership team again we are going to need something very close to those numbers at his peak. I would say however he is outside of major injury no chance of being a bust pick now, he has developed so much since the end of 2021. The worst case scenario is you end up with the fastest, most physical tagger in the game and that may not be a bad thing either.

I'm not basing my thoughts off of one preseason hitout where he was amazing for 1/4 and then solid albeit very physical in the contest for the rest of it.