Why Can't I get Excited?

[E Shed]

I am very flat. I just don't think our midfield can match it with the best a la Geelong or even with teams like Port & The Hawks who have a good mix of pace and skill. I will be very happy to be proved wrong.

Still it's a long season and perhaps the old boys will provide the backbone while they run the kids through there are different times.

Still can't wait to see the ball bounce!

 

[The Night Shift]

I can understand what most of you are saying. I have to say I have quiet expectations this year. I know we could potentially win the whole thing, but I want to see postitve consistancy, I want to see us to make the finals, I want to see us win a final first before I work myself up over premiership chances. We still, whether we like it or not have some demons to excerise fom our club. A stronger work ethic and discilpline combined with better fitness and full pre season for some crucial players will also assist greatly to exercise those demons.

 

[dominguez]

Comparing Farmer to Tarrant in terms of taking pressure off Pav is another strange move. Tarrant is a power forward, like Pav, whereas Farmer is a crumber. I thought that was pretty obvious.

I wouldn't really consider someone who takes practically all of his marks on the lead and many of them on the wing a power forward. To take the pressure off Pav he has to be kicking goals. If he kicks a bag of 4 or more every 4th week he'll start taking the pressure off Pav.

You still seem keen to paint Tarrant as the major dissappointment of 07, perhaps as a means to have a vicarious dig at Connolly, but I think everyone here would agree that Farmer let us down a hell of a lot more.

No one defends Farmer though so there is no point discussing it.

You obviously think we have a much better coach now, but admit that you've now lowered your expectations. Strange.

Expectations are often tied into the previous season. Who tipped Geelong to finish top of the ladder at this stage last year, and who has them finishing top of the ladder now for 2008? I bet most people had the bulldogs in the 8 last year but many now have them bottom four.

That said I certainly expect us to win more games in 08 than we did last year. Some people are taking too much out of 5 practice games. Sure Hase is a big loss, but we should still be expecting to play finals.

 

[Roundhouse]

I wouldn't really consider someone who takes practically all of his marks on the lead and many of them on the wing a power forward. To take the pressure off Pav he has to be kicking goals. If he kicks a bag of 4 or more every 4th week he'll start taking the pressure off Pav.





No one defends Farmer though so there is no point discussing it.





Expectations are often tied into the previous season. Who tipped Geelong to finish top of the ladder at this stage last year, and who has them finishing top of the ladder now for 2008? I bet most people had the bulldogs in the 8 last year but many now have them bottom four.

That said I certainly expect us to win more games in 08 than we did last year. Some people are taking too much out of 5 practice games. Sure Hase is a big loss, but we should still be expecting to play finals.

You're scrambling a bit now by setting an arbitrary figure of "four goals every four games" as the benchmark for taking pressure off Pav. That would equate to about 24 for the season. Tarrant kicked 30+ goals for the season, set up a shitload more, and Pav had his best ever tally. Seems pretty clear that he took the pressure off Pav.

Sure expectation is linked the previous year, but you laid the blame for last years result squarely on the coach. You admit to being less confident now even though our "coaching flaw" is apparently now fixed. Strange.

Seems like deep down you don't have any real strength to your convictions, hence the lowering of the bar for season 08.

 

[theGav56]

How did he take the load off Pav? If Farmer kicks 33 goals this year will that be a good season and taking the load off Pav? So he took the second best defender, big deal. Stick Sandilands/Warnock in the goal square and the opposition will have to put someone on them, but they're not actually contributing unless they kick a few between the big sticks.

My expectations for 2008 are probably slightly lower than they were 12 months ago, but they have little to do with the pre-season. 12 months ago we had just come off a pre-lim and traded heavily so it was reasonable to expect atleast a pre-lim again. Even though deep down most of us knew we had a shit coach we thought that it was finally going to be our year.

After the disappointment of last season I still expect to make the 8 and win a final, but where finishing top four was required as a pass mark last year I think if we are playing on the second last Saturday in September in 2008 we will have had a very good year.

He took the load off Pavlich because our players actually kicked to him, whereas when Murphy/Sandilands would play they rarely threatened to become a serious target. Farmer doesn't take the pressure off Pavlich because his role is spectacularly different. He does put the "scoring threat" pressure on the opposition though, assuming he bothers to get a game this year. Tarrant was 1) coming off surgery 2) playing in a new team and role in which he had no pre-season to acclimatise 3) adapting to a new state with fortnightly travel (he would have travelled more last year than in his entire career with the Pies). Despite this he had an okay year and would have earned a pass mark. The bar will be higher this year for him.

I would feel more confident going into the year with an experienced coach, even Connolly, than another rookie, even the most experienced rookie on the market. Having said that, the club is thinking beyond this year, and I hope Harvey's learning curve is a short one. But it is a big gamble at a critical time for our list.

 

[dockertor]

Enter Peake + Schammer with a full pre-season + injury free then theres some pace back in the old engine room.

Enter the invigerating youth of Palmer, the odd stint from Ibbo + the odd camio from Brock + Foster then things could get interesting.

Get a little more chemistry from Pav + Taz with a fresh purple jesus playing together for a year then things could get interesting.

Get some more gel between our fine back 6 that are developing then things could get tuffer for the opposition.

Add the hard nosed smarts of Harvey with his bullnosed sidekicks + the old seasoned campainers of the FFC then things go from interesting to exciting.

Let the first bounce come boys + girls when we have those nice pies for lunch,
Then + only then will we see the adrenalin pump through our purple veins.

Its good you can see a few positives through the gloom. I must admit I'm not very excited by the coming season as I usually am. Haselbys injury put a huge dent in my optimism. He has been our best ball winner even when not fully fit, this year he was.
I just hope we can turn our stoppage problems around. With Warnock and Sandi in tandem surely we can come up with some strategies to turn their dominance into clearances.

 

[DockerNJL]

Its good you can see a few positives through the gloom. I must admit I'm not very excited by the coming season as I usually am. Haselbys injury put a huge dent in my optimism. He has been our best ball winner even when not fully fit, this year he was.
I just hope we can turn our stoppage problems around. With Warnock and Sandi in tandem surely we can come up with some strategies to turn their dominance into clearances.

Just trying to keep the glass half full in a thread thats been mainly doom + gloom

 

[theGav56]

Pav had his best ever tally. Seems pretty clear that he took the pressure off Pav.

"Taking the pressure of Pav" was always the key reason for Tarrant's recruitment, and Pavlich's "tally" seems one of the best indicators of whether the move was a success or not. Add into that the complete failure of Murphy as a forward last year, and the recruitment is totally justified, and for me the only real discussion poin regarding tarrant is the price we paid. I would be stunned if Tarrant does not improve his personal contribution this season.

 

[Polly]

I just don't really know where our list sits at the moment, last year was very disrupted and a few of the younger guys who we expected to improve missed alot of the season or were covering holes in the structure. We have match winning forwards and our midfield isn't the best but they just have to break even in my opinion, they'll be helped by a good ruck combo. I'm more worried about our Half back line to be honest. Mundy and Johnson have all the talent but were exposed a bit last season, these guys need to kill it this year, take the pressure off Groves,Hayden and McPharlin and provide some rebound, they both use the ball very well.
Just keeping it low key at the moment.

 

[Stronzo]

Like others have said the hase injury was a major blow, this guy has some of the cleanest hands in the business. I just don't know who can stand up and fill his shoes, my heart says Schammer, but I'm yet to be convinced.

I am not pumped at all about this season, maybe I've been reading the west too much. BTW loved todays effort, A subtitle that read "Hart pours out the Promises" then you read the article and he makes no promises at all, with the picture of Hart and schammer looking depressed after a loss in Geelong. Compared with yesterday's "eagles can win the flag" headline.

 

[janiek]

geoff you need to look at it ia la dwayo style to get excited

a) there was a certain team up the road that lost 3 out of 4 in their 2006 pre-season & then went on to win the premiership
b) harvs deliberatley hid our lights under the pre-season bushel to fool everyone

see that's so much better now - i'm excited

 

[Stronzo]

geoff you need to look at it ia la dwayo style to get excited

a) there was a certain team up the road that lost 3 out of 4 in their 2006 pre-season & then went on to win the premiership
b) harvs deliberatley hid our lights under the pre-season bushel to fool everyone

see that's so much better now - i'm excited

That helped a little actually..

 

[janiek]

That helped a little actually..

ok i must admit my reply was a little tongue in cheek,but i don't like all these depressing threads starting so early. i think b) may not be too far from the truth, it would be very sheedy-esque and that surely must have rubbed off on harvs

 

[Belnakor]

geoff you need to look at it ia la dwayo style to get excited

a) there was a certain team up the road that lost 3 out of 4 in their 2006 pre-season & then went on to win the premiership
b) harvs deliberatley hid our lights under the pre-season bushel to fool everyone

see that's so much better now - i'm excited

Dont' kid yourself on B) We played a full strength side almost against Port and got flogged - you don't become a superstar team from being mediocre on the back of one or two outs which we had in the other games. lets not beat around in the bush - we have looked shit so far in preseason. But that doesn't mean we won't flog collingwood in rd1.

 

[Stronzo]

Dont' kid yourself on B) We played a full strength side almost against Port and got flogged - you don't become a superstar team from being mediocre on the back of one or two outs which we had in the other games. lets not beat around in the bush - we have looked shit so far in preseason. But that doesn't mean we won't flog collingwood in rd1.

Did you forget the next post?

ok i must admit my reply was a little tongue in cheek,but i don't like all these depressing threads starting so early. i think b) may not be too far from the truth, it would be very sheedy-esque and that surely must have rubbed off on harvs

 

[Bradesmaen]

a) it was hot
b) we were still experimenting

Don't kid yourself.

 

[Belnakor]

a) I think port played under the same conditions
b) we got flogged and we weren't experimenting that much.

 

[janiek]

well thanks for all that guys i'll change from i'm excited
to a mental pictue of eeyore with a deflated balloon

 

[DockerNJL]

well thanks for all that guys i'll change from i'm excited
to a mental pictue of eeyore with a deflated balloon

agreed,

since when did the pre-season mean anything

whats with all this depresion, i feel like im in bloody G ward with this talk.

There's plenty to get excited about people, just have a little faith

 

[Belnakor]

i would rather be suprised that dissappointed. I don't think we are going to have a break out year - i think we will finish just inside the 8. That is my assessment of where we are at - we could go better, and if we do, i will be very happy.

 

[Bradesmaen]

a) I think port played under the same conditions
b) we got flogged and we weren't experimenting that much.

a) port also trained under the same conditions and the conditions have been like that in Adelaide for over a week now.
b) We were heavily experimenting still, Hayden was up forward at one stage.

 

[pinkus maximus]

I'm taking no notice of the pre season results. We were not that bad in the Adelaide and Kangaroos games

I expect to win on Sat and for us to finish top 4

 

[Dr Ralph Dagg]

a) it was hot
b) we were still experimenting

c) there was a lack of support from dedicated fans too soft to front up and give us all a decent match report.

 

[Bradesmaen]

c) there was a lack of support from dedicated fans too soft to front up and give us all a decent match report.

d) there was a lack of support and drinks and shade for the soft fan

 

[Dr Ralph Dagg]

a) I think port played under the same conditions
b) we got flogged and we weren't experimenting that much.

So based on this theory, how do you explain the Eagles getting to a semi final on the back of a 10 goal flogging by us in last year's pre-season.