Treacy, Taberner, Jackson and Amiss have kicked 20 goals out of Freo's 38 goals so far this season. That's a potent group of tall forwards whichever way you look at it and they will stretch our defence regardless of who comes in for Marchy.
I can't see us bringing Pitto back (Freo rucks Jackson and Treacy) or swapping a tall defender for a small/medium defender. Cincotta has put his hand up, and he would probably be a good match up for Frederick, but I think Williams and Boyd have done enough to stay in the 22.
If we're going to win this one, and I think we will, it will be our team defence rather than individual match ups that will get the job done.
I like Amiss but the rest of their tall forwards are duds imho, in the past its been the Freo small forwards led by Schultz now at Collingwood who have worried us. Id be manning up Serong with Hewett and having a defensive half forward(Cottrell) on Young as well as making sure Ryan has an opponent to worry about and isnt allowed to play loose and rack up the intercepts. If it was at Freo it might be more of fight to win but I think on neutral ground id expect to win by 3-5 goals. Interesting to hear Fyfe speak about his new role and how he is there to do the grunt work, provide blocks etc and not be the main man anymore. Id be expecting him to work Cripps over and play a negative game on him and our other bigger mids like Kennedy....
Kristian Ferranato is a very promising basketballer and will need to make a choice between the two sports, played U17 for Australia as a point guard but is a bit undersized at senior level and i reckon footy might be a better choice.
I good win, but it feels like we still have not yet clicked.
It's so hard to tell in modern footy, to gauge the intensity, are the fumbles pressure and pace related or just players being a bit off.
From the start BigH looked on, Hewett looked on, Cripps looked on, probably McGovern, the rest seemed to be a bit off the pace.
I thought it was a good from Carroll, given Norp are young it is a game that is good game to use as relative judgement for Carroll's draft peers. ( The classical music bloke Wardlaw looks to be a pick of the litter, reminds me of a young Voss. )
Marchbank unlucky again, but horribly out of touch early, that start was a goal away from becoming an MC shocker.
Fantasia, this is a player who has been in the system a decade this year and he looks timid, not sure AFL game time is doing him any favours, he looks massively down on confidence and off the pace. Elijah Hollands started sketchy but ended up showing what I had expected from Fantasia.
TDK slow start, still not convinced he's a solo against the likes of Xerri, TDK had some 2nd half influence but mostly due to Xerri's errors. It's a weird game style the AFL is going through at the moment, at one stage we had BigH versus Larkey in the centre, it's like using your best wine glasses as a hammer. Sooner or later someone is going to suffer a tragedy.
I think Wardlaw lacks a yard of pace....no doubt he contests well and is very Ben Cunningham like imho. I think Sheezel is the best of that crop as he is multi sided and good in traffic. Id expect Nth to concentrate on talls at both end of the ground in the next few drafts and offload some players looking for draft picks. Agree...a few of our players looked a bit off their game but as we know you often get dragged down to the oppositions level and the game gets scrappy. eg Charlie could have kicked ten but was a bit fumbly with his marks and casual with his kicking..
North were out of their depth experience, size and maturity wise and I thought we played well in patches and it was a ok win doing what we had to but nothing special. Marchbank was a silly selection ahead of Young and Kemp but we are used to the MC stuffing up but it was no big deal vs average opposition. Nice return from Weitering who showed why he is the hardest player to replace in the team and didnt take long to sort Larkey out and a few others. Our old mate Zurhaar looked disinterested and I reckon will leave at Nth at seasons end.
Dont think Young and Kemp did much wrong and how Marchbank is an automatic amazes me....would have thought E.Hollands would have started in the twos and got a few credibility runs on the board given his recent events. Agree with DJ on Binns...been as consistent as anyone in the twos and deserves a game imho.
Our boys start their season in Rd 2 at Arden St against the 2nd places North at 12:30 on Friday 29th March.
To be honest, our pre-season form hasn't been very good, but we've never had anything like our full complement of AFL or VFL players available. It will be interesting to see just who we select, and how intense we really are.
To be honest, I'd like to see more intensity from our VFL side. We haven't really shown a lot of that under Power. Power has been very good at the development side and dealing with our kids, but he hasn't set the world on fire as a coach. Granted that we'll have a few guys back, I'd like to see a harder edge to our game.
Its that balance of coaching for wins and or development only and I think the latter is the priority. When Carlton teams were good in the 60's, 70's etc I never remember the twos being overly successful.
Fogarty has a defensive pressure side to his game which might appeal to Voss and his introduction into the team last season after being ignored for a long while helped propel the team forwards and into finals. You need your Indians like Fogarty and Cottrell to support the silky stars....
My personal view from the start was that it was a man made virus in a Lab but I guess this is just another opinion with only one highly unreliable country knowing the real truth.
I'll hazard and guess and say, and I do so with sadness, Corey D will be in strife at years end. He would need to have a cracker of a year to avoid the chop me thinks.
We could have been brave and had a nibble at Ginnivan...yep he is a DH off the field and a bit of a problem child but so was Stengle when he arrived at Geelong . For all Ginnivans failings though he kicks goals and can win games and I reckon Hawthorn might have got a bargain provided he can stay out of trouble.
I like Martin, Motlop and Cottrell as my small forward setup, dont think C Durdin has shown much during his intermittent senior appearances as he just cant get the ball enough and Orazio looks like he still has some skills/smarts but he is off the pace of the game and late with his decision making and needs a series of VFL games to work his way back into form. SANFL footy is a step or two behind AFL footy and Fantasia needs more work and may be a better player in the back half of the season or even 2025 if he can avoid his usual injury vacations.
Young has done the job for us in both games and deserves to keep his place. Agree with DJ on Kemp...need to find appropriate matchups and remember he isn't a true key defender but more of a fill in out of necessity and with Weitering and Young in the team they get the KP defensive responsibilities first.
Dow and Obrien continued playing U18's footy at senior level and couldnt handle the pressure being thrown in at the deep end and the expectations of being top ten picks. TDK was pick 30 and with that comes less expectation and being a big bloke always had some leeway and allowance for a slower development if needed. Like his brother though he has always looked comfortable and has made steady progress to the point now he is the clear No 1 ruck at the club like his brother who is the clear No 1 key defender at Geelong. Will be interesting to see how Paddy Dow goes at the Saints and the expectations that Lyon and SOS put on him along with the rank and file.
