They are coached by Ross Lyon who has had an interesting week. I think we are a chance and dont rate the Saints at all. Law of averages says we have to win a game soon and this looks like our best chance IMHO as the Saints are a flaky team coached by a weirdo. Tip.. Harry will kick a bag on Dougall Howard who is a spud of the highest quality. Pittonet to lay the smackdown on TDK, Cripps to have a big game too with no Steele to haunt him. Blues by 17 points....and the Lyon presser to be sarcastic comedy gold.
They will pants us EB.
Surely not GTC, they are not very good despite all their player spending. I see this as one of our more winnable games..
How they came to that call based on output beggars belief
Cerra has a contract till the end of 2030, Hewett has another 12 months, I'm thinking that might have something to do with the clubs thinking, that's presuming Mitch Cleary has his information correct on Hewett..
Stocker and Jack are slow too...seems to be a pattern...I wonder what they have in common?
Ex-Carlton slugs aside, they are quick. I fear an almighty rogering.
They are coached by Ross Lyon who has had an interesting week. I think we are a chance and dont rate the Saints at all. Law of averages says we have to win a game soon and this looks like our best chance IMHO as the Saints are a flaky team coached by a weirdo. Tip.. Harry will kick a bag on Dougall Howard who is a spud of the highest quality. Pittonet to lay the smackdown on TDK, Cripps to have a big game too with no Steele to haunt him. Blues by 17 points....and the Lyon presser to be sarcastic comedy gold.
Agree, he has become loose in his later years and I don't think he has the endurance for Nas or Sinclair, maybe Higgins? Your man Billy is very unlucky and like Flynn Young and George Hewett their non selection is a mystery. Rumours continue that there is some problem with Hewett..
There's going to be a big problem with Hewett if we keep not selecting him. Making the assumption that Voss won't see out the season it'll be interesting what happens after that with Hewett.
Mitch Clearly has him up for trade at seasons end with only one year left on his contract..
I think the selections are about match ups not necessarily form, I don't think Wilson has the leg speed to do the role Saad might be asked to do.
Saad looked slower than Wilson last week. I think Saad's a bit below his top speed at the moment. The only thing I can think of is a specific run with task...but I'm not sure that defensive role is his forte
Agree, he has become loose in his later years and I don't think he has the endurance for Nas or Sinclair, maybe Higgins? Your man Billy is very unlucky and like Flynn Young and George Hewett their non selection is a mystery. Rumours continue that there is some problem with Hewett..
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. How I would love to see some creative and ballsy changes this week. However, 1. If Pitto comes in, Reidy will make way for him. No doubt 2. If Harry comes in, I'd be surprised if Moir didn't get dropped. That's probably it. That's the way we roll, unfortunately. I'd also do the following Young Byrne needs a spell. Should've happened last week, but they probably didn't want to drop him after the missed goal v the pies. Don't need the hysteria from the media around it. They'll probably bring in Ollie Hollands for him. Shame as Flynn Young is the obvious replacement. Maybe they'll drop Frankie instead for Flynn Young, which I'd hate because Frankie is one of the few who has a football brain and can kick to advantage, Do we have anyone to rid us of Lewis Young? I'd take anyone. Give Cerra a spell and straight swap him for George. No brainer Reward a guy like Billy Wilson who at least has pace, for someone like Cowan. Who has a good game every 4 weeks at this stage I thought Williams was one of our better players so not sure why all the hate? Anyway, we'll end up doing 1 & 2 above I guess and that will be the end of it. Roll on, roll on
Williams bailed out and dropped his head in a simple marking contest thinking he was going to get contact from behind, turning the ball over then did the same thing again but tried to disguise it by feigning he was pushed and some of ground ball contests were equally soft and half hearted. It's not the first time either in fact it's a regular occurrence if you watch him closely over what has been a disappointing career with us imho. Voss is meant to be big on standards but seems to miss Zac when it comes to inconsistent contesting. Sure he kicks the ball a bit better than most and can kick a goal but down back or in the middle he is a liability and I wouldnt be offering him another contract because he is unreliable and can't be trusted.
Hewett needs to come back into the team this week and I'd be dropping Williams after his woeful lack of effort vs Freo. George might be slow but I prefer a player who at least contests properly...
Doesnt help either when our blokes are playing off their man and he gets to do a give and go with Switkowski who was unmanned and then Jackson just strolls into goal ...set play?
Seriously @ElwoodBlues1 who is our 200cm player who can run with Jackson, or for that matter who is our 195cm player that can run with Jackson?
FWIW, is there another playing anywhere in the AFL that is comparable in size and can go with Jackson on the burst?
Its the unmanned Switkowski that was the problem, Jackson had that option to handpass then use that pace to get the ball back, how does a bloke have no opponent within cooee straight after a centre square ball up? Agree Jackson is hard to match up on,unique and made for the modern game/rules so much so that Darcy is now a redundant Dinosaur and having to play Jackson 95% of the time onball has really improved Freo.
I thought in the end Reidy did pretty well against someone who when fit and in form is probably one of the leagues Top 5 players.
Finally, Williams showed us some glimpses of what he can do inside, it's been too long since we listened to the noise and gave up on him as a midfield rotation option. One stupid little bump off the ball and we decided the gig wasn't for him, I'd argue that's exactly what we've been lacking.
Walsh has now fully transitioned his game, to all the naysayers who keep claiming nothing changes, he's the A-Grade counter argument to your otherwise spurious claims. To think just a week ago certain AFL Special Comments types were potting him. Even some fans were potting him yesterday for missing a +50m running shot at goal by 1m. For me at least we pulled the trigger, the first few rounds we've been gun shy!
If you want to see what Kemp might be able to do as a mid-rotation watch Jackson yesterday, Jackson has gone full circle and now he is a weapon in every role he plays. Kemp has the acceleration and enough size to be a genuine transition type mid-fielder.
It pays not to pigeonhole players.
It would be stupid to make permanent changes to rotations, but it's just as stupid to say never, variety is the spice of life!
Walsh gets plenty of the ball but isnt a good kick and that goes for most of our midfield... Jackson has that basketball background and his skills transition over, its like having another midfielder but one who is 200cm. Doesnt help either when our blokes are playing off their man and he gets to do a give and go with Switkowski who was unmanned and then Jackson just strolls into goal ...set play?
The skipper needs to have a big game with his longtime nemesis Jack Steele no longer a Saint. We need to find a player to stop Jack Sinclair too, that bloke never plays a bad game against us and is constantly on his own without an opponent just racking up possessions and running us ragged. I think I want to beat StKilda more than any other team in the comp given the Carlton connections, cant have them stealing our players and then having bragging rights about beating us. Thats too much to cop from such a rubbish club and even their president Andrew Bassat annoys me with his cocky bravado, about the only thing I like about the club are Lyons pressers which are comedy gold and I look forward to seeing him perform when we beat them..
Lods will be looking forward to his boy Billy running out vs the Saints perhaps...
I’d like to see him get a game. I do rate him. Just a few things to keep in mind. A lot of his possessions are of the “give, get straight back” nature which tends to inflate his possession numbers.
He seems to have a pretty good understanding with Boyd and if we add in Charleson, they are getting a lot of games together (stability is another key we could take to the seniors).
When he was promoted last year he took probably three games to look really comfortable and get the pace of the game. He’ll know what to expect this time. But if he’s promoted hopefully it’s not a 'straight out' if he doesn’t have a great game first up.
Im all for giving youth a go, about the only positives we can get for the season are finding some promising young players and while I wouldnt be flooding the senior team with every kid on the list Id be introducing some to the bigtime gradually and your boy Billy and Charleson should be inline for a call up.
For me at least we pulled the trigger, the first few rounds we've been gun shy!