Preview What I'd like to see

[Lach72]

Spurr, Dawson, ibbotson
Sutcliffe Johnson/A. Pearce Hill
Bennell Neale D. Pearce
Fyfe Johnson/A. Pearce Grey
Walters Griffin Ballantyne

Sandi Barlow Mundy

Int: Blakely, Weller, Langdon De Boer
Emergency: Taberner, Suban, Mzungu, Mayne, Crozier
Interesting, no?

 

[meima]

They may, but if Weller Langdon, Grey and Blakely are hitting ten games each that's a progression.
Bennell gives us maximum flexibility even with a missing KPF.

Fyfe can play half forward and rotate, Hill can play off half back and Weller/Langdon can run off the wing.
Fyfe can play middle and Bennell off half forward. Fyfe can play Forward, Bennell into the middle and Blakely rotates.
Grey can play the Suban blocking role, he has the physique and the aptitude for it. He can also play De Boer's defensive HF role
It's an interesting year we have coming up.

I saw grey ruck as well

 

[Quokka]

No one having to wait until half way through the third quarter before getting a run.... **** off sub rule yay

 

[Unique Name]

Would also have no issue with Crozier getting first crack at Mayne's position

Completely agree on the "first crack" comment.

The incumbents this year showed they're not quite good enough. We must give our up and comers first crack over the soldiers. If they don't cut it after 5-6 games then by all means drop them.

Weller, Blakely, Langdon, Grey, Crozier should be ahead of Suban, De Boer, Mzungu, Clancee, Mayne, PearceD.

 

[Grape Bear]

Hurley cramming all the game videos he can all summer and improved footy nous in the winter. Maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic, but I think he'll make it.

 

[Lach72]

As an aside, training starts in four weeks

 

[meima]

Completely agree on the "first crack" comment.

The incumbents this year showed they're not quite good enough. We must give our up and comers first crack over the soldiers. If they don't cut it after 5-6 games then by all means drop them.

Weller, Blakely, Langdon, Grey, Crozier should be ahead of Suban, De Boer, Mzungu, Clancee, Mayne, PearceD.

Will we persist with them if they are inconsistent due to in experience.

 

[Freomaniac]

Said this many times: Alex Pearce and Tanner Smith play 10 games each as tall defenders. Apeness, Tabs and a young KPF rotate CHF. Bennell, Hill, Mzungu, Weller and D Pearce rotate the wings and the forward flanks. Grey and Blakely play 5-10 games each.

 

[Clems Knee]

I'd like us to draft Bootsma as a backup backman. This would have the added bonus of driving Silent Alarm past the point of no return and into the arms of Viv Michie and the Melbourne FC.
Would like to see development of our younger players with more game time, which means less game time for the bottom six players. But I don't want those players to be ditched; they have mature bodies and will still contribute to a winning culture.
I want Pav to keep playing. But it's up to him.
And I want to see the resurgence of some players who slipped this year: Ballantyne, Clarke and Mayne come to mind.

 

[Scham]

Said this many times: Alex Pearce and Tanner Smith play 10 games each as tall defenders. Apeness, Tabs and a young KPF rotate CHF. Bennell, Hill, Mzungu, Weller and D Pearce rotate the wings and the forward flanks. Grey and Blakely play 5-10 games each.

Not sure why you'd restrict AP to only 10 games? He plays every game possible IMO. Same with Blakely.

 

[jakethesnake24]

Said this many times: Alex Pearce and Tanner Smith play 10 games each as tall defenders. Apeness, Tabs and a young KPF rotate CHF. Bennell, Hill, Mzungu, Weller and D Pearce rotate the wings and the forward flanks. Grey and Blakely play 5-10 games each.

How many times?

 

[Moo]

The secret to our success so far has been the midfield and this certainly goes up a notch next year. Fundamentally have lost no one - the Griffin/Sandi pairing is sound, the younger guys will have another pre-season under their belt and Bennell gives scoring punch and pushes a lower ranked mid out.

Defence is sound, Dawson will negate and Ibbo, MJ, Spurr, Sutcliffe are a very solid back group and Luke was done this year, integrate Alex Pearce and the defensive mind set of the team means no ones kicking bags on us on a regular basis.

Nothing surer in my mind that Matt Taberner is going to breakout in 2016 or 17 and the catalyst for doing this might just be Pavlich not going around again. Tabs works extremely hard and if he can start to clunk em - I'm banking on 1.2-1.5 goals a season. We've got a great bunch of smalls - just going to invent a 2nd tall for competition or structure up with Fyfe which while not ideal .....will create huge match up problems for teams with traditional defensive structures.

The key to us is in a core group of players who are just outright better than most Fyfe, Walters, Sandilands and Spurr ( on courage) - we're just too good not to be there about a again.

Long pre-season ahead and we need to just split some of the 50/50 questions ....can Harley embrace the culture and become the complete footballer?, Morra - can he?, Sherridan - inspired or heart broken? Grey/Weller/Langdon/Smith - can they push up? Will the real Slim Mayney please stand up or alternatively **** off? Draft - who knows maybe SnapWeiner releases Alex Pearce?

I find the panic stations a tad amusing - we are going to be thereabouts next year .....enjoy the ride, there are no guarantees in this game.

 

[meima]

The secret to our success so far has been the midfield and this certainly goes up a notch next year. Fundamentally have lost no one - the Griffin/Sandi pairing is sound, the younger guys will have another pre-season under their belt and Bennell gives scoring punch and pushes a lower ranked mid out.

Defence is sound, Dawson will negate and Ibbo, MJ, Spurr, Sutcliffe are a very solid back group and Luke was done this year, integrate Alex Pearce and the defensive mind set of the team means no ones kicking bags on us on a regular basis.

Nothing surer in my mind that Matt Taberner is going to breakout in 2016 or 17 and the catalyst for doing this might just be Pavlich not going around again. Tabs works extremely hard and if he can start to clunk em - I'm banking on 1.2-1.5 goals a season. We've got a great bunch of smalls - just going to invent a 2nd tall for competition or structure up with Fyfe which while not ideal .....will create huge match up problems for teams with traditional defensive structures.

The key to us is in a core group of players who are just outright better than most Fyfe, Walters, Sandilands and Spurr ( on courage) - we're just too good not to be there about a again.

Long pre-season ahead and we need to just split some of the 50/50 questions ....can Harley embrace the culture and become the complete footballer?, Morra - can he?, Sherridan - inspired or heart broken? Grey/Weller/Langdon/Smith - can they push up? Will the real Slim Mayney please stand up or alternatively **** off? Draft - who knows maybe SnapWeiner releases Alex Pearce?

I find the panic stations a tad amusing - we are going to be thereabouts next year .....enjoy the ride, there are no guarantees in this game.

Next season if our kids get exposure will be the most exciting , non expectations season freo had.

 

[Freomaniac]

Not sure why you'd restrict AP to only 10 games? He plays every game possible IMO. Same with Blakely.

I am thinking post Dawson and Johnson era. As good as Alex Pearce is, he is only 90 kg. He needs another 5-10 kgs on him. Tanner Smith is 195cm and 96kg. Freo have put 3 years of development into him. Now he needs the experience to improve

 

[Mr Peabody]

Time for Fyfe to be made captain even if Pav decides to play on in any form. From the outset, that would signal a changing of the guard and hopefully an acknowledgement it's time for the youth of our list to be backed in to take the next step. The club is entering a new era in many respects and has heavily invested in developing and retaining the current list.

Time for the likes of Neale, Crozier, Sheridan, Sutcliffe, A.Pearce, Taberner, Weller, Blakely, Langdon, Grey and now Bennell to repay it in spades.

 

[go_the_dockers]

Spurr, Dawson, ibbotson
Sutcliffe Johnson/A. Pearce Hill
Bennell Neale D. Pearce
Fyfe Johnson/A. Pearce Grey
Walters Griffin Ballantyne

Sandi Barlow Mundy

Int: Blakely, Weller, Langdon De Boer
Emergency: Taberner, Suban, Mzungu, Mayne, Crozier
Interesting, no?

Spurr, A Pearce, ibbotson
Adams Johnson Bootsma
Bennell Neale Hill
Fyfe Taberner M Brown\Pavlich
Walters Griffin Ballantyne

Sandi Barlow Mundy

Int: Blakely, Weller, Langdon Sutcliffe
Emergency: , Suban, Mzungu, Mayne, Crozier, D. Pearce, Grey, S Yarran, Clarke

 

[Grape Bear]

Time for Fyfe to be made captain even if Pav decides to play on in any form. From the outset, that would signal a changing of the guard and hopefully an acknowledgement it's time for the youth of our list to be backed in to take the next step. The club is entering a new era in many respects and has heavily invested in developing and retaining the current list.

Time for the likes of Neale, Crozier, Sheridan, Sutcliffe, A.Pearce, Taberner, Weller, Blakely, Langdon, Grey and now Bennell to repay it in spades.

Agree with this, but choice for captain is player driven. Unless Pav says he no longer wants the job (which he may do), I'm not sure the players will turf him.

Also interesting that we have a spot opening up in the leadership group with Luke's retirement. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sonson elevated.

 

[rodney hoo]

I'll start by saying this is not knock on any one and just what I'd like to see.

All sides have to play with a certain amount of structure but our side at times seems scared to make on the spot decisions, I think more freedom should be allowed exspecially with the addition of Harley B. Play what's in front of you and not so much what has been drilled into them. Example if Sandi takes a mark or anyone else don't play on unless there is an advantage, don't clear the ball out the other side if the players have defenders lurking close, better going down the line to one on one than across the goal face. Let's go back to the more Geelong approach of run and carry and select players according, Weller, Bennell, Mundy, Langdon , Sheridan, Morabito and get the ball into Fyfe 60/70% forward. Again I don't really want to knock Dawson but if he is going to play and he is a coaching group favourite put offensive defenders with him ie Hill and Sutcliffe players with run.
It's time for some fine tuning and cop one or two losses early but come home with a rush.
Still got a very good squad and coaching group.

 

[sproketman]

They may, but if Weller Langdon, Grey and Blakely are hitting ten games each that's a progression.
Bennell gives us maximum flexibility even with a missing KPF.

Fyfe can play half forward and rotate, Hill can play off half back and Weller/Langdon can run off the wing.
Fyfe can play middle and Bennell off half forward. Fyfe can play Forward, Bennell into the middle and Blakely rotates.
Grey can play the Suban blocking role, he has the physique and the aptitude for it. He can also play De Boer's defensive HF role
It's an interesting year we have coming up.

That means taking a step back and potentially missing top four. We went full throttle this year with a very experienced line up. Finished 1st with 17 wins and 118%. In recent years that would have been a third placing (in 2011 we would have finished 5th).

People are saying we had our best year ever, but in actual fact we had a better win-loss record in 2013 (18 wins and a draw vs 18 wins this year).

You bring in youth, you open yourself up to holes in your structure, lapses of concentration, losing a critical contest here and there. That's why Lyon maximises the experience of his lineups.

 

[apparentlydead]

the stupidity of some posters on here...

Yeah, I know, I know

I reckon this is ross lyons last chance at a flag, recruiting staff definitely need to be overhauled

 

[Frigate]

We do not have to reinvent the wheel here. We had (arguably) our best ever home and away season. Yes we crawled into the finals and against Hawks Fyfe with a broken leg, amongst other things we still nearly made the GF. Not good enough, but we are close to the top teams.

Weller, Blakely and Langdon will get more game time.
Do people realise that De-Boar, Suban and Mzungu do a lot of blocking midfield work allowing Fyfe and Mundy to get clear? We need at least one of these playing because Weller, Blakely and Langdon cannot do this.

Do not be surprised to see Bennell playing Full Forward at times next year.
Tabs impressed with his run and effort, just a bit of polish. I do not agree that he has to play every game though. Not willing to try and play people into form. Give him 5-7 weeks to show something, same with Clarke again.

Every preseason we hear how Clarke will be good and last year he started so well. Imagine a full year from him? Unlikely.

 

[dockerfemme]

I am reposting this from another thread seeing the discussion is going on here.

We have 2 problems, one well defined and one very broad.

The well defined problem is that we cannot keep our tall defenders on the park. This has been an increasing problem over the last 4 years. Luke played the most games of our tall defenders in 2015 and he is longer with us. Alex P is exciting but, I think, struggled physically with the number of games he played in 2015. Johnno and Alex S are injuries waiting to happen. Don't know whether Zac D can play 20+ games in 2016. We can a)keep our fingers crossed or b) give some development matches to Tanner or a mature age tall defender if we take one in the draft. I will take b).

Our broad problem is that we have difficulty scoring. This is due to some combination of personnel and game plan. At this point personnel changes seem to be limited, so with game plan we can go with more of the same or change it up. I don't want us to completely change who we are, but in 2015 our ball movement was the worst it has been in years, we saw no run from Sutcliffe, nothing coast to coast, which had been a feature of his play in 2014, etc, etc. I go for a change up.

Choosing these options may mean we win fewer games than we would do with no real change, but we could go into the 2016 finals and the 2017 season in much better shape.

 

[calaisking]

Blakely's not ready for a starting gig. Will get 3-5 games this year, tops.

 

[Lach72]

That means taking a step back and potentially missing top four. We went full throttle this year with a very experienced line up. Finished 1st with 17 wins and 118%. In recent years that would have been a third placing (in 2011 we would have finished 5th).

People are saying we had our best year ever, but in actual fact we had a better win-loss record in 2013 (18 wins and a draw vs 18 wins this year).

You bring in youth, you open yourself up to holes in your structure, lapses of concentration, losing a critical contest here and there. That's why Lyon maximises the experience of his lineups.

Yeah that's the thing though. DeBoer, Mzungu, Suban were losing contests and coughing the ball up or missing shots, not making the distance

 

[Scham]

Blakely's not ready for a starting gig. Will get 3-5 games this year, tops.

In what area don't you think he's ready?