Age of best 22

[clogged]

The sides Freo have been fielding this year have never had an average age under 26. That's seniority that should put you in frame of a premiership. As it stands, the side is 4-4. It would seem unlikely that the side will make top four from this position, and that means a premiership would be out of the question.

If you're not contending as an older side you're putting yourself on the path of going backwards. So what's next? Does the side continue plugging along with the best 22 that is there now? Does it begin to mix in younger players to freshen up the team?

 

[andrew99]

IMO the problem can be isolated to our forward line, this ins't a question of a dead horse.

Ad nauseum or not, Slyvia was brought over for a reason. Morabito is waiting in the wings. I'd like to see them both play (in the same team preferably) before we shut up shop for the year. There's also Bradley + Gumbleton to come. Lots of possible configurations worth trying.

 

[pokerspiv]

Simpson and Apeness are 2 more young blokes who are worth a shot.

 

[heypenny]

I wouldn't say it's crisis time yet. We have a pretty soft draw after the bye with two of the three toughests games being at home against Hawthorn and Port.

If we don't find form and we do look to be out of our window (whether that's 2 months time or 2 years time), I hope Ross learns from his experience at St Kilda.

 

[pokerspiv]

We can only drop 1 more game for the season if we want to make top 4. It's crisis time.

 

[go_the_dockers]

The sides Freo have been fielding this year have never had an average age under 26. That's seniority that should put you in frame of a premiership. As it stands, the side is 4-4. It would seem unlikely that the side will make top four from this position, and that means a premiership would be out of the question.

If you're not contending as an older side you're putting yourself on the path of going backwards. So what's next? Does the side continue plugging along with the best 22 that is there now? Does it begin to mix in younger players to freshen up the team?

Average age isn't the key stat, medium age is more important.

We have Pav, Sandi and McPharlin all over 30. Johnson, Dawson and Mundy 28-29 and then a lot of players under 25.

We will have a good team for the next 5-7 years if we can get some good KPP's.

 

[Freo_4eva]

Beat Geelong and top 4 is still achievable with the second half of the draw alot better than the first. Yes the best 22 is a bit on the older side, but who would you like to bring in exactly? The only guys who have been banging the door down have been given a crack and haven't exactly demanded to hold their spot. Get to the bye and re-assess

 

[Taylor]

We are short of a key forward about 25-26 years old... that's about it.

Team defence is doing it's job, we are getting inside fifties.

 

[free at last]

We can only drop 1 more game for the season if we want to make top 4. It's crisis time.

Probably going to see Apeness brought in pretty soon,looking
Forward to that.

 

[pokerspiv]

Me too.

 

[Spoken4]

The sides Freo have been fielding this year have never had an average age under 26. That's seniority that should put you in frame of a premiership. As it stands, the side is 4-4. It would seem unlikely that the side will make top four from this position, and that means a premiership would be out of the question.

If you're not contending as an older side you're putting yourself on the path of going backwards. So what's next? Does the side continue plugging along with the best 22 that is there now? Does it begin to mix in younger players to freshen up the team?

Seriously, how can you be talking about going into "development" mode when we are 4 and 4 after playing all of our games against the top 8 sides from last year / this year?

We have 9 games to come against bottom 10 sides which we should win which would put us on at least 13 wins. Plus another 5 games of which we should win at least 3 - Richmond (A), Geelong (H), Geelong (A) Hawthorn (H) and Port (H) - which would give us 16+ wins. 15 wins was top 4 in 2013. This will be further helped if results go our way (which they did in 2012) and any of the top 4 have injuries or form issues which cause them to drop a couple of games they should win and we are back in contention for top 4.

 

[Spoken4]

We can only drop 1 more game for the season if we want to make top 4. It's crisis time.

Sydney had 6 losses and a draw last year and finished top 4. We are still 2.5 games off that. We only play 4 top 8 sides from this year for the remainder of the year, with 3 of those 4 games at home and 2 of these at the end of the year when we should be on the back of a long run of wins and with greater confidence / form.

 

[hoss]

We can only drop 1 more game for the season if we want to make top 4. It's crisis time.

Why is that? We had 5 losses and a draw last year and made the top 4. Sydney had 6 losses and a draw and made the top 4. If anything, I believe 2014 could be a year where even 15 wins gives you a chance.

Edit: Spoken beat me to it!

 

[Outshined]

Sydney had 6 losses and a draw last year and finished top 4. We are still 2.5 games off that. We only play 4 top 8 sides from this year for the remainder of the year, with 3 of those 4 games at home and 2 of these at the end of the year when we should be on the back of a long run of wins and with greater confidence / form.

Assuming that we win all of our games against bottom 8 sides...

 

[clogged]

Seriously, how can you be talking about going into "development" mode when we are 4 and 4 after playing all of our games against the top 8 sides from last year / this year?

Where did I say the side needs to go into development mode?

 

[Taylor]

Gumbleton could be useful.

 

[UFO Tatsu]

Assuming that we win all of our games against bottom 8 sides...

then we dun deserve to be top 4 now do we?

 

[Spoken4]

Where did I say the side needs to go into development mode?

I thought you intimated that by suggesting we were no longer in contention.

 

[Taylor]

then we dun deserve to be top 4 now do we?

West Coast were a premiership threat beating the bottom three sides prior to their reality check.

 

[StingBitten]

We can drop two more games. One against Geelong away and either Geelong home (next week), Hawks home, or Richmond away (in another screw job).

 

[clogged]

I thought you intimated that by suggesting we were no longer in contention.

The side is slipping out of contention. You can project as many wins as you like, but every loss magnifies how difficult it gets. There are still four tough games to come.

Losing to sides on the rise in Port and North, and experienced sides in Sydney and Hawthorn start to take Freo out of contention.

 

[Taylor]

Do we have next year?

 

[Spoken4]

The side is slipping out of contention. You can project as many wins as you like, but every loss magnifies how difficult it gets. There are still four tough games to come.

Losing to sides on the rise in Port and North, and experienced sides in Sydney and Hawthorn start to take Freo out of contention.

Yes it is sliding out of contention. But it is not out of contention yet.

 

[clogged]

Yes it is sliding out of contention. But it is not out of contention yet.

Yep. But, what are we expecting if the side comes back into contention? The side hasn't changed materially from 2013 GF aside from what has been required by injury. It's a year older and no better. Some players are down on form and holding their spot. Should younger blokes be brought in? IMO this has a medium term benefit of building depth.

I don't think rocking up to the finals with a similar best 22 to last year will do the job. Another element needs to be brought into the mix.

Whether that's youth, or more experience in Sylvia, X factor in Morabito or Simpson, or the Kep factor, something needs to change. The side looks stale.

 

[couldhavebeen]

We were tested today and for 3\4 's we were fine but the scene at the last change would have scared anyone from Fremantle .
Over half of our team where getting their legs massaged and the Power were moving about talking to each other and geeing each other up .
Port Adelaide has got their Premiership fitness guy back from the English Premier League and he has done a fantastic job IMHO .