Preview Changes & Pre-match Discussion - EF vs. West Coast Eagles - OS (Perth), Sat 03/10 @ 8:10pm AEST

[Dead Eye Didak]

Out: Stephenson ( Spend pre-season in the gym and have bodies smash into him on the track, the whole summer. He needs to get a hardened AFL body. Against PA, he just froze and had his body in the "crash" position awaiting contact. )

Varcoe ( Been a great servant for us and a great representative for the indigenous people and footballers in the game, but time has caught up. Seems to have issues tackling, so maybe his shoulders are a concern, not sure.)

T. Brown- Just think the final in Perth, intensity x10, will be a bit much for the young man. We could throw him to the Lions, but it could also destroy him confidence wise.

If we had another ruckman with a few seasons of senior AFL footy behind him, waiting in the wings, then Grundy would be out as well. He unfortunately is our Coniglio. Signed a big contract, obviously struggling with the expectations of that, and is merely a shadow of the player we have seen the past couple of seasons. Only thing saving him from the "Outs" is we have no one to replace him.

In: Sier - Hopefully gets to train over the next week, and is fit to go.
Phillips- Was running the past week, so you think should be ok to go.
Mayne - A bit of experience in the line-up. You know will put his body on the line, which you need in finals.

Possible In : Reid

If Sier or Phillips don't get up, play Reid up forward, put DeGoey in the midfield, with Elliott also playing up forward, not midfield.

 

[unplugged]

Play Kelly

 

[Horaceg]

Okay so with Mayne on the sidelines, he is the easiest in. Tries his guts out. I think we have too many passengers over the age of 25 which is bad. THomas, WHE, Varcoe, ROughead & Greenwood all don't do much and I'd try and find replacements for most. If Phillips is fit, he is an easy choice as well. I think we have to give it a risk and give Sier a run as well.

Changes I'd make
Varcoe -> C.Brown (Similar player, except one is 10 years younger and better)
WHE -> Mayne (is just a better pressure player. Good mark, more versatile, I love what Mayne Brings)
Greenwood -> Sier (Big risk but if he is healthy, why not give him a run. Don't have anything to lose as underdogs)
THomas -> Ruscoe (While I don't think he has had a bad end of the year and plays a decent role, I want to see something different)
T.Brown -> Phillips (Easy swap if healthy. I guess if you want to stick with the youth, you could maybe not bring in maybe and keep Brown but I think Mayne provides good defensive support)

B. J.Madgen/Jo.Roughead/I.Quaynor
HB. J.Crisp/D.Moore/B.Maynard
R. B.Grundy/A.Treloar/S.Pendlebury
C. T.Phillips/T.Adams/J.Daicos
HF. J.De Goey/B.Mihocek/J.Elliott
F. J.Stephenson/M.Cox/T.Ruscoe
int. J.Noble/C.Mayne/B.Sier/C.Brown

I don't think we haveanything to lose so give some youth experience. They'll be hungry.

Roughead was good, Dixon not that effective, that’s a big win

 

[Brad Goodman]

This situation has shades of 2002 against Port, except that team had spirit.

 

[Harry O]

Just reading they expect 6 back for the final. McGovern to play with Yeo only doubtful. This could get ugly.....

I think Redden and Yeo doubtful and Shuey underdone which means their midfield is under strength

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

No change.

 

[whiskeytown]

Leave De Goey at full forward. If we have any chance of winning this it requires 3-4 goals from De Goey.

Mayne will come in. Bucks is a big fan

 

[Captain Embubry]

Out:
- Varcoe: Was willing to give him one more against Port to see if he could provide us some of that old spark and intensity up forward. He couldn't, he's cooked, he's out.
- T. Brown: I like the kid, but he's not ready for a game like this.

In:
- Sier: We need this bloke fit and firing, he is our best clearance player and we are getting smashed week in week out in the clearances. Simple as that. I would also be in support of playing JDG in the midfield a little more often next week too as a bigger bodied clearance player. 40% mid 60% forward time.
- Mayne: If he's fit he comes in. Plays his role every week and is tough a as nails finals competitior.

Other changes i would consider:
- Phillips for Stephenson. If Bucks is insisting on playing JS on the wing, Phillips is a better option. JS plays as an isolated deep forward with stints on a flank, or not at all.
- One of Thomas or WHE for Will Kelly. If Kelly is available he could stretch the WCE defence, potentially free Cox up a bit more and provide us with a bit of forward spark.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Mayne is the only in likely to make a difference, maybe him in for Varcoe or Brown. The rest is just shuffling the deckchairs. I’d love to see Sier but it’s probably too late now. .Just leave them alone and back them in.

 

[Big Bryza]

Pretty sure the WA Premier has said we only have to quarantine for 7 days

What a noble gesture from that *******.

 

[Big Bryza]

Does anyone know what day Bucks and Sando are playing tennis this time?

 

[unplugged]

I am clinging onto this ridiculous belief that the team has been sitting on the game plan used against the Bulldogs and Saints earlier this year, and we'll bust it out again next week. Saw glimpses of it last week against the Suns when we absolutely needed to win

No need to peak too early as everyone will figure out your game plan and counter it before finals come around.

...

 

[Big Bryza]

Roughead was good, Dixon not that effective, that’s a big win

Roughy has been awesome this season. Would be shocked if he's not top 5 in the Copeland.

 

[Big Bryza]

Leave De Goey at full forward. If we have any chance of winning this it requires 3-4 goals from De Goey.

Mayne will come in. Bucks is a big fan

No point having him there if he we keep ******* around with the ball. Stop this handball bullshit and get it in quickly to Jordy 1 v 1. Madness.

 

[whiskeytown]

No point having him there if he we keep ******* around with the ball. Stop this handball bullshit and get it in quickly to Jordy 1 v 1. Madness.

Agreed. Quick, chaotic ball movement almost won us a flag in 2018. Now we’d rather 10 possessions on the wing than a long kick to try and isolate de Goey, Cox or Stephenson deep inside 50

 

[Smoothmover20]

In: Mayne, Sier, Ruscoe
Out: T. Brown, WHE, Varcoe

Brown will have his time and will be a player but I dont think hes ready for a final yet. Mayne is a hard body who gives 110%. Might stagnate the play a bit but doesnt take a backward step and does all the team things unlike half our squad.

WHE has been terrible, shirks contest, on form I dont know how he hasn't been dropped this year. Sier not a like for like but adds and extra mid and I dont want to drop a soft player to bring in another one, in Phillips. Sier in allows elliot to play permanent forward.

Ruscoe kicks goals and has a knack of getting to the right spots, but applies no pressure. Varcoe doesn't kick goals and no longer applies pressure. He's been great for us and love him at his best but I think its the end for him.

The cupboard is bare, no Sidebottom or Howe to bring back hurts. This season has exposed our lack of quality depth players and bottom 6 on our list. List management has been poor for a while. We are not playing well enough to beat West Coast over there unfortunately, they have too much class but I feel these changes might allow us to get more out the group and put up a fight.

Very lucky Stevo who is completely out of sorts and Thomas who runs around with no impact.

 

[manicpie]

Who cares, same s**t out and same s**t in, we won't win anyway

 

[stormskye]

Agreed. Quick, chaotic ball movement almost won us a flag in 2018. Now we’d rather 10 possessions on the wing than a long kick to try and isolate de Goey, Cox or Stephenson deep inside 50

Bucks is all about possession. Maintain possession at all cost, and don’t take risks. It leads to nothing but an inability to score , and opposition scores from our turnovers by hand...

A 9th year coach talked about “learning” in the presser...

 

[mwhop]

That match against port was really accurate depiction of where we are at, as I see it.
Our forwards, our game plan, our ball movement, arent amazing - but in truth they are only as good as the oppo lets them be. They arent what is holding us back.
What is holding us back is that our "top end" talent around the ball is simply not as good as other teams. We paper over this when grundy is playing well (ie. uninjured) and becomes a big bodied mid for us. But in reality, as good as our mids are, they arent as good as other teams best mids.
We really need a big bodied excellent clearance player in there

 

[unplugged]

They should put this game on Friday night with consideration to coming back to play a Saturday night Semi Final in Queensland.

 

[Albert Parker]

Last night was a reflection of ongoing problems.

1/ Grundy may be injured, but his tapwork has been problematic for a while.
It was one of the things I called out in the '3 things we'd like to see' lists at the start of the year.
Remember the prelim last year? We can't maintain Anthony Rocca as a ruck coach.
We also need to get our mids on the move at stoppages. Jordy gets it. Robbie Gray certainly understood it last night. Tapping to Grundy's feet and having stagnant on ballers ready to be tackled won't get us where we need to be. We also need someone boundary side on the move at boundary throw ins. How often does Grundy knock it forward and we have no-one there?????

2/ Forward line. Cox competed and brought the ball to ground, but our small forwards don't know where to position themselves. If the ball is falling short - get to the front and vice versa (did they watch Motlop last night and Duursma late in the game as the ball got punched out of our defence? Saints did it well on the weekend too) Also, we still haven't all worked out how to kick to Cox. Tay Adams drills the ball in low to the top of the square and the ball gets cut off. John Noble minutes later lobs it high to the side and Cox marks and has a kick on goal. Our kicking inside 50 was poor again last night. Pendles missed a target badly (but Bonner panicked and we scored). Billy's left foot kick late in the game was also poor.

3/ Slow ball movement. Sometimes you've got to move it on quickly. Roughead is a repeat offender. Magden similar. Mayne also. Shaz too. It's part of our inability to score. Teams then get set in defence.

To those who were caning Roughead, he's actually an extremely effective one-on-one player. His opponents have barely scored against him this season excl Josh Kennedy. Again, Dixon did SFA last night ex the one tap out that Grundy gifted him for his single goal.

I must admit, I'm not sure that Ben Brown would be all that effective in our forward line given the way we move it in either. He'd be the same as Cox.

In : Sier, Mayne (reticent on this one as he is part of our problems with slow, safe ball movement)
Out : Varcoe, T Brown

Sier into the middle and Billy to spend more time up forward for Varcoe. Mayne to a wing.
Despite Stephenson's difficulties, he still scored a goal again last night. Another thing that Cal Brown can't manage. I'd play him.

 

[Chrispiesssss]

The only possible ins we have is:

Phillips
Mayne
Sier
Brown
Ruscoe

JT,WHE,Varcoe & T.Brown for Phillips, Mayne, Sier & Ruscoe.

 

[stormskye]

We are 17th for marks inside 50...

At this point nothing to lose.

Bring in reid or kelly. just do something different....anything....

 

[Chrispiesssss]

We are 17th for marks inside 50...

At this point nothing to lose.

Bring in reid or kelly. just do something different....anything....

Yup, that’s why I’m convinced we need to play Reid.

Reid, Mihocek & Cox play the KPF role. De GOEY floats in and out of the midfield/forward role.

Especially against WCE who rely on their defenders taking marks. If we can prevent them taking marks, we may stand a chance.

 

[Dead Eye Didak]

Leave De Goey at full forward. If we have any chance of winning this it requires 3-4 goals from De Goey.

Mayne will come in. Bucks is a big fan

No point playing DeGoey deep forward when we play a slow entry game into F50, and he is continually outnumbered once the ball gets into F50. DeGoey needs to be in the play, either put him in the midfield or play him high F50, like a roaming CHF.