Preview North Melbourne vs Port Adelaide - Round 1 @ Marvel Stadium

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Adz2332

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Yeah, it hasn't hurt most of the guns in your side.

Will is a dyed in the wool clearance-stoppage player mate. How soon he starts will all come down to strength & fitness and if looks are anything to go by then it won't be long, as I have seen very few 18 year olds turn up like this:

View attachment 1058287

Anyway, enough of the North side, what are thoughts on Ports starting 22?

i dunno theres been a few....
 

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I come to bigfootball dot com to read about North Melbourne's pre-season on the Port Adelaide forum. I reckon Ken Hinkley cutting his toenails is more interesting.
 
Apr 24, 2013
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I come to bigfootball dot com to read about North Melbourne's pre-season on the Port Adelaide forum. I reckon Ken Hinkley cutting his toenails is more interesting.


Apologies, I asked about Port's likely round 1 side & match ups and was hit with responses about North.
 
I come to bigfootball dot com to read about North Melbourne's pre-season on the Port Adelaide forum. I reckon Ken Hinkley cutting his toenails is more interesting.

Shitposter in Chief is not amused.
 
I reckon the "getting games in to kids" mantra is one of the biggest fallacies of AFL footy. They're ready when they're ready.

I'm sure there are probably examples out there of your philosophy bringing success too, but as a Port fan I know our recent success has been brought about by doing the exact opposite. I'd argue Phillips is a hell of a lot more ready for AFL football than either Butters or Duursma were at Round 1 2019, but this year we saw the rewards of our 2019 approach. We cleared out our equivalents to the Hall, Atley, Turner types (eg Jake Neade, Jasper Pittard, Sam Gray, Cam Sutcliffe) and replaced them with talented kids, and the results speak for themselves.

You even mentioned LDU (who I rate really highly). He spent his first year playing off of flanks and the wing at AFL level with only short bursts in the middle. I'd argue he benefitted from getting those tastes of the real stuff a lot more than he would've benefitted from playing state league football.
 
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Apr 24, 2013
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I'm sure there are probably examples out there of your philosophy bringing success too, but as a Port fan I know our recent success has been brought about by doing the exact opposite. I'd argue Phillips is a hell of a lot more ready for AFL football than either Butters or Duursma were at Round 1 2019, but this year we saw the rewards of our 2019 approach. We cleared out our equivalents to the Hall, Atley, Turner types (eg Jake Neade, Jasper Pittard, Sam Gray, Cam Sutcliffe) and replaced them with talented kids, and the results speak for themselves.

It's different for kids that have toe and are introduced in to a strong established side. Look no further than Stephenson & Collingwood in 2018. It's the quicker kids who jump out of the blocks.

AS you may remember from my posting here 2-3 years back, I honestly believe that Port were an underachieving list in that period. You may also remember that I tipped them to come good at the start of last season if Hinkley got his act together. IMO, the talent has been there for a while.

You even mentioned LDU (who I rate really highly). He spent his first year playing off of flanks and the wing at AFL level with only short bursts in the middle. I'd argue he benefitted from getting those tastes of the real stuff a lot more than he would've benefitted from playing state league football.

LDU will be the pick of the North bunch as far as I am concerned, but if we had a deep midfield & no injuries, then I very much doubt he would have played more than a few games up until the midway mark of last season.

He fits in to the category that classically takes time (inside/big mids and KPP's)
 
It's different for kids that have toe and are introduced in to a strong established side. Look no further than Stephenson & Collingwood in 2018. It's the quicker kids who jump out of the blocks.

AS you may remember from my posting here 2-3 years back, I honestly believe that Port were an underachieving list in that period. You may also remember that I tipped them to come good at the start of last season if Hinkley got his act together. IMO, the talent has been there for a while.



LDU will be the pick of the North bunch as far as I am concerned, but if we had a deep midfield & no injuries, then I very much doubt he would have played more than a few games up until the midway mark of last season.

He fits in to the category that classically takes time (inside/big mids and KPP's)

Ollie Wines debuted as an inside/big mid and I reckon he went close to playing every game in his first couple of seasons.

He wouldn’t be the only one
 
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LDU will be the pick of the North bunch as far as I am concerned, but if we had a deep midfield & no injuries, then I very much doubt he would have played more than a few games up until the midway mark of last season.

LDU will be a star. So classy. Has that intangible Simon Black/Scott Pendlebury type quality of making the game slow down around him.

Needs to get his disposal numbers up before truly being considered elite, but when he does he'll have more impact on a game with 20-25 disposals than a lot of mids have with 30-35.
 

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LDU will be a star. So classy. Has that intangible Simon Black/Scott Pendlebury type quality of making the game slow down around him.

Needs to get his disposal numbers up before truly being considered elite, but when he does he'll have more impact on a game with 20-25 disposals than a lot of mids have with 30-35.
He was much improved last year but I’m yet to be as convinced about LDU as you. Good average footballer. Not sure he’ll be an A grader.
 

EskimoPAFC

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If we can break even with the Port mids, then we'll be in the game, but Port will rightfully start warm favorites. I personally didn't think we were that bad against Port last year, all things considered.

Honestly I'm not a bravodo-style poster but Port generally flies out of the blocks and will have many players looking to make a statement to keep their positions.

I'd be tipping Ports by 50+ round 1. It's about round 7 that things usually start falling apart for us - or at least have in the past. That's generally been when our coaching/selection unit over-reacts to a loss, drops any talls that have an off game, and reverts to the repeatedly failed strategy of putting small midfielders in to all the forward positions (though we didn't do this in 2020 so I have some hope on this front too).

The only way Port loses is if we choke big time under the pressure.
 
Apr 24, 2013
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Honestly I'm not a bravodo-style poster but Port generally flies out of the blocks and will have many players looking to make a statement to keep their positions.

I'd be tipping Ports by 50+ round 1. It's about round 7 that things usually start falling apart for us - or at least have in the past. That's generally been when our coaching/selection unit over-reacts to a loss, drops any talls that have an off game, and reverts to the repeatedly failed strategy of putting small midfielders in to all the forward positions (though we didn't do this in 2020 so I have some hope on this front too).

The only way Port loses is if we choke big time under the pressure.

Fair enough, although I figure you must rate North very poorly at the moment.

The team that is likely to take the field is going to be stronger than the side that played Port last season.

In: Cunnington, Corr, Stephenson, Garner, Taylor, Thomas, Turner.
Out: Higgins, Dumont, Hosie, Perez, Vickers Willis, Williams, Wood.

Higgins is the only definite out that would walk in to our round 1 team, with Dumont being a possible and the other 5 players being superceded with the likely round 1 replacements. It's a big difference & Cunnington alone is a significant addition. Perez will be a player, but he's still developing, and the other 4 players have been delisted.

Please don't take this to mean that I think North will win the match. My view is that's it's possible, but not probable at this stage.

I'll be disappointed if we aren't competitive.
 
I'm sure there are probably examples out there of your philosophy bringing success too, but as a Port fan I know our recent success has been brought about by doing the exact opposite. I'd argue Phillips is a hell of a lot more ready for AFL football than either Butters or Duursma were at Round 1 2019, but this year we saw the rewards of our 2019 approach. We cleared out our equivalents to the Hall, Atley, Turner types (eg Jake Neade, Jasper Pittard, Sam Gray, Cam Sutcliffe) and replaced them with talented kids, and the results speak for themselves.

You even mentioned LDU (who I rate really highly). He spent his first year playing off of flanks and the wing at AFL level with only short bursts in the middle. I'd argue he benefitted from getting those tastes of the real stuff a lot more than he would've benefitted from playing state league football.
I still didn't know what playing Broadbent over Joel Garner in 2019 achieved.
 
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