Prediction Round 15- Changes v Essendon at Optus

[estibador]

I'm not super happy that we have Josh "Holding" Draper in his place though.

I feel like the umps are very trigger happy on Drapes' 'holding' compared to everything else I see in the AFL though.

I'd love to see an AFL ump adjudicate a Draper vs Amiss contest. It would be like that meme about the cat with the buttered toast on its back where you could power a perpetual motion machine from the ump raising his whistle to penalise Drapes before lowering it once he realises its Amiss, etc, etc.

 

[Taylor]

I feel like the umps are very trigger happy on Drapes' 'holding' compared to everything else I see in the AFL though.

I'd love to see an AFL ump adjudicate a Draper vs Amiss contest. It would be like that meme about the cat with the buttered toast on its back where you could power a perpetual motion machine from the ump raising his whistle to penalise Drapes before lowering it once he realises its Amiss, etc, etc.

Yeah they won't know what to call.

Would be worthwhile getting an AFL umpire to coach Draper on his arm placement because I'm certain it's not an impeding action they are calling him for, it's the trigger of having the arm near the opponent's body like a red flag.

Like he is playing back opposite shoulder, get him more side on if he can.

 

[anchor man]

Why not? He’s still not fully match fit, Jackson has been playing 50% of the time in ruck and Darcy has been spending a huge amount of time on the bench
Better off getting a full game in fitness wise, and coming back fresh to take on Rowan Marshall..
Essendon barely have a ruckman.

Playing against much lower level of WAFL rucks will give him nothing fitness wise or game wise.

 

[yakamoto]

Draper was Ok on Saturday. His spoiling was very good. Don't know that his immediate opponents on the night had any impact on the game.
The defence this season has been pretty unstable personnel wise due to injury, but has generally performed well in

 

[freoextra]

I saw some random post on twitter give Ollie Murphy a debut this week in reply to Pearce being out.

How is Ollie Murphy tracking in WAFL. Is he a bust or actually playing well. I dont see his name mentioned a lot and this is his 2nd year.

Curious how he is tracking

Only watched the last game but Davies and Murphy kept all the WC forwards to one contested mark for the whole game ( this includes the wonder boy Archer Reid). They were good, Davies is still ahead but coming nicely, I would applaud Davies getting an opportunity.

 

[freoextra]

Why would DArcy be dropped!!! Reidy, sadly to say, is not up to it.
Darcy needs to play.

Think you are right about Darcy, he looked far fresher than a lot of our sore players. Darcy was rucking against Reidy at practice with Dogga in the midfield.

 

[Taylor]

Only watched the last game but Davies and Murphy kept all the WC forwards to one contested mark for the whole game ( this includes the wonder boy Archer Reid). They were good, Davies is still ahead but coming nicely, I would applaud Davies getting an opportunity.

Murphy also has a fire in him, getting angry at umpiring calls. A competitor. Skinny dude but a fighter.

 

[FreoRicci]

Their midfield is a definite threat especially if you add Martin to it.

****ing dominated the clearances last season and was so eye opening.
Hopefully the players are ready for it this week

 

[eastfreo75]

Watching the replay, there was a quite a few instances and opportunities where we didn't give off or take first option which was there and could of opened up the play

Too much taking on the tackler?

 

[eastfreo75]

I feel like the umps are very trigger happy on Drapes' 'holding' compared to everything else I see in the AFL though.

I'd love to see an AFL ump adjudicate a Draper vs Amiss contest. It would be like that meme about the cat with the buttered toast on its back where you could power a perpetual motion machine from the ump raising his whistle to penalise Drapes before lowering it once he realises its Amiss, etc, etc.

McPharlin and Rance had the same series of tactics to put off a forward. As the ball was kicked they grab the jumper and release quickly and Next push the forward in the side. Most defenders hold the jumper before the kick or too long in the flight of the ball.

Draper needs to speak with McPharlin.

 

[Chris25]

Davies in for Draper would be the first thing I did.

I don’t think Draper deserved his recall to start with. And being beaten by Darling is grounds to be relegated to Peel for the remainder of the season. Yes he’s got a lot of potential, but he’s played more at AFL level than WAFL. It’s time for him to go back and put in the work that Davies and Murphy have had to.

And with Pearce more than likely being back in a week, I think we should get some more time into Davies while we can. Especially against a young Essendon team, as opposed to just turning to McDonald for a game.

 

[StingBitten]

Draper - I wonder if he's being over coached? Rawlings is new too and making his mark.

My young fella can putt em in from the edge of the green but if I start at him about his stance, interlocking fingers it ends up in the bleachers.

 

[Taylor]

It might be worth having a look back at Draper highlights from the Sydney game last year and see how many have him with an arm around the opponent - then Sydney quietly asked whattheff to the AFL and they've been coached to look for specific things for specific players - which they absolutely do.

 

[yakamoto]

Doubt that we’ll fiddle with the defence this week. Was pretty good on Saturday considering the number of inside 50s by North. I thought Draper’s spoiling was excellent.
As for Darling only managed one scoring shot. By the way did Fyfe just stand and watch the Darling goal bounce through? Was hard to tell as they didn’t replay any other vision of it.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

Doubt that we’ll fiddle with the defence this week. Was pretty good on Saturday considering the number of inside 50s by North. I thought Draper’s spoiling was excellent.
As for Darling only managed one scoring shot. By the way did Fyfe just stand and watch the Darling goal bounce through? Was hard to tell as they didn’t replay any other vision of it.

Didn't stand and watch but was not exactly at full tilt to get there

 

[tacopavlich]

Against Essendon it’s perfect to send Darcy to play a full game at Peel and build fitness at the lower level.
Jackson will monster Vigo.

Isn't really much difference playing Darcy against a WAFL or VFL ruckman, do you want to rest him or build fitness? If it's the latter he 100% isn't getting dropped

 

[Purpletown]

Essendon's Vigo Visentini is a big boy, 204cm, 99kg but not yet 20yo. He has been producing decent numbers in the VFL averaging 17.6 disposals, 31 hit outs and 3.3 clearances.
I am happy to have Darcy in the team to match him in size and close down any chance of Essendon getting a ruck advantage.
Their midfield pulled our pants down in the final 15 minutes of our game with them last season so let's plan on negating that option for them.
Freo have shown enough in wet conditions to allay too many fears the conditions will be beyond us.

 

[Alfonz]

Doubt that we’ll fiddle with the defence this week. Was pretty good on Saturday considering the number of inside 50s by North. I thought Draper’s spoiling was excellent.
As for Darling only managed one scoring shot. By the way did Fyfe just stand and watch the Darling goal bounce through? Was hard to tell as they didn’t replay any other vision of it.

On the last question, it was brought up On The Couch in the good/bad/ugly section. I think Jack Riewoldt's "bad". It wasn't on the bounce, but Fyfe could easily have touched it if he had been moving at a mild pace towards the goal line. I think he heard the siren and switched off.

 

[Paracleet]

Davies in for Draper would be the first thing I did.

I don’t think Draper deserved his recall to start with. And being beaten by Darling is grounds to be relegated to Peel for the remainder of the season. Yes he’s got a lot of potential, but he’s played more at AFL level than WAFL. It’s time for him to go back and put in the work that Davies and Murphy have had to.

And with Pearce more than likely being back in a week, I think we should get some more time into Davies while we can. Especially against a young Essendon team, as opposed to just turning to McDonald for a game.

Darling had 9 touches and 1 goal

 

[Chris25]

Darling had 9 touches and 1 goal

Yep. And yet was still better than Draper.

 

[yakamoto]

I don’t think we can afford to have Darcy and Fyfe in the 22 for more than one quarter. We looked slow compared to North.
Essendon’s strength is their midfield. Assuming they are not too fatigued from the travel their leg speed could be a significant problem for us.

 

[worsemim]

Draper's mistakes have been inexperience, and our only experienced KPD depth, OMac, absolutely does not have the hops to get up and make the spoils Draper did.

Our other KPD depth—Davies, Murphy—will make the exact same mistakes. Draper, Davies, Murphy are all going to be smaller than their direct opponent, due to being 20 and 21—the legal bodywork like nudging your opponent out side-on is not going to work for them. Not only that, but holding your man without being pinged for infringement is a necessary part of KPD craft, and every KPD in the game does it. There's an incredibly slim margin between failing to apply enough initial contact and allowing a seemingly uncontested mark, and giving away a holding free—you will notice inexperienced defenders often land too far one way or another. WAFL adjudication is massively less strict, so often they err on the side of HTM. You have to precisely calibrate what you can get away with, and in that development of craft there is no substitute for experience.

In addition: we were so impressed by Draper's pre-season that we tried to get a 197cm in the b22 to match up against small forwards. I had my doubts about Worner's inclusion at the start of the year, but what do you know, the selection committee who obsessively watch all our drills and scratch matches know better than me. Worner also made some silly mistakes from inexperience—now, he's getting coaches votes.

Depth isn't as good as the b22 player who is sitting on the sidelines. We all just have to make our peace with that. Panicking and rotating through shiny new toys isn't going to help us win.

 

[Big Animal]

Watching Davies in that Melbourne pre-season game this year was horrific and that was only 3 months or so ago. He has time to develop at Peel but I do not want that level of performance/toweling up in the Freo team unless there is no one left.

 

[Chris25]

Depth isn't as good as the b22 player who is sitting on the sidelines. We all just have to make our peace with that. Panicking and rotating through shiny new toys isn't going to help us win.

I don't think it has anything to do with 'panicking'. It's just a case of swapping the 22nd player out for someone else. Someone who's been playing decent football at Peel.

And it's also nothing against Draper, who everyone can see has potential. But his performances this year haven't been the best - although admittedly, being asked to play against opposition smalls was a big ask earlier in the year. And in the two weeks since being recalled, he's given away as many free kicks as he's had disposals. I think he'd benefit hugely from a consistent run at Peel.

I just think Davies deserves a shot. Even though this board has seemed to almost write him off.

 

[Cesoir]

Even though this board has seemed to almost write him off.

That doesn't sound like us Chris!