Preview Round 3, 2019: Fremantle v St.Kilda - Optus Stadium, Sunday 7th April, 3:20PM AWST

[sammm]

We have another days rest than Freo, who are travelling back this week. They’ll be on a 3 x training week and we’ll be on a 3.5 x. Few things going for us. Will be watching Hogan with interest this arvo. He normally matches well against us. Keen to see if the off field issues and foot injuries have taken its toll.

They are better than the public give them credit for. Young, fast and decent depth. They are inconsistent though. Good test for a group that has struggled to travel in the past.

Interesting result. Ross back to his old ways within one week? No score. Or was North that bad last week, Or Gold Coast pretty good?

 

[Sir Skid]

Interesting result. Ross back to his old ways within one week? No score. Or was North that bad last week, Or Gold Coast pretty good?

Gold coast put up more fight than Essendon.
Let that sink in a minute.

 

[bird_man]

Would love to see Stuv and Set get back to their best. Should be handy with Gresham and Billings performing well up the ground.

 

[Joffaboy]

Would love to see Stuv and Set get back to their best. Should be handy with Gresham and Billings performing well up the ground.

Seb running a lot more with ball in hand so far this season, or so it seems.

 

[Mikka84]

Interesting result. Ross back to his old ways within one week? No score. Or was North that bad last week, Or Gold Coast pretty good?

I think a mixture of both. Gold Coast played Freo perfectly. Gave their forwards no time or space. Credit to them. I dare say Ross was out-coached in the end by Dew. Gold Coast aren’t as bad as we thought ( not great, but not 0-22 ).

Back on home deck and big space, we’ll be up for a fight. But quietly confident. I would actually go in unchanged. Leaning this stage to swap Hind and McKenzie myself. Clark awfully unlucky, but not sure this game suits best to bring him in.

 

[t_94]

I know its early days but Battle doesn't look a natural backman to me. Would provide another taller option down forward which may help tidy up the entries inside 50.

Understand Freo have quite a tall forward line though.

 

[Grav]

Not to worried travelling over there to play Freo, we acquit ourselves pretty well against them. As you can see in the chart below their For & Against is only 129pts over 18games averages out at a smidgen over 7 points per game.
With our boys all ****-a-hoop with themselves & Freo coming off a demoralising loss, I fancy we’ll not only give this a big shake, but we’ll knock the stuffing out of them.

****Edit... It’s only 7am here on my RDO, so if my maths is out, blame it on someone else & fix it for me.

 

[Persevering Saint]

just like kelly it was easy to miss him. i mean it's not like he was training at their HQ. i mean if they did see him, they could forget about him right, how were they to remember him. i mean its not like THEY HAD TWO ******* BEHIND THE GOAL CAMERAS SET UP TO RECORD THEIR TRAINING SESSIONS!!!!!

I MEAN **** ME. ITS NOT EVERY DAY YOU HAVE 3 VERY TALENTED FOOTBALLERS TRAIN RIGHT UNDER YA ******* NOSE AND YOU STILL MISS THEM. ONLY FOR ALL THREE TO END UP ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ******* COUNTRY. TWO END UP AT GEELONG FOR ******* CRYING OUT LOUD. I MEAN WHO IN THE **** EVER WANTS TO GO TO GEELONG. NOT EVEN CLEAN WATER WANTS TO GO TO GEELONG*. ******* BACKWARDS REDNECK WASTELAND. AND THAT'S COMING FROM SOMEONE LIVING IN PERTH!!!! BUT HERE WE ARE!!!!!

THINK THATS WHERE IT ENDS. NOPE. THEY END UP ******* LOSING ON THE WEEKEND BECAUSE THE BLOKE THEY DELISTED FOR THE DRUG INFESTED, I'VE GOT A 3 YEAR "CALF" INJURY, HEY HAVE YOU GOT ANYMORE OF THAT CALF, BENNELL, ENDED UP BACK ON AN AFL LIST AND HAD THE MATCH SAVING MARK. WHERE'S BENNELL, OH YEAH THAT'S ******* RIGHT, HE'S TOO BUSY SETTLING HIS DEBTS AT THEIR ******* HOME GAMES WITH A ******* OUTLAW MOTORCYCLE CLUB.

****IN RELOCATE THE BUNCH OF USELESS campaignerS TO TASSIE. I HEAR THEY ALREADY HAVE A DOCKERS SIDE OVER THERE.

*sorry Geelong. i had to go through you to get to them.

Closet Freo supporter?

Wrong board

Nah, he's just writing that for the Freo posters who travel over to this thread. He wants them to see it... to feel it, deep in their shrivelling loins...

StC is so badass.

 

[bergholt]

McCarthy - Wilkie
Hogan - Battle
Tabener - Austin
Lobb - Brown
So, only Lobb/Brown a big mismatch.. But Brown has the advantage in strength and experience..

So in: Clark, Austin. Out: Dunstan, Mckenzie. Both offers better run and skill/decision making..

I'd be very surprised if Austin came in ahead of Joyce.

 

[FQFjt]

Obviously it would be really ideal to have Jake the Snake back, and Roberton available, but that’s not the case, so if we’re looking and size and athleticism-suitable defenders, it’s probably...

Lobb (207cm 106kg)
Rowe (199cm 98kg)

Taberner (199cm 97kg)
Rowe (199cm 98kg)
Austin (196cm 92kg)

Hogan (195cm 100kg)
Brown (196cm 99kg)
Marsh (194cm 93kg)
Joyce (195cm 90kg)

McCarthy (192cm 92kg)
Wilkie (191cm 87kg)
Battle (193cm 92kg)
Joyce (195cm 90kg)

The difficulty is, we simply don’t have anyone size and athleticism-wise to go with Lobb, so in our current setup, we either have to make do, or double team him.

Even then, some of the options would require multiple changes to the team, which I don’t think will happen.

They’ll be a difficult matchup, no question.

My guess would be, consistently with Richo's ordinary approach, is to preserve the current structure and play someone like Jimmy Webster on McCarthy and then Battle, Brown and Wilkie on the other three. McCarthy, despite being quite tall, plays more like an agile mid-sized forward so I think Jimmy should be adequate.

In any event, I think we need to work to exploit their lumbering forward line with endless run out of the back 50 and bringing in extra tall defenders may nullify our advantage in this regard. If we were to bring in some reinforcement, I think Joyce is the best bet because he's the most agile and fleet-footed of the options who can both defend, but won't be a liability in fast transition.

 

[St Pauls]

Listening to Sincs on the radio this morning he emphasised how we are focusing more on our style of play, rather than too much of a focus on the opposition. He said they obviously do their homework but this year is more about playing to our strengths.

With this in mind we might try and exploit the talls of Freo. If Webster or Wilkie can take McCarthy and then try and burn him going the other way we could turn it into a weakness.

I actually think Freo will drop one of the talls for this game, not sure who though.

 

[The Enemy Within]

Listening to Sincs on the radio this morning he emphasised how we are focusing more on our style of play, rather than too much of a focus on the opposition. He said they obviously do their homework but this year is more about playing to our strengths.

With this in mind we might try and exploit the talls of Freo. If Webster or Wilkie can take McCarthy and then try and burn him going the other way we could turn it into a weakness.

I actually think Freo will drop one of the talls for this game, not sure who though.

Ross is a creature of habit, he will drop either Tabener or McCarthy he never goes outside of the square he will bring in Ballantyn.

 

[George]

Preview is up on the original post if you guys want to check it out!

Thanks to lewdogs for the write up

 

[Impatient Saint]

I know its early days but Battle doesn't look a natural backman to me. Would provide another taller option down forward which may help tidy up the entries inside 50.

Understand Freo have quite a tall forward line though.

Although he is good forward also, I think he has shown that he will be an excellent defender.

 

[StCicatriz]

Yuck. Imagine being one. Like physically waking up each morning as one. I thought they would have cured that ailment by now.

Closet Freo supporter?

On SM-G925I using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Impatient Saint]

Listening to Sincs on the radio this morning he emphasised how we are focusing more on our style of play, rather than too much of a focus on the opposition. He said they obviously do their homework but this year is more about playing to our strengths.

With this in mind we might try and exploit the talls of Freo. If Webster or Wilkie can take McCarthy and then try and burn him going the other way we could turn it into a weakness.

I actually think Freo will drop one of the talls for this game, not sure who though.

Finally the penny has dropped with Richo and he is backing his team rather than worrying about what the opposition might do!

 

[Joffaboy]

Although he is good forward also, I think he has shown that he will be an excellent defender.

I agree. Bit harsh to write him off after two games

 

[saintkildaman]

Finally the penny has dropped with Richo and he is backing his team rather than worrying about what the opposition might do!

As Gears said in the post season feedback; ‘you focus too much on what we can’t do and not enough on what we can do’.

Can see the boys are already buying into our game plan and have found our ‘identity’ again. The most pleasing aspect is in both wins we haven’t played anywhere near our potential and have so much more improvement in us.

Roma will grow each week, Stuv will only get better and Acres/Steele/Dunny haven’t fired as of yet. Hoping we go to Perth, keep chasing like junkyard dogs and pump some real belief into our seasons prospects as we go 3-0.

 

[sunny3193]

Me too!

Old dogs.
Wise heads.

 

[StCicatriz]

Someone on the Freo board took a photo of their own shit and posted it in their Ross Lyon thread.

So I guess you can say things are going to plan down there at Cockburn.

On SM-G925I using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[StCicatriz]

*parkers benefit

Can you imagine what it'd be like having to be employed by that club. For a start all your insurance premiums would go up.

you do realise it's our benefit they didn't pick Parker up...

 

[gringo2011]

Same. It’s been very hot and humid up here and if either of the Qld teams have a half decent team they win in those conditions. Ironically, we finally got a cool change on Saturday and conditions were still warm but not particularly humid. Even so, you could see Freo run out of legs.

WA is still pretty warm at this time of year. I don't think it's the reason why.

 

[bird_man]

71% of team that have been 2-0 have gone onto play finals since 2010

I wonder what the percentage is for 3-0?

 

[gringo2011]

Interesting result. Ross back to his old ways within one week? No score. Or was North that bad last week, Or Gold Coast pretty good?

The thing Gold Coast do this year, is play on at all cost. No structures can be set up because if they mark, they wheel around and are off. They play like Richo had us playing a couple of years ago. It's frenetic break-neck paced footy. It would be hard for a strategic coach to coach against.

 

[StCicatriz]

Tasty!!!!

71% of team that have been 2-0 have gone onto play finals since 2010

I wonder what the percentage is for 3-0?