Prediction Best 23 - 2026 edition

[Mop]

No.

My logic is that Bailey Williams has the physical attributes to be a key defender, height being one of those attributes. I dont know if he has a defensive mindset or not, I'm calling for him to be trialled there so we can find out. I base this all on not seeing him having a future as our number one ruckman and our shortage of key defenders.

Harry Barnett has been on our list for 3 seasons before this one and has unfortunately shown nothing at WAFL level to suggest he's going to make it as either a ruckman, forward or defender.

He did play down back at times as a young'n, but as Stallon said earlier the alternative is we play Flynn. Your argument of Reid and CDT is fatally flawed.

 

[Pottering]

Our inside 50s were rushed and to shit spots. Freo just walked it through the middle to easy targets

This is a midfield issue, quality inside 50s, etc

Any rational assessment of where were are would conclude we have issues all over the ground, not merely in the midfield. All I'm suggesting is that one player who I consider doesn't have a long term future as a number one ruckman be tried out down back. Nothing too radical I would have thought.

 

[Mop]

Nothing too radical I would have thought.

Except the notion of who plays there in the meantime seeing as your suggestion is genuinely dangerous.

 

[Pottering]

It absolutely matters who is in the ruck, more than you seem to know.

Key defenders we have Edwards and Ginbey, its not as dire as the ruck, and its manageable with good medium sized defenders and Ginbey.
You NEED a competent ruck, we have BW as our only option. You need competent KPDs, we have Edwards and Ginbey is better than competent.

This is a ruck/midfield issue more than a defence issue.
Losing Dev and Graham has more impact than losing Edwards

What we do this year is let BW own the ruck, so we dont have to play Flynn

Then we look for KPDs elsewhere, whether draft or MSD or trade or whatever.

We wont find a ruckman better than BW, look around the league there is nothing that we are realistically in the running for at this stage.

Sydney grabbed Grundy from Melbourne and he's in All Australian form. Hawthorn grabbed Meek from Freo and forced Ned Reeves out. Now they're the best ruck combo in the comp. The premiers picked up Sam Draper. Geelong have got by without a decent ruckman for years and still make finals every year. Nothing is written in stone is you're prepared to adapt and be creative.

 

[Mop]

Sydney grabbed Grundy from Melbourne and he's in All Australian form. Hawthorn grabbed Meek from Freo and forced Ned Reeves out. Now they're the best ruck combo in the comp. The premiers picked up Sam Draper. Geelong have got by without a decent ruckman for years and still make finals every year. Nothing is written in stone is you're prepared to adapt and be creative.

What is the common denominator here?
IE - A key characteristic. Something major why that is far more difficult to occur to us.

 

[Mighty Eagles]

We had more inside 50s than Freo and they more than doubled our score. I think any rational assessment would say the forwards, midfielders and defenders are all way off the pace in our last three games.

Good analysis.

I thought our small & medium forwards were poor last week. While the delivery to our forwards wasn’t great, none of them created opportunities when the ball hit the ground and that should be their bread & butter.

 

[stallon]

Sydney grabbed Grundy from Melbourne and he's in All Australian form. Hawthorn grabbed Meek from Freo and forced Ned Reeves out. Now they're the best ruck combo in the comp. The premiers picked up Sam Draper. Geelong have got by without a decent ruckman for years and still make finals every year. Nothing is written in stone is you're prepared to adapt and be creative.

Which ruck are we getting??
Being creative doesnt mean removing our only slightly competent ruck and putting him in a role hes never played before just because lmao

This point is irrelevant anyway as you were on about moving BW right now lol

 

[stallon]

Any rational assessment of where were are would conclude we have issues all over the ground, not merely in the midfield. All I'm suggesting is that one player who I consider doesn't have a long term future as a number one ruckman be tried out down back. Nothing too radical I would have thought.

The defence doesnt have a chance to show what it can do, because our midfield/ruck situation is dire.
The backline is just constantly under seige, if the ball went in slower, theyd have more time to react and setup, etc

Its quite clear if you just watch the games

 

[Mop]

The defence doesnt have a chance to show what it can do, because our midfield/ruck situation is dire.
The backline is just constantly under seige, if the ball went in slower, theyd have more time to react and setup, etc

Its quite clear if you just watch the games

It won't fix everything but even one major cog improvement - such as Starcevich coming in - may move the needle enough to be noticably better the same way Dev Rob did for the mids. Starcevich alone won't fix the issue against the blue chip talls, but as our backline general at least Ginbey will have some goddamn help

 

[Pottering]

The defence doesnt have a chance to show what it can do, because our midfield/ruck situation is dire.
The backline is just constantly under seige, if the ball went in slower, theyd have more time to react and setup, etc

Its quite clear if you just watch the games

Watch the games? Why didn't I think of that? Why have I been paying for seats at Eagles games for 38 years if I haven't bothered to actually go and watch?

Believe it or not people can have different opinions.

 

[Pottering]

He did play down back at times as a young'n, but as Stallon said earlier the alternative is we play Flynn. Your argument of Reid and CDT is fatally flawed.

Saturday's game only supported my argument.

We had 7 goals kicked against us by Richmond tall forwards, only one of which came from a noted forward, Tom Lynch. Even Jonty Faull, who I rate as a dud, kicked three.

According to the player ratings in The West Bailey Williams got 5/10 and was rated as beaten. This despite Richmond rucking a full back/occasional forward and a second gamer. For Duft-Tytler it was 4/10 and the comment "time to give him the ruckman duties and let the kid go". Apparently not as dangerous as you claim. As for the key backs Young got 3/10 and was "losing too many one on one contests". Note these aren't my ramblings, but the opinion of someone with a combined 300 games of AFL experience as a player and senior coach.

Based on those ratings my suggestion of trying out Bailey Williams as a key back and giving the youngsters more time in the ruck is hardly a wild one.

 

[txbyhull]

Saturday's game only supported my argument.

We had 7 goals kicked against us by Richmond tall forwards, only one of which came from a noted forward, Tom Lynch. Even Jonty Faull, who I rate as a dud, kicked three.

According to the player ratings in The West Bailey Williams got 5/10 and was rated as beaten. This despite Richmond rucking a full back/occasional forward and a second gamer. For Duft-Tytler it was 4/10 and the comment "time to give him the ruckman duties and let the kid go". Apparently not as dangerous as you claim. As for the key backs Young got 3/10 and was "losing too many one on one contests". Note these aren't my ramblings, but the opinion of someone with a combined 300 games of AFL experience as a player and senior coach.

Based on those ratings my suggestion of trying out Bailey Williams as a key back and giving the youngsters more time in the ruck is hardly a wild one.

I agree that Bailey should at some point get a run down back, but putting CDT in the ruck anywhere more than 20% is a death sentence for the kid. If Archer was healthy I'd honestly just say here are the keys.

 

[Pottering]

I agree that Bailey should at some point get a run down back, but putting CDT in the ruck anywhere more than 20% is a death sentence for the kid. If Archer was healthy I'd honestly just say here are the keys.

CDT and Archer Reid sharing the ruck was my preferred option till Reid got injured. But CDT is rotting away in a forward pocket, no doubt being told to keep out the way of Waterman and Shanahan, getting very little ruck work. He needs more exposure, with back up of course. Doubtless whatever ruck combo we have won't be good enough to beat the opposition, but Williams/Flynn arent doing that anyway. I just want us to explore some options. BTW bringing Owies back in after 1 good week in the WAFL is hardly a good option and treating Hewitt as though he's an automatic selection if he's match fit is a shocking option.

 

[txbyhull]

CDT and Archer Reid sharing the ruck was my preferred option till Reid got injured. But CDT is rotting away in a forward pocket, no doubt being told to keep out the way of Waterman and Shanahan, getting very little ruck work. He needs more exposure, with back up of course. Doubtless whatever ruck combo we have won't be good enough to beat the opposition, but Williams/Flynn arent doing that anyway. I just want us to explore some options.

We aren't beating the oppo with Baz in the middle but his opponents are not single handedly winning the game against him like Flynn's oppo regularly does. If Archer was healthy I would be saying play Archer/Flynn in the Steene/Cameron, Jackson/Darcy, Aleer/Briggs or Aleer/Madden roles that we have seen lately.

Flynn gets dominated in the centre, Archer and CDT get outbodied around the ground, needs to be around the other way like so many other clubs are doing. Get your tall leaper in the middle and let your bigger bodied ruck around the ground and in the back half.

 

[Mop]

Saturday's game only supported my argument.

We had 7 goals kicked against us by Richmond tall forwards, only one of which came from a noted forward, Tom Lynch. Even Jonty Faull, who I rate as a dud, kicked three.

According to the player ratings in The West Bailey Williams got 5/10 and was rated as beaten. This despite Richmond rucking a full back/occasional forward and a second gamer. For Duft-Tytler it was 4/10 and the comment "time to give him the ruckman duties and let the kid go". Apparently not as dangerous as you claim. As for the key backs Young got 3/10 and was "losing too many one on one contests". Note these aren't my ramblings, but the opinion of someone with a combined 300 games of AFL experience as a player and senior coach.

Based on those ratings my suggestion of trying out Bailey Williams as a key back and giving the youngsters more time in the ruck is hardly a wild one.

Cool, a journalist doesn’t change my perspective. The amount of damage - structural stress fracture types - he’d be exposed to as a first year ruck are just not worth it

Maybe CDT can increase centre throw attendances as the new rules eliminate wrestling, but around the ground is where I’d be inclined to not as that’s where the risk is IMO.

Hard to disagree that Bailey Williams wasn’t beaten on Sunday though - he was beaten by a non ruck.

 

[stallon]

Saturday's game only supported my argument.

We had 7 goals kicked against us by Richmond tall forwards, only one of which came from a noted forward, Tom Lynch. Even Jonty Faull, who I rate as a dud, kicked three.

According to the player ratings in The West Bailey Williams got 5/10 and was rated as beaten. This despite Richmond rucking a full back/occasional forward and a second gamer. For Duft-Tytler it was 4/10 and the comment "time to give him the ruckman duties and let the kid go". Apparently not as dangerous as you claim. As for the key backs Young got 3/10 and was "losing too many one on one contests". Note these aren't my ramblings, but the opinion of someone with a combined 300 games of AFL experience as a player and senior coach.

Based on those ratings my suggestion of trying out Bailey Williams as a key back and giving the youngsters more time in the ruck is hardly a wild one.

We dont have anyone even close to as effective as BW to be our main ruckman, so no it doesnt support your argument

We have holes in our list being ruck and KPD, taking our only AFL ready full time ruck and making him play a role he hasnt trained just on a whim is an awful idea.

CDT is not ready to be the number 1 guy, JWilliams is not it, Archer is injured and not quite ready either tbh, Flynn is a big ****ing NO.

Edwards is nearly back, thats our solution to the KPD stuff...

 

[stallon]

We aren't beating the oppo with Baz in the middle but his opponents are not single handedly winning the game against him like Flynn's oppo regularly does. If Archer was healthy I would be saying play Archer/Flynn in the Steene/Cameron, Jackson/Darcy, Aleer/Briggs or Aleer/Madden roles that we have seen lately.

Flynn gets dominated in the centre, Archer and CDT get outbodied around the ground, needs to be around the other way like so many other clubs are doing. Get your tall leaper in the middle and let your bigger bodied ruck around the ground and in the back half.

If Flynn never went to a single CBA, and Archer/CDT did all of them(maybe 70% Archer, 30% CDT) with Flynn doing 50-60% TOG like Darcy does id be open to trying it, but Flynn probably isnt quite good enough around the ground as a ruckman to justify it

Dont want a Cameron style one where Cameron sits forward, we have to be able to run Flynn at 50-60% TOG otherwise we may as well just run BW, and re-assess the ruck splits for next season when Archer and CDT have another pre-season under their belts.

 

[Pottering]

We dont have anyone even close to as effective as BW to be our main ruckman, so no it doesnt support your argument

We have holes in our list being ruck and KPD, taking our only AFL ready full time ruck and making him play a role he hasnt trained just on a whim is an awful idea.

CDT is not ready to be the number 1 guy, JWilliams is not it, Archer is injured and not quite ready either tbh, Flynn is a big ****ing NO.

Edwards is nearly back, thats our solution to the KPD stuff...

Sorry, but Williams direct opponent was virtually BOG, he was named in the West's Team of the Round. And Balta is a non-ruckman, temporarily filling a gap till Nankervis is back, not a Gawn/Grundy type. If that's as effective as we have have then it barely matters who's in there.

Harry Edwards back will be great. But the grim reality is he may be one concussion away from retirement (Starcevich is in the same boat). Young isn't up to it, Brock isn't up to it and if Bazzo can't get a game ahead of those two then he isn't up to it. That means we have only Ginbey and Edwards as our two key defenders. That doesn't cut it I'm afraid. We need to find another big defender. And Williams, I believe, should be looked at. If you disagree, fair enough, we all have our opinions. But you've presented nothing that shows my opinion should be discounted out of hand.

 

[txbyhull]

Sorry, but Williams direct opponent was virtually BOG, he was named in the West's Team of the Round. And Balta is a non-ruckman, temporarily filling a gap till Nankervis is back, not a Gawn/Grundy type. If that's as effective as we have have then it barely matters who's in there.

Harry Edwards back will be great. But the grim reality is he may be one concussion away from retirement (Starcevich is in the same boat). Young isn't up to it, Brock isn't up to it and if Bazzo can't get a game ahead of those two then he isn't up to it. That means we have only Ginbey and Edwards as our two key defenders. That doesn't cut it I'm afraid. We need to find another big defender. And Williams, I believe, should be looked at. If you disagree, fair enough, we all have our opinions. But you've presented nothing that shows my opinion should be discounted out of hand.

Slightly disingenuous, Balta was BOG because when he went forward he kicked 3 and took 4 (?) contested marks. He certainly got the better of Baz, but no one would have said he was BOG if based solely off his match up with Williams.

I do completely disagree with the take that the difference between Baz and Flynn isn’t massive. It’s ****ing enormous.

 

[stallon]

Sorry, but Williams direct opponent was virtually BOG, he was named in the West's Team of the Round. And Balta is a non-ruckman, temporarily filling a gap till Nankervis is back, not a Gawn/Grundy type. If that's as effective as we have have then it barely matters who's in there.

Harry Edwards back will be great. But the grim reality is he may be one concussion away from retirement (Starcevich is in the same boat). Young isn't up to it, Brock isn't up to it and if Bazzo can't get a game ahead of those two then he isn't up to it. That means we have only Ginbey and Edwards as our two key defenders. That doesn't cut it I'm afraid. We need to find another big defender. And Williams, I believe, should be looked at. If you disagree, fair enough, we all have our opinions. But you've presented nothing that shows my opinion should be discounted out of hand.

Williams opponent wasnt BOG as a ruckman, he went forward when Williams wasnt on him...

Please dont be stupid

The reality is BW is our only half competent ruckman and he should stay there.

We can look at BW as a KPD when and if we get another ruckman to replace him

Just stop it, your suggestion is very silly

 

[Pottering]

Slightly disingenuous, Balta was BOG because when he went forward he kicked 3 and took 4 (?) contested marks. He certainly got the better of Baz, but no one would have said he was BOG if based solely off his match up with Williams.

I do completely disagree with the take that the difference between Baz and Flynn isn’t massive. It’s ****ing enormous.

That's funny, I never made any comment on the difference between Williams and Flynn, but I still got called over that non-comment.

That a backman, Balta, could play both ruck and resting forward only reinforces my point about our lack key defenders and why trying Williams in that role is worth looking at.

 

[Pottering]

Williams opponent wasnt BOG as a ruckman, he went forward when Williams wasnt on him...

Please dont be stupid

The reality is BW is our only half competent ruckman and he should stay there.

We can look at BW as a KPD when and if we get another ruckman to replace him

Just stop it, your suggestion is very silly

All you are doing is assuming because my opinion differs from yours then by default I must be wrong. I gave you comments from Danielle Laidley to support my opinion to show my thoughts weren't the ravings of someone who knew nothing about the game. But that appears to have been ignored in favour of your opinion.

If Balta went forward and kicked three goals that only highlights our deficiency in the key defender roles. And that is what I'm trying to rectify. It's not like I'm telling Melbourne that they need to turn Max Gawn into a key defender to stiffen up their backline. That would them throwing away a massive advantage they have over most teams. But how many teams are planning against Bailey Williams?

BTW I proved my footy credentials on Saturday when I stood under a high ball, kept my eyes on the pill and took the mark of the day in row 4 on the outer wing. Look at the adoring fans around me who knew they'd witnessed something special.

 

[LittleFires]

Even if Bailey wasn’t responsible for Balta’s 3 goals, the reality is Balta had 18 contested possessions (vs Bailey’s 8) and 6 clearances (vs Bailey’s 2).

So he was clearly well beaten in the middle. Not great given Balta is a part-timer, but with that being said I think we need to back him in and give him the chance to respond against Gawn. Not expecting miracles but if he can at least nullify his influence I’ll be happy.

 

[stallon]

All you are doing is assuming because my opinion differs from yours then by default I must be wrong. I gave you comments from Danielle Laidley to support my opinion to show mh thoughts weren't the ravings of someone who knew nothing abiut the game. But that appears to have been ignored in favour of your opinion.

If Balta went forward and kicked three goals that only highlights our deficiency in the key defender roles. And that is what I'm trying to rectify. It's not like I'm telling Melbourne that they need to turn Max Gawn into a key defender to stiffen up their backline. That would them throwing away a massive advantage they have over most teams. But how many teams are planning against Bailey Williams?

Its not worth taking away our only half competent ruckman to attempt to fill a hole that he probably cant fill anyway.

You haven't presented a realistic option of how we are going to cover our ruck situation with BW not in there.

Flynn isnt an option obviously, CDT isnt ready, Archer isnt healthy and isnt ready either, JWilliams isnt a ruckman and hes not really very good anyway.
Those are our options

BTW I proved my footy credentials on Saturday when I stood under a high ball, kept my eyes on the pill and took the mark of the day in row 4 on the outer wing. Look at the adoring fans around me who knew they'd witnessed something special.

 

[Pottering]

Its not worth taking away our only half competent ruckman to attempt to fill a hole that he probably cant fill anyway.

You haven't presented a realistic option of how we are going to cover our ruck situation with BW not in there.

Flynn isnt an option obviously, CDT isnt ready, Archer isnt healthy and isnt ready either, JWilliams isnt a ruckman and hes not really very good anyway.
Those are our options

Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result? Where have I heard that before? We'll never know if he could fill a hole in defence that needs filling under your scheme. Just same old, same old.