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Opinion 2014

  • Thread starter Thread starter Simmofreo
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Would you send Natanui to GWS?
I wouldn't mainly because Cox probably last year next year and Lycett is a work in progress and I'm still on the fence with him, it's not like you'd be low on goal kicking midfield talent if you traded Fyfe, and you'd receive a young up and coming forward to replace Pav with.
 
I wouldn't mainly because Cox probably last year next year and Lycett is a work in progress and I'm still on the fence with him, it's not like you'd be low on goal kicking midfield talent if you traded Fyfe, and you'd receive a young up and coming forward to replace Pav with.
he is the future of the club...would be a ridiculous move
 
Whilst I do believe that next year is Premiership or bust for the club, I think it is important that the club doesn't throw all their eggs in one basket and go out of their way to win a flag. When I say that, i mean I hope they don't compromise their draft picks and their development of youth just to win the flag this year. The Saints went with this approach and it backfired on them. They missed out, and now they're stuffed for a long time.

It is important we keep developing young players and making sure that our club never completely bottoms out. Sydney and Geelong have been the benchmarks of consistency in recent times. What we have seen from Lachie Neale, Sutcliffe, Crozier and Sheridan this year have been really promising. We have been a struggling club for a long time and we deserve to have sustained success for a while, and we deserve a few premierships along the way.
 

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Whilst I do believe that next year is Premiership or bust for the club, I think it is important that the club doesn't throw all their eggs in one basket and go out of their way to win a flag. When I say that, i mean I hope they don't compromise their draft picks and their development of youth just to win the flag this year. The Saints went with this approach and it backfired on them. They missed out, and now they're stuffed for a long time.

It is important we keep developing young players and making sure that our club never completely bottoms out. Sydney and Geelong have been the benchmarks of consistency in recent times. What we have seen from Lachie Neale, Sutcliffe, Crozier and Sheridan this year have been really promising. We have been a struggling club for a long time and we deserve to have sustained success for a while, and we deserve a few premierships along the way.


Remember that Ross has many, many more tools to utilise here than he did at the Saints. Fremantle have a very good drafting and rookie listing strategy which has been paying dividends. They won't sell the farm.
 
I wouldn't mainly because Cox probably last year next year and Lycett is a work in progress and I'm still on the fence with him, it's not like you'd be low on goal kicking midfield talent if you traded Fyfe, and you'd receive a young up and coming forward to replace Pav with.
As a Wc Fan you know all about winning grand finals without elite tall forwards, the midfield is where most games are won or lost. Fyfe has the ability to play both, needs to work on his kicking skills, but has time on his side.
We have the luxury of playing him as a forward if that is required, with short stints in the middle(Hird)
 
We flew under the radar this year. Lots of clubs will go to school on us. Lyon is one for preaching about staying ahead of the pack so no doubt he will rejig things and come up with new strategies.

This has to be top of the list for mine. I probably have a little more fondness for the Connolly era than most posters here, but aside from the obvious fractures which are only now being publicly talked about, one of his biggest mistakes was believing that a GF was imminent and trying to recruit even more experience and not bothering to evolve the very successful 2006 game plan in the anticipation that the other sides would come up with a way to counter it. Which they did, very quickly, and it set us back years.

Clearly, most teams are now going to try and mimic the manic pressure game that brought us so much attention towards the end of the year. We'll still be leading exponents of it, of course, but as the GF demonstrated, the days of hack kicks forward in hope more than design must be over.

We need to find out if Tanner Smith is going to make it as a KPD, and with Johnson and Duffield also ageing we must focus on getting the best young defender we can in the draft so they have time to bed in before that next wave of retirements in our backline.

If Sumich departs, then we need to headhunt a top drawer forward coach to rebuild our often chaotic approach forward of centre so that our system works equally well without Pav as with him for however long is left. A bulked up Taberner shows potential as a running CHF type, and I would try Hannath as a tall marking target to hold some shape when the team concertinas up the ground - Jack has a mature physique already, can take a good pack mark, has good kicking skills for a tall man and really showed more as a forward than as a ruckman during his appearances for us this year.
 
Lets be honest. People are stupid. Basically only some experts and people on here saw us finishing top 4. Top 4 was the benchmark for our club and for me personally, given what we showed last year. Everyone thinks we had a soft draw, that's how we made the grand final, but tell me, is beating geelong in geelong a soft win? Don't listen to those people, they don't have a clue. I see us finishing top 4 again, with a good run of injuries, top 2.
 
- not too worried about pav, he seemed in pretty good shape towards the end of the year.
- macca is the biggest worry as we dont really have a quality replacement for him
- sandi can be rested, we have enough in the ruck department

looking forward too:
- josh simpson hopefully getting a few games
- another pre-season for neale
- another pre-season for crozier
- another pre-season for sutty
- another pre-season for walters
- mora!
 
Lets be honest. People are stupid. Basically only some experts and people on here saw us finishing top 4. Top 4 was the benchmark for our club and for me personally, given what we showed last year. Everyone thinks we had a soft draw, that's how we made the grand final, but tell me, is beating geelong in geelong a soft win? Don't listen to those people, they don't have a clue. I see us finishing top 4 again, with a good run of injuries, top 2.
beating Geelong in Geelong defined us. The players need to keep going back to this, while blocking out the grand final. Play that game over and over in their minds and they will begin to believe again! it was unexpected and so out of the box...you can't expect to have too many miracles like that.
 
- not too worried about pav, he seemed in pretty good shape towards the end of the year.
- macca is the biggest worry as we dont really have a quality replacement for him
- sandi can be rested, we have enough in the ruck department

looking forward too:
- josh simpson hopefully getting a few games
- another pre-season for neale
- another pre-season for crozier
- another pre-season for sutty
- another pre-season for walters
- mora!
Sandilands should be the new Clark Keating.
 

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Collingwood also seem a little bit unsettled and will lose a few players. WCE will have quite a few of their guns retire.

Biggest threats to us this year will be North Melbourne, Port Adelaide and possibly Richmond.

If Alistair really does go to WCE that could be "interesting" and Fyfe had better stay put!

I'm not sure about Collingwood, they are fundamentally a sound team - especially in the middle and fwd. The players they'll lose are surplus under-performers. They look like picking up White who will I think will be good for them as long as Cloke is playing. Their issues back of centre are there, but even then, they could cover them if they're smart. They lack depth in certain areas, I'm still not convinced of Buckley as coach, but he has the year of experience under him, and with all those games at the G, I wouldn't right them off yet.

Port should get better for obvious reasons, but are still fundamentally lack depth in the midfield so it would have to go really well for them to be top 4, but yeah, they'll be a threat.

Nth by rights should be playing finals, but top 4, not sure about that, maybe if they get their heads in gear and Crybaby Scott starts teaching them to play defence.

Richmond could make a play at it.

Carlton don't impress me, but Darth is a proven coach and there is a bit of individual talent on that list that directed right could do something, so they could push a few teams.

I said the Swans before might slide, but thinking about it that was wrong. They are still strong were it matters, and are going to be a lot healthier next year than they finished this year - they should be top 4 material I'd say.

Really, as long as we can stay healthy and the big 3 as I mentioned are managed well, I really think we should be top 4 as a minimum.
 
On the main board they have a sliders and risers thread, and it is surprising to see a huge number predicting Freo to slide.
Surprising? Consecutive GFs are pretty hard to achieve even ones you don't win. I think we are well placed for another shot (had a lot injuries this year, probably don't lose key players) but other team try to improve (and it is a close race atm, even the team finishing close 9th did damage in finals), too. Well, still I agree that a real slide is unlikely. Top 4 again is a realistic pass mark for me.
 
beating Geelong in Geelong defined us. The players need to keep going back to this, while blocking out the grand final. Play that game over and over in their minds and they will begin to believe again! it was unexpected and so out of the box...you can't expect to have too many miracles like that.
There was nothing miraculous about it. We played better football. That is it.
 

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Exactly, and Pav and McP will clearly be worse players next year. Sandi can still cause some damage if he keeps himself fit but those two will be on the slide next year.
On the upside, if we tread water that will be enough to stay top 4 - there are cogent reasons to think all of Hawks, Swans and Cats will dip next year too. It's all about top 4, we can have a shot from there


Not sure I understand. Why will they be worse players? Because they're a year older? This is fundamentally flawed thinking. They will still possess all of the talents that they had this year and are still All Australian quality. Unlike players of yesteryears, they are likely to be carefully managed to prolong their careers. If they want to keep playing, I'd expect another 3 years out of both.
 
Nup, with the new draw system we will have a similar draw to 1-6.

My main concern is Mcpharlin and Sandilands age, a little for pavlich too.
 
Might be a tad pedantic but people need to remember it's not a draw but a fixture designed to maximise revenue, but yes our fixture next year will likely be much more difficult. I will lose my shit if they make us play the Hawks in Tassie again though, or Sydney in Sydney for that matter (unless we play both teams twice).
 
I would manage pav sandi and mcpharlin next year.

Id have the full strength team playing at any MCG games, other than that i wouldnt play them more than 15 games during the H&A.

Its all about september.
 
I know it's a little early but what are your initial thoughts for 2014 ?
On the main board they have a sliders and risers thread, and it is surprising to see a huge number predicting Freo to slide.

The concern for me is that we will be guaranteed to have a harder draw and teams like WC, Gold Coast and Sydney are sure to have less injuries than they did this year.

Also so much has been made of our pressure that teams will plot how to combat it over the off season like hawthorn managed to. And will we see teams lower down the ladder copying Lyons game plan next year because they believe it works ?

I hope we can get a key forward and keep our best players on the ground and experience that GF excitement again, but I have no illusions of how hard that will be.

I would like to hear your thoughts ???


Hawthorn didn't manage to combat it. 77 points. We just didn't capitalise
 
Might be a tad pedantic but people need to remember it's not a draw but a fixture designed to maximise revenue, but yes our fixture next year will likely be much more difficult. I will lose my shit if they make us play the Hawks in Tassie again though, or Sydney in Sydney for that matter (unless we play both teams twice).

They will send us to tassie so that they can have the privilege of a grand final rematch to help increase crowd numbers ;)
 

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