changes against melbourne

[pazza]

Welsh still struggles skill wise. Doesn't really kick well over 35 metres and is quite prone to the turnover as a result.

Hocking is a much better midfielder than in defence. Slattery goes the other way.

For the record, Hocking did well enough to curb players the quality of Mitchell, S. Burgoyne, Dal Santo (no mean feats any of those), so he's earned his place. And been a goalkicking midfielder to boot.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

McPhee (needs an example to be made of him - senior players need to show the way, he didn't and hasn't all year apart from Anzac Day)

What the....

I can never understand the hate for McPhee.

It's been his great work lately that has helped the kids out in defence minus Fletcher.

 

[Mad Bomber Sean]

Ins : Winderlich,Jetta, Darcy

Outs: Skipworth, Monfries, Zaha


The game against the Dees is dangerous & should not be taken lightly ( like some bombers fans did the Crows game ).

As the Dees are very young, Darcy & Jetta should play. Obviously Winders is an automatic inclusion.

Monfries' average season ( except for a few games ) has turned him from automatic lock to perhaps another very good depth player & he needs another spell .

Skippy is a very good depth player and after we missed perhaps our last chance to make the finals, his size & maturity is not as required against the young Dees & we are better off playing younger players who could be part of our next premiership team.

Zaha is the future, but for team balance & to give Darcy a go he gets a rest.

How about playing Neagle for 100% game time in the VFL this weekend ?
After his 3 touches & 1 tackle last week against the Crows, it would help his fitness & confidence to kick a few goals at Bendigo. Of course he should play for the Bombers V Dees, but I wouldnt tell him that this week !

 

[Kaan]

Relax, Zaharakis is in his first year and a rest wont do him any harm.

 

[AndyLesPaul]

wat the f? zaharakis dropped? WE NEED TO PLAY THE KIDS. Slattery in? is that a joke? Hocking's LEFT FINGER > SLATTERY. SLATTERY IS A POOR MANS Hocking. Please PLEASE PLEASE do not drop hocking.

Houli wont and better not or ill flipping crak it .... houli will improve give it time.

There's no need to shit on Slattery.
Last week Zaharakis played rather badly, and may need a little stint in the twos.
I've never seen a first year player play every game in that season before. (I don't think.)

 

[Mad Bomber Sean]

There's no need to shit on Slattery.
Last week Zaharakis played rather badly, and may need a little stint in the twos.
I've never seen a first year player play every game in that season before. (I don't think.)

Adii_7 save us from your cerebral aneurysm - there is no need to excrete over Slatts. Face the truth he has been good this year.

Although I agree lets play the kids & give Slatts longer to recover from his injury.

How about playing Darcy though ?

Zaha can have a break - With our Ruck problems we need some one to take Hookers place when he replaces Ryder in the Ruck so Darcy is the answer.

 

[The_Young_Gun]

I've been known to give Slattery a lot of shit over the last few years.

But this year he has been second to none down back...

 

[Kong]

he has the WEEK OFF. any more rest = holiday mode. jesus

As do you. Enjoy.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Sanity: 1
Morons: 0

 

[james_omahoney]

Against Geelong he had Steve Johnson in the fisrt quarter and Johnson had 4 possesions and a goal. The second quarter he has Djerrkura for about 15 minutes and was then switched to the wing where he did not have a taging job and had 15 or so possesions and kicked 2 goals.

Not disagreeing with your overall post Ant, but just a correction - Johnson had 1.1 and 3 goal assists v. Hocking (1 assist in the second quarter). But I rate the kid highly .

 

[ant555]

Re: Changes vs Melbourne (Split Round, Long Discussion)

IMO hocking is neither quick enough or skilfull enough to be anything other than a tagger. as long as knights is intent on implementing a quick/skilfull gameplan then there is no room for either hocking or lonergan when essendon is at full strength. surely welsh (when fit) is a better alternative as a tagger. skipworth is not that quick either but has better skills and is a handy goal sneak - i'm not saying he's best 22 but he might be closer than hocking/lonergan.

however when essendon's midfield is fully fit and consists of watson, mcveigh and prismall then perhaps we'll be wondering which opponents will be tagging them?

So who gets the footy to your outside running players ? If we go by your thinking then we sill simply be lining up with a bunch of speedstars plus Stanton and Watson.

I know it is your opinion on Hocking but i am sick of hearing he is too slow or not skilled enough.
He is not quick, that is a fact but he is not dead slow either. The fact that he finishes in the middle section of the mdifeld group in sprints during pre season shows that. He is actually quicker than Watson and Lonergan. His sprint times are simliar to Stanton. These are facts and not just observations!
As for the skills if he is so unskilled then how come over the course of the season he has averaged 79% eff ? That puts him in the top 10 in the side for effective disposals.
If he gets in space he is one of the better kicks in the side.
His disposal eff in the VFL was in the low 80's and his disposal eff over two years of TAC Cup was in the low 90's.
The whole skills argument is a furphy. Like many others he has had days where he has dropped as low as 65% but the majority of his games he has been in the 80% eff range.

You will just never admit your initial judgment was wrong. You bagged him before the season started. You have bagged him since despite the fact that you have not actually kown who he was playing on.

So far the my opinion in saying he would be a good hard midfielder who can add value to the side without him being a star has been on the money.

 

[Kong]

Re: Changes vs Melbourne (Split Round, Long Discussion)

[...]

Well said mate. I'm so sick of reading the same old uninformed opinions on players such as Hocking, Watson, Stanton and the like.

 

[Bombs Away]

In Fketcher, Winderlich, H Slattery (club favourite at selection table)

Out Skipworth, Lonergan and Hocking

If welsh was right would also look at dropping monfries.

Zaka doesnt need a rest, I thought he did before but the bye should be enough to freshen him up. Hopefully reimers and prismall are both fir, both didnt move well

 

[Mad Bomber Sean]

Why are people asking for Hocking & Lonergan to be dropped ?

Aside from Watson do we want a team made up of outside mids that can run the ball, but cant win a contested ball?

We are not the Tiwi Bombers - we are an AFL team playing iin the toughest football competition in the world.

Perhaps we should all at least understand some of the game & how it is played before we comment..

 

[daffo]

Lonergan has been playing up in the forward line the whole year, I would love for him to get some time in the middle.
There is no way Hocking will get dropped, people are just throwing his name up since they have read it in the previous post.
Hopefully we'll get some feedback on how the likes of Jetta, Welsh, Winders etc have trained and we'll all have a more accurate opinion on who will be in this week.

 

[GoldenboyHird_5]

Michael Hurley
Wrist
Test

Michael had surgery after fracturing his scaphoid (wrist) in the VFL. He could return this week.

Dustin Fletcher
Fractured fibula
Test

Dustin in on track to return for the Round 12 clash with Melbourne after sustaining a slight crack to his fibula during the match against Brisbane.

Injuries were updated this morning.

Welsh and WInderlich aren't listed either so we could have Hurls, Fletch and those two in this week.

Slattery is listed as hammy - one more week. He and NLM could be brought in the week after agasnt the baggers.

 

[beev]

Fletch and Winder should play.

Not sure who will go out but it will probably come down to Neagle, Lonergan, Zaka, Monfries or Skipworth.

 

[Godzke]

Don't think Welsh will return.

I made the early call that Hurley and Fletcher won't make a return. According to that latest article on afl.com.au, if fletch does come back it would be considered "rushed".

Although it's important to really get the win against a struggling side, I think we should give Hurley and Fletch another week to recover rather than "rushing" anyone back.

Winderlich should be set to return.

Would drop Zaka or Longeran for him. Probably Zaka.

 

[GoldenboyHird_5]

lol do you really want to bring a Fletcher without a any games under his belt against Carlton?

Would be the dumbest decision in recent history considering Fev.

need to bring him in this week to let him get a game under his belt.

 

[Darealrath]

lol do you really want to bring a Fletcher without a any games under his belt against Carlton?

Would be the dumbest decision in recent history considering Fev.

need to bring him in this week to let him get a game under his belt.

He wouldn't play on Fev anyway. It would be Pears, Hooker, Daniher or Hurley.

 

[bomberstomake8]

Don't think Welsh will return.

I made the early call that Hurley and Fletcher won't make a return. According to that latest article on afl.com.au, if fletch does come back it would be considered "rushed".

Although it's important to really get the win against a struggling side, I think we should give Hurley and Fletch another week to recover rather than "rushing" anyone back.

Winderlich should be set to return.

Would drop Zaka or Longeran for him. Probably Zaka.

the afl article said rushed but nowhere in any quotes was it even implied that he would be rushed back. he was always on track for the game against melbourne and from memory all that was said in that article is that he is still on track to play against melbourne, thats just journos trying to spin topics.

anyways i would go with IN fletcher winderlick
Out: zaka, skipworth


as for the other poster regarding fevola i would imagine pears would get the job on fev, should be a good match up. anyways the old cliche one week at a time should come into play here

 

[GoldenboyHird_5]

That's not the point. The point is sooner or later you're going to have to play 'underdone' players.

Would you rather play an 'underdone' player against Melbourne or Carlton?

 

[Godzke]

We are not the Tiwi Bombers - we are an AFL team playing iin the toughest football competition in the world.

lol at the tiwi bombers reference

lol do you really want to bring a Fletcher without a any games under his belt against Carlton?

Would be the dumbest decision in recent history considering Fev.

need to bring him in this week to let him get a game under his belt.

nothing to do with getting game time under his belt.

it's all a question of whether he's physically up to it. we're talking about a 34 year old bloke returning from a broken bone.

if he so desperately needs match time, which i disagree because he's played over 300 senior games, then he can return the following weekend in the Bendigo lineup.

 

[GoldenboyHird_5]

'then he can return the following weekend in the Bendigo lineup'

don't claim things when you have no idea.

Bendigo doesn't play for another 2 weeks.

You want to then introduce him into a blockbuster against Collingwood? Even McVeigh, 27 and 150-odd games of experience and in his prime, needed a few SENIOR games to get back into the swing of things.

Playing Lank at Bendigo is not going to help him to adjust to senior football, especially against teams like Carlton and Collingwood

 

[james_omahoney]

'then he can return the following weekend in the Bendigo lineup'

don't claim things when you have no idea.

Bendigo doesn't play for another 2 weeks.

You want to then introduce him into a blockbuster against Collingwood? Even McVeigh, 27 and 150-odd games of experience and in his prime, needed a few SENIOR games to get back into the swing of things.

Playing Lank at Bendigo is not going to help him to adjust to senior football, especially against teams like Carlton and Collingwood

Fletcher is not McVeigh. I'd be very surprised if many people thought he wouldn't be up to the job upon his return. Not a risk. Wouldn't be playing on a full forward anyway. Doesn't matter who we're playing.