Preview Changes: Round 11 vs GWS

[Jack is Back]

Are you saying that the thrashings we have been on in the end of while being a "successful team" aren't concerning? Cause premiership teams don't get done by 90 points by sides that haven't been up for a long time...

Any club in the AFL that loses 3 of their best 6 players and another 3 or 4 of their next best 8 players will be screwed. Last year Poort Pear lost Paddy ****** Ryder and rolled over on their back like a baby kitten.

List the best 15 players for every club, list our best 15 and then tell me how the other 17 teams will perfom losing the same quality of players. Who are performing above expectations? Melbourne now that they have all of their best 15 players available, Poort beat us by a few points with 13 or 14 of their best players (some of the Poort Board do not rate Broadbent and Hartlett which means 15/15). Brisbane now have all 15 of their best players available and suddenly look O.K. Kangaroos also have 15/15 and Richmond had 14/15 on Saturday but once they lost Riewoldt and Houli almost lost to the cellar dwellers.

On Saturday we were missing Smith, B Crouch, Walker, Sloane, McGovern, Seedsman (plus Knight who IMHO is in our best 22) and lost Brown in the first quarter. We had 4 players who had 20 odd games between them and several underdone players coming back from injury (Gibson, Milera).

Which clubs are underperforming? Adelaide, GWS, Bulldogs? Guess what they have in common?

If we get back most of the missing players our performance will lift, if things remain the way they are, we will not make the Eight. It aint rocket science mate.

 

[Bicks]

Won't have to worry about Brett Deledio this week, done his calf AGAIN at training expected to miss 8 weeks.

 

[Tex200]

Any club in the AFL that loses 3 of their best 6 players and another 3 or 4 of their next best 8 players will be screwed. Last year Poort Pear lost Paddy ****** Ryder and rolled over on their back like a baby kitten.

List the best 15 players for every club, list our best 15 and then tell me how the other 17 teams will perfom losing the same quality of players. Who are performing above expectations? Melbourne now that they have all of their best 15 players available, Poort beat us by a few points with 13 or 14 of their best players (some of the Poort Board do not rate Broadbent and Hartlett which means 15/15). Brisbane now have all 15 of their best players available and suddenly look O.K. Kangaroos also have 15/15 and Richmond had 14/15 on Saturday but once they lost Riewoldt and Houli almost lost to the cellar dwellers.

On Saturday we were missing Smith, B Crouch, Walker, Sloane, McGovern, Seedsman (plus Knight who IMHO is in our best 22) and lost Brown in the first quarter. We had 4 players who had 20 odd games between them and several underdone players coming back from injury (Gibson, Milera).

Which clubs are underperforming? Adelaide, GWS, Bulldogs? Guess what they have in common?

If we get back most of the missing players our performance will lift, if things remain the way they are, we will not make the Eight. It aint rocket science mate.

I don't disagree with what you have posted as it applies to the game yesterday. I didn't think we would win. For a number of reasons the result was reasonably predictable if you were being objective.

So I looked at it as being a game you just let slide and look to win this week, split the Freo/Hawks trips and get to the bye 8-5 with players coming back.

But don't for a minute think that a pass for this game, excuses or removes the reality that we are at times a very flakey side. A side that is capable of unpacking a hideous, uncompetitive, embarrassing, nothing performance that shames them, the club and its supporters.

And said pathetic performance can be displayed at any time, any place, without any warning, without any reason or justification. We could be in good form and have no injuries. It could be an important game, a critical game or a nothing game.

Make no mistake this is one of the most dishonest playing groups to ever represent this club.

 

[Bazz_27]

Any club in the AFL that loses 3 of their best 6 players and another 3 or 4 of their next best 8 players will be screwed. Last year Poort Pear lost Paddy ****** Ryder and rolled over on their back like a baby kitten.

List the best 15 players for every club, list our best 15 and then tell me how the other 17 teams will perfom losing the same quality of players. Who are performing above expectations? Melbourne now that they have all of their best 15 players available, Poort beat us by a few points with 13 or 14 of their best players (some of the Poort Board do not rate Broadbent and Hartlett which means 15/15). Brisbane now have all 15 of their best players available and suddenly look O.K. Kangaroos also have 15/15 and Richmond had 14/15 on Saturday but once they lost Riewoldt and Houli almost lost to the cellar dwellers.

On Saturday we were missing Smith, B Crouch, Walker, Sloane, McGovern, Seedsman (plus Knight who IMHO is in our best 22) and lost Brown in the first quarter. We had 4 players who had 20 odd games between them and several underdone players coming back from injury (Gibson, Milera).

Which clubs are underperforming? Adelaide, GWS, Bulldogs? Guess what they have in common?

If we get back most of the missing players our performance will lift, if things remain the way they are, we will not make the Eight. It aint rocket science mate.

Whatever helps you sleep at night.... no one stood up

 

[Mike Smyth]

After that game, a good club would stamp Mackays card - " SANFL for the rest of the year and then delist"

 

[WaynesWorld19]

After that game, a good club would stamp Mackays card - " SANFL for the rest of the year and then delist"

 

[WaynesWorld19]

"Mackay - Epitomizes our lack of success over the last 20 years. Absolute liability; an awful plodder with poor skills and inability to tackle.
Jenkins - If you're injured, don't play. If you aren't injured, play with ******* heart and ability you lazy tall hack
Atkins - Front runner. Soft, fumbly under pressure. Not a great two way runner at all.
Douglas - Played some hard footy but didn't use it well at all.
Laird - Used it well, made good decisions, tried his heart out despite an inside 50 onslaught."

Cripes, talk about rinse and repeat!

 

[Crow till I die]

Sure, if everyone comes back healthy and firing and we win every game, everything will be fine.

Problem is after the bye we have:
Eagles (1st), Richmond (2nd), Cats (6th), Brisbane, Melbourne (3rd), Port (9th), GWS (11th), North (5th), Carlton.

Our easy section of the fixture is over.

Said in another thread if we get top 4 from here that will mean likely wining 10 of our last 12 to get to 16 wins, and that will be a fricken mighty effort.

Sure the draw is tough from here. If we get to the bye at 9-4 and get the majority of our key personnel back after the bye then if we are good enough we will win a few of those games. We don't just get bad overnight and yes the odd poor game happens but i am not going to write us off from finals this year if we pick ourselves up and win the next few games against teams that are in no great form themselves. I remember things under coaches like shaw, ayres, sanderson (after the 2012 high water mark) and limping to the end of the season with a 9-13 re ord or whatever. I'll take things as they currently are anyday as we are ok

 

[Jack is Back]

Whatever helps you sleep at night.... no one stood up

Quality retort to my analysis. Which parts would you like to dispute?

As I stated before the match, I couldn’t see how we could win, then we lost Seedsman and Brown. I expected to lose by 5 - 10 goals but we were absolutely horrible. The win over Sydney and winning 3 of the last 4 (almost 4/4) is harder to explain.

Throwing the toys out of the cot along with Jacobs, Jenkins, Douglas, Mackay, Lynch, Gibson, Atkins and Kelly should fix the problem .

Bloody millennials.

 

[Cap]

Won't have to worry about Brett Deledio this week, done his calf AGAIN at training expected to miss 8 weeks.

bloody Burton and Hass

 

[Bazz_27]

Quality retort to my analysis. Which parts would you like to dispute?

As I stated before the match, I couldn’t see how we could win, then we lost Seedsman and Brown. I expected to lose by 5 - 10 goals but we were absolutely horrible. The win over Sydney and winning 3 of the last 4 (almost 4/4) is harder to explain.

Throwing the toys out of the cot along with Jacobs, Jenkins, Douglas, Mackay, Lynch, Gibson, Atkins and Kelly should fix the problem .

Bloody millennials.

I never suggested dropping all of those guys but at some point players need to take on responsibility because patting them on the back saying good effort after getting dove by 15 goals does nothing for their development or our club. I think we need to realign our expectations of this group.
For the record i called for Kelly and jacobs to be dropped as they were also quite bad in the collingwood loss so they haven't learned anything

 

[Cockwomble]

What i would do:in Murphy ROB Seed Dear & out: Jenkins Sauce DMAC Brown (injured).
What Pyke will do: Ill back them in to respond (no change)

 

[Redleg Crow]

Sure the draw is tough from here. If we get to the bye at 9-4 and get the majority of our key personnel back after the bye then if we are good enough we will win a few of those games. We don't just get bad overnight and yes the odd poor game happens but i am not going to write us off from finals this year if we pick ourselves up and win the next few games against teams that are in no great form themselves. I remember things under coaches like shaw, ayres, sanderson (after the 2012 high water mark) and limping to the end of the season with a 9-13 re ord or whatever. I'll take things as they currently are anyday as we are ok

I think we can get to the finals - 5th-8th should be still our pass mark. But getting to top 4 would be a mighty effort.

 

[kulak]

bloody Burton and Hass

GWS fitness staff worse than ours.

Matt Buntine was running around with a stuffed ACL for months and they didn’t notice!

 

[kulak]

I live in Sydney and go to all of the Giants home games. I have done so every year they have been in the competition except for two years I was overseas, and one year with a young baby girl. She is now 12 months which is good for the chilled out Spotless atmosphere

GWS have lost their last four games. In the last three, they have basically broken even in the normal KPIs such as contested possessions and inside 50s - and yet they have lost all of those games easily.

Why?

It's easy to say GWS are badly coached. Let me give some more detail on the ways I think they are badly coached.

Defence

Their standard defence is too tall. They play four key defenders, currently:
- Mohr (while Davis is injured)
- Corr
- Haynes
- Tomlinson

They also have Buntine and Perryman as their mid defenders, who are nice rounded players, but again minimal offensive strength. Heath Shaw is a mark and kick player, he is getting on in years and does not provide much run.

Only Whitfield provides serious attack from defence.

I think they should replace one of the talls with a running player, say Mohr > Cumming, or even move another midfielder back there such as Callan Ward.

They do not capitalise on intercepts. When Haynes or whomever takes a great intercept mark, their normal play is to turn around, wait 10 seconds, and launch a slow kick 50 m down the line. That leaves lots of time for the defensive grid to setup.

Midfield

The 2016 orange tsunami play was pretty fun with the run and handball chains. That has been long figured out.

They haven't figured anything else out which works.

The two plays they try are:
- try to force a run and handball chain; overuse handball; get caught in the gridlock
- long kick down the line

How does this happen to a midfield with Kelly, Shiel, Coniglio, Ward...?!

I think they would do better if they had clear wingers who held position and created a more open field. That would create more space for their run, and more options for their kicking skills. But Leon seems to prefer everyone run around chasing the ball.

Attack

Two and three tall forwards consistently fly for the same ball. They don't seem to have the positional structure to isolate, lead in different directions, etc, which would let their talls get one-on-one contests.

Their small forwards are not good. Lloyd, Langdon and Buckley might not be getting a game for most other teams in the league. That one isn't Leon's fault. Toby Greene is injured and there is no-one else good on their list.

Summary

They are the worst at converting their effort into reward because of a combination of:
- selecting a defence with no run
- slow plays which don't capitalise on turnovers
- a midfield and forward line which have no positional discipline and mean everyone goes at the same ball

How do we beat them?

1. Break roughly even in the midfield contest. This should be fine as they don't have a contested brute of the type which would normally bulldoze us.
2. Apply enough pressure that they can't get their handball chains going. This should be fine as it requires only effort and attention to detail.
3. Don't let Whitfield get 30 possessions. I would assign a defensive forward to him.

That's it I reckon.

Just play our normal positional game, work hard, don't let Whitfield get 3 Brownlow votes - and it should be a regulation win.

 

[conVINCEd]

Keen to see Murphy back in this week alongside Seed. O’Brien in too, hopefully Brown comes up.

Out - Jacobs, Poholke, probably Gooch

 

[Kraven]

McPherson would have been handy with Smith and Seed out. At least to give him a game or 2. Looks like he isn't far off though.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Did McPherson play any league games for the Eagles last year?

 

[CrowBloke]

You know, if the boys bounce back this week and beat GWS, we then have games against freo and hawthorn to come and neither team are setting the world on fire. We win these games and we will be heading to the break with a 9-4 win/loss record with Walker and Sloane firmly in the frame to return as would Knight and hopefully McGovern not too far away. We also could have guys like Milera & M Crouch back into reasonable match fitness by then (assuming NO MORE INJURIES) so we would have every chance of making a good run for the finals. Yeah the weekend loss was a real bad one, but if we can move on from that and bring the required effort over the next 3 weeks, our season could still be set up quite nicely

Love your upbeat optimism, made me smile.
I used to think like that, too, until I look real hard at how we play when faced with an opposition that comes hard at us from the get-go, like Collingwood and Melbourne this year, and Richmond in the GF.
Sunday's effort was just abysmal. Terrible, apart from the blokes who play their guts out every week (Laird, Talia, MCrouch, Greenwood all of whose attack on the ball or some poor bloke who has the ball is inspirational).
Cases in point:
Mackay is a fave whipping boy in here, the weaker, skinny chicken that everybody pecks, but I'm really starting to think he deserves it. His game against the Bulldogs showed run, anticipation, effort, willingness to tackle even if his kicking was not great. Then he turns in a horror-stinker like Sunday.
His best is middle-range in the team. His worst makes him a liability. Atkins is just as inconsistent and depressing.
Sauce has been a great player for us, but everything about him --- body language, non-marking, non-goaling, taps/palming to who-knows-where --- says he's either in sharp decline, or totally cooked. Burnt out. At the very best he needs a rest; at worst, to be replaced by ROB who'll take more marks around the ground and tap better to our mids, and not theirs.

 

[feenix67]

Interesting...

From afl.com.au



From.afc.com.au



I thought I'd heard that Brown had an adductor issue ... seems the AFL heard the same thing.

 

[MRB37]

Did McPherson play any league games for the Eagles last year?

Highest level he got to was playing 3 games in the ressies where he averaged 24 disposals, 6 marks, 4 rebound 50's, 5 intercept possessions and almost 3 intercept marks per game.

He missed a good chunk of time with hamstring and thigh injuries, which is why he slid in the draft a bit, so that's not to say he couldn't have played league matches if he was healthy.

 

[MRB37]

Interesting...

From afl.com.au

View attachment 504421

From.afc.com.au

View attachment 504422

I thought I'd heard that Brown had an adductor issue ... seems the AFL heard the same thing.

Adductor injury is what put him out in Round 9, sounds like a mistake on AFL.com part.

 

[feenix67]

Adductor injury is what put him out in Round 9, sounds like a mistake on AFL.com part.

It's a funny coincidence...

 

[MRB37]

It's a funny coincidence...

Not really, I'd say it's just laziness on AFL.coms part not to update the page from the week before. He played last week and went off with a concussion.

 

[feenix67]

Not really, I'd say it's just laziness on AFL.coms part not to update the page from the week before. He played last week and went off with a concussion.

Except I'm.sure I heard Daisy Pearce initially say he was off with an adductor issue.