Prediction Changes Vs Collingwood round 4

[Ambrose Burnside]

I understand all the frustration about, but many of the complaints just feed back to the fact that we have rolling injuries and Covid related problems with players and that we have lots of new faces out there before their time, let alone players from the Wafl, and those that have never played at AFL level before. Even players returning from Covid take time to recover, it's an unknown.

In a normal season with a fit best 22 list, many of these players wouldn't be seen in a game this year, or maybe late in the season for some players (depending on their improvement or our injury list). Even if we had our best 22 playing next week or the week after, there wouldn't be sufficient synergy with each other or the game plan, and some are still Covid recovering.

For critics of the game plan or lack of, that can't be judged fair and square because it doesn't have a chance to breathe or come alive, due to the lack of connectivity amongst players and the revolving door of ins and outs. Some players have never met or barely know each other or trained briefly -what can you expect from that? What we have each week is a patched together rabble playing their hearts out for one quarter, before the obvious cracks appear and it turns into shambolic football. It's no ones fault, it's hard to blame anyone given the circumstances, when the whole club is flying by the seat of their pants.

Sure, the game plan around the backline is looking like groundhog day. Under normal circumstances it would be getting tuned and tweaked already, but it's just currently under immense pressure with the backline struggling to maintain possession of the ball, let alone be creative or adhere to a new game plan (without the best 22 to help prop it up). It's not pretty either way.

The midfield has been skeletal, how can it be judged. The coaches are generally just getting names out there to fill spots and keep the AFL juggernaut rolling.

There are coaching moments that are baffling, like taking Nelson off Brayshaw. People want the coach to take risks, so he gambles on being more attacking in next quarter, releases Nelson from a negative role and it...fails. But he took a risk, we saw the attacking start of the 2nd half, there was a flutter of hope, the crowd came alive, but they couldn't maintain it due to lack of experience, skills, speed, being gassed? It was ugly. We were losing regardless. We just lost by more.

I reckon there are some positives in amongst all this chaos, you just have to let go of the expectations of a normal season. Depending on our injury list and Covid, the 2nd half of season might have a silver lining. But obviously we have to suspend thoughts of points, ladder position, finals and flags. We might get to see a full team building and playing better football as the season progresses, or the wheels might fall off like 2021 and we collapse in a heap, start a rebuild and get some good draft picks - which is a silver lining in itself, albeit long term....

It's just really hard to judge the coaching and game plan at present, will get a better idea when we have approximately our best 22 out there, or close to it...and if it's the same old groundhog dirge, with little improvement from our new midfield coaches or head coach and senior players, then open the floodgates of change I say...bring in the big broom and sweep out the mud and crud!

Agree 100% but you just know the same sooks sooking it up about excuses etc are going to be the exact same sooks who sook it up if we have a decent second half of the season and miss out on a top 5 draft pick.

Absolute campaigners and you all know it.

 

[ziad]

The backs coach (Pratt, says Wiki) needs to sort out the defence.

This is not a bad group of players:

B Hurn Barrass Witherden
HB Duggan McGovern Rotham

But how many of them are good one on one defenders? How many are accountable? We're missing Cole who is limited but defence first and Sheppard who was a gun. We didn't have the full compliment on the weekend but the balance just looks a bit off to me. If our midfield wasn't dogshit I would suggest moving someone like Shuey to half back to create a bit of drive.

I like the Shuey idea. The teams that dominate set up their fast movement and attack for the defensive 50. By the time we dither around in defence the old fashion flood is set in place, JD and Jk double and tripple teamed. The only option is to bomb it long which is bread and butter for defenders to counter.

I probably need a new TV as I often see lesser eagles players on their own insode 50- it must be my imagination because only Willie ever sees and uses them.

 

[RookiePick]

Agree 100% but you just know the same sooks sooking it up about excuses etc are going to be the exact same sooks who sook it up if we have a decent second half of the season and miss out on a top 5 draft pick.

Absolute campaigners and you all know it.

If we have a talent based revival where we get over I'll probably be sooking. If we revive with clear signs of a change of game plan, player attitude and we've smashed a dozen games into a lot of our kids I'll be pretty chuffed.

 

[Tyberious Funk]

Petch is gunning for a trade so will prob be busting a gut this year to get better coin.

Looking forward to him kicking 5 off a wing v us next year

The only way he gets a trade is if he actually demonstrates value. It's not looking good at the moment. I can't see any clubs willing to offer much more than a late 3rd-rounder. And if they aren't willing to pay up on the trade table, I can't imagine they'd be offering much of a salary.

Alternatively... he pulls his finger out, shows some actual intent and by the end of the season he could be one of West Coast's best.

 

[bzparkes]

Petch is gunning for a trade

Pretty sure he just signed a 3 year deal.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Pretty sure he just signed a 3 year deal.

He’s in the second year of it.

 

[bzparkes]

He’s in the second year of it.

So, doubtful he'll be looking for a trade this year, then?

 

[DirtySandman]

To be fair Langdon has played over 200 games if you include all his junior footy and every time he’s kicked the ball with mates in a park.

Guess he has actually kicked the ball over 50m if you add them all up as well.

 

[FKASC]

To be fair Langdon has played over 200 games if you include all his junior footy and every time he’s kicked the ball with mates in a park.

Hilarious. Love your work.

• Turning 27 (15th oldest player on our list)
• 40 senior WAFL games pre-draft
• 50 AFL games post-draft

= not outrageous for the original poster to suggest he’s a ‘senior’ player, especially given our outs.

No different from expecting more out of Marlion Pickett than kids who've played a similar number of afl games.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Hilarious. Love your work.

• Turning 27 (15th oldest player on our list)
• 40 senior WAFL games pre-draft
• 50 AFL games post-draft

= not outrageous for the original poster to suggest he’s a ‘senior’ player, especially given our outs.

No different from expecting more out of Marlion Pickett than kids who've played a similar number of afl games.

I was making fun of including his reserves games. But apparently you didn’t, as it turns out?

 

[Cornelius Roy]

They're not senior players. They're both just cracking 50 games experience.

I'll give you that and admittedly perhaps I've misclassified them as what many would consider senior players.

My point of view is that if you've had a chance to do 5 preseasons in a professional environment, you're reaching a point in your career where you should be able to start consistently impacting games when given the opportunity. I'd say I've seen neither from these two and only glimpses of brilliance from Petrucelle. On the development pathway they're tracking they might become players by the age of 25 and we'll get 3-4 serviceable years out of them.

Petrucelle's laid 3 tackles in 3 games from 80% or more game time in each game, just not good enough for a player who should be taking guidance from Jamie Cripps game and looking to cement his spot as the successional small forward in our team for the longer term future.

After 5 preseasons I don't think there's any reason why you shouldn't start to be stepping up as a player the new draftees are looking up to, to emulate your application both on the track (can't fault Langdon here) and on game day.

 

[FKASC]

I was making fun of including his reserves games. But apparently you didn’t, as it turns out?

I was just referring to the WAFL matches he played prior to being drafted: 12 for Reserves and 25 for League in 2016-17. Accidentally included the four Beagles games he played, so make it 37 all up. If it aint Colts it's still senior footy.

 

[Mikevk123]

One player I see who could potentially break through into your midfield is Luke Foley. Has a good size and attack on the ball. What’s the knack on him?

 

[Cuzz09]

One player I see who could potentially break through into your midfield is Luke Foley. Has a good size and attack on the ball. What’s the knack on him?

He'll be given 2 weeks then put back in the WAFL again for 3 months as is our style

 

[Kegs15]

Watched Petch a lot at the game. His problem is he was running up and down the middle of the ground.
WTF? Never going to get a kick in the middle, everyone knows West Coast go around the boundary. Every. Single. Time.

Maybe if we still had Jetta to unleash a perfect kick into the guts he might get a look in?

Do wonder if HFF is really the best use of him - the consistently good players in that position (thinking Robbie Gray, Breust etc) all share a high footy IQ which is probably Petch's biggest weakness. It's a position you really need to create your own opportunities through persistence and smarts and he doesn't really seem like the most persistent or smart bloke going around.

For all our talk about having a million back flankers we're still really crying out for that line breaking Saad type who can transition the ball out of the danger zone and into threatening spots for us with a bit of pace and burst. HBF with all respect also seems like a position you can get away with a bit less footy smarts as you're getting drawn to the ball by the player you're on and your opponent isn't necessarily as occupied with shutting you down themselves.

Rioli, Ryan, hopefully Winder if he comes on and a mid/fwd out of Jones SPS and Kelly is a pretty dangerous small forward group post Cripps. Maybe worth giving Petch some time down back to make our backline a bit less predictable and one paced? (Maybe a better option for next season with a bit of training in that position and hopefully no Covid decimating our forwardline)

 

[Chris_6678]

Do wonder if HFF is really the best use of him - the consistently good players in that position (thinking Robbie Gray, Breust etc) all share a high footy IQ which is probably Petch's biggest weakness. It's a position you really need to create your own opportunities through persistence and smarts and he doesn't really seem like the most persistent or smart bloke going around.

For all our talk about having a million back flankers we're still really crying out for that line breaking Saad type who can transition the ball out of the danger zone and into threatening spots for us with a bit of pace and burst. HBF with all respect also seems like a position you can get away with a bit less footy smarts as you're getting drawn to the ball by the player you're on and your opponent isn't necessarily as occupied with shutting you down themselves.

Rioli, Ryan, hopefully Winder if he comes on and a mid/fwd out of Jones SPS and Kelly is a pretty dangerous small forward group post Cripps. Maybe worth giving Petch some time down back to make our backline a bit less predictable and one paced? (Maybe a better option for next season with a bit of training in that position and hopefully no Covid decimating our forwardline)

It has to be worth a try. He will learn to find the ball a lot more coming off the HBF.

A backline of this:

Foley Barrass Hurn/Witho
Petch Gov Duggan

That looks more dymanic to me. But i dont think we can play both of Witherdon and Hurn though.

Also word is Taylor Adams got covid so wont be playing this week.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Also word is Taylor Adams got covid so wont be playing this week.

Confirmed by the coach on radio.

 

[The_Gambler]

Do wonder if HFF is really the best use of him - the consistently good players in that position (thinking Robbie Gray, Breust etc) all share a high footy IQ which is probably Petch's biggest weakness. It's a position you really need to create your own opportunities through persistence and smarts and he doesn't really seem like the most persistent or smart bloke going around.

For all our talk about having a million back flankers we're still really crying out for that line breaking Saad type who can transition the ball out of the danger zone and into threatening spots for us with a bit of pace and burst. HBF with all respect also seems like a position you can get away with a bit less footy smarts as you're getting drawn to the ball by the player you're on and your opponent isn't necessarily as occupied with shutting you down themselves.

Rioli, Ryan, hopefully Winder if he comes on and a mid/fwd out of Jones SPS and Kelly is a pretty dangerous small forward group post Cripps. Maybe worth giving Petch some time down back to make our backline a bit less predictable and one paced? (Maybe a better option for next season with a bit of training in that position and hopefully no Covid decimating our forwardline)

This reflects on Simpsons lack of creativity. His only move his to move a player to half back, or if your a midfielder to half forward. Why not try him off a wing, or even half back given his speed and jump? He has been at his best running past players up the ground. Deep forward is the other option to try. No flexibility with player positioning.

 

[kane249]

So, doubtful he'll be looking for a trade this year, then?

Can still seek a trade, McCarthy signed a new big money deal with GWS and then asked for a trade home soon after

Worked out well for Freo

 

[bUCKET__]

One player I see who could potentially break through into your midfield is Luke Foley. Has a good size and attack on the ball. What’s the knack on him?

Not that I've seen him live more than once. But he does seem to have had trouble getting involved when moved up the ground. Was drafted as a mid, supposedly, but showed very little in the WAFL as a wing/half forward before being moved to defense. Doesn't seem too great when the ball hits the deck either.

 

[WCErevival]

Wasn't Petch trialled at HB last preseason?

 

[CoastersFlag No.5]

Rioli was back in training as was Jones.

 

[squashface]

Oscar looking sexy af

 

[RookiePick]

Oscar looking sexy af

Looks Yooge! S&C pulling their hair out.

 

[WCE_phil]

Petch really isn't a defender. Half forward is his go and he has consistently got better each year excluding last weeks game. He lit up round one and in round 2 still had 4 shots on goal.