Prediction Changes vs West Coast Eagles

[Dylan8]

I think someone was having a lend of me.

We've sent Neade on Toumpas' shoulders as our travelling emergency. Don't shoot the messenger.

 

[Schulzenfest]

We've sent Neade on Toumpas' shoulders as our travelling emergency. Don't shoot the messenger.

Pictured: Ken's ideal KPF

 

[Nelson051]

Lee Gaskin @Lee_Gaskin1·1h

Eddy a chance to come in, but likely to be an emergency with Atley and Drew. However, Hartlett still in doubt with corked quad

And gg!

 

[Enviable Tradition]

Yes it's irrelevant to how he will perform in the AFL side. Of course if he was scoring zero goals every week then he would be performing worse, but my point is that being the best SANFL forward holds little to no relevance to being a quality AFL forward.

I watch exactly zero SANFL games. I'm not basing whether they are ready on my personal judgement of their performances, only on the basis that there is clearly a spot in the side for a tall forward and none of them have taken that spot.

I think I am one of the few around here that fully accepts my understanding of what it takes to play at the AFL level is severely limited at best. What I do understand is how group think tantrums work, and I can quite clearly see it on this board.

The statistics suggest we are simply unlucky so far, and I'm more willing to trust those statistics over "experts".

The definition on insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Applies equally to the coaches not mixing it up and the fans baying for change.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Willsy10]

So Hombsch for Broadbent. If Hartlett doesn't get up either, I think the logical thing to do is move Impey down back because he is doing fck all up forward, bring Eddy and atley in and drop Neade.

is this another ankle for Broadbent?

 

[Dylan8]

Pictured: Ken's ideal KPF

 

[Jonts]

Eddy won't play unless we have three more injury dropouts. You don't bring a guy in as the 26th entrant into a 25 man squad and then play him, especially for an away game where you'd have to fly him over. It does increase Atley's chances though, which is nice.

I'm completely fine with Broadbent out. Hartlett, Pittard, Broadbent, DBJ and Houston is at least one (arguably two) half back too many and IMO Broady offers the least of that quintet.

I'd agree with you if hinkley wasn't our coach

He does weird shit like that

 

[Enviable Tradition]

Agree. At 3 QTR time I had fans behind me complaining that it was over & starting blaming players and coaches.
I turned around and told them there was a still 4th qrt of footy to play.

That's what upsets me about this club... when we're winning everyone is loud and about but when we are losing we are quiet? When we're down we need to be louder then ever. The type of atmosphere we need only exists in football (soccer) - would be great to bring it to Port Adelaie.

Perhaps they are just better judges of footy?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[True__Believer]

So Broadbent out - this only tells me that he was not ready to play last week and performed accordingly. Wtf are the fitness coaches doing?

 

[R_Gray_Jnr_Jnr]

I'm not fussed if people would rather see Eddy or Howard in the side, but what shits me are the calls to sack the coach, the calls that our season is over, that our players are shit, the constant attacks on guys like Jake Neade and Sam Gray. Etc.

If there was actual discussion over why changes were made then it would be fine but there is so much group think melting, and it's just frustrating for me.

I'm not trying to be positive, I'm just sick of how defeated our supporters act. We are not that far off, yet people just want to throw everything out. How do you not find that annoying?

I agree. We are not that far off. Our midfield is great, our defence has been even better.

But even blind Freddy can see that the difference between being there and being "not too far off" is our forward structure. I am not football coach, I played one year under 10s and moved to soccer coz I couldn't get a touch in footy. But I watch a hell of a lot of footy and spend most of my evenings watching footy programs etc. It is obvious that PAFC needs a tall forward capable of leading taking a grab and kicking it through the two main sticks.

The coaches are persisting with Trengove who fails week after week at being that type of forward that we need. Dixon is not that forward because he is much better used at CHF taking that grab and delivering inside 50, and dragging one of the oppo's best defenders out with him.

We have two players, albeit SANFL players, who have the right physical attributes, can take a grab and can certainly kick it through the goals. Why persist with Trengove when we can at least try one of the other two (Howard/Eddy)?

It's simple and it comes down to economics. We stuffed up on contracts with Lobbe and Hartlett. Lobbe is a lost cause and a loss of $500k per year. Trengove as far as I am aware is on 450-500k per year. How bad would it be if we dropped yet another high paid player to play reserves, and have $1 million of our salary cap playing in the 2s.

It is the only fathomable reason because it is clear that Trengove is no good up front, therefore would need to go back to playing down back. He now doesn't fit in our back 6 which are performing excellent, and his physical attributes and lack of pace do not fit with Bassett's defensive ethos. Therefore he rots up front, takes the spot of someone who undoubtedly would perform their primary natural position of being a forward much better than Trengove's third natural position of being a forward (After defence (surplus to requirements) and after ruck (he's a good chop out ruckman)).

This my friend is the reason why our groupthink is of an overly melting attitude, because yes we are "THAT CLOSE" but that close does not win a flag. Ken cannot continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, it is purely insane. I can see it, we can see it and I'm sure you yourself can see this too. The changes need to be made ASAP.

 

[Wargreymon90]

I get the feeling it will be the one forced change

 

[Byron!!!]

There was Petrie and Vardy who will be playing in a winning side against us on Sunday, plus Stewart from GWS. Also Vickery and Cloke, lol. And that's just the players who were traded last year.

We've known we need help for Lobbe and Schulz since Kens first year. So the position we are in now is unacceptable.

But since his first year we brought in Ryder and Dixon? Both big names and very good players in those exact positions.

We have Howard on the up and just drafted Marshall. Frampton is coming along... the real problem is Lobbe went from one of the best to one of the worst. Maybe the game also changed which contributed to lobbe's downfall, but I think a lot of the blame falls on Lobbe and maybe list management / coaches in giving him such a long deal, although even a shorter deal he would still be here with us.

Just purely on age I wouldn't have touched Petrie. Vickery and Cloake are both jokes and were let go for obvious reasons.

Some teams don't even use a proper ruck, at least not at every ruck contest, as the game has changed so much so quickly with regards to the ruck PLUS quality tall players are just very hard to come by.

Anyway, dealing with what we have right now, I would love to see Howard at full forward and Trengove in the backlines or dropped. I hope we see it soon.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Zakk Wylde]

Hartlett won't play.

 

[manureid]

If they take our best SNAFL fwd and 2 of our best mids to Perth and don't play them, the maggies will be struggling this week (I know I know..the AFL team comes first), but it a game against the Crows and is nice to win them.

 

[Steve Dore]

... is this another ankle for Broadbent?

Would be the same ankle surely. He clearly struggled against Richmond.

 

[Byron!!!]

Matthew Broadbent has been withdrawn from our squad to face West Coast on Sunday. He will be replaced by Brett Eddy, with our final 22 to be named this afternoon.

#weareportadelaide


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[portly]

I hope Atley plays because he could provide a bit of forward nous. He seems to know what he's doing in the F50. He wins contested ball as well as anyone and despite his youth provides another big body around the ball. And he gives us something different from the cavalcade of half back flankers populating the team now.

Mostly I really don't want to see them intimidated by the cauldron that is a West Coast home game. I want them to smash in hard, win the ball and provide a contest every step of the way.

I don't think Trengove is the answer up forward but this is how the coaching panel prepared for this season and they will continue with the structure. If he is allowed to play as a gateway rather than a total negator at least it gives us two tall forwards with an attacking function. Last week we had only one attacking tall forward and seeing as Dixon had very little scoring output, we were almost totally reliant on small forwards to kick a winning score. That well may play on their minds, knowing how much responsibility they carry for kicking a winning score.

Agree.

But why can't things be changed throughout the year rather than only between years. Never understood that, and I'll bet that Clarkson more flexible.

 

[portly]

I like your posts. The general groupthink in here is abysmal.

Rubbish.

I don't groupthink. One thing I have rarely been criticised for.

What I appreciate in this forum is having independent thoughts and then finding out that other independent thinkers are thinking similar thoughts.

 

[Visenfest]

Wtf are the fitness coaches doing?

Coaching at Arsenal.

 

[PowerBaz]

Is Ken playing ye olde ducks and Drakes?

 

[Steve Dore]

So Broadbent out - this only tells me that he was not ready to play last week and performed accordingly. Wtf are the fitness coaches doing?

Player says he feels good to go, passes a fitness test and plays. He may well have further aggravated the injury in the game. But let's blame the fitness coaches.

 

[El_Scorcho]

I'm not fussed if people would rather see Eddy or Howard in the side, but what shits me are the calls to sack the coach, the calls that our season is over, that our players are shit, the constant attacks on guys like Jake Neade and Sam Gray. Etc.

If there was actual discussion over why changes were made then it would be fine but there is so much group think melting, and it's just frustrating for me.

I'm not trying to be positive, I'm just sick of how defeated our supporters act. We are not that far off, yet people just want to throw everything out. How do you not find that annoying?

We don't just scream and throw things our computer screens though.

Most of this board has recognised that we have a big problem with our forward line. We've struggled to put score on the board against good sides despite our midfield and defence playing very well.

At the start of the year it appeared that we were going in with Dixon and Trengove as our KPF pairing, while Howard recovered from injury and Eddy was the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency backup.

Since that time, Trengove has been unable to be effective as a KPF. He doesn't present well and he doesn't bring other forwards into the game. This isn't his fault, he's not a natural forward and is much better in other positions. Also since that time, Howard has recovered from injury and Eddy has been in blistering SANFL form after having had a preseason and half of the full season to learn our system.

The forward line has struggled. We struggled to make space, we struggle to find targets, our forwards bar Dixon don't present well. It's a clusterf*ck. We lead the league in inside 50s but against good sides, we really struggle to score. It's infuriating. Against Richmond we only scored 63 points despite racking up 67 inside 50s. That is obscenely inefficient, but it keeps happening to us against good sides.

The coaching staff solution has been to rotate through high forwards. Impey/Neade/White/Young/SGray etc. It hasn't solved the problem. Our problem appears to be that we don't have a good second target who knows how to present, lead and make space for himself and his teammates. We have 2 talented KPFs playing good footy in the SANFL and we have had for several weeks now.

It's not just 2017 though. The only time we've been efficient going forward under Hinkley was in 2014 when we had Schulz and Wingard having career years and had a gameplan that led to a lot of entries into an open forwardline. We don't have that luxury anymore. We've effectively had a broken forward system for 4.5 years under Hinkley.

And now he won't make an obvious selection and give Eddy or Howard a go to see if they can bring a bit of natural forward nous to the team and straighten us up a little bit going forward. He just keeps doing the same thing and we keep having a terribly inefficient forwardline. After 4.5 years of waiting for this to be sorted out, I have no faith in Hinkley to do so. The reason moving him on is so urgent is that we have all the pieces in place this year. It's imperative that we make a change to the forwardline and try to improve it, because we are outside the top 4 and really hurting our chances at a flag while this farce continues.

He's proven he can't or won't address this problem, and as such he must be moved on for the good of the club.

 

[tribey]

The definition on insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Applies equally to the coaches not mixing it up and the fans baying for change.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

This is what I don't understand. It's as if the derp of 2015 and 2016 never happened.

"We're a lot harder to play against and we're not getting beaten by bottom eight sides (bar getting creamed by Essendon lol)"

It's a shame the quirk of the modern fixture is such that we got two games against the wooden spooner so early.

If we'd only played them once and say, played Melbourne away instead - almost certainly a loss a few weeks ago - we'd be 7-7, smackbang in the middle of the road and this "UMMMM WE'RE FIFTH WITH GREAT PERCENTAGE" mirage wouldn't be such a factor.

 

[manureid]

False economy ladder position.

 

[R_Gray_Jnr_Jnr]

The closer you are to perfection the more the flaws become apparent.

Too bad that playing the players people are asking for would balance us only for the fact that we'd score more goals when we got the ball inside 50 but our inside 50 numbers would drop to the point where it would be irrelevant because it would end up being the same score.

People don't want to acknowledge the negatives in their changes. Why not try and figure out why the coaches don't want to make these apparently sensible and rational changes first?

Here's a big hint - locking the ball inside forward 50 isn't all the high forwards do. They also drop back into defence - which is why our defence is so good in spite of playing shorter key backs. That's why we need so many of them.

Here's an idea. We won't need to lock the ball inside 50 if we bloody convert well enough!