Freo Flankers

[blue shark]

Can Freo match it physically with other teams?
With our recruiting style, highly skilled, skinny players, do we have enough
enforcers, size to compete?
Is this our achilles heel, or do we have the balance right?

 

[BananaOnTheRun]

we're just about at tipping point. our third and fourth year players should be at playing weight now. we have immovable objects in deboer, pav, sandi, silvagni, mcphee, crowley and grover. and we have irresistible forces in hill, fyfe, morabito, barlow and mundy. although detractors say lyon has come in when all the hard work has been done, it's kind of true, but to me, he's come in at just the right time. i can't frikken wait for next season.

 

[blue shark]

Opposition clubs will target Hill, Fyfe as our most dangerous midfielders first, with heavy physical taggers.
Having Ross Lyon at the club, an expert on defence and ex-opposition coach, knows how to stop our run, and what to expect.
Under Harvey we played attacking football all the time, under Ross if we can control the tempo of the game, and protect the ball carrier we should win more than we lose.

 

[Seppo]

Opposition clubs will target Hill, Fyfe as our most dangerous midfielders first, with heavy physical taggers.
Having Ross Lyon at the club, an expert on defence and ex-opposition coach, knows how to stop our run, and what to expect.
Under Harvey we played attacking football all the time, under Ross if we can control the tempo of the game, and protect the ball carrier we should win more than we lose.

Tag Fyfe? That's unheard of!

The only player last year that got near to shutting down Fyfe was Boyd in round 5, even that was more of Fyfe put on Boyd as a learning experience.

The opposition can tag/block a running player like Hill, but Fyfe has to much skill in the way he plays to be effectively tagged.

 

[Kickett Punches Read]

Tag Fyfe? That's unheard of!

The only player last year that got near to shutting down Fyfe was Boyd in round 5, even that was more of Fyfe put on Boyd as a learning experience.

The opposition can tag/block a running player like Hill, but Fyfe has to much skill in the way he plays to be effectively tagged.

thats because most teams didnt bother tagging fyfe. they tagged hill, because when hill gets the ball he is more damaging, and that isnt a knock on fyfe or anything who is a star, but when hill gets the ball he runs 20 meters and kicks it long and accurately for another 50, fyfe simply doesnt do that

 

[SPEEDWAGON]

Cross tagged fyfe, Boyd gathered close to 50

 

[Seppo]

I wonder if there is any analysis done on 'player transitions' and 'ball movement'. As in when Fyfe gets hold of the ball he will kick it to player X 30% of the time or handball it to player Y 40% of the time.
Then if stats went that far it would be interesting to see 'meters gained' from a player like Hill compared to Fyfe during a game.
Don't the do that in the NFL? It would highlight the importance of the flanking types and how effective they actually are.

 

[Seppo]

Cross tagged fyfe, Boyd gathered close to 50

Yeah maybe it was Cross not Boyd.

If Boyd got 50, my guess would have been Cowley on him without reviewing the game again...

 

[Patty_Moz]

thats because most teams didnt bother tagging fyfe. they tagged hill, because when hill gets the ball he is more damaging, and that isnt a knock on fyfe or anything who is a star, but when hill gets the ball he runs 20 meters and kicks it long and accurately for another 50, fyfe simply doesnt do that

Agreed. Even by the end of the season when Hill was getting put on the HBF he was still getting a heavier tag than Fyfe. The good thing tho is surely Fyfe will attract more attention next yr and with Mundy and Mora back and hopefully Barlow back to his best then it gets harder to tag everybody so Hill may get some more breathing space.

 

[Arcassius]

Memory is sketchy but I thought they left Boyd alone since he isn't damaging.

 

[Arcassius]

Agreed. Even by the end of the season when Hill was getting put on the HBF he was still getting a heavier tag than Fyfe. The good thing tho is surely Fyfe will attract more attention next yr and with Mundy and Mora back and hopefully Barlow back to his best then it gets harder to tag everybody so Hill may get some more breathing space.

I'm hoping that part of the focus is on providing better blocks for running players. Didn't do it enough last season - that in itself will help Hill free up

 

[Nickos66]

Bulkier isn't always better. The first that comes to mind is Ben Cunnington who along with Gary Rohan was talked up as the best 2 Geelong Falcons to ever play for them, topping the likes of Bartel, Ablett and numerous others. Cunnington has done sweet FA whilst Rohan has already shown he can cut sides up.

 

[Clay Davis]

Ehhh, Bartel didn't have a flashy start to his AFL career. Neither did Ablett.

 

[BananaOnTheRun]

I'm hoping that part of the focus is on providing better blocks for running players. Didn't do it enough last season - that in itself will help Hill free up

What about counter-tagging hill's tagger? Is that worth doing? Maybe someone who can run all day like Crowley.

 

[Nickos66]

Ehhh, Bartel didn't have a flashy start to his AFL career. Neither did Ablett.

True, he'd want to show something, anything in his 3rd year though or their fans might start to get nervous.

 

[Arcassius]

What about counter-tagging hill's tagger? Is that worth doing? Maybe someone who can run all day like Crowley.

It'll only end up giving them another loose man. If we're going to tag - better to tag one of their damaging players, and train the guys to block when they don't have the ball rather than stand there watching.

 

[Patty_Moz]

I'm hoping that part of the focus is on providing better blocks for running players. Didn't do it enough last season - that in itself will help Hill free up

Yeah blocks are great but in reality you're not going to 20-30 good blocks on a good tagger every game. I'd say 3-5 good blocks on any one tagger in a game is a good result.

If however the tagger starts on Hill and then has to be moved to Mora or Mundy or whoever is chopping up this really makes life hard for the tagger as they have to completely adjust their game plan. This has the other effect that Hill doesnt just get freed up for 4 or 5 possesions but gets freed up for possibly a half in that time Hill could get 15+ possies and win us the game.

 

[Arcassius]

Yeah blocks are great but in reality you're not going to 20-30 good blocks on a good tagger every game. I'd say 3-5 good blocks on any one tagger in a game is a good result.

If however the tagger starts on Hill and then has to be moved to Mora or Mundy or whoever is chopping up this really makes life hard for the tagger as they have to completely adjust their game plan. This has the other effect that Hill doesnt just get freed up for 4 or 5 possesions but gets freed up for possibly a half in that time Hill could get 15+ possies and win us the game.

It was more as a general observation and not specific to just Hill or countering tags - our guys didn't protect each other enough last season. But yeah, with more players back it'll be harder to apply a hard tag on Hill than this season with more quality players back.

From memory - despite people knocking McPhee he was always in there protecting the boys.

 

[Damarus]

I wonder if there is any analysis done on 'player transitions' and 'ball movement'. As in when Fyfe gets hold of the ball he will kick it to player X 30% of the time or handball it to player Y 40% of the time.
Then if stats went that far it would be interesting to see 'meters gained' from a player like Hill compared to Fyfe during a game.
Don't the do that in the NFL? It would highlight the importance of the flanking types and how effective they actually are.

They do but the entire game is based on gaining yards, with yard lines marked across the whole field. It'd be much more difficult to work out in AFL as you'd have to just guess.

 

[BananaOnTheRun]

It'll only end up giving them another loose man. If we're going to tag - better to tag one of their damaging players, and train the guys to block when they don't have the ball rather than stand there watching.

You're right, we'd be compromising our own structure to counter theirs. Thank god for mark stone.

 

[sabre_ac]

we're just about at tipping point. our third and fourth year players should be at playing weight now. we have immovable objects in deboer, pav, sandi, silvagni, mcphee, crowley and grover. and we have irresistible forces in hill, fyfe, morabito, barlow and mundy. although detractors say lyon has come in when all the hard work has been done, it's kind of true, but to me, he's come in at just the right time. i can't frikken wait for next season.

We're a well weight side to be fair for one of the few times in our history we have a good mix of speed/skill and bulk.

Keeping Mundy and Barlow fit are obviously the keys but Lower is a likely sort in the middle grunt wise.

The concern is who will kick our goals, Pav up front is a good start though and Mayne leading up the ground should improve, the concern for me is the small crumbing forwards of lack of. Personally I am struggling to see how JA,Bradley and Mayne can start, though you'd argue they probably all will.

 

[BananaOnTheRun]

If we prioritise having a couple of tall forwards, so Pav and whoever else, our goal kicking midfield should cover the rest of the scoring shots.

 

[eastfreo75]

The club and Ross is fully aware that we need to bulk up.

"I think the reality is we’re building, we’re still building bodies, still building the list, we certainly aim for the top eight but to bring Leon would really compromise in my view and the list manager’s view the games being put into the likes of Jesse Crichton, Viv Michie and Nick Suban, so I can categorically state that we have no desire to take Leon Davis with respect." Ross Lyons on Leon Davis

source: http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/af...nd-paul-medhurst/story-e6frg1xu-1226201607129