Half Forward Line

[iceman]

When watching the game on TV, all i kept hearing Dunstall say was:

The Eagles are falling down at Half Forward

And then, every time the bench was announced, Troy Wilson was always there.
Can anyone explain the logic in that?

Sierakowski gone in the first five minutes, and then later on in the game we lost Cummings as well and still Wilson was coming on and off like a rover.

Also, i hate to say this but Jakovich looked like a liability out there today, hes just too slow.. im worried about him down back...

Not many good signs....

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Unfortunately those weaknesses were all too apparent. I don't understand the logic behind wilson sitting on the bench either. He is a very strong mark and even if he won't score goals he will make opposition defenders think twice before they jump up fo a contested mark. He could be very useful as he can provide a target up forward.

I don't understand KJ but it seems that he is too intent on punishing players for their mistakes (though wilson didn't make any).

I hope one of his assistant coaches tell him off, because he's starting to bug me.

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"I'm not going to waste my life trying to prolong it"

 

[Visro]

bloody hurry up Travis Gaspar!!! I think WC need to make him the next gun half forward because currently no one on the list is prepared to play there. Sierra is serviceable there but we really needed a very talented player there. How long will Sierra be out for btw? Will he be back for the next round?

Vis

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Siera should be back for round 2. He looked ready to come back on at half time. I think Cummings will also be right, I have rolled my ankle a million times and it hurts like shit, but it wears off after a day or two.

I don't know about glass but his injury can't be too serious if he stayed on for a few minutes after getting injured. Probably just a cork.

What i wanna know is when are kemp, phil matera and gaspar gonna be ready?

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"I'm not going to waste my life trying to prolong it"

 

[Visro]

Gaspar is getting over groin surgery and should be playing WAFL next round...he probably wont be thrown into AFl straight away until he has notched a few games at South Fremantle.

Vis

 

[iceman]

Has Gasper even played AFL yet?

No offense Visro but you seem to be giving this guy a lot of wraps

Lets hope he turns out as good as you say he will

Cheers

 

[Frodo]

We could have the whole Essendon squad but if they played with the commitment the Eagles did today they would lose. Forget Gaspar and Kemp. It's team spirit and going it hard with commitment we need. We have the players we need the motivational coach.

 

[Frodo]

Originally posted by iceman:
When watching the game on TV, all i kept hearing Dunstall say was:

The Eagles are falling down at Half Forward

Dunstall, Shaw and whichever other biased w***er was on the commentary team are a trio of w***ers. The ridiculed the Eagles. That should never happen. Shaw has no idea at all, anything goes with him.

 

[eagleskickass]

Have the Eagles been training together, or individually spending time training cause thats how many of them played. This is the first time I have seen the eagles play so individually, people were bloudy right that all the new faces could backfire, but it wasn't only them. I think I better wait a couple of days to cool down, I'm a little peeved at present and could probably make more structured posts when I am a little calmer, takes away my Joy from my team winning, and me being the top goal scorer in the game. My friend was very servicable with one less goal than me too!

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If everybody is rowing the boat together then there's no body to rock it!
CARN THE 7TH WONDERS
CARN THE W C WARRIORS

 

[Visro]

Ok I tried to answer iceman's question earlier on why I think Travis Gaspar will be such a vital player to the future WC squad but the system buggered me up.

He is the right height and build to be a key position player. He measures about 195 cm I think and is about 90 kg. Just the right type of build to be a good CHF or CHB.

I have seen him play in the WAFL a couple of times and he is a very talented footballer, good skills and smart footballing brain. His brother Darren Gaspar at Richmond who was all-Australian last year says that his brother may even be a better footballer than him but he is still a bit inexperienced on the AFL level.

This is mainly due to Travis going through another growth spurt last year which means that his knees were a bit dodgy. He has also had groin injury problems and had surgery over the xmas break I think.

Anyway, our team falls over on the CHF line, we all know that. It is about time that WC developed a young footballer to that position and the only two footballers at WC who are capable of doing that I believe are Gaspar or McDougall. McDougall however is still undeveloped and hence my reasoning for Travis Gaspar.

That explain a few things iceman?

Vis

PS. I agree with you Frodo on the team lacking morale. It was quite evident today. Whenever the team is heading towards a defeat they just say "stuff it, cant be bothered doing anything more". KJ really needs to fix this problem but he himself is part of the problem I think

[This message has been edited by Visro (edited 01 April 2001).]

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Originally posted by daddy_4_eyes:

I don't understand KJ, but it seems that he is too intent on punishing players for their mistakes ....

Thats my opinion on the problem.

Players know that they will be punished for mistakes and prefer to offload the ball quickly rather than hold on to it and try to construct something. The problem with that is that blind kicks don't hit their targets.

Thats my opinion. If i was to make a list of all the weaknesses the eagles showed today it would take you a week to read it.

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"I'm not going to waste my life trying to prolong it"

 

[eagleskickass]

I think i wil wait for a few more rounds and reserve my judgement on the judge!

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If everybody is rowing the boat together then there's no body to rock it!
CARN THE 7TH WONDERS
CARN THE W C WARRIORS

 

[Broome]

Wasn't really the start we wanted was it!!!!
A few things though....
**You know the umpiring decisions are bad when the Vic commentary team says they can't believe the free kicks missed for us

(How can Siera have his head almost removed from his shoulders & there be a no call?? I know it was probably accidental but it was still head high!!)
** That aside we seemed to be waiting for things to happen instead of making things happen.
** Our disposal was dreadful. I know a lot of the time we were under pressure BUT at that level you should be able to hit YOUR teamate on the chest if he's made space by hand or by foot. Most of the time our guys didn't even look.
** Good players looked really anxious and the harder they tried the worse it seemed to get eg Braun. Probably needed a WAFL game under his belt to give him some confidence...he'd been out a long time.
** I can't understand the logic of having Wilson on the bench for so long- he really has a presence & we need that. He will get better with more time on the field.
** When things were falling apart why did we persist in having the extra man in defence which gave Geelong the same?? Why didn't KJ put a tried & true weapon back there- Wirra? He seemed to spend a LOT of time on the bench! Is there a problem??
** Positives.... we kicked more goals in the last quarter than any other, so we didn't just lay down & die. Daniel Kerr earned his early promotion... I hope his desire & work ethic on the field rubs off on the players around him. Collica also did a great job on Mitchell White until he was moved & then he ended up hurt or was this why he was moved.
Gardy was great getting first hands to the ball BUT he's got to get it down to our guys like he did last year with Ben.
I take solace in the fact that we aren't on the bottom BUT watching a lot of sides play on the weekend we seem to be a long way off the pace... I hope I'm wrong & that we thrash Sydney next week but we'll need to work a whole lot harder to do that!!

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

If the siera incident was an accident why was king reported? And considering he was reported, shouldn't that automatically be an eagles free kick AND a 50metre penalty?

Something fishy happened there.

But i don't think we are that far off the pace. Last year KJ was saying publicly that we're a weak team in a rebuilding phase, this year he is publicly saying that we are a good team and we'll be aiming for a top8 spot. That gives me a world of confidence, especially considering KJ isn't one to lie, the man is brutally honest.

CARN THE EAGLES!!!

Lets wooooooop sydneys arse.

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"I'm not going to waste my life trying to prolong it"

 

[GoEagles]

The other biased commentator was Anthony Hudson, I even heard on radio he hates the Eagles - so thats proof in the pudding.

Ken Judge's coaching moves confirmed my opinion that he is certainly not the right man to be coaching the Eagles - playing Troy Wilson as a rover was a pathetic move, he should of stuck to FF or CHF when Cummings/Sirra went down with injury.

On radio they were saying Cummings won't be playing next week, so at least Wilson should be able to play the full game at Full Foward.

daddy_4_eyes - King was reported by the boundary umpire, but since it was accidental I doubt they will rub him out.

 

[Frodo]

Some good points have been made. Cummings had 2 or 3 on him for most of the time. If Wilson had gone to a pocket it would have taken a tall off Scotty.
We needed a marking presence or two at half forward. After Sierra went we had nothing.
The selection was at fault.
Add Donnelly and we had a second nmarking option.
Add Cox or Turnbull and we had another marking option plus the option of putting gardy forward.
We were already without the physical Embley who would have been good against geelong.
So the squad balance was wrong.

Also, remember that Braun, Jacko, Cummings and a few others were recovering from injury and had not a lot under their belts as far as fitness was concerned. The team will be fitter each week and will improve.
Bad news about glassy though 8~10 weeks.

 

[Visro]

And add to that Sierra out for 2 weeks and Cummings may be out for this coming round. So thats allready-

Read - Season
Embley - ~8 weeks
Glass - ~8 weeks
Sierra - ~2 weeks
Gaspar - 1 week (I think)
Cummings - Test
Kemp - Test

Any others I've missed? What is it with us and injuries, we always seem to get them. Surely Kane Munro and Dean Cox are going to get a run this week with some many out allready!!

 

[Broome]

I agree about the injuries! I was hopeful that after our horror run last season that might all be behind us. Let's hope that the players heal in the quickest possible time. It really was terrible luck for Glass I honestly thought this would be the year for him. Fingers crossed that bone heals double quick

 

[jod23]

Ok i think Seira is the right man for CHF, at least until McDougall or Gasper make the next step. But he needs help so put Donnelly as another marking forward on the half forward flank with Merenda as the crumbing goal sneak. Then if Judge is going to play a loose man in defence then there is always going to be someone plugging Scottys path. Solution: play Wilson in a forward pocket. Make set plays where they both lead out but in different directions. They cant stop both.
And if there is no mark taken then Merenda and Phil Matera are crumbing the packs. I dont know why Judge is having all these problems ... im sure i could coach the WCE better than him.

 

[Frodo]

I saw Judgey on TV last night. He was quite unconcerned. 'We lost a couple of blokes early and that cost us the game'.
Well Ken, your wrong. If we had have had no injuries we would have lost because the team attitude is wrong. It's about time Judgey looked at himself aws well as the players and let us know how he thought he performed as coach.