Mega Thread Non-Freo AFL Discussion 2025

[Purple_Turtle]

lol at People thinking we don’t need Lachie Neale anymore, meanwhile Bailey Banfield played 20 bloody games for us (including a final) the season just past

Yeah, but that was as a HBF. Where McVee and Simpson should be pushing for spots.

 

[s_wd6]

lol at People thinking we don’t need Lachie Neale anymore, meanwhile Bailey Banfield played 20 bloody games for us (including a final) the season just past

This argument makes sense if we chuck Lachie Neale down at half back

 

[Dockeroo]

This argument makes sense if we chuck Lachie Neale down at half back

That’s not how footy works at AFL level.
In that scenario, we would put Young or someone at HBF and play Neale on ball.
Could put Brayshaw rotating on a wing and drop the likes of NOD. Lots of options and combinations.

Plenty of examples of top end mids moving to half back or half forward flanks to make room for an extra premium mid.

 

[s_wd6]

That’s not how footy works at AFL level.
In that scenario, we would put Young or someone at HBF and play Neale on ball.
Could put Brayshaw rotating on a wing and drop the likes of NOD. Lots of options and combinations.

Plenty of examples of top end mids moving to half back or half forward flanks to make room for an extra premium mid.

In that scenario we put Judd or Walker or Simpson at HBF and play Young on ball.

We have so many players waiting in the wings to fill both the half back and the inside mid spots. Infidelity aside, Neale is a useless acquisition and all his recruitment does is push out other younger players to go grow elsewhere.

If we’re bringing in a 30+ year old to come for a couple years then you need a Cripps type. Not Neale.

 

[AstonSouffle]

In that scenario we put Judd or Walker or Simpson at HBF and play Young on ball.

We have so many players waiting in the wings to fill both the half back and the inside mid spots. Infidelity aside, Neale is a useless acquisition and all his recruitment does is push out other younger players to go grow elsewhere.

If we’re bringing in a 30+ year old to come for a couple years then you need a Cripps type. Not Neale.

Counter argument is that Neale knows how to win, while Cripps evidently does not.

 

[King Huskii]

lol at People thinking we don’t need Lachie Neale anymore, meanwhile Bailey Banfield played 20 bloody games for us (including a final) the season just past

But he's a better bloke

 

[The Feeder Club]

But he's a better bloke

And he once managed to execute a difficult kick in a game, that we won, against Collingwood, which as far as I can tell from BF gives him rights to selection for life

 

[King Huskii]

And he once managed to execute a difficult kick in a game, that we won, against Collingwood, which as far as I can tell from BF gives him rights to selection for life

That was a brilliant kick but one swallow doesn't make a summer.

 

[fnerd]

And he once managed to execute a difficult kick in a game, that we won, against Collingwood, which as far as I can tell from BF gives him rights to selection for life

Long tucked away in Freo folklore that kick.
Bit like Hayden croziers mark in u18s- ended up being his career highlight

 

[ImperialPurple]

And he once managed to execute a difficult kick in a game, that we won, against Collingwood, which as far as I can tell from BF JL gives him rights to selection for life

Minor adjustment as I’ve done the maths and it’s only half on BF.

 

[Dockeroo]

In that scenario we put Judd or Walker or Simpson at HBF and play Young on ball.

We have so many players waiting in the wings to fill both the half back and the inside mid spots. Infidelity aside, Neale is a useless acquisition and all his recruitment does is push out other younger players to go grow elsewhere.

If we’re bringing in a 30+ year old to come for a couple years then you need a Cripps type. Not Neale.

I keep hearing about all this “depth” we have for a number of years now yet
(A) we clearly had the worst bottom 6 players of all eight finalists last year.
(B) the likes of Banfield and Worner are playing nearly every game for us - neither would get near a game for last years grand finalists.
(C) Walker was available for selection towards the end of last season but still couldn’t get a game in defence ahead of Banfield. Not comparable to Lachie Neale.

 

[pK75]

I keep hearing about all this “depth” we have for a number of years now yet
(A) we clearly had the worst bottom 6 players of all eight finalists last year.
(B) the likes of Banfield and Worner are playing nearly every game for us - neither would get near a game for last years grand finalists.
(C) Walker was available for selection towards the end of last season but still couldn’t get a game in defence ahead of Banfield. Not comparable to Lachie Neale.

d) we traded down our first round pick to recruit McVee to solve this exact problem. We don’t need another HBF

 

[Retzlaff]

lol at People thinking we don’t need Lachie Neale anymore, meanwhile Bailey Banfield played 20 bloody games for us (including a final) the season just past

The difference is all men would gladly give their partners a Bailey Banfield hall pass

 

[Dockeroo]

d) we traded down our first round pick to recruit McVee to solve this exact problem. We don’t need another HBF

I like McVee and he’s a decent addition but one player isn’t going to solve a depth problem.
One injury and we are back in the same place as last year?

The truth is we are relying on some unknowns/unprovens like the new draftees or the likes of Simpson to improve, stay fit and push out some of the guys that aren’t good enough for a premiership contending campaign.

 

[Taylor]

The difference is all men would gladly give their partners a Bailey Banfield hall pass

I don't know, but I feel like Bailey Banfield could be trusted with your wallet and your wife.

 

[Taylor]

I like McVee and he’s a decent addition but one player isn’t going to solve a depth problem.
One injury and we are back in the same place as last year?

The truth is we are relying on some unknowns/unprovens like the new draftees or the likes of Simpson to improve, stay fit and push out some of the guys that aren’t good enough for a premiership contending campaign.

Good thing half back is literally the easiest position in the side to play, such that it's the easiest place to win a Rising Star award from - we could slot nearly anyone into it and tell them to either stick close to their man or run away from him.

I think we are going to have so many players available to play small in the backline that we will be talking about Brandon Walker as a small forward by mid season.

 

[Big Animal]

personally I'd rather play Walker as the lockdown defender on their best small/mid forward and let Clarke and McVee focus on getting the ball out as cleanly and quickly as possible.

 

[MadDocker]

personally I'd rather play Walker as the lockdown defender on their best small/mid forward and let Clarke and McVee focus on getting the ball out as cleanly and quickly as possible.

Walker looked in great shape out there this morning and made the running look easy. He was in good form before that knee injury then struggled to break back into the team. Great to have pressure on spots.

 

[Dockeroo]

personally I'd rather play Walker as the lockdown defender on their best small/mid forward and let Clarke and McVee focus on getting the ball out as cleanly and quickly as possible.

I’d agree with this. One of the big issues we had last year was that our ball use out of the back half was noticeably poorer than the best sides.
The likes of Zorko is almost like a quarterback for Brisbane across halfback and supported by Wilmot and co.
As Adam Simpson said a few times last year, for freo it’s Clark then basically nothing. No creativity or dare from pretty much any of the other defenders.
If we can have McVee and Clark as go-to attacking weapons off half back then let the other 4 or 5 defenders mostly concentrate on defending and eliminating dumb errors it will make a big difference.

 

[Daddoo]

If we’re bringing in a 30+ year old to come for a couple years then you need a Cripps type. Not Neale.

I don't want Neale or Cripps, but if I had to pick, I'd take Cripps all day over Neale.

We already have our ball winning nugget midfielder. I'd love to have a big bodied mid to help protect the Bray and Serong. Johnson (193cm: 89kg)/Young (189cm: 88kg)/Erasmus (197cm: 83kg) are smaller and not as big of a body as ol' Crippa (195cm: 93kg).

Neale is 177cm: 85kg compared to Caleb at 180cm: 83kg

 

[stax on the mull]

Someone is going to come along any second now and screw this up by not mentioning Freo in the Non-Freo Discussion thread.

 

[pK75]

Someone is going to come along any second now and screw this up by not mentioning Freo in the Non-Freo Discussion thread.

Neil is not a Freo player, and many are saying they would like that fact to be maintained, ergo “Non-Freo” discussion

 

[stax on the mull]

Neil is not a Freo player, and many are saying they would like that fact to be maintained, ergo “Non-Freo” discussion

Neil? Neil who? Neil Erasmus?

 

[Taylor]

I’d agree with this. One of the big issues we had last year was that our ball use out of the back half was noticeably poorer than the best sides.
The likes of Zorko is almost like a quarterback for Brisbane across halfback and supported by Wilmot and co.
As Adam Simpson said a few times last year, for freo it’s Clark then basically nothing. No creativity or dare from pretty much any of the other defenders.
If we can have McVee and Clark as go-to attacking weapons off half back then let the other 4 or 5 defenders mostly concentrate on defending and eliminating dumb errors it will make a big difference.

Not looking at the stats, but going off the style of play and gut feel - I'd have guessed Zorko's average kick length towards goal would be half that of the likes of Clark. I'd hope he was picking off the 20m kicks. We start all our defending with long kicks down the line - Brisbane have better cattle to flash it off half back in short ball movements.

So hopefully this year is different.

 

[pK75]

Neil? Neil who? Neil Erasmus?

Neale, the other one