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Jabber

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Thread starter #1
From the Age

Key injuries can turn contenders to pretenders
By Rohan Connolly
May 26 2003


"..West Coast is flying high, but would be grounded pretty quickly by injury to either ruckman Michael Gardiner, onballer Ben Cousins or goalkicker Phil Matera.."

I get the impression this guy doesn't know much about the Eagles squad past our top 3 or 4 name players of a couple of years ago.
 

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Goldenblue

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#3
Originally posted by Jabber
From the Age

Key injuries can turn contenders to pretenders
By Rohan Connolly
May 26 2003


"..West Coast is flying high, but would be grounded pretty quickly by injury to either ruckman Michael Gardiner, onballer Ben Cousins or goalkicker Phil Matera.."

I get the impression this guy doesn't know much about the Eagles squad past our top 3 or 4 name players of a couple of years ago.
Exactly.

These Victorian media tossers don't have a clue. If Cousins is missing we have Chick or Kerr to step up, if Gardy breaks down, Sux is ready to fill in the void. Sampi is a crumber along with Fido, so you have Haynes and Wilson in the forward line with Sampi to swoop on the spoils.

Along with Wooden, Collica, Wilson and co playing WAFL, I think our depth is there. The media simply dont know our team too well or the strengths we do have.

I think the stories are written more out of fear for them and to maybe cast doubt on ourselves.

We copped this same sort of crap in 1990 and 1991.
 

noodle

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#4
we have great depth at the moment. not only do we have 22 players who are in form we have a number who are burning up the WAFL but still can't get into the side.

if we lost Gardiner we would have to rely heavily on Cox. Yeah he's not as good but he's good enough to hold down the ruck

if cousin went out. we couldcover him with a number of players.

if phil got injured, well i'm sure our scoring rate would drop but so far we have scored over 100 goals in every game and won games by quite a few points.

if we lost these 3 we would slip down the ladder but would still be in the 8.
 

carlyp

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#5
Its obvious these Victorians have no idea! I say, in 2 weeks when we play the Bulldogs at home we give Gardi, Phill Matera and cousins a game off and stick it right up Rohan Connely!
 

iceman

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#6
Gardiner was missing for a large period of last season, Cox stepped up admirably

Cousins was limping for the games against Geelong and Melbourne, we got through without him - Chick stood up

Phil Matera is having his best ever season at the club, and Sampi is complementing him well

The media in Melbourne are only now noticing the Eagles, so i wouldnt take much notice of what they say
 

eagleskickass

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#7
Originally posted by noodle
we have scored over 100 goals in every game and won games by quite a few points.
well gee wiz no wonder we have the highest "for" in the AFL, thats gotta be some sort of record dont it;)
 

iceman

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#8
Originally posted by carlyp
Its obvious these Victorians have no idea! I say, in 2 weeks when we play the Bulldogs at home we give Gardi, Phill Matera and cousins a game off and stick it right up Rohan Connely!
You wouldnt be saying that if you saw the Bulldogs vs Adelaide game yesterday
 

Mr Q

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#9
Originally written by Rohan Connolly in The Age
"..West Coast is flying high, but would be grounded pretty quickly by injury to either ruckman Michael Gardiner, onballer Ben Cousins or goalkicker Phil Matera.."
No, Connelly doesn't really have a clue. Losing Gardiner would have a serious effect on the side, as noone could expect Cox to cover for him at the level he is playing this year. Losing Matera would have a serious effect on the side although not fatal as Connolly implies. On these two there is something to what Connolly says, although it is nowhere near the potential doom and gloom he is saying.

As for Cousins, well as good a player as he is, he's played maybe three good games this year, and we're 7-2. As usual, a grain of truth has been spread out to include all-encompassing doom. Probably never heard of Chad Fletcher or Rowan Jones or the like.

Of course it could be that Connolly has just been asking sabre for information about the Eagles.
 

daddy_4_eyes

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#10
Originally posted by iceman
The media in Melbourne are only now noticing the Eagles, so i wouldnt take much notice of what they say
Last week the Vic media were creaming themselves over the eagles, I've never seen that many articles on the eagles in the Vic newspapers.
This week its Freo.

The media simply see under-rated teams like WC and Freo starting to win over in Victoria and write stupid articles about them. WC played poorly for the most part against Collingwood, yet the media were writing about it like we just beat Essendon of 2000.

Vic journo's are the biggest idiots around, I can only imagine how bad the WA media is ;)
 

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#11
Originally posted by daddy_4_eyes
Last week the Vic media were creaming themselves over the eagles, I've never seen that many articles on the eagles in the Vic newspapers.
The bandwagon is starting to fill, I still remember watching 'On the Couch' last week and Robert Walls was saying that they tipped the Eagles in the bottom 8 because they havent seen enough of them

Both WA teams have been severly underrated by the Victorian media
 

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ozzult

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#12
While we would be at a disadvantage if Gardiner went down, I think Cox would take the position and really put in a hard contest, and Seaby has been in great form in the WAFL, and I think he would be able to hold down the "back up ruckman" job while Gardy is out.

As for Cousins, you might as well have had him out there on crutches from round 3-7.
 

Deepthroat

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#15
Connelly is a twit. I don't see the Age supporting his ill-informed brand of journalism much longer. Most sports fans are smart enough to want to read something that resembles at least half the truth of what's going on. Connelly's viewpoints are constantly tainted by his biase towards Victorian teams.

During the last two pre-seasons this is a guy who's only comment on the Eagles was "they'll struggle as their veterans in Matera, Jacko and McIntosh are all they have". I always got the feeling the names Sumich, Glendenning and Ugle could have slipped into that sentence and he would have believed himself. I firmly belive he still thinks Judge is coaching the side.
 

carlyp

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#16
Originally posted by Deepthroat
Connelly is a twit. I don't see the Age supporting his ill-informed brand of journalism much longer. Most sports fans are smart enough to want to read something that resembles at least half the truth of what's going on. Connelly's viewpoints are constantly tainted by his biase towards Victorian teams.

During the last two pre-seasons this is a guy who's only comment on the Eagles was "they'll struggle as their veterans in Matera, Jacko and McIntosh are all they have". I always got the feeling the names Sumich, Glendenning and Ugle could have slipped into that sentence and he would have believed himself. I firmly belive he still thinks Judge is coaching the side.
Totally agree. When will he and others like him wake up and realize that we have some real superstars in our team (Gardi, Cuzz, Kerr, Judd, Embley, Wirrapunda) and with woosha at the helm we are always a real chance!
 

jod23

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#17
Originally posted by Jabber
From the Age

Key injuries can turn contenders to pretenders
By Rohan Connolly
May 26 2003


"..West Coast is flying high, but would be grounded pretty quickly by injury to either ruckman Michael Gardiner, onballer Ben Cousins or goalkicker Phil Matera.."

I get the impression this guy doesn't know much about the Eagles squad past our top 3 or 4 name players of a couple of years ago.
This is stupid.

Cousins = our best midfielder
Gardiner = our best tall/ruck
Matera = our best forward

Take any teams best forward, tall and midfielder out and see how well they do. That's like taking Buckley, Tarrant and say Rocca out of Collingwood. Lloyd, Johnson and Lucas out of Essendon. Primus, Stevens and Tredrea out of Port. Bell, Pavlich and Longmuir out of Freo. Richardson, Stafford, Campbell from Richmond....I could go on and on.

Seems like a stupid generalisation.
 

The Passenger

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#19
The only person I'd be to worried about is Gardy, but Cox played his best game for quite a few weeks against Richmond.

Phil Matera would be a pretty big blow, but I reckon we can cover that. IMO Phil hasn't created that many goals himself, he's bucketload of goals for this season has simply been a by-product of the work from the midfield, chf line and ff line.

If Phil wasn't there and we had someone else in his spot, I'd say they'd have a pretty similar number of goals - not much less anyway.

Cousins at the moment is no where near our most influential player, and its impossible to put that mark on any our midfielders - Judd, Fletcher, Kerr, Cousins and Chick are all equally important as each other.
 

The Passenger

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#20
also our dpeth is quite outstanding although it was questioned earlier this year, including a few worries from some of our own.

Look at this list of players that didn't play on Saturday.

Phil Read
Daniel Chick
Travis Gaspar
Ashley McIntosh
Damien Adkins
Michael Collica
Callum Chambers
Josh Wooden
Troy Wilson

Theres 9 players that could easily rotate through our starting 22 and fit in with no problems.
 

Jabber

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Thread starter #21
Originally posted by Black Thunder
also our dpeth is quite outstanding although it was questioned earlier this year, including a few worries from some of our own.

Look at this list of players that didn't play on Saturday.

Phil Read
Daniel Chick
Travis Gaspar
Ashley McIntosh
Damien Adkins
Michael Collica
Callum Chambers
Josh Wooden
Troy Wilson

Theres 9 players that could easily rotate through our starting 22 and fit in with no problems.
Throw in Lynch & McDougall as well who have shown they are capable.
 

jod23

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#22
Originally posted by Black Thunder

Phil Matera would be a pretty big blow, but I reckon we can cover that. IMO Phil hasn't created that many goals himself, he's bucketload of goals for this season has simply been a by-product of the work from the midfield, chf line and ff line.

If Phil wasn't there and we had someone else in his spot, I'd say they'd have a pretty similar number of goals - not much less anyway.
I dont think your giving Matera enough credit there. He is the best small forward in the league and he creates a lot of goals for himself by roving packs so well, he is also very smart on the lead and pretty quick. I think he has done an outstanding job for us this year and to say you could just replace him with someone else and they would kick as many goals, IMO, is a pretty big call.
 
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