Paul Roos massive fail

[tofushark]

I don't think Freo will drop considerably, but it is hard to see the Dockers improving. Whilst their list largely remains intact, I feel a number of retirements hurts their depth and Chris Tarrant is a huge loss.

More of a concern is their injury worries. How much quality football will come from Michael Barlow, Anthony
Morabito, Roger Hayden and Hayden Ballantyne?

David Mundy has had an interrupted pre-season and I still have a concern over Aaron Sandiland's foot injury from last year.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...-coach-paul-roos/story-e6frf9jf-1226016226580


Pretty disappointed with this from Roos, I was hoping that his exit from coaching and entry into the media there might be someone worth listening to, especially as Hird has now vacated. However, there are just too many holes in this pieces and he really is as uniformed as the rest of the hacks.

Given we have blooded more young players than other team over the last two years you would think he may given us a little room for improvement.

Also, who of our retirements really going to have a massive impact? He must be referring to Ryan Murphy or Steven Dodd, as he obviously didn’t watch Haselby and Headland in 2010. Both of them were quality players during their careers especially Paul, but he wasn’t a massive asset in ’10, he wasn’t even in our weakened finals squad.

Of the injured players Frodo is already playing today, and when has Roger not had an injury interrupted season, but still managed to produce when in the team. As much as I enjoyed having Morabito in ’10 and would have likely been an asset this year, based on last year’s form he was great for a first year player but compared to a seasoned player his output was average (don’t misinterpret this as slight on him as think he will be champ in time).

On Mundy, besides of recent weeks I thought I had been hearing about him having a solid preseason.

Sandilands, WTF!! he has concerns over his foot injury. Did we happen to employ Roo’s as one of our medical consultants. It is just the sort of uniformed comments that I expect from Melbourne based hacks.

Of course there is some truths to the comments like the lose of Tarrant and Barlow’s injury, and it is usually water of duck’s back when I read these types of articles. I am just more disappointed with his uniformed commentary then his dismal of Freo.

 

[docker_champ29]

Overreact much? I agree with most of what Roos said.

 

[Scootyb]

I agree with the quoted part to be completely honest, just hope i can be proven wrong

 

[leungtl]

Sure he's taken quite a pessimistic view on us, but his points do make sense... Mundy hasn't been able to play a NAB match yet so that's why he's had an interrupted pre-season; not sure where the Sandi comments come from but, must just be an observation he's made while watching us in 2011.

Make no mistake, Mora is HUGE loss. Both for our team and for himself personally (not being able to add on to his games experience). The kid just oozes X-Factor already!

 

[bfff]

It's a pretty fair assessment. We are unlikely to improve on our form of last year at the start of the 2011 season.

In regard to the injuries:

Sandilands has had the foot niggle for a while now and these type of injuries seem to linger.

Ballantyne has been injured a number of times in his short career and given that he hasn't played yet some concern is warranted.

Roger is injured so he will be missing from the 22 for the start of the season.

 

[tofushark]

Yeah it is fair call that I might be overreacting but the quality of informed commentary in the AFL is really poor compared to other sports and it is rare when there is the possibility of someone to join the ranks and lift the standards.

I'm not sure if anyone listened to him commentate on the CWS/GC/Swans game but it was refreshing to hear someone who really understood the game as opposed to knob heads like Shaw, Walls etc. The same applies to written AFL media. So for him to make some pretty baseless claims I am just a tad annoyed that he may just end up like the rest of them.

Regarding Mora, I do agree he is a massive loss to us this year but as I said I was referring to 2010 Mora not his potential to impact this year.

 

[tofushark]

So people here think that there is no improvement to come in regular 22 players that have only played a season or two like Hill, Fyfe, Palmer, Mayne (first full preseason), Broughton, Walters, Suban, Roberton? Plus there is the addition of players such as Tendai and Anthony. I am not saying that it will necessarily mitigate the effect of the the injuries and other concerns but I would have thought that there was some faith in these players to improve the team.

 

[Kickett Punches Read]

i dont disagree with anything roos has said there. he has only really mentioned the things that most of us have deep hidden fears about anyway

 

[Clay Davis]

I don't really have a problem with what he said on Freo, but being another of the many commentators who think Hawthorn are a premiership threat kind of makes me disregard the column.

They haven't shown anything like premiership capability in the past two seasons. The average age of their midfield is 28 and Luke Hodge has had an interrupted pre season. They still have holes defensively, although they are getting better in that regard.

Why are they so special?

 

[Kickett Punches Read]

So people here think that there is no improvement to come in regular 22 players that have only played a season or two like Hill, Fyfe, Palmer, Mayne (first full preseason), Broughton, Walters, Suban, Roberton? Plus there is the addition of players such as Tendai and Anthony. I am not saying that it will necessarily mitigate the effect of the the injuries and other concerns but I would have thought that there was some faith in these players to improve the team.

there will certainly be improvement. but my question is, how many of those players you mention will have a game changing impact on a regular basis like barlow or mundy? i reckon only hill and fyfe of that group will do that regularly. so while there is definite improvement to be had, i still feel if mundy goes down, and barlow doesnt come back as good as we hope, then we are up the creek without a paddle. we all need a bit of patience and faith though, what will happen will happen

 

[bfff]

We are going to be relying on a lot of players that haven't played 50 games. That is a concern IMO.

The young guys will improve but I doubt that it will be as stunning as the improvement of the past couple of years.

 

[Kickett Punches Read]

I don't really have a problem with what he said on Freo, but being another of the many commentators who think Hawthorn are a premiership threat kind of makes me disregard the column.

They haven't shown anything like premiership capability in the past two seasons. The average age of their midfield is 28 and Luke Hodge has had an interrupted pre season. They still have holes defensively, although they are getting better in that regard.

Why are they so special?

midfield of burgoyne, rioli, hodge, mitchell and now bruce is as good as it gets. if you have a strong midfield you can cover other areas. although i agree i dont think they will push for a flag, they certainly have talent.

 

[Brazen]

Yeah it is fair call that I might be overreacting

LOL "Massive Fail" thread title is massive fail

At least you guys rated a mention

 

[tofushark]

We are going to be relying on a lot of players that haven't played 50 games. That is a concern IMO.

The young guys will improve but I doubt that it will be as stunning as the improvement of the past couple of years.

So essentially the same as last year, but the majority of those will have an extra year's of experience.

 

[Clay Davis]

midfield of burgoyne, rioli, hodge, mitchell and now bruce is as good as it gets. if you have a strong midfield you can cover other areas. although i agree i dont think they will push for a flag, they certainly have talent.

They've had the bulk of that 'massive talent' for years. We made easy work of them in the finals last year with that massive talent.

Cameron Bruce is 31 - if Freo got a pick up like that we'd be slammed.

They are overhyped rubbish.

 

[tofushark]

LOL "Massive Fail" thread title is massive fail

At least you guys rated a mention

You right I'm surprised the eagles didn't get a mention, there is scope for them to fall to 17th.

 

[Ysaye]

midfield of burgoyne, rioli, hodge, mitchell and now bruce is as good as it gets. if you have a strong midfield you can cover other areas. although i agree i dont think they will push for a flag, they certainly have talent.

I don't know - will that be their midfield? Or will Hodge play mainly in defence, Rioli and Bruce mainly as forwards? Agreed that Burgoyne with good fitness will help them, but other then that....

My concern with the Freo side at the moment is where the goals are going to come from. Pav was dominant the first half of the season when played almost solely in attack - will he do so again? And whilst I still agree with Anthony as a pickup, I am not convinced that he will be the boom recruit I was hoping for. There were also a lot of goals from midfield and small forward types like Hill, Barlow, Mundy, Morabito, Ballantyne - one of them won't play this season, another will take a while to come back and the rest have lingering injuries. Thats the real concern.

I do reckon Mzungu will improve the side and with Broughton will give a lot of dash off half back. I was hoping Fyfe might be able to go to another level too, but he is also riddled with injury apparently. Clarke could also have a huge influence if he can continue to improve his forward abilities (With the reduced bench, I reckon he has to play as a forward / ruck to get a game) - or he could be a major let down if he doesn't.

 

[bfff]

So essentially the same as last year, but the majority of those will have an extra year's of experience.

My point is that they are still inexperienced in the scheme of things and that I don't expect such noticeable improvement as last year. I'm not saying we won't improve but it is going to be slower this year.

 

[Underdog]

So people here think that there is no improvement to come in regular 22 players that have only played a season or two like Hill, Fyfe, Palmer, Mayne (first full preseason), Broughton, Walters, Suban, Roberton? Plus there is the addition of players such as Tendai and Anthony. I am not saying that it will necessarily mitigate the effect of the the injuries and other concerns but I would have thought that there was some faith in these players to improve the team.

Can't you essentially say that about any team? Every team has a group of young, talented players who they are expecting (or hoping!) will take the next step...

 

[Kickett Punches Read]

They've had the bulk of that 'massive talent' for years. We made easy work of them in the finals last year with that massive talent.

Cameron Bruce is 31 - if Freo got a pick up like that we'd be slammed.

They are overhyped rubbish.

rioli in his 4th year, burgoyne in his 2nd with the club and bruce in his first. In essence i agree with you, they are overhyped, im just trying to answer your question, why are they so special, well on paper, which i know doesnt mean jack, they have a very very good midfield, possibly in the top two in the league. they have two key forwards who are capable of kicking over 70 goals in a year. they recruited a good, while not great, ruckman in david hale who can also kick goals. their defence is workman-like though, which will probably be their downfall....... if only they had of gone harder at tarrant, we would have gotten a much better pick than what the pies offered up,a nd they would have had a better crack at the flag (from their point of view)

as for if we had of gotten a 31 year old we would have been slammed. yes i agree and the double standards suck. but lets not forget who runs the media over here, if west coast had of gotten bruce it would have been an inspired choice . the vic media are just completely ignorant to us (other than hird and healy), so i just choose to ignore them

 

[tofushark]

Can't you essentially say that about any team? Every team has a group of young, talented players who they are expecting (or hoping!) will take the next step...

Of course you can with any team that has a large chunk of their regular 22 that are still in the development curve. I am not suggesting that Freo are unique in this situation, just that we are in this situation.

 

[Kickett Punches Read]

Can't you essentially say that about any team? Every team has a group of young, talented players who they are expecting (or hoping!) will take the next step...

you mean every team except westcoast

 

[go_the_dockers]

When you are in your premiership window, and you dont waste draft picks getting a player then you have done well if he adds something to your team.

As for the article, i am also concerned that key players havent played any games during the preseason. Without Pavlich, Mundy, Sandilands and Hill all playing we are going to struggle.

Until barlow gets back are midfield will struggle, probably forcing pavlich to play in the midfield.

Lets hope the players have just been held back, and are not seriosly injured and will all be available for round 1.

It is very important for fremantle to make the finals 3-4 years in a row.

 

[Kickett Punches Read]

]I don't know - will that be their midfield? Or will Hodge play mainly in defence, Rioli and Bruce mainly as forwards? Agreed that Burgoyne with good fitness will help them, but other then that....[/B]

My concern with the Freo side at the moment is where the goals are going to come from. Pav was dominant the first half of the season when played almost solely in attack - will he do so again? And whilst I still agree with Anthony as a pickup, I am not convinced that he will be the boom recruit I was hoping for. There were also a lot of goals from midfield and small forward types like Hill, Barlow, Mundy, Morabito, Ballantyne - one of them won't play this season, another will take a while to come back and the rest have lingering injuries. Thats the real concern.

I do reckon Mzungu will improve the side and with Broughton will give a lot of dash off half back. I was hoping Fyfe might be able to go to another level too, but he is also riddled with injury apparently. Clarke could also have a huge influence if he can continue to improve his forward abilities (With the reduced bench, I reckon he has to play as a forward / ruck to get a game) - or he could be a major let down if he doesn't.

on the hawks board they reckon rioli ahs been training with the midfield group, and expects to spend more time up the ground.

hodge plays that "quarter back" role, but always goes into the middle at some point

mitchell is there centreman

burgoyne and bruce are mids

thats not taking into account guys like sewell and bateman, who while past their best are still very solid midfielders.... hawks biggest problem in the middle is their lack of footspeed. im guessing they are hoping isiah stevens will rectify this.... not everyone has to agree, but i believe they do have a very formidable engineroom

 

[Underdog]

you mean every team except westcoast

that's where the "hoping!" comes into the equation!