Preview Rd19: Changes and prematch discussion vs West Coast

[Yoko and me]

I didn’t even know Morgan was injured

2 games and already done a calf

A grade Recruitment lol got to stop taking injury prone players

Never recruit from essendon. Full stop.

 

[Yoko and me]

10 ******* years of this bafoon same old s**t easy fix blah blah blah . Easy fix would be to get rid of him as coach . s**t !! I think I had a dejavou moment. Or am I just repeating myself ...

Yeah, I'm a bit done with him too atm. He was planning for us to make a surprise attack at the flag with Waite leading the way? McDonald would get a third round pick in a trade. Simpkin has to go back. LDU would be on the delist column except for his draft pick number. I hope he will get there, but not by playing games where he is embarrassed this year. Put him in the gym and on the track. Or tell him to focus on being a forward pocket. I just don't understand what the brains trust are seeing in Hrovat and Turner. Delist both. Train or get some players who cover the ground and defend on the wings and then get forward quick when we have the ball, then run in and crumb from the big forwards if theft don't mark it. Simple

Scott got handed his ass in his pants today because he ' backed the guys in'

Out coached and game plan shredded right before his (and our) eyes.

But she'll be right

 

[tazaa]

Walker, McKay, Larkey, Murphy and Preuss are the only players worth bringing in at this stage. Goldy has found his dicks so there goes Preuss. Larkey is clearly seen as not ready so theres that. McKay has been behind a very settled backline but may get a gig this week if Maj stays forward. Walker is on the verge and hopefully comes in for Turner. Murphy is stuffed by all accounts but is the real deal.

The only other young players worth a game are already in the ones, three of them part of the mid rotations.

McKay in to chop out the defence and keep Daw forward. Morgan out.
Jacobs in for McDonald. Might be best that Luke doesn’t head down to Hobart this week anyway.
Walker in for Turner and Jy to play half forward.
He and Hrovat survive for one more week.
The only difference between our current form slump is that our better players are still playing at a decent standard.
Interestingly it’s our bottom 6 who are costing us.

Could even see Mason back this week.

 

[GarnerSmash]

Have you noticed that apart from the last 2 weeks he has been rotated in and out of CHF and mid. You may not be sure, but won't know until they give him an opportunity. I have watched him play all last year, without a pre season then as well, and he was good enough to be moved from Colts to seniors including the winning grand final game. He was 5 th best on ground in a team that blitz the competition. He is a class act.

I have sen him play a few times and he has been playing on ball and off a forward flank. Regardless of what he has done in the past he is now in the AFL and hasn't show that he is ready to step to the big leagues just yet.

I look forward to seeing what he can do with a full preseason under his belt.

 

[Rockstar6]

I don't care who comes in or goes out, there better be at least 4 changes. That was our worst game for a few years

 

[King Corey]

Still keep seeing Mountford's name pooping up. The bloke has played what, 1 1/2 games this year. He's not coming in on the back of 1 VFL game.

He's massively overated here on the output from last year. Had a good run of games and struggled to get the ball more than a dozens times. Will be lucky to get another contract.

Probably because he's one of the blokes who runs both ways, presents in top condition and speaks and plays like he gives 2 shits about the team.

 

[King Corey]

Good post. Here's another stat regarding that list of players from before - The players to make their AFL debut at NMFC in the last 4 years

Trent Dumont - 1
Ryan Clarke - 6
Jy Simpkin - 2
Declan Mountford - 1
Braydon Preuss - 4
Mitch Hibberd - 1
Sam Durdin - 1
Ed Vickers-Willis - 7
Daniel Nielson - 7
Cameron Zurhaar - 2
Nick Larkey - 1
Josh Williams - 1
Ben McKay - 1
Luke Davies-Uniacke - 4
Paul Ahern - ????
Tom Murphy - 3
Alex Morgan - ????

You're quite the soothsayer was thinking about commenting on this too.

I've harped on about it but the preseason messages were so strong about lowering expectations and setting up for the future I had (probably for the first time) expected us to play predominately youth to establish the foundations of a long term successful side.

Whether we have since or not has been debated but 2 main items stick out like dog's balls from the list above for mine.

Firstly, we trumpeted about how many players debuted last season... but it's worth seeing how many games they've had in senior season 2:

2017 Debutantes - New to AFL

Ed Vickers-Willis: best 22
Jy Simpkin: regular senior player
Cameron Zurhaar: given opportunities
==
Sam Durdin - 1
Declan Mountford - 0
Braydon Preuss - 0
Mitch Hibberd - 0
Daniel Nielson - 0
Nick Larkey - 0
Josh Williams - 0
Ben McKay - 0

So while 2017 can claim we blooded 11 players, 2018 shows that 8 of those have had a combined single senior game between them.

There are intervening reasons such as injury (of course...) but we've hardly been methodically sorting out and developing who's part of our best side for the next 3-5 years.

The 2nd point of note is the senior exposure we've given to key position players / talls. While I'm not in favour of throwing kids to the wolves even an ultra-conservative like Pagan used to rotate young talls in for a couple of games each year to assist in their development.

2018 Senior games - developing talls
Sam Durdin - 1
Braydon Preuss - 0
Daniel Nielson - 0
Nick Larkey - 0
Ben McKay - 0
(Tristan Xerri - 0)

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Based off the VFL:
Nielson, McKay, Walker, Hibberd and Pruess all deserve a go at some point this season.

 

[Moti]

I would give Thompson the week off to get the nose right, even though he could probably play. Mc Kay in.

Turner out (although should be looking at a Majak flip to defence next year), Walker in.

Morgan out, Wood comes back in and we put whoever in defence to play the witches hat role.

Hrovat, Clarke and LDU on the chopping block too and one goes out for Jacobs if he is right but really don't want him risked.

We need some injuries to force changes as sad as that sounds.

 

[goalieboy82]

Scamper is taking the week off (because of his paw so)
Teddy D Pomm:

and
Mozzie the Mini Aussie:

both bark the following:

 

[Caracas]

All I want this weekend is our best possible team on the park and that those players selected put Saturday’s aberration firmly behind us. If we win this weekend, it’s a whole new ballgame.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[SpiderBurton22]

Probably because he's one of the blokes who runs both ways, presents in top condition and speaks and plays like he gives 2 shits about the team.

Maybe, but he's no Boomer Harvey. He'll need another good 3 weeks of solid football under his belt. It obvious the club has doubts about him by only offering him a 1 year contract. I think the only way he'll get a game this year is if the club throw in the towell when finals are out of the equation.

 

[The Dingrel]

Out: Morgan, McDonald, Turner, Simpkin
In: Hibberd, McKay, Walker, Jacobs (if fit)

Consistently underperforming in AFL vs Consistently performing in VFL. Im expecting Jacobs in for Morgan though.

 

[big_e]

You're quite the soothsayer was thinking about commenting on this too.

I've harped on about it but the preseason messages were so strong about lowering expectations and setting up for the future I had (probably for the first time) expected us to play predominately youth to establish the foundations of a long term successful side.

Whether we have since or not has been debated but 2 main items stick out like dog's balls from the list above for mine.

Firstly, we trumpeted about how many players debuted last season... but it's worth seeing how many games they've had in senior season 2:

2017 Debutantes - New to AFL

Ed Vickers-Willis: best 22
Jy Simpkin: regular senior player
Cameron Zurhaar: given opportunities
==
Sam Durdin - 1
Declan Mountford - 0
Braydon Preuss - 0
Mitch Hibberd - 0
Daniel Nielson - 0
Nick Larkey - 0
Josh Williams - 0
Ben McKay - 0

So while 2017 can claim we blooded 11 players, 2018 shows that 8 of those have had a combined single senior game between them.

There are intervening reasons such as injury (of course...) but we've hardly been methodically sorting out and developing who's part of our best side for the next 3-5 years.

The 2nd point of note is the senior exposure we've given to key position players / talls. While I'm not in favour of throwing kids to the wolves even an ultra-conservative like Pagan used to rotate young talls in for a couple of games each year to assist in their development.

2018 Senior games - developing talls
Sam Durdin - 1
Braydon Preuss - 0
Daniel Nielson - 0
Nick Larkey - 0
Ben McKay - 0
(Tristan Xerri - 0)

You're missing something about 2017 - while we had lots of debutantes, it wasn't really a "play the kids" year. Think of the games played last year by players who are no longer at the club:

Sam Gibson - 22
Aaron Mullett - 18
Andrew Swallow - 16
Lachy Hansen - 13
Lindsay Thomas - 9

And then the actual games played by those debutantes:

Ed Vickers-Willis - rounds 5 to 11
Jy Simpkin - rounds 1 to 6, then 8, then 16 to 23
Cameron Zurhaar - rounds 17, 18, 21 and 22
Sam Durdin - rounds 3 and 8, then 18 to 23
Declan Mountford - round 1, then 13 to 22
Braydon Preuss - rounds 1 to 4, then 19 to 22
Mitch Hibberd - round 1, then 15 to 17
Daniel Nielson - rounds 16 to 22
Nick Larkey - rounds 18 and 20
Josh Williams - rounds 18 and 20
Ben McKay - round 23

On a round by round basis, the number of 2017 debutantes went like this:

Rounds 1-6 - average of 2.5
Rounds 7-16 - average of 1.4
Rounds 17-22 - average of 6.2
Round 23 there were a few farewell games, but still had three 2017 debutantes.

In essence, a few of them got some games in early part of the season, but most played at the back end. Basically, we've done the same thing this year - have a crack at finishing as high as possible, with the team best equipped to do that - but once finals was out of our reach, we gave the kids a shot. I suspect this year will be the same.

We're still a chance for finals, so don't expect the kids to play for another few weeks, when we are dead and buried for the year.

 

[Horizons_00]

Can anyone remember the last time we made multiple changes (+3) without injury pushing someone out?

 

[giantroo]

This pressure needs to return.

 

[Moti]

This pressure needs to return.

Also think we got found out. Clubs worked out what we were doing and adapted and you can see them hanging off packs a little more and it is clear at the ground we leave whole areas bare.

 

[giantroo]

We are second last for disposal efficiency for the season to date (70.3%). Only GC are worse than us with a % of 66.3. West Coast sit in 4th place on 73.6%.

Hawks and Pies sit equal first on 74.7%.

 

[Marstermind]

We are second last for disposal efficiency for the season to date (70.3%). Only GC are worse than us with a % of 66.3. West Coast sit in 4th place on 73.6%.

Hawks and Pies sit equal first on 74.7%.

So going by your last two posts we can sum it up that since the Brisbane game we've struggled to get the ball off the opposition, and when we do we give it back to them way too easily. That sounds about right.

 

[giantroo]

So going by your last two posts we can sum it up that since the Brisbane game we've struggled to get the ball off the opposition, and when we do we give it back to them way too easily. That sounds about right.

Last week's DE - Pies 79.3% , us 68.3% . Sydney and GC were the only two worse than us.

 

[giantroo]

Our DE since round 11

R11 77.9
R12 74.4
R14 75
R15 74.4
R16 72.3
R17 75.5
R18 68.3


BTW, our overall DE would be affected by the round 1 debacle. We had a DE of 48.1 while GC had 51.2.

 

[King Corey]

So going by your last two posts we can sum it up that since the Brisbane game we've struggled to get the ball off the opposition, and when we do we give it back to them way too easily. That sounds about right.

We'll always have Rounds 2-10.5 where the team played some of their best football as a unit in the last decade.

The club should consider releasing a saints style box set - "The Effort Streak"- for the 8.5 games where the team put in solid defensive effort.

 

[Steamin Beamin]

I'm backing the boys to bounce back from last week, changes or not.
WCE won't know what hit them.

 

[Horizons_00]

Our DE since round 11

R11 77.9
R12 74.4
R14 75
R15 74.4
R16 72.3
R17 75.5
R18 68.3


BTW, our overall DE would be affected by the round 1 debacle. We had a DE of 48.1 while GC had 51.2.

Bring back our so called "brand" of manic pressure and the DE will no doubt improve

I feel like that is going to be our focus this week

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Would love to see Nielson get a game sooner rather than later, has been playing well at VFL level for a while now, alongside McKay and Walker.