bigbol069
What I reckon you will see:
Croad v McPharlin - Freo have already indicated big Luke will be their man in the goal square this year.
Jacobs - got to keep using him as the free man in defence rather than making him player accountable, usually on guys bigger and stronger cos we are short of key post options in defence. He gives us so much drive and can take a big saving grab, hope Al uses him wisely, will be awesome this season.
They will try to do this but if they swing three talls forward we will be in trouble and i reckon smith will get the extra tall, most likely to be McPharlin at FF using Jacobs to chop the two deep forwards out
Campbell v Pavlich - Al will give Robbie the huge task to continue his development away from ruck duties, Robbie has never been fitter, stronger or better equipped. Still don't know whether he has enough to combat Pav IMO, Dawson might be a show, otherwise Joel the reliable.
For mine Croad gets Pavlich no questions asked. I reckon Robbie would get his pants pull down if he played on him. I also quite like Dawson on pavlich, particularly if he is playing across CHF he played really well against adelaide and wwas great in the one on ones. I reckon Robbie will played on Longmuir when he goes forward. McPharlin is also to athletic for him
Sewell/Osborne v Farmer/Medhurst - one or the other on either of these two.
Sewell will get farmer no question. He has stitched him up the last couple of times. Medhurst? For mine Ossie should get him but he will be lucky to be selected the rate he is going, Guerra seems the likely first up option
Clarke & Vandenberg - will tag
Agree maybe Vanders on Bell and maybe Clarke to shut down the rebound of M.Carr across halfback? or Black on the wing
Williams - who can stop him? Brilliant this bloke. Freo have to stop supply to him rather than trying to stop him.
No complaints. Though teams were quite effective in stopping him by clogging his hole to lead into and making him lead wide in the latter part of last season, due to our one dimmensional attack, Roughie may fix this a little with his contested marking ability
I don't agree with set positions cause in reality these are rarely played.
FB: SMITH CAMPBELL JACOBS
HB: GUERRA CROAD SEWELL
C: VANDENBERG HODGE BATEMAN
HF: CLARKE FRANKLIN BARKER DIXON
FF: WILLIAMS ROUGHEAD
RUCKS: EVERITT MITCHELL CRAWFORD
INT: LADSON LEWIS TAYLOR YOUNG
In my mind Miller, Guerra, Osborne Dawson and Dixon are fighting for the scraps. Dixon will probably play over Miller if fully fit. Ossie needs to prove again is part of the best 22, Dawson squeezed out. Miller may play if Barks doesn't to add a bit more zip to the forward line. Bailey also may play if spiders hammy doesn't come right.
Clarke and Franklin pushing up the wing with vanders pushing back to allow jacobs to become loose man.
Ladson, Lewis, Taylor, Young all being rotated throug the midfield and wing (Young), expect Crawford Hodge and Bateman and Ladson to push back and used to rebound and set up from across half back. Crawford may also be used in defense. Taylor and Everitt pushing forward at times in a Hille type role.
Other key match ups
Haselby - Hodge
Mitchell - Close Tag
Crawford - J Carr
Ladson - Cook
Lewis ???
I reckon we can beat these blokes if we have a red hot dip, the forward line functions and they don't get on top around the stopages.
