Prediction Round 2: Changes v Melbourne

[Kram]

Ehhh. I don't know. I guess I'm sick of comments like this where it's so so close to bodyshaming. "Lug" his body around, "very heavy", "not doing himself any favours". But we never hear the same type of criticism for Young?

It's not an 11 year old kid running around in juniors, it's a pro on 100s of thousands of $ and it's their job is to be conditioned to the game at the highest level.

 

[Barnabus]

It's not an 11 year old kid running around in juniors, it's a pro on 100s of thousands of $ and it's their job is to be conditioned to the game at the highest level.

Still think it is a cheap shot when none of us really know how conditioned he is. Criticize his output or his time on ground or if you have any knowledge of it his training habits if you like but it is classless to body shame.

I personally think he should be put through a mini preseason until the start of the WAFL season then play a few competitive games until he has his form back. I feel like coming in off the back of a few competitive games would give him the chance to build his confidence and form.

 

[ilikepotatoes]

Still think it is a cheap shot when none of us really know how conditioned he is. Criticize his output or his time on ground or if you have any knowledge of it his training habits if you like but it is classless to body shame.

I personally think he should be put through a mini preseason until the start of the WAFL season then play a few competitive games until he has his form back. I feel like coming in off the back of a few competitive games would give him the chance to build his confidence and form.

I'd say it's not body shaming to expect someone earning millions of dollars to be fit to actually be fit.

It's no different to calling someone a shit kick, lazy, soft etc. in my opinion.

Honestly though are there any clubs that have players in a similar consition to Darcy and Ryan?

Maybe Tippa on his return from retirement?

 

[Boppo]

We looked so slow last week and Melbourne looked fast.

I'm not usually a Jeremy Sharpe fan but hot day Saturday predicted. I would have loved to see Young, Amiss, Darcy out for Sharp, Scerri, Mason Cox. Cox as a ruck/forward and much more run.

Cox gives us so many more options than Darcy, Cox could play forward/ruck and replace Amiss with Murray for more forward pressure. Amiss looks like he needs a month at Peel to find touch.

Amiss isn’t going anywhere when we are kicking over 100 pts a game.

 

[theGav56]

I do hope Darcy doesn't cop too much from people online, he seems to cop it unfairly quite regularly, it's the match selection committee people should be directing their criticism towards, it's not like it's Sean's fault he's getting picked every week.

The genesis of criticism about Darcy has been about him carrying too much weight and lacking fitness, compounded by recurrent knee issues.

Long contracts are valuable if a player is committed to getting the maximum out of themselves during the contract period.

 

[2big2strom]

The genesis of criticism about Darcy has been about him carrying too much weight and lacking fitness, compounded by recurrent knee issues.

Long contracts are valuable if a player is committed to getting the maximum out of themselves during the contract period.

the genesis of criticism about Darcy has been about him carrying too much weight. full stop. again, no one is saying his weight wouldn't impact on knee injuries but to continually harp on about weight as if it is the ONLY reason he has injury problems and that it makes him lazy and uncommitted and blah blah blah is bullshit.

Let's consider a hamstring injury right - aside from the main factor of 'previous hamstring injury', other key factors for a hamstring injury to reoccur are fatigue, strength imbalances and inflexibility? so wtf is Hayden Young doing? ****ing around? is he doing Pilates/yoga? you can see in the way he bends for the ball he is inflexible AF. With his contract until 2033 you'd expect him to be getting the maximum out of himself.

and what about Sam Sturt? Because he's skinny all of his knee injuries and woes must be pure bad luck then? Aside from he rarely looks fit and he hasn't been able to put on any muscle mass in like 8 years in the AFL system, he's obviously just unlucky. Do we hear criticism of him?? no, in fact people are still calling for him to be included in the team over Amiss ASAP (lol).

We don't actually KNOW what caused Darcy's issues or what continues to hamper him. Everyone has just made assumptions because he carried a bit of fat around his waist for longer than they would have personally liked. People love to ignore that he carried puppy fat a lot longer than most players (you can see a similar transformation in Treacy this year, particularly in his face, as his body has matured who is 23 btw), that he also has a massive amount of muscle built and his role is to BE a big player, and because of that his balance of fat to muscle ratio isn't going to look like everyone else's in the team and that he has proven to commit to rehabbing over and over again. And we are told by players all the time rehab is an extremely difficult thing to do.

Over the past 2 offseasons he massively slimmed down, and then had a calf injury, and looks to have put a tiny smidge of weight back on. Because GUESS WHAT. he can't ****ing run as much with a calf injury.

It infuriates me because when I ask a bunch of reasonable questions, I am met with "hE iS pAId sO muCh MoNEy wHy is He sO LaZy". Okay, so again I ask, why aren't these types of questions asked of MORE injury prone players like Young or Sturt?

just to be clear - I don't want people to hang more shit on Young or Sturt. I am just highlighting the inconsistencies with how they are talked about in contrast to Darcy. It's dumb, lazy analysis and it doesn't help anyone.

 

[Superkoops]

Amiss isn’t going anywhere when we are kicking over 100 pts a game.

Plus his form in West Coast PS game was excellent. Struggled in the Adelaide game but had that significant ankle injury early on and after time off getting treated didn’t look the same. Against Geelong it looked like the following:

• he dragged Tom Stewart back towards goals
• dropped some marks on the lead that we need him to take.
• had his arm chopped a couple of times at crucial moments when on the lead.No free kicks paid at all.
• wasn’t honoured by the midfield players on a couple of occasions when on the lead.
• potentially still struggling a little with that ankle to be able to get that initial burst to create separation.

He was ineffective but how is running in a Peel scratchy going to miraculously improve matters. Sure if in 2-3 weeks if similar games as to yesterday then get his ankle right and have some games with Peel.

But for now overall the forward production bar the last quarter was good.

Those two goals in time on against Geelong (2nd quarter) were crucial.

In the last quarter we were smashed with the ball rebounding from half forward. In the third quarter we repelled the Geelong onslaught but no response in the last. Bulldogs last night got behind like we did but responded. We didn’t last week.

Amiss stays but needs to respond.