Round 4: Changes Vs Eagles (DERBY TIME)

[cardamon]

Banfield was pretty good moving the ball forward in the last quarter apart from that one dumb handball

Really hope Switkowski is ready but he shouldn’t be

If they underrate us and we stay focused we can smash them, even without Fyfe. Footy lately is weird and unpredictable, and there’s a reason 8 game streaks are rare. Its a great test to see who in the 22 at the moment will stand up for their teammates under adversity, losing Fyfe and giving some Gaff payback.

Conversely if we lose, it sets up a great home derby later on to gauge our improvement a la 2012


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[armpit]

Dark days lads. Its going to get worse before it gets better.

You psyching up for game of thrones?

 

[Yippy Yi Yeo]

haha, I can not believe he had to say that.

He didn't have to say that, basil the inbred asked him something along the lines of "what would you say to WC fans when brayshaw gets the ball, would you ask them not to boo him?" and he responded.

 

[armpit]

Really? I could see them cheering Gaff anytime he takes a breathe, in part because they know it will irk the Freo fans but I'd be surprised if more then a couple of idiots actually boo Brayshaw.

Well all things being equal you'd think so. In a rational crowd.

 

[armpit]

I can cope with letting west coast dance over us, and try and win 1 of the next 3 at least. Then bring back Fyfe and Blakely and anyone else and see how we go new and improved.

 

[332docker]

OUT: Fyfe

In: Darcy

We match up okay height with eagles (they play 2 rucks) at either end of ground as long as 1 of Hogan, McCarthy play thru the middle of the ground to cover Fyfe being out. Only other change i'd consider was someone like Hughes out for Crowden if they want another inside mid.

If Darcy is not 100% right i'd rather they go with Jones

 

[armpit]

I feel a strange calm after an agitating weekend of footy. LOLs.

 

[stax on the mull]

I reckon we should use Fyfe as the runner.

 

[sherrif]

Hoping for North and Nyhuis for Fyfe and Banfield. North is worth the risk. The most talented of the contenders including Giro and Crowden. Nyhuis to go half back to allow Cerra and Conca more midfield time. North to get time on the ball and half forward. Banfield has had two bad weeks. He needs to go back to WAFL to regain confidence in my view.

 

[armpit]

FWIW any West Coast fan who boo’s Brayshaw should have their membership revoked. I don’t doubt there will be the odd idiot who does it but if the entire crowd does it would be both surprised and disappointed.


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Yeah except you got this knee-jerk reaction to booing. That's your problem, it only takes a few to start it up and before you know it you'll all be having good old dumb collective booing happening. I'd be worried.

 

[Makka]

How's the "so called expert"? Sounds like they know what they're talking about. Nineteen days is basically the gap between Rd 3 and Rd 6. He should miss a minimum of 2 matches, end of story. Play it safe.

Not just because it's a derby but because of his own health I hope he doesn't play this week. That was a pretty big hit he received so you'd want to see him get a rest to let his head settle. Imagine if he played and he got hit again? Not worth his health over. It's always good to see the best players out on the field but not in this case.

 

[Dale147]

Umm you've met west coast supporters before? I mean, like in real life, not just on the internet ??

I’ve found them to be the absolute opposite, dead set hero’s on line and meek as in person.

 

[Dale147]

You psyching up for game of thrones?

Yep, binging on it this week

 

[kingswood71]

Why do we end up with WC supporters on our board?....

 

[armpit]

Why do we end up with WC supporters on our board?....

For the laughs??

 

[tonygeeks]

Why do we end up with WC supporters on our board?....

I think they like to flock over here to have a bit of a laugh at how obsessed we all are

I remember 1 time I was arguing with some WC tosser about who's the most obsessed

Me ... it's a 2 team footy loving town and it's the same on both side of the fence

Him ... Rubbish you guys are clearly way more obsessed than us

So I did a little recon , opened up the non- Eagles thread ( a reasonable place to start I thought )and it was like 40/50 posts about Freo

When I mentioned this to him he got all huffy and accused me of cherry picking by using that thread when there was hardly any mention of Freo in threads like ' the beer wine and spirits thread ' and ' my team just won the flag **** I'm amazing '

True story

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[Van_Dyke]

I heard Luke Ryan called Liam at least twice in the last week.

Two Ryan’s might be too much for Eddie to handle in the comm box. Thankfully Rioli isn’t there to confuse him even more.

I miss Eddie getting Mundy and Mayne confused every time he called us

The main change people should be making is putting West Coast's entire back line into their fantasy team - starting with their best interceptors.

the real question is which one do we make look like an absolute star.

Now why on earth would we boo Brayshaw?? There is no reason to!

the vast majority of supporters I doubt would, but some members of the crowd, the ones that believed Brayshaw was to blame for the incident (soft jaw etc) could well do it at the same point. I hope I get proven wrong on that last point

 

[stax on the mull]

I heard Luke Ryan called Liam at least twice in the last week.

Two Ryan’s might be too much for Eddie to handle in the comm box. Thankfully Rioli isn’t there to confuse him even more.

I was going through the WAFL stats on the weekend, and just for a moment I went FFS, there he is again playing for Claremont. LIM, Ryan.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

How is this being spun as Kennedy pleads with Eagles fans not to boo Brayshaw? Why would anyone boo Brayshaw? This all came about because Basil Zempilas fired off some beat up question to get in the news cycle.

Basil: I don't know why this has been doing the rounds but it has now. What would you say to West Coast fans - when Andrew Brayshaw goes near the football on the weekend in the derby, would you say to West Coast fans if there's any temptation whatsoever, and I'm not sure why there would be, but don't boo him?
Kennedy: Well no, there's no point in booing him.

Basil does what he does best, phrasing questions as "people have been saying" and "I'm not saying this is the case, but..." to get a soundbite. Kennedy didn't call a presser to say please don't boo the bloke who did nothing wrong and wound up with a broken jaw, why would anyone need to be told that?

 

[E Shed]

I hope North gets at least a mention this week. For some reason I'm terrified Ross doesn't rate him (I have no evidence for this its just a vibe thing).
Basically I don't think either Giro or Crowden are AFL level players so I'd be much more excited to see what North can do, same as I'm looking forward to seeing Valente and a Sturt debut later in the year. We need more class.

Also as much as I think Hogan should eventually become a very good forward he's basically broken at the moment, can't even catch the ball, same as McCarthy was for a while, I don't think either of them handle pressure all that well at times. I don't think its coincidence that our forward line worked much better in the one game he didn't play.

Until Blakely, Hill (Is Bennell even a thing anymore?) or players of that calibre are available there isn't much we can do to actually improve the team.

Perhaps its better to play all the foot soldiers this week and hope they hurt as many oppo players as they can.

 

[stax on the mull]

Watters and Cummings on Footy WA last night were of the opinion that Hogan should play man on man on McGovern. I have to concede (from those boofheads) that seems like a pretty good idea.

 

[wild side]

Jesse is star, just coz you haven't seen it in purple yet, doesn't mean it isn't true.
Jesse will take a game by the scruff of the neck and be unbelievable.
It might be this w/end.
Form is temporary, Class is permanent

 

[jedi mind tricks]

Jesse is star, just coz you haven't seen it in purple yet, doesn't mean it isn't true.
Jesse will take a game by the scruff of the neck and be unbelievable.
It might be this w/end.
Form is temporary, Class is permanent

Yep 100%

 

[Bicco]

For all Brayshaw's issues (and he hasn't been great) he is still getting involved, he's putting himself in the right spots and, inconsistently, doing good things. That's not all bad for a second year player so unless his confidence is taking a real hit I'd keep him in at this point. We're short on replacements where we can expect accurate disposals anyway so go with the experience being good for him in the long run, at least for now. 10 games with more bad than good then you seriously think about dropping him for a spell.

Huge test for Brayshaw. He started slowly but really put in during the final 1/4 last week.
If he has good people around him this week, he could play a blinder.
A lot of the boys went through the stress of our last game against them and how they react will be interesting. I don't think they'll be pushed around as easily this time.
Walters might do something stupid. A great moment for Jesse to have a breakout game too.

 

[sherrif]

I hope North gets at least a mention this week. For some reason I'm terrified Ross doesn't rate him (I have no evidence for this its just a vibe thing).
Basically I don't think either Giro or Crowden are AFL level players so I'd be much more excited to see what North can do, same as I'm looking forward to seeing Valente and a Sturt debut later in the year. We need more class.

Also as much as I think Hogan should eventually become a very good forward he's basically broken at the moment, can't even catch the ball, same as McCarthy was for a while, I don't think either of them handle pressure all that well at times. I don't think its coincidence that our forward line worked much better in the one game he didn't play.

Until Blakely, Hill (Is Bennell even a thing anymore?) or players of that calibre are available there isn't much we can do to actually improve the team.

Perhaps its better to play all the foot soldiers this week and hope they hurt as many oppo players as they can.

How is Hogan looking broken? Already took a few very good marks last week. Moved well up and down the field. It seems only a small matter of timing and getting used to playing with our forward group. Could and should have kicked more than a few on the weekend if our delivery was better. Not only the McCarthy example, but also Im pretty sure it was Matera who messed uo a kick when he was miles ahead of his opponent early in the third I think from memory.

Dont think its anything like McCarthy was a couple of years ago. Hogan's been under high pressure since he debuted after being the most talked about dreftee his draft year. Handled it all brilliantly in my view in terms of onfield performance.

Totally agree on North. We need more players in our team who dont fumble and make good decisions with ball in hand. He's always looked very capable at being that type of player to me. Hoping he debut's this week, but think its unlikely after Ross's comments.