Settttttttttttle

[masai]

I am amazed at the number of people who are running around here with their knives slashing.

We are in the PRE SEASON and alot of testing is taking place, with alot of the top players just going through the motions. Yes it is nice to win any game but look at the big picture, round 1 of the real season onwards.

We all said that the winner of last Fridays game was the "loser" and the loser is the "winner", does that change after the event?. We all know what our better players are capable of, they will produce.

Look ahead to this weekends game against the Hawks, does a win by us of say 10 goals make a difference to our team perception?. Maybe, but I will be looking at how players go in different roles, rather than the score board. eg. Spud at FF, Pollie where ever, 211, Woods at half forward etc.

I have watched many pre seasons from prior to most of you being any more than an "itch" in your old mans pants, and having watched alot of the other games on the weekend, we aint in such a bad state that some are painting.

 

[surfsup]

I see where your coming from but what I cant understand is why CC shot his mouth of during the week telling us how they wanted to win only to bewilder us with some of the coaching he displayed on the weekend. He really needs to shut up and dance, or just shut up.

 

[Dr Ralph Dagg]

only to bewilder us with some of the coaching he displayed on the weekend. He really needs to shut up and dance, or just shut up.

Which bits did you disagree with?

 

[surfsup]

I guess I'm disappointed in that after hearing Worsfold speaking as if he couldn't give two hoots whether he won or lost and hearing Connolly saying that he wants to win and then we get beaten leaves us open to ridicule from opposition supporters.
But to answer your question; (off the top of my head/only saw the game once)
Taking players off when they appeared to be getting a fair bit of the ball ie, Webster and Grover were going well, why not leave them there instead we get his rotation policy coming up again.
Murphy looked great up forward but he didnt seem to get a real long time up there.
Polak trained all preseason in the forward line, why put him down back again?
Sandilands obviously wasnt working on his quicker opponent so why leave him there when your intention is to win the game?

 

[surfsup]

Sandilands obviously wasnt working on his quicker opponent so why leave him there when your intention is to win the game?

...I meant when resting up forward. Leave him on the bench and put Murphy up there.

If you make your intentions clear during the week that you are out to win the game then make sure you do everything to achieve it.

 

[Ripper]

open to ridicule from opposition supporters.

Hard to take I admit but revenge will be sweet. CC is too honest for his (and our) own good sometimes.

Anyone who thinks that WCE didn't want to win and were coasting is a Wally.

They actually may be better than we like to give them credit for. Remember what they did to the pies last year.

Their midfield was actually stronger than it would be during the H&A as they had 2 more to rotate through there.

I certainly was impressed with their forward line which looked really dangerous but that will be back to normal when Steggles & Mcdougal get back.

I personally couldn't care if we lost every practise game as long as we are ready to go round one.

We are in for a good year.

 

[Cameron_K]

Hard to take I admit but revenge will be sweet. CC is too honest for his (and our) own good sometimes.

Anyone who thinks that WCE didn't want to win and were coasting is a Wally.

They actually may be better than we like to give them credit for. Remember what they did to the pies last year.

Their midfield was actually stronger than it would be during the H&A as they had 2 more to rotate through there.

I certainly was impressed with their forward line which looked really dangerous but that will be back to normal when Steggles & Mcdougal get back.

I personally couldn't care if we lost every practise game as long as we are ready to go round one.

We are in for a good year.

Couldn't agree more. Didn't Port have a horror pre-season last year?

 

[Exeter]

I am amazed at the number of people who are running around here with their knives slashing.

It's a time honoured Freo tradition.

I expect Freo to be a 6-8 side - they've got the cattle, the major question mark is whether or not Connolly can get 'em there.

FWIW, I thought both teams only played in bursts - first game of the season, blowing out the cobwebs, mostly only going at 3/4 pace - that sort of thing.

Quietly pleased with the Eagles performance, but it's only round 1 of the whizzer fer chrissake.

 

[Ripper]

It's a time honoured Freo tradition.

It gets a bit tiresome nowadays.

FWIW I reckon the reason he built it up was to get them used to it and you would have to say we have improved in that area.

Last year most times the more raging our favouritism the more we went missing in the first quarter.

 

[ImperialPurple]

after hearing Worsfold speaking as if he couldn't give two hoots whether he won or lost

Young Johnny has been working hard during the off-season also. He has expanded his repertoire. No longer does he just employ the "icy-death-stare", which he has perfected and made his own; but he's now practicing the time honoured technique of "tell-the-media-we-don't-care-if-we-win but-really-we-do which-should-put-the-heat-on-the-opposition and-make-the-less-intelligent-of-our-supporters-think-we've-done-really-well-if-we-do and-keep-the-heat-off-us-if-we-don't".

Don't believe a single word of it.

 

[Ripper]

Geez IP that post rendered right accross to the Computer on the next desk.

 

[Eagles4Ever]

but he's now practicing the time honoured technique of "tell-the-media-we-don't-care-if-we-win-but-really-we-do-which-should-put-the-heat-on-the-opposition-and-make-the-less-intelligent-of-our-supporters-think-we've-done-really-well-if-we-do-and-keep-the-heat-off-us-if-we-don't".

That sounds like the norm to me, and the way 15 out of the 16 head coaches responded to the media in regard to the Wizza Cup.

 

[ImperialPurple]

As I said e4e, he's expanding his repertoire.

I don't recall CC saying he was going out to win the comp, just that a first up win would be the desirable outcome (against class opposition). He was not the only coach to say this.

Weavs supporters are saying, "we had no forward line" cos they had no McDougall (30 goals last year does not make him a top line FF), Gardiner (how many games has he played CHF), Smith (how many games at all), and Matera... okay, good (frikkin annoying ) player who has been the mainstay of the forward line for years. But our two key forward positions were also being played "as new".

I reckon everyone needs to get a serious grip on reality here. We got beaten by less than a kick in a pre-season match, against a team who have a widely recognised AWESOME midfield. We were trialling a new CHF, a completely new forward line structure which in itself changed a few times during the game, a new midfield unit, three guys with 8 games between them (Dunn, Murphy and Webster) another with less than 10 games (Smith), without our captain and midfield leader, a couple of solid backline players in Thornton and Hayden missing. Sure, they were missing a few up forward, but they win and lose their games in the midfield, which was as settled (in terms of the players on the park) as it was at any time during the second half of last season. Which is where we got beaten.

There have been a lot of changes made after last season, and anyone who thinks we were going to come out and have it a slick and well-oiled machine in Game 1 of the pre-season is kidding themselves.

7 points... basically that after the siren goal to whoever it was (Lynch perhaps?) at half time. There was the difference. I reckon this was the most even and toughest match of the entire round. So we ended up on the wrong side. And really, who cares?? All that trying new stuff is done in the PRE-SEASON. That's the purpose of it.

 

[theGav56]

Well I guess I'd like the club to win every game. That's what is so fantastic about intr-club matches.

Can't believe the stoopidity of supporters who are unhappy about loosing the Wizard cup opening. Do you really think that none of Freo, Geeelong or Brisbane are going to do well this year because they lost first round Wizzer.

I'm also stunned by the criticism of CC leaving Sandilands up forward. H is young, he is very tall, he is potentially a weapon up forward. I think it's a good idea to find out what will happen when we try him at full forward, and I like that CC tries it in the Wizard Cup. For a start Sandi learns how much harder he needs to work, the crumbers learn where the opportunities are going to come, CC learns what tactics might work for us, CC learns what tactics opposition backmen and coaches might use against us.

Having said that it didn't work too well. Hope they try again against Hawthorn. Hope they can get it to work, because if they can it might be a Weapon of Mass Destruction to unleash on unsuspecting teams. And if it doesn't then he will just be a ruckman. Which do you think is the better option?

 

[Exeter]

Whatever it is, it seemed to work for us.

The main difference I perceive between Eagles and Dockers supporters as regards to their team's prospects is that Eagles supporters seem to be more optimistic and that their team is heading back to the territory most of us believe is their natural environment.

Dockers fans also seem to be optimistic, but it seems to be overshadowed by the fear that it's all a chimera and will blow up in their faces faster than you can say the F word.

How's that for a generalisation?

 

[ImperialPurple]

Well I guess I'd like the club to win every game.

Me too. I didn't go there on Friday not caring who won (I'm guessing that's the same for every one of the 38,000 who turned out), and I was willing them with every fibre of my being to move the ball quickly in that last minute, get it to Pav at 55m - bang - supergoal, 2 point victory. But there's desiring your team to win every time they play, and then there's perspective.

 

[ImperialPurple]

How's that for a generalisation?

ouch.

 

[voodoo_86]

How's that for a generalisation?

Pretty true to be perfectly honest.

 

[tico]

.

Can't believe the stoopidity of supporters who are unhappy about loosing the Wizard cup opening. Do you really think that none of Freo, Geeelong or Brisbane are going to do well this year because they lost first round Wizzer.

QUOTE]

how many of those teams above lost more games than they won in their last 5 games of the year??

 

[dominguez]

Sure it's only the preseason and you shouldn't get too carried away but the sooner we get a win the better, considering the way we finished last season. The disappointing thing for most was that we had similar problems last week as we did last year. Poor kicking in after a behind. Switches of play that didn't come off. Missing targets by hand and foot. There were certainly some positives but those 3 problems were frustrating.

 

[jarman]

To all who don't care about winning the Wizard cup match - I say rubbish.

A good showing in the pre-season competition, would give the supporters hope ahead of the new season and show that we have progressed from the disappointing 2004.

From reports the bad disposal, poor kicking in and bad option selection still seems to be there.

 

[Ruddiger]

To all who don't care about winning the Wizard cup match - I say rubbish.

Have to agree there and no more evident in the faces of the Freo players as they left the field. Hadrill and Polak managed a smile, most other Dockers showed a lot of disappointment and clearly they would have preferred to win.

 

[doppo]

To all who don't care about winning the Wizard cup match - I say rubbish.

A good showing in the pre-season competition, would give the supporters hope ahead of the new season and show that we have progressed from the disappointing 2004.

From reports the bad disposal, poor kicking in and bad option selection still seems to be there.

Completely disagree. A win in round 1 against the reigning premiers would give the supporters and the players more confidence than any preseason game ever could and as such I think the club set their goals accordingly.

As for the poor disposals, bad kicking in etc. It's the pre season. That stuff can generally be ironed once the players get back into the swing of things. At least the structures are generally looking pretty good and we're getting our hands on the ball. We've recruited one tough little bastard in the midfield and we've got a young CHF who looks like he's going to stamp his authority on his fair share of games this season.

Fair go, all this doom and gloom and the season hasn't even started. By all means, if we reach the halfway point and we're 3-8, go ahead and and call for Connolly's head. Until then...

Sit back and enjoy the ride.