So it's been a rough week and here we are all for the preview which has turned out to be the bearded god's final game.
I'm happy that it's against the Crows as I feel there is a lot of mutual respect between the two clubs. We only need to look back to the game following the passing of Phil Walsh to see it, so while I think any opposition crowd would be very respectful of the last game of one of our clubs legends and our leading goal scorer of all time even if we lose the game it won't hurt as much.
In saying that we are here to preview a game against the Crows as well as say farewell to JK. My previews like my posts don't tend to have all the modern fancy video's and everything else that can be done but I hope people feel it's heartfelt and may be worth a top 5 mention.
So here we are pulling towards the end of the season sitting 17th with only two wins. In games where we really didn't deserve to win either. Our opponents had more of the ball, significantly more inside 50's and more scoring shots. Only our accuracy sees us from being winless this season. The club has set and or matched new record lows not only in regards to our club but also in relation to the entire V/AFL's history.
In said season we have played 47 different players including WAFL top ups whilst having a supposed list cap of 42. We have been destroyed by the timing of Covid affecting our players, the worst or at least equal worst injury run in the clubs history. The only players on our list not to play a game for us this season have all been injured the entire season and some weeks we have struggled to field a side, let alone anything close to our best 22 at anywhere close to full fitness.
They do say however the night is darkest just before the dawn. We all thought the world was ending when our club captain and AFL's top player at the time left our club at the end of 2007 amongst a massive blight of drug use on our club. Yet that darkness and trade gave us two top 20 picks and a former number 4 pick just making his way developing at Carlton in the name of Josh Kennedy. A proper country boy from Northampton. We can talk about those picks and their respective careers but it really is all irrelevant. That young man replaced the games greatest player at the time on our list and now we look back and can say even without the careers of those picks the bearded god ensured we easily won the Judd trade. Highlighted with 2 coleman medals (should have been 3 in a row) and a premiership with JK kicking 3 goals in one of the all time great grand finals from a team that refused to lay down. That 2018 premiership is testament in a lot of ways to JK and his presence and will to repeatedly push his body to the limit and sometimes past it for not only us supporters but most of all for his teammates. He has played 8 and a half seasons after being diagnosed with a degenerative knee injury and even after that and his movement from CHF to FF went on to not only become our all time record goal scorer, the WA player with the most goals scored in the AFL and scored in WA as well as being respectfully to one of the all time greatest players the game has ever seen he was the top forward in the game and by some margin for a solid 3 consecutive seasons.
Goal scoring however is not what JK's career has been about however. It truly is a story of perseverance, respect, a team oriented attitude where playing with his mates was the most important thing for him and the will to keep going. 700+ goals with hopefully a few more but I think his chasing, tackling, pressure as well as ability to stand up in some of the biggest moments are what we will miss the most. He is universally respected around the league and you will regularly find his present and past opponents saying he is the toughest player they have ever had to play against. He also played the game in the manner in which it should be. He is hard, fair and no matter how much he has been scragged and held out of contests, pushed in the back or arms chopped and not had a free paid to him he just gets back up and keeps pushing forward. 700+ goals sounds like a huge achievement but I think almost all will agree that if he complained, played for frees and wasn't so generous in giving the ball up his tally would be at least 100 goals higher, such is the man.
Here's to a happy retirement to JK no matter the result which is well deserved, however I think his wife will be bitterly disappointed if she thinks he's going to be home significantly more than he is now. His best mate, another club legend and premiership player in Mark Lecras will be doing his utmost best to see the two of them fishing, going out for crays and enjoying the coast as much as possible. Whereby Mark will be hard pressed getting JK all to himself once Shuperman joins them in retirement sometime in the next two years.
The Crows themselves are having a disappointing season and are now also in rebuild mode as well. They are however coming off of their best result and game of the season last week at home completely outplaying Carlton and really should have won by more than the 29 point win suggests. I guess we'll have to see how that plays out come this weekend. Do they use that confidence and come out firing or are they 5% off their best thinking it will be an easy match.
The crows are one of the few sides that we don't match up with all that badly even if this shitshow of a season. Apart from some random small forward tearing us apart (we all know it's going to happen) as well as Edwards almost certainly getting toweled up by Walker our defence should be able to shut down the crows. Our lack of ability to shut down small forwards could kill us, particularly with the players we have not available.
Their midfield if anything is one of the few that are weaker than ours on paper, even with ours nowhere near it's best and missing key components. The crows also aren't a quick side and we are less likely to get blown apart by run and gun rebound than against any other club (probably with the exception of Norf who are so s**t it defies belief)
To the forward line match up. This will be key as on paper we have a forward line that even with limited entries should be able to put a score on the board against the Crows. However it is not our scoring from our forwards that is our worry. Outside of what i mentioned in defence our key problem and what could well be the decisive match up of the contest is in shutting down Brodie Smith. 37 disposals, 8 marks, 4 tackles and 1019 metres gained last week. Yes that's right over 1000m gained for his side. His decision making and precision kicking is a huge key to the crows success. If we can shutdown smith we should win the game. With yet another injury to Petch we are officially out of genuine HFF players.
So who goes out and who comes in. It's hard to tell as we had the WAFL bye last week but that should mean any potential incoming players are nice and fresh. We know petch is almost certainly out as well as Culley and we know JK is in. It's hard seeing anyone being kicked out of defence with Thilthorpe a likely in for the crows, we will need the height. However we continue to just leak goals and Barrass has basically been a 1 man defensive machine since Gov went down and has kept us in games himself. Are we tempted to bring in some height in Rotham or potentially some supposed rebound ability from Witherden both likely back available form injury. (I hope not as Rotham is likely just too small to shut down Thilthorpe and for every great thing Witherden does he always comes with 3-4 goals against attached to his game)
Outs: Culley, Cox, Petrucelle, West (I think west might provide more now but want to see Exxon given at least 1 more opportunity).
Ins: Kennedy, SPS, Winder, Rotham.
Winder. He really needs to be given opportunities and time in midfield to decide whether or not he is worth keeping on the list. I think he is, but he needs to be given this opportunity as he's not the small forward the club thinks they can pin a role for him to.
SPS. Again he is a midfielder but the club seems to want to keep shoehorning him into a HFF or outside role. He is an inside midfielder, that is where he does his best work and he has class by hand and foot inside the contest. We know he is contracted for next year but now is the time to be shuffling the magnets and giving him some of the time on ball that Culley's been given in the last couple of matches.
JK will line up at FF and push Waterman back to playing third tall.
Rotham makes for the perfect sub. He can play down back but I think what has been shown in the WAFL and AFL in his most recent matches is that he flourishes when given more space further up the ground and more attacking licence rather than trying to focus on locking down on a man. Can cover if a small or a tall goes down.
Who comes in for the Crows. This will be interesting and considering they are coming off their best game of the season its hard to see players making their way into the side. Doedee if fit is an auto inclusion and makes us shutting down smith even more difficult. If fit I think thilthorpe will come in as well to stretch our undersized defence. Outside of that * knows.
Now past my thoughts to what the actual teams are.
Now to the result. A win would be nice, us winning the midfield battle would be just as great as it would mean we have more of the ball headed deeper into the forward line. I just hope we can shut down the crows talls as well as the obligatory random small who will certainly kick 3-4 against us.
WCE by 34 points with the highlight being a Nicnat to Shuey to JK on the lead clearance and goal which would really sum up so much of JK's career and really bring the house down. Beards should be worn by all. Hopefully finished off with a guard of honour with JK shouldered off the ground with all players adorning fake beards as well.
The game itself really is the side show here to what is the final match to not only one of our all time greats, our greatest forward and a truly great team and family man on and off the field in JK.
Signed off with tears,
WCE_Phil.
I'm happy that it's against the Crows as I feel there is a lot of mutual respect between the two clubs. We only need to look back to the game following the passing of Phil Walsh to see it, so while I think any opposition crowd would be very respectful of the last game of one of our clubs legends and our leading goal scorer of all time even if we lose the game it won't hurt as much.
In saying that we are here to preview a game against the Crows as well as say farewell to JK. My previews like my posts don't tend to have all the modern fancy video's and everything else that can be done but I hope people feel it's heartfelt and may be worth a top 5 mention.
So here we are pulling towards the end of the season sitting 17th with only two wins. In games where we really didn't deserve to win either. Our opponents had more of the ball, significantly more inside 50's and more scoring shots. Only our accuracy sees us from being winless this season. The club has set and or matched new record lows not only in regards to our club but also in relation to the entire V/AFL's history.
In said season we have played 47 different players including WAFL top ups whilst having a supposed list cap of 42. We have been destroyed by the timing of Covid affecting our players, the worst or at least equal worst injury run in the clubs history. The only players on our list not to play a game for us this season have all been injured the entire season and some weeks we have struggled to field a side, let alone anything close to our best 22 at anywhere close to full fitness.
They do say however the night is darkest just before the dawn. We all thought the world was ending when our club captain and AFL's top player at the time left our club at the end of 2007 amongst a massive blight of drug use on our club. Yet that darkness and trade gave us two top 20 picks and a former number 4 pick just making his way developing at Carlton in the name of Josh Kennedy. A proper country boy from Northampton. We can talk about those picks and their respective careers but it really is all irrelevant. That young man replaced the games greatest player at the time on our list and now we look back and can say even without the careers of those picks the bearded god ensured we easily won the Judd trade. Highlighted with 2 coleman medals (should have been 3 in a row) and a premiership with JK kicking 3 goals in one of the all time great grand finals from a team that refused to lay down. That 2018 premiership is testament in a lot of ways to JK and his presence and will to repeatedly push his body to the limit and sometimes past it for not only us supporters but most of all for his teammates. He has played 8 and a half seasons after being diagnosed with a degenerative knee injury and even after that and his movement from CHF to FF went on to not only become our all time record goal scorer, the WA player with the most goals scored in the AFL and scored in WA as well as being respectfully to one of the all time greatest players the game has ever seen he was the top forward in the game and by some margin for a solid 3 consecutive seasons.
Goal scoring however is not what JK's career has been about however. It truly is a story of perseverance, respect, a team oriented attitude where playing with his mates was the most important thing for him and the will to keep going. 700+ goals with hopefully a few more but I think his chasing, tackling, pressure as well as ability to stand up in some of the biggest moments are what we will miss the most. He is universally respected around the league and you will regularly find his present and past opponents saying he is the toughest player they have ever had to play against. He also played the game in the manner in which it should be. He is hard, fair and no matter how much he has been scragged and held out of contests, pushed in the back or arms chopped and not had a free paid to him he just gets back up and keeps pushing forward. 700+ goals sounds like a huge achievement but I think almost all will agree that if he complained, played for frees and wasn't so generous in giving the ball up his tally would be at least 100 goals higher, such is the man.
Here's to a happy retirement to JK no matter the result which is well deserved, however I think his wife will be bitterly disappointed if she thinks he's going to be home significantly more than he is now. His best mate, another club legend and premiership player in Mark Lecras will be doing his utmost best to see the two of them fishing, going out for crays and enjoying the coast as much as possible. Whereby Mark will be hard pressed getting JK all to himself once Shuperman joins them in retirement sometime in the next two years.
The Crows themselves are having a disappointing season and are now also in rebuild mode as well. They are however coming off of their best result and game of the season last week at home completely outplaying Carlton and really should have won by more than the 29 point win suggests. I guess we'll have to see how that plays out come this weekend. Do they use that confidence and come out firing or are they 5% off their best thinking it will be an easy match.
The crows are one of the few sides that we don't match up with all that badly even if this shitshow of a season. Apart from some random small forward tearing us apart (we all know it's going to happen) as well as Edwards almost certainly getting toweled up by Walker our defence should be able to shut down the crows. Our lack of ability to shut down small forwards could kill us, particularly with the players we have not available.
Their midfield if anything is one of the few that are weaker than ours on paper, even with ours nowhere near it's best and missing key components. The crows also aren't a quick side and we are less likely to get blown apart by run and gun rebound than against any other club (probably with the exception of Norf who are so s**t it defies belief)
To the forward line match up. This will be key as on paper we have a forward line that even with limited entries should be able to put a score on the board against the Crows. However it is not our scoring from our forwards that is our worry. Outside of what i mentioned in defence our key problem and what could well be the decisive match up of the contest is in shutting down Brodie Smith. 37 disposals, 8 marks, 4 tackles and 1019 metres gained last week. Yes that's right over 1000m gained for his side. His decision making and precision kicking is a huge key to the crows success. If we can shutdown smith we should win the game. With yet another injury to Petch we are officially out of genuine HFF players.
So who goes out and who comes in. It's hard to tell as we had the WAFL bye last week but that should mean any potential incoming players are nice and fresh. We know petch is almost certainly out as well as Culley and we know JK is in. It's hard seeing anyone being kicked out of defence with Thilthorpe a likely in for the crows, we will need the height. However we continue to just leak goals and Barrass has basically been a 1 man defensive machine since Gov went down and has kept us in games himself. Are we tempted to bring in some height in Rotham or potentially some supposed rebound ability from Witherden both likely back available form injury. (I hope not as Rotham is likely just too small to shut down Thilthorpe and for every great thing Witherden does he always comes with 3-4 goals against attached to his game)
Outs: Culley, Cox, Petrucelle, West (I think west might provide more now but want to see Exxon given at least 1 more opportunity).
Ins: Kennedy, SPS, Winder, Rotham.
Winder. He really needs to be given opportunities and time in midfield to decide whether or not he is worth keeping on the list. I think he is, but he needs to be given this opportunity as he's not the small forward the club thinks they can pin a role for him to.
SPS. Again he is a midfielder but the club seems to want to keep shoehorning him into a HFF or outside role. He is an inside midfielder, that is where he does his best work and he has class by hand and foot inside the contest. We know he is contracted for next year but now is the time to be shuffling the magnets and giving him some of the time on ball that Culley's been given in the last couple of matches.
JK will line up at FF and push Waterman back to playing third tall.
Rotham makes for the perfect sub. He can play down back but I think what has been shown in the WAFL and AFL in his most recent matches is that he flourishes when given more space further up the ground and more attacking licence rather than trying to focus on locking down on a man. Can cover if a small or a tall goes down.
Who comes in for the Crows. This will be interesting and considering they are coming off their best game of the season its hard to see players making their way into the side. Doedee if fit is an auto inclusion and makes us shutting down smith even more difficult. If fit I think thilthorpe will come in as well to stretch our undersized defence. Outside of that * knows.
Now past my thoughts to what the actual teams are.
Now to the result. A win would be nice, us winning the midfield battle would be just as great as it would mean we have more of the ball headed deeper into the forward line. I just hope we can shut down the crows talls as well as the obligatory random small who will certainly kick 3-4 against us.
WCE by 34 points with the highlight being a Nicnat to Shuey to JK on the lead clearance and goal which would really sum up so much of JK's career and really bring the house down. Beards should be worn by all. Hopefully finished off with a guard of honour with JK shouldered off the ground with all players adorning fake beards as well.
The game itself really is the side show here to what is the final match to not only one of our all time greats, our greatest forward and a truly great team and family man on and off the field in JK.
Signed off with tears,
WCE_Phil.
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