Tuning up before Round 1

[bOmBeR_BoY1]

Despite last night's dissapointing result, I still think we will have quite a reasonable year and have a big say in the later parts of September.

However, I think against the bigger forward lines like St. Kilda and Port Adelaide (our opponents in Round 1 & 2) we need to restructure our defence in some way, as clearly last night Gehrig was too much to handle for some our key defenders last night and was hard to catch on a lead. Ball movement out of defence was also quite poor, and at times I cringed as they were so risky a turnover was almost inevitable. With Welsh, McVeigh and Solomon to return to the side - hopefully we can fix this up. I think Welsh will be a key in our ball movement from defence this year - that kid is a champ!

Our forward line just had an off night last night and we just have to expect that to happen sometimes. We all know Lloyd, Hille and Lucas are better than that - and with the return of Cupido we are in good shape.

Our midfield still has a lot of class (but obviously not the speed like a St Kilda), and Allan in the ruck should ease the burden on Hille. Bulleen, Alvey, Haynes will all be welcome additions to the midfield.

 

[Darealrath]

Watson was the best thing to come out of last night by a mile. Just put him in the centre from R1.

 

[Mero]

Scott Lucas wasn't playing in the backline from what I saw last night. Either that or he was drawn don the field too much.
He won the B&F last year playing CHB, and I would expect Essendon will draw up plans to stop him heading too far down field from now on.
He is the extra tall that we needed last night.
Without him, smaller blokes like McPhee and Bolton get strong forwards like Hamill and Gehrig, and we're going to get done by teams who move the ball quickly.

Port, until recently did not move the ball quickly, and are supposed to be changing their game plan to do so.
We'll see how successful they are in two weeks.

Alvey as playing his first senior game for about a year, Ramanauskas is not match fit and there's no way Bradley is a Key Position player.

I reckon we'll win both our first two, but we'll have to play like StKilda did, and with our players playing in their proper positions.

PS Does anyone else have a slightest hint Sheedy was thinking of R2 when he played those kids in the last two quarters?

 

[dougthelegend]

Originally posted by Mero


PS Does anyone else have a slightest hint Sheedy was thinking of R2 when he played those kids in the last two quarters?

I did. When you had a look at that bench - the Bench had just as much experience as the kids on the ground!

The wizard cup really doesnt mean that much anyway, id much rather beat St Kilda in the Home and Away season than in a wizard cup match anyway...

Still was very dissapointing though

Jobe Watson is an absolute champ!

 

[bozza]

Originally posted by Mero
PS Does anyone else have a slightest hint Sheedy was thinking of R2 when he played those kids in the last two quarters?

Which kids, and how would that be planning for R2?

 

[M29]

Originally posted by Mero
Does anyone else have a slightest hint Sheedy was thinking of R2 when he played those kids in the last two quarters?

No. Why play them then? Most of them Bradely, Stanton, Lovett will get limited time during the year. I doubt sheedy will throw them in that quick. If he did, it would be for a bigger game, like round 1 or whenever we play carlton.

I expect we will have most back by round 1 (and 2), bar of course Wellman and Solomon. So I wouldn't pay any attention to anything that happened on Saturday night as an indication of what Sheedy will do throught the year. I seem to recall him making the same moves at princes park when we played them in a pre season game as well, which they won by the same margin.

 

[Hosko]

Originally posted by Darealrath
Watson was the best thing to come out of last night by a mile. Just put him in the centre from R1.

Absolutely