Preview What I'd like to see

[salim malik]

The secret to our success so far has been the midfield and this certainly goes up a notch next year. Fundamentally have lost no one - the Griffin/Sandi pairing is sound, the younger guys will have another pre-season under their belt and Bennell gives scoring punch and pushes a lower ranked mid out.

Defence is sound, Dawson will negate and Ibbo, MJ, Spurr, Sutcliffe are a very solid back group and Luke was done this year, integrate Alex Pearce and the defensive mind set of the team means no ones kicking bags on us on a regular basis.

Nothing surer in my mind that Matt Taberner is going to breakout in 2016 or 17 and the catalyst for doing this might just be Pavlich not going around again. Tabs works extremely hard and if he can start to clunk em - I'm banking on 1.2-1.5 goals a season. We've got a great bunch of smalls - just going to invent a 2nd tall for competition or structure up with Fyfe which while not ideal .....will create huge match up problems for teams with traditional defensive structures.

The key to us is in a core group of players who are just outright better than most Fyfe, Walters, Sandilands and Spurr ( on courage) - we're just too good not to be there about a again.

Long pre-season ahead and we need to just split some of the 50/50 questions ....can Harley embrace the culture and become the complete footballer?, Morra - can he?, Sherridan - inspired or heart broken? Grey/Weller/Langdon/Smith - can they push up? Will the real Slim Mayney please stand up or alternatively **** off? Draft - who knows maybe SnapWeiner releases Alex Pearce?

I find the panic stations a tad amusing - we are going to be thereabouts next year .....enjoy the ride, there are no guarantees in this game.

Its a losing battle Moo. Posting sense is so yesterday in here

 

[Fred Ziffel]

That's also true but I guess I want to be optimistic and assume he will improve

If Ross plays him now, he would have satisfied him that he can hold his marks.
So, Tabs has got some work to do IMO.

 

[scon]

Please explain

Bill Shorten provides yet another Zinger
Bill and Tonys Zinger
Bill and Tonys Zinger

 

[Fred Ziffel]

Ross doesn't strike me as the gambling type, Fred.

I agree and that's why, no sub rule, could work against Taberner.
The same could be said for our young kids too. Ross needs to be confident they can go the whole match especially with reduced rotations.

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

Taberner at CHB ?
surely having a laugh

Hah! Yeah got Taberner and A Pearce the wrong way around. Don't know what happened ... must have had a D Pearce brain fade!

 

[Agenfrida]

I agree and that's why, no sub rule, could work against Taberner.
The same could be said for our young kids too. Ross needs to be confident they can go the whole match especially with reduced rotations.

The reduced rotations could play in Tabs favour. Of all the knocks I've given him, he's got a pretty handy tank.
Not sure what will happen with the 'kids'.

 

[tacopavlich]

The lack of changes to the team last year was a result of us being a victim of our own success. We showed weakness to our play but do you really want to make changes to a side that's top of the ladder and winning every game? In retrospect the answer was yes and it's unfortunate Lyon wasn't brave enough to make the call.

But now a new season and it's now a necessity changes will be made. It's obvious to every one including the coaching staff that the list that ran out against Hawthorn while being pretty damn good just isn't strong enough in it's current state. Lyon will most likely change up the side because while being stubborn, he isn't delusional.

 

[Fred Ziffel]

The reduced rotations could play in Tabs favour. Of all the knocks I've given him, he's got a pretty handy tank.
Not sure what will happen with the 'kids'.

Agree on Taberner tank but that is not what we need from him.

 

[UFO Tatsu]

Ed Langdon for me. Like the look of him in the two games he played.

 

[Grape Bear]

The lack of changes to the team last year was a result of us being a victim of our own success. We showed weakness to our play but do you really want to make changes to a side that's top of the ladder and winning every game? In retrospect the answer was yes and it's unfortunate Lyon wasn't brave enough to make the call.

But now a new season and it's now a necessity changes will be made. It's obvious to every one including the coaching staff that the list that ran out against Hawthorn while being pretty damn good just isn't strong enough in it's current state. Lyon will most likely change up the side because while being stubborn, he isn't delusional.

The difficulty with dropping players in a winning team, particularly in our system, is that it's hard to justify that all the role players didn't play their role. Incumbents are very hard to dislodge, unless you are among the top 5 players on the list. Unless a player was clearly not following structures, even skill mistakes are probably forgiven as long as great effort is applied.

If we had dropped some of the close games early, the likelihood is that we would have seen more new faces than we did. But our barn storming start pretty much sealed the course of our year.

 

[Dirty_banchez]

I find it laughable that Damian Barrett and others in the media are writing us off next year. Supposedly a kid in his third year will be the difference for us next year. That is an extraordinary burden to place on McCarthy's shoulders. McCarthy would have gotten the 1st or 2nd best defender if he played with us next year, and I am not too familiar with the GWS lineup, but I can assume that Jeremy Cameron would have gotten the best defender each week. He would have a much tougher time kicking goals.

Not getting McCarthy gives an opportunity for the coaching staff to formulate creative solutions to our scoring problems. We have a STACKED midfield, that would piss into any other club in the league, and we have a defence that is tighter than Scrooge McDuck's sphincter. I just hope our coaching staff doesn't persist with playing the same set-up we had this year and expecting things to be different.

 

[Minz]

Well, I'd like to see Bennell find that he enjoys the hard work and likes the Freo system - and realise his potential in purple.
I'd like to see Tabs emerge as a strong leading forward and Pav to have a resurgence when he's not being double-teamed, kicking 55 goals.
And I'd love to see Freo players looking bold and decisive and hitting the open target, instead of looking tentative and waiting until the free player down-the-ground is picked up.
Or even just 2 of the 3?

 

[Moo]

Agree on Taberner tank but that is not what we need from him.

Little Mexican girl photo

 

[Proud SJW]

Next year, we're going to see more games put into Weller, Langdon, and of course A Pearce. There may be others as well. Taberner, Grey, Apeness. Morabito.
If any of them show something, they'll begin to force out the ones we know are journeymen - De Boer, C Pearce, Mzungu.
I hope that happens. I hope they take their chances and show us some magic. I really, really do.
All I know is that they'll be given every chance.

One thing is certain. The boards have us sliding next year because they think little has changed.
Logic, of course, would have us back in contention next year because little has changed.
It's a bit strange, really.
Hawthorn are weaker, the Eagles will be looked at far more closely and have a harder draw... but we'll fade because...nothing has changed.
Heh. Strange how people... "think".

 

[sproketman]

I care what I think.

And that's twice now in the space of 5 minutes that you've sought to avoid the issue - first, by protesting that I'm trying to sway you, and then by resorting to the old ad hominem in the hope that I'll forget what we were talking about.

So what did you think of Greg Baum's piece then? Any reasoned critique to offer?

In what way is Lyon unlucky to not be a premiership coach? Does this then make those who he has lost to lucky that they are?

He has lost to Mark Thompson, Mick Malthouse, and Alistair Clarkson across three grand finals, all of which he was within spittting distance to win. However, those coaches themselves won grand finals by margins of 119, 80, and 63 points as their respective biggest margins. While luck might (and I emphasise this word) have seen them get over Lyon, it does not define their status as premiership coaches, because on other occasions they have posted 10+ goal margins over their grand final opponents.

Perhaps it's not lack of luck that prevents Lyon from winning a premiership. Maybe instead he has never built a side capable of being the clear best in the league, that is able to surge past its next best opponent with a volume of goals, the way Hawthorn, Collingwood and Geelong were capable of. That's not luck, that's design.

Most AFL and VFL Grand Finals in history have been blow outs, where luck hasn't come into it. Lyon has been involved in most of the close grand finals of the past three decades. Of the seven GFs in that period that have had less than three goal margins, he has been involved in five as either coach or assistant. Only one GF he has been involved in has been a blowout - the 2010 GF replay.

There's a pattern here, and it suggests something other than luck.

 

[Bemoreboyddog]

I find it laughable that Damian Barrett and others in the media are writing us off next year. Supposedly a kid in his third year will be the difference for us next year. That is an extraordinary burden to place on McCarthy's shoulders. McCarthy would have gotten the 1st or 2nd best defender if he played with us next year, and I am not too familiar with the GWS lineup, but I can assume that Jeremy Cameron would have gotten the best defender each week. He would have a much tougher time kicking goals.

Not getting McCarthy gives an opportunity for the coaching staff to formulate creative solutions to our scoring problems. We have a STACKED midfield, that would piss into any other club in the league, and we have a defence that is tighter than Scrooge McDuck's sphincter. I just hope our coaching staff doesn't persist with playing the same set-up we had this year and expecting things to be different.

Barrett logic. Freo can't win a flag because they didn't do enough to land their key forward. Bulldogs shouldn't have landed their key forward, paid overs, etc.

If he was a driver on our roads, he'd be the type that got you winding down your window yelling 'Pick a lane, Dickhead!'

 

[DMan 11]

Scarlett johanson's baps.

And Brady Grey get a run of games playing from a back pocket, HBF role. I reckon he has what it takes to step into spurrs boots if required ( not wishing ill on spurr of course )

 

[HowieD]

- Pick up one of Mason Shaw (delisted free agent) or Mitch Brown (pre-season draft? Rookie?)
- Danyle Pearce and Harley Bennell fighting it out for a wing spot and both impressing
- Stephen Hill to kick 25-30 goals off a wing
- Taberner to play full forward/CHF, A. Pearce to play CHB all season
- Three ex-premiership players joining coaching panel = solid performances in tight games from young players.

 

[DudleyDocker]

Scarlett johanson's baps.

She bakes bread rolls too?

Wow, she just gets better and better.

 

[feds2000]

Fyfe play FF

 

[feds2000]

Daniel Pearce never to play again

he's a cherry picker with his running, if dockers start kicking a lot of goals, then D Pearce is worth is weight in gold

(think D Headland)

 

[TheInjuryFactory]

The club to have a massive clean-out, starting from coaching and recruiting staff.

So who do you suggest replaces the incumbents?? Did you have any replacements in mind?

 

[Freo]

The

The lack of changes to the team last year was a result of us being a victim of our own success. We showed weakness to our play but do you really want to make changes to a side that's top of the ladder and winning every game? In retrospect the answer was yes and it's unfortunate Lyon wasn't brave enough to make the call.

But now a new season and it's now a necessity changes will be made. It's obvious to every one including the coaching staff that the list that ran out against Hawthorn while being pretty damn good just isn't strong enough in it's current state. Lyon will most likely change up the side because while being stubborn, he isn't delusional.

Those of us who suggested we should play some youngsters were pretty much howled down during the season. I get the seasoned, hard body argument but our bottom 5 or 6 have never been up to a premiership side standard.
Hopefully, next season RTB and the match committee will have the courage to back our talent.

 

[Silent Alarm]

So who do you suggest replaces the incumbents?? Did you have any replacements in mind?

******* hell mate, how many times do I have to say, I don't get paid to work in football. I don't know all the good ones and the up and comers. That should be the job of people at Freo, not me.

This argument is akin to "don't say [AFL footballer] is s**t when you didn't even get drafted!!!!!!"

 

[apparentlydead]

******* hell mate, how many times do I have to say, I don't get paid to work in football. I don't know all the good ones and the up and comers. That should be the job of people at Freo, not me.

This argument is akin to "don't say [AFL footballer] is s**t when you didn't even get drafted!!!!!!"

Well, well, well. If it isn't the mincing little troll.

You've been conveniently ignoring tags and haven't returned to your vomit like the dog that you are.

Spineless amoeba much?