Prediction What's going to happen in rd 1?

[remfan101]

It will be one or lost in the midfield battle and unfortunately they have us covered on paper.

On the inside: Mitchell>Schuey>Priddis>Ziebell>Dumont>Swallow.

On the outside:
Gaff>Higgins>Jetta>Gibson>Atley>Yeo

Would love to be proved wrong but in order to win this we are going to have to either bring some next level pressure and force them into playing below their best, or hope that the "hometrack bullies" trend continues and they play poorly.

 

[deano28]

Agree w

It will be one or lost in the midfield battle and unfortunately they have us covered on paper.

On the inside: Mitchell>Schuey>Priddis>Ziebell>Dumont>Swallow.

On the outside:
Gaff>Higgins>Jetta>Atley>Yeo>Gibson

Would love to be proved wrong but in order to win this we are going to have to either bring some next level pressure and force them into playing below their best, or hope that the "hometrack bullies" trend continues and they play poorly.

agree with most of this , although Jetta is rubbish & Yeo is ridiculously overrated ... hates it when the going gets tough and turns it over more often than Gibson when pressured . Godly the key to us winning this match .

 

[remfan101]

Agree w

agree with most of this , although Jetta is rubbish & Yeo is ridiculously overrated ... hates it when the going gets tough and turns it over more often than Gibson when pressured . Godly the key to us winning this match .

Yeah I agree will edit to have Gibbo higher although I am looking at Jetta over his career and his ability rather than just last year. The question is whether our ruck dominance will translate to clearance dominance, which looking at the respective midfield's is probably more unlikely than likely at least on paper.

 

[Zondor]

Scotts will be out coached in general. Mitchell will be allowed to rack up disposals at will. Scotts will get it wrong at the selection table selecting the underprepared Hansen ahead of Durdin. In general Scotts will select a "Safe" side rather than a side that has the greatest chance to apply manic defensive pressure which will be required to win the game. In other words he will go into the game with an overly tall side that will lack run. Expect the West Coast midfield to run a muck as we pay lip service to defensive set ups from the ruck contests. The WC will do us on the spread and our backs will be in a battle to hold their key forwards. Remember this people. When Tudor coached we won. When Drummond coached we won. When Scotts coached we lost. His time is almost up. :stern look

 

[Yoko and me]

Brad has shaken his rd 1 hoodoo getting the team up for an impressive win against Adelaide last year but is there any chance he can get a streak going with back to back wins?

North will win argument:

• Home ground advantage. Hopefully we make it out in numbers to see this fresh new squad strut their stuff. West Coast haven't replicated their home form in Victoria; recording 1-4 in 2016.
• Assumed ruck supremacy. With Lycett and Nic Naitanui both ruled out Eagles are forced to play a combination of Giles, Vardy or Petrie. Goldstein's form hasn't been sparkling this pre-season but he should be able to give us ascendency around the stoppages.
• New captain + youthful exuberance. As changing to a new coach can often re-energise teams and cause upset wins I can only think of the changing of the guard to Ziebell and the possibility of several debutants to the team as a positive.
• A more potentially more mobile team should work to hunt the ball and player in packs. Pressure was very good in the JLT. Will need to bring it from siren to siren to win this game.

North will lose argument:

• Sam Mitchell. Will add a whole new dimension to the Eagles midfield possibly releasing the lethal Luke Shuey and Andrew Gaff to do more damage on the outside with his elite distribution of the ball.
• Interrupted pre-season to our talls. Brown, Tarrant, Goldstein, Thompson and Daw all lost weeks of valuable pre-season and BBB might not even get up for it leaving us potentially vulnerable in the forward 50 especially against WC's great intercept marking players.
• Experience. We lost a lot of it and they have a lot of it.
• Cunnington out. F'd in the A by the MRP once again and they've taken our best clearance player this time. Can Ziebs, Spitta and Froggy fill the void? Need one of them to go nuts.
• Wood out. Wood looked set to explode this year and personally I'm deflated by his injury, think he makes us that much more dangerous in the front part of the ground with his ability to contest for ball in the air and on the ground.
• Generally the Eagles have a lot of quality and go into this game as deserved favourites. Their forward line is potent, the midfield is a strength rather than a weakness and they have an AA full back in Jeremy McGovern supported by Eric McKenzie, Shannon Hurn a the much improved Brad Sheppard.

Interested to gauge the board's opinion on where we are at this season and rd 1 is the first hurdle.

Carn North!

I wish I didn't see a ten goal loss. Play all the oldies round1 to try and stop this. If they can't they go back to vfl. Take the positives

 

[ansonholt]

1-0 with a solid professional 30 point win.
Dermie's commentary becomes annoying before the telecast starts.
There are 27 mentions of the experienced players who departed.
In the last quarter, the commentators shift uncomfortably in their seats behind the mikes, looking sideways at each other after their respective dire predictions about our season.
Eagles fans start turning on Simmo at round 1.
3000 more North members sign up after the win.

EFA.

 

[Yoko and me]

This board would have an aneurysm if that happens.

Garner 4, Harper 4 and the three Brownlow votes

 

[Just4Kicks]

Looking at the voting options:
I expect Eagles by under 20 (60% chance imo) - an honorable loss would be not a bad start to this season with hopefully plenty of new faces
I would love North by under 20 (30% chance imo) - perfect start and would be great to see bigfooty and media comments after that
I would hate Eagles by 40+ (10% chance imo) - the media and bigfooty backlash would not be pretty

 

[hilly]

We will start well but miss shots at goal. The Eagles will switch on and benefit from a few iffy free kicks to push out to a four goal lead which they'll hold in the 2nd half. There will be a drunk/obnoxious West Coast fan within earshot.

 

[Twinkletoes]

We will start well but miss shots at goal. The Eagles will switch on and benefit from a few iffy free kicks to push out to a four goal lead which they'll hold in the 2nd half. There will be a drunk/obnoxious West Coast fan within earshot.

Yeah I expect we'll give a good account of ourselves but be outclassed by a similar margin. To go down by an average of one goal per quarter against a side that's fully loaded up for a tilt at the flag this year (albeit lacking their lampshaded ruckman) would be a fair effort.

Having said that I'll be hoping they kick like crap and we can't miss, resulting in a surprise victory to our lads.

 

[roosmad]

we will just win or get savaged, que the 2017 meltdown a la 2006.......sadly......

 

[The Other Dean]

Yeah I agree will edit to have Gibbo higher although I am looking at Jetta over his career and his ability rather than just last year. The question is whether our ruck dominance will translate to clearance dominance, which looking at the respective midfield's is probably more unlikely than likely at least on paper.

Not going to debate your ordering, but just wanted to point out that Gibbo absolutely demolished Jetta the last time they were matched up, and he has had some success on Gaff in the past, also.

As for the result, I'm an eternal optimist so I'm upbeat about our chances. North by 43 (insert Fry squinting .jpg) points.

 

[KiwiRoo]

North are a reasonable chance.West Coast don't travel well

you do know that the soap "Home and away" is just called "Home" in Perth

 

[Heaps of fun]

North are a reasonable chance.West Coast don't travel well

you do know that the soap "Home and away" is just called "Home" in Perth

What do they call Shortland Street?

 

[Skiparoo]

I'd like to see us be competitive and we'll probably stick with them until about halfway through the third qtr, then they will run all over us and win by about 6-7 goals. They have a smart midfield that will feed off Goldy, so I don't see our ruckwork being that great of an advantage. We will need Goldy to be dominant around the ground if we are to be within a couple of goals.

 

[Mav]

Every time West Coast have better us for the last 10 years the talk on here has been, just wait until we play them in Melbourne, we'll spank them.
Now we finally get to play them in Melbourne and everyone's, like, "aaaww, we'll probably loose, they're pretty good, ya know."

Best way for us to win is ever time (all 43 that is) Mitchell gets the ball we need to call for a handball receive. He wont be use to Eagles voices yet so we should be able to pilfer half a dozen or so and it could just be the difference.

I despise the Eagles and their supporters more than any other team, we'd better fricking win.

 

[Ocha905]

North are a reasonable chance.West Coast don't travel well

you do know that the soap "Home and away" is just called "Home" in Perth

Unfortunately that narrative doesn't hold up great when they smashed a top 4 aspiring Adelaide in the last away game they played. Also they got beat by a record margin (home final) by Western.

Like others have said they'll be too good in the midfield and too experienced. They're probably a top 4 side (be disastrous if they weren't) while it would be an amazing season if we make finals. Also think their quality backs in McGovern, Barrass and McKenzie will intercept the living hell of our non Dumont/Higgins inside 50s. Don't know if Goldstein is fit enough to take advantage in ruck. Lastly Kennedy > Waite and co.

Eagles by 30.

 

[goalieboy82]

North by 200 points.
http://springfieldfiles.com/sounds/frink/gambletron.mp3

 

[goalieboy82]

and

 

[KiwiRoo]

What do they call Shortland Street?

still called Shortland street but has subtitles

 

[RobZombie]

I always think we're going to win. Hell, I reckon we'll get over GWS in Hobart because we played one good preseason half against them.

WC travel terribly and have no rucks. We'll run and gun them to death. 26.11 to 24.13.

But I'm probably not going to recommend to Mrs Z that she tip them in her work tipping comp.

 

[hilly]

Every time West Coast have better us for the last 10 years the talk on here has been, just wait until we play them in Melbourne, we'll spank them.

1. They are pretty good - they added a champion centreman for nothing
2. We are rebuilding and not the team we've been in recent times

 

[Mav]

1. They are pretty good - they added a champion centreman for nothing
2. We are rebuilding and not the team we've been in recent times

When you say we're not the team we've been in recent times are you talking about the first half of last year or the second half of last year?

I think the round 1 team will be a much better team than what was on the park against them in the second half of the year.

Players that are unlikely to be playing: Boomer, Cunnington, Anderson, Petrie, Wood, Firrito, Mullet, Wagner, McKenzie and Ray.

Players likely to come in: Waite, Wright, Lmac, Higgo, Williams, Hrovat, Durdin, Daw, Mountford, Turner and Simpkin.

Waite>Petrie
Wright>Mullet
Lmac>McKenzie
Higgo=Boomer
Williams=Firrito
Hrovat>Anderson
Durdin>Ray
Daw=Wood
Mountford>Wagner
Turner < Cunnington

The only player we go backwards on is Cunnington, But Turner allows Higgo to move into the middle.

 

[muttley45]

Who gets the dangerous job on the fangman (biter Masten) ??

 

[ozzyoslo]

I predict a Pruess and Daw sandwich for Mitchell.

No, but a Ziebell bone crunching statement is on the cards ......... and I wouldn't be upset it costs him a spell on the side line. It sends a very clear message to the players and to the rest of the league that he isn't going to listen to the media hype that we're out the door for awhile.