Pre match. Pies v. Toasters - All comments

[ANNODAM]

Win on Sunday now & we go above the druggoes!

[shwany]

With Richmond just beating Essendon And predicting that Carlton will beat the suns may mean that this week is not do or die. If gc lose to Carlton and Brisbane beat Adelaide at home means will will still be in the 8.

Here's where it gets interesting, the following 3 weeks put all the top 8 contenders against each hither whilst we play against lions and gws.

Next week

Essendon plays west coast
Adelaide plays Richmond
Suns play power

Week after
Essendon plays suns
Kangaroos play Adelaide

Week after
Suns play west coast.
Carlton play essendon


Beat west coast and 2 others = finals locked in
Beat west coast and 1 other with good percentage = likely in
Win against gws and lions = still a chance
Win 1 = curtains


For me a win this week means we will play finals, a loss still gives us a 50/50 chance. I think we are more likely to finish 6th than 9th which would be a awesome results.

I've got a feeling we will win the next 5 games!

[DT]

[DT]

[John Wren]

langdon, ball and jt as emergencies.

[Tannin]

Welcome to yesterday, JW.

In today's news, we learn who the traveling emergency is. JW will doubtless be along to let us know that, probably as soon as Monday.

[John Wren]

[Big T]

Nic nat and Cox against witts. Oh dear.

Ruck had cost us top 4 this year.

[John Wren]

[HAL]

Umm. I like to listen to the rain when I'm sleeping.

[Tannin]

I'm not too fussed about Witts v Team Weagles in the ruck. Witts will do OK. That's OK, not great: he'll be beaten but not smashed. Call the ruck contests something like a 60-40 win their way. I'm OK with that. Face it, the reality is that we can't win the ruck contest no matter who we play. Throw in Grundy as well and we will still get beaten somewhere around 60-40, so why waste a selection on a player who won't make a difference?

Jesse White does better than OK around the ground on a good day. He seems to thrive on mobility, and he's better now playing third tall + ruck 'coz it gets him into the game and he gets a few possessions around the ground where he can use his pace and mobility.

Nope: the real problem with WCE's ruck advantage isn't the ruck itself, it's what the resting ruckmen can do to us as forwards - and here, Grundy and Hudson (if he was still with us as a player) or any other ruckman is of little value. we are much, much better served by having two quality specialist tall defenders plus a couple of good mediums to back them up. Keeffe and Frost will be important, and I reckon they'll good on the day. Nick Maxwell playing loose and going third man up would be a huge help here, but with Maxy gone Goldsack will have to take his place. Tooves will be a help also.

Long and the short of it, playing the extra runner is a good decision.

My worry is our ability to extract it from the stoppages. Will Ball come in? Is he fit enough and is he still good enough?

Or are we going to have to rely on someone else? No Swan (Swan gets a lot of inside ball, which is often overlooked), no Adams (who set us alight with his inside ball, quick hands, and fantastic pressure last week) .... Beams and Pendlebury need to be twins 'coz we really require two each of them to cover our outs.

That leaves us needing someone else to step up. Blair isn't good enough - he's been tried and failed many times over. It's down to the kids. Kennedy seems the most likely, but think he's probably a way off being able to take on that role yet. Broomhead is too slight and inexperienced, though he might be a handful further forward. Elliott can play, but he too should mostly play across half-forward 'coz he's practically the only one who can kick goals every week.

Dunno. It's a worry.

On the other hand. WCE's midfield is weak. They can look great when they are winning, but they really only have one A-grade midfielder (Priddis) with all the others very prone to disappearing when it gets too hard. If we can get on top and dominate the clearances early, they will go to water. then we have to maintain the pressure and not let them regain their confidence.

I wish Adams was playing.

[swoop42]

[King Monkey]

Whoever can manufacture the most one-on-ones in their forward line will win this game.
So that means whoever can move the ball quicker when in space, and whoever can win clean stoppages in 50/50 areas of the ground. The latter is weakened for us by having none of Ball, Adams, JThomas in the side. The match committee seem to have put all our eggs in the outside run basket this week.

[Magpietothemax]

So obviously our selectors are not concerned about the absence of a specialized inside mid. They have obviously chosen "horses for courses" and decided that West Coast has a weak midfield so an inside mid is not essential. This is the only way I can understand the decision to leave out both Luke Ball and JT when clearly both were able to play.

[rocketronnie]

Another 50/50 game for us. perhaps a better side than last week but both the West Coast rucks and tall forwards will be a worry. Ground surface may play a role as the large hard surface takes its toll on players not used to it the longer the game goes. we can win it but we will need a more sustained and stronger effort than last week to do so.