26 minutes ago, Ugottobekidding said:

did we lose hogan at the wrong time?

i don't think so. the new rules probably favour strong 1 v 1 players, something Hogan wasn't good at anyway.

1 hour ago, Ugottobekidding said:

did we lose hogan at the wrong time?

I'm not sure. But I think after every loss, particularly in the first half of the year, we'll hear "Hogan would have helped" and every time we win we'll hear "This shows why we didn't need Hogan" 

8 hours ago, Demon Dude said:

i don't think so. the new rules probably favour strong 1 v 1 players, something Hogan wasn't good at anyway.

Yes he was. And is. One if the best one on one marks in the AFL.

He is not a great pack mark. 

The be rules would have helped him. a r the dees but Freo's midfield is woeful- even with superbly - so he won't get many one on one chances.

 

10 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

For once, I'm pleased with the AFL. By amending this rule they've tinkered with our gameplan and removed what I thought was our consistent weakness last year. Sure, having the extra on the back of the square might occasionally have helped us win the centre clearance, but how often did that result in a turnover because we were a forward short? The strategy we used should have been reserved for teams anticipating losing centre clearances, not winning them.

I find myself agreeing.

If we back ourselves in to do well at centre clearances (and with Gawn and our midfield, we damn well should be) then like last year we should see a number of direct entries inside 50 from the centre bounce. Unlike last year though, we won't be continually down 6-7 or 5-6 in our forward line.

I'm interested in seeing what teams (including us) try to do to slow the game down when they want it to be slowed. Will they try to get repeat bounces in the middle to give their wings/forwards time to push back?

23 hours ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

I'm not sure. But I think after every loss, particularly in the first half of the year, we'll hear "Hogan would have helped" and every time we win we'll hear "This shows why we didn't need Hogan" 

What a difference a day makes!

Have to admit, Gill and the AFL have done very well on the rule changes overall - so far at least.

Gill was on 360 last night and he spoke well. I don't care about AFLX and all that [censored], I only watch AFL and I am hopeful we will see more scoring, the best mids getting a run at the ball and some more space