6 minutes ago, 1964_2 said:

Brown already ruled out

Oh well that has not improved my humour. God now's how we will kick a winning score.

2 minutes ago, old dee said:

Oh well that has not improved my humour. God now's how we will kick a winning score.

Kicked a 'winning score' last week by our standards, the problem was we gave up too many. Personally, more worried about our pressure and defence.

It's going to be super wet, lack of talls won't be an issue. I imagine we'll go smaller anyway. 

Ben Brown being unavailable is fine. 

Edited July 27, 20223 yr by JimmyGadson

Wise decision. I don't think JVR will get selected this week. Having watched the Casey game last weekend I think he might be  better suited in 2023. Having said that means he is near a certainty to be in. 

1 minute ago, Lord Nev said:

Kicked a 'winning score' last week by our standards, the problem was we gave up too many. Personally, more worried about our pressure and defence.

Don't agree LN. A winning score is the one that has you in front at the end. Everything else is a loss. 

1 minute ago, JimmyGadson said:

It's going to be super wet, lack of talls won't be an issue. I imagine we'll go smaller anyway. 

Ben Brown being unavailable is fine preferable. 

As often happens, I think people are getting too caught up in the 'wet weather'.

Looks like showers in the early morning but dry by late arvo. 17 degrees most of the arvo, don't reckon the weather will be a factor.

37 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

I don't see courage as being Weideman's weakness. Agility, reading the play, lack of height and strength and clunking marks are his issues.

I agree. 

Personally i reckon his two biggest weaknesses are:

• He often seems to have a half second delay in reacting when a second effort is required. He often makes a second effort (though sadly not always), but because of that delay it usually doesn't impact the contest. Going again just does not seem to be instinctive, unlike say JVR
• He often seems to misjudge the flight of the ball and therefore the ultimate landing point. Compare him to Fritsch, who reads the flight so well and puts himself in the right spot to mark it. Someone in another thread mentioned they thought he might need contact lenses. I'm sure he would use use them if he needed them, but i get where they were coming from as he seems to have issues with depth perception

2 minutes ago, old dee said:

Don't agree LN. A winning score is the one that has you in front at the end. Everything else is a loss. 

We kicked 15 goals last week mate, scoring wasn't the problem, defence and pressure was.

It's Chandler in but who goes out?

I would have thought Melksham but it would not surprise me if Spargo is dropped.

Just now, Diamond_Jim said:

It's Chandler in but who goes out?

I would have thought Melksham but it would not surprise me if Spargo is dropped.

Chandler is a confirmed in?

10 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Yeah gotcha! We're in agreement then mate.

Wondering now too, as we've spoken about BBB's form, it does seem to have coincided with his knee flaring up. He's a much better player than his second half of the season form says, so wonder if that's a big part of it?

The irony with Weid is, he may end up not on our list for the very same reason Brown ended up not on North's. He's a leading forward, not great with the packs and pressure, in a team that relies more on pressure and contests (which is apparently the direction north wanted to go when not re-signing Brown).

I'm resigned to Weid just being depth tbh, think he's a long shot to lock in a spot in the 22 for finals (pending Brown's injury status).

I do wonder if Weed would be better fit for a team like say the bombers or swans who like to engineer space and one on ones inside their 50 with quick ball movement of HB.

He is actually a terrific mark on the Dunstall style hard lead.  

He is an old school, from the square forward i reckon and needs leading lanes to show his best

6 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

We kicked 15 goals last week mate, scoring wasn't the problem, defence and pressure was.

Which is yet another reason i'm bullish about this game. 

No-one could seriously be worried about defence could they?

1 minute ago, binman said:

I do wonder if Weed would be better fit for a team like say the bombers or swans who like to engineer space and one on ones inside their 50 with quick ball movement of HB.

He is actually a terrific mark on the Dunstall style hard lead.  

He is an old school, from the square forward i reckon and needs leading lanes to show his best

Yeah for sure.

Really intriguing offseason for him - Gut feel is Goody would be happy to ship him off, but we will have a very bare cupboard in terms of tall forwards and rucks quite possibly.

1 minute ago, binman said:

Which is yet another reason i'm bullish about this game. 

No-one could seriously be worried about defence could they?

When I say defence I mean as a team, just to clarify. Having the holy trinity back together in defence will help, but need the forwards and wings to lift considerably in the pressure stakes.

6 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

When I say defence I mean as a team, just to clarify. Having the holy trinity back together in defence will help, but need the forwards and wings to lift considerably in the pressure stakes.

10-20% more intensity & pressure from CP, Harmes, Eddy, Sparrow and a couple of others would go a long way.

I don’t include Oliver and Viney in the above, as I am not sure they know anything other than 100% 

Edited July 27, 20223 yr by 1964_2

18 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

As often happens, I think people are getting too caught up in the 'wet weather'.

Looks like showers in the early morning but dry by late arvo. 17 degrees most of the arvo, don't reckon the weather will be a factor.

The surface isn’t great at the moment in Optus. Saints and Eagles players were slipping over all the time. No Ben Brown might just be a bit of a blessing.

19 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

As often happens, I think people are getting too caught up in the 'wet weather'.

Looks like showers in the early morning but dry by late arvo. 17 degrees most of the arvo, don't reckon the weather will be a factor.

Half the ground doesn’t get enough sun. There is not enough sun to dry it out, it will be damp.

3 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

The surface isn’t great at the moment in Optus. Saints and Eagles players were slipping over all the time. No Ben Brown might just be a bit of a blessing.

 

3 minutes ago, rpfc said:

Half the ground doesn’t get enough sun. There is not enough sun to dry it out, it will be damp.

Yep, surface could be slippery, just won't be a wet weather game as such I reckon.

37 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Kicked a 'winning score' last week by our standards, the problem was we gave up too many. Personally, more worried about our pressure and defence.

Not sure why people are so concerned about a winning score, when we had 0 tackles inside 50. 

7 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

 

Yep, surface could be slippery, just won't be a wet weather game as such I reckon.

Read the article referred to below and see the problems with the ground.

Freo were smashed in wet/boggy conditions by GCS and Coll earlier in the season; kicked 4 and 6 goals.  Hence why they want to train there this week.  They have learnt so I expect them to do better.

So it is wet weather football time:  forget long kicks or pin point passes, just get the ball forward deep i50!

1 hour ago, Lucifers Hero said:

big-docker-on-standby-to-combat-dees-dynamic-ruck-duo

Meek might play.  An audition?

An interesting discussion about the state of Optus Oval surface.  It looks like Freo have been given special permission to train at Optus because of the rain and state of the ground.  They don't play well in the wet.

It looks they could go in fairly tall at both ends of the ground which is odd as they know Brown won't be playing.

We will still win.

1 hour ago, binman said:

I see Smith is back this week. 

The more I think of it, the more I like the idea of Smith playing the second tall role.

He is everything weed isn't - high intensity, hard at it and loves the contest. 

And I've always liked the idea of him as a forward - his chaos style, speed and athleticism suits what we need down there, which is almost the forward equivalent of a zone off defender ie get across to aerial contests and either take a big grab or failing that make sure the ball comes to ground.

And Smith could also be used as defensive forward to nullify players like Aliir.

At 191 cms, he's six centimeters shorter than weed (but 3cms taller than fritter), so obviously he's not going to be a genuine tall.

But that is offset somewhat by his huge leap.

Accurate kick for goal too.

And perhaps creates a match up issue as he is pretty quick and with his height and leap, probably needs a reasonably big defender.

I've never rated Smith, mostly because I worry about his game sense and spatial awareness, but the game is constantly changing and he has played one good game as a forward, so maybe he's the answer? His time learning defensive craft will hopefully help his shift forward again.

Edited July 27, 20223 yr by A F

3 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Read the article referred to below and see the problems with the ground.

Freo were smashed in wet/boggy conditions by GCS and Coll earlier in the season; kicked 4 and 6 goals.  Hence why they want to train there this week.  They have learnt so I expect them to do better.

So it is wet weather football time:  forget long kicks or pin point passes, just get the ball forward deep i50!

We will still win.

Cheers mate, saw the articles earlier in the week re: surface.

1 hour ago, JimmyGadson said:

When up and about.. 

How often has that happened this year? 

His lack of form has clearly contributed to our woes forward of the ball. 

Brown, Weed and Fritsch are all in the top 10 for least pressure applied within the AFL. 

And Brown has absolutely been out bodied and out marked throughout many games this year. Far more often than he's taken a contested mark. 

Brown gets outmarked and outbodied far less than Weideman. Brown has been outmarked and outbodied too often this year IMV, but aside from TMac and JVR, we basically don't have any other options as Max and Jackson have been relatively poor aerially as well.

44 minutes ago, binman said:

I agree. 

Personally i reckon his two biggest weaknesses are:

• He often seems to have a half second delay in reacting when a second effort is required. He often makes a second effort (though sadly not always), but because of that delay it usually doesn't impact the contest. Going again just does not seem to be instinctive, unlike say JVR
• He often seems to misjudge the flight of the ball and therefore the ultimate landing point. Compare him to Fritsch, who reads the flight so well and puts himself in the right spot to mark it. Someone in another thread mentioned they thought he might need contact lenses. I'm sure he would use use them if he needed them, but i get where they were coming from as he seems to have issues with depth perception

He's also regularly lead/manoeuvred under the ball. Has happened in every game he's played in this year.

Of all weeks to debut JVR, this is not one of them.