Forward line questions

[GS_1905 352]

21 hours ago, Supreme_Demon said:

Would really like Matthew Jefferson to get a chance to prove himself this season in the AFL.

Hoping he spends as much spare time as possible in the gym. He still needs to bulk up quite a bit in my opinion. However, I do believe he has the talent to make it. He just needs to get MUCH stronger!

Pump those weights Jeffo! ❤️💙

He needs to take a leaf out of Riley Thilthorpe's book. The guy looks like a gladiator. 

[M_9 2,216]

15 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

What is your problem with Petty? Your regular posts potting him suggest you have an issue.

The guy can seriously play the game, has mongrel and hits contests hard. Many on here thought our flag chances were blown in 2023 when he went down in Tassie late that year. With a full summer behind him watch out.

I believe he will be more than useful up forward if need be, most of us know we need guys that can clunk a contested mark forward of centre to break the game open. He can be that guy.

I've had no problem with Petty prior to last year. I understand the FD trying him up forward but NFI why they continued when he failed to fire. Look at the stats: 9 goals from 20 games; 9 games where he had 4 or fewer kicks; 10 games where he laid 2 or fewer tackles.

Together with JvR he was our only other big forward. We needed him to kick 30+ goals.

I watched him live numerous times. He was lost.

Playing as a back he is taken to the ball, or where the ball is probably going to be kicked to. He doesn't have to keep half an eye on Fritch. JvR or Max and where they're going to lead to. He has one job - deny his opponent the ball. He's great when given that task.

Playing as a backman he's one of the best in the comp. He complements May and Lever to a tee 

[zoe1617 23]

On 05/03/2025 at 13:12, picket fence said:

Well well well, I said at the time we should have gone after Tim Membrey, but we didn't and guess what  he bagged 4 for the filth last week. There was an opportunity missed if ever there was one!!

We knew we were taking AJ 

[zoe1617 23]

We never seem to kick crumbing goals and the opposition seem to kick alot of crumbing goals against us. 

We need more players with genuine goal sense,  that real goal hungry type of player 

[old dee 24,083]

From reading reports of last weekends game ( I am not in Australia)  it seems that our forward line performed much the same as for most of last year. Now I know JVR played a some total of 2 minutes however with Kossie out for the next three games we are still in need of a decent goal kicking KPF. Turner and Petty are not the answer. Surely now is the time to play one of Jefferson or Fullerton if not why are they on the list? . Play one of this pair it is the first game of the year a loss now is not season ending and we might see the reason they are on the list. 

[whatwhat say what 23,854]

3 hours ago, old dee said:

From reading reports of last weekends game ( I am not in Australia)  it seems that our forward line performed much the same as for most of last year. Now I know JVR played a some total of 2 minutes however with Kossie out for the next three games we are still in need of a decent goal kicking KPF. Turner and Petty are not the answer. Surely now is the time to play one of Jefferson or Fullerton if not why are they on the list? . Play one of this pair it is the first game of the year a loss now is not season ending and we might see the reason they are on the list. 

petty will return to defence, where he's a premiership player, in 2025, but still has the ability to be rotated forward if needs be

van rooyen, turner, and johnson will get the first crack at being the tall forwards / ruck relief combo to start the season

jefferson is next cab off the rank if jvr and disco aren't fit and / or performing

i think fullarton - who shows absolutely no signs of being an afl-level player - is likely to not be on an afl list in 2026, and el jefe would be a chance to not be in the system as well but i believe he's contracted for next season

Edited Monday at 09:51 by whatwhat say what

[Go Ds 335]

On 09/03/2025 at 15:11, GS_1905 said:

Just like previous assumptions on here i.e. in season loading, goody changing the game plan or holding on tactics for finals etc , this one around trying to attract players in silence is non-sense. I believed all of the above to some extent but year after year were proven incorrect. 

I listened to SEN crunch time when Simmo talked about Oscar as a free agent. He said he wants to stay in WA but there appears to be some misalignment in salary and hence indicated that he was potentially gettable. 

Question is can we offer Oscar the $$$. All the commentators on SEN seemed to think that Eagles and Hawks will not be able to offer top dollar or match incoming offers. With Brayshaw's retirement and presumably the cap space we made available for Houston, i wonder if we can pursue Oscar as a free agent. It will be the steal of the century. 

The other interesting discussion during SEN crunch time was that the work on pulling players out of clubs was a minimum 18-24 month proposition. If we have not been having a conversation with Oscar 12 months ago, then we are unlikely.

If we are not into him, then Lamb and co have to go. We have been a KPF short for almost half a decade, which is plenty of time to do something about it. 

 

Almost half a decade? In 2021, even 2022, weren't they still hoping that BBB, TMac be holding down forward positions? In 2022 they would have hoped that in his last year Weid could step up and maybe Tracc could play more forward if someone could close to match his midfield input.

[zoe1617 23]

On 08/03/2025 at 15:43, demoncat said:

Annnnnnd the Hawks are into him:

Not sure why we never seem to be linked to these players… let’s hope it’s because Lamb operates in silence

It was no secret that we were after waterman,  i think we also had a go at M Lewis also

[58er 6,872]

8 hours ago, old dee said:

From reading reports of last weekends game ( I am not in Australia)  it seems that our forward line performed much the same as for most of last year. Now I know JVR played a some total of 2 minutes however with Kossie out for the next three games we are still in need of a decent goal kicking KPF. Turner and Petty are not the answer. Surely now is the time to play one of Jefferson or Fullerton if not why are they on the list? . Play one of this pair it is the first game of the year a loss now is not season ending and we might see the reason they are on the list. 

Well said OD. Why it’s almost last chance saloon stuff it’s better than saying no hope for either player. 

I still think Jeffo can and should knows about Fullerton. 

[leave it to deever 17,617]

Just watched the Freo pre season game.

Our goal kicking efforts are still atrocious.

Fgs can we fix this issue 

Not only do we not have a potential fwd line, we still can't kick straight.

Tracca really needs to improve in this area.

And I don't know what's happened to Fritta. He's joined the others.

 

[leave it to deever 17,617]

17 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

has the ability to be rotated forward if needs

But sadly to absolutely no avail.

I'm hoping Disco stands tall this year instead.

Edited yesterday at 03:10 by leave it to deever

[old dee 24,083]

12 hours ago, 58er said:

Well said OD. Why it’s almost last chance saloon stuff it’s better than saying no hope for either player. 

I still think Jeffo can and should knows about Fullerton. 

Fullerton played 19 games for the Lions, it’s his second season with the Dees. We are struggling for KPF’s or any forward who can kick straight. Time to play him. 

[whatwhat say what 23,854]

1 hour ago, old dee said:

Fullerton played 19 games for the Lions, it’s his second season with the Dees. We are struggling for KPF’s or any forward who can kick straight. Time to play him. 

fullarton is a long way back in the pecking order

[old dee 24,083]

1 hour ago, whatwhat say what said:

fullarton is a long way back in the pecking order

So why on earth did we draft him?

[DeeSpencer 26,675]

4 hours ago, old dee said:

Fullerton played 19 games for the Lions, it’s his second season with the Dees. We are struggling for KPF’s or any forward who can kick straight. Time to play him. 

He’s never done anything at Casey to look like he deserves a game and has spent a good chunk of the summer recovering from a hamstring.

If he plays well at Casey then I agree, sometimes you got to chuck a guy in and see what happens.

But you don’t pick a guy when others have trained more often and better all summer. That’s just asking for a miracle.

[whatwhat say what 23,854]

1 hour ago, old dee said:

So why on earth did we draft him?

We didn’t, we traded for him - peanuts in exchange 

[old dee 24,083]

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

He’s never done anything at Casey to look like he deserves a game and has spent a good chunk of the summer recovering from a hamstring.

If he plays well at Casey then I agree, sometimes you got to chuck a guy in and see what happens.

But you don’t pick a guy when others have trained more often and better all summer. That’s just asking for a miracle.

Then play Jefferson it is not as though there are players with form keeping him out.  If we don’t try some of these guys we are just going to repeat the 2024 forward results. 

[whatwhat say what 23,854]

2 minutes ago, old dee said:

Then play Jefferson it is not as though there are players with form keeping him out.  If we don’t try some of these guys we are just going to repeat the 2024 forward results. 

He needs to force his way in with justified form

He shows little on the track or in practice matches 

[old dee 24,083]

2 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

He needs to force his way in with justified form

He shows little on the track or in practice matches 

I guess that is why we have bought in other players. 

[DeeSpencer 26,675]

3 hours ago, old dee said:

Then play Jefferson it is not as though there are players with form keeping him out.  If we don’t try some of these guys we are just going to repeat the 2024 forward results. 

I think they might, but it's worth noting GWS kicked a big score with Cadman (5 touches, 1 goal), Gruzewski (9 touches, 2 goals) and Callum Brown (7 touches, 2 goals) and those goal totals outweigh their actual impact on the game.. 

We kicked 11 goals 24 playing a similar style in a lot of the Freo game.

It's a trend across the league now to get your deep fowards as deep as possible to draw defenders and for the scoring to come from the half forwards. In which case we don't need to keep trying key forwards, we need our half forwards to be more dangerous and finish better.

[Go Ds 335]

10 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

Just watched the Freo pre season game.

Our goal kicking efforts are still atrocious.

Fgs can we fix this issue 

Not only do we not have a potential fwd line, we still can't kick straight.

Tracca really needs to improve in this area.

And I don't know what's happened to Fritta. He's joined the others.

 

They did reach 90 points on a hot day in windy conditions jetting across the country with some newbies with few or zero interstate games under their belt at a ground possibly no player's ever set foot on. On top of that our main forward probably only played for one minute and another played only the last quarter. Plus Freo had a much harder game against the Indigenous All Stars while we had a match simulation against the North almost-all No Stars so probably they were more matchfit anyway. (Oh and Tracc hadn't played any games since last June.) Given all this I choose to be 'glass-half-full'.

BTW in their practice matches Sydney beat Suns by 4 goals, Collingwood beat Tiges by 14 goals (and N Daicos supposedly had one hand on this year's Brownlow). But in the real games Hawks (beaten 2 goals by a depleted Doggies) and Giants ( beaten 10 goals by Carlton) made a mockery of the pre-season form. Honestly can you remember any non-Melbourne practice matches pre-2025? No one's gonna even care about the recent ones come Sunday night.

 

[Neil Crompton 5,852]

8 hours ago, Go Ds said:

 No one's gonna even care about the recent ones come Sunday night.

 

They will if we don’t kick straighter on Sunday.

[Go Ds 335]

5 hours ago, Neil Crompton said:

They will if we don’t kick straighter on Sunday.

Only cos of the real games in recent years where goal accuracy cost us. If we had instead kicked 16.10 last week and kick 8.20 this Sunday basically the goal kicking complaints would've just been postponed a fortnight.

[BangBnagBang 773]

On 05/03/2025 at 13:12, picket fence said:

Well well well, I said at the time we should have gone after Tim Membrey, but we didn't and guess what  he bagged 4 for the filth last week. There was an opportunity missed if ever there was one!!

and Membrey showed on Sunday why we missed nothing

[Demonstone 23,572]

17 minutes ago, BangBnagBang said:

Membrey showed on Sunday why we missed nothing

But ... but ... he kicked FOUR goals against an undermanned but still almost invincible Richmond ... in a PRACTICE MATCH!!!!