9 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

Understand making no changes, but would have liked to see Heath. And I do feel disappointed for Laurie, he had a great preseason and I would love to see him get a run of games.

I think they're both named as emergencies so should be on the plane with the rest of the side.

Edited yesterday at 08:221 day by Rab D Nesbitt

11 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

Understand making no changes, but would have liked to see Heath. And I do feel disappointed for Laurie, he had a great preseason and I would love to see him get a run of games.

I feel we should have either played Heath or TMac to allow more flex with their ruck duo and forward height but getting wanting to back on last weeks 23. Laurie just needs to keep pressure on as suggest he will be first up if Sparrow and Langdon have many more performances like round 1.

2 minutes ago, Lil_red_fire_engine said:

I feel we should have either played Heath or TMac to allow more flex with their ruck duo and forward height but getting wanting to back on last weeks 23. Laurie just needs to keep pressure on as suggest he will be first up if Sparrow and Langdon have many more performances like round 1.

Gawn will play big minutes again and Petty will cover as with last week. We're going to keep working on out running the opposition. Gawn V Jackson will be an intriguing battle.

Heath and TMac don't offer pace and Freo are fast, it's not the week for them.

Sounds like AMW and Xavier Taylor are making strides towards selection...we're in as good a position as we can be atm, we're a chance against Freo but the main thing is we keep improving.

11 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

Gawn will play big minutes again and Petty will cover as with last week. We're going to keep working on out running the opposition. Gawn V Jackson will be an intriguing battle.

Heath and TMac don't offer pace and Freo are fast, it's not the week for them.

Sounds like AMW and Xavier Taylor are making strides towards selection...we're in as good a position as we can be atm, we're a chance against Freo but the main thing is we keep improving.

I get the decision and likely apporach but I have two main concerns.
Firstly Petty chopping out against Jackson or Darcy is very different than combatting Keeler.

Secondly there are more permanent quality key forwards to cover with Treacy, Voss. Amiss and this becomes a bigger challenge if we have to release Petty into the ruck and shuffle others to fill the void.

1 hour ago, Demonstone said:

Sparrow with his beak will always be better at pecking than Laurie with his bill.

This is so good there is no equivalent response in the known universe.

59 minutes ago, Lil_red_fire_engine said:

I get the decision and likely apporach but I have two main concerns.
Firstly Petty chopping out against Jackson or Darcy is very different than combatting Keeler.

Secondly there are more permanent quality key forwards to cover with Treacy, Voss. Amiss and this becomes a bigger challenge if we have to release Petty into the ruck and shuffle others to fill the void.

I think this is a case of pick your poison

We either go tall, and lose a lot of speed and run

Or we go short, and we struggle against their rucks and forwards.

Kings approach right now seems to be sticking to our strengths and game style, so we play a shorter side and hope we can win the shoot out

1 hour ago, Lil_red_fire_engine said:

Secondly there are more permanent quality key forwards to cover with Treacy, Voss. Amiss and this becomes a bigger challenge if we have to release Petty into the ruck and shuffle others to fill the void.

Not sure Tom Mac is the man for any of those though. Against that, Amiss only had 4 possessions last week, so not sure about "quality key forward". Howes is 191, perhaps he can pick up the slack.

Well I'm not questioning the coach because last week I asked why Sharpe was in.

Gawn & petty can do the ruck & van rooyen can take any ruck contests in our forward line & leave max out on the wing like last week.

It could be handy having an ex ruckman as a coach. At least he's got experience on how to handle their management

Hayden Young out doesn't hurt. Very good player when fit.

I’d play Cully as second ruck, keep Petty in Defense, Roo forward.

28 minutes ago, PaulR said:

I’d play Cully as second ruck, keep Petty in Defense, Roo forward.

He is a mid-fwd that will be targeted by Darcy to be cut in half. Petty did great.

3 hours ago, Maldonboy38 said:

Understand making no changes, but would have liked to see Heath. And I do feel disappointed for Laurie, he had a great preseason and I would love to see him get a run of games.

Not nearly as disappointed as I have been every time Laurie has played seniors.

If the information from @Ghostwriter at training is correct and Max Heath is staying back in Melbourne, then it would appear that the two travelling emergencies will be Bailey Laurie and Tom McDonald. A small and a tall - sounds a logical combination.

1 hour ago, rpfc said:

He is a mid-fwd that will be targeted by Darcy to be cut in half. Petty did great.

I have to say I was surprised how well he did in the ruck. He created a centre clearance goal and we only scored two.

Not that Maxy gave him many opportunities.

1 hour ago, rpfc said:

He is a mid-fwd that will be targeted by Darcy to be cut in half. Petty did great.

Omac Jackson Wagner McVee all playing for freo... gives weird vibes.

The demon freo link has long been strong but this is next level.

Sylvia, White, Chisholm, Farmer. Longmuir, cuddles Connelly coaching them....

After nabbing white from them it all seems to be one way traffic their way though - about time we got a couple of good ones back

3 minutes ago, Sideshow Bob said:

After nabbing white from them it all seems to be one way traffic their way though - about time we got a couple of good ones back

can we start with one of brayshaw, young, or serong?

Is Haydon Young playing? Saw something last night in doubt.

16 minutes ago, Kent said:

Is Haydon Young playing? Saw something last night in doubt.

No he’s out. Huge help for us tbh. King said as much in his presser.

Just looking at the Freo team. They really do have too good a list to be as inconsistent as they are. Stacked forward line, awesome midfield even with Young out, backs are ok but have a couple of very good players.

No cox is a good thing for Max. All he would have done is try to clobber him, and then stretch our backs when he went forward.

I will be watching with interest this week on Harvie L. He looked slow against StK and did not have a great game. That said he has great IQ and is a good ball user but up to now is not a high possession player. Not sure what position best suits him.

Allowing Max to play 90% plus game time in the ruck week after week, even if he puts his hand up to do so, is just plain dumb.

We all know he is a superstar, but sometimes you need to save players from themselves.

Darcy is no great ruck, but he will be highly physical, and Jackson will look to run Max off his feet.

I think we will regret going in without a backup option that doesn't involve us significantly weakening either our defence or our attack.

13 minutes ago, damienjr said:

I will be watching with interest this week on Harvie L. He looked slow against StK and did not have a great game. That said he has great IQ and is a good ball user but up to now is not a high possession player. Not sure what position best suits him.

Will be curious to see, some players will obviously flourish in a new system, others may not be as suited. Kid is a gem, give him some time.

11 hours ago, Cranky Franky said:

Not nearly as disappointed as I have been every time Laurie has played seniors.

As above happy giving Laurie a clean slate under a new gameplan under King, happy for him to get a another chance in the seniors this season.

30 minutes ago, Mickey said:

Just looking at the Freo team. They really do have too good a list to be as inconsistent as they are. Stacked forward line, awesome midfield even with Young out, backs are ok but have a couple of very good players.

No cox is a good thing for Max. All he would have done is try to clobber him, and then stretch our backs when he went forward.

I wouldn't be surprised if Darcy is a late out for Cox whose sole instruction will be to knee and crash Max at every opportunity. After all he has made a career out of that role whenever we played against him.

He is a nasty sniper! And I hope Petty gives him some of his own medicine - Petty being the player with a bit of a nasty streak! And not afraid to give a bit back!

King will have a plan if that is a late change, having spent several years with the cagey 'late change' trickery coach: Scott.

Edited 22 hours ago22 hr by Lucifers Hero

41 minutes ago, Mickey said:

Just looking at the Freo team. They really do have too good a list to be as inconsistent as they are. Stacked forward line, awesome midfield even with Young out, backs are ok but have a couple of very good players.

No cox is a good thing for Max. All he would have done is try to clobber him, and then stretch our backs when he went forward.

They're still very young. Lookout in 2028