Fremantle Round 10

[samuraisaint]

Pearce - broken tibia
Mundy - Calf
Dawson - possible suspension
Clarke - injured?

Add to this Sandilands, Fyfe and Morabito still on the sidelines.

I thought yesterday was a step in the right direction for us. When you lose a game by 100 points, a win the next week of any description is the cure for all ills.

How do we think we'll go playing a winless Freo over here? To me they didn't look too desperate on Saturday night, which is kind of odd for a side approaching round 10 without a win - especially a side which has been remarkably consistently winning for four years. I know after us they have winnable ones so maybe they are setting their sights on those, but I really have no expectations as to how Freo will come out on Saturday evening. Even by the way Ross is speaking it seems the team is taking a laid back, low-key approach to this season.

[stkfc1]

Id be happy with a 100+ flogging of them just quietly. Really, with the outs they have, we should put them to the sword. It will hopefully be another confidence booster for our new look forward line.

[desertsaint]

They were woeful from the start of the season with a full list and they're woeful now. I don't think they're tanking, but i think ross is happy for everyone to think they are, to cover up just how far his team and gameplan has crashed.

[Toy Saint]

I'm not expecting this will be easy, they did play in the Grand Final last year. They can't be that bad.

We shouldn't get too confident.

[saynta]

I'm not expecting this will be easy, they did play in the Grand Final last year. They can't be that bad.

We shouldn't get too confident.

That would be news to the Weagle boys, and Lyon too.

[bigcarl]

I hope that afterwards we can say: "This is how you do a rebuild, Ro$$co."

But we shouldn't by any means expect it to be easy. Lots of hardened footballers in there and masterminded by the evil genius of AFL coaches.

[samoht]

RL out, bruised game plan.
LLLLoLLLLL

[saintspremiers]

Smash them by a hundred

[Junction Oval]

It will not be an easy match, but after yesterday's confidence booster, we should roll them. The "big three" on the forward line took a major step yesterday and as a mini-team, they should gel even better.

It's nice going to the footy with very positive expectations for a win - not just hoping to play well.

[Superboot]

Games like this are always a huge worry. If you accept the simple premise that Freo have to win some time, it follows that the longer they go on losing the more likely they are to win the next game.

[saintsRrising]

If we are seriously improved then we should win and there are no excuses for losing this game.

Freo are out of form and are decimated by injury and will probably have Zac suspended as well. They will not have one decent experienced tall defender available.
Whereas we basically will have a full list to choose from apart from Freeman.

This is the type of game that we simply cannot afford to lose. We will see how committed our players are next week.

[mr six o'clock]

They were woeful from the start of the season with a full list and they're woeful now. I don't think they're tanking, but i think ross is happy for everyone to think they are, to cover up just how far his team and gameplan has crashed.

yes
very good point .

I think with his game plan the players have to buy into it to get the results , once doubts creep in it doesn't stand up .
I think this is part of the reason why he left us , he was smart enough to see that the players were losing that belief . if he had stayed on , the teams demise would only hurt his chances of being a career coach , which is what he has called himself many times .

[mad saint guy]

Neale and Walters are pretty much their only dangerous players at the moment. They have zero AFL-quality talls available to play and we should massively exploit that. I do think Hickey is cooked so either Holmes or Longer should get a gig, since Pierce wouldn't be ready to shoulder the ruck all by himself and we'd be too slow up forward if we carried an extra ruck there. Gilbert has been shocking for the past two weeks but had a good start to the season so gets another shot. Lonie and Acres to build into some form at Sandy before a recall.

We should really win this by 10+ goals. Paddy to kick 5.

[freely]

Games like this are always a huge worry. If you accept the simple premise that Freo have to win some time, it follows that the longer they go on losing the more likely they are to win the next game.

Except happily this is mathematically very wrong. Like thinking if you've tossed a coin and it's come up heads 9 times, the 10th time it's more likely to be tails. Er - no. Unless you've got a dodgy coin, the odds of tails are 50:50 exactly the same as they were the first time.

And hopefully our odds against Freo'll be a bit better than that!

[bigcarl]

Neale and Walters are pretty much their only dangerous players at the moment. They have zero AFL-quality talls available to play and we should massively exploit that. I do think Hickey is cooked so either Holmes or Longer should get a gig, since Pierce wouldn't be ready to shoulder the ruck all by himself and we'd be too slow up forward if we carried an extra ruck there. Gilbert has been shocking for the past two weeks but had a good start to the season so gets another shot. Lonie and Acres to build into some form at Sandy before a recall.

We should really win this by 10+ goals. Paddy to kick 5.

Out: Hickey (cooked)? I don't think so. Maybe rotate Bruce and Paddy through the ruck more often to give him a bit of a breather. His season's been fantastic by and large.

[Superboot]

Games like this are always a huge worry. If you accept the simple premise that Freo have to win some time, it follows that the longer they go on losing the more likely they are to win the next game.

Except happily this is mathematically very wrong. Like thinking if you've tossed a coin and it's come up heads 9 times, the 10th time it's more likely to be tails. Er - no. Unless you've got a dodgy coin, the odds of tails are 50:50 exactly the same as they were the first time.

And hopefully our odds against Freo'll be a bit better than that!

Yes, you're probably right, except that the coin isn't trying to achieve a particular outcome, and consecutive footy games aren't really independent events

[bigcarl]

I'd like to see Sinclair in. He's a future A-grader, but who goes out to get him in? Come to think of it I'd like to see Acres and Lonie in but same problem there

[mad saint guy]

Out: Hickey (cooked)? I don't think so. Maybe rotate Bruce and Paddy through the ruck more often to give him a bit of a breather. His season's been fantastic by and large.

When I say cooked I mean he needs a week's rest. He has been excellent this year but it's been an unprecedented workload for him - he's rarely played as the number one ruck let alone the only ruck for 9 weeks straight. No way should we be using Paddy in the ruck - he contested one centre bounce because both Hickey and Bruce were off the ground and Roo was actually running into the centre to ruck before Paddy volunteered. I think Bruce's game suffers when he's forced to ruck as well.

Before we brought Paddy and Membrey in I would've suggested using Pierce as a second ruck/third forward, but our forward line is too stacked to carry an extra ruck now so I think we could trust Holmes to battle away and give a contest against Griffin this week. I wouldn't trust Pierce's frame and tank to go at it alone, Holmes can shown he can handle it though.

[magnifisaint]

140 would be good with Paddy kicking 10

[bigcarl]

Out: Hickey (cooked)? I don't think so. Maybe rotate Bruce and Paddy through the ruck more often to give him a bit of a breather. His season's been fantastic by and large.

When I say cooked I mean he needs a week's rest. He has been excellent this year but it's been an unprecedented workload for him - he's rarely played as the number one ruck let alone the only ruck for 9 weeks straight. No way should we be using Paddy in the ruck - he contested one centre bounce because both Hickey and Bruce were off the ground and Roo was actually running into the centre to ruck before Paddy volunteered. I think Bruce's game suffers when he's forced to ruck as well.

Before we brought Paddy and Membrey in I would've suggested using Pierce as a second ruck/third forward, but our forward line is too stacked to carry an extra ruck now so I think we could trust Holmes to battle away and give a contest against Griffin this week. I wouldn't trust Pierce's frame and tank to go at it alone, Holmes can shown he can handle it though.

Maybe ask Hickey if he think he's cooked and if he says, "stick a fork in me" then give him the week off. Otherwise, he's earned the No. 1 ruck spot and should keep it.

As for Paddy taking the occasional ruck duel, why not? He's a big bloke with good leap and uses his body well. He's also trying to increase his tank so it might be useful for him in that sense.

I was hoping the interchange cap would see a trend towards two ruckmen as to go all day is a very taxing gig, as you point out. But also, as you point out, the forward line is looking tall enough already without a resting ruck. So regrettably, someone - probably Bruce or Paddy - has to lend a hand

[darylcowie]

Pearce - broken tibia
Mundy - Calf
Dawson - possible suspension
Clarke - injured?

Add to this Sandilands, Fyfe and Morabito still on the sidelines.

I thought yesterday was a step in the right direction for us. When you lose a game by 100 points, a win the next week of any description is the cure for all ills.

How do we think we'll go playing a winless Freo over here? To me they didn't look too desperate on Saturday night, which is kind of odd for a side approaching round 10 without a win - especially a side which has been remarkably consistently winning for four years. I know after us they have winnable ones so maybe they are setting their sights on those, but I really have no expectations as to how Freo will come out on Saturday evening. Even by the way Ross is speaking it seems the team is taking a laid back, low-key approach to this season.

I saw Freo play for the first time this season on Saturday night and I thought they "brought great effort", but no matter how hard they tried to make things happen, their skill level was deplorable (even worse than ours in the first half yesterday!), so I can't see them beating us particularly with so many of their talls unavailable.

I don't think we will thrash them, because Freo rarely get thrashed due to their defensive game style, but they will struggle to kick 10 goals, which won't be a winning score under the roof at Etihad.

I have to hand it to Lyon though, because he is actually playing some kids in their midfield and he will have to play another one this week with Mundy out, unless he goes back to playing Barlow, who has been tearing it up in the WAFL.

[carn_sainter]

Out: Hickey (cooked)? I don't think so. Maybe rotate Bruce and Paddy through the ruck more often to give him a bit of a breather. His season's been fantastic by and large.

When I say cooked I mean he needs a week's rest. He has been excellent this year but it's been an unprecedented workload for him - he's rarely played as the number one ruck let alone the only ruck for 9 weeks straight. No way should we be using Paddy in the ruck - he contested one centre bounce because both Hickey and Bruce were off the ground and Roo was actually running into the centre to ruck before Paddy volunteered. I think Bruce's game suffers when he's forced to ruck as well.

Before we brought Paddy and Membrey in I would've suggested using Pierce as a second ruck/third forward, but our forward line is too stacked to carry an extra ruck now so I think we could trust Holmes to battle away and give a contest against Griffin this week. I wouldn't trust Pierce's frame and tank to go at it alone, Holmes can shown he can handle it though.

Maybe ask Hickey if he think he's cooked and if he says, "stick a fork in me" then give him the week off. Otherwise, he's earned the No. 1 ruck spot and should keep it.

As for Paddy taking the occasional ruck duel, why not? He's a big bloke with good leap and uses his body well. He's also trying to increase his tank so it might be useful for him in that sense.

I was hoping the interchange cap would see a trend towards two ruckmen as to go all day is a very taxing gig, as you point out. But also, as you point out, the forward line is looking tall enough already without a resting ruck. So regrettably, someone - probably Bruce or Paddy - has to lend a hand

I agree. Hickey has been excellent but has been doing a lot of work...he almost surely is banged up a little bit and I think there cold be value in giving him a week off.

McCartin doesn't have the tank to play as a ruckman. Bruce has a massive tank and much higher work capacity so he can ruck about 40% of the game but it is not ideal since he is not a ruckman...if Hickey needs a week off then we bring in Pierce or Holmes I guess. I'd be equally interested in them both.

[saintbrat]

Dawson cleared

[MC Gusto]

I'm not expecting this will be easy, they did play in the Grand Final last year. They can't be that bad.

We shouldn't get too confident.

Went out in straight sets last year

[The Fireman]

if we start like we did against the drug cheats we will get done.