Changes for Rnd8 V Freo

[wolftone57]

Morton would have made a difference tonight.

He can kick a goal and would make an opponent accountable.

He would take some pressure off the rest of the forward line.

Its all in the balance on the field

I agree here and he needs to play next week. Just keep Lambie in as well. I think we have to look long and hard at the whole forward set up. The way we deliver is a problem. Just bombing the ball in is problematical. We need to develop a group of set plays that are interchangeable like the Hawks had tonight. We don't mix it up much, we are predictable.

Going to go out on a limb here. I think Birdie needs a week at least in the twos. Marty might benefit too, don't know what was wrong with him tonight, he is normally our most intense player. He has been a bit fumbly this year though.

If there was anyone to replace Reg I would welcome it after his performance tonight. He can always do a few dreadful things and be forgiven but the performance he gave tonight was unforgivable. Last week he was pretty good but tonight he was very ordinary to woeful.

Our midfield set ups were just a disgrace. At one stage I noticed all our players on one side of the contest and the Hawks mids on the other, the ball fell to them and it was a road to goal. I was so shocked that we were not going man on man and we seemed to be setting up some stupid sort of defensive zone at throw ins and ball ups. This is a coaching blunder. That needs to be remedied next week.

Players who went missing tonight; Mal, Birdie, Marty, kizza, Sammie, Reg, Macca was sporadic, Hannas got it but was wasteful. Goodsie same as Hannas but better in the last quarter and a bit. Bolts tried but was outclassed by the Hawks backs.

Players who presented; Joey, Ryano (tried but got monstered). Lukie, Jesse tried and wasn't the worst, Tony A tried, Bennie tried all night, Jetts was ok, Pykie tried his guts out. Nick Smith was under the pump all night and tried hard, Teddy tried all night under very hard conditions (the ball was coming in so often). Dane Rampe was fed to the lions tonight and I feel for the young bloke, this should not have happened to him, the experienced players should have summed the situation up immediately and done something about it.

Next week I would think of this scenario;

In; Morton, Brown, Mummy (if fit), If Mummy not fit Walsh.

Out; Sam, Birdie, Marty.

Jesse to CHF, Ryano to FF, Goodsie to HF. Lambie to start not as sub. brown sub. Walsh can play forward or back but I like him as a key defender.

[Captain]

Bird was ordinary and looked slow. White is absolutely terrible.

In: Morton, Walsh (Mummy if fit)
Out: White, Bird

[Melbournehammer]

Players who were ordinary and looked slow:
Luke Parker
Craig bird
Ryan o keefe
J mcveigh
Jude Bolton
H grundy


Players who were ordinary
K jack
J Kennedy
S reid
J white
M mattner

[Gezball]

I think it's time for Reid to be dropped. Doesn't look right between the ears and it's tough working through it in front of big crowds each week.

Agree re not looking right between the ears - he looks a bit worried and scared at times.

[DamY]

Lol drama queen! That's half the team. Last year I learnt that sometimes we lose but we found a way to win when it came to the pointy end. Obviously that's gonna be tougher as our back 6 is unsettled and our forward line is incomplete. Team cohesion is lacking due to how new some of the players are. Having LRT, Shaw and Johnson out means we lose a lot of experience in our back line. Armstrong and Rampe need time to get some experience in the role. When all players aren't playing their role, it adds extra stress to the rest of the team and that will increase the errors of them also committing errors. Swans were under intense around the ground defensive pressure (sound familiar?) and without the usual team cohesion the team buckled (remember last year Sydney used the least amount of players all season). Think back to when you first started your new job, I'm sure everything wasn't hunky dory when you first started. Having new players come in and make immediate impact is not something you should expect, it is pretty rare for someone to have that ability. If anything, all these guys will take a lot away from the experience and fire them up for the rest of the season.

In saying that I really think Morto could add a lot and I just don't know what to do about Sam. I'd like to also add that maybe not blooding many players last year has handicapped us this season. Mind you Geelong went through something similar last year and you could say are reaping the rewards of it now.

It was a pretty frustrating game to watch, flew down to Melbourne for it but lucky I had other this to do afterwards to get me out of a poopy mood!

[DamY]

Morton would have made a difference tonight.

He can kick a goal and would make an opponent accountable.

He would take some pressure off the rest of the forward line.

Its all in the balance on the field

And from reports working tirelessly on his defensive game.

[Hartijon]

One positional change would be an incredibly valuable change.Move Pyke to CHF to Reid's position.Move Reid to the backlines to basically play LRT's role.
Pyke is the number 1 contested mark in the entire competition. He even beats Cloke yet we have him rucking. He should be at CHF pulling in the hard marks,something we put Reid there to do but he is sadly out of form.This gives White one more chance at rucking unless there is someone else who could do it in the 2's?
Reid to the backlines to refresh him covers our lack of an extra Tall back there which was exploited by Hawthorn.Give him a defensive role to get his confidence back.The other changes I would base on the sound philosophy of only picking players in form regardless of reputations.IfMorton is in form pick him.

[ugg]

Actually the commentators were wrong, Pyke was 2nd to Cloke in CM by 1 before yesterday's games. But Pyke took 4 and Cloke 1 so Pykey is 2 ahead of Cloke now

[707]

We had a lot of players who looked slow last night but then you always do look slow when you are chasing a quick moving ball and it moved quickly one way last night.

Not the end of the world for us but signs haven't been good all year and got really exposed last night against quality opposition. I think our lack of forward set up and lack of depth is beginning to show. Our best 22 are good but a fair drop to the 23-27 backups. Ideal opportunity for some of the ressies to really step up and demand selection. So for this week against the very impressive Dockers -

Come on down out of left field Brandon Jack to debut and create real defensive pressure in our forward 50 and hey there selectors, Morton might be useful to kick a few pearlers as well. But what we'll get is Lamb out to get a full game bringing back Everitt again!

[Gezball]

I'd drop Reid - give him 2-3 weeks to regain form - and bring in Walsh to replace him. Walsh has been great in the ressies. Morton in as well - probably for TA. Jude looked a little tired - I wonder whether they'll rest him for the odd game this, still a great player obviously.

[Ludwig]

Freo will not be able to apply the kind of tall forward pressure we got from the Hawks, especially with Griffin going down last night. But they do have a good backline that will give our tall forwards trouble. We can drop Reid for this game and perhaps bring in Morton. I would like to give Walsh another go as well. Agree that Jude could do with a week off to refresh, which should give Lamb an opportunity for a full game. Reg's kicking is awful, but we need him for his generally good defensive work. Mattner is in the same camp, and don't know if his experience and hardness outweighs his negatives; wouldn't mind him getting dropped as well.

There are lots of variables for making changes. This loss was a team effort.

Maybe
Out: Reid, Jude, Mattner
In: Walsh, Morton, Mitchell (sub)

Mummy in for White if fit.

[giant]

Not sure about the Reid hate, he's had some ordinary games this year, but didn't think last night was one of them - thought he pretty constructive and very energetic in a fairly lucklustre performance. Fans get sucked in by the crap that the ch 7 commentators say. He certainly plays this week.

That said, our forward pressure was almost non-existent - granted too many of our forward 50 efforts seemed to go down Lake or Gibson's throats, but it still rebounded way too easy. If Morton helps that, then let's give him a crack, probably for Bird (who seems to be giving us little thru the midfield rotation). A third tall defender option becomes critical for Pies/Bombers/Eagles but not so much for Freo. Let's pray that "Chambo" isn't an in on the umpiring front.