Changes for Rnd8 V Freo

[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]

Changes for Rnd8 V Freo

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]

Changes for Rnd8 V Freo

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.

[liz]

I'd like to see Reid play further up the ground - in and around the 50m line. Firstly, it will give him more space to lead and hopefull fewer opponents on his back. Secondly, if we have a genuine target at CHF, the team may stop bombing the ball deep into the 50, into the arms of opposition defenders. I've always thought we set up better where we win / gain possession just outside the 50m and then move inside 50m with a shorter kick. We have quite a few players - ie most of our midfield - who are very capable of short sharp leads and are good converters from 30-40m out.

Reid's agility and work at ground level and through traffic is pretty decent. He thinks quickly, and when he plays intuitively, his skills are sound.

[Melbournehammer]

Re your point about bombing it in, I had a little chuckle to myself when I watched longmires press conference. He appeared to say that he was dissatisfied with our forward fifty entries because too many were short in the first half. I laughed grimly to myself because I thought that explained why we kicked so aimlessly long so often when Gibson was playing 15 metres behind our last man.

I too think we are not making enough of the lead up player

[gossipcom]

They mentioned in the commentary last night that Reid has a calf injury. If we weren't short of talls, I don't think he would have played last night.

[ned]

Let's not forget Reid played his best game of the season last week, and then played an average game in an appalling team performance, I don't think it's time to drop him quite yet. I thought most of the boys were second to the contest, which is disappointing, but at least you can show some desperation. Rampe's touch on the goal line, Mcglynn throwing himself into bigger players, Goodesy willing himself to impact the contest time after time, these are positive things and some of the boys could stand to have a good look at them. That said, when the team is beaten so comprehensively it's hard to pick one position that failed the team (other than the lack of tall defence). Bringing in a tall defender for next week would be ridiculous given there are unlikely to be two genuine talls for Richards and Grundy to play on. Assuming none of the players who are missing through injury are fit to come back in, the only change I would make would be Morton in, because he should be a walk up start every week as the one player in the team who is a genuine forward. The one player who had me yelling at the TV more often than anyone else was Armstong, getting beaten one on one by a better player I could handle, but he spent too much of the game standing 15 metres off the ball spectating, and someone needs to let him know that taking on the tackler with the fend off hasn't worked for him all year, SO STOP IT!

[tez]

Drop Reid back to the reserves and make him win his place back, replacing him with Morton. Morton has earned another chance and
is a better kick for goal than Reid.

[Ludwig]

The next 4 games are against teams that have good tall defences, and not really suitable for a forward like Reid. We should spare him the pain and either not play him, or play him as a much needed tall defender, but perhaps not against Freo, who don't have many tall options at the moment. Sam could turn into a good front and back player; he's quick and good at ground level and can probably play well on much shorter opponents. He may well turn out to be much like his brother, but even more agile. I like a Tippett-LRT combo better than Tippett-Reid. Pyke is not a good defender and we need and extra tall to cover the ruckman going forward.

We should forget about tall marking targets until Tippo comes in. Until then we look better suited to the sort of offence that the Bulldogs had pre Bazza, when they scored heavily with mostly mids playing forward. Next week seems a good opportunity to bring Walsh into the side. He's doing well in the reserves and we can see how he fares this time around in the seniors. We really need to take a look at him again at senior level before Tippett and LRT come back, which will limit his opportunities. We can bring him in for White and play him mostly as the lone tall forward. Give Reid the week off.

Armstrong didn't get a lot of the ball, but when he did he used it well. I think his all around game is improving. Ross Lyon may take a queue from how well Mal got tagged out of the game and do the same to him this week, and we may well need Tony's accurate kicking.