Now for ...

[crackedactor]

Umm, so did the Swans. It was us fans that lent on the injuries excuse.

I think we should keep Mummy, if he can reproduce his Rnd23 form for most of the year, that would be one of the premiership puzzle pieces in place.
I also think we should keep White, but then again I am the sentimental type and hate the thought of any of our boys leaving.

Some very good analysis in this forum. I don't think we can have Jesse White and Mummy, I think one will go next year. Yes also to maybe moving Mcglynn and Grundy on, their careers may be at the crossroads. Not sure if LRT or ROK or Goodes will play another season?? May be time to take a few risks next year with AJ, Biggs and reid playing down back and maybe Rohan playing a Mcglynn type role up forward.

Noted it was our worst season of injuries for 14 years!!

[Ludwig]

One of the problems with playing a super tall forward line is how to fit in Rohan plus probably one of the other mid sized forwards in Towers and Membrey. Both finished off the season well and I would think they might 'share' a spot in the side next year. We also need to do something about Dre, who will be pushed out of the backline with both AJ and LRT coming back from injury. His improvement this year warrants a place in the side as well, but will be likely be as a half forward. We probably have around 6 candidates competing for 2 or 3 spots in the forward line (Goodes, ROK, Dre, Rohan, Towers, Membrey).

[Matt80]

I think a forward in of Reid, White, Tippett and Goodes would work for the following reasons!

- Goodes is extremely agile and would play the forward role that Jude Bolton played in 2014.

- Reid and White are also mobile and very good on the ground. They can both play high half forward. Reid is brilliant at defensive play and White is improving in that facet. In times of pressure one of the can drift into the back line for some extra support in the air.

Tippett will play at full forward and take the best backman (Harry Taylor, Luke Mcpharlin).

This structure will leave either White, Reid or Goodes with an undersized backman who you could then isolate.

[ShockOfHair]

Our big problem against the top teams has been in the midfield. Hawthorn and Freo absolutely smashed us. We've had virtually a full-strength midfield all season, but their performance in the last six weeks or so against the top sides was really poor.

The reasons why, I think:

- They got worked out. The stats show that if Hannebery gets more than 25? possessions the Swans win. So no.1 for other teams is stop Hannebery. Plus if you can stymie Jack as well that just about wins the game. Kennedy will get a lot of it, but has no support on the outside.
- Heavy workload. May have been overworked because of team injury toll. ROK was one of the oldest players in the league and playing virtually the most minutes. Result was they just weren't running.
- Assorted injuries and niggles.

Plus, I wonder about whether our run and spread game plan exhausted them in the first half of the season. I'd like to think the collaboration between the medical and footy departments is better than that, but maybe not.

Midfield problem aside, I think Port showed how to beat the Swans, which was to use our high-pressure game against us. Freo did the same. We just weren't very good at handling it.

So my humble suggestions for the off-season:
- make sure players are fit enough to run out games
- figure out how to deal with high-pressure opposition
- have someone to work over Hannebery all through the summer so he learns how to deal with tags

[dimelb]

I think Lamb could do the much-wanted small crumber job, as well as contribute in the midfield rotations. He's not as fast as Benny, whom I would trade if possible, but he's a much better kick, both in the field and for goal.

[Dosser]

Our big problem against the top teams has been in the midfield. Hawthorn and Freo absolutely smashed us. We've had virtually a full-strength midfield all season, but their performance in the last six weeks or so against the top sides was really poor.

The reasons why, I think:

- They got worked out. The stats show that if Hannebery gets more than 25? possessions the Swans win. So no.1 for other teams is stop Hannebery. Plus if you can stymie Jack as well that just about wins the game. Kennedy will get a lot of it, but has no support on the outside.
- Heavy workload. May have been overworked because of team injury toll. ROK was one of the oldest players in the league and playing virtually the most minutes. Result was they just weren't running.
- Assorted injuries and niggles.

Plus, I wonder about whether our run and spread game plan exhausted them in the first half of the season. I'd like to think the collaboration between the medical and footy departments is better than that, but maybe not.

Midfield problem aside, I think Port showed how to beat the Swans, which was to use our high-pressure game against us. Freo did the same. We just weren't very good at handling it.

So my humble suggestions for the off-season:
- make sure players are fit enough to run out games
- figure out how to deal with high-pressure opposition
- have someone to work over Hannebery all through the summer so he learns how to deal with tags

You echo my thoughts, SoH. Our injuries were to our backs and our forwards, not our mids (Mitchell aside) and whenever we got beaten, the opposition completely took away our run by covering Hannebery and Jack. I think our need is for another outside mid, which is what Jetta is supposed to be.

[Matt80]

I think the sub can be used in a more effective way! Kennedy, ROK, K. Jack, Daniel Hannas, Luke Parker and Craig Bird just about played every game and eventually got worn down!

Why not use the sub rule during the season to rest your hardest working midfielders. For instance if Kennedy has played 4 hard games, get him to play the 5th game as a sub! The same could be done with K. Jack, Hannas, ROK and McVeigh. This would allow them to be freshened up during a long season!

[wolftone57]

We're fortunate White isn't a free agent so I think we'll get a decent draft pick for him. My bet is on Freo getting him with Pavlic about to retire. Ross is a fan of him.

Why the @@@@ are you so keen to get rid of him.He stood up yesterday when most wilted.

[liz]

Our big problem against the top teams has been in the midfield. Hawthorn and Freo absolutely smashed us. We've had virtually a full-strength midfield all season, but their performance in the last six weeks or so against the top sides was really poor.

The reasons why, I think:

- They got worked out. The stats show that if Hannebery gets more than 25? possessions the Swans win. So no.1 for other teams is stop Hannebery. Plus if you can stymie Jack as well that just about wins the game. Kennedy will get a lot of it, but has no support on the outside.
- Heavy workload. May have been overworked because of team injury toll. ROK was one of the oldest players in the league and playing virtually the most minutes. Result was they just weren't running.
- Assorted injuries and niggles.

Plus, I wonder about whether our run and spread game plan exhausted them in the first half of the season. I'd like to think the collaboration between the medical and footy departments is better than that, but maybe not.

Midfield problem aside, I think Port showed how to beat the Swans, which was to use our high-pressure game against us. Freo did the same. We just weren't very good at handling it.

So my humble suggestions for the off-season:
- make sure players are fit enough to run out games
- figure out how to deal with high-pressure opposition
- have someone to work over Hannebery all through the summer so he learns how to deal with tags

Agree that our much vaunted midfield is great at smashing up the mediocre teams but has been found out this year against the top sides.

Foot skills are part of the issue. Each of Geelong, Hawthorn and Freo uses the ball much better than the Swans, meaning they get much more return for their effort.

Keeping our x-factor fit and healthy (and ideally having more of it) would help too. Also enables a team to get more reward for its effort.

Hopefully at least one of Parker and Mitchell can take step up and achieve the level of Jack and Hanners in terms of hard running for long periods of the game. They've both got the ability and work ethic. Hopefully age and another pre-season or two will help.

One thing we do seem reasonably deficient in (and there's no obvious solution) is that our mids don't seem as able to take contested marks in the midfield as those of the best opponents. Hanners (though sheer courage), Jude, Parker and JPK all seem to be able to take marks up forward but they tend not to do so in the midfield. It means we rarely win possession from hacked forward kicks from defence, even when they go to a pack rather than straight to a free opponent.

The game does seem to be played in bursts nowadays. The Cats Hawks game on Friday see-sawed all over the place. In fact, both teams have played like that all year (and Hawthorn like that for last year too). We've shown evidence of this too - the Adelaide game and the Carlton final are two examples. I wonder whether Freo could have kept up the intensity in the second half that they played at in the first if they'd needed to. I suspect not. It has to be physically exhausting to play like that, and you only need a couple of players not to tackle with the same intent, or not to run so hard and a game style that relies on structures rather than individual player brilliance is likely to break down.

So you need to get reward for effort while you are at full intensity, and need to be able to absorb the pressure when the other team is applying it.

It will be interesting to see if the shorter pre-season coming up (for all clubs, at the insistence of the AFLPA) and the capped rotations next year will have any noticeable effect on the ability of teams to maintain such high intensity for long periods.

[dimelb]

I think the sub can be used in a more effective way! Kennedy, ROK, K. Jack, Daniel Hannas, Luke Parker and Craig Bird just about played every game and eventually got worn down!

Why not use the sub rule during the season to rest your hardest working midfielders. For instance if Kennedy has played 4 hard games, get him to play the 5th game as a sub! The same could be done with K. Jack, Hannas, ROK and McVeigh. This would allow them to be freshened up during a long season!

I'd do this, and even go further after seeing what it did for Freo to rest so many for the St Kilda game; I suspect the intensity of the game has reached a pitch where a day off can make a noticeable difference, and I'd be inclined to experiment along those lines, at least for the mids.

[CureTheSane]

I wouldn't be upset to see O'Keefe and Grundy move on.
Obviously like to keep Mummy.
White NEEDS to stay. I love him on the wing. With Tippett rotating into the ruck and Pike available up forward we can work around the talls.
Goodes is a weird one. everyone says "he's a legend, he walks into the team at any time" Age + injuries may have something to say that, as well as about his 2014 career.
I hope he doesn't go a year too long, but I also hope that he is as good as he has been.
The thing we really need is a quality full back to support Richards.
This is what I hope for with the trades.

[wolftone57]

Jesse stays as far as i am concerned. He has now arrived.

Mummy's management will be negotiating with several clubs I believe and have been informed Pies & GWS are two. Pies very interested.

I believe Rhyce should retire as I think his body is starting to tell him no no no, same with Goodsie.

I am not sure about Dick as his delivery is quite poor but he has one year to go.

If Mummy was to leave I don't think it would be long for Naismith to step up and in the meantime Tip & Jesse share the load. But would rather keep Mummy if we can. By the way we have plenty of Cap to play with as most of our players are now on the basic salary, there are only a select few on high payments.

[Donners]

Unless Mumford is being completely unreasonable, we should retain him.

I would be very nervous about the prospect of going into next season with only one proven ruckman. We did that in 1999, and when Stafford went down we were saved only by the rise of Adam Goodes. Somehow I don't think we have another Goodes waiting in the wings.

I'd be quite happy to see White stay - he's proven his worth. If Reid could go back successfully, it would be a huge boost for the side.

[Ludwig]

One thing we do seem reasonably deficient in (and there's no obvious solution) is that our mids don't seem as able to take contested marks in the midfield as those of the best opponents. Hanners (though sheer courage), Jude, Parker and JPK all seem to be able to take marks up forward but they tend not to do so in the midfield. It means we rarely win possession from hacked forward kicks from defence, even when they go to a pack rather than straight to a free opponent.

The game does seem to be played in bursts nowadays. The Cats Hawks game on Friday see-sawed all over the place. In fact, both teams have played like that all year (and Hawthorn like that for last year too). We've shown evidence of this too - the Adelaide game and the Carlton final are two examples. I wonder whether Freo could have kept up the intensity in the second half that they played at in the first if they'd needed to. I suspect not. It has to be physically exhausting to play like that, and you only need a couple of players not to tackle with the same intent, or not to run so hard and a game style that relies on structures rather than individual player brilliance is likely to break down.

A couple of good observations Liz. The solution to the marking problem is to weed out the serial kicking offenders for one; McGlynn and Grundy come to mind. And we need to get more players presenting on a lead, creating a bit more space to work in. We missed Goodes in this area, but we can't depend on him anymore, given his age. We missed the quickness of Jetta, Rohan and Reid for most of the year. Getting them back in form will help. Better spreading helps too. Freo were great in this. I didn't understand why Mummy didn't run with Sandi all over the ground. We really didn't have anyone to stop him from taking easy marks.

The bursts of intensity are part of intelligent coaching I think. Lyon knew he had the legs and we didn't, so he could take the risk of going all out in the first half knowing we would be the first to crack under the pressure. As the game wore on, we just couldn't man up any more. By all right, they should have been further ahead by halftime. Freo also knew when to let up and when to crank it up again. And as they say, if you want to play for Ross Lyon, you've got to buy in to his way. They all do. So it works.

[Wazza]

I think we need to keep in mind Jesse's pre season was based around Ruck / Fwd as with his last couple of pre seasons, hopefully we keep him, with a full pre season as high FWD he can only get better. I was impressed with his finals series he finally had a physical presence on the game.

I think one of the problems with our MF is apart from Kennedy it is very similar I think we need another large body. Fremantle has a number of large hard bodied MF types, Fyfe Mundy, Barlow etc... We really missed Goodes in our MF, where is the next Goodes??

Our list is at a really interesting stage, it cannot stay the same or we will be left behind. I have 4 Im struggling to make a case for
(taking emotion of a couple of my fav players out of the equation), Bird tries hard but found out with lack of pace, Everett has played a role but failed to make a position his own, Shaw can he come back as a rebounding HB (if not HB where does he play?) or do we have better options to persist with - Biggs? What role for O'keefe very fit but a level under the pace, would keep Rohan out of fwd 50 if played in a similar role to Bolton. Stick with the vets or time to refresh the list?

Cheers

Waz