TOPIC:

personal demon wrote: Something that hasn't been said on here re: Leggett. It was the players who pushed the club to hold Leggett to his contract. I'm happy that the players were united about this.

On to the likely line-up for Round 1 2020 (I've only considered those on our list on the club's website, eg. not Clarke and Richardson):

FB: Lague (if fit) - Giblett - Davis
HB: Taylor - Sinclair - Payne
C: Masten - Yeo - Murphy
HF: Rogers - Johnson - Bourne (if fit)
FF: Langdon - Roe - Jones
Foll: Eyres - Byrne - Colledge
Res from. Hill, Burke, Coniglio, Bryan, Sing, Edmonds, Hamilton, Haywood, Marlin, DBW.

Unknowns (ready to be proved wrong): Delahunty, Pelletier, Stubbs, Martin
Not included: most recent colts players and colts players
Highly unlikelys: Amos, East.

The two areas of concern for me in this possible lineup is,the first string midfield is very good it’s the rotations through there when they come off for a rest that’s going to be a problem,no midfield depth.
I’m still not convinced we have the ruckman that can do the around the ground grunt work when the heat is on.
Secondly the forward line other than Rogers who should be a 40 goal a year forward has no notable goal kickers.
Delahunty will be asked a lot of ,the pressure will be on him,there will be a lot of “let’s hope” going into that forward line.

Do we look like a stronger outfit than 2019?
Masten is a huge in.
How much we miss Jones and Leggett from that midfield could be telling as the season gets longer.
I know Ninja was hot and cold but he did have the ability to score bags of goals,who replaces that?

I agree 40Plus, midfield depth and rotations could be a problem. Payne will go into the midfield mix as a tagger, so Bryan or Hill (or both) will start in defence. The forward line is a big question mark. Apart from Rogers where are the goals going to come from. Johnson is promising and hopefully he can develop into a good CHF but is a way off yet. Langdon was tried up forward last season with no success. Look at how we struggled last season when Bennell went off the boil. I also think Ninja will be a loss to some degree.

I’m confident others will fill the void of erratic performances of Ninyette and Bennell. One player that caught my eye in the last qtr of the reserves in the last game down in Mandurah was Che Wyatt. Can anyone shed a bit more light on his attributes?

Lack of depth midfield ??? I don’t see that at all.
Sure we will miss Jones and Leggett big time but consider what our options are.

Masten, Yeo, Murphy, Byrne, Clarke, Edmonds, College, Peletier, Payne, and you can add possible mid options in Bryan, Sinclair,Taylor, Bourne, Davis.
Ruck will probably fall on to the shoulders of DBW with backup from Eyres, Delahunty, and Langdon.
The recruits have to be included in the conversation. They will be here so we have to take them into account. They will have to show us their worth and only time will tell.
As for Ninja and Bennell they will not be missed. They are both lazy players and don’t have a defensive aspect to their games. I think the forward structure will add intense forward pressure to lock the ball in to create extra scoring opportunities and prevent fast breakaways that always catch our defence out. Add to that, hard running in numbers that will ease the pressure on the backs and create our own turnovers.
From what I have seen at training, the squad is looking very fit for this time of the year and the emphasis seems to be concentrated on intense game simulation with hard fast running in numbers and crisp ball skills.
Will it all be good enough? I do not know but we should get a bit of an idea from the intra club and scratch matches .

It does seem on paper that we have lost a few likely players, but to be fair most of them were inconsistent, which largely added to our inconsistent season. Leggett is the only real loss and largely due to his high effective tackle count. He will be hard to replace and I think someone like Browny may have to step up into that role.

As for the forward line - lets hope some of these recruits can have a good season and work harder both directions than some of last years forward line.

FB Lague Gibblet Bryan
HB Sinclair Langdon Taylor
C BOurne Yeo Byrne
HF Rogers Johnson Roe
FF Stubbs Delahunty Peletier

Ruck: Ayres Masten College
Int: Payne, Murphy, Hill, Brown

I'll have a go at putting up a team:

FB: Lague Giblett Bryan
HB: Burke Sinclair Taylor
C: Edmonds Yeo Colledge
HF: Murphy Dela Rogers
FF: Johnson Stubbs Roe
R: Eyres Masten Byrne
Int: Peletier, DBW, Langdon, Payne, Nicholas, Hill, Coniglio, Davis

If Clarke and/or Richardson come onto the list, they come into the 22. Richardson replaces Roe in the forward pocket. Dela and Stubbs are unknowns, but they have been recruited to play key forward roles, so we should back them in. Depth is the concern as it often is. If we have to start relying on guys like Dennis, Browne, M Jones, Henderson, Amos or East, we'll be in trouble.

Regan Clarke is on the WAFL club list.

DD wrote: Regan Clarke is on the WAFL club list.

Don't worry about Regan Clarke. He is in the 22. Cannot understand why he is not listed on Perth site.
Ted you have Lague in your starting lineup and normally I would agree.
However, from what I have seen at training he is so under done that there will be no way he will get up for early rounds.
I don't know if he is on injury recovery program but I have only seen him doing light jogging and looks overweight.

Shame about Lague. In that case I'll bring Hill or Nicholas into the starting line up. It depends obviously on match-ups. If we need someone smaller in the back pocket, Davis or Coniglio could slot in.

I watched some of last Thursday's intraclub match and was not overly impressed. The usual turnovers and lack of run to create space. But here is a few positives, however small.
1. IMO DBW was definitely on top in the tap department.
2. Byrna was clearly the most polished midfielder.
3. Calan Penny might be a good replacement for Ninja.
4. Quill didn't do a lot but definitely showed signs of being capable and will provide some depth if we have injuries through the middle.
5. A fella by the name of McDonald looked exciting up forward.

As I said I didn't see all of it so, others may have picked up later in the game.