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Big game this one. WP will come out hard in this one. For me it's a case of weathering the storm early and I'm confident we can run out a game for 4 qtrs. Need to tidy up our skills early on in the game. Start well and we are in this. One player that needs to lift his game is Houghton but there aren't many other options and I guess he is importantfor the balance of the side.

Yes important to get out of the boxes and not let the Falcons get their tails up.
Would much prefer them to be chasing us.
I am a lot more confident about our fitness than I have ever been.
We have run hard for most of the games and our ball movement has been excellent.
In fact I can't fault our ball movement in the first 2 games, we have played the best football I have seen us play since the first 3/4 of that infamous game at Freo 2 years ago.
That football will match any team if we can maintain it during the year.
I disagree about Houghton, I think you are being a bit hard on him.
I think he has shown a bit more hardness at the contest this year and has in fact been very good at times.
Just my humble opinion.
The revelation this year for me is how quickly Lleyendekkers has stepped into the number one ruck role and how dominant he has been.
Two scalps already in Seaby and Sellar.
Nearly 40 hit outs last week is clearly his best ever effort, albeit brought about by doing the bulk of the work himself.
Would be good to get Eyres back as the second string but for mine Lleyendekkers has overtaken him.
He is going to develop into a very good player.
Can't wait for Saturday, it may go along way towards telling us something.

Thought Houghton played very well first game and ok second DD. Showing a nice bit of aggression. I am actually in a little worried about Manuel stringing together some consistency. I have seen him hot and cold in the past. One of the best week one but like many very ordinary in the first quarter on Friday night. I think we are all happy with The inclusion of the Morton's and Smith and Ugal. 10 goal + and 7goal + defeats to overcome from last year. A big ask I think. Have tiped Perth though.

just listened to the show. There is talk of Busher coming in!! Why hasn't done anything for 2 and a half years. Played a shocker against wp last year after the same sort of rush. Would like sanity to prevail. Also no Clem Smith - no reason given. Any one know?

Time For a Flag wrote: just listened to the show. There is talk of Busher coming in!! Why hasn't done anything for 2 and a half years. Played a shocker against wp last year after the same sort of rush. Would like sanity to prevail. Also no Clem Smith - no reason given. Any one know?

Well lets face we have no key forwards in our forward line and before you say Houghton he's far from it, if anything Busher will add structure to the forward line, no Clem Smith is a bit of a blow if its true he's not lining up.

Forward line has been working well. I haven't got a problem with the Bush, just no need to rush him. it reminds me of the way Harvey use to rush Freo players back - totally opposite to Lyon.

The show also said Moody has a fitness test for his ribs. Again no need to rush here as anyone knows who has done a rib they take a lot more than two weeks to heal and for the person to feel strong enough to play a game of footy.

Lastly they also talked about Lynch coming in. Now can anyone else tell me what they though of him in the scratch matches. To me he did NOTHING.

Not sure but if Lynch comes in it would be to replace Smith.
I have noticed a difference in our pace this year.
Anyone else?

TFAF I think that comment about Lynch doing nothing can be attributed to most players in the side if you were to just go off the preseason games. He has played pretty well in the opening two games in the reserves and for me has been in the best 6 or 7 each time. He did play state 16's and 18's so he obviously has some ability.

DF I have noticed that we are a bit quicker. If you are to believe what has been said over the summer, the players have been building their fitness since the end of the 2012 season. It's a slow build but hey that's what preseasons are for. With increased fitness, the players are able to make smarter decisions on the field and execute their skills better for longer because they are not fatigued. Good, clean ball skills also makes players look faster. i.e. Robert Harvey and Simon Black. They didn't have a lot of pace about them but their clean skills by hand and foot made them look quicker than what they were.

DD. Very important to go with them early on and not have a slow start like we did against the Bulldogs or kick 2.5 like we did against the Tigers. This weeks match will be the toughest test yet to see how we are travelling. Still early days but you would hope that they are able to dish up that relentless, team first football that they have produced in the opening two rounds of the season.

Also love the fact that we have kicked 19 goals two weeks in a row without Paul Bevan kicking a goal. While we all want to see him kick a bag of 5 or 6 the ability of the side to share the load has been fantastic.

Would love to see the Bush in there getting the dukes on a few.

Smith off to Victoria this weekend for some indigenous team award thing. And guesting with an AFL club as well.