TOPIC:

hopefully not the natanui eagles or Fremantle

If the Eagles do I guess that would end Paul Johnson at ERT

Dirty Weekender wrote:

swan42 wrote:

Dirty Weekender wrote: Cheers BH, must hav read the scoreboard wrong at previous home game re colts, thought we'd lost that one.

Rory Lobb came outta nowhere late last year. Doc has been super impressive and soldiering on manfully in the ruck this season but going by yesterday could use some support. Do we have anyone in the wings to support him. We will need someone else if we are going to have any chance against the ERT ruck brigade. Tony Notte is the usual suspect but is better use as a swingman. Touch wood Doc doesn't get injured but I just wonder, is there a back up plan??? Faulkner seemed to cop a hard tag yesterday which he struggled to break which left us even weaker around the clearances. Might just be a bit of nervous talk from me here but this team having exceeded all expectation now has some expectation, especially after Hardings comments during the week, and I'm looking at where we might find some Improvement late in the year if we want to compete beyond round one in the finals.

DW whilst no-one can dispute the hardness of Faulkner he certainly needs to spend his time during the off season to improve his disposal; he butchered the ball several times yesterday. I suspect that in the next few weeks we will see a commitment to settle the colts' team coming into the finals.

We certainly need to improve our intensity and work rate leading into the finals for our league team. In some ways if we were to finish third it provides a different method of providing a one-off victory against the Eagles' reserves' team.

Agree with everything you've said there swan....have been waiting for Faulk's to improve his disposal for a bit now but like you appreciate his hardness. Maybe a bit tough on him but he isn't extra quick so of he wants to dominate in this comp like he is capable of doing, he really does need to fix his kicking. Sure he's working on it at it & definitely has improved since last season but still a long way to go. One thing I have noticed is he had a very high mark count early in the season, was surprisingly ranked 4th in the league at the half way point. Either his role has changed or he is not working as hard off the ball in providing the link up the ground. Soft tags let alone hard tags like on Saturday clearly are a new thing for him to combat as well. Having said all this he is still my boy and I look forward to him putting it altogether and leading this team forward.
I saw Tallen get beat for the first time in ages on Saturday. Have a theory why. He usually dominates especially on forwards who like to lead left which Abbott did but I did notice from behind the goals that Abbott kept the ball to the RHS of his marking zone and combined with his big rump made it hard for Tallen to get his weaker right side near the ball. Combine that with some loose efforts on the mark up the ground where the kicker ran around our guy standing the mark way too easy (sorry T. Notte but you got caught out twice badly) and it was a tough day for Tallen. Having said that Abbott can play and did most of his damage at ground level funnily enough with a few plucky snaps after the packs collapsed. He could have kicked 7 or 8 if he kicked straight early. Talls is my other fave and we all know his quality so no probs there. Next time Abbott will finish with a big fat zero in the column next to his name....I have no doubt.

Not 100% sure on your theory of finishing 3rd though. East Freo in first semi finals usually doesn't end well for us. The bye just might be the difference we need...fingers crossed

DW my theory about finishing third relates to the probability that we would only be able to beat "East Perth" once (preferably in the GF) and the likelihood that the second semi is likely to be a bruising encounter and the loser may not pull up too well for the Preliminary Final. Of course that doesn't discount that East Freo may be a difficult team to beat in the first semi.

Cant see how SD are a better bet to beat EP than Subi......There is no way EF will beat SD or Subi in a 1st semi unless it pisses down......in the dry SD will be too pacy and Subi too many tall options.......would love to ge proved wrong, but that loss to a weakened EP by EF pretty well summed up EF position on the ladder......saying that the WP & Cl fans seem pretty confident 4th spot is up for grabs still.......so who knows what is gonna happen, though EF have history for missing out on 4th spot in the last h&a game of the season ....so I cant fault their optimism.

No team in the last 20 years has finished either 3rd or 4th & won the GF.

I think you will find no team in 20 yrs time would of won a GF without a substansial AFL alignment either!.....thats if there is such a comp in existance!

thefalconstrike wrote: No team in the last 20 years has finished either 3rd or 4th & won the GF.

Swans the last team to do it from 3rd in 1983 with the final 4 system

Freezin wrote: I think you will find no team in 20 yrs time would of won a GF without a substansial AFL alignment either!.....thats if there is such a comp in existance!

G'day Freez....how's ur footy weekend in Melbourne turned out?

Thought I'd ponder this question to you as ur stance is consistent with regards to the WAFL's demise. If you were president of a club right now would you start positioning your club and attracting the right people onboard in a push to be considered as a 3rd entry from WA in to the AFL system (which may or may not be something they desire long term) so your club could continue in future or would you just accept that your club, its history and the WAFL will ultimately end forever sooner rather than later. I know what I'd be doing if I was a club president and it involves thinking outside the square right now. Survival in bleak times usually rewards those that act ahead of the curve. Tom Bottrell, start thinking big mate. It may just be the best way forward.

Still njoying the Melbourne trip ta DW.......went to the Freo game and then saw my team the WBD lose to Essendon. Going to watch Port Melb play Sat arvo then my sons team the Hawks v SS on Sat night. Been to all the Melb grounds educating my youngest on what real footy used to be like back in the 70s 80s and 90s before all this bullshit flooding & zoning came to the fore. Great way to get around Melbourne via car, tram, train and foot.

As for your question mate, dont blame any club looking after its own interests, you got to do what you need to do to survive I guess........just reckon the AFL, will continue to shape comps like the WAFL etc to how they want them..........cant see how fans will stay interested in watching say AFL aligned clubs like EP winning flags year in year out.....hopefully that wont happened.....but EP and Port are probably gonna win their respective leagues, whilst the VFL has clubs like Box Hill and Geelong winning their last two flags and Footscray and Box Hill up there in the midst again for a hatrick of AFL reserves teams to win flags.

I personally would love the WAFL to survive for ever, but nothing lasts forever sadly as I saw with going around to grounds like Morrabbin, Whitten, Junction, Lake etc.....in the 70s,80s and 90s these grounds were alive snd kicking, now just mere shells of yesteryear.........went to Etihad and paid GA prices only could sit on the 3rd level even though there shit loads of empty seats in the more expensive lower tiers.......AFL doesnt care about the everday footy fan, just a greedy money making machine.......doing what they please..........the footywas shit too......reckon the new rule should be no mark is allowed when a side kicks backwards.......and 3 players from each side have to be in the 50m area at all times........look at the old days and some of the score lines were great......saw the 1979 results per round......40 goals minimum per game sometimes 50 goals kicked per game......with forwards actually kicking 90 plus goals a year!......I want that back, but it aint gonna happen!

Having done the same tour in the past of all the old VFL grounds freeze it is certainly an eye opener as to how poor a condition many of those have been left in.
Brunswick St Oval & Glenferrie Oval are hard to believe that the VFL was even played at.
Did you end up making it down to Kardinia Park Geelong tonight for the Foxtel Cup GF?