Well put - as a few players like Egan, DAvies develop this year and the Rhyces, JOhno's etc to gain form the midfield will get quite strong. However I expect it will still be a bit of a weekness for the first half of the season but better than last year.collingwoodjoe wrote:[...] Bucks, Burns, Licca and O'Bree are in our starting 18, Didak and Davis are our best forward pockets and provide midfield rotation options, after them Holland, Rhyce and Johno are probably our 'second tier'. Looking at team makeup going into the seaon proper I would have to say that some of these guys are under real pressure. Thomas looks very likely, I am certain that barring injury he will play half a dozen games at least, and if he starts winning games for us it will be very hard to drop him. Stanley looks very good, and Davies can get his own ball too, then theres Rowe who is off the radar now with injury but could be back pressing for selection (along with Rhyce) in the early rounds. Dane Swan can also go into the middle and win the ball. My point is that while people bemoan our midfield they perhaps don't realise the potential bubbling under the surface, by the end of the year our midfield could be a very different beast to what we saw last year. [....]
I agree re CCloke, but another option with his relative (not total) lack of mobility could be to develop him as a specialist full forward, with some ruck work in which he shows surprising aptitude.
Forward line will get a lot better and Buckley in there will make a huge difference, he is the class that could make our forward line unstoppable this year. ANd obviously Rocca if he hits form and Burnsie rotating through is an excellent forward.
EArly days but Thomas looks to me to be the replacement for Buckley in coming years - amazing effort for a second game rookie just out of school. When he did that great bit of evasion in the 2nd he seemed to get his blood up, did a beautiful pass and from taht moment lost the kicking yips. Can't expect him to be as good as Buckley but who is? But he needs to get a new hairstyle quick before the Daisy nickname really sticks. Maybe a Moey or a Guerig Mullet?
Re Hall it was good to see him get a run, seemed to be adjusting to the pace of the big-time, and considering previous descriptions of him looked surprisingly mobile - jury is still out and will be interesting to see how he develops. With Tex starting to look doubtful (although I suspect an injury problem) perhaps he could be his replacement in a year or so? Pure speculation and optimism at this stage.
Disposal seemed the biggest problem to me, they even had Sandilands passing better than us - which makes me wonder about our skills coaching. Obviously it needs to improve but I'm quietly confident in this area. SAndilands is a huge weapon and it's a credit to Freo coaching staff what they have done with him, so that he is not a round-the-ground liability. It looks to me like it might even be Freo's year especially since they are the one intestate team the AFL hasn't handed a flag to so they may be this year's AFL lovechild. Their midfield and forward options are enormous and a testiment to the priority picks of many years of patheticness. The main querie is their attitude and defense. But if that's true, then after this game it makes us look a damn good prospect for this year also.
PS I think Nitric was stirring or being facetious re comments about delisting Tarrant - either that or he's a complete idiot...
