Round 1 v Perth

It’s anyone’s guess what this week’s team will look like if the pre-season scratchy’s are anything to go by.

We haven’t seen Braut, Lockyer, Schofield, Hayden at all so I reckon we can rule them out, but other than that the line-up will be a toss of the coin.

I’m all for giving the ressies and colts some game time in the seniors during the pre-season, but having such a large turnover at this time of the year can’t be good for team stability, consistency or a settled line up. Time will tell I suppose.

Perth have some quality recruits. They beat Peel. They are at home. Good chance to get over us.i think we’ll put a competitive team on the paddock. I think farone will get another crack at it, after last week. I like B…rd (can’t spell his name) as a creative, speedy, half back. Very thin, though. Expect wagontrain to ruck. Henderson to get a start.

I’m just hoping that the games a bit closer from a Perth perspective than last year’s opening. Is Perth fans were pretty up and about at qrt time.

Injury to Avery makes me think Subi will win this. Perth can’t take a trick.

[quote=“Johnny Leonard post=234326 userid=3012”]Injury to Avery makes me think Subi will win this. Perth can’t take a trick.
[/quote]

Footy can be cruel JL. We have 4 of our biggest and best defenders out. Avery, Schlensog, Ewing and Johnston. This definitely swings this game in your favour. German is going to have to get creative.

4 of our mids group from last byear are out in Schoey, Giro, Hayden and Braut plus ruck/forward Kentfield and as BC said likely that Lockyer will not start, so expect it will be a tight contest

Here’s the initial line up. Lockyer playing ressies so must have had an interrupted pre-season. No sign of Braut, Schofield, Kentfield or Hayden.

FF 17 Leigh KITCHIN 18 Ben SOKOL 14 Ryan BORCHET
HF 53 Benjamin GOLDING 10 Jack MAYO 15 Wil HICKMOTT
C 56 Judd Kelman 1 Greg CLARK 4 Jake STERGIOU
HB 11 Marlin Corbett 2 Galen Savigni 35 Drew ROHDE
FB 8 Angus DEWAR 31 Henry Berenger 23 Noah ASH

FOLLOWERS
41 Kody Eaton
39 Jaimon ALONE
22 Luke FOLEY

INTERCHANGE
38 Keeshawn COOK
28 Connor FARAONE
34 Jordan FARAONE
40 Ky Franceschini
27 Campbell Henderson
13 Liam HICKMOTT
37 Rylie MORGAN
49 James Sullivan

A few surprises there. Interesting centre line. Presuming Borchett will help out in the ruck. Forward line worries me a bit.

Yes Borch and Jack to help out Eaton who is finally showing something in the ruck, lets see if he can build on that.
I like Savigni at CHB, not overly tall but a great intercept mark and good pace. Great to see Kelman, Corbett and and hopefully Cook suit up for their first game for us, all showed enough in the scratchies. On the bench, apart from Hickmont it will be a raffle who gets the remaining 3 spots, for me, J. Faraone after goals last week, Morgan as he’s a really hard at it mid and Cook who has some real class about him and knows where the goals are.

Will be closer than most think as our mids stocks are way down on what they could be.

I watched Franceschini in the scratchy against the ferals and thought he really showed something. Very hard at it and mixed it with their big bodied mids, so hope he gets a chance.

Where do Cook, Franceschini and Kelman hail from? Colts?

Franceschini played ressies last year and came from Carine originally JL. I see he survived the cut which is good news. Good luck to the young fella.

INTERCHANGE
28 Connor FARAONE
34 Jordan FARAONE
40 Ky Franceschini
13 Liam HICKMOTT

BC does that mean Cook missed the cut? if so I’m a bit surprised as he looked very good in the scratchies.

Yes SS…named in the ressies. I also see on the WAFL website Hayden and Schofield are 2-3 weeks away and Braut is a test. I’m not sure what’s the go with Kentfied as there’s no mention of him.

Looking at the subi website, I see Kelman is from the Goldfields, Cook from south freo.

Well played Perth. Too quick. Too desperate. Good start to the season for Perth and the wafl. Good crowd.

Subi were ok. The ins all tried hard and contributed. Clark very good. Mayo making good progress at chf. Soks battled away. Corbett good first game for the club.

We lacked a bit of something. Struggled to score.

Yes well done dees far too hungry and desperate, particularly in the closing stages, an unbelievable amount of good smothers, but we are slow. We don’t look quick enough without Giro. I’ll say it again our weakness in the ruck will kill us. Eaton got his hands to it often but is not tapping it to our advantage and doesn’t do anywhere near the amount of off the ball stuff that big Zac did last year.

Watched the best part of 3 games this round and once again the old easts v freo game was a much higher standard than the others imo. Unfortunately I said the same thing this time last season

Agree with what you say DG, Perth looked very quick and we looked like a bunch of geriatrics in the pace department. Their pace and ability to get numbers at the contest due to hard running meant we had no space or time to deliver the footy and when we did have time we butchered it over and over again. We got enough of the footy, more kicks more handballs more hitouts and 15 more inside 50’s which shows how ineffective we were. Perth played like a German coached team, hard aggressive and fast ball movement, not perfect but so much better than past seasons. DG I though it was probably Eatons best game for us, his huge leap allowed him to counter the Perth monster on many occasions and he took a few marks around the ground which I have rarely seen him do. Ash was very good as were Clark, Mayo and Corbett. Kitch got it 35 times but butchered the delivery more often than not. We were caught so many times and rushed the disposals, we need to move the ball quicker by hand and foot and move it forward, not backwards as was the case last night, but well done to the D’s they were on a mission for young Dakota and his family, whether they can maintain that intensity remains to be seen.

BTW did anyone notice how many times both teams kicked flower bag punts, the footy just did not want to spin at times, problem with the footy perhaps?

I’m not sure what to make of that. We switched off early in the second and last quarters which let Perth in and is a worry. Clark was superb, Kitch threw himself into every contest, Savigni and Rohde did well down back. Mayo and Soks did their best from limited opportunities up front and I thought Eaton held his own.

On the downside, the Hickmott’s delivery issues came back after doing a lot better last year. They miss targets all too often for my liking. Borchet must be on borrowed time as he had no impact other than giving Eaton a cut out in the ruck. Alone needs to get involved more and Faraone stop staging for frees.

It doesn’t get any easier against FART next week where we’ll need to do a lot better to be competitive.

Don’t get me wrong SS Eaton has a good crack and agreed it was his best game but his performance was like our teams, got his hands on it enough but didn’t do anything with it. He needs to be more damaging. Let’s face it he is a second string ruckman but probably our best option atm