Preview 2024 Pre season trial game 2 - Vs West Coast - Hisense Sat Mar 2 @2:40

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Mostyn said:
By my count, at least eight to ten of that uncontracted list would be ahead of Edwards on their depth chart.

The Eagles are looking to reshape their list.

They'll be looking to the midseason draft, to delisted free agents, to traditional free agents, to trades and to the main draft as ways of rebuilding. They're not just taking four draft picks and giving up - at least, that doesn't seem like their style.

Edwards is around the mark - probably gets a year's extension, but delisting wouldn't be a shock.
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Happy for you to wield your superior knowledge on the bottom end of the Eagles list and add some judgement to the discussion. But the statements made were that 'he's out contract' and 'they'll be delisting at least 8 players'. The latter I find hard to believe, unless it's a ridiculously deep draft and the former mean8ngless in isolation given nearly half the list is presently uncontracted for 2025.
 

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Trigger13 said:
Someone needs send a sports shrink to Hingy. Bloke is mentally cooked, confidence wise. A huge concern if he can’t flick a switch early rounds. If there’s any role in our team where a player needs confidence in their kicking ability, it’s a creative half-bank flanker-come-wingman. He’s on notice.
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This sounds like the same bed wetting this board done last year about Milera early in the season. Most wanted him dropped instead of letting him find his way in the side.
Mitch likes to back his kicks in, sometimes they don’t work, at the moment more often than not but it’s no reason to call for him being demoted.
He still goes hard and covers well. He has earned the right to have a block of games to fix it.
 
Faaarrk said:
This sounds like the same bed wetting this board done last year about Milera early in the season. Most wanted him dropped instead of letting him find his way in the side.
Mitch likes to back his kicks in, sometimes they don’t work, at the moment more often than not but it’s no reason to call for him being demoted.
He still goes hard and covers well. He has earned the right to have a block of games to fix it.
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Def earned his right to start the season. But get him straight out after a two weeks of the crap he dished out this pre season. It’s not bed wetting. It’s having higher standards. He was horrific yesterday. Park footballer horrific.
 
Golumless said:
Well, I mean, Berry is a starting inside midfielder in that squad and likelihood it's just us working out how we want to use that spot which freed up from McAdam. That race would be between Berry and Sholl, depending on if we want more inside or outside power, but I could see it coming down to how we want to use someone like Soligo this year, where if we're willing to keep him as mainly a wing, we go Berry, inside Sholl. My expectation is we go Berry as a mid/forward.

From how we've opted to use Curtin so far in preseason/trial games, he's likely up against Borlase at the moment, though really I don't think it's going to take long for us to pull that trigger. I do think Keane does replace Borlase - we really don't care for Borlase as a prospect - but this is a fringe spot and Curtin is seen as high-end talent. It may just be a case of once he shows some comfort at CHB, he's in.

Ned is one we can rule out though as anything beyond a sub if we remain healthy. We showed that hand last year after axing him after a near-BOG performance against Fremantle and our forward line has performed well enough to stave off any switching of our bottom slots. Really, his hope is we enter a bit of a dry spell with our scoring or injuries and we become willing to flick Murphy.




Nope, whilst it could be seen as par, treating it as below is just being unrealistic. Especially if you keep their score low which gives the biggest bang for buck for percentage. A 110-50 win does more good for a side finals aspirations then 160-80.

Really, cruising to a 10+ goal win is just about ideal out of these matches.
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Not against antravell8ng west coast where they're miss8ng a couple of key players among 2 or 3 others and we're only Murray off full strength. If you ignore how crap they are, then sure, 11 goals is above par, but it's not. At best it's par, no way a top handful side should be beating them only by 10 goals when they've travelled. Port will beat them by at leas6 15 goals in round 1. Weather permitting.
 
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Sizzlepack said:
I remember reading your (excellent) post about how Crouch nudged up our clearance numbers and forced our opponents to kick it longer after his introduction to the team. Those are the sorts of differences that, over time, will make us a top six team. I was wondering if Berry might be capable of exerting a similar impact. I agree with the general sentiment on here that his disposal still needs work, but it's not as though Laird, for all his positive traits, is a massive contributor to our outside game.
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He probably is, but it's more to do with being the guy who is creating the opportunity to turn an inside play into an outside one, alongside offering another option in link play. That said, no team trades what Laird offers for a middling inside midfielder with a good field kick. Kickings the cream, not the cake.

Personally, I'm not convinced Berry is capable of a similar impact, but I think a lot of Crouch's impact was circumstantial. We had a lot of issues with that 3rd midfielder slot throughout the year. Berry? Fell off a cliff. Sloane? Couldn't get past an ok 4th-5th midfield performance level. Keays? Sure, but it's not much extra from what we're getting from Keays as a half forward. Rachele? Wasn't ready. I do think a lot of the increase with Crouch was a case of it balanced out our structure. With Berry, you might get a slight bump, but I think the biggest benefit is in protecting Laird and Dawson from being run into the ground throughout a year.
 
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Golumless said:
There is absolutely no way in hell we consider Sloane as an option on half back. It's way too important of a position, especially to a side who is built around being dominant on the outside of the contest.

If that wing spot opens us, I could see us using Sloane there. It's a role that's lost a lot of value in the last 10 years and one that all you really need is a good tank and some marking/contested ability. If you were determined to hide Sloane, well, that's the spot.
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I was talking about Curtin. Not sure where Sloane will play or who'll miss out when he puts his hand up. But the discussion was about how Curtin gets into the 22.
 
1970crow said:
I was talking about Curtin. Not sure where Sloane will play or who'll miss out when he puts his hand up. But the discussion was about how Curtin gets into the 22.
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Ah fair, I misunderstood.
 
Afcprophet said:
Anyone know why Smith had such limited TOG? Is he injured? Same with Hamill?
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Hamill isn’t in our round 1 side would be reason there , and rightly so

Smith would likely be workload re a senior player

I noticed Dawson has been on restricted duty and out of centre square quite a bit

This is reason I wouldn’t read too much into pre season form / positions

Eg I don’t think Berry and Sholl are absolute locks for round 1
 

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1970crow said:
Not against antravell8ng west coast where they're miss8ng a couple of key players among 2 or 3 others and we're only Murray off full strength. If you ignore how crap they are, then sure, 11 goals is above par, but it's not. At best it's par, no way a top handful side should be beating them only by 10 goals when they've travelled. Port will beat them by at leas6 15 goals in round 1. Weather permitting.
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I mean, if you're looking at the top 6 last year (Coll, Melb, Bris, Carlton, GWS, Port), the three away games WCE had - a team who pushed being historically bad - got done in by 40, 71, and 81 respectively travelling. North? 75 in their one game in this scenario. Hawks? 55. A 10 goal win in this situation is absolutely fine, and firmly in error bars you'd expect.

Especially if you get that and can load manage your big guns, you've got just about everything you'd want out of a matchup where there really isn't much to gain from and a lot to lose.
 
Jeffcrowe said:
He’s going to need to spend a fair bit of time forward then

That’s probably what we do with the McAdam role

Give us some more midfield endurance / lasting power …. Which we lacked last year
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Maybe, but I have a feeling Laird will be spending less time in the middle. Probably have him forward which I don’t like, sooner him come off the bench to relieve Dawson, Crouch etc.
 
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