Opinion How to Build a Forward Line

[Patty_Moz]

I’ve said it before but I’m really concerned about the football IQs of some of our players. It’s mind boggling to me that they continued to bomb it long despite the ridiculous number of intercepts and continued to do so until the coach addressed it at half time. The on-field leaders need to take some responsibility for this as well.

I’m not exactly sure what we expect the players delivering the ball to do? Maybe kick it around half back for a couple of hours and see if that produces any goals?

We run a fwd line with arguably 6 players who can’t beat their defenders on the lead or in a contest. Half the time the player kicking the ball is under pressure, even when they’re not, they are kicking it to a player who isn’t going to win the contest. If we don’t want to see the ball bombed into the fwd line to a contest with a freo player who won’t win the contest...we need to get some better fwds.

 

[Scham]

I’m not exactly sure what we expect the players delivering the ball to do? Maybe kick it around half back for a couple of hours and see if that produces any goals?

We run a fwd line with arguably 6 players who can’t beat their defenders on the lead or in a contest. Half the time the player kicking the ball is under pressure, even when they’re not, they are kicking it to a player who isn’t going to win the contest. If we don’t want to see the ball bombed into the fwd line to a contest with a freo player who won’t win the contest...we need to get some better fwds.

On a few occasions on the weekend our forwards did beat their opponent but it mostly ended up as a dropped mark or the resulting shot on goal missed... we absolutely do need to get some better fwds!

 

[Dockeroo]

Should we sell the farm for McDonald? What would it cost?

It’s only one scratchy game but Treacy is doing the exact same things that McDonald was doing in the WAFL last year.
Treacy is a younger player too I think by about 4 or 5 months.

 

[kp junior]

It’s only one scratchy game but Treacy is doing the exact same things that McDonald was doing in the WAFL last year.
Treacy is a younger player too I think by about 4 or 5 months.

Yes he’s exciting. Last Freo forward to kick 7 in the wafl?


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[Johnny Dalmas]

Yes he’s exciting. Last Freo forward to kick 7 in the wafl?


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Think it was George Doig

 

[Purple Madness]

I tried watching the melb game again yesterday but couldn't get past halfway through the first quarter, still managed to see Tabs get manhandled/pushed out of the contest in back to back contests.

Is that coaching or player IQ?

 

[Ysaye]

Yes he’s exciting. Last Freo forward to kick 7 in the wafl?


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Pretty sure Hugh Dixon kicked six in pre-season two or three years back.

 

[freo1997]

Yes he’s exciting. Last Freo forward to kick 7 in the wafl?


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I think Crowley kicked a bag in the wafl once. I'm gonna say 7 or 8.

Clive kicked a few bags during the Connolly years.

 

[malpaso]

I’m not exactly sure what we expect the players delivering the ball to do? Maybe kick it around half back for a couple of hours and see if that produces any goals?

We run a fwd line with arguably 6 players who can’t beat their defenders on the lead or in a contest. Half the time the player kicking the ball is under pressure, even when they’re not, they are kicking it to a player who isn’t going to win the contest. If we don’t want to see the ball bombed into the fwd line to a contest with a freo player who won’t win the contest...we need to get some better fwds.

Disagree, I think our forwards get in each others way. They don't space the forward 50 well enough. Melbourne are very similar to the Eagles though in how they arrange their backline, they have good players down there. I mean what do you expect with Tabs and 5 short people down there?
I would rather we kick grubbers into the 50, cause ball ups or simply retain possession.

At the other end though, way too many marks inside 50 given up for our defense. Really let us down considering.

 

[malpaso]

It’s only one scratchy game but Treacy is doing the exact same things that McDonald was doing in the WAFL last year.
Treacy is a younger player too I think by about 4 or 5 months.

Yeah by the looks of things we have found a steal with Treacy. ****ing WAFL.

 

[rgauci]

Tabs looked average in the first half but came out a new man after half time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a jab. He usually builds as the season progresses. I think he’ll become more and more threatening.

If Treacey is a decent 3rd tall. We not in bad shape.

Just need to cobble a forward line together out of:

Taberner
Lobb
Fyfe
Treacey
Sturt
Walters
Frederick
Schultz
Switta
Henry
Crowden
Banfield

The vast majority of those available by round 3. We need more competition for the 3rd / 4th medium forwards. Everyone rabbits on about talls, and I agree they could be better. But Sturt / Treacey is not enough depth for medium forwards. We got too many small forwards. We need to better balance our list.

 

[wayToGo_]

Getting back to the topic. Looking to the future I think this year's national draft is key (after also grabbing a tall forward that can kick goals in the MSD).

First we have to convince the AFL that this f/s rule:

Fremantle can select any player whose father has made 150 WAFL appearances prior to 1995 for East Fremantle, South Fremantle, Perth or Swan Districts.

is actually inclusive of 1995 and then Rhett Bazzo would be eligible as his dad Steve played 158 games from 1988 to 1995 for Swan Districts - 17 of those games were in 1995 - so just 9 games short if 1995 isn't included .

Then we get Jacob Van Rooyen or Alex Lukic with our first pick. Match the f/s bid on Bazzo. Buy back into the draft and grab Blake Howes or Arlo Draper or Matthew Johnson or Neil Erasmus with our third pick (whichever is still on the board - assuming none would be but I'm making the rules here). Then match bids on Richard Bartlett, Jesse Motlop and Jermaine Pickett to round out our draft. Pick up one of our remaining NGA players as a Cat B (maybe Chris Walker will turn it on this year?). And finally grab a fwd/ruck in the rookie draft.

Entire forward line and a couple on the bench in one draft.

HF Barlett ~ Bazzo ~ Howes/Draper/Johnson/Erasmus
F Motlop ~ Van Rooyen/Lukic ~ Pickett
I/C Walker ~ (fwd/ruck)

Get it done Wallsy/Belly! If you don't, you are both dead to me.

 

[Dockeroo]

Getting back to the topic. Looking to the future I think this year's national draft is key (after also grabbing a tall forward that can kick goals in the MSD).

First we have to convince the AFL that this f/s rule:

Fremantle can select any player whose father has made 150 WAFL appearances prior to 1995 for East Fremantle, South Fremantle, Perth or Swan Districts.

is actually inclusive of 1995 and then Rhett Bazzo would be eligible as his dad Steve played 158 games from 1988 to 1995 for Swan Districts - 17 of those games were in 1995 - so just 9 games short if 1995 isn't included .

Then we get Jacob Van Rooyen or Alex Lukic with our first pick. Match the f/s bid on Bazzo. Buy back into the draft and grab Blake Howes or Arlo Draper or Matthew Johnson or Neil Erasmus with our third pick (whichever is still on the board - assuming none would be but I'm making the rules here). Then match bids on Richard Bartlett, Jesse Motlop and Jermaine Pickett to round out our draft. Pick up one of our remaining NGA players as a Cat B (maybe Chris Walker will turn it on this year?). And finally grab a fwd/ruck in the rookie draft.

Entire forward line and a couple on the bench in one draft.

HF Barlett ~ Bazzo ~ Howes/Draper/Johnson/Erasmus
F Motlop ~ Van Rooyen/Lukic ~ Pickett
I/C Walker ~ (fwd/ruck)

Get it done Wallsy/Belly! If you don't, you are both dead to me.

Didn’t the AFL rule Bazzo is not a FS for freo?

 

[Patty_Moz]

Disagree, I think our forwards get in each others way. They don't space the forward 50 well enough. Melbourne are very similar to the Eagles though in how they arrange their backline, they have good players down there. I mean what do you expect with Tabs and 5 short people down there?
I would rather we kick grubbers into the 50, cause ball ups or simply retain possession.

At the other end though, way too many marks inside 50 given up for our defense. Really let us down considering.

I think you’re assuming that because the ball goes in along the ground our fwds will start winning contests and I think you’re overrating our fwds. Imagine after 10 weeks of grubbering the ball into the feed line and still losing each week by 5 goals. Everyone around here would be ropable. The truth is the fwd like we had on the weekend was the worse in the AFL. Delivery looks a hell of a lot better when kicking to fwds who can win contests. If you took the same delivery and kicked it to Kennedy, Darling, Allen and Ryan we would kick a lot more goals.


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[Alfonz]

Yes he’s exciting. Last Freo forward to kick 7 in the wafl?


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Ryan Murphy did it 8 times.

WAFL FootyFacts - MURPHY, Ryan

WAFL player records, Individual WAFL player stats page, career player stats by season, game, opponent and venue

waflfootyfacts.net

 

[malpaso]

I think you’re assuming that because the ball goes in along the ground our fwds will start winning contests and I think you’re overrating our fwds. Imagine after 10 weeks of grubbering the ball into the feed line and still losing each week by 5 goals. Everyone around here would be ropable. The truth is the fwd like we had on the weekend was the worse in the AFL. Delivery looks a hell of a lot better when kicking to fwds who can win contests. If you took the same delivery and kicked it to Kennedy, Darling, Allen and Ryan we would kick a lot more goals.


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Your predicting that for the next 10 weeks all we have is Taberner in the forward line as a tall. That's not going to be the case.

My post is highlighting the fact that because we only had Taberner as a tall forward against Melbourne we should have lowered eyes and grubbered the ball in. Which after the first quarter they actually did try that for periods of play. We actually outscored Melbourne 9 goals to 5 from qtr time to 3 qtr time.

 

[MadMundy]

While we've had bad results from our forwards we've brought in we haven't always played to their strengths either.

McCarthy: Was usually one of the first dropped after a bad game, never got an extended run as a third tall. Yeah he went missing at times but outside of Walters he was our best set shot in the team, he never missed. Unfortunate J-Lo only played him once last year, he's gonna carve it up at South Freo.

Kersten: Yeah not gonna say much here, had a couple of decent games but was pretty shit.

Hogan: Off field issues aside we didn't do ourselves any favours with him by consistently ignoring his leads when he was actually trying to create space, making him play further up the ground, and plenty of times not playing him last year even though he was fit. Had we actually hit him up on the leads he would have easily kicked a few goals a game. I don't blame him for showing visible frustration when your teammates constantly ignore you.

Any of our small forwards: We've spent the last few years kicking it over the heads of guys like Matera, Schultz, Switkowski and Crowden instead of trying to hit them up on the chest.

Lobb: Been in and out of having to be the main ruckman but that's not on him and more on Darcy's fitness. Never really had a full season as a forward.

So yeah while our forwards have had issues, we haven't exactly done great on our own end.

 

[Nodgey]

First we have to convince the AFL that this f/s rule:

Fremantle can select any player whose father has made 150 WAFL appearances prior to 1995 for East Fremantle, South Fremantle, Perth or Swan Districts.

is actually inclusive of 1995 and then Rhett Bazzo would be eligible as his dad Steve played 158 games from 1988 to 1995 for Swan Districts - 17 of those games were in 1995 - so just 9 games short if 1995 isn't included .

#VICBIAS WAFL games should be just as relevant as AFL games. campaigners.

 

[Purple Madness]

While we've had bad results from our forwards we've brought in we haven't always played to their strengths either.

McCarthy: Was usually one of the first dropped after a bad game, never got an extended run as a third tall. Yeah he went missing at times but outside of Walters he was our best set shot in the team, he never missed. Unfortunate J-Lo only played him once last year, he's gonna carve it up at South Freo.

Kersten: Yeah not gonna say much here, had a couple of decent games but was pretty sh*t.

Hogan: Off field issues aside we didn't do ourselves any favours with him by consistently ignoring his leads when he was actually trying to create space, making him play further up the ground, and plenty of times not playing him last year even though he was fit. Had we actually hit him up on the leads he would have easily kicked a few goals a game. I don't blame him for showing visible frustration when your teammates constantly ignore you.

Any of our small forwards: We've spent the last few years kicking it over the heads of guys like Matera, Schultz, Switkowski and Crowden instead of trying to hit them up on the chest.

Lobb: Been in and out of having to be the main ruckman but that's not on him and more on Darcy's fitness. Never really had a full season as a forward.

So yeah while our forwards have had issues, we haven't exactly done great on our own end.

It's almost like we don't know how to get the best out of our players unless they have raw talent. Just a suck it and see attitude which is an indictment on the coaching staff

 

[kp junior]

Ryan Murphy did it 8 times.

WAFL FootyFacts - MURPHY, Ryan

WAFL player records, Individual WAFL player stats page, career player stats by season, game, opponent and venue

waflfootyfacts.net

That’s a while ago! Medhurst maybe?


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