Always Right Match Committee - Round 15 Vs West Coast Eagles 2021

[Happy Days]

Well, we have Mitch Hannan now.

I'm down to talk a *lot* of shit about Hannan but he has Bill covered.

[merantau]

I don't often comment on team selection, however, looking at the big picture I feel Hannan needs to have a very good game if he is to keep his place in the side. He needs to hit the scoreboard, help lock the ball in our forward line and curb any influence by his opponent.

[bornadog]

I don't often comment on team selection, however, looking at the big picture I feel Hannan needs to have a very good game if he is to keep his place in the side. He needs to hit the scoreboard, help lock the ball in our forward line and curb any influence by his opponent.

He has been underwhelming to say the least.

[MrMahatma]

I don't often comment on team selection, however, looking at the big picture I feel Hannan needs to have a very good game if he is to keep his place in the side. He needs to hit the scoreboard, help lock the ball in our forward line and curb any influence by his opponent.

Any one of those things would be a good start!

[1eyedog]

Naughton to face Eagles

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has confirmed key forward Aaron Naughton will play against West Coast, having overcome a rib injury.

Naughton was subbed out of the Dogs' heartbreaking loss to Geelong after colliding with Jed Bews when contesting a ball on the half-time siren.

"He's good, he recovered really well," Beveridge said.

"He had a scan quickly after the game and thankfully that came up all clear. He's trained and he'll play on Sunday, he'll be fine."

Josh Schache is on standby as the sole tall emergency, with the Dogs having only taken an additional three players (Ed Richards and Riley Garcia the others) to the 23 who took on the Cats.

The team has been staying in Joondalup this week, able to leave only for training at WAFL club West Perth and Optus Stadium, as well as the game itself. They'll return to Melbourne immediately after the match against the Eagles on Sunday.

Beveridge said the Bulldogs were wary of the impact in-form ruck Nic Naitanui could have on the match, considering his strong finish to the match against Richmond and the fact the Dogs only have one recognised ruck in Tim English.

Stef Martin did not make the trip to Perth, finishing his recovery from a shoulder issue, but Beveridge said has since picked up a groin complaint at training.

"We've just got to be smart about it from a coaching point of view. You don't concede, but you understand where the vulnerability might be. We've watched him tear apart other really experienced ruckmen, so you expect Nic will have a big influence on the game at the stoppages," Beveridge said.

"I thought he finished off his game as well as he has all year against Richmond, and he played more game time in that last quarter than perhaps what we've seen.

"So, we understand what we're coming up against, we'll need to organise ourselves and be ready for the stoppage aspect, then away from that, we need to work out where we'll get our advantages and how we support Tim in the ruck.

"We saw what Max Gawn did to us against Melbourne with young 'Sweety' (Jordon Sweet), who's still learning the caper, we've got to make some decisions around that position at selection and see where we can get some advantages elsewhere.

"So unfortunately, we're probably where we were last year with all that, at the moment, not ideal, but we just have to tackle it."

Tim getting recognised as a ruck, but really we're going in with no ruckman.

Has Goldy been playing every week for Norf?

[1eyedog]

Maybe, but no use carrying a ruck just to help other areas when those other areas might not actually be better with the structure you end up with.... and the ruck doesn't really help you play any better.

English has had 1 really good game as a pure forward and been a mixture of poor and ok at other times so I'm not yet convinced that our team looks best with English as forward/ruck... but given the injuries to all it hasn't been used as often as we would've liked.

Agreed. English has actually done most of his best work marking deep balls in D50. Something he's unable to achieve playing forward.

[jeemak]

I really don't get the tanking argument. It's going to be raining taking away WCE's main strength in clean use off the contests and tall forwards dominating the air.

We're up to our eyeballs in this and we've selected the appropriate side. If it wasn't going to be wet I'd be more concerned.

Let's have a little bit of enthusiasm and faith WOOFERS, it's on!

[FrediKanoute]

I don't often comment on team selection, however, looking at the big picture I feel Hannan needs to have a very good game if he is to keep his place in the side. He needs to hit the scoreboard, help lock the ball in our forward line and curb any influence by his opponent.

SO he needs to be something other than a witches hat?

[Danjul]

You can't say that? Sweet hasn't been effective in the games he has played.

Stats

2021 Games Log for Jordon Sweet (Western Bulldogs)

Description Date Opponent Result K HB D M G B T HO GA I50 CL CG R50 FF FA AF SC Round 11 May 28 Demons Loss 59-87 1 2 3 1 0 0 1 17 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 31 39 Round 10 May 22 Saints Win 144-33 7 7 14 6 0 2 6 16 0 2 4 6 1 1 4 84 75 Round 9 May 15 Power Win 96-77 5 4 9 2 0 0 3 18 0 4 4 4 0 4 4 51 56 Round 8 May 9 Blues Win 107-91 4 5 9 1 1 0 5 17 0 2 1 5 0 3 2 65 50 Round 5 Apr 17 Suns Win 118-56 4 4 8 2 0 0 4 31 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 73 73

2021 Games Log for Jordon Sweet (Western Bulldogs)

Description Date Opponent Result CP UP ED CM MI5 1% BO CCL SCL SI MG TO ITC TI5 TOG% Round 11 May 28 Demons Loss 59-87 2 1 3 0 0 3 0 0 1 1 -27 0 1 1 67 Round 10 May 22 Saints Win 144-33 7 8 8 0 1 7 0 2 2 7 221 3 3 0 82 Round 9 May 15 Power Win 96-77 6 4 8 1 1 4 0 1 3 2 208 2 1 1 78 Round 8 May 9 Blues Win 107-91 4 6 6 0 0 2 0 0 1 3 175 3 0 0 87 Round 5 Apr 17 Suns Win 118-56 3 4 6 0 0 1 0 1 1 5 146 2 1 1 64

As I have said previously, I would have had Schache in (sorry Happy Days) as the 2nd ruck and we can still maintain the three prong tall attack. However, with rain forecast, maybe that won't work this week.

All you have shown is Sweet has had 1 very bad game, his 5th against the number one ruckman,Gawn.

English’s 40th game was against Melbourne and he had 6 possessions and 6 hitouts. Equally bad according to the AFL stats site. .Actually worse because Gawn didn’t play. The weeks before and after English did no better than Sweet usually does in both possessions and hitouts. Fortunately, that wasn’t the end of English. It probably will be the end of Sweet.

[Go_Dogs]

Garcia and Richards are worth taking a look at right now.

Based on output, we know what Crozier and Roarke have as ceilings this year. Croz can’t impact contests in the air like has was a few years ago, his timing is off, he goes to ground, his kicking always seems under pressure. I like the Croz and back him in to turn it around at some point, but let’s see him string together a few good games and build confidence at VFL level. Roarke has done OK, he fills a role when the injuries mount, he’s reliable enough and works hard. He is also prone to making mistakes and isn’t going to influence a game, cause opposition sides headaches or add the class we will need when the whips get cracking.

Garcia and Richards need to show they can master the defensive aspects of the game. If the work rate is high, the pressure and tackle counts and effectiveness solid, then they add more. It’s now their’s to show what they can do on that end - I think ball in hand we know they can be smooth, and we know they have wheels.

[The Pie Man]

Lachlan McNeil’s faded from view, hoping he can play well today given there’s likely a spot for a pressure forward if things don’t go well tomorrow.

[G-Mo77]

No rucks again this week and they dropped Wallis our other ruck. Maybe Mitch Hannan will take the centre bounces and let English play as our 3rd tall.

[GVGjr]

I don't often comment on team selection, however, looking at the big picture I feel Hannan needs to have a very good game if he is to keep his place in the side. He needs to hit the scoreboard, help lock the ball in our forward line and curb any influence by his opponent.

He really needed that a couple of games back. I had high hopes for Hannan but he hasn't quite lived up to that expectation. Maybe the slow start with his injury has impacted his season so far but we do need more from him soon.
Our recent struggles with having English missing a few games and now Martin not being available have opened up a spot for Hannan that you could argue he hasn't quite deserved but given we haven't been able to have our 3 tall forwards available he has been given an extended opportunity.

Lets hope the wide open spaces of Optus oval suit him and he can turn some doubters into believers.

[mjp]

Best stadium in the universe, in fact.

To be fair, it actually is pretty good.

I mean, Subi was an abomination but this new place is pretty good.

[1eyedog]

Schache has a higher chance of kicking a goal than Hannan and can ruck. Both have pretty much the same defensive ability.

Wallis is the best Mitch at our club and doesn't get in the way of our forwards flying for marks and knows what it means to play accountable football.

To say Hannan needs to make a contribution is an understatement.