Good Friday

Early days season wise but struggled to find much positive with that performance. Got the points and no injuries I think. Ballenden showed some glimpses. Most other teams would have been too good for us today but I must acknowledge West Adelaide's pluck

Gazz wrote:Early days season wise but struggled to find much positive with that performance. Got the points and no injuries I think. Ballenden showed some glimpses. Most other teams would have been too good for us today but I must acknowledge West Adelaide's pluck

Yep we weren’t gelling as a team and let west run and flood

You could forgive Round 1 as blowing the cobwebs out. You could forgive Round 2 because we scraped through for the much needed win away. Does Sheedy accept that performance? Even if that’s a bad day, we get thrashed by Glenelg on ANZAC Day. It will be a miracle if the team can turn around their form in 10 days time. Hopefully that was the wake up call!

The Eagles are struggling at the moment. Gelling and fluency seem to be lacking. With the loss of Stengle and Poole our crumbing and ground goals are few and far between. Our balance seems to be a little off.
The continual drain of talent is starting to show. In our team last night we only had six players from our 2020 premiership team and 12 from our 2021 premiership team.
Last year we started 3-3, finished 13-5 and won the title. Sheedy has shown himself to be an astute coach and his record shows that we will be in contention.
I thought Sheedy's ruck combination of Ballenden (centre bounces), Lukac and Firns around the ground was an excellent reinvention of the ruck system that was used against Norwood. Patience is a virtue, our coaching crew has loads of runs on the board, we have to give them a little time.

Ballenden a very good recruit. Lukac looked capable and has the tools to handle himself at league level. In an ideal world, Lukac quickly picks up the pace and he and Ballenden play out of the forward line, relieving Redden in Ruck. If Lukac can consistently crash packs he’ll be real valuable.

Besides the poor kicking for goal, the amount of fumbling that is happening is unlike the Eagles. Some players might need a run in the reserves to get confidence up?

I did think Thompson, Knight, Sinor and Ballenden were very good.

It was a tough match to watch. I just caught glimpses of the reserves so I don't know what's available other than Jimmy T. Our big issue is movement into our forwards. It seems 1 dimensional. I fear a hiding from Glenelg. They have come back from 2 big deficits so we need to hold them from the first bounce.
I totally agree with Wimpy on the ruck balance. Lukacs showed real promise.

I agree with Wimpy ect
I think we need Redden back and Troy Menzel back