Eagles Going, Going, Gone

[Grahaml]

Just on the not recruiting key forwards comment, those sorts of blokes don't grow on trees. There would be very few clubs not looking for one. In fact most would be looking for any sort of key position player, backman or forward. Throwing money at them isn't a guarantee to poach them either, since any proven league key forward is going to have money thrown around at them from every which way. Only proven way to get key forwards is to do the groundwork, find some talented big kids at local clubs and develop them.

[FlyingHigh]

Agree Grahaml, and that is what I believe the club has tried to do with Hentschel and Welsh for a couple of years to help the younger blokes coming through. Unfortunately it hasn't quite worked, so perhaps it is a fair criticism by Mr Fuller that this year they should have looked for someone, but not previous years IMO.
As you say, they don't grow on trees, and there are plenty of examples of big forwards needing nearly as much time as ruckman to develop, eg Hawkins, of course there are a few rare exceptions eg Carey, Brown, Darling in the AFL. Even at the Eagles, Grocke was well into his 20's before he came into his own.

[dedja]

bump ...

[The Apostle]

bump ...

Troll!

[goraw]

are they gone yet? if it was any other side other than the eagles or central, yes.but if they lose to south, the eagles are gone.

[Grahaml]

Far too early to be writing any team off, especially the reigning premiers. If they still haven't won after Anzac day then there's cause for concern.

Ok, now they should start to worry. 0-5 is a fair hole to recover from. But, win the next 5 and the world looks different. Parry is sorely missed.

[the joker]

Time to take almost out of the heading of the post

[Dirko]

But, win the next 5 and the world looks different. Parry is sorely missed.

South, Sturt, West, Glenelg & North for the next five.

[robranisgod]

But, win the next 5 and the world looks different. Parry is sorely missed.

South, Sturt, West, Glenelg & North for the next five.

Not beyond the realms of possibility for the Eagles to win all of those five

[the joker]

The way they are playing there no hope. They have a percentage of 30. 17 behind port. That's almost a win in its self as well

[Dogwatcher]

Hard to taste like a turkey when you're playing like Eagles.

[SimonH]

The most you can say is that it's near-impossible for them to make the 3. Easy to see this being a year where 9-11 is good enough for 5th, which requires a none-too-challenging 9-6 finish for them. Even if not, would anyone at the start of the year have bet against the Eagles going 10-5 in the last 15 games of the year?

Maths is still not the Eags' problem. The real issue is whether they find some form in the next fortnight to 3 weeks. If they do and get a bit of momentum up, finals are easily achievable. Part of that momentum will involve some thumping wins to offset their awful % so far. No doubt they're capable at their best.

[goraw]

i wouldnt have said that saturday night, they were terrible, after all, they were thumped by north to the tune of 79 points in the wet!!

[eaglehaslanded]

0-5 but the Eagles looked a lot better yesterday. Still not gone just yet.

[stampy]

agreed, if they had been whipped again yesterday but goddsy would be relieved that they at least showed something

[whufc]

I dont know if it was a much better performance though.

1 they were on their home deck and secondly being ANZAC Day you would expect a stronger performance.

With both teams coming off a 4 day break the game was never going to be a high scoring blowout.

Central dominated most of the game especially in the first 20 minutes of each quarter except the last which suggests to me it was only the fact that the Eagles were fitter/fresher that kept them in the game not their actual performance.They were pretty ordinary again.

Central were OK our forward entries struggled again but we had enough to get a winning score.

Ill never rule the Eagles out until its mathatically not possible but they were extremly poor again yesterday and need a huge turnaround just to make the 5!

[Booney]

19 rounds left and they have 3 byes to come. 16 games left in their season.

Would need to win 11-12 of those 16?

[eaglehaslanded]

Positive vibes around the club last night, thought we started putting it together a little bit more yesterday. With some players due back for South and the longer 9 day break I think we can etch our first win.

[whufc]

Just looking at the stats are the Eagles tending overuse the footy a bit this year. They had 60 odd more possesions than the Dogs yesterday but 8 less inside 50's. Thats also despite smashing the clearances winning 15 more than the Dogs.

[Swamp Donkey]

I dont know if it was a much better performance though.

1 they were on their home deck and secondly being ANZAC Day you would expect a stronger performance.

With both teams coming off a 4 day break the game was never going to be a high scoring blowout.

Central dominated most of the game especially in the first 20 minutes of each quarter except the last which suggests to me it was only the fact that the Eagles were fitter/fresher that kept them in the game not their actual performance.They were pretty ordinary again.

Central were OK our forward entries struggled again but we had enough to get a winning score.

Ill never rule the Eagles out until its mathatically not possible but they were extremly poor again yesterday and need a huge turnaround just to make the 5!

I don't agree. Eagles played much better than in previous weeks. Take out the 2nd quarter and the scorline reads Eagles 11.3.69 to Centrals 7.4.46.
Eagles had a great first and last quarter. Apart from the 2nd quarter and the first 10 mins of the 3rd quarter the Eagles were the better team. The worry is that centrals scored far too freely in those periods. The Eags lacked a dominant forward or someone with a presence across half forward, thus they were not going forward with any confidence and as a result were looking to use the handball and run it up rather than hitting blokes up with a kick. Signs were a hell of a lot better, but unless they step it up another notch and beat south they may as well have lost by 15 goals yesterday because it won't matter. Goldsworthy, Jarrad were the standouts for mine. Collier was very good for the dogs.

How you can conclude that they were extremely poor yesterday is beyond me