Well if you want to split hairs, 2008 is their 22nd year in the VFL/AFL.

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Hooked on The Blues

2008 will be the 22nd year in the competition





From Today's Age:

"Cox was impressive against Collingwood in Albany last weekend, as was Embley, but the experienced duo were rested for last night's tussle with Carlton in Alice Springs.

They will be welcome inclusions, along with Mark LeCras, Brett Jones, Matt Rosa and Chad Fletcher."

no doubt WC are a stronger team - however when discussing missing players across teams - it makes more sense to have a look at the impact of individual players on the team itself (structure, importance) rather than trying to say player x is better/worse than player y (particularly when it involves a multitude of players as is the case here)

I'd say 3-5 goals better and as I have Eagles at the bottom end of the 8, this means we'll be knocking on the door with 7-10 wins. We should be happy with this. Weagles pushed Pies hard with a depleted midfield in a final last year - their list is underestimated.

We have lost 2 players from last year. Judd, who had no impact after round 8 and Cousins who played a small handful of games and had no influence on the season whatsoever. With that, we managed to finish the season a bees foreskin of a percentage point behind Port in third place and then going into the finals we were injury depleted and lost the two finals by 3 points and in extra time respectively. I would say our prospects this year are still pretty damned good. I would expect middle of the top 8. I think that in all liklihood Carlton should improve but to what extent is problematic. Perhaps somewhere between 5 and 8 wins would be considered reasonable and anything above that a bonus. You've got to remember that when Judd was blanketed out of a game or had a rare off day with us there was still Cousins, Kerr, Fletcher, Stenglein, Embley, Cox (who is a midfielder in disguise),Priddis etc to step into the breach. With all due respect to carlton, who of the same calibre is going to step up when the same happens to you. 4 of the above mentioned players are All Australians, 1 Brownlow medallist, a runner up Brownlow medallist and a Norm Smith medallist and all but one are still playing in season 2008.

Good luck to the Blues in 2008. Eagles supporters will be watching with interest how you go with Juddy in your team. see you in round 7. Go the Eagles.

by the sounds of it Aisake did not play in the end? I'm not really sure, but did someone say something before about pulling up sore?? Geez, I hope that we can see both O'hAilpin brothers playing together next week!

Cheers mate - always interesting to hear from opposition supporters.
Do you still passionately go and follow Perth? Do you get to Lathlain to see many of their games these days?
How do you feel about the notion that the team you now follow purchased their way into a competition and single handedly decimated the league (and therefore the football club) that you grew up supporting so passionately?
I can understand East and South Freo supporters feeling that they have a team in the Dockers that represents their heritage, but I don’t understand how a Perth, West Perth, Subiaco supporter feels that the locationless, historyless (at their time of inception – they certainly have attained a colourful one now) and soulless business that rides roughshod over the state has any bearing or affinity to the team/s that they grew up supporting…

I love how illeagles supporters say that Judd did nothing after round 12 and then in the same breath they say that they got within 3 points of Port in a final. Judd kicked two goals to make the Eagles look competitive in a low scoring final - a very good return for a bloke on half a leg.
The reality is that without Judd firing the Eagles limped into the finals and they lost in straight sets. Once to a team that was 100 points shy of the premiers and then on their own dungheap (the biggest home ground advantage in the league by the way) they lost to a team of battlers at best.

The Eagles have more depth than Carlton at the moment, but that is going to be surely tested this year when players like Priddis will be under so much pressure that they won't be able to get away with faults such as a lack of pace or suspect disposal like they have in the past.

To say that Judd and Cousins won't be missed is laughable and shows how Eagles supporters believe every piece of spin that is written in the 'West Coast Australian' newspaper over here.

Prior to the Eagles inception ,Perth and all other teams were being decimated by the VFL. A great majority of WAFL and VFL clubs were close to bankruptcy and without the injection of money from the Eagles there would have been no more WAFL competition and at least 2 VFL teams would have folded. The Eagles last year injected around 3 to 4 million back into grass roots football here in WA.

I still follow Perth but don't get to any games these days. My brother is still a member and gets to all the home games at Lathlain Park and also supports the Eagles. The two can live in coexistence, though the WAFL is not the competetiion it once was.

cousins
rd 16 - 38 touches - 12 point win over swans
rd 19 - 24 touches - 17 point win over roos
rd 21 - 29 touches - 8 point win over saints
rd 22 - 25 touches - 8 point win over dons

ignoring the last game he played where he came off injured, cousins averaged 91.2 ranking points/game which would have placed him 4th on the WC list for ranking points/game behind cox, kerr and priddis


Judd
rd 1 - 27 touches,2 goals - 1 point win over swans
rd 2- 29 touches, 2 goals - 12 point win over pies
rd6 - 24 touches, 1 goal - 15 point win over dogs
rd 16 - 21 touches, 2 goals - 12 point win over swans

For the season, judd averaged 82.7 ranking points (ie 9th overall in ranking points/game for WC listed players) - Incidentally, Judd's career average is actually lower than what he averaged last year (82.2)

From the above you can see that Judd/cousins contributed significantly to WC wins in rds 1, 2, 6, 16, 19, 21, 22 (ie 7 wins) where the winning margins were under 3 goals.

Not for 1 moment suggesting that you would have lost all 7 matches without judd/cousins but it wouldnt be unreasonable to think they were integral for at least 4 of those wins (rds 1, 2, 16 and one of 21/22) - whilst the figure is conservative, that would have resulted in you missing the finals.

Also dont forget, that regardless of the actual contribution within a game - Judd/cousins will generally take a lot of attention from the opposition due to reputation/previous performances.

But you're right, Judd and cousins had no impact on your 2007 season and you wont miss their presence

Welcome aboard Jeeves.

I know we all like to poke fun at other teams and so on but your reply regarding your club is excellent imo. No hint of arrogance or snideness just a simple well written statement from a supporter who obviously loves his club like almost all on this site love the Blues.

Hope you keep posting becuase I find unbiased open and honest opinions like yours refreshing and an excellent measure for us to guage our improvement as a team.

Regards

Mark

I am dying to hear how Jake and Elwood went, hope they played well as there are some points to prove.

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'Cause I'm J.U.D.D
I'm dynamite
J.U.D.D
And I'll win that fight
J.U.D.D
I'm a power load
J.U.D.D, Watch me explode

Some of the points you make are valid. In fact I made a similar point about Judd in a previous posting. Both these players demand a lot of attention and indeed take the pressure off the other midfielders. But what happened when one had an off day? Generally speaking, The Eagles were able to cover because of the depth and quality of the other midfielders.

My point about the influence of Cousins and Judd was meant to be taken in the context of the whole season rather than a few games in isolation. Cousin's season average ranking of 83.4 made it his sixth lowest in the past eight years and Judd's average of 82.7 was his fourth lowest in the 6 seasons he played with us. For the Eagles to nearly make second spot in that context was a commendable effort.

I hope that Judd is able to recover and become the great player he has been, but I have my concerns. His was a serious injury and he might find it hard to generate the speed and power that made him such a magnificent player. Who can step up if he is injured or not exerting an influence on the game? The same midfielders you had last year? I'm not sure if they are ready yet. Maybe in another year or two it will be a different story.

Jeeves i have heard this arguement from Eagles supporters often ... it must be part of the spin that gets sent out with the memberships each year. I can tell you that sitting on the hill and Leederville with 35,000 others every saturday was a heap more fun than the deserted venues that they call WAFL grounds these days. The Eagles need to take their fair share of responsibilty for the state of the local competition regardless of how much money they put in.

I don't remember the WAFL being decimated by the VFL - sure players left, but there is as much if not more movement these days. In fact before the Eagles it was common for players to stay with one team for their whole career, now it is rare as most are chasing $$ and opportunity. The inception of the Eagles had a lot to do with this demise of the WAFL - not the saviour they claim to be.

I can state categorically there was never anything like 35000 at Leederville at any one game. More like the total attendance of all four weekend games which could sometimes get up to the high 40 thousands.

At the time of the Eagles entering the AFL there were more than 40 WAFL players playing for VFL teams, enough for 2 full teams at the time. For a good insight into the plight of the WAFL and VFL pre 1987 you might want to watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm3SiTme-T0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiNlRiqKB6o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HUzm5Xb8fk

I am conscious of the fact that we are discussing non-Carlton issues in the wrong forum so this will be my last post here, however if you wish to continue I suggest you switch to the AFL forum and I will gladly answer any more of your misconceptions about the introduction of the Eagles, the WAFL or any other topic you care to discuss.

Firstly, cousins ranking points - cousins season average of 83.4 was that low due to having come up with a hamstring injury in the 3rd quarter. Given that he had only played 6 other games during the season, that dropped his average fairly significantly. As I said in my post - in the other matches, cousins averaged 91.2. For 83.4 you state it was his lowest average for the past 4th lowest in the past 6 yrs - The other way to look at it was that 83.4 was the 6th highest over his 12 yr career. A 91.2 average would have equated to his 3rd best season - his actual contribution would be likely to be around the midpoint of these 2 game rankings which would put 2007 firmly into one of cousins top 5 seasons.

With respect to the position the eagles finished on the ladder - they only finished there due to the contributions of Judd/Cousins (which was the point of my post). Based on the 7 games I mentioned, without judd/cousins WC would have finished 8th-9th, and potentially as low as 13th (not for one moment suggesting that the eagles will finish there this season though).

Anyway, this is a carlton board so that will be the last I'll say about WC for now

In terms of the blues, Judd is just a bonus (a very good one at that). Most of the improvement that will come from the blues this season will come from within. Consider the impact of

- a new coach/game plan
- improved skills (we are doing 5X the kicking/handballing in training that we did under the previous coach
- younger midfielders getting bigger/stronger (murphy, gibbs)
- the return of nick stevens (combined with Judd, he now gets the 3rd tagger rather than 1st etc)
- improved defence - late last yr we discovered a FB in Jamison (nominated rookie). His spot in the 22 is already cemented so will add massively to our structure
- vastly improved ruck division (hampson)

The blues will be much stronger this season and I expect us to be fairly competitive. Excluding the rucks, we now have an elite midfield (judd, stevens, scotland, simpson, murphy, gibbs, walker+others) - where we will fall down though is if we have injuries to KP players due to a lack of proven KP players. Injury free though 5th-8th is what I'd be expecting, a couple of injuries to key players though and we'll end up around 9th-12th.

Well done Jeeves, good to have you here.


Now get me a tea and bikkie you cauliflower!

Yep 35,000 was a bit rich on my part but 20-25,000 was not at all uncommon. The last game at Leederville oval certainly would have pushed 35,000 after they opened the ground to all (or so some of the old West Perth fellas say).

we'll end the discussion there as you've suggested ... you're input was appreciated but as a Perth fellow myself i' have heard many versions of the history of the time (and i guess i see it through different eyes to you)

We don't get many eagles supporters around here - i guess with the inclusion of Judd we may expect a few more visitors. Hopefully you can hang around for a while (until you change teams again that is )

It's never going to happen but thanks all the same for the invitation. When you say Perth does that mean PFC or Perth the city?