R1 2015 - Adelaide v North & Freo v Port

Round one is finally here!!!

A challenging start for both local teams with Adelaide taking on North at home & Port tackling the away trip to Perth to take on Freo.

Post away ladies and gentlemen....

No wins to start the season for either.

North Melbourne by 25
Fremantle by 17

Paul wrote:No wins to start the season for either.

North Melbourne by 25
Fremantle by 17

Ever the optimist Paul!

I think the opposite personally.

This Sunday will feel like a mini grand final for the Adelaide players after enduring a long and arduous off season both off and on the training track. They will be super keen to prove to their new coach and their fans there has been positive change, and will come out absolutely firing. I'm tipping Adelaide by about 30 points, possibly more.

Likewise Port are absolutely primed and with very little injury concerns. Slot Ryder and Monfries in and they are looking very strong. Freo have had the drugs situation to deal with over the last week or so, and generally I expect them to go into decline this year. Port by about 15 - 20 points I reckon.

Adelaide at home by 2 goals.
I think Port will win comfortably by 4-5 goals. I think Freo will be a slider this year, too much is left to too few who are all at or over 30 y.o.

Tipsters nightmare to start the season. North and Freo for me, but not at all surprised if Im Oh from two

Back both SA sides with confidence this weekend, folks.

Adelaide will be primed to hit the ground running and show the new chiefs ( coach and CEO ) that the changes over summer have been the breath of fresh air the playing group needed.
The players will rally behind Walker, the midfield will be set to cement their spots as challengers like Lyons, Grigg, Crouch ( and the other injured one ) look to push into the side. Adelaide by 32 points.

In the West, I expect Port to stamp a mark on the season early.

Fremantle are light in defence, missing some height in the back half, have a couple of running defenders under done ( Spurr the main one ) and missing Crowley from the midfield rotations.
Ryder into Ports side makes a huge difference. Port by 36 points.

Brilliant performance by Adelaide. Walker easjust outstanding and Betts wasn't far behind.

Jacobs, Dangerfield, Sloane and Douglas weregreat inthe midfield, while Talia was his usual perfect self and the under-rated Laird was wonderful.

A lot to like, now the test is consistency.

Agreed Lee, a very promising performance from the crows. I thought Walker, Smith and Talia were superb and the forward line worked as well as it has for a long time. If this is our new game plan then I like it but I still think the test will be whether it works against the better clubs (I know the roos got to the prelim last year but I see Adelaide as North's bogey side, we've always done well against them even when they are playing well).

Looking forward to next week's game.

amazingly it looked like men against boys

Don't tell me you watched it Bayman....

IAmTheWarrior wrote:Don't tell me you watched it Bayman....

watched the first half while filling in time before heading to the trots, i watched the end of it at the trots & then watched Port lose in between races

This is the last 5 games played by Port Power in the AFL including finals 2014-2015
Todays game listed first , last round of 2014 listed last

FR [ Perth]
HW [Melbourne]
FR [Perth]
RI [Adelaide]
FR [Perth]

Well well well, how about that?

What an impressive performance by Adelaide. Apart from a brief sleepy period in the 3rd quarter that was a showcase of what Adelaide are capable off if all are fit and firing.

However - one week does not make a season, and I got excited after plenty of awesome wins last year only to be supremely disappointed by terrible displays the following week.

The first few weeks always throw up some interesting results while teams switch on and settle. The real test will be if Adelaide can maintain that sort of intensity once the season settles into some rhythm.

Still, couldn't have hoped for a better start.

Port Adelaide, we'll I was surprised to hear they lost (I was out in the scrub camping so didn't see the game). Really thought they would get over Freo, but I probably underestimated how many players were a bit underdone perhaps.

Adelaide were very impressive Ginge. Showed plenty of "team" that Walsh preaches. Team defence makes it easy to be a defender in the back 6.

I'll only dampen the delight by saying the Kangaroos were dead set awful. Much of this Adelaides doing, mind you.

Port, outclassed under pressure when it mattered. Pavlich with 4 straight and 5 straight between Pearce, Ballantyne and Walters was the difference.

Neade and Butcher not up to the standard required just yet and clearly, clearly Hartlett, Wingard and to a lesser extent Trengove were under done. Having said that, without Wingard and Trengove adding a touch of class and grit at a couple of crucial moments we might not have been as close. All three will be better for the run this week and I'll highly rate any side that can beat Freo in the west this year.

I remain a Rory Laird fan, thought he was terrific. Walker was just something else, commanding.

Booney, i only watched the last quarter, but thought Pavlich was a bit fortunate with a couple of crucial frees. Didn't see any replays, were they there?

I only saw about half of the Crows game, but yes I thought Laird was very impressive. Whilst Im not suggesting this is the case for Laird who has always shown a capability, it's interesting to see the effect different coaching philosophies and styles can bring for players (both positive and negative).

That was Walker's best game since the 2012 Semi Final IMO. If he stays fit he will be a monster this year.

I also love the way Laird goes about it, he just has that look of absolute determination every time the footy goes near him. Looking forward to seeing his game develop further this year.

Only one game, but all of a sudden under Walsh Adelaide look to have far greater depth and flexibility.

Depth I can't agree with, you're thin when it comes to big men.

Application, attitude and endeavor, no question. Having said that, remember how bright 2014 looked after the win over Collingwood early last year?

Yeah I think the Crows list is thin too, not that there's much Walsh could do about that other than individual player development. As Booney said, tall stocks and key defenders are in short supply. Jacobs and Tahlia the two key pieces to their puzzle.

Booney wrote:Depth I can't agree with, you're thin when it comes to big men.

Application, attitude and endeavor, no question. Having said that, remember how bright 2014 looked after the win over Collingwood early last year?

True, I was thinking of the midfield more when typing that comment, and the versatility that Walsh has obviously been working on with the squad with many players playing different roles throughout the game on the weekend.

Also true about the win over Collingwood last year (x2), not to mention the 2nd Showdown. All turned out to be false dawns. Everyone knows that Adelaide's best is pretty handy. Can they produce it consistently though? We'll see.

I've still got the lid firmly on personally.

If Adelaide reduces the gap between their best and their worst by just a small amount, those losses to Melbourne and Carlton of 2014 won't happen and finals will beckon.