You say you do statistical analysis, then let your natural bias come through with these 3 comments. No AFL player just lets their opponents do things unopposed, otherwise they would be playing VFL instead. If he has been outplayed & beaten by his opponent, these things happen. I hate to tell you this, sometimes even players as good as James Hird got beaten by their opponent & it looked like he didn’t give chase or whatever - but they don’t just let their opponent do what they want (which is a way of saying they gave up), which is what you are suggesting with 2 of your comments.
The other one about 50/50 free kick? Really, that was worth mentioning? is it because there are hardly any 50/50 free kick instances in each & every game of AFL ever played (sarcastica font)? 50/50’s happen 50 times a game x 8 games per round by 22 round per year, so we have 8800 x 50/50 free kick examples every year in the H&A & you reckon this particular one was worth mentioning ?
He kept Winguard, an All Australian who kicked 3 on the weekend & is one of Port’s most dangerous players, goalless. He is probably spotting him about 8kg too, which means Winguard should be out muscling & out marking him every day of the week in a 1 on 1 tussle.
You want to talk abou things not worth mentioning? Wingard’s not exactly some sort of physical monster. Gleeson’s always going to be giving up size to anyone remotely his height. If he can’t win a one on one marking contest with Wingard (who he’s three inches taller than, by the way), he’s not going to win against anyone he’s ever likely to play on. It’s like saying McKernan would be better in the ruck if other ruckmen weren’t just so damn tall. It’s true, but totally irrelevant.
Gleeson can get stronger, has already gone from 186cm and 70kg when he arrived to 191cm and 84kg. So despite having a growth spurt he has still put on 14kgs. He should put on the last 4-5kgs over the next two preseasons which will give him the strength needed.
To put it in perspective other players around the 191-193 range including Hurley, Ambrose, Watson, Francis Goddard and Langford are all >90kgs. I doubt Gleeson will end up as strong as some of those beasts, but he should bridge the gap.
I love ya Gleeson, but MAN… it’s like all our horrible nightmares about his lack of strength just became a reality in literally the worst way possible. Got absolutley ragdolled like a pretzel.
I somewhat doubt these days that any player makes a decision with how much weight they put on or even the conditioning / strength regime they go through.
The bigger question is why were there 3 sydney players first to the drop of the ball that let them have a clean shot at the goal face in the first place?
Before that why did not a single player run to create any other options for Goddard to kick it too?
Why would Goddard kick to himself with 25 seconds on the clock?
The mind ponders at how hard this team works to give games to their opposition
Tell you what though, that winning mark and goal is ugly for Gleeson, he was literally thrown aside like a little child pretty pathetically, and it lost us the game.
You are blaming Gleeson he was not alone but there were many things, others did in that last four minutes when we looked like winning. They celebrated the win too soon and opened the door for Sydney to walk through and they did. The team did not back up in the goal square and block Sydney’s entry. Goddard’s shocker kick which was smothered and where were our tallest players when we needed to flood the backline? Nowhere to be seen.
I am sure the players are hurting but will we learn from this and will it be edible etched in their minds for future reference??? I hope so.