I am at the point where I can’t even enjoy a win anymore because I am just so frustrated at the events of the game.
How many times did we just kick it to them going inside 50 in the last quarter? If you told me we beat Sydney at the start of the game I would have taken it, but we are just so damn frustrating I can’t be happy with the performance.
Really not good for health.
Reid was great though.
What ever you say or what ever the way you saw the game… one thing was the difference… and that was speed.
North and Sydney broke away from pack situations with speed, to kick those goals. Our players couldn’t keep up with that. Very worrying hole in the list.
Second half summary Missed tackle. Sydney behind. Kick to pocket. Kick long to Grundy. Repeat.
He’s a kid playing as the main tall focal point, he’s not going to be perfect.
Watching today’s win at Marvel was bitter-sweet.
An outstanding first half, followed by a declining second half we we just held on - but much better than last 2 weeks “just hanging on victories”.
Two new debutants meaningfully contributing only lose Hayes late in Q3 to what looks like yet another ACL to a tall player.
Like last week, we started well and that was down two factors:
El Hawli played an outstanding first half, remembering that I think this is his first full game of AFL. He was bound to run out of gas and did after HT. He also delayed a couple of kicks instead of moving the ball forward quickly which resulted in those kicks being smothered. His loss of drive, after HT, contributed to our inability to score.
What really changed after HT were two things:
At the ground i didn’t think we were going to lose as they had nothing up forward - Francis and Hamling are not AFL standard defenders (something Sydney knows) and they certainly are not AFL standard as forwards. Reid and McKay had a day out, all day. Pleasingly, McKay looked confident and played a largely blemish free game. Certainly the best game he has played this year by a long way.
Whilst playing as a sub is not easy, I thought Shiel’s game for nearly all of Q4 was very disappointing. He gave us nothing as a mid. But he did play smart football right at the very end by soaking up 30 seconds for a long range, difficult, low percentage kick on goal to smartly and calmly kick backwards to Prior (who also had a very good game). Mind you their #33 also does not look AFL standard and I think was subbed out in the end.
With our on-going injury barrage we are getting younger by the week, even with the inclusion of Goldstein. We might be playing lower down the ladder sides but we can still find a way to win regardless. We have only conceded > 100 points three times this year and they are our three losses. We struggle to kick more than 80 points, but our defensive setup - with the inclusion of Zach Reid (outstanding all day and especially late) has been pivotal in this.
Consequently, we will get exposed by the better teams - are the Bulldogs one of those? We will find out next week.
Whilst Sydney have three key players out, we have a lot more. The most important part of the day wasn’t our AFL win but our 10+ goal VFL win against with a very young side and Zac Johnson ( who has been dominant at VFL level this year) not playing due to AFL emergency duties. It helps when Tsatas and Laverde dominate as they did; both ready to come into the side. Also, Cox and Guelfi got another game under their belts. This tells the relative merits of both lists.
Dont rate either of them.
15 players under 100 games
7 under 20 games
That’s nuts
I might focus on the first three quarters and maybe footnote the last quarter debacle.
I enjoyed the style of play, seemed to be good drive from the back and exposing space in the forward line. Some of the better players made some god awful clangers (McGrath and redman) but I was impressed with a number of guys.
Martin was superb, as was Reid. McKay easily best game of the year. I know it wasn’t hard, but I thought he stood up. SEH I felt controlled his wing nicely. Caddy looked maybe at his most dangerous. Perkins did his bit. The goldy wright combo is working, not sure how. They weren’t great matchups for manbun but when he’s in that mood he is hard to stop.
Roberts carries himself as a guy who belongs at the top level. He struts now, and I love it.
Setterfield worked hard and tackled a lot, but I felt his possessions were either useless or clangers.
Hayes, well poor boy, we were commenting to each other in the crowd that he looked good and then he went down.
The last quarter, no class, no poise, no calm. 1 goal would have iced it and nobody was capable of getting it, lucky we didn’t lose.
Just like last week
Rids goes down and the lead gets whittled away
Hayes goes down and again the lead gets whittled away
Yeah would be nice if we stopped copping major injuries every game
We are about to run our of players soon
How good was McGrath! Brilliant game
I think the common theme is never being able to put teams away, injuries or no injuries
Tonight was Blitz perfection.
Clappers: We got ourselves in a winning position and held on.
Gloomers: Only got in front because of their misses and were lucky to hold on.
Gloomers: They’ve got injuries.
Clappers: We’ve got injuries.
Clappers: Yay!
Gloomers: Boo!
Reality is we win. They lost. And Zach Reid is 
inducing.
Oh and Friend Of Fire was pretty good for pre-game lunch.
This and 40 games less experience per player on average (or something like it) makes a huge difference. Along with shocking injuries to key players and general lack of continuity in the middle and forward.
Will be satisfied with continuing improvement from the young guys and hopefully cessation of our run of bad luck with long term injuries.
i have no doubt christian the biased ■■■■ will make sure merrett gets time, looks after his own mates and take essendon down at every opportunity, the fact this biased ■■■■ still has a job after the maynard debacle is crazy
Eat my ass bin chickens.
Couple of reasons I loved the win
All the young guys did well
We won, which means Brad is very unlikely to panic after a loss and drop of any of the kids.
Our pressure in that first half was fantastic. We moved the ball quick but didn’t always just bomb it in, we hit up short targets
We won. Always nice to beat the swans, especially after they were so mouthy about us last year
It was nice to see McPhee again, always one of my favourites and still in great condition tbh
Yeah, he’s going great. But it would be good to stamp out these issues. Also, there are other young players who don’t get the same leniency as Caddy.
Finish your air raid siren, and fark off.