They had 71 inside 50s (29 more than us) yet we only lost by 15 points. Our defense stood up (and they missed ALOT)
They were cleaner with the ball
We 100% lost the game because of too many hand passes IMO
We had too many passengers playing last night
* Walla - maybe too much media attention
* Colyer - is pretty poor with his disposals
* Hooker - I love the guy but god he was bad last night (just to name a few)
I really want Dusty in our team next year. Heās a Rolls-Royce
McGrath and Parish were excellent last night (please sign the latter up)
So deflated when we play games like that. As others have said it was just one of those āalmostā games where if we put together 15 minutes of good footy we would have won.
I know the ball went inside 50 an awful lot but Harts seems to be strugglingā¦he still does ok but the contests that he loses he just loses really badly, similar to Dea.
I still personally donāt think we should be playing Hooker forward. I know he gas had good stretches but in my opinion he only makes the forward line better if we are bombing it in like retards, which we shouldnāt be doing. Last night was a prime example, he did nothing yet we still functioned ok up forward given the lack of entries. It just seems like such a waste to deprive the back line of Hooker just so he can āmake a contestā in the forward lineā¦ Ffs, anyone should be able to make a contest.
Whe I think of Ambrose in current form, Hooks and Hurls all down back, I start doubting whether a team could ever kick a goal against us. I just think itās worth trying to see if the forward line goes ok without him now that we seem to be better overall.
Myersā¦he seems to get himself Into trouble too much with slow / bad decisionsā¦he wasnāt alone last night but it seems worse with himā¦hopefully itās just finding some touch and it happens sooner rather than later.
Ditto for Colyerā¦ He looks like he is back to trying to kick at full speed, in my opinion when his disposal got better a few years ago itās because he took a split second to steady before kickingā¦Please fix.
Maybe we could give Lang another go with a straight swap for Myersā¦
Anyways, just some random thoughts. I also think the build up messed with Walla, lots more media than usual and he seems uncomfortable with that sorta stuff, obviously just my opinion.
Exactly a point Worsfold made in his post match press conference - we had a chance to give a really dangerous kick forward/into F50 and went for one handball too many instead. He said it was most unlike us.
I donāt think Iāve ever seen a team produce so many āunforcedā turnovers than we did last night.
Yeah, ā¦ when he said that, ā¦ I thought, yeah, thatās most unlike us for the last few weeks.
Would have been more accurate to say,ā¦ āYeah, we kinda reverted back to that thing we used to do that brought us undone that weād stopped doing for the past month or so.ā
Whatever happened to the big 60m hoof? When is he saving it for? We are so scared of going long and direct. Reckon our F50 entries will increase if we go the longer option every now and then. Who knows, maybe Joe will start jumping for marks again and Hooker might have a chance of rediscovering his clunk mojo.
Some numbers & some notes
For the second week in a row we actually won the clearances 38 to 33
We also won the contested numbers and the tackle count.
The oddest was that we only had 78 interchanges, when weāve regularly had 88 or 89.
This one is a mystery - at half time I was still confident that our mid field, which bats much deeper than theirs, would over run them, and weād start finding space for clean takeaways. This didnāt happen. Was someone nursing an injury or knock on the bench, or a few blokes down with Leuyās illness restricting their game time?
As for the clearances not too bad. Iād suggest the Myersā knockers watch the replay - he was one of our best bulls in there along with Jobe, and instrumental in winning the ball in close. Yeah Myers decisions were off at times but so were many others.
Contested ball - well both Fanta and Walla had poor ones. Green at least won or halved his one on ones. Canāt remember the last time Fanta was regularly beaten in this regard.
Wallaās performance - as others have said it looked like the occasion got to him and heād used half his adrenaline before the game
This is a matter for the club - itās been a few years since any of our indigenous players actually played well in this game - too often theyāve under performed. Time to look at our processes here.
Positives
McGrath - he too stuffed it up a few times. The most pleasing aspect was that he then not only buttered up but increased his intensity in the next couple of plays with some decisive marks, spoils & runs. This is where the Hird & Wanganeen comparisons really kick in.
Parish - a really good game. Kick started us with pressure, handballs, tackles and repeat efforts. Kicking is becoming a real weapon. Lifted again in the third to try and keep us in it.
Much better than our old guys keeping us in the game and only cameos from the younger brigade.
Finally repeat turnovers, especially by foot, kill. Not just on the scoreboard but in terms of confidence. Any team thatās up and about is 20% better in all aspects.
Last night we were 20% worse and were still in it with 10 minutes to go.
The opponent makes a big difference about how we feel about a loss. A 15 point loss to Richmond when the two sides looked evenly matched on paper feels like 10x goals. The team is on the right trajectory.
Aside from the opening 5 minutes it was a turgid performance. The turnovers coming out of the back were so damaging to us. And at time through the middle when we had men over the back running toward goal and all that was needed was a kick into that space for the easy finish and we botched every one of them. Green twice was through, the first one was when Hooker dropped that mark just outside 50 in the 2nd and in the 3rd when Zaka (who was excellent all night) had the ball on the wing and if heād released the kick a step earlier it was a certain goal, instead he got chased down.
Dustin Martin showed us precisely what we lack in midfield. He hits every contest at speed. Our mids are flat-footed and are either stationary or jogging. The heartening thing is that at least list management have correctly identified the types of players we need to bring into the club (Martin, Z.Jones, JJ). Whether we sign any of them is another matter entirely. After the first term Fantasia was anonymous. So disappointing because he started brightly and had it all over McIntosh. Kicked the first, assisted in the 2nd and just looked lively. A dirty night all round, but when you see a kid like Andy McGrath shine under all sorts of pressure down back you know the future is pretty bright!
Yeah that makes sense. My thinking is TBell rucking meant Daniher had to take a greater share of ruck duties and spend more time outside 50ā¦if Daniher is feeling like he canāt be near Rance thatās an issue for those brining it inside 50, they needed to be smarter
What is going on with Myers? Iām no lover of him but Blitz is calling him a āmidfield bullā and heās doing absolutely nothing as a midfield bull. He is getting handball receives in link up play and it feels like he knows he has his hoof as a weapon and every time he gets the pill, assesses whether or not a (left foot only!) 70m kick is needed, if not he looks lost and just gives off another handball.
Heās one dimensional, heās not using that dimension, and I really think Langford should get the next 10 games of development in that role because he can be far better.
I think we really missed the forgotten man last night; Hibberd. Couldāve really used him in the D50, his ball use is generally good and wouldāve provided what we needed. I like Mckenna as a prospect but in games like last night heās no good. Didnāt provide run out of the back half and just doesnāt have the footy smarts to give us anything with his kicking, itās a gamble every week on what weāll get from him.
Iāll continue to push my point of playing Bellchambers as a 2nd ruck to Luenberger. Everyone questions TBC output and workrate but the fact is, heās never been a #1 ruckman. His best season for the club was playing predominately forward in a rotation with Ryder and heās shown to be a fairly reliable set shot. Move Hooker to CHB, bring in Ambrose to play on the high forward and weāve suddenly got one of the best defences in the comp. If weāre going to play daring football through the corridor, our defence shouldnāt be Hurley vs the world
Yeah I mentioned to my brother during the game it almost feels like heās been reading Blitz and knows how good of a hoof he is, so he puts more pressure on it and literally tries to kick 80 every time and bungles them consistently.
Looks like an inside mid that plays like an outside mid that can only get it around 15 times a game. Iād rather us pump games into Langford, Mutch or even Bird.