Willly were the only team ahead of us on percentage before today – we lopped more than 10% off their original 157%
We’re still a few wins away from feeling confident of playing finals, but after a few crucial losses this was a really good win to hold onto.
(Coburg beat Sandy! Sandy were lurking just below us, but are now a win and 45% behind us. Collingwood beating Port was another upset that helps us. Box Hill also had their first loss!)
I personally think our selection panel has broken him.
Unfathomable why one of the poorest clearance sides in the competition hasn’t even tried this bloke.
Yep, there were glimpses that he was better than this level but no sign of any urgency. Jerret was the same - going through the motions. You should never have a player on your list who knows they are vitually no hope of earning a senior game but that’s exactly how Bird and Jerret look.
We’d get done for unauthorised mid season altitude training or some far king thing …
Official listings:
Goal Kickers: J. Begley 4, J. Ottavi 2, J. Long 2, H. Hocking, A. Boyse, D. Parish, N. Hind, M. Leuenberger, D. Clarke, D. Myers
Best Players: D. Parish, J. Begley, M. Brown, H. Hocking, D. Myers, K. Mutch
&
Goal Kickers: L. Schultz 4, L. Masters 2, A. Cordy 2, S. Dunell, B. Bewley, M. Gibbons, J. Dorgan
Best Players: L. Schultz, D. Fahey, L. Masters, B. Bewley, J. Newman, S. Dunell
Also at the game: Joey, Zerrett, Andy, Zaka, and Trav.
I don’t pay a lot of attention to stats, but they can tell you much more about how the team, & game style are operating when you read them for it.
It’s not just got to do with a players value, and in fact as you say, can really be misleading & unreliable when used that way, as they often are by people trying to bolster their argument for player X, or against player Z.
They can give you an indicator on the player at times though, but really only if they are as nuanced as Jodi is looking for them to be here. When you can’t be there, or watch, … where & how stats are racked up gives an indication of the player type, the way you’ve described the player mark cons v uncons is a good example actually, … is he a runner,… does he find space & set up play, is he good in a pack??
Of course, all this would be unnecessary if we could SEE our guys play as we once did … eh @Catherine_Lio ?? (How did you go with that?)
Which position was Francis playing today?
ALL the position!
Doggie.
Goals (not highlights, as promised on the label) are up at:
CHB/FB.
Willly’s forward line didn’t focus on their talls though.
Backline. He showed glimpses of good but he is so far off fitness level required. I don’t know if it’s a medical issue or his makeup but he had no second effort energy all game. He goes from Hurley looking attack at the contest to a complete spent force liability in seconds. Crow has a massive project to get him up to scratch
Yeah, that was notable today — more so than usual, but then he’s been playing forward in recent times so perhaps not equivalent.
Except that if they are good enough to play in the ones, then they need to show it in the two’s. Jerrett has shown a little, but Bird not much at all.
im not evem sure he showed glimpses today… flew for a mark or two but legitimately did sfa
He took at least 1 very good mark & had a few decent kicks. You can see talent there, you can see what he is capable of if only in very brief spurts but its like he’s starting from a background of casual bush footy, there’s no sign of a kid who’s come through the system for a 3-4 years to physically prepare him for AFL. Did he have glandular fever or anything or was that just speculation round here? That would make some sense because its a glaring issue & has to have some underlying cause. Today he looked like the guys playing in the EJ Whitten match, talent there, body can’t deliver.
I agree, its just that when your papers appear to be marked there’s no motivation to perform in the 2nds. Its a terrible situation to be in just from a morale & competition viewpoint. Bird was clearly in our better players in the the early rounds of the VFL, we were desperately short of clearance players in the AFL, Myers was injured & the closest Bird got was I believe he was a non-playing emergency. He now looks like he’s not trying to play for a senior spot. Maybe thats purely my perception, maybe he’s carrying an injury or simply just out of form but again this is a guy who performed better last year than guys like Myers, Howlett & Hocking have for any full season yet after playing JLT 1, & again outperforming Howlett & Myers, was dropped the following game & not played again. Fair enough if we had a healthy midfield all year & a guy who was ranked 16th last year for average tackles, 49th in the league for average centre clearances simply wasn’t needed, then we would obviously be sitting top 4 right now right?
Again I don’t think Bird was ever going to be a star but he should have been, in my opinion & based on all the evidence I can find, in front of guys who seem to have been gifted games in front of him. We also know this year that in the games we’ve lost clearances & in particular centre clearances have been a glaringly obvious issue. Its hard enough accepting defeats when you believe we gave it our best shot let alone when you believe we are selecting poorly & exposing a weakness that consequently costs you the game.
Francis to me seems like a perfect candidate for altitude training.
Attitude training?
Run Francis Run.