Good one!
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Puts belief in the rebuild
During the game peeps had Draper staying in Adelaide in 2 weeks time, not coming back.
āWhen I said winning a game against Port in R3 was meaningless everyone mocked me on Blitz - now whoās laughingāā¦ Sarah Jonesā¦ or @jonovdpā¦ at r17 or something
I donāt see why Roberts couldnāt play in defence more permanently. He looked pretty comfortable playing on Rioli as our deepest player for a patch tonight.
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Just realized next game is gather round and Iāll be in attendance! yew
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Watching on tv I think this is the most Iāve seen Brad animated in the box at one point it looked like he was yelling on the phone
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Some thoughts:
- Durham and Caldwell are now the two best players after Merrett, who are our heartbeat.
- Caddy and Kako will be elite players, even if we donāt do development of youth well, they will come through like Merrett.
- Hobbs stepped up big time tonight. Loved his contest work and how he got the handballs out.
- Loved Robertsā game, where he kept competing hard and produced his best game for the club.
- After poor first two games, Reid looked like he belonged out there. He looked very comfortable with ball in hand, and I didnāt see him lose a contest.
- We need a couple of speedy players to create from defence and wingsā¦ who can use the ball well. Our kick out of defence and kick into forward 50 are quite not to standards.
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Lots of talk during the week about defending. I think we did it a little bit when it really counted.
Port win the ball off Draperās tap from the throw in before Redmanās goal. But Wines has no one forward to go to, so he hesitates for half a moment, and handballs backwards. Pressure is invited, the second handball misses, and we go fkn bang.
Defence can and will be taught by Scott (El Hawli with literally five minutes of AFL experience as part of this one), it will just take time to happen all the time and during free play.
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Hobbsā inside craft is good. Just watched the replay of the last 1/4 and he looked like someone who could be a significant cog in our midfield. Scott must use him as an inside mid. Playing him anywhere else is a waste. His game tonight probably ended Setterfieldās career.
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Happy to get the win. Based on how we played, I donāt think weāll win too many more. Thatās not a bad thing. The young guys showed good signs and the team tried hard all night. Thatās all I want to see this year. Improved skills would be nice but our team balance is all over the place so I wonāt get my hopes up.
We started with great intent and tackled like we had been wanting the match to arrive all week. Once we missed a few easy shots on goal, we went back into our shells and started looking disjointed like last week. It took us half of the 1st and 2nd quarters to find any kind of momentum again. Eventually it came late in the 2nd and we looked the better side from that point onwards.
I was shocked by how bad Port were. They looked every bit like a side who lost by 90 points a couple of weeks ago. I kept expecting their better players to fire up once it became clear we werenāt rolling over, but they got worse as the game went. Their supporters must be disgusted with how they played.
The last quarter was great fun in the stands. Kako setting up Caddy and SEH/Kako combining to send Martin into a running goal were absolutely the highlights for me. Our disposal by this stage was actually looking close to āgoodā and we had runners all over the ground. It was similar to the GWS game last year where the fans were recognising that our players were putting in the effort to kill every ball and make it theirs. Finishing chances was still an issue and I doubt this will really change all year.
Whenever we looked like we had left the corridor too open for Port to counter attack, theyād turn the ball over at almost every opportunity. The missed handball that led to Redmanās goal was appalling on their part. I cannot understate how bad Port were tonight. They would finish bottom 4 easily if they played like that every week.
Notes on players:
Reid: So happy with his improved performance tonight. His positioning and kicking (except 1 going inside 50) was more like the Reid Iāve seen in training. Hopefully he can kick on from here.
McKay: Wasnāt great early but the crowd really have it in for him. I donāt see what help the bronx cheers are meant to be. The guy was playing an acceptable game by the end but still copped it. Weird.
McGrath: Seriously poor game defensively, which is rarely my complaint with him. Was often barely close to his man which he has no excuse for due to his athletic ability. I donāt understand him sometimes.
Redman: Best heās looked for ages.
Prior: At halftime, Iād never wanted someone dropped more. Might have saved himself in the second half but Iād still consider dropping him.
Ridley: Looked pretty good but perhaps lacking some match fitness.
Roberts: More good than bad. Tried his guts out. I can see him in the side for a long time.
Shiel: Unfortunately there is no such thing as ājust cleaning up his disposalā. Got plenty of it but man did he butcher kicks needlessly all night. Still think his body contact isnāt good enough. Itās a dilemma what to do with Shiel if Tsatas is fit, considering he played mostly midfield tonight.
Merrett: Slightly below par.
Caldwell: Got the ball but uncharacteristically made some terrible skill errors.
Durham: Would be lucky to have hit a barn door but won the pill and easily beat Rosee.
Hobbs: Epitomised the team in that he through himself at every contest but rarely executed well. I still like him in the team, though I fear for his spot.
Martin: This might be harsh but I thought he was pretty disappointing. Often was trailing his man on transition and didnāt look particularly bothered about it. Asids from his goal I thought he wasnāt clean enough with his hands or disposal. Concerning that his kicking seems to be becoming more inconsistent as time goes on.
Duursma: Great performance. Arguably our best. Should have kicked a goal though.
Bryan: Was just OK until the 4th quarter where I thought he was excellent.
Draper: Very good aside from one thoughtless hoof inside 50 in the 4th. When the ball goes near him, itās either his or in dispute, which is so useful for us as a forward target. Heās nailing his snaps for goal and thankfully the crowd started to recognise that fact.
Kako: No goal but love the flashes of class we are seeing from him.
Jones: He was OK. Poor missed shot on goal sticks out to n my mind.
Gresham: Had a big impact in the 1st half. Faded a bit and made a couple of mistakes but generally the kind of performance weād be happy to see every week.
Menzie: Still canāt believe he missed that shot on goal in the 1st quarter. Definition of fringe player barely keeping his spot.
Edwards: Bizarrely lacked the intent he had last week in a much slower paced game. Looked weaker and slower than he did against the Crows, too. Almost certain to be dropped.
Caddy: Finally found the footy and got off the mark for the year. My favourite thing about him is how he brings the crowd info the game. He celebrates other playersā goals more than anyone else. Itās like having a supporter on the field doing what we all dreamed of doing as kids. One day it will all click for him and it will be glorious.
SEH: Desperately brought some run to the side. Hoping he starts against Melbourne as the team is still too slow across the board.
Last thought:
Despite our teamās inability to lead at almost every opportunity, we sure did our best possible job of discouraging any remaining leads from our forwards tonight. Caddy was burned time and time again by our mids, and when they did spot him, the kick usually gave him no chance. Even Lloyd would have struggled in this side.
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No Perkins and Tsatas through half forward or midfield, and Jones not on the wing, and our pressure rating is instantly up. Itās not a coincidence.
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I canāt beleive thereās no perkins. Akso itās ver hard to beleive no Rifley!?
Thatās some truth and Iāll say so
Itās incredible how schizophrenic Blitz is. Last week you were delisting everyone and now the list is decent. Lol.
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He traded that goal
At this point itās a correlation. I wouldnāt give the rest of the team a pass for the Adelaide game.
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Yeah good post,
The disposal efficiency was pretty garbage across the team.
Last night the hawks would have still sliced us up.
Just enjoy the choccies. Scott was clear in the presser we got our defensive pressure where it needed to be.
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Anyone have the average age and games played of the two clubs last night?
And where do you find that?