Watched the replay this morning and while I don’t think we were amazing there were a couple of goods things.
Myers had a good game, the congestion suited him for the most part. Heppel out might have helped.
Redman and Guelfi played really good games and were involved some of our more exciting chains of play. Definitely looked at home in the seniors.
I thought Tippa played well too. His pressure and repeat efforts are inspirational, and he’s got 12 goals for the year. Threatens to break games open but even when he doesn’t he’s valuable.
At one stage in the 1st Q it was turning into a shoot-out and we slowed it down, switched it across the ground (back through our defensive 50) and came back the other side, brought it back into the corridor, hit up Tippa just outside 50 who got a 50m penalty for some protected zone infringement. Made me a bit nervous but it took control of the game and we probably should have done it a bit more, especially in the 3rd Q when we kept missing shots (and so did they).
Too much bombing it in when Brisbane always had players back. It was very congested up forward which made clean shots hard to get. Needed to think our way through forward entries more.
Pretty scrappy game and probably lucky Brisbane were just as crap in front of goal as we were.
A win is a win but we wouldn’t have been as lucky against the Weagles, We will need to step-up.
A good sign was that as soon as Brisbane did put the heat on and started a come back that was when we got it together. Basically we responded well to the pressure rather than capitulating.
Pretty crappy game and not a great replay to watch but good to see everyone cracking in - the effort was definitely there and we overcame the opposition in front of us.
It always look like you have other choices in slow motion. In real time he didn’t really. It really was just an “oh ■■■■” and brace yourself moment for both the players.
The midfield actually seems to be improving in my eyes. Skipworth not doing too bad of a job, dare i say it, we need two skippy’s, so that he can go back to being the forward line coach too. Gee the forward line is an absolute shambles. It kinda reminds me of the hird days with a shitload of entries but no ability to score or none of them really being clean. I know the personnel in there at the moment aren’t great, but if your systems are working well in modern footy any old spud seems to be able to have a day out (cox, half of richmond, hoskin elliot, mihoceck, lecras etc).
So good to get the win, but we seem to be a fair way off it still.
You are right about the quality of the game, but a lot of that comes down to the way the opposition lines up.
Brisbane tried to clog up our forward line as much as possible, they were really defensive and didn’t really take us on. We kept trying to play our fast brand of football which worked and could have really opened them up by another 4-5 goals (even missing our captain for most of the match) if they’d tried to take us on.
We stuck to our guns and won, unlike in recent times when we have lost to rubbish teams who only wanted to defend. Has to count for something.
We usually do okay against good teams who don’t pay us any respect - we struggle against teams who know we are better and shut up shop.
I think we struggle against teams that really know how to set up a co-ordinated zone. Teams that play a bit more free flowing we usually do well against. Brisbane are pretty attacking this year, maybe a bit less so over the weekend though. Eagles will be a good test they are really organised.
Our forward line has SMack, Brown, Baguely and a returning Green. Its VFL quality of course they are struggling. Were not going to see better until some of our cattle returns.
And until the f***ers realise that the forward line is the goal side of the centre. Worst tactic ever! If they bring in zones, which i deplore, it might keep the bludgers able to be used as forward targets.