TruBlueBrad wrote:
Besides the fact you think you know better than the MC jim, I have no idea why you think that.
Not surprised you're going to bring it up now though and I guess we'll have a whole summer of you banging on about it.
BigKev wrote:
I thought Davies and Ellard did their jobs ok.
The problem was our first choice KPP forward was out, (Waite).
Our second choice KPP forward was out, (Kreuzer).
And then our third choice went down. (Hope you're ok T-Bird).
That's just bad luck.
We were carved for a few goals from bad defensive positioning when the turn over occurred. All of our players with pace stream forward, and we're left with the flat-footed types to chase down the kick over the top?
There's two solutions to that:
1) Have a spare athletic small or tall back there with the rest of them (Hampson, as an example)
2) Have runners who can double up and sprint back the other way (Lucas, as an example)
Warnock needed to be spelled by someone who could compete, because Cox & NicNat just waltzed it out when Setanta went up, and our forward line disintegrated after half-time when he had to do that. Hampson would have helped.
Furthermore, Setanta doing this tired him out and robbed him off the explosive power in his legs for periods. For this and other reasons he lost his cool and costs us frees & 50s. Warnock grew tired for periods and conceded frees in ruck contests because of this; provided some meeker efforts in ruck contests because of this.
I'm not saying these would have all evaporated but a significant percentage would have been shaved off.
Ellard & Davies didn't play badly but I honestly feel the selections I've mooted would have given us an extra 10 to 15% output on top of each player's efforts, and potentially another 5-10% for our midfield unit through better results in the ruck. Tuohy's form vs. the Saints & in the VFL was of a level that you knew he could come into the midfield and contribute and contribute well. He didn't make a single mistake tonight and was bloody brilliant. Imagine if we'd given him four quarters to shine.
Finally, I know people might say otherwise, but it's obvious to me that we have no edge in our fitness work, and despite how far we were coming back from on that front, we have not acquired the skills and expertise to excel in this area, and we certainly do not play a game style to take advantage of it.
Next year I want to see the game plan tweaked to accommodate:
- Looking off both flanks when at kick outs or looking off the corridor in a time-off situation on either wing; we do not broaden our focus in these situations
- Positioning well defensively and offensively for pack spills, which we are extremely poor at and it costs us goals at either end every game; some are getting better at this but some are like headless chooks
- Positioning better and offering more variety at clearances, particularly taps that exceed a metre in lateral distance
- A better understanding of when to take proper possession of the ball and when to knock the ball on; this is still a problem
I am so tired of sitting down to a game and watching these mistakes occur over and over again with clearly zero work done on improving these, but seemingly coaches critiquing players for not meeting the original blueprint better. I am so tired of seeing a limited vision and imagination of what can be accomplished with our playing list at the selection table.
And if anyone says Hampson had ankle injury mid week: he trained yesterday. He was right if we wanted to play him. We need two players in the team who can genuinely ruck at AFL level AT ALL TIMES.
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