Teddy Hopkins wrote:
Said previously the turning point was when Zorko went off injured, was strapped up and came back on and played the rest of the game in the forward pocket. Effectively useless. BOG up until then with Neale.
Cripps still a genius.
Zorko who had 9 possessions until half time and 2 clearances for the game?
The difference was the midfield and Zorko had little influence in there. Once Lachie Neale was shut down that was the difference. 25 possessions to half time and then he wins the first centre clearance of the third and puts it down McStays throat for a goal. After that he had 5 possessions for the game and zero influence. That was the ball game.
From that point we won 12 of the next 13 clearances including 5 centre clearances to zero.
That translated to 16 of the next 18 Inside 50's.
As much as Teague will get the credit, it was actually Ed who called the change onto Neale. Paddy Dow started on Neale in the 3rd and after he ran too easily off Paddy and set up their goal in the first 10 seconds of the third quarter. Ed Curnow told Paddy to take his opponent and Ed went to Neale with the tight tag. From that point it was a master class from Ed.
Neale couldn't handle to pressure and spent too much energy trying to get physical instead of winning the ball.
Personally, I thought it was a good result for the players, supporters and the club in general.
The supporters at the game were loving it!
I thought we overpossessed the footy too much early and refused to go long into forward 50 which frustrated the hell out of me.
Especially Cripps and Fish who have this little waxing thing going between them that doesn't always benefit the team.
The reality is we were winning 56% of our offensive one on ones (compared to the Lions 33%) so we needed to take advantage of that.
Once we started putting long balls inside forward 50 before players had the opportunity to drop back, we started taking marks in good scoring positions.
I thought our taller defenders were huge today. Levi, Weiters, Marchbank and Plowman were fantastic.
Simmo and Daisy were good but their constant calling for the ball when they're not in an advantaged position drives me nuts.
Newman was so-so again.
Walsh was huge. His run from contest to contest is amazing. It was also good to see him start in the middle.
We still need to work on the positioning of our tall forwards but they're getting there. Harry has enormous ability but his forward craft is too often lacking. His positioning ahead of the contest is too often lazy or dumb. He consistently allows his opponent the space on the contest side of the ground and a player like Andrews will nullify his influence most times.
All up, a good day to be a Blue. I'm even happy to watch the football shows and read the paper again.