I think I've calmed down enough to comment.
I broke a bone in my pinky slamming the desk after the last kick of the day.
Why?
Firstly because I shouldn't slam the desk.
Secondly because we should have won that game, even though Port was possibly the better side on the day.
Gibbons didn't lose us the game nor did Gray win it. The game was won and lost over 80 minutes.
Levi's miss cost us 11 points.
Murphy should have kicked that sitter.
McGovern should have had a shot from fifty instead of trying to do the team thing and get it to someone closer. He nailed one from fifty last week.
Martin missed a sitter.
The umpire coached Port when their player was about to run through the point post after a mark. That is just inexcusable. One point extra for us plus time to set up downfield. The umpires are there to adjudicate the game, not coach players.
Jones's free against Dixon was a joke. I posted last night on another site that Jones was only trying to get Dixon's hand out of his face. A couple of contests later, Jones gets knocked out of the way. Nicely played according to the commentators.
Port had similar misses to ours. I think they probably cancelled each other out.
Harry ended up with three goals but his effort overall was lackadaisical. He spent the game after his first two giving away frees. Then he bobbed up and kicked his third. I wish he had a red hot go all game.
Pittonet came back to earth. He's only played 8 games of footy so that's normal. Just so, his opponent was also inexperienced and looked a lot more comfortable out there. He has another big job next week.
We were smashed at the clearances for most of the game. Cripps is either injured or has lost too much weight. Kennedy was quiet. Murphy did nothing. Setterfield went OK.
We were beaten on the spread. They got it far too easily out of the D50. Someone would inevitably mark the ball and KNEW that there would be someone on their own on the fat side. It must have happened five or six times.
We didn't use the corridor. Last week we played daring footy and used the 45 degree kick in the wet and ran the footy. This week, we allowed Port to do that to us. We abandoned that which won us the game last week and reverted to a version of the MM tactic of long down the boundary, where our tall players were consistently beaten to the footy. I recall McKay taking a couple of marks at HB and not much else.
SPS was invisible for 3/4 of the game. It puzzles me as to why a player of his undoubted ability with ball in hand is sent down to the HBF as an intercept player. He should be running around the wings on the outside in space. In the last we had a glimpse of his skills on both sides of his body. It is obviously a different option to the 'bomb it long to a contest in the hot spot' we have been employing since Kernahan.. He and Walsh and Martin can all hit a lead up forward but I think we only did it once all night and that resulted in a point from a sitter.
That's why we lost.
Well almost.
Good teams don't panic when they are in a winning position and they take their chances. Like Port did. Like we didn't. OK, they missed three shots in the dying minutes and might easily have won by a few goals but good teams snatch those victories. Gibbons had the chance to go backwards or sideways to a short option. The umps were paying 10 metre marks all night, some even 7-8 metres. His kick followed team instructions and resulted in a PA player taking an uncontested mark in the same pack as all our talls.
Good teams don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. We have lost far too many close games in the last few years by not knowing how to win. That will come.
People on various forums are blaming the umpires for the loss. They did a shit job but that isn't why we lost. They have no idea what 15 metres looks like and they decided not to pay HTB last night, which was a joke in itself. It evens out over the match but the AFL wants an open game and for two weeks they paid everything and last night they paid 3 for the entire game, which resulted in an untidy arm wrestle after a scintillating first quarter. They didn't cost us the game but their failure to pay free kicks where they are and let teams chip the footy 7-10 metres when they are under pressure downfield is ruining the LOOK of the game and preventing an open contest. Not to mention the third man in that teams use to deliberately waste time. Powell Pepper is an expert at doing it. If a Carlton player tackles a Port player to the ground and a Port player then tackles the Carlton player to stop the ball coming out, it is holding the man every day of the week. All teams do it, including us. Why? Because the umpires let them. Same as the 10 metre chips and the receiving the tackle. Players KNOW the umps have no idea and will always play as close to the line as possible , always seeking to stretch the limits.
It was a great game of footy. It had most of the things we want to see. I think we have made the comp sit up and take notice. Certainly if we can make it into the eight with a relatively full list, we will shape the way things pan out.
A special mention to Walsh for his gutsy mark. It was a standout highlight for the game. It's a pity he didn't think about what to do next. Hand balling to Kennedy in the middle of two or three Port players wasn't the correct option.
We have to thrash Norf next week. They are on their knees. We have to be ruthless, relentless and remorseless. (They're the names of three of my books, by the way
)
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