Blue Vain wrote:
We were exposed structurally which going to happen when you're winning games. Teams will put more time into finding your weaknesses. But we still made some poor decisions and failed to adapt to the conditions and performance/structures of our opponent.
Our mids hunted the ball with a ruckman who couldn't compete. Anderson had about 6 or 7 clearances in the first quarter mainly playing on Cripps. Cripps went in for the ball, the GC won it, flicked it outside and their mids were off and running. Witts dominated us around the ground at stoppages and they took full advantage. TDK was able to jump OK in the centre square but when Witts could body him up, he was virtually ineffective.
We needed a ruckman that could reduce his effectiveness but it didn't happen.
I was also disappointed to see GC hit up targets on the point of the centre square from kick ins on a couple of occasions which really opened us up. NM have done it to us the past couple of years and we should be better prepared. As frustrating as it is to concede a wide, short option from point kick ins, it should always be preferable to conceding 50 -60 metre hit ups. Especially in the corridor.
Pull the zone back, cover the corridor better and give them the wide option. That closes the ground up for the second kick options and gives you an opportunity to then tighten the zone.
The defenders are going OK, Saad in particular has been excellent. Our forward line has potency but it still lacks consistency. We missed Durdin.
Our mids had a poor game but it's hard work when your ruck is being dominated. You can play man on man but they just hit it to space and ran onto the ball. That's hard to nullify.
I like the rumour about the players having gastro and hope it's true. Especially the midfield. They were very disappointing as a collective.
But I don't buy the vitriol against the players by the usual suspects who turn up after a loss. We had a bad day, GC are playing a strong sustainable brand of footy and the one player we couldn't afford to lose against them was Pittonet.
Our pressure rating in games has been high and it was still quite good on Sunday. Get Pitto and Durdin back, tighten up some of our tactical/structural errors and I'm tipping us to win.
Spot on BV.
I've noticed a few times we have been pulled wide and left the corridor open with someone belting back into it....
GC were prepared to take it on and it worked.
Further, with the dominant ruck, they ran off the back of the square and 'someone' was not running with them.... Mind you, we have executed that with Doc and Saad in earlier games. but we're defending the same strategy against GC... Weird....
The bombing to the forwards looked like crap because of the inability to apply ground pressure.... Remember round 1!
Anyway got your wish... Pittonet and Durdin are back...
I'm happy about that too
Go Blues