carntheblues wrote:
Interesting article on AFL website by Riley Beveridge on the role of the wingers. I quote: " Clubs believe that external assessment s of their wingers are often impossible, such are the unforeseen roles they play away from the ball" They talk of Ed Langdon exemplifying this new winger role. I watched him carefully last night with Melbourne playing GWS, he didn't get a lot of the ball but nearly always was in the frame. I will watch our wingers very closely today. Personally fom the 2 games I have been to this year, I thought Setterfield was pretty good. I think the selections not only reflect more running, but also more aggression around the ball.
Good assessment. Setterfield has been very good at getting back into defence to assist.
Our balance around the stoppages will be interesting today. Last week Witts hit the ball to space whilst Cripps was still getting inside the stoppage hoping to win the hard ball. With TDK not competing, Cripps effectiveness was markedly reduced. His opponent was probably BOG at 1/4 time. We were killed at the stoppages around the ground and Port are very strong in that area.
Dont be fooled by Ports place on the ladder. They win plenty of ball, they kept Melbourne below 70 points last week without Allir and they can still win plenty of inside/outside ball. They still 1st in the AFL for clearances and tackles so their work rate and endeavour hasn't dropped off. Converting inside 50s to score has been their problem. Gray coming back will definitely help that.
We need big games from Kennedy, Cerra and a huge game from Pittonet today. In the past he's come up against second string ruckman and failed to impact as he should. They'll come in with a lot of belief after we folded last time against them. The challenge is there for our players to show they're better than that now.
After tipping us to lose last week, I'm tipping us to fall in today. By under 10 points.
But a win's a win. Our next 2 weeks will be tougher assignments.