bondiblue wrote:
Sidefx wrote:
Bondi but you may want to watch the replay.
1. LOB only slowed his pace after the bounce went wrong.
2. He was about 10-15m outside the 50m arc when he kicked it to Harry who was about 20-25m inside the arc himself, but wide open.
Should've he kept running to the 50 and had a shot on goal himself?
That would've been a pretty low % play IMO, especially with Rioli still hot on his tail.
His mistake for me was bouncing the ball that last time instead of running another 5m and kicking it.
Just bad luck that was.
You’re right about the distances sidey but the point is Rioli was labouring against fresh legs and was chasing LOB and if LOB had a tail no way Rioli was near enough to grab it, and there was plenty of opportunity for LOB to continue running into the 50 or have a ping from 50 to either score or for the ball to go out of bounds. Instead he slowed done and steadied with a chipping motion bc it wasn’t necessary to kick through the ball. Holding onto the ball too long meant his target, Harry was in a worse position against more defenders by the second.
Glad you used the word ‘mistake’’ because that’s the point of this discussion: a mistake with less than 2 minutes left on the clock whilst we were in front. Very different scenario to other mistakes after that by Weitering and Acres.
The point is have the players been drilled in the art of killing time or winning a game with 2 minutes left on the clock?
I’m happy with the result. I’m not hanging LOB but I’m not going to sit here and read that LOB made the right choice and Harry’s slip was just as damning. No way. What have the players learned over the preseason is what we all ask. Now we are finding out. It’s for real every week from now on and we need to improve on last year.
I see your point.
The Acres drop mark was inexcusable for me also, very ordinary effort from a supposedly "ready to go" mature player at his 3rd club.
But I think Weiters had it tough all day, just another mistake at the wrong time of the game.
As for LOB, I agree he probably should've kept running and had a shot himself, but if McKay was still on his feet when he decided to kick the ball, nothing could've been done to avoid what eventuated, LOB still hit the target lace out, slip or no slip.
Killing time for the last 2min of a game is what we did last year and we lost nearly every game because of that, I hope we have changed that this season.
I am happy Motlop didn't do that when he took the mark from McGlovin and he decided to feed it to LOB on the run, attack at all costs and try and put these close games away.
Plus the moment that hand ball was given there were only 2 options, run hard or get tackled by a tired but still incredibly fast Rioli. The 'excess' bouncing was the mistake in that play, as per Agro Jnr post.
Collingwood showed us how to win these games last season and they went alright, unfortunately.