Anyone who attends training often will know a lot of our training is about repetition.
Repeatedly doing the basics.
Denis doesnt like to complicate the issue too much.
Compete fiercely, be efficient in your ball use and do the basics well.
We probably let ourselves down in most of those aspects yesterday.
The basics
Basics like getting back from the mark after you've taken a mark or basics like jumping at the ball and taking the mark at your highest reach with arms extended.
I watch drills at training repeatedly aimed at these basics yet today I saw numerous occasions where our lack of attention to these details cost us forward 50 entries and goals.
Efficiency
Inefficiency hurt us more than anything else today.
Denis often says his football philosophy is based on getting the ball inside 30 as quickly as possible.
Today the Kangas got the ball there more than us but also kicked 7 goals from within 30 metres.
We kicked 2.
Our failure to convert was our biggest problem. We had enough shots, we just wasted them.
In the first quarter we kicked 3 goals 5 yet 3 of those behinds were quite kickable.
4 of the Kangas 9 behinds were rushed yet 3 of our 13 were.
In simple terms, 10 of our behinds were a result of poor kicking.
Double that of our opposition.
Davies missing 2 shots from 15 metres is a perfect example.
Competing fiercely.
Our midfielders didnt have a great day but on the whole they worked hard.
Grant and Piciaone had roughly 50% of their possession in the last quarter which indicates our midfielders ran out of steam.
Campo fell back into some old habits which were disappointing to see.
Kouta was quality with more than double the clearances of anyone on the ground.
Prender was efficient and Stevens ran his guts out.
Scotland was strong in the contest but tried to create the play too often instead of moving the ball quickly.
The workrate of our forwards was a big problem.
They failed to work for each other or to work hard in general.
Not only were Red and Fev shadowed by the performance of Norths key forwards but the stats of their own opponents paint a poor picture.
Brown and Watt had 30 possessions between them and 13 marks compared to 17 disposals and 6 marks for Red and Fevola.
Too often our forwards ran to the same space or gave individual options instead of laying blocks and creating space for each other.
I watched Carey conducting drills this week where blocks and screens were used to create options.
For this to work, players need to sacrifice their own game for the benefit of the team.
Our forwards worked for themselves against the Roos.
As an example, in the last 5 minutes Whitnall had a shot at goal whilst Fevola and his opponent were 10 metres out.
Instead of shepherding his opponent from the spoil, Fev stood there and allowed Brown to touch the ball on the line.
Gameplan.
I've read some posters who believe our gameplan failed or we were outcoached by Laidley.
To me, yesterday reinforced how effective our gameplan is.
Our midfielders were quiet, they had no bench relief, we lost our full back and our forwards played selfish football.
Yet we were still in the game halfway through the last quarter.
Had we kicked with the efficiency we have enjoyed the last 12 months, we could have won.
Many teams are going to employ different tactics during games. Our players need to act on their feet and be smarter than they were yesterday.
We'll have many more exciting times than yesterday delivered.
The structure is in place, we have quality young players who will learn a lot from yesterday.
|
).
)
