jimmae wrote:
In: Ellard, Houlihan, Thornton
Out: Lucas (inj), Carrazzo, Jamison
Very much a tale of two halves today.
Gibbs was continually moved around and punished by his team mates in the first half, fine in the second. He may not be setting the world on fire, but he's not really getting the chance to.
Murphy was absolutely woeful in the first half; completely lacking confidence, and at one point gave away a shot he would have been happy to take mere weeks ago. In the second half he was about as defensively disciplined as I have ever seen him. In my opinion, he saved his bacon with that form reversal.
Russell, Armfield, Walker, Bower, Joseph and even Jamison were victims of the lack of pressure in midfield. Jamison, however, was woeful in everything but following his man. Has to go back to the VFL, which is where he should have gone last week. In comes the bloke who should have stayed.
Waite was all over the shop at times but so was the rest of the team in Ratten's ridiculous roll down. I'm glad he abandoned zone defending in the midfield for the second half; we looked much better for it. However he's been instructing the players on zones seems to be confusing them, as they zoned off and closed down much better in their attempt at a man-on-man defence. Back to Waite: he deserves another week despite his inept and lazy field kicking, simply because he had a dip.
Robinson was definitely the victim of the coaches instructions. He is not a modern day half-forward, and never will be.
Judd, Scotland and Simpson were consistently put under pressure by their team mates ball movement and the surface, and then when those two didn't get at them, the weight of their own expectations seemed to. They need a bit of help.
Henderson, Garlett, Yarran & Betts all had a real dip and all looked dangerous for periods of the game despite the midfield allowing Sydney to set up something of a siege; their necks are spared.
That leaves Carrazzo; how a senior player can be so mindless and self-satisfied is beyond me. Since the Saints game, his stopping jobs have been over-hyped, and consistently inconsistent. This guy keeps getting a free pass when he should be a candidate to win the ball inside, and provide protection for our other clearance players. It seems he has sacrificed just about every other aspect of his game to be our midfield shut-down guy. Time for a break, because apparently the half-time bake did not help you.
Finally, an issue presents itself with Lucas having another hamstring twinge: why are our players coming off as lacking zip, or incapable of laying a bump? Are we over-working them during the week, or are we under-supervising their conditioning and they're taking short cuts with stretching, physio, etc. I know Cordy does his job well, but what about the physio and medico staff that work with him, or does it come from the coaching side of things exerting pressure to get required players in the match-day mix? We have had a number of players hit a physical wall, and very few of them have recuperated.
If Houlihan isn't right to go, I'd think about bringing in one of Johnson or Tuohy.
Great post Jimmae, spot on!
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