Pros:

Started the game well, and fought the game out.
Murphy and Gibbs were terrific.
Waite, Judd, Simmo, Joseph, Warnock, Garlett all good players.
Like Armfield's run.
Hendo was quiet, but still managed to kick a couple of goals.
Ellard and Davies continue to show that they're going to be solid AFL players.

Cons:

Smug Freo and Mark Harvey getting the win.
After a good run with the umps for the last couple of weeks, Freo got a terrific run with the umps. Free kick goals again a real killer. Also Pavlich playing for frees whenever he went near the ball.
Giving away stupid 50 metre penalty goals.
Betts was disappointing. I knew he wasn't going to even make the distance with that first set shot from 30 metres out. Really needs to do some work on his set shot kicking.
Carrazzo's early injury.
Hammer needed to make a better contest when in the ruck duels.

Pros
Murphy
Simpson
Waite
Ellard
Davies
Garlett
Bower (was under siege all night)
Armfield breaking lines


Cons

Gibbs playing deep in defence - really needs to play across HB
Yarran - missing
Mitch Robinson's Marking
Mitch Robinson's kicking
Mitch Robinson's handpassing
The trainer's goal
Shaun Grigg and Eddie Betts Learning nothing from last week and missing easy goals
Razor Ray - take the mike away gave me the Katerina Witts all night listening to him explain his dumb frees

_________________
Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

Pros:
-Murphy back to his best, charging through the middle and not just bludging around the packs - terrific to bounce back after a restricted pre season.
-Gibbs aerial ability in defence saved us a number of times, we need two of him.
-Garlett's smarts in front of goal...may seem out of a contest but then will find a way to come back and win the contest.
-Bower I thought was good given the avalanche of ball coming in - he looked to be gaining a little bit of confidence. They had 59 inside 50s to 44 so the defence didn't do too badly.
-At centre bounces twice we used the 5th man in rather well - Yarran on one occasion and Robinson on the other - the ball in congestion but then one of these guys would come storming in and win the ball.

Cons:
-The way we setup at stoppages was abysmall - no sweeper/defensive player to stop their ball winner running straight at goal when Sandi fed it to them. They were able to run away with minimal pressure. Players maybe were positioned in a defensive positioned but then followed their man in closer to the stoppage and the ball was hitout over their heads. Need to hold that defensive position and don't follow your player in.
-Kickout strategy was abysmall as usual - you don't bomb it long to the most dominant big man on the ground yet that seemed our strategy. Our 3-4-5 setup at their kickouts was quite good but when we kicked out it was straight to Sandi.
-Robinson and Armfield - can't doubt their endevour but can we be successful when they so often give the ball straight back to the opposition. Armfield's run out of defence was brilliant but you just knew he'd give the ball up and that's what he did.

_________________
"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Pros

Battled it out
Garlett a little gem
Ellard looks like he belongs
Murphy went well

Cons

Losing another winnable game. When did we last win a close one ?
Robbo, Armfield............can't kick to save their lives
Grigg (see Robbo and Armfield)
Was Hammer fit ? Hope not
Sydney will smash us.

Also thought Grigg was pretty good, despite that shank kick for goal.

There seemed to be a lot of shepherding going on marking contests.

Pro: We have had that cauliflower McBurney 2 weeks in a row. Surely we can't get the hat trick

_________________
Cheats never prosper (except in the AFL)

Pros:
Simpson and Judd
Ellard - 12 tackles

Cons:
-Betts
-Our defenders, Bower, Jamison, Russell, all out of form.
-foot pass - I don't know why we always don't kick it to the advantage of our team mates, it's always high up in the air and the opposition can spoil our mark every time.
-channel 7's camera work, it was shithouse! the camera guy couldn't follow where the ball is, and way too many close up shots

PROs
- Waite
- Davies
- Murphy
- Gibbs
- Simmo
- Armfield
- Warnock
- Ellard


CONs
- Betts
- Bower
- Hampson
- Yarran
- The umpires


Grigg and Robinson and Scotland drifted in and out of the play too much.

All in all I thought the boys tried hard, especially with the injury (we seem to be cursed against these clowns).
Contested footy, panic & fumbles, and Sandilands killed us.

Also
Can somebody explain our forward structure and leading patterns when we go into 50??

Pros:

Finals pressure applied...we weren't quite up to it but did not cave in.

Cons:

Supporters do cave in.

I think that ought to be "supporters"

_________________
"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

PROS; SHOULD WIN NEXT WEEK HAVEN'T LOST 3 IN A ROW THIS YEAR.

Pros:

A good, tough lead up to the finals
Gibbs and Murphy.
Davies earning his stripes
Little Gun just shows more each week. His disposal is clean and also shows the way when tackling and going low into a 50/50 contest.
Garlett has passed Betts
Yarran creates. I don't care about his cons yet, at least he thinks through a situation and makes good decisions.

Cons:

Betts
Hampson

Army's runs were inspirational when we needed a spark. Wojak got his disposal right eventually need to keep encouraging Army to take it on.

Warnock
Garlett
Judds last qtr
Simpson
Ellard
Scotland looked over the hill but stood up in the last
Grigg worked hard

Pros:

Great intensity and effort
Youngsters (Davies, Hendo, Ellard) really stood up under pressure

Cons:

Lapses in concentration during 2nd and 3rd qtrs
Being a man down due to quad injury to Carrazzo
A joke that Johnson is allowed to play for them. Didn't he bring the game into disrepute?

Pros:
- last quarter. gutsy effort, 6 goals.
- murph, juddy, great. Gibbs did a good job. Grt mark in 3rd/4th. Ellard, Grigg good mostly, gutsy.
- backline: army, AJ.
- coach did something in last qtr swapping scotland and henderson
- garlett with 3 in home town
- a virtual extra final game into 12 players with less than 50 games
- made harvey look like a nervous nellie in the last
- potential pro: we go back there and get revenge

Cons:
- backline: jammo, Bower, russell, sorry but too many mistakes
- coach: didn't see much contering their defensive set up against us in first half
- Hendo, Waite? where did they go?
- eddie!? there's next week.....
- reading 'sryuss'. I'm hearing displaced vitriole froma dons supporter.
- vic government tryin to get my vote with gratuitous ads. I'm over you all pollies!

ps: leave davies alone, he's getting the pace of the game, he's contrubuting, and getting important experience.

Great effort fellas. There is (not always) next week!

Agree. Good coaching move. Good effort from Scotland to get back into the game.

PROS

We fought the game out well despite being a player down for most of the match. In fact, I thought our effort was generally good over the course of the night.
Murphy
Gibbs
Simmo
Judd
Scotland's last quarter
Return to form for AJ
Warnock, Grigg, Ellard - developing nicely.

CONS

The better side won. We weren't the better side...
We were simply not good enough when it mattered. It was a finals-type game and when Freo lifted the intensity, we really battled to stick with them. If not for their inaccuracy, the game could have easily blown out in the 3rd quarter. In the end, they had 6 more scoring shots and deserved to win.
Carrots' injury.
We gave away stupid frees/50m penalties again.
Betts has had an ordinary 2nd half of the season.
Hammer will be a ripper if those marks ever start sticking.....but when will they?
I know he's young, but the distance between Robbo's best and worst is still massive.
I felt sorry for Bower. The backline was under the pump and he was exposed again. Fingers crossed he has a big injury-free pre-season and gets his strength/confidence back. Our defence is still very much a work in progress...
Tom Harley's commentary.

_________________
It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Pros:
- Simpson busted his guts all night
- We only lost by a goal
- Theyre going to be hurting ala last year in Brisbane but we get one more chance this time. Given our ability to get ahead of ourselves, this loss could be good? (I am clearly searching for the silver lining)
- I dont want to hear anyone complaining about Gibbs down back - if he wasnt there, we would have been smashed!

Cons:
- Why didn't our players crunch the weasel Hill. He dominated us, we should have squashed him with every opportunity we got.
- Bower has no footy smarts. Continues to cost us goals weekly.
- Betts, Yarran - MIA
- Armfield - great dashes and then turnover!
- Davies - needs refinement re tackling. Gave away too many frees for sloppy tackles.
- How many times did Freo players run through us and we were caught watching!?!

(so happy my first post is finally out of the way )

congrats navyblue87 on first post

and you won't hear complaints about Gibbsy from me! (well, tonight )

PROS
Good last quarter
I thought Warnock battled well ag Sandilands
Grigg was very good
Murph v good
Gibbs very good down back - but we wanting him winning games not saving them

CONS
Too little too late. If you need to double your score at 3/4 time to win, you usually lose.
I think the margin flattered us, the Dockers don't mind going for dangerous options across goal! Ag the Swans I think a 3/4 tme 5 goal lead would have been maintained
No inexperienced excuse tonight - about 2/3 of the Dockers side seem to be less than 3 years into their careers, and can that Stephen Hill play! Who the hell was on him.
Too many guys who lack skill. AJ is just a scrubber, he did okay defensively, but some of his disposal was awful. I can't understand why we brought him in for Walker who offers much more flexibility. Surely Armfield can take the small forwards
Yarran and Eddie Betts quiet
Very very disappointing loss in a very winnable game. When the game was there to be won in the first three qtrs we had too many passengers
Hammo really struggled
Paul Bower is in dreadful form and other sides drag him deep and he looks dodgy
Juddy was good but seems to be down on his best - could his chest muscle injury be hampering him.
Army is the only guy with real serious pace who can carry the ball
Two years in a row we don't get to se the Blues in Melb in September
Hopefully we get some good performances in the Ants
All in all really, really disappointing. When the game was there to be won from 10 mins in to 3/4 time, the Dockers won it