Personally I think it wasn't just the last 20 minutes of the first half that cost us, it was failing to capitalise on the good work early in the third. We should have won that term convincingly, and instead we took the foot off the pedal. A lot of fumbled football and an unwillingness to go hell for leather at the contested ball and force the Pies to react to a disruption to their setup and systems of play.
Aside from that, I really, really cannot stress enough that Duigan is proving himself to be weak link in our back line at this point. He's gone from lacking agility, to lacking agility and smashing into his own players at critical moments, to all of the above and not willing to run back the other way when required. He's not a man-on-man defender 70% of the time at this level because opponents will smash him, but he's not playing a zone properly either. He needs to go and work on his lateral movement, because at the moment he has none.
blue4 wrote:
Waite plays his best foortball in the backline and thats where he should stay all year.
Not even remotely true. Waite did a fair bit tonight, roamed around 3/4 of the ground on the roll down (perhaps too much) and worked hard to fly for many a grab. Didn't waste a shot on goal and didn't snuff anyone out with stupid aggression.
Good game from Jarrad, and tired of hearing from all and sundry that it wasn't.
Sydney Blue wrote:
not one player from the 2009 ND PSD Rookie draft or trade period played tonight and none look like getting a game or making a impact anytime soon except maybe Hendo
We didn't pick anyone in the 2009 PSD... other than that Lucas & Hendo are a chance next week. White was rightly dropped and Davies & Kerr will be handy as the medium defender & HF when called upon.