As always, the Dank/EFC/ASADA/WADA Show delivers.
But enough of the click-bait! Let us sample the review threads. Click the club name for the full thread.
Friday, August 7
Adelaide Crows 11.22.88 def Richmond 8.4.52
“Good
- Absolutely dominated them in every way. Clearances, tackles, possessions, pressure, inside 50s, shots on goal, defence. We executed our plan well and Richmond looked absolutely lost.
- Played the kids and it worked. See ya later Wright.
- Jacobs was immense in the middle
- Talia was great down back, Hartigan to a lesser extent as well
- Smith found form, Sloane found form
- Dangerfield, Lyons, Crouch, Thompson, Sloane great through the middle, supported well by Atkins, Laird, and even Henderson at times
- Walker monstering “All Australian defender” Rance, despite being a little inaccurate.
- Defensive pressure across the ground was better tonight, and we looked switched on.
- Mackay as the sub worked well, came on and appeared to actually have an impact
- Jenkins clunking some great contested marks at times
Bad
- Van Berlo still not up to it. Some horrible turnovers and lack of pressure. I paid particular attention to his performance and it was lackluster, should bring in someone from the SANFL in his place
- Didn’t think Knight deserved to get subbed off considering his effort.
- Martin too good for Brown one-on-one
Ugly
- Shots on goal. 22 behinds is a terrible effort, we should have dominated them by more.” – Scorpus
“Good: 33 shots to 12
Bad: 11.22
Ugly: Only won by 36.” – Iron
“Didn’t deserve to win at all we were shocking all night. Umpires deserve to be take out the back of AO and shot. No Lids, no Richmond, Grimes went down too which hurt us. Should get Lids and Edward back next week. Hope Grimes OK – really important to our defensive structure.” – Groupie_
“Yay no longer contenders. Pressure off. Tigers by 50 next week.” – tigs2010
“Could analyse it to within an inch of it’s life, but I don’t see the point. Just obliterated in every facet and whilst Adelaide were very good and credit too them, we aren’t THAT bad. Team should bin this one and move on.” – rideclutch
Saturday, August 8
Collingwood 16.9.105 def Carlton 13.9.87
“Good to be back in the winners circle but the way we got the win left a lot to be desired. One theory this and the Melbourne games can put to bed at least is the idea that our drop of form between between before and after the bye was due to the fact we avoided the top 8 teams pre bye and got found out after. Playing like we’ve played against Melbourne and Carlton shows it was more than just the fixture. I think we were really good in the Freo and Hawks game and parts of the Port one but our last 4 games have been really poor in level of play, structure and intensity and this regardless of whether the end sheet shows a W or a L and what opposition we faced. Hopefully this time the fact it’s a W gives us a bit of confidence going forward.
As for the Carlton game itself, I think there was a difference between our first and second halves. We were pretty poor in both but for different reasons:
In the first half, we dominated every stat possible and were much better in general play, we just failed to capitalise by over-handballing and being shy in the way we drove the ball forward, and really gifted Carlton their goals through our mistakes in defence (Adams‘ terrible backwards kick, Maynard‘s dropped mark, our stuff up on the boundary line after a poor long kick out of defence). We should have been further in front at half time.
In the second half it was a conjunction of:
– Our very poor clearance game. Carlton got the first 5 clearances of the second half and we were gone after that, let Murphy and Cripps dominate at stoppages. To me that’s due to putting the wrong midfield mix there, with Williams spending way too much time at centre bounces, Langdon too much time in the midfield and Pendles not enough; and to the fact that Grundy tired and struggled to hit it out to advantage in the second, which to me says he needed a realy back up ruck and not Reid to spent 10 seconds there and Moore 5 seconds, when Grundy isn’t yet capable of rucking a whole game or even 90% of a game
– Poor ball use (Pendles excluded) and our inability to create chains of play when transitioning from defence to offence.
– Horrible umpiring.
I think Reid and Fas showed that with them, Elliott, Cloke and with the emergence of Moore, along with a serviceable White we do not have a forward line problem. I’ve been thinking and saying this all season but our main problem to me is that our midfield lacks offensive power and lacks to ability to force the opposition to go defensive. I don’t really see the solution in our current playing list so that’s what I’d like to club to put as a priority for this trade period.” – Vankri
“Marc Murphy – you are an absolute superstar. Cripps is well on the way as well. ” – Jatz
“Can everyone finally put the constant discussion about Levi Casboult‘s goalkicking to bed now? Sick of hearing about it from commentators every time he touches the footy. He’s now played 52 AFL games, so we’ve got a fair sample size to look at. 22.26 in his first 26 games, but 31.16 in his last 26 games. Perfectly fine conversion rate for a key forward.” – Damon_3388
“Clem Smith, Dylan Buckley and Nick Holman are exciting players to watch, but they are pretty much the reason why we have lost. Momentum killers they are. Not enough discipline. Gave away goals on a platter.” – NavyBlueTJ35
“Skills are atrocious, and who’d want to be a forward with that supply, but there’s something going on in the middle… Krooz, MM & Cripps… who’da thunk the transition from Judd to Number 9 would be so smooth.
Young players like Boekhurst, Holman & Whiley showed real signs, obviously at this stage of development they haven’t the tanks to run games out, but give them a couple of solid pre-seasons and they are on their way.” – Stig O’Hara
“The Good:
Murph – clearly back to 11′ form, what a star.
Cripps – amazing.
Boekhurst – keeps getting better.
Simpson – Mr Reliable as aways.
Holman – tough and good skills
Whiley – came on as the sub and effective.
Everitt– proving to be our most dangerous forward.
Bad:
Clem Smith– A little hard on the kid but was clearly out of place out there.
Curnow – couldnt nullify his opponents impact – skills are atrocious.
Wood – completely ineffective
White – shocking job on pendles
Touhey – been one of our best this season, had a shocker today. ” – feffs93
Western Bulldogs 19.41.128 def Port Adelaide 9.10.64
“Michael Talia, a key position defender, had more possessions than Port Adelaide’s highest possession winner on the ground.” – ossie_21
“Outstanding from everyone, we just didn’t let them win anything contested. Chasing and tackling immense, great spread of goal kickers, Bont was all class, Wallis work in tight faultless. September here we come!” – James_B_101
“Really wondered how our backline would hold up with Murphy out. when was the last time he missed a game? good to see Biggs, Hamling, Talia and of course Boyd keeping it all in sync. From the first time we lost to them this years, shows the improvement all around the ground. Big Red stepping up when Dicko was subbed. All the mid field just getting harder each game. ” – Doggies1972
“Play of the day: Pittard & Paddy’s hilarious double-act in the goalsquare that cost us a goal.
Honourable mention: b0ydman for his tapatalk posts that read like indecipherable code and required Good Will Hunting to crack them.
Below is the exact moment the penny dropped for Ken and he had to admit the horrible truth.
‘We suck. We suck balls. Big hairy balls.'” – Magpiespower
“Best moment for me came in the press conference. I’m sure it’s already been mentioned but Ken seemed really genuinely disappointed. He’s covered for cruising players all year but today was the last straw as the season flatlined.
I think the coaching staff can take a look in the room of mirrors too as our players seem so reactive to play and so determined to guard a piece of grass rather than be proactively aggressive like teams of the ilk of Hawthorn, Sydney or the reborn West Coast Eagles. Sliding zones are all well and good but we were one handball behind the movement of the ball all day.
And still the players continue to let down the club the coaches supporters with poor skills and lazy unaccountable footy. It’s not good enough to turn up for 15 minutes. There are a few players who may not have played their last game but have surely played their last season for Port.” – Ford Fairlane
Brisbane Lions 14.16.100 def by Gold Coast SUNS 17.12.114
“Disappointing result in the end but I enjoyed the game overall. I mean we played some shocking football at times but we are sitting 18th on 2 wins. I was expecting that. I was impressed with the boys ability to fight back every time the Suns looked on the verge of blowing the game wide open when they were ahead by 4 goals at times. Silver lining to the loss is that we are guaranteed one of Schache or Weitering.
Rocky, Zorko and Hanley were back to their best form or at least close. Bundy played imo his best game for the club so far. Was very classy! Robbo cracked in as always. McGuane made a successful return Lewy Taylor kicked some beautiful goals! Stef Martin worked hard all day. McStay played well in a new role. Andrews and Dawson both took strong marks in defence and are great finds from the academy.
I could go on and on but overall I thought there were some positives to take out of that game and the only fans who will be super pissed are those who built up an expectation of a win today.
Can’t wait to watch the boys smash the Blues next week
P.S. Can I just highlight the goals that McStay and Lewy kicked in that last term? Two absolute fantastic goals! McStay under pressure, tight on the boundary line in the wrong pocket for a left footer and Lewy weaving and dodging his way through multiple Suns defenders in heavy traffic before slotting a terrific, snap goal. Showed star qualities in both.” – lionshine
“Interesting ‘worm’. Suns stood up when it mattered and took advantage of a lapse in intensity from us and never looked back. Also 13 of the top 15 possession getters in the end. Don’t lose many games if you can manage that.” – jackess
“Hall was amazing. 28 disposals, 82% efficiency, 1 goal and 3 goal assists!” – Jazny
“Bit of a scrappy game at times, but we looked alright for the most part. we kind of let the lions run loose a bit with the possessions, but our pressure was fairly good when they tried to handball quickly.
Hall was bloody brilliant. I’ve been pretty harsh on hall for… well pretty much forever haha. But he was great! Lynch was awesome once again. pretty good signs, hopefully we can build some form for the last few games. ” – exile
“Safe to say Rocket wasn’t happy with Matera at halftime.” – GcSunsfan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G2q0ABZovk
West Coast Eagles 11.8.74 def by Hawthorn 13.10.88
“Positives:
+ Got punched in the mouth and wrestled it back. Obviously hugely disappointing that we didn’t hold on, but with no NN I think we did ourselves proud for long stretches
+ Kennedy has the Coleman wrapped with 4 today
+ Still in control of top 2, up 2 points on the Hawks with Freo, Adelaide, Bulldogs and Saints to come
+ Hutch and Lycett were immense, good on them for taking their opportunity
Negatives:
– Too fumbly, too many brain fades, not clean enough
– Didn’t capitalise when we can, two misses in particular really hurt us
– Gov injury, LeCras will cop weeks
– A win would have been massive and sealed top 2, no chance to rest now.” – Honeybadger35
“The boys will be better for it.
We’re so young and inexperienced in BIG games.
We’re still learning about ourselves.
With Naitanui and Sinclair out I though we’d get smashed. Was so proud of the boys effort and really feel we can go all the way.
We can match it with the best. ” – Prem87
“At the end of the day we are still a little short on talent, which speaks volumes for our system.
That was the big positive for me. The system stood up. Individual talent did us in the end. Nic makes up for that somewhat with the extra clearances and subsequent forward entries we gain in total.
I still think we can improve and learn from that. You can’t have Hawks players waltzing through three tackles and I can see some positioning to work on the next time we meet.
There is however a small talent deficit. I hate saying it, but no Nic to cover that means we’d be unlikely to beat them on the MCG.
Put simply, he has to play.” – Goosecat
“Call me arrogant, but when a team gets the better of us it’s because we play bad. Although they couldn’t hold on, West Coast had the better of us for much of the game despite Hawthorn playing reasonably well.
West Coast are the real deal. I’m sure we will meet again. Desperately missing Spangher and Lake…” –
“Ball was out by a meter but Hawks got a goal
Burgoynes 2013 PF flashback goal
Cyril‘s mark and goal.
Well done boys, top 2 back on the table ” – Hedgehodgy
“Sam Mitchell you ****en legend. Did I also hear correctly Sheils had 17 tackles? Holy crap. ” – Flamin Joe
“Easily best win of the year. Rioli & Breust asloutely superb! ” – Bedi
“WCE played very, very well and we responded brilliantly. I am feeling very positive about this season right now. ” – Badesumofu
Geelong Cats 14.11.95 def Sydney Swans 9.9.63
“Catters get home by 32 in Sels 200th!!!!” – dazbroncos
“Great attitude. Kept on plugging away and never dropped our heads even in the first half when we were coughing it up every 2nd kick. Battled away until we found our rhythm” – RegHickeyStand
“Great four quarter effort, we haven’t showed intent like that for quite a while.
Felt that Sydney lost the game at selection. Having Tippet as their ruckmen was an awful decision, he was beaten by Blicavs and his absence from there forwardline made it ineffectual. Kolodjashnij was great against Goodes.” – 10lana
“- Caddy is very fast, moves so well for someone his size. Has all the tools to become a top 20 player in the comp
– Stokes is gone
– It makes a hell of a difference when the mids are getting over 20 touches a game rather than 15-20 like earlier in the year
– Cockatoo has a serious problem with his endurance. Should not have been playing, kept falling over due to fatigue and was exhausted after every run.
– We don’t need another inside mid. We need balanced midfielders who play well on both the inside and outside
– We go to Hawkins every single time. I’m not a fan of Walker but the midfielders just ignored him
– Kolo has so much composure, we must sign him. will be a key defender in a year or 2
– Caddys tackling, breaking of tackles and selling of candy
– We cant afford to lose motlop, players like him are rare and offer a point of difference
– We have drafted players who are excellent one on one. Lang is developing very nicely and will be another who will add to the midfield rotation.
– Work rate is the difference between us being a good team and a poor team ” – goodoldcats
“1. We don’t deserve top 4 and this has been a very frustrating season to say the least.
2. Someone needs to seriously sit down and have a fair dinkum chat with Horse. As far as I’m concerned he is not the man for the job. #sackhorse
3. We have a fair list and we are wasting our talent. I wouldn’t blame Jetta for leaving. I wouldn’t want to stay and play our shizen game plan.” – Troystenvic
“1. We need to keep people forward of the ball, even if we are being held in the back 50
2. Don’t play Nank if he isn’t going to ruck. With Franklin you might get away with it but no Franklin means Tippett must be forward at least 50% of the time. Simple as that.
3. Hanners, mcVeigh and Parker, who should be our main contested ball winners, were insanely poor ” – Millky95
“You’re absolutely kidding yourself if you think Horse is the man to take this team forward- at some point tonight he should’ve forced us to man up all their loose players- man up all the players outside our defensive fifty when stoppages in defense and force them to beat us 1 vs 1…. that way players can be responsible.
Players can’t be responsible for anything with this game plan – and this game plan isn’t working. He’s got to go.
It’d be gutsy to sack him now- but I think realistically it’s the only chance we have to win the premiership this year. ” – Theprofessional
Sunday, August 9
Melbourne 14.8.92 def by North Melbourne 19.13.127
“Good: Hogan‘s bag of 8, 34 possessions for Vince, Gawn dominating the ruck, Watts clean hands & decision making.
Bad: Norf in general.
Fugly: hangover in potentia ” – Proper Gander
“Good: Hogan, Dawes, Viney and I thought both Harmes and ANB played well when they were on. Also that we kicked a decent score was encouraging, hopefully we continue playing that attacking game.
Bad: Jones and Vince were quiet and didn’t have an impact today which really hurt us, Gartlett never got going and really hurt us not having our small forward kicking goals as the Roos did down the other end.
Ugly: Watts‘ decision making was horrible and even the execution, Dunn and Lumumba had absolute shockers and gave us nothing coming out of the backline.
Disgusting: That first quarter really was where we lost the game, fought hard to get back into it but a start like that can only set you up to fail. ” – CWaffles
“Good: Viney – Coming on in leaps and bounds now. Has probably been our 2nd best mid this year
Hogan – It has all been said but my god he is a freak
Dawes – Dropped off in the 2nd half but 3 goals is a good return
Tyson – Thought he was unfairly criticized last week, slowly getting back into some form
TMac – After a pretty shitty two months thought he had a good game today
Bad: The umpiring. We got some pretty generous decisions going our way, then we got some pretty crappy ones in the last. I wish they would pay it consistently both ways instead of this shit where they pay bs frees for one half then pay them to the opposition in the 2nd half
Ugly: Jones and Vince – Couldn’t afford for them to both have stinkers if we were any chance.
Clangers in the 4th – We really went to water when the game was up for grabs. Norths pressure was by no means significant, we just panicked. Watts‘ bad kick to Hogan, Michie blazing away under little pressure, that turnover coming out of the back half on the MCC side (Forget who kicked it)” – schmutt
“Fugly: Drivers trying to get out of the MCG. Some of the most arrogant, selfish shit I’ve seen. 4wd’s going around and cutting people off when the driver in front of them tries to let someone in. ” – Bluelegs
“Disappointing win if something like that even exists. Need to work on our 2nd and third quarters. First and last were much better. Good to see Naha’s and LT hitting the scoreboard. Onwards and upwards.” – rippersnipper
“Pos:
North won
Goldstein, just give him the votes, even if others better.
Higgins great
Thomas gets his mojo back
Cunnington a rock.
Ziebell hard at it.
Waite very good
Neg.
Pity to let them back in it, need to work on it.
Defence, needs to be sorted, just not right ” – Juryduty
GWS GIANTS 14.9.93 vs. Essendon 8.13.61
“Did enough for the win. Hopefully not too much damage to Scully and Cogs. Patton looked good, he was blowing in the second half but that’s to be expected in his first senior game back. ” – Scully2Folau
“Cooney’s a…
Good win in the end. Some flat out bizarre umpiring decisions. Leon will have to have another word with Wayne Campbell.
Big Sauce stood up, too a couple of great grabs and did more than ok in the ruck.
Hope the injuries aren’t too bad.” – Ichabod Noodle
“Some negative coaching from the opposition but got there in the end, guess there’s not much else to do when you are staring down the barrel of unemployment. ” – grouse mate
“2nd week in a row we have been well beaten in centre clearances and contested possessions. We should have smashed Essendon today. Steinberg and Cooney were our best players! ” – Biant Pete
“Challenging game to watch again, some poor disposal by foot by some and then 2 very bad rundowns from behind for htb decisions. During the first half it looked like the Bombers had too much space and were able to control the play and with improved shooting accuracy the scoreline would have been closer than it was.
Greene (2 hitouts from the little guy) and Coniglio the best mids and Corr turning into a dependable defender
Hope Wilson sticks with the club as his run and disposal can break a game open, he has grabbed his chance this year and Kennedy and Hampton have been forced down the order unfortunately.” – fridgeman
“Craptastic.” – Marley10
“same shit we’ve seen all year. Little run, terrible decision making, woeful skills and hopeless at kicking for goal.
At least we are consistent” – Mike14
“I’ve been a Hird supporter all along but we need to think about moving him on in the off-season.
These performances are just about as worse as Knights’ last year. ” – Jobe Watson
“That’s being very harsh on Knights!
How the hell does Hird still have a job given we have consistently been pumped by bottom teams??? (not to mention the major part he played in this debacle we currently face)
Anyway, we were utter crap again” – mxett
“Beaten by a fitter faster side. Was good to At least see us compete in the first half after the last few weeks. Edwards and Laverde super impressive ” – Snake Charmer
“We are clearly tanking. ” – Seagrave_Holmes
“Shit team gets belted for being shit.
Laverde played really good before he predictably tired out. As did Edwards.
Stanton was good.
Hibberd provided good run off half-back in the first half.
Giles competed well.
Steinberg and Cooney were a whole new level of bad ” – Matthew_Lloyd
St Kilda 8.11.59 def by Fremantle 15.6.96
“Tanked.
Umps appalling.
Hugh was great.
Freo really unconvincing. ” – CHBench
“It’s become a theme of ours lately, that we get outworked for 3 quarters, and then the boys come out with their heads down in the last, put the scoreboard behind them, and set themselves to win the quarter.
Shows that we have heart, while skills and tank are lacking. ” – SaintLex
“Thought Newnes & Hugh were great. Paddy presented really well but as always our kicking was super poor.
Also thought Hickey & Acres had strong 2nd halves. ” – joop
“Such a weird game from Roo, never seen him like that before. Looked completely out of it.
Robbo and Newnes very good again, Sinclair so tough, Goddard great first half, Paddy solid with a great goal.
Wright was very good after coming on, I rate him a lot higher than most on here do.
Acres and Hickey pretty poor but kept their heads up and had great last quarters.
Ross very meh, has no presence. Has he improved all that much in 4 years? Not enough for me.
Armo and Bruce keep working their asses off but early season form has dropped away.
God I hope we can get Lachie Weller, would fit in so well on and off field. ” – StKing11
“Was at the game. We were totally in a holding pattern in the last. Ross does the thing he does by putting players out of position, such as Mayne in defense. That was a carbon copy of our first two months. We kicked twelve straight to begin with, our only behind being rushed. ” – Sweetback
“- Marking
– Work and delivery Inside 50
– Griffin / Sandi fantastic
– Our forward line is actually good to look at now, thinking of the options
– Obligatory Alex Pearce mention
– Old game plan is back in effect, hurt and exhausted the Saint’s list.
– Apart from that turnover, Weller was an effective sub again
– Hill work rate priceless
– No Fyfe and Johnson to play like we did in the first 8 weeks ” – Silvagnii
“Woot woot! First half was reminiscent of the first derby, and show that we have another gear to go to.
The precise kicking, decision making and goal kicking were all elite, which has been sadly missing for a while.
Positives:
- Bank 4 points, pretty much have top spot sewn up
- Atoned for last year’s smashing at the hands of St Kilda
- Alex Pearce, great at both ends of the ground. At times looked like he was going to do something really special, it’s only a matter of time!
- Sandi and Griff smashed it, taking marks and kicking goals
- Crozier was excellent in the first half, dropped off a bit, but goal kicking is solid
- Midfield was good without Fyfe, he will be a bonus when he gets back
- No injuries, no MRP issues – bonus.
Negatives:
- Skills and decision making really drop off when we switch to “go slow” mode – need to address that.
- Danyle Pearce had a stinker. Must be due for a rest soon?
- Son Son had a quiet one, made some uncharacteristic skill errors
All in all, I would have taken any win against Saints today, so 37 points will do me.” – DudleyDocker
“After our first quarter I knew we’d cruise through the rest of the game and the Saints would end up reducing the margin but I could not give a single shit!
That was the best we’ve played in a long time. We are just hitting our straps again just coming into finals.
I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about a 10 gamer. Even including Fyfe… Alex Pearce needs to be signed up on a 5 year contract or something. What a star. I hope he wins the rising star nom this week too, he certainly deserves it.
Hill, Mundy and Neale were fantastic in the middle. And dare I say it, Suban was good too. I still don’t think De Boer is up to scratch. But it’s likely he’ll stay in the team for the rest of the year now and Weller will probably make way for Fyfe next week. ” – electricfeel
“They were the stupidest set of questions I’ve ever heard at a presser. ” – Frank J Moose
