Review Autopsy vs Adelaide

[_Mike_]

Wrong. He dropped a simple chest mark that any AFL player should mark, results in a goal. 5 mins later kicks out of the back pocket directly to an Adelaide player which also results in a goal.

Who knows what could've happened if he marked the first one, but it did cost us a win. No doubt. I also believe Stringers missed shot killed some momentum.

Who knows what could have happened if Campbell, Boyd and Dahlhaus all kicked the goals they should have..

In the 3rd. Boyd and Campbell missed complete sitters. Dahlhaus hit the post in the last quarter. That would have been a win right there. So I will stick up for Jones to say that he was not the sole reason we lost the game. He didnt contribute but in a broader perspective the team didn't click.

 

[_Mike_]

In other news, does anyone know if Spindleshanks played in the two's on the weekend? There is a player we need badly to be firing up forward and helping Jones.

 

[King Harold]

Who knows what could have happened if Campbell, Boyd and Dahlhaus all kicked the goals they should have..

In the 3rd. Boyd and Campbell missed complete sitters. Dahlhaus hit the post in the last quarter. That would have been a win right there. So I will stick up for Jones to say that he was not the sole reason we lost the game. He didnt contribute but in a broader perspective the team didn't click.

Of course he wasn't the sole reason , but even if we had we won he didn't contribute one jot , which as a constant supporter of him is very disappointing. If we accept that oh well he or anyone else for that matter just had a bad day, then we won't progress.

 

[themightydoggies]

I just can't get over this week it's like someone has kicked me in the guts.

 

[Clay]

In other news, does anyone know if Spindleshanks played in the two's on the weekend? There is a player we need badly to be firing up forward and helping Jones.

I understand that he did not, but may play this week in the VFL

 

[footyfan000001]

Pretty annoyed that everyone is pointing the finger at Jones - he didn't lose us the game. It was our inability to string 4 quarters together that cost us the game. If we had of put pressure on them for the whole game, we could have won by 10 goals after that good start. My concern is that we haven't overly improved from last year - I hope this is mainly because of our tall back stocks being low - but it does feel as if our midfield is struggling. We are all of a sudden losing in contested possessions every week which is unheard of for us???

Observations:
Macrae, Boyd, Murphy, Picken, Dahlhaus, Wood, Cooney, Stevens all solid.

Jones - just couldn't get near it in the first half - I wasn't at the game so I cant comment on his work rate away from the footy. Went back and made a few horrible errors - what was with that kick down the line straight to a crows player!?

Jong - how on earth we put a raw, inexperienced rookie on one of the best players in the competition is beyond me.

Stringer - he is not a backman Macca. Jesus.

Young - really does struggle when he needs to play tall. Needs Morris and Roughead in the side so he doesnt have to take the #1 or #2 forward. Made some critical errors.

Positive is that Clay Smith is probably close to coming back in, Morris should come back next week. Hopefully Grant not too far away either.

 

[TempleKelvington]

I would say we were well and truly on the back foot way before the 45min mark of the game. Once we got four goals to zip up (14 mins in) Adelaide went man on man and full credit to their coaching staff because after that point in time I don't think we ever looked like winners.

Well....yes....Adelaide lifted 1/2 way through the first and while Adelaide stepped things up, we were still trying to do stuff. But the panic set in after 1/4 time once it dawned that we had some opposition.

It was about mid second 1/4 that we went well and truly into our shells.

It's a confidence thing.

 

[DogDays]

So... now I've had my TV fixed and the plaster is set I can type my thoughts on this game. (long post - sorry)

Stepping back and taking the emotion out of it - I've realised there are several things that I have come to a conclusion on.

1) We are improving dramatically when it goes right - Adelaide, Carlton, Richmond, and North Melbourne. In all of these games there were patches where it all came together and we looked the goods. These are the areas where we can match it with the best of them (yes, even the Hawks) and it's exciting to watch. Looking at our list we have a significant amount of players under 100 games (and 50 games) and I believe that a team can't deal with the rigours of holding this type of form until the majority of the team (not median, etc - each individual player) are around the 75 game mark. By then they know what is expected and respond when the need arrives. Its a sad state of affairs that the only players in this range are Minson, Murphy, Boyd, Morris, Higgins, Gia, Picken, Griffin and Williams (who is shot).

2) We do not have enough on field leaders stand up when we lose the momentum. And I squarely look at the players 100+ games for this. Griffen is an exceptional player - but his lack of talk does not help during these situations. Minson, Murphy, Boyd, Morris (and this is another area we miss him), Higgins, Gia, and Picken - these are the players who MUST speak up and take control when we lose momentum. They must get their hands on the ball and lead by example. This is an example of why we need to recruit a 100+ game leader in our next lot of recruiting. I don't know who but we need to work hard on luring a player that meets our needs in this experience group.

3) I do not moan BMac's use of certain players in positions other than their normal ones. I think we need to try these sorts of things - when it works you are a genius, when it doesn't then you are a fool. I think there are must be reasons why certain VFL player's aren't playing in the AFL side and recent weeks have certainly shown an area we must recruit in the future is the back half. I also think BMac is not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Any players delisted after this year will not make it but (as most players recruited are on the cusp of being good enough) - sometimes you need to work out what or if they bring anything to the team.

4) Despite the first game of the season, we have been in touch every game this season - this is a significant improvement on last year.

5) Our forward line looked great when we got good delivery yesterday, the best it's looked in years. Loved Dicko back in the side, but I think it might be time to rest Gia in the reserves and play Hunter / Honeychurch for a few games. Campbell looked good in the first quarter - I think Cordy should now get an opportunity if he is injured.

6) Patience is a god-damn virtue. And i have no virtues.

 

[Lex22]

A club that is virtually devoid of quality key position players and missing our two most important backmen i think we wer'nt too bad today,Adelaide is a pretty good side - christ i was expecting a loss of about 30 to 40 points, don't forget they thumped St kilda, by over 80 points.
I think a lot of supporters are over estimating the quality of our list,and therefore have too high expectations, we are at least 2 to 3 quality players (tall) away from being a good side.Macca can only work with what he has and he was right to give Stringer the job on Pods to give him the experience and if he had'nt moved Jones every one would have condemned him for not making any changes.
All those critical of the coach should ask themselves what they would do if they were in the same position,so hitch up your girdle people i think we are in for a bumpy ride.

Agree with everything you said barring this. Adelaide are at BEST a middle of the ladder side.

 

[TempleKelvington]

Pretty annoyed that everyone is pointing the finger at Jones - he didn't lose us the game. It was our inability to string 4 quarters together that cost us the game. If we had of put pressure on them for the whole game, we could have won by 10 goals after that good start. My concern is that we haven't overly improved from last year - I hope this is mainly because of our tall back stocks being low - but it does feel as if our midfield is struggling. We are all of a sudden losing in contested possessions every week which is unheard of for us???


Jones - just couldn't get near it in the first half - I wasn't at the game so I cant comment on his work rate away from the footy. Went back and made a few horrible errors - what was with that kick down the line straight to a crows player!?

Jong - how on earth we put a raw, inexperienced rookie on one of the best players in the competition is beyond me.

Stringer - he is not a backman Macca. Jesus.

Young - really does struggle when he needs to play tall. Needs Morris and Roughead in the side so he doesnt have to take the #1 or #2 forward. Made some critical errors.

Jones.....not a good game but gee he had some mates when it came to kicking down the line to a crows player....our skipper did it, Liber did it, Picken did it and Murph did it.....no mention on here of them strangely.

Jong.....I didn't mind that match up. Once we decided not pick Wallis someone had to have that role. Boyd was probably the other possible. I didn't think Dangerfield was the difference at all. He didn't kick a goal and he's always prolific. I think it's not a bad thing to give a kid some exposure to a difficult role, physically he's not quite in Dangerfield's class yet but he will be, but he is a really good size and has excellent pace.

Stringer....Well we don't know if he is or isn't a back. We know a bit more today perhaps than before. But it's not so much he went back, but he went on a genuine KP tall. We made that rod for ourselves at selection. I would like to see Stringer get small runs on the ball, because he's supposed to be a midfielder and granted he's not got the tank yet, but small bursts couldn't hurt?

Young....correct he has to play on much bigger guys and he struggles with it, there is a surprise. Once again we are making that choice. He's still a kid and bit off the pace at the moment. I would like to see him replaced by Roberts if Morris is not fit.

 

[mambavino]

I'm not really interested in seeing Stringer play as a back again. He clearly struggled with his defensive positioning with the ball coming in and I'm ready to make the call that he's just not suited to being down there.

I understand the teaching element and the experimentation from Macca, but you've also got to know when an experiment is a bust. This is one of those times. Forward line or eventually midfield is where Stringer will shine. Playing down back only kills his natural flair and destroys his confidence, and I thing this outweighs the teaching element.

 

[fargy]

Lol, a couple of people booing came through the TV. Ok, sure it did.

Ummmm.....ok?!! Have a good one champ

 

[Fossie 32]

Agree with most of this. I think Roughy and Morris in would have changed a fair bit about the game and yeah we're missing at least one more quality young tall on our list apart from Fletcher Roberts.
Match was partially lost at selection, Roberts should have played. But then again big ask to expect a young tall to be the difference in what his third game.

Yes it seems it would have been best to try Roberts, but how do we know he would have made much difference? A lot to expect of a third gamer to be sure.
I had thought trying Jones in the backline could be worth a go myself. So it didn't work, but worth a try.

 

[Fossie 32]

Lets say we had picked Fletcher Roberts
Lets say he was being beaten by pods or lynch or whoever
Lets say we have to still move Jones back
Lets say we move Fletcher forward
Lets say Fletcher snags a couple and we win
Lets say he does not and we lose

Win or lose,Fletch gets a game under his belt and we find out a little about him and coaches don't look silly.
Or we play Austin or Redpath either way we learn something and maybe find something.

Sadly our coaches have become afflicted by certain delusions. A few weeks back they fancied Wood a key defender and had him matching up with Cox. They still fancy that Young is a key defender. They fancy Crameri and Stringer are key position players too. Reality is proving week after week that they aren't.

I am very confident this delusional fever will pass and our coaching panel will return to their senses very soon.

Yeah that is in the ideal world where we actually have someone who could do better but who could do better???

 

[adegrub21]

On another matter - attendance today (17400) on a perfect day for footy was pretty poor and undermines our lobbying for special occasion games to improve our exposure and marketability.
Another cheque paid to the Etihad landowners!

This.

There is a lot of criticism of the players and coaches week in week out but the performance of our supporters is pathetic. I traveled from Canberra to see yesterday's match on what was a perfect day for footy. I was shocked by the official attendance.

Pull your finger out 'supporters'.

 

[Mofra]

Jong - how on earth we put a raw, inexperienced rookie on one of the best players in the competition is beyond me.

Young - really does struggle when he needs to play tall. Needs Morris and Roughead in the side so he doesnt have to take the #1 or #2 forward. Made some critical errors.

re: Jong - worked last year when Wallis beat Dangerfield
Young: comparable to Hargrave, is not a genuine KPP

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

I honestly thought we couldnt dish up a worse performance after last week's loss, but today's match takes the cake.

While I'm pro-Macca and will continue to have faith in him, I've seriously questioned his selections this season (I.e. dropping dickson and campbell after round 1, dropping hunter and tutt aftet the gws game and blooding bontempelli, subbing tom campbell today)

Their effort was abysmal today. There was no spread when we had possession and were stagnant most of the time. Someone should send them a tape of Port Adelaide's work rate because theyre currently setting the benchmark.

Jones should've been subbed out rather than Campbell. He didnt have a prescence in the forward line and lacked any defensive pressure whatsoever. Having saying that, he needs to be harshly assessed during the week and the opportunity to redeem himself next week against essendon and repay the coaches' faith.

Listen to Macca's presser. He was much more disgusted with the Carlton game. The more I hear him the more convinced I am that in his mind, winning is only secondary to playing the "right way", ie the way we played in the first quarter. The boys have to learn to harden up when the opposition get a run on and not go to water, which is what happened in the 2nd and 3rd quarters and we lost the plot. We got it back together almost, in the last quarter and look what happened. But for a bit of luck going our way we could have snatched it.

You only have to watch him in the coaches' box - he's hardly ever on the phone but concentrating on how the ground looks and the set-ups, who is where and doing what.

Our guys will be fantastic once they get the games and experience under their belt. They also need to develop confidence in each other.

A lot of people here were critical of Jong (a 4 or 5 game player). No one is going to keep Dangerfield away from the ball but he didn't score a goal yesterday. Give Jong some credit. At the moment he is concentrating on developing his defensive skills; later he'll learn to attack but that's not required now.

Campbell wasn't injured, Macca wanted to set up differently - and it nearly worked!

 

[LukasTheGreat]

If I played for the Dogs I would find it VERY hard to play for our supporters, quite a shocking bunch as a whole.

 

[footyfan000001]

re: Jong - worked last year when Wallis beat Dangerfield
Young: comparable to Hargrave, is not a genuine KPP

I rate Wallis as a much better tagger than Jong.

 

[Libba39]

Who knows what could have happened if Campbell, Boyd and Dahlhaus all kicked the goals they should have..

In the 3rd. Boyd and Campbell missed complete sitters. Dahlhaus hit the post in the last quarter. That would have been a win right there. So I will stick up for Jones to say that he was not the sole reason we lost the game. He didnt contribute but in a broader perspective the team didn't click.

Fair enough. I don't fall into the 'blame Jones for losing' category. There are so many individual moments in a game that it is rare you can put down a loss to the actions of once player...

...however

Jones has played some shockers in his time but that was one of his worst, no denying it. He would struggle to get a spot on the list of pretty much every other team in the league (and I mean list, not just first 22).

 

[DognBones]

Regarding our midfielders: it appears to me that our midfielders are now mostly 'burst players' who on occasions during each quarter do a few good things then drift away and are largely unsighted. Boyd is probably the one exception and Liber who was a tireless worker last year, is still to reproduce the same level of consistency.
We need to get more sustained input from Griffin, Cooney, Stevens, Liber and Higgins if we are to develop a running style that will win us more games.
People will probably raise issues of tagging and possible injuries but these affect all clubs and are largely excuses.

 

[doggies ftw]

Am I the only one who was more impressed with Stringers work in the backline than anything he's done in the forward line this year? I honestly reckon he could make a spot down there his own. At least til he moves into the middle anyway.

Not playing on a tall but I reckon he could be a weapon coming off HB who can also help out the talls and take a few grabs, I actually really like the sound of that.

Never really thought of it until someone mentioned it in a thread a week or two ago, but I like the comparison to Luke Hodge.

My thoughts on why we are playing Stringer, Young and Wood on talls is just to teach them proper defensive instincts. If they play on smalls they'd probably get a bit carried away on offense but if you're playing on a genuine gorilla you have to give them all your attention, I think this can only be a good thing long term.

It's also nice to know who's actually capable of it while it's not important, I'd rather find out Wood can't play tall in a nothing game now then trying it in a final in a few years!

 

[TempleKelvington]

Am I the only one who was more impressed with Stringers work in the backline than anything he's done in the forward line this year? I honestly reckon he could make a spot down there his own. At least til he moves into the middle anyway.

Not playing on a tall but I reckon he could be a weapon coming off HB who can also help out the talls and take a few grabs, I actually really like the sound of that.

Never really thought of it until someone mentioned it in a thread a week or two ago, but I like the comparison to Luke Hodge.

My thoughts on why we are playing Stringer, Young and Wood on talls is just to teach them proper defensive instincts. If they play on smalls they'd probably get a bit carried away on offense but if you're playing on a genuine gorilla you have to give them all your attention, I think this can only be a good thing long term.

It's also nice to know who's actually capable of it while it's not important, I'd rather find out Wood can't play tall in a nothing game now then trying it in a final in a few years!

Yeah I didn't mind Stringer being tested in the back line. I also thought he batted well and looked ok. It was much harder for him once Adelaide got going and they were able to get the ball into their forwards more one on one, and given the size of our 2 of our guys t was going to tough. But they could have still done that if Young was out and Roberts in.....Stringer still would have had a tough match up....but we had 2 guys trying to do it.

I can't see any reason why Stringer does not get a few minutes on ball as his next phase.

 

[Doggies7]

Unfortunately a number of our experienced players didn't stand tall today.

Summary of some of the players from today
...
Griffin still looks he is only playing at 70%

 

[True Dog]

Yes it seems it would have been best to try Roberts, but how do we know he would have made much difference? A lot to expect of a third gamer to be sure.
I had thought trying Jones in the backline could be worth a go myself. So it didn't work, but worth a try.

I hear you Fossie, but surely playing someone who has spent the majority of the last 6 months working with the backline coaches on our defensive structures would have been a better option than Stringer (who did OK at times). I just feel we would have been better off structurally.

I guess we'll never know.......