AFL Toast Beat the giants by 20!

Remove this Banner Ad

A few things of note;

- We hung in there early allowing us to get our game going. In the past it was game over early.

- Langford’s goal sense was the main reason we were in with a sniff.

- we set up well outside of the contest in the second half denying them easy escape.

- we have little tall forward presence, little small forward presence, our kicking at goal lets us down, and we have a few passengers each week, yet we keep winning. Imagine if it all comes together with Duursma, Reid, Ridley, Draper, Shiel, Tsatas, Setterfield all available and in the selection mix.

- McKay and Goldy may not dominate but their contribution is absolutely the main reason why we are now structurally stable and challenge teams when they look to gain momentum.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Best game in terms of team defense I can recall in years. We actually should have won by more if we didn't fluff some of our forward 50 entries and missed some real easy shots at goal.

But the pleasing part was the Giants simply had no answer to work the ball through our pressure. By the end of the game they could barely register an inside 50, let alone move it with any pace or purpose.

Every player was doing their role without relying on individual star performances.
Definitely a lot to like!
 
I was pretty upfront in saying that I thought last week's performance wasn't acceptable, despite the points, and that we shouldn't be happy until we beat good teams. I stand by that entirely, and I'm glad that we can point to this win as proof of what we are capable of. This is a win against a good team that doesn't come with any asterisks, there's no flukey team goal-kicking performance that got us over the line or anything like that. No once in a life performance from a player (like Wright's massive game against the Dogs in 2021) to win the game. We were, after a poor first-and-a-bit quarter which saw some of last week's mistakes on repeat, the much better team, pure and simple. I don't think it's reasonable to expect this week's effort to be what we do every single week going forward, but equally, we've seen what we're capable of. We've got the talent, the club needs to prove this isn't an one-off game now.

We've got 17th and 18th the next two weeks. We won all four of our games against 17th and 18th last year, but 3 of the 4 games were far far far closer than they should have been. After what we've seen today, I'm even firmer in saying that we shouldn't be happy with anything other than clear, confident victories for the next two weeks
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

For the first time in ages I feel we are building a system that may be sustainable against good opposition who aren't necessarily having an off day. The point has been made by many that our list has holes that still need filling at the draft and trade table but it seems we are now getting 100% buy even from players not having much impact possession wise.
 
Yay footy!

Happy So Excited GIF
 
Positive signs on so many fronts.

Need to build on this body of work across multiple seasons.

If we could get another one or two bobbling up and Ridley back it could get exciting
Reid replacing Laverde will be the biggest positive this team sees imho
 

Remove this Banner Ad

AFL Toast Beat the giants by 20!

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top