Review Dees v the Giants of West Sydney: the Good, Bad & Fugly

[Crusty Demon]

Hunt has been solid last couple of weeks. Smith and Hunt have been surprisingly ok filling spots. I still don't think either are best 22. Once Salem is fit I suspect Hunt will be moved to sub. I struggle to find a spot for Hibbo. Not a bad thing considering this will be his last year (assuming). But agree our best backline is May, Rivers, Lever, Salem, Bowey, Petty. I like Hunt as a sub as he can play back and pinch hit forward.

 

[SugarHealey]

Hunt has played much better football than he has so far this year. At his worst this year he’s been deplorable (R2, R3) and he’s been inoffensive/gone without notice in the other games which is the best that can be said for him. Hardly having a breakout season, unless this is the ceiling we’ve come to place on him.

wow. We disagree by a long way.

I think he's playing the most responsible and balanced footy of his career.

 

[SugarHealey]

Hunt has been solid last couple of weeks. Smith and Hunt have been surprisingly ok filling spots. I still don't think either are best 22. Once Salem is fit I suspect Hunt will be moved to sub. I struggle to find a spot for Hibbo. Not a bad thing considering this will be his last year (assuming). But agree our best backline is May, Rivers, Lever, Salem, Bowey, Petty. I like Hunt as a sub as he can play back and pinch hit forward.

Its often the case that improvement happens, before the recognition of,,, becomes more apparent. > Hunt.

Smith in my view, was starting to show improvement last year in defence at Casey. Playing far more coherently. His confidence and belief are far more obvious.

I thought Bedford was starting to play quite well at Casey, last year. I think he's ready to start his AFL career proper, but has to force a spot open.

Re Hunt, I had him for the chop at end of this year, but now I think he's safe, unless we need cap space.

 

[deeco]

FUGLY: Weid letting Kozzy's goal sail through instead of being a ruthless full forward and taking the mark for an easy goal. Bet they highlighted that at the review before giving Tommy the guernsey this week

 

[Meds]

Playing far more coherently

What does that even mean?

 

[Proper Gander]

What does that even mean?

You can understand what he says

 

[SugarHealey]

What does that even mean?

That would be, he's been playing with a coherent flow, offensively, in his football down at Casey. That his thoughts when defending successfully, changed seamlessly into offence. And from there he was launching our counter attacks.

This improvement has flowed into his AFL games, this season.


Mind you, I think its no coincidence that these improvements to our fringe players, have happened under Choco's time with us.

 

[DemonZombie_001]

wow. We disagree by a long way.

I think he's playing the most responsible and balanced footy of his career.

I thought he was quite good last year. He strikes me as more of an athlete as a footballer. Which, I suggest, explains some of the poor decisions he made in 2021 (that was his big let down).

Hunt plus Langdon is a terrifying prospect coming out of the backline even if they don't have the ball. And that is just another weapon for this side.

Like all of us Hunt just has to understand his limitations and play to his strengths and I think he is doing that this year.

 

[SugarHealey]

I thought he was quite good last year. He strikes me as more of an athlete as a footballer. Which, I suggest, explains some of the poor decisions he made in 2021 (that was his big let down).

Hunt plus Langdon is a terrifying prospect coming out of the backline even if they don't have the ball. And that is just another weapon for this side.

Like all of us Hunt just has to understand his limitations and play to his strengths and I think he is doing that this year.

I like the way he has applied himself to the Team defence, successfully this season.

He has imv, matured, and accepts the defencive side of his role, and especially knowing when he can attack.
So, in my mind, he has stopped me from worrying about his decisions with and without the footy. I trust him now.
By the way, Hunty is about to play his 100th game for us this week.


I am sure Hibbo will get a look in, at some time this year, but I reckon this is Hibbo's last.


Melk is a tough one, as he is on 195 career games... but I just cannot see him getting to '200 hundred', while at Melbourne. Sad but reality bites.


TMc is currently on 198 games.

 

[Meds]

You can understand what he says

I can't figure out if this is meant to be a question or a statement...

 

[Proper Gander]

I can't figure out if this is meant to be a question or a statement...

Statement. I can only assume that was what Sugar meant by ‘coherently’ about Joel Smith, that Joel has taken to annunciating clearly and making a logical argument.

So essentially, I had no idea what he meant either.

 

[Meds]

That would be, he's been playing with a coherent flow, offensively, in his football down at Casey. That his thoughts when defending successfully, changed seamlessly into offence. And from there he was launching our counter attacks.

This improvement has flowed into his AFL games, this season.


Mind you, I think its no coincidence that these improvements to our fringe players, have happened under Choco's time with us.

I don't watch Casey games, so I can't talk about that aspect, but as for improvement at AFL level, I haven't seen it the same way.

If anything, I've gone backwards in my support for Smith at AFL level.

He's still a very capable 1-1 defender, his athletic efforts continue to impress and he's versatile enough to match up on tall and small players. But footy's no longer just about beating your direct opponent. It's a system of team defence, and team counter-attack. Whilst Smith himself might be playing more coherently, the system doesn't work as well in my opinion when he's in it. Unless he can improve in that area then I can't see him getting a game unless two of May/Lever/Petty/Tomlinson go down, or we adopt a different strategy for one game where his job is to lock down on a dangerous forward.

 

[Topkent]

Smith no hope of being in our best 11. He doesn't have footy nous at all. He's a very basic player. Look at how Mays game has gone through the roof since Smith was taken out of the side

 

[stEdy]

Finally watched the replay.

What a team performance across the park - skills and ball movement was excellent, even under some decent pressure that GWS brought in the first half.

Almost felt sorry for Hogan, having to play on May is just unfair with the form he was in. May wasn't losing 1 contest all night, just had that look in his eye.

Forget how impressive Petty is, attacks the ball in the air with such confidence and takes the right option with his disposal. Clean for a tall bloke and imo could end up just a good a stopper as May but without the kicking skills.

Hunt was actually really good. Won contests, used his pace when it was there and made the right decision ball in hand.

Great to see Spargo get more of the pill. Our crisp ball movement definitely helped him here and he had a hand in a lot of our goals. His little 15-20m dab kicks inside 50 were a treat.

Also liked Weid's game. Our gamestyle doesn't need our FF to kick 6 to kick a score and he did well on Taylor who's a gun defender. Only remember him being outmarked once and every other time he flew aggressively in the air and brought it to ground. He's got good skills for a tall and even laid some decent tackles. That's literally all he needs to do to stay in the team, link up, clunk a few big grabs on the wing when we are coming out of defence, bring some pressure at ground level, kick straight when you get the chance and bring everything to ground - tick, tick tick, tick.

Gawny seems to be powering up again. Kinda wish Preuss wasn't suspended, I was keen to see them ruck against each other. Great to have the big man bombing set shots from 50 out, will be a real weapon at the tail end of his career if we can sit him in the forward 50 and bomb long goals.

Sparrow had some big moments reminiscent of the 2021 finals series. That handball out of congestion to Jordan running out wide was unreal. As was his 150m running effort. Love watching him kick a footy, he's got a lovely action over 50m+

This team is just so enjoyable to watch when our ball movement is fluent and our defence is rock solid. Gotta remember to buy that grand final guarantee for my membership to lock in a seat at the G if we make it.

 

[SugarHealey]

Statement. I can only assume that was what Sugar meant by ‘coherently’ about Joel Smith, that Joel has taken to annunciating clearly and making a logical argument.

So essentially, I had no idea what he meant either.

Joel's brain is coherently orchestrating his body do the right things, in the right order. Rather than being a dumb footballer of the past.

He has become a coordinated footballer since last year, in his defencive work, to his counter attacking. He has become complete as a player, at Casey, and that is translating to AFL senior footy.

 

[SugarHealey]

I don't watch Casey games, so I can't talk about that aspect, but as for improvement at AFL level, I haven't seen it the same way.

If anything, I've gone backwards in my support for Smith at AFL level.

He's still a very capable 1-1 defender, his athletic efforts continue to impress and he's versatile enough to match up on tall and small players. But footy's no longer just about beating your direct opponent. It's a system of team defence, and team counter-attack. Whilst Smith himself might be playing more coherently, the system doesn't work as well in my opinion when he's in it. Unless he can improve in that area then I can't see him getting a game unless two of May/Lever/Petty/Tomlinson go down, or we adopt a different strategy for one game where his job is to lock down on a dangerous forward.

Smith is not as good as Lever or Rivers, but he has made strong improvements on where he was 2 seasons back. At a pinch, he can come in and play.

Hunt as well has improved his game, in the same time frame.

As you say this team system of defence is strong and when new players come into it it trakes some of them time to adjust adapt and grow confidence. Learning the playbook on the job.


The same can be said of our tall forwards, and in particularly, the Weide. He is starting to adapt to the role of deep tall forward, better than in past seasons.

And if people would stop to watch the replays, and take time to rewind and go over the plays again, of when he drop the ball, you will start to see how he is double and triple teamed, and blocked from a good direct run at the footy.

Most tall forward who are only around the 194cm size have been struggling over the past few years to score many goals playing deep forward.

Look at jeelong, and Hawkins a man mountain, and Cameron, who hasn't kicked that many goals since going there. Again, the old 6'-4" tall forwards struggle to kick a lot of goals these days, but they do contribute to other forwards coming into play.

 

[SugarHealey]

I don't watch Casey games, so I can't talk about that aspect, but as for improvement at AFL level, I haven't seen it the same way.

If anything, I've gone backwards in my support for Smith at AFL level.

I watch Casey games when I can, as I have an interest in our up and coming players development. Call it a habit now, after doing it over the past 40 years.
........Because as I grew up, we were always easy beats, and I simply refused to accept the Demons being easy-beats. So I will always take an understanding viewpoint to our kids coming thru, toward being senior AFL players.

Throwing them out, just because some supporters have lost confidence in the players is folly, and narrow viewed mostly. Its tough to make it as an AFL footballer. And there are always reasons why some take longer to make the transition up to AFL regulars.

And quality depth is a key to finals success.

 

[SugarHealey]

Finally watched the replay.

What a team performance across the park - skills and ball movement was excellent, even under some decent pressure that GWS brought in the first half.

Almost felt sorry for Hogan, having to play on May is just unfair with the form he was in. May wasn't losing 1 contest all night, just had that look in his eye.

Forget how impressive Petty is, attacks the ball in the air with such confidence and takes the right option with his disposal. Clean for a tall bloke and imo could end up just a good a stopper as May but without the kicking skills.

Hunt was actually really good. Won contests, used his pace when it was there and made the right decision ball in hand.

Great to see Spargo get more of the pill. Our crisp ball movement definitely helped him here and he had a hand in a lot of our goals. His little 15-20m dab kicks inside 50 were a treat.

Also liked Weid's game. Our gamestyle doesn't need our FF to kick 6 to kick a score and he did well on Taylor who's a gun defender. Only remember him being outmarked once and every other time he flew aggressively in the air and brought it to ground. He's got good skills for a tall and even laid some decent tackles. That's literally all he needs to do to stay in the team, link up, clunk a few big grabs on the wing when we are coming out of defence, bring some pressure at ground level, kick straight when you get the chance and bring everything to ground - tick, tick tick, tick.

Gawny seems to be powering up again. Kinda wish Preuss wasn't suspended, I was keen to see them ruck against each other. Great to have the big man bombing set shots from 50 out, will be a real weapon at the tail end of his career if we can sit him in the forward 50 and bomb long goals.

Sparrow had some big moments reminiscent of the 2020 finals series. That handball out of congestion to Jordan running out wide was unreal. As was his 150m running effort. Love watching him kick a footy, he's got a lovely action over 50m+

This team is just so enjoyable to watch when our ball movement is fluent and our defence is rock solid. Gotta remember to buy that grand final guarantee for my membership to lock in a seat at the G if we make it.

It's nice to read a realy well watched and reported post of our game.

 

[Ando727]

put some ******* salt on the chippies you tight campaigners.

If you don't have plenty of salt on chips, you might as well be eating sticks of wood. F**k that for a joke.


(It sounds like I'm taking the piss, but I'm totally not. I hate food that isn't salty enough.)

 

[Ando727]

If Tmac of Weid played a game like that I'd flip me lid. He deserves to be dropped for that rubbish. He used to have games where he'd kick 4 for us and was completely crap. He'd hide in the goal square and wait for perfect delivery and ball movement or fall over and hope for a free. Wouldn't even take him for free he'd completely wreck our forward line.

I couldn't stand him even when he played for us. Just something about him I never took to. His demeanour as a footballer just confirms it for me.

 

[Bluelegs]

Who would you rather? Melbourne Hogan or Melbourne Watts?

 

[Topkent]

Who would you rather? Melbourne Hogan or Melbourne Watts?

For this team Watts by a country mile.

 

[Bluelegs]

For this team Watts by a country mile.

I agree. Use him to link up between the midfield and forwardline in our transition plays. Brown would kick 100 with Watts' delivery.

 

[Topkent]

I agree. Use him to link up between the midfield and forwardline in our transition plays. Brown would kick 100 with Watts' delivery.

If he worked hard enough he'd be amazing on a wing or a HFF. Imagine Watts taking the Spargo kicks inside 50
Watts never got to play in a good team

 

[Theseventhhamster]

Yeah Watts would be great with a great team if he worked hard enough running.