Autopsy Demons 97 defeat Dogs 71. Never was so much owed by so many to so few

[Darksidepoints]

Melbourne don't carry players the way we do.
Schache, Vandermeer, Cordy, Gardner and R Smith would not get a look in at Melbourne. Other than Naughton we had nothing up forward and our midfield got outworked and bullied.
The gap between the teams doesn't look like it has closed since last year.

We carried players that wouldnt get a gig in VFL on their best days for years... Its been more than a decade since we had depth. You guys aren't anywhere near that.

 

[Libba39]

It's time to ditch the extra small runner and structure up

Structure up....with what???

 

[Ash1337]

Players that need a kick up them are Hunter, & Williams. Weightman, Schache, Cordy, VDM, Hannan, need to be dropped. Hunter too. Roarke was average but saves himself because so many are worse than him.

 

[BEaston]

Stop giving up 5-10m on every single mark. It's a game of territory and we are giving up so much to gain absolutely nothing. Locking the ball in the forward half is gold and we man the kick ins 45m away

It allows a more accurate, uncontested kick instead of forcing them to kick over a man.

Will be interesting to see if any other team does it this week

Not giving a judgement on it, but Melb did do it as well.

 

[Angak]

We had a lot of passengers (Schace, hunter, Libba, B.Williams) . A lot to work on.

I'm excited to see us improve as the season progresses.

 

[ossie_21]

I thought Treloar was just a bit sore first game back, he stretched his hammy & groin a bit but didn’t seem too bothered

 

[Libba39]

Seemed to grab it after he kicked that late goal

It was the play just before the goal, then the ball popped out and he had to kick it.

Seemed to be both high hammy and groin

 

[Dale4captain]

Push Schache back permanently and put JUH in forward. Cordy gone.

Why train Schache to be a KPB all summer to only have him swing between the ends every 6minutes in the first game of the year? He’s crap as a forward and there’s 5 years of evidence showing that. Stop doing it.

The amount of times we’d get both hands on the footy in a marking contest and as we’re on the way down it gets chopped out and called play on (4 times) compared to the Dees (5 times) having it called a mark every single time was the most frustrating part of the umpiring. The rest of it was fine imo. The umpiring was not the reason we lost at all. Just a frustrating double standard I guess.

Another thing that is shit about our game plan is the clearing out of the 5m zone. Just stand the ****ing mark. What’s the point of sitting 5m behind the mark other than giving them the opportunity to hit the ball harder and lower at the blokes leading toward them? It’s not like you can effect the contest at all in that 5m bubble you’ve just created, you’re just sitting in dead space. Shit tactic that wastes a player and gives the opposition more space.

Forgot how angry this game can make me.

 

[fred cook]

Structure up....with what???

Our structure is sitting at hone with a ACL


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[ScragCity]

It really felt more like a 10 goal loss than 26 points. They had 17 marks inside 50 to our 6. That's the game right there.

 

[Bont2Bruce]

I know team selections are bullshit, especally Bevo's but when I left just before 5pm we had Hunter and Martin in the 22. When I got home just over two hours later Martin had been replaced by Gardiner and Hunter had been replaced by Crozier (and then Hunter came in again when JJ pulled out).

I thought the AFL had rules against that. Can anyone clarify that for me?

It seems from here on we won't ever know the final 22 until about 1 minute to the first bounce. It sucks.

With 90 mins to go, we named one out (Martin) and two ins (Crozier and Gardner) which we needed to in order to have 23 including a sub. Hunter was named in the 22 the day before the game, but when the sub was called it was him. He isn't "out" of the team at that point. Rather, we just haven't named our 23rd player yet. Then during warm up JJ went out and Hunter shifts back to starting and JUH came in as the sub.

 

[Munnez]

We handled the ball like it was a bar of soap. A number of times we were out and just coughed up the ball with poor handling of the bloody thing.
And what was Schache thinking playing on 20m out directly in front fmd your a forward back yourself to kick it

 

[Jeff 1975]

Would Cordy, Gardner, Roarke Smith get a game in any other final side ? Cordy is just not up to it, to see him wave "kick it to me in the air" was unbelievable, no pace no skills - he cannot play next week

I remember Will Minson doing the kick it me thing - you just know his not going to make it

 

[X_box_X]

So what's going on with Bailey Williams? Up until the Grand Final last year I was thinking he was a valuable asset to our side. After two games he seems scared and out of his depth. He needs to snap out of it cause in my view we have a craptonne of players that can play that position.

He had a terrible second half of last year.

 

[perro_loco]

It’s going to be a long season if we don’t fix the forward and backline structures. Sweet has to be the second ruck. Bring O’Brien if fit and give Jamarra the games to get to the level. Not all is lost!

 

[W W Biscuit]

We have some amazing talent on our list, which I think occasionally seduces us into thinking that the list overall is better than it is. I'm reminded of that St Kilda team of a decade ago, with great top end talent and a very pedestrian bottom tier of players. You can't have a whole team of superstars, but your foot soldiers still need to be solid, reliable and savvy. I'm frustrated that I don't think we bat all that deep, at least against genuinely good teams. Yes, we have structural issues, and list management is another bugbear. But there are far too many players on our list who either can't get near the football, or have highly suspect decision making and skills execution under pressure. Good, bottom half of the eight teams can carry these passengers. No way can a team with premiership aspirations carry them. We are still very much a work in progress.

 

[BEaston]

Timmy was looking pretty swol

 

[BEaston]

Also just play JUH, even if he's shit for half the season at least he will improve unlike some others who are capped at their ceiling.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

We were carried by a handful of players tonight and it was the usual suspects in the midfield.

However, its the same problem that we have seen for some time. Once their disposal efficiency drops off after tiring because they are being forced to carry the rest of the side. Everything falls apart. This is why we are unable to maintain any sort of momentum when the game does swing our way.

The ability of our small or secondary forwards to maintain forward pressure or hit the scoreboard has been a concern for quite some time and doesn't look to have improved. Indeed when you have them kicking two goals between them, one of which was from a dubious free kick you have to wonder what the actual **** the plan is. The forward pressure was just abysmal and when Melbourne got their momentum swings it was invariably started deep in our forward half. Its an indictment on this group that we got more goals out of two half backs than we did out of 5 half forwards.

Then there is the triumvirate of tall dopey elephants that were sitting in the corner all night and adding **** all to a side desperate for support for Naughton and Keath. Their job is to take relieving marks and halt the opposition's momentum or do the same and generate some for u in our forward half. These guys were incapable of doing either tonight. They took 5 marks between them and I cannot for the life of me remember a single one of them. They were an absolute liability tonight.

Then there is the smaller elephant in the room. Libba. I'll cut him some slack as he may've had covid which has restricted his recent match practice. However its is very concerning that he doesn't seem to have a place in the starting midfield rotations and is being forced to play with the other odd bods who make up what is supposed to be our forward half. A role that is is decidedly unsuited to. He looks decidedly slow and went to ground a lot.

Bailey Williams...I just cant right now.

Bailey Smith

3

Bailey Smith

Age

24

Ht

185cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.3

5star

K

8.5

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

2.3

2star

T

3.8

5star

CL

2.7

4star

D

19.8

5star

K

9.6

4star

HB

10.2

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

3.2

4star

CL

3.2

4star

D

14.8

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

7.2

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

3.4

5star

CL

1.6

4star

...I just would.

Aside from the mid field guns battling manfully. I thought that we saw the Tim English that we have been waiting for tonight. Personally I thought he was the best ruckman on the ground all night.

 

[dergert]

Bevo has had 8-9 years to build a strong side. He has built a strong midfield with a with a defence with key holes and a lukewarm forward line.

How we left last year's off season period with not addressing the backline kills me.

 

[Erect]

Melbourne don't carry players the way we do.
Schache, Vandermeer, Cordy, Gardner and R Smith would not get a look in at Melbourne. Other than Naughton we had nothing up forward and our midfield got outworked and bullied.
The gap between the teams doesn't look like it has closed since last year.

Melbourne's bottom-tier players just play their role extremely well. Our bottom-tier players become a part of crucial link-up plays and screw it up.

 

[TommyD13]

O'Brien can't come in quick enough. Jamarra should be given a run next week. We need more actual footballers who can read the game and play on instinct. Roarke, Vandermeer, Cordy and Gardner are not this, and whilst effort is admirable, it won't win us the games we need to win.

Next week hoping Johannisen and O'Brien are fit. 3 changes
IN: Ugle-Hagan, O'Brien, Johannisen
OUT: Vandermeer, Cordy, Gardner

 

[Bont2Bruce]

Worried about Libba.
Naughton looks great.

We desperately need better players over 190 cm who can play for us. Hopefully Bruce comes back soon as he can and one of Sam Darcy or JUH turns out to be the next Messiah. I don't have a lot of hope for O'Brien but he couldn't be worse than Schache so why not give him a go.

 

[footscray1973]

I know a couple of posters have now said we need O'Brien and in there, and I agree. But I'm not expecting a 192cm O'Brien to suddenly turn into a KPP. he has aerial and intercept ability, but I don't think he will make the difference without another genuine tall coming in. I haven't seen a lot of preseason games, or even highlights - I believe Martin outpointed Sweet in an intraclub as well. That's disappointing, as I would have thought playing Sweet against Carlton (Pittonet, De Koning, Mirkov(?), maybe Lewis Young

33

Lewis Young

Age

26

Ht

202cm

Wt

99kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.6

3star

K

7.5

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

4.4

4star

T

1.6

4star

MG

197.9

3star

D

4.0

1star

K

3.0

1star

HB

1.0

1star

M

3.0

3star

T

0.0

1star

MG

26.0

1star

D

14.4

4star

K

8.2

4star

HB

6.2

4star

M

6.4

5star

T

2.0

4star

MG

181.6

3star

chopping out) would be an opportunity to allow English to play forward at times. As good as English was tonight, he is one of the more viable mature options to play forward alongside Naughton, so if Sweet could be ready to step up and at least allow English to go forward in a 50/50 split, we'd have more options. Sweet can kick a goal at VFL level. Sadly, regular AFL might be a bridge too far for Sweet if he can't at least nail a semi-regular berth this year. (I don't hold out much hope for many games from Martin this year - happy to be surprised and wrong though.)

 

[dergert]

Shout out to Crozier. Played superb and was a big reason why we had that run on.

Richards played well too.

Even if we had Bruce in the forward line we would've been toppled.