Essendon & St. Kilda NAB Cup *spoiler alert*

[Slattery_20]

The other thing I noted regarding Goose was that the rules heavily penalised defenders who would otherwise spoil the ball out of bounds. As a result he looked like he was trying to attack the ball for a mark rather than taking the safe option of a thumping fist, and as a result no one would mark, the ball would tumble over the top and his opponent would get the ball.

They weren't paying it if it was a spoil, altho a couple of times players would grab the ball and try to get a sneaky kick-in.

 

[Grimreepah]

I often find it difficult to judge individual performances in a drubbing like that.

It's probably the same for the coaches.

Voss, looking to find AFL ready players asap has taken a throw them in the deep end and see who can already swim approach. But he may decide that close games are a better preparation than big wins or losses.

 

[Slattery_20]

It's probably the same for the coaches.

Voss, looking to find AFL ready players asap has taken a throw them in the deep end and see who can already swim approach.

Did he have any choice?
Given you wouldn't want to risk the older blokes - Brown etc - this early, who was in the sheds who was ready & available?

Admittedly I didn't know all your kids, but I saw Maguire, Staker, McGrath, Merrett, Buchanan & Raines all out there and could only assume you had just about your best squad out there (minus the top-end guys).

 

[dlanod]

They weren't paying it if it was a spoil, altho a couple of times players would grab the ball and try to get a sneaky kick-in.

In the games I saw I noted a few times where the umpires were ruling it not to be a contest if the defender was too far in front or or behind their opponent when knocking it out of bounds. It's also a bit tricky to finesse in the heat of the moment. Both reasons, amongst others, that it was a bloody stupid rule.

 

[Quigley]

Did he have any choice?
Given you wouldn't want to risk the older blokes - Brown etc - this early, who was in the sheds who was ready & available?

Admittedly I didn't know all your kids, but I saw Maguire, Staker, McGrath, Merrett, Buchanan & Raines all out there and could only assume you had just about your best squad out there (minus the top-end guys).

Missing from the my starting 22

FB: Drummond Merrett*
HB: Adcock Patfull* Hanley
C:
HF: Power
FF: Polkinghorne Brown McGrath*
Ruck: Black, Redden

*did not play against Essendon but played against the Saints

So 11 of the starting 18 for round 1 out for the game against the Bombers.

 

[Grimreepah]

Did he have any choice?
Given you wouldn't want to risk the older blokes - Brown etc - this early, who was in the sheds who was ready & available?

Admittedly I didn't know all your kids, but I saw Maguire, Staker, McGrath, Merrett, Buchanan & Raines all out there and could only assume you had just about your best squad out there (minus the top-end guys).

With Merrett, McGrath and Patfull being left out against your mob, it seemed the intention was to get the young players to take the responsibility upon themselves.

 

[Slattery_20]

Fair enough.

Our St K side was the lighter & less experienced (heck, any side missing Watson & Fletcher tips the balance) of our two line-ups; would've been more of a 'like for like'.

 

[Last of the Roys]

It is still a bit frightening that 11 of our best 22 played against Essendon, and 13 of our top 22 played against the Saints. I would have expected far better than what we got.

Let's all hope the weekend was an aberration.

 

[dlanod]

It may have been 11 out of our best 22, but it was pretty much the top 11. Really, only Rich, Banfield, Leuenberger and Clark would be above Hanley and Redden as the lowest of that top 11 - i.e. 11 out of our best 15. Take that out of any team in the competition and they'd lose to any other almost full strength team, and both Essendon and the Saints were relatively close to full strength. Just look at us thrashing Geelong back in 2009 as an example of this.

 

[whatboutbob]

McGrath fined for hair pulling

Brisbane Lions veteran Ashley McGrath has been cited for misconduct after he was caught on camera pulling the hair of St Kilda defender Tom Simpkin.

The players tangled when the ball went out of bounds during the second half of the clash between the Lions and Saints on Friday night at Etihad Stadium, and replays on Channel 7 clearly showed McGrath grabbing a fistful of his opponent's hair.

McGrath has been offered a $1200 fine by the MRP, although this can be reduced to $900 if he lodges an early guilty plea.

Pretty disappointing act.

 

[Grimreepah]

Clark and Retzlaff are not really a good combination. Both are similar types who run hard but lack strength.

 

[acuguy]

Bryce is coming into his second year on our list. He will get stronger. His agility was my only concern. Can anyone who watches the ressies alleviate this!

Clark's agility and second efforts are his greatest strength. There is a lot of Richo in him (not sure if that is good or bad).

 

[Old Den]

It is still a bit frightening that 11 of our best 22 played against Essendon, and 13 of our top 22 played against the Saints. I would have expected far better than what we got.

Let's all hope the weekend was an aberration.

The pre-season comp. has a long history of aberrations...E.G. in 2001 Port thrashed the Lions by 85 points to win the cup...then 2 weeks later in a replay in round 1 Port got up by 6 points in a nail biter....both games at AAMI.