Review Good/Bad and the Umpiring.

[CrowBloke]

Ok, I've had a bit of time winding down.. after a friends 60th birthday party... a lot of booze (I guess you have already guessed that)... catching up on the replay... and then reflecting here.

The good.. well really good. I ticked every box tonight for who played well. I cannot remember the last time I did that (actually have I ever?)

Basically everyone had their moments for the win.. and it was so satisfying because... we broke them!

Sometimes (in the words of Keyser Soze) "it has nothing to do with money, guns, numbers, it's just the will to do what the other guy won't"

That's what we did tonight. Everyone did their part, their bit... everyone. There are a number of players who will have bugger all numbers in the Superfooty competitions, but the contests, and contests and contests... like Gollant, should have had a goal, but it was played on to advantage. In the end it's a team game, and he did a lot more than the stats.

Murray and Hinge, they were literally the backbone of our defence tonight. I was down on Doedee early, but he came up when challenged.. same with Milera.

Everyone had at least one important cameo. Berry was back to his brilliant tackling pressure cooker for just under three quarters... and then Jones came on and had a huge influence in the last quarter when we had the run on.

Pedlar was just brilliant in our first half and kept us in it... honestly I would still have him BOG for tonight. Laird was just the energizer battery, going and going and going... the last quarter though, Sloane was just HUGE. Anyone here questioning his heart? Just go back and watch that quarter again. I dare you. Seriously, I dare you.

Thilthorpe, Rankine, Rochele - Just brilliant, and our young hearts of this team. You could pick half a dozen of our players tonight who could have got the Showdown medal... and I have not even mentioned Dawson up to now.

It's our first four quarter game this year, and easily our most impressive.

OK Matty Nicks. I threw down the gauntlet last week saying I did not think you had what it take to make this team into a real final (let alone a premiership) contender. This was a very impressive reply. Can we keep this up?

Love your enthusiasm and loved the win too, and maybe I need to watch the replay of the whole game, but I don't think it was as complete a performance as you suggest, with respect.
Milera had 2 good moments until 3/4 time, but was largely ineffective until the whole team got going in the last. Everybody seemed to pick up on the energy (especially Sloane) and lifted. Butts didn't do a lot. Berry tackled his guts out but struggled for possessions. Smith was not sighted until the last. Tex was outta touch and his frustration was clear.

One thing last night gave me was perspective over the three games.
It now looks like we were cooked in the Sydney heat vs GWS when we gave up that good lead. The 6-day break after that seems to have caused our poor start vs Richmond and the bad fade in the last; both games not helped by odd selections.
Last night, WOW, but there was one major change that helped us to stay in the game, fight back, and run over them --- Dawson spending 2/3 of his time in the middle. Other factors not seen in Rounds 1 and 2:
--- a much better game from RoB especially marking and general field play
--- a stellar game from Thilthorpe (overhead marking, yowza!)
--- dazzling skills and finishing by Rankine; I've watched his third goal many times and still don't know how he did that. One step facing the wrong way, clean grab-and-pivot in congestion and a great kick from low down, elite.
--- stronger run and overlap and some mongrel as well, great to see.

 

[Bearded Clam]

This is where we need DawsonView attachment 1646819

Watching the post game presser last night with Nicksy and Dawson..

It was Dawson’s idea to push further up the field and into the midfield..

He raised it with Nicks last monday.. and they worked toward making it happen during the week.

Dont know if thats a good thing or a bad thing..

I guess its good thing that Dawson knows what needs to happen and nicksy listened to him and helped make it happen.

But its a bit of a worry
1) that nicksy needed dawson to point it out and suggest it to him.
2) its taken this long before its happened
3) even a fair few of us plebs in here said it needed to happen a long time ago.

We’ve been wasting dawson at half back/defence for a while now..

How can nicksy take so long (and actually need one of his players to trigger it) before he sees this is a bit worrisome..

Just what are nicksy and his coaching staff seeing from that box?.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

BTW, if any player would be worth the godfather offer, it would be Conner Rozzee for me.

That kid's annoyingly good

He needs to focus more on playing football (which he is brilliant at), and less flopping for frees.

 

[cleanhands]

Was it me or was Rash giving JHF a working over every time he tackled him, thought he was letting him know I’m the man

 

[cm_perfect]

He needs to focus more on playing football (which he is brilliant at), and less flopping for frees.

I am sure wobbie is his mentor. Both elite talents that flop like a fish out of water when they get a bit of physical heat.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

In my top 2

The other one was when buddy belted Rutten in a prelim then got the free kick

Nah. that DMac HTB in front of goal against the Hawks.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

The umpires were disgustingly deplorable for 3 quarters. They put the whistle away in the 4th and we blew them away.

You can take a step to kick the ball without being tackled for * sake.

yep. The two sling tackles against us were BS also.

 

[GrommoT]

Bad: Not realising there was an opportunity to mine Likes on the North deathride thread last night.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

Based on this the only voter that actually watched the game was David King

King annoys the shit out of me but he actually has really insightful observations of the play. Bloke was a gun footballer.

 

[Bearded Clam]

Was it me or was Rash giving JHF a working over every time he tackled him, thought he was letting him know I’m the man

Rachele will be a better player than JHF..

Rachele’s dad should look into whether his wife was anywhere near Peter Daicos when his son was conceived.. because Josh Rachele and those two daicos lads all play the game earily similar especially Nick and rachele.. same balance, poise, great decision making, exquisite skills and xfactor..

And they all look like they could be brothers.. two of them are.. maybe its actually three!

 

[Bearded Clam]

Bad: Not realising there was an opportunity to mine Likes on the North deathride thread last night.

Hahaha.. so true!.. i put the Gif of Rankine’s freak goal on their power deathriding thread.. and then made a comment after it and woke up with 47 likes from North Supporters!..

 

[hippyhippy]

The centre bouces looked so much better when sloane or Dawson was there... imho stop playing Dawson in defence... play him in the middle or further up from defence... we really need another Dawson in the team.

 

[Geoffa32]

Great
Dawson playing the role that suits his attributes. And he was able to show genuine leadership.

Rankine. I was not happy with the trade, what we spent to get him. But games like that, and more of them will make me happy to be proven wrong.

Rachele, if his trajectory into an elite attacking mid continues, using those draft picks to get Rankine works. Brilliant last night.


Thilthy was my pick for the Medal. As Kano plagiarised from here, he should never ever be dropped.


These four guys will be elite and showed last night they are match winners.

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[George Kramer]

The centre bouces looked so much better when sloane or Dawson was there... imho stop playing Dawson in defence... play him in the middle or further up from defence... we really need another Dawson in the team.

Yeah Sloane was important in time.

I think we’ve realised over the last 2 round losses we just can’t load up with kids at once, not that they won’t eventually get there, but adding a Sloane and Keays for the odd centre square bounce helps and not really hurting the development of the kids if we continue to rotate well.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

J Dawson being awarded the Showdown Medal, despite nobody with a clue who actually watched the game rating him in the best 5 players on the ground. For those playing at home, the best 5 players, by a long way, and in no particular order, were:

Rankine
Thilthorpe
Laird
O’Brien
Rozee

How Dawson wins that medal, nobody will ever know. Do complete nuffies like Rowie and Bicks vote or something? David King correctly gave Dawson 0 votes.

this was truly bizarre.

impersonally thought laird was our best (surprisingly) - his contested possession game was on. If it went to TT, Rank or RoB then that would have made sense too.

Dawson was solid but no way BOG.

 

[Scorpus]

i realize there is a follow the leader and group think element on forums like this, but seriously what is the sudden turning on Brodie Smith about? This lad has probably been our best player over the last decade and hopefully has 3 or 4 more years at that high level. It maybe hasn’t been his best start to the year, but he is still averaging 17 possessions and the second most metres gained in our side. Add to that he is the best kick we have and has hardly had a score kicked on him all year and still has managed to have the 5th most inside 50s for us and it beggars belief that he is being belted by supporters. If Hamill or Parnell had played at his level everyone would be gushing about them.

we all love seeing young talent come into the side, but every successful side still needs a balance of experienced players. IMO it was our older guys in Sloane, Smith and Laird totally outplaying Ports older guys in Boak, Wines and Jonas that was probably the deciding factor late in the game last night.

This is a take of someone that reads the stat sheet and doesn't look how Brodie plays.

There is no way a 31 year old Smith has 3 to 4 years of football left at a high level

 

[Numinous]

I’m still in disbelief about the the sholl “play on” holding the ball call.

Same, if by "in disbelief" you mean "filled with rage every time I think of it"

 

[Geoffa32]

Problem is, PORT put so much emphasis on the importance of their prison bar Guernsey ......their supporters are being "conditioned" to believe their normal Guernsey is an inferior & reluctantly accepted version

Koche has a lot to answer for, in living in the past & not forging a new future .....you don't see FREO carry on about their equally strong heritage

I hope the AFL let them wear it for their home Showdown every year. Help celebrate our now annual win in that game.




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[Barneythecrab]

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned but Boak shirking the contest against Smith was a big turning point. If it had been Tex, Kane would have it as front page headlines

 

[cleanhands]

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned but Boak shirking the contest against Smith was a big turning point. If it had been Tex, Kane would have it as front page headlines

I did give a little wince at the time

 

[hippyhippy]

This is a take of someone that reads the stat sheet and doesn't look how Brodie plays.

There is no way a 31 year old Smith has 3 to 4 years of football left at a high level

I've always liked smith but this has to be his final year...

 

[Geoffa32]

I’m still in disbelief about the the sholl “play on” holding the ball call.

How was it not a 50 m penalty for protected area?

I know they changed the rule this year. But still....

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[BRL121]

Some observations:

It was a game of two periods, the maggotts first 9 goals, and the remainder.
For the first of those, Port were better and we were reactive. Port were better primarily because of the physical dominance of SPP and the big hulk, not much else. Dawson was in the middle and got us going into attack, but his absence in defence meant that we had zero defence, as pointed out by others, so Port goaled with most of their entries. We clearly need two Dawsons.

In the second period, the hulk went out of the game after his injury, normal service was resumed, and we proved dominant. Our defence became respectable.

I do note that many here are being unfair on Tex. He was clearly injured in the first, explaining his subsequent performance, but still contributed, especially in forward ruck contests. His situation was equivalent to the hulk's, but started earlier.

One thing that annoyed me was that, despite us managing to stop Port getting clean centre clearances in that first period, they still managed to get the ball from ugly ground tackle situations, with umpire help, by handing or throwing the ball to their teammates, who we then allowed to exit cleanly. Clearly, we expected the umps to blow the whistle. Play to the whistle!

Finally, I'm not a Laird basher, but his work was pretty ugly, fumble after fumble, unable to get clean handpasses away, etc. I forgave him all, however, when he got that clean last quarter clearance and goal, just at the right time!

 

[BACCS]

Yeah I didn’t mind his performance, I’m kinda bummed he wasn’t rewarded with a goal

He stays in next week IMO

If Fog is fit though, he comes back in. They might give Tex a rest though after twinging his abductor early and looking average after that.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

Another quality post from foulberton way

A very disappointing result, 3 quarters of that Crows squad wouldn't even make our starting 22 and we dish out that s**t