Review Good/Bad/Ugly vs Hawthorn and their Umpires

[FullyBigKPro]

Where did my other post go Mods? Wow, like a kindergarten in here.

 

[spexau]

I've calmed down after last night and other than some bad luck, a missed kick and some questionable free kicks we took it right up to the 3 time champs.

In recent years even in the closer games against the Hawks we were never in control of the game and the Hawks smashed us in uncontested possession. Not this time. We had more disposals and I was really happy with our ability to handball out of traffic. Sometimes it came in stick but our ability to choose the correct option by hand has improved by 1000% this year. Even though we lost this type of game at the MCG on the big stage is an invaluable experience for the likes of Lever, Cameron, Atkins, Crouch, McGovern (who I have a mancrush on). Sucks we lost but I reckon we'll get them next time and hopefully that's a prelim or grand final

 

[Hell Boy6669]

I wake up today still not knowing how the **** we lost that game.

 

[Geoffa32]

Another pleasing aspect is that the second half we saw little from Tex, Betts and Jenkins.

Yet were still in front with 40 seconds to go.

Pleasing because we really do have a team ethos, and it is not just a marketing gimmick.

 

[Red mist]

I've calmed down after last night and other than some bad luck, a missed kick and some questionable free kicks we took it right up to the 3 time champs.

In recent years even in the closer games against the Hawks we were never in control of the game and the Hawks smashed us in uncontested possession. Not this time. We had more disposals and I was really happy with our ability to handball out of traffic. Sometimes it came in stick but our ability to choose the correct option by hand has improved by 1000% this year. Even though we lost this type of game at the MCG on the big stage is an invaluable experience for the likes of Lever, Cameron, Atkins, Crouch, McGovern (who I have a mancrush on). Sucks we lost but I reckon we'll get them next time and hopefully that's a prelim or grand final

15 less inside fifties. Not winning KPI's. Clarkson was perplexed. He knows we are onto something.

 

[Glenno23]

15 less inside fifties. Not winning KPI's. Clarkson was perplexed. He knows we are onto something.

I know its something that Peter J ponders after each game.... how is Don doing it.....We lose all key stats, and we've win 3 games and lost the other 2 by a combined 13 points away from home to 2 top 4 contenders.....

Something is brewing

 

[spexau]

15 less inside fifties. Not winning KPI's. Clarkson was perplexed. He knows we are onto something.

They won clearances but we won contested possession. Our game plan doesn't rely on us belting the other team in i50s any more which is great. Hopefully we come our next Saturday and smash the Dockers.

 

[Geoffa32]

Some pretty clownish posting going on tonight. Resembles facebook more than it does a footy forum. I'm guessing everyone's drunk as **** or something.

Wanna know how many goals hawthorn kicked from umpiring mistakes tonight? Probably exactly the same number we did! 5 of the 6 goals they kicked directky from frees were genuine frees from where I sat. 1 was a bit dicey but nothing that wasn't at least understandable.

Did we get smashed in centre clearances because of the umpires? No. You lose centre clearances 21-12, guess what? You probably lose the game.

Did the umpires influence the tackle count? No. You lose the tackle count by 20, guess what? You probably lose the game.


The umps made a number of clear blunders on the night. The holding the ball against Douglas (did not lead to a Hawks goal). The phantom free against Tex (actually indirectly led to a Crows behind). The non-mark to Lynch (this one was pretty shit but certainly didn't decide the game ffs). These are the ones people remember because they were near the end.

Guess what? In an amazing turn of events, not every bad decision went against us tonight! I'd say there were probably 15 howlers, and we were on the bad end of about 8 of them. 5 or 6 of those 8 cost us absolutely nothing.

There's a number of reasons why we lost the game. Our inability to stay composed in the intense heat of the last 5 minutes was one of them. Getting smashed at the centre clearances was another. Being smashed in the tackling was another.

The umpires? Pffft. This was not even close to being a repeat of the 2012 prelim. That day we were cheated out of a grand final spot. I have still to this day not seen more one-sided bullshit than that game. Rules were being invented on the spot. Tonight, we blew it. Despite the stats above, we were HOME if we kept some poise in the last 5. We didn't. Against the greatest team of all time, that doesn't cut it. Puopolo and Cyril took full advantage of CROWS BLUNDERS to kick the last 3 goals.

Goal 1: Smith shank leads to turnover, 10 seconds later Cheney inexplicably fails to dive and knock the ball through despite it being obvious that his opponent was about to go the soccer - Puopolo goals. Umpires had no decisions to make.

Goal 2: ground ball inside 50 for Hawks. Cheney puts one of the most pathetic tackles ever seen on his opponent (can't recall if Puopolo or someone else but probably Puopolo because he was involved in roughly 50 goals tonight it seemed), who is able to fire out a handball to Cyril who goals. Seriously, Cheney needed to force a bounce or a spillage and had a strength advantage here - it was pissweak. Umpires no influence.

Goal 3: Smith shanks a kick-in 48m to a contest. Ball punched out of bounds. Mackay does a Mackay and gets rag-dolled near the boundary from the resulting throw in. Hawks gather loose ball. Pissant attempts to tackle ensue - Thommo for one should've been much more desperate to tackle or smother. Mitchell gets a quick kick inside 50 where Smith is caught lagging behind Puopolo. Smith then makes an absolute **** of himself and gives away a blatant free reminiscent of Rutten in the 09 final against Collingwood (which was also a stupid and blatant free). Goal. Umpiring was spot on.


Whinge all you want about umpiring. They didn't do any of that, or lose the centre clearances, or lose the tackling.

As for the appeals for a free in the final 3 seconds, that was play on all night and would've been an absolutely disgusting call of holding the ball.

It's a heartbreaking loss, but the umps didn't cause it.

Not an easy loss to get over but hopefully a couple of blokes in particular will learn from it.


Oh and ps, the umps didn't cause Laird to play like an absolute donkey up until 3/4 time either. Seriously, was he drunk? Unbelievable stuff from him tonight. Love him, but that was next level terrible.

Amen.

When you play quality teams, you have to be smarter and eliminate the stupid errors. Last week we did this, last night we failed to do this. We lost.

 

[LikeATiger9]

This is why I'm down. I had us around the bottom of the 8 this year and possibly down to 10th. Throughout the game I had a SloaneRanger moment and was actually convinced we are playing good enough football to beat the best teams and it will only be a matter of fitness whether we can keep it up all year. I haven't felt like that since probably 2005 (2012 we weren't really there). A huge chance to show themselves and also the public that they can beat the best on the big stage and they let it slip!

Agree. Although only 5 games in, this is the first time for a number of years I actually believe we can win most games and not have to hope the team turn up to play each week. Was at the match last night and impressed by our ability to use the ball in tight. We are looking to get the ball to an outlet player more and create easier possession. Our backs did look slow but so did theirs. Less and slower D50 entries will allow the backs to set up better. The slingshot is making many defences in the comp look average. It is more about Team defence than just 6 players. Umps were average but both teams suffered from it at times. We played the most experienced team and they ooze composure, the North loss and last night are great learning experiences as long as we can implement better. Looking forward to Freo match already.

 

[Elite Crow]

They won clearances but we won contested possession. Our game plan doesn't rely on us belting the other team in i50s any more which is great. Hopefully we come our next Saturday and smash the Dockers.

Yeah but we can't keep allowing the opposition to have so many inside 50s. It's not fair on our defenders and its a ticking time bomb.

 

[pjcrows]

I wake up today still not knowing how the **** we lost that game.

We made 5 fundamental skill and decision errors in the space of 2 minutes. In those same 2 minutes they made 0 skill errors.

 

[Grav]

I know how you guys are feeling, umpires this year are definitely wearing brown & gold.
Still reckon you are the ones to beat in Sept. so Good Luck.

 

[GreyCrow]

You raise some good points.

I think our gameplan is great but I don't think it's part of the plan to lose the midfield or inside 50s.

Our gameplan can be more effective if we win the middle. We get the ball into our dangerous forwards first. It's also too risky because we keep giving up high scores.

As for our defence, the issue with Knight is he is too small. With Brown and Laird that makes 3 shorties. Wigg is even shorter.

Doedee is going to be a long way off.

The player I would develop in defence until Doedee is ready is Milera. He is 185cms so he is a bit taller. He's quick. He would be a cool head down back with great use of the ball. He played that position in the U18 champs.

The other thing is he isn't getting enough of the ball in the roles he has been playing and I don't think he's a natural goal kicker. We have other options to play that position in Cameron, Knight and Menzel.

We also badly need Brad Crouch to step up and stay sound. Douglas needs to be doing more. And next year we need to find 1-2 more quality mids. Neale is a must and if there is a tall marking mid available like Fyfe get him too to shut Wayne up.

Strokes non existing beard , ponders , nods head

 

[Barneythecrab]

The excellent thing to come from this game is that a large portion of our key players were well below best last night and we still came very close to defeating the best in the comp.
Those players play better and we win every time.

 

[Geoffa32]

They won clearances but we won contested possession. Our game plan doesn't rely on us belting the other team in i50s any more which is great. Hopefully we come our next Saturday and smash the Dockers.

What is our i50 efficiencystat like? We have the most potent forward line. I reckon we convert i50s into scoring acts more than most teams.

Hawthorn were very good at keeping the ball in their forward half. A lot of their i50s were repeats from that pressure with few leading to scoring acts.

 

[VSTone]

another hollow victory for the Hawks...and they would have to know it...
Good: they are one little step closer to the cliff...it's coming
Bad: falling over all night... what's with that shit, don't do that?

 

[earlsta]

We're onto something because we're so damn efficient on the rebound. Anyone notice how most of our goals come from directly in front? We go right through the corridor, not to mention our skills have improved ten fold, plus we no longer carry players in the best 22, everyone is on the same ledger when it comes to selection.

 

[6BTS]

Good: Apart from the fact that we should have won that game except for uncontrollable influences, we actually did very well to get robbed in the dying minutes. I thought we lacked something from the way we played in the last 3 weeks and I am fairly positive that wasn't our best performance. Our disposal in the third term was atrocious and we still should have won that game. The guys again ran their guts out all day, this is an important point I want to make, our new game plan demands hard running so we were obviously going to be spent going into that last quarter just like every other week.

Bad: Despite our massive improvement over the pre-season and early season, we did find a way to lose that game we should have won. Laird, unfortunately I have to single this lad out, didn't have a great game like we're used to seeing. Not sure what happened last night, but he'll bounce back. I think Mackay is a weak link for us, but I'm not going to waste people's time with another critique. Cheney is a good footballer and he tries hard, but again, he's not up to the standard we are going to need to beat the best teams

Ugly: This bugged me last night and I think a few people need to take a step back and re-evaluate their thoughts on Brodie Smith. He has been hung out to dry because he missed Seedsman late in the 4th quarter. Okay, so what? He was the one that created the chance to win us the game in that moment, without his play, the ball is back on the half back line. Then he sprinted down the wing after playing most of an AFL game of football and couldn't hit an open target. It would have helped our cause if Seedsman didn't go to ground, but no one is mentioning that. Smith's legs were probably jelly by the time he tried to kick that ball. So despite some people thinking they could hit Seedsman with that pass, go out and play almost a full game of AFL footy, sprint from half back to half forward and then try to hit him on the chest, see if you can do better after running some 15 KM and then going for a sprint.

The umpiring. I'm not usually one to bash umpires and I usually give them a pass because I understand how hard of a job they do, but Nicholls has form. He has form in giving free kicks to Hawthorn and form in paying free kicks against Adelaide. Is it any surprise that he payed 3 free kicks to Hawthorn in the final 5 minutes of the game? For some reason, he decides that even though 90% of umpires put the whistle away in such a tight, hot contest and only pay the obvious free kicks, he was pulling out the technical iffy stuff. Yes, Puopolo was infringed and it should have been a free. I know people are annoyed over that free kick, but that wasn't the one that was wrong. The Douglas free kick half way through the 4th quarter on Hawthorn's forward flank was bemusing. I can't even find a technical way of paying that free kick, so the question has to be asked, how was that free kick paid? What was going through the umpires head to give away a trivial free kick in a bad spot for the Crows in such a tight contest? No impartial umpire would have paid that free, there was an agenda behind that free kick which is why I am calling the umpires out this time. In the first quarter we raced to a 4 goal lead and then a couple of magical free kicks turned the tide. Anyone who thinks that bad free kicks don't play a role in who wins the game doesn't understand how momentum works in a game of football and how changing the momentum can be the difference between a contest and a blow out.

 

[earlsta]

What is our i50 efficiencystat like? We have the most potent forward line. I reckon we convert i50s into scoring acts more than most teams.

Hawthorn were very good at keeping the ball in their forward half. A lot of their i50s were repeats from that pressure with few leading to scoring acts.

We're at 52% coming in at number 5, Brisbane are 4th with 53% efficiency inside 50.

 

[Geoffa32]

You raise some good points.

I think our gameplan is great but I don't think it's part of the plan to lose the midfield or inside 50s.

Our gameplan can be more effective if we win the middle. We get the ball into our dangerous forwards first. It's also too risky because we keep giving up high scores.

As for our defence, the issue with Knight is he is too small. With Brown and Laird that makes 3 shorties. Wigg is even shorter.

Doedee is going to be a long way off.

The player I would develop in defence until Doedee is ready is Milera. He is 185cms so he is a bit taller. He's quick. He would be a cool head down back with great use of the ball. He played that position in the U18 champs.

The other thing is he isn't getting enough of the ball in the roles he has been playing and I don't think he's a natural goal kicker. We have other options to play that position in Cameron, Knight and Menzel.

We also badly need Brad Crouch to step up and stay sound. Douglas needs to be doing more. And next year we need to find 1-2 more quality mids. Neale is a must and if there is a tall marking mid available like Fyfe get him too to shut Wayne up.

As good as MCrouch is, he is only 20 and a good part of us losing the centre breaks is due to inexperience in winning those contests. Atkins is another young guy we have in there a fair bit.

When we are genuine contenders these guys will both have played 50 games and have experience in that area. We will be a far better side then.

Getting in another quality mid should be a priority. Guys like Neale or Heppel should be on our recruiting list.

 

[Geoffa32]

We're at 52% coming in at number 5, Brisbane are 4th with 53% efficiency inside 50.

thought we might be better than that.

Oh well, whatever Pyke is doing, he is on the right track.

 

[Crow_Magnon]

Really proud of the way we fought it out, and whilst I agree they were given a good run by Nicholls in particular, we made too many errors by foot when it counted. Most of these were unforced errors, the Smith to Seedsman kick, any of Laird's kicks - I counted 4 in a row in the 3rd quarter where he, under little or no pressure, either shanked his kick or hit up an opposition player. I don't wish to single out players, and I love Laird's endeavour, his intercept marking and all the other aspects of his game, but his kicking has often been poor. The forced errors I can live with - it's those where we're under little pressure that we need to fix. Oh, and when did Puopolo grow an extra leg FFS (swab him I say). We need someone like Saad from the Suns to close down blokes like him and Cyril - Browny is an honest player, as is Cheney, but God they always looked dangerous once it got out the back (similar to us I guess). Would love to get a crack at them again in the finals - minus Nicholls of course. I recall we hadn't beaten North for something like six games in a row before we beat them in the '98 granny (and that year we were similarly robbed in our match against them at the 'G' when Rehn got a howler against him late by one of umps who actually stated he was a North barracker!). Hopefully history repeats.

 

[spexau]

What is our i50 efficiencystat like? We have the most potent forward line. I reckon we convert i50s into scoring acts more than most teams.

Hawthorn were very good at keeping the ball in their forward half. A lot of their i50s were repeats from that pressure with few leading to scoring acts.

50%. Scored every 2nd time we went in.

 

[TexFactor]

The only thing I would ask Andrew Fagan to do when he writes his email to AFL House is to recommend none of those umpires are sent to Adelaide Oval this year.

for their own safety?

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Where did my other post go Mods? Wow, like a kindergarten in here.

A trolling comment from an opposition fan was removed. You'd quoted the post so yours got dumped too. Wasn't because of what you'd written.