Autopsy Im still shaking are you? One of the great Final comebacks! 6 point winners over GWS.

[SwansProudly]

 

[The King!]

Mills was passable albeit barely real clanger was in the 3rd i think went off his man to try and spoil and missed the ball completely left Jones completely free out the back.

Fair , A 5 or 6 out of 10 game, probably want to see more from him in the last than just a poor tackle attempt that cost a goal.

But he isn't there marking the opposition entries then we aren't in the game either.

He has had an interesting finals history, 2016 he got hurt , 2022 he was good in the two wins. Last year he was average from memory .

 

[The King!]

We had momentum at the start we just couldn't make anything happen forward at all, be it a mark or a crumb , some dopey af handballs too.


Parker has been awesome forward before yesterday , it was like the side couldn't work out how to fit him, Papley , Hayward around the talls, then Rowbottom of all people hacks the first goal.

Maybe that's why you ditch a tall? but would be interested to know how amartey looked off the ball from people at the ground. There was a few moments commentators mentioned he had gotten space and was missed by the mids and had some poor passes to him.

 

[Kbroome]

Fair , A 5 or 6 out of 10 game, probably want to see more from him in the last than just a poor tackle attempt that cost a goal.

But he isn't there marking the opposition entries then we aren't in the game either.

He has had an interesting finals history, 2016 he got hurt , 2022 he was good in the two wins. Last year he was average from memory .

Felt like the team had 13-14 players play 5/10 performances but it was made up for by 3-4 guys playing true 10/10 if not a particular one playing a 12/10 performance

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

We had momentum at the start we just couldn't make anything happen forward at all, be it a mark or a crumb , some dopey af handballs too.


Parker has been awesome forward before yesterday , it was like the side couldn't work out how to fit him, Papley , Hayward around the talls, then Rowbottom of all people hacks the first goal.

Maybe that's why you ditch a tall? but would be interested to know how amartey looked off the ball from people at the ground. There was a few moments commentators mentioned he had gotten space and was missed by the mids and had some poor passes to him.

Giants defence was just to good and blanketed Logan/Amartey didnt help we just kept bombing to their head.

Truthfully tho i thought it was over when Tommy and Melican collided so i was pretty numb after that moment.

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

Deep in the 3rd we only had like 3 marks inside our 50.

2 from Heeney and 1 from Lloyd(LOL) so we were dominated in the air.

 

[mcs095]

Due to the fact that Hawthorn finished 7th most people underrate them thinking they can't be that good. This is far from the reality.
They lost the unlosable game against port when leading by 45 points in the third and then conceded two goals inside the last 60 seconds of the game.
Had they won that game, do you know where they would have finished? Second!
I have no doubt people would be looking at them differently had they finished second, where they really should have.
I'm more inclined to play Port if I had a choice.

My comment had nothing to do with where they finished on the table or under rating them. I just think there are clear vulnerabilities there that a good team will exploit if they are repeated.

They are a dangerous team for sure - but so is every team at this time of year.

 

[The King!]

Giants defence was just to good and blanketed Logan/Amartey didnt help we just kept bombing to their head.

Truthfully tho i thought it was over when Tommy and Melican collided so i was pretty numb after that moment.

I thought 8-10 minutes in we were dominating the general play though

 

[Kbroome]

This could go down as one of the biggest 1%er plays of the season by Joel Amartey. Yes he had a bad game but the slight little block to get Taylor off his line for the ball created the space for Papley to find Amartey in space for the winner

 

[The King!]

Felt like the team had 13-14 players play 5/10 performances but it was made up for by 3-4 guys playing true 10/10 if not a particular one playing a 12/10 performance

Agree with that , last quarter others jumped on board . Warner especially .

I think Heeney and Papley kept us going for sure

 

[Kbroome]

Agree with that , last quarter others jumped on board . Warner especially .

I think Heeney and Papley kept us going for sure

Heeney Papley Rowbottom (Cunningham) and Lloyd great throughout and then 5-6 got out of their slump in the last

 

[Millky95]

I stick with the talls. Amartey had a poor game but can be forgiven with the ankle (anyone want Ladhams in over Amartey?). McLean did important work in the middle as the 2nd ruck. McDonald was involved in a lot of things including that bomb from outside 50

GWS were better in the air all night but at both ends too

 

[Kbroome]

I stick with the talls. Amartey had a poor game but can be forgiven with the ankle (anyone want Ladhams in over Amartey?). McLean did important work in the middle as the 2nd ruck. McDonald was involved in a lot of things including that bomb from outside 50

GWS were better in the air all night but at both ends too

People are also forgetting that GWS are set up to handle the talls with 3 players 195cm+ and another at 193cm they are massive in the backline. Having said that it opened up an opportunity for Papley given they are too tall to handle the smalls and he smashed it with 2 goals and 4 goal assists

 

[JackHiscoxWasFast]

Yep and I don't think he looked like a deer in headlights , I thought he was solid

Unlike his gastro.

 

[The King!]

Unlike his gastro.

Mills should have missed the game then he could be the guy we needed , look how much Adams standing improved on here yesterday

 

[mcs095]

Maybe that's why you ditch a tall? but would be interested to know how amartey looked off the ball from people at the ground. There was a few moments commentators mentioned he had gotten space and was missed by the mids and had some poor passes to him.

He didn't have much in the way of kicks to advantage, that's for sure - but my biggest gripe with Amartey (and to a lesser degree McLean and McDonald) is that I don't think they do enough work to create seperation, and/or present leads enough of the time, especially when we are on the back foot.

Amartey I feel tries too often to rely on either trying to crash a pack, or on trying to beat his opponent on one in a contested marking situation. He can do it - sure. But I think he'd be better served trying to drag his opponents around the ground more, and give himself more chances to mark on the lead.

One thing is not in doubt however. We can't afford for our forward line to be as stagnant and static as they were in the first half yesterday. Far too often there was simply nobody moving in front of the ball. .
Yes, GWS blocked space superbly and made it hard. But we have to do better if we want to win the flag - it's a lot easier to defend when players forward of the ball think 'its all too hard' when things aren't going well, instead of continuing to work, continuing to try and present, and working their defenders over. Yes it drains energy, but it also drains energy from your opponent as well, which in a game plan that clearly has some 'rope a dope' to it is important.

The good thing is it isn't necessarily difficult to fix, and even a 5 to 10 per cent improvment is probably all that is needed to make a real difference.

 

[The King!]

He didn't have much in the way of kicks to advantage, that's for sure - but my biggest gripe with Amartey (and to a lesser degree McLean and McDonald) is that I don't think they do enough work to create seperation, and/or present leads enough of the time, especially when we are on the back foot.

Amartey I feel tries too often to rely on either trying to crash a pack, or on trying to beat his opponent on one in a contested marking situation. He can do it - sure. But I think he'd be better served trying to drag his opponents around the ground more, and give himself more chances to mark on the lead.

One thing is not in doubt however. We can't afford for our forward line to be as stagnant and static as they were in the first half yesterday. Far too often there was simply nobody moving in front of the ball. .
Yes, GWS blocked space superbly and made it hard. But we have to do better if we want to win the flag - it's a lot easier to defend when players forward of the ball think 'its all too hard' when things aren't going well, instead of continuing to work, continuing to try and present, and working their defenders over. Yes it drains energy, but it also drains energy from your opponent as well, which in a game plan that clearly has some 'rope a dope' to it is important.

The good thing is it isn't necessarily difficult to fix, and even a 5 to 10 per cent improvment is probably all that is needed to make a real difference.

On tv it looked like all three talls played from behind too often, Papley and Hayward both get to the front

 

[JackHiscoxWasFast]

It’s good to hear Horse say Campbell would have started if not for soreness and family tragedy - so Jmac would have been the sub.

Gives confidence when he’s been on fire and has earned his spot.

Jmac needs to make way for Cleary/Adams. Footy is tough sometimes but winning premierships is tougher.

 

[Maddo11]

Deep in the 3rd we only had like 3 marks inside our 50.

2 from Heeney and 1 from Lloyd(LOL) so we were dominated in the air.

The good news is, we managed to get by even with the best defensive duo left in it being totally dominant.

If we happen to match up gws in the GF I'd be sitting the talls down and watching every foray forward from this week in hd slomo to work out how to better nullify them. Don't have to beat them 1v1 but just can't let them take however many marks it was.

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

Papley risked a severe neck injury trying to milk a free i wish he would stop doing that

 

[JackHiscoxWasFast]

What a game, how much fun was that? Just a brilliant effort by the team against a mighty Giants performance. Absolute classic game of finals footy, especially since the good guys came out on top.

My daughters claimed they were going to get "I heart Isaac Heeney" tattoos and I found myself thinking "yep, that seems reasonable". Didn't think I'd ever be approving of body art for my offspring!

Heeney Boppers ?

 

[mcs095]

I stick with the talls. Amartey had a poor game but can be forgiven with the ankle (anyone want Ladhams in over Amartey?). McLean did important work in the middle as the 2nd ruck. McDonald was involved in a lot of things including that bomb from outside 50

GWS were better in the air all night but at both ends too

I think to be honest it's too late to be fiddling now - we have to run with it now, we have cast our dice.

The risk of playing just two talls is that there will be significant periods where there is only one tall target up front. I don't think Grundy has the tank to rest up forward and be a genuine target. That brings its own issues, especially with our love of bombing it in far too often.

Given the potency of our midfield group, I really think we just need 3 or 4 goals from the three talls, plus good work rate to bring in the smaller guys and they will have done their job. I don't think they were great work rate wise yesterday, but hopefully the big game(s) to come can see that element lift and make a real difference when it counts.

 

[JackHiscoxWasFast]

Papley risked a severe neck injury trying to milk a free i wish he would stop doing that

GWS did it a lot as well - and we all know what happened

 

[mcs095]

On tv it looked like all three talls played from behind too often, Papley and Hayward both get to the front

Absolutely. Nowhere near enough of trying to lead their defenders to the ball for mine - when playing against a defence like what GWS has, you need to create seperation and make their defenders individually accountable. Sometimes that involves getting on your bike and leading hard, again and again.

 

[TheMase]

I thought 8-10 minutes in we were dominating the general play though

Haha it’s well and truly on the record that I agree with that

 

[Kiama Chris]

Melican "high" was BS
Cunningham non high was BS

Both resulted in goals

We "won" the frees but the ones that resulted in goals went mostly to GWS.