Player Watch Mark Keane - Signed to End of 2028

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After a bit more rational thought, he needs to play as an interceptor. We know he's a good mark, he just isn't a 1v1 defender and is better off in the Worrell role.

That said, if he is Collingwood-bound and checked out, then he shouldn't play again, especially with the season done and dusted.
He has struggled since Worrell was injured, moreso with Max moved into the midfield - the three of them together seem to be able to choose their moments to defend and intercept. He just doesn't gel with Butts back there at all, especially when Butts has illusions of grandeur drifting way up the ground as a forward press interceptor. It's a bad mix. Our coaches should have realized this last week, they should have seen it unfolding before it got way out of hand.

Last night was absolute rock bottom. After Amartey kicked his fifth goal (for the record I think the accountability for his first four can be split evenly between Keane and Butts, but the next five are all on Keane) he went completely rogue and I really did not have a clue what the hell he was doing out there. Neither did his teammates (and sadly, neither did our coaches). Just a total meltdown.
 

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Mark Keane got a bath. It's not unheard of that occasionally a defender gets a hiding from a "hot hand" forward. This instance was largely the failure of Keane to beat his man but I want to look at this a bit more

On Saturday night, we played conceivably the greatest number of recognised defenders ever.

We played 3 KPDs in Murray, Butts and Keane. We furthermore had another KPD in James Borlase up forward. But also, we played two other recognised quality defenders as midfielders. Adding to these six, Hinge, Jones, Nankervis and Laird either played as defenders or have played down back enough to know what they're doing. I might have forgotten someone but anyway...

Given the loss of ascendancy and the avalanche of evidence we'd lost our composure, why did the coach leave the status quo in place? I've explained above the mass of magnets Nicks could have thrown around the board. Yet all he gives us is "we lost our competitiveness and pressure". Surely when the boat is sinking, there is a better strategy than "row harder men".

Mark Keane had a hard night but his talent is worthwhile. He needed help on Saturday night and to my eye, received little and has been then used as a scapegoat for failures to act by a guy paid to know what 10 do, fix the problem as it occurs and help the young man get back on the horse that's just thrown him.

Bad night for Keane. Fixable but.

Very bad night for the team. Looking dejected now.

Sad night for Nicks. Looks like a deer in the headlights.
 
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Mark Keane got a bath. It's not unheard of that occasionally a defender gets a hiding from a "hot hand" forward. This instance was largely the failure of Keane to beat his man but I want to look at this a bit more

On Saturday night, we played conceivably the greatest number of recognised defenders ever.

We played 3 KPDs in Murray, Butts and Keane. We furthermore had another KPD in James Borlase up forward. But also, we played two other recognised quality defenders as midfielders. Adding to these six, Hinge, Jones, Nankervis and Laird either played as defenders or have played down back enough to know what they're doing. I might have forgotten someone but anyway...

Given the loss of ascendancy and the avalanche of evidence we'd lost our composure, why did the coach leave the status quo in place? I've explained above the mass of magnets Nicks could have thrown around the board. Yet all he gives us is "we lost our competitiveness and pressure". Surely when the boat is sinking, there is a better strategy than "row harder men".

Mark Keane had a hard night but his talent is worthwhile. He needed help on Saturday night and to my eye, received little and has been then used as a scapegoat for failures to act by a guy paid to know what 10 do, fix the problem as it occurs and help the young man get back on the horse that's just thrown him.

Bad night for Keane. Fixable but.

Very bad night for the team. Looking dejected now.

Sad night for Nicks. Looks like a dear in the headlights.
I do think mucking around with Max in the midfield messed with our defence. We were already down one Worrell, and adding Murray to the mix adds a risk of structures collapsing as he it out of match practice.

Say what you want about Brodie Smith, at least his presence would have added stability there from a familiarness point of view.

We should have kept the back as settled as possible. Instead we took out those who have played defence well all year and had a play around in midfield and up forward. It was dumb selection and dumb coaching.
 
Mark Keane got a bath. It's not unheard of that occasionally a defender gets a hiding from a "hot hand" forward. This instance was largely the failure of Keane to beat his man but I want to look at this a bit more

On Saturday night, we played conceivably the greatest number of recognised defenders ever.

We played 3 KPDs in Murray, Butts and Keane. We furthermore had another KPD in James Borlase up forward. But also, we played two other recognised quality defenders as midfielders. Adding to these six, Hinge, Jones, Nankervis and Laird either played as defenders or have played down back enough to know what they're doing. I might have forgotten someone but anyway...

Given the loss of ascendancy and the avalanche of evidence we'd lost our composure, why did the coach leave the status quo in place? I've explained above the mass of magnets Nicks could have thrown around the board. Yet all he gives us is "we lost our competitiveness and pressure". Surely when the boat is sinking, there is a better strategy than "row harder men".

Mark Keane had a hard night but his talent is worthwhile. He needed help on Saturday night and to my eye, received little and has been then used as a scapegoat for failures to act by a guy paid to know what 10 do, fix the problem as it occurs and help the young man get back on the horse that's just thrown him.

Bad night for Keane. Fixable but.

Very bad night for the team. Looking dejected now.

Sad night for Nicks. Looks like a dear in the headlights.
On that and taking off the Keane was thrashed hat, had Worrell been playing, how many of those marks Amartey took could have been spoiled by the big 3rd man up in Worrell who had been very very good for us until he got injured. Structurally without Worrell, we lacked that big 3rd man intercept and as we were playing Max upfield, we missed his chopping out down back as well.

I am still amazed they never tried James Borlase on Amartey for a while, while he is not a star defender, he sticks to his task and does his job...
 
On that and taking off the Keane was thrashed hat, had Worrell been playing, how many of those marks Amartey took could have been spoiled by the big 3rd man up in Worrell who had been very very good for us until he got injured. Structurally without Worrell, we lacked that big 3rd man intercept and as we were playing Max upfield, we missed his chopping out down back as well.

I am still amazed they never tried James Borlase on Amartey for a while, while he is not a star defender, he sticks to his task and does his job...
The obvious move was to swap Borlase with Keane... or switch Murray for more than 5 minutes.

Just another reminder that our coaching group lack matchday smarts. They have little clue how to get the players to deal with an opposition run on or dealing with a hot opponent... of which we have usually had 1 each game.
 
He had his worst game for the club by a long way.

More than happy to look past that if he bounces back, overall he's been in our top 3-4 this year, even though that's like saying Usain Bolt can run faster than Reilly O'Brien.
 

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He had his worst game for the club by a long way.

More than happy to look past that if he bounces back, overall he's been in our top 3-4 this year, even though that's like saying Usain Bolt can run faster than Reilly O'Brien.
😁😁😁😁😁 Just imagine an athlete like Usain Bolt leading out from our goal square. Far out brussel sprout!!

What a monster!!
 
Keane's not strong 1 on 1, (remember him falling over under little contact to gift DeGoey the winner?) which is fair given he's still learning the game. And you can't say he shouldn't be playing deep, if he's in defence he doesn't get to choose where he stands; there's another team out there.

Still beyond perplexed why the coaches hung him out to dry when he was getting toweled up, especially when there were 3-4 obvious other choices to go onto Amartey. Has that question been asked of them in the media this week? Would love to hear that response.

The saddest thing was watching his trade value plummet with each goal. If he is out the door, we shouldn't drop him, quite the opposite. Throw him forward or play him on the weakest forward. This season is now about 2025 and beyond and our trade cache is part of that. A 2nd rounder will be worth a bit for us with Welsh and a strong even draft. Right now Keane is probably a 3rd but a good end to the season will boost his stocks.
 

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Player Watch Mark Keane - Signed to End of 2028

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