Game Day NAB Wk 1 Crows Vs Saints Vs Power

[Sanders]

Been saying for a while graham isn't that bad. He's not someone you want to be your season long first ruck, but he's good enough to lead the ruck when the need arises

 

[jenny61_99]

LMAO James - I said the same Symes comment!

 

[spenze]

Glad to see Angry Angus come up well, he's no Jacobs but he is good enough to give Sammy a game or two off which will be vital come finals. It'd be extra good if we could rest Jacobs the week before the bye and then round 18 or 19 to have him fresh.

CEY was the one though that made me think if he can put it together we have a magic man on our hands. In the second half against the Saints his baulk and then run past the Saints defender was very P Burgoyne like

 

[beartoo]

Shame abouit Smith. I was looking forward to him taking another step up this year. If he misses 5 or 6 weeks, it will take him some time to get back into shape.
Not sure how much we take out of the Port win. Saints went down 2nd in a row as did Port.

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

I think that small forward pocket spot will come down to Callinan or Johncock.

F: Johncock/Callinan ~ Jenkins ~ Porplyzia
HF: Wright ~ Walker ~ Vince

I don't think we will be able to play both as Lyons, Crouch, Brown, CEY, Kerridge, Grigg and Henderson will be pushing hard to play as a regular 22 player. Meaning that bench/sub spot will be taken by one of those.

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

Been saying for a while graham isn't that bad. He's not someone you want to be your season long first ruck, but he's good enough to lead the ruck when the need arises

Why not?

A ruckman can be the same as a CHF. Just provide a god honest contest for your midfield and we have an A grade midfield that will make him look far better than the B Grade Richmond midfield did.

If something was to happen to Jacobs, Graham will be more than serviceable.

 

[Carmo]

I know this will be heresy to some, but I wonder if Angus could get his fitness / endurance running up to Jacobs level whether he could actually push for Jacob's spot in the team. He's got good ruck skills, he burrows in after it a bit as well which is hard to teach ruckman, they either seem to have that tendency or not, cant tell about marking ability and kicking though, he didnt get enough chances to do either of these today.

 

[Elite Crow]

Let's not get carried away, whilst he was good he rucked against Westhoff and Trengove

 

[SydCrow]

CEY wow, has amazing potential. Looks like he could play anywhere. Would like to see him get games.

Riley was sensational.

Tambling, not convinced, just panics and has ordinary disposal. Too risky for mine in defence.

Great to see some of what this board has been talking about, eg Grigg's kicking.

 

[Mismatched]

LMAO James - I said the same Symes comment!

Haha, and the McLeod similarity! I dead set shat myself when I thought it was Symes!

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

Let's not get carried away, whilst he was good he rucked against Westhoff and Trengove

I'm not suggesting he will be transformed into an All Australian ruckman. What I'm saying, if he was to lead the ruck, it's not the end of the world as we would implement a different midfield strategy.

I'd rather Graham as the ruckman than some of the duds we've had at the club over the past few years trying to play that role.

 

[Phantom21]

Tambling, not convinced, just panics and has ordinary disposal. Too risky for mine in defence.

Tambling is a natural laxative, I think our supporters will literally shit themselves when he is in defence.

He was under no pressure last year and couldnt break through to be a regular in our team.

 

[spenze]

I know this will be heresy to some, but I wonder if Angus could get his fitness / endurance running up to Jacobs level whether he could actually push for Jacob's spot in the team. He's got good ruck skills, he burrows in after it a bit as well which is hard to teach ruckman, they either seem to have that tendency or not, cant tell about marking ability and kicking though, he didnt get enough chances to do either of these today.

He has a fair amount of improving to push for Jacobs spot because lets face it, Jacobs should have been the AA ruck last year. Still, he is a very handy back up in the short term if need arises

 

[Phantom21]

I think that small forward pocket spot will come down to Callinan or Johncock.

Johncock does have the flexibility to play defence, although I wonder if he is on his last legs as a player this year.

Would Callinan be around in 2014?

Both are good small crumbing forwards, with Stiff IMO being a better mark.

 

[Phantom21]

RE: Crouch. Don't be disheartened if any are. He didn't play NAB last year, did he?

I remember Jaeger last year had a similar (small) impact. It just takes them a while to get used to the speed of the game, and then they start to show glimpses. Crouch had a few nice touches at the end there.

Agreed.

He is still a pup and will take time and I think the shortened game cannot be used as a measuring stick of his capabilities.

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

I don't mind Tambling but after today, I hope the selectors don't take the easy options of putting him into defence.

Brown, CEY, Kerridge, Crouch, Smith, Shaw and even Grigg are the future. Putting Tambling in defence is a Neil Craig band aid approach.

 

[SydCrow]

Callinan will thrive off Jenkins like he did off the Turnkurt

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

Johncock does have the flexibility to play defence, although I wonder if he is on his last legs as a player this year.

Would Callinan be around in 2014?

Both are good small crumbing forwards, with Stiff IMO being a better mark.

Don't know but he would need to show something in finals.

 

[Paladin]

I don't mind Tambling but after today, I hope the selectors don't take the easy options of putting him into defence.

Brown, CEY, Kerridge, Crouch, Smith, Shaw and even Grigg are the future. Putting Tambling in defence is a Neil Craig band aid approach.

Tambling is 26 has another 6 years to run around in defence. Brown impressed as well and both could play early with Smith missing.

Brent Reilly came good at 28

 

[Glenno23]

????

I didn't put an emoticon in there. It was tongue in cheek straight after he bombed a goal from 50

 

[BigLefty]

was great to see some footy again. theres very little to take away from it though except for a few glimpses here and there. everyones mentioned them all already. but i'd say my list of players that showed positive signs were CEY, Grigg, Jenkins, Riley, Graham, Wright, Martin, Laird, Brown and Lyons in no particular order. Smith was ok in the first game too.

and i really need to get some perspective, i almost lost my sh#t when douggie didnt give that handball to Hendo in the first game (then realised to just take a deep breathe, it's just round 1 of the NAB cup Lefty)

long range forecast is for 34 next saturday, so another hot one. at least being a practice game we can just make up the rules like drink breaks and quarter lengths as we go though i guess.

 

[WheresGroomgone]

Players who played above expectations
Jenkins - just needs to learn not to lean back when kicking for goal, easy to fix, straight away he would have had two extra goals
Laird and Riley - my two boys I crapped on about all last season coming good for me.
CEY
Lyons in the second game
Brodie Martin -not many have mentioned him, started off ok and got better and better
Grigg
Brown
The Mighty Angus!
Wrighty - more gold from our unsung hero
Stiffy and even Callinan were our main scoring threats in that first game
Hartigan did ok - moreso in second
Kerridge
Johnstone
McIntyre

Players who played below expectations
Jaensch
Lyons in the first game
Hendo
Lynch
McKernan

Other comments
No need to get too excited about the port win, it helped to be the team playing second.
However, good that we were able to get our game style sorted out and looked nice and crows like in the second game - which is good considering what we had running around. The saints game where they were able to score cheaply by going around or over zone was reminiscent of issues we had early last year, we fixed that by seasons end and today it was good that we were able to get it fixed straight away.
Tambo did ok, got better as it went on, will get better as gets comfortable (in his mind) at the level.
McKernan did less than ok, but also got better as it went on, still holding hope, but needs to show some stuff
Nice leadership by dougie, mackay, wright and smith early, they stood out above the other players.
Not sure about Otten, hard to judge his performance from that - ditto for Lynch.
Luke Thompson was ok, quiet achiever.

Mate I am in the Johnston camp but today was a horrible day for him - he did not once look like a threat in the forward line. I have/had high hopes for him but you only get so many chances and the last two {one game in 2012} he hasn't done that. Keen to see him do well however he would need to lift his game a fair way!

 

[SydCrow]

Tambling attacks the footy hard. In every other area Brown has him covered.

 

[Elite Crow]

I'm not suggesting he will be transformed into an All Australian ruckman. What I'm saying, if he was to lead the ruck, it's not the end of the world as we would implement a different midfield strategy.

I'd rather Graham as the ruckman than some of the duds we've had at the club over the past few years trying to play that role.

I agree he will be a handy pick up, I was referring to Carmos post about Graham pushing Jacobs for his spot.

 

[Schulzycrow]

Haven't read the whole 13 pages so apologies if I am repeating what others have said.

Me and two mates went to the game and heck it was hot even sitting in the shade doing nothing!
We were impressed with Graham's first half until he started getting beaten by Westhoff in the ruck and was even bodied out of a contest that he and Stickhoff were in. Nothing but backup for Sauce imo. Good at taps no idea around the ground.
JJ was great in the second game and I hope the curse of the number 4 yipps in front of goal doesn't rub off onto him as he was the dominant big man on the ground and shite he is fast!
Smack was good in the ruck and I think there is a place for both JJ and him in the team but Lynch and Johnston are injury fillers at best atm.
CEY was one that really stood out as did Laird.
Kerridge was a disappointment and Bling got plenty of it but still burns it far too often.
Hartigan did some good things in both, Jaensch still has no clue how to defend a man, Martin did some good things and Aidan Riley has a good chance to be around the mark come round 1.
Otten was meh as was Talia for most of the first game.
Douglas played well in both, but his finishing in front of the sticks just hasn't improved enough for someone of his experience, always seems to pull them to the left.
I thought our backline played too far up the ground as did our forward line especially in the first game which at some stages had not a single player forward of centre so when we actually got it out there was nothing to kick to and it stayed like that for all of the first half of the first game....it was terrible to watch.