Player Review vs Cats

[Collingwoodity]

For me russell is a steadying influence in the backline. A backline that has not much composure or technical kicking skills apart from reid.

Shaw, maxwell, williams, brown, toovey and harry tend to kick out of defence without thinking too much but russell is a bit more like reid in that precise composed kicking may lead to a better opportunity to clear the D50 than a pressured maniacal bomb.

I like it.

 

[4#Didak#4]

Our kick outs are still a concern. We seem to be using a whole lot of differnt players to kick out & none of them really fill me with confidence. If Russell can do that job it goes a long way to securing a posi. I would like to see Seedsman taking them, has great depth & accuracy.

Cloke's game was an interesting one. He had a tough job against the leagues best tall defenders. There were times where he was attracting 3 & 4 quality defenders. I hate seeing this, however I do think it was a big part of Bucks plan. By Cloke attracting so many defenders (he is like a magnet) it did free up the smalls - in partucular Elliot & Krak. I think this is going to be a big tactic going forward - using the fear of Cloke as a decoy. The Hawks are doing this with Franklin currently.

Mackie was often trying to be third man in against Cloke & let Krak get free as a result. It also meant that Cloke kept Taylor & Lonegan honest and they couldn't play any of those switching forward shenanigans with any great effect.

I am concerned by Lynch's last couple of games. He is important for structure, but is not really impacting marking contests enough or hitting the scoreboard. I think his role in the ruck is important and makes him hard to leave out, but as the second marking forward I think Paine is right on his tail there. I think this time next year we may see Grundy's name there.

 

[Thommo 42]

I thought Cloke had a decent game, but not great.

However, when I looked at the stats I was astonished to find that he had 15 kicks, 2 handballs and 13 marks.

If your CHF is pulling down 13 grabs when double teamed, you have got to be happy with that!

however, he has now kicked 23.24 for the year with at least 5 or 6 OOB - so he needs to tidy up his kicking again. He's actually gone backwards again, with some real genuine shanks the last 2 weeks, rather than just 'good misses'.

 

[Copeland]

I thought Cloke had a decent game, but not great.

However, when I looked at the stats I was astonished to find that he had 15 kicks, 2 handballs and 13 marks.

If your CHF is pulling down 13 grabs when double teamed, you have got to be happy with that!

however, he has now kicked 23.24 for the year with at least 5 or 6 OOB - so he needs to tidy up his kicking again. He's actually gone backwards again, with some real genuine shanks the last 2 weeks, rather than just 'good misses'.

13 marks really surprised me also, maybe a fair percentage were on the wing.

 

[sloth6]

O'Brien was best on ground by the length of Flemington straight. Sammy Dwyer was great and Pendles superb in the first half.

The major difference this week is that we had 22 contributors.

Blair was great, spending what I thought was more time in forward half and then having short spells in the middle. With Ball back, this should be the norm for mine. Keep him up forward.

Lynch may not have had the big numbers, but how influential was Harry Taylor? Taylor would be pretty much leading Geelong's B & F (if not be very close) and he didn't allow him take defensive marks, or gang up on Cloke too often. He presented and numerous times we decided not to hit him on the short lead. Should've kicked the set shot after the brilliant smother and centering kick from Elliot on the non preferred left foot, giving him two for the match.

Cloke had 13 marks, reckon he would've had that many if Lynch wasn't performing his role properly. Trav's mark in the last quarter from the kickout is one of the best you'll ever see considering the stage in the game. Just need to get his goal kicking in check!.

Macaffer did a sterling job on Selwood and Williams may be the answer to our small defensive back pocket problems. For the majority of the time, he was close enough to make effective spoils and harass.

Thank f**k Luke Ball is back!

Go the Maggies

 

[Thommo 42]

Totally agree on Lynch, statistically he barely had an influence - but when you can keep Taylor occupied sufficiently to stop him from marking everything that comes in, then you have played a superb and important role for a team playing Geelong

 

[dubber]

Lynch - Two things he did really irked me. First, when he tackled his own man Krakouer impeding candy man from doing his thing. Second, when he tried to bomb it from 80 meters out when he should have lowered his eyes and would have found 3 blokes on their own.

Sidebottom - Really inconsistent performance from Steele, he plays one good quarter than goes missing. In the 4th he was really the cause for two rebounds that could have been very costly. First, when he tried to do a dinky kick backwards to a player instead of hand balling to a free Seedsman, the ball got intercepted and back over our heads.
Second, when he dropped the mark near the boundary in the forward 50 & instead of seeing it over the line, he tapped it back in only for a Geelong player to pick it up and kick it back in the centre.

Overall i thought we should have been up by more as we dominated play for longer periods of time. But its only round 8 and plenty of time to sharpen the skills, for now 4 points in the bank is a good thing.

 

[DaVe86]

I think the positives for me were:

Seedsman getting better as the game wore on

Luke Balls immediate impact and leadership

Pendlebury back to form

Krakouer and Elliott looking dangerous


Negatives:

Yet another 3rd quarter fade out (but at least we played 3 quarters instead of the 2 we played last week)

Lynch was solid, but needs to hit the scoreboard.

Witts and Jolly don't work as a combination.

 

[Stripes B and W]

I thought Cloke was better than OK, also his working up the ground alot more this week i'm sure was tactical as 4Didak4 mentioned it cleared out space for Elliot and Krak to work in which created a number of goals for the smalls. Elliot's best game since Carlton, no coincidence he wasnt belted?


Still doesn't get particularly looked after regarding free kicks unlike a few other KPF's Unfortunately his goal kicking is average at best, something we will have to live with. Is a real confidence goal kicker.

Q also has dropped away, seems to not have the energy levels of earlier in the season and MUST nail his set shots inside 50 meters. Not sure if he needs a rest but it does seem that that 2nd ruck/ key forward best suits him.

Seedsman is the other one, watching him very closely, you can almost see the self belief growing. Needs to get more involved in the game, is a bystander at times but has a few weapons that the group as a whole tends to lack.

Our best overall performance for 2013 when you consider no passengers and at least 3 good qtrs this week. Much less patchy that in the previous 7 games.

 

[UpTheMags]

williams v russell is interesting as a mid term prospect but i think russell will stay in 110% based on last week's performance. maybe once goldsack is back we';l have the defender that can take your darlings and williams and sinclair might fight out a spot, although i did not enjoy williams ball use at all

 

[Visions]

N Brown - don't want to understate his game at all. He was very good.

I wasn't at the game due to a wedding but watching the replay I agree with you on Brown. I thought he was very good. So when reading the matchday thread where some posters were caning him and in one case calling for him to be traded, I don't know whether they were being sarcastic or are just idiotic.

YOu might want to tell Dale Tapping to stop wasting his time then albeit Sinclair seemed to handle it pretty well yesterday. The mere fact the club is trialling him there suggests to me they think they have a problem with their current crop of small backs and their ability to hold opposition small fwds so they are trying him there. If Sinclair continues to do well I wouldnt mind betting it aint as farcical as you might think

Hopefully that means they have come to the realisation that Sinclair will never make it as a forward.

 

[Snoop Dog]

i watched the replay as well last night and I must admit a few things I probably wanted to change in my review;

Sidebottom - little things were awesome but what really stood out was his running power. His ability to get to contests repeatedly was awesome.

Brown - Did very well and if wasnt for a couple of push outs Pods wasnt penalised for would have been a lot different. He was very good.

Russell - he didnt do much for 3/4 other than keep his man pretty tame but was very good late in the game and had some super touches

Seedsman - coming along really well. his run and carry is something.

Witts - Was ok in the ruck and did a few good things in that first half. Still not sure we arent better off with Paine

 

[MarkT2]

Briefly:
Witts needs more time - send him back to the VFL. We need some patience with him.
Russell looked better than at any time this year so he deserves another game (I am still a long way from having in the best 22)
Dwyer was good and has been a great value pickup.
Good to see Elliot back in some form.
Even Gooder to see Krakouer back in town.
I hardly noticed shaw being out so the run out of defense was good.
Ball was just OK but it's great to see him back playing. Plenty of upside for him.
Special mention to Maccaffer. Held Selwood. Then Selwood had some influence in their comeback and he shut him down again. When was the last time we had someone able to do that to a start mid? Take Maccaffer out of the side and we lose that game.

 

[entourage]

Briefly:

Special mention to Maccaffer. Held Selwood. Then Selwood had some influence in their comeback and he shut him down again. When was the last time we had someone able to do that to a start mid? Take Maccaffer out of the side and we lose that game.

The Caf was huge.

Not only did he hold Selwood he was valuable around the ground too. Ran off him and took some strong marks, soundly beat him on the night across the board and I agree, went a long way to winning the game for us.