Player Reviews NAB Cup Rd 1

[loki04]

How long ago were the measurements taken?

QED.

Haha prob when they got back from Utah then he had a good chrissy break and beef caked.

 

[Macca_]

Each player had their measurements taken and guernsey tailor made...

Did you see him trying to pull his jumper down and stretch it out during the warm-up?

 

[loki04]

Did you see him trying to pull his jumper down and stretch it out during the warm-up?

I'm not doubting it is NOW to small for him but he must of been those dimensions at some point this pre season I'm guessing after UTAH training camp but before Christmas break.

 

[Vicky Park]

I'm a huge fan of Krak, love to watch him play, but he did look like he was carrying a few extra pounds to me too.
I find that rather bewildering coming off pre-season.. They've been training hard and their fitness under constant scrutiny.

I am amazed by this too. Krak looked much fitter when he came back from injury for the last games of 2012. He went to Utah, then I queried if he was missing from some training sessions post-Utah. He appears to be carrying extra weight, and was huffing and puffing on the interchange bench on Friday night. I love the guy, really want him to do well this year, for himself and for us, but something seems amiss. Or maybe I am just paranoid and reading too much into this. Speculation usually gets me nowhere.

 

[Snoop Dog]

All I can say is it's great to see you back in action Snoop Dog! Sight for sore eyes.

Its good to be back pal.......even better to see us win with 11 of our best 22 out in that 2nd game. But what topped the night was the 3 recruits all look the business and the boy Martin showed a bit to I thought it Game 1.

 

[Snoop Dog]

Nice review. Krakouer has been in a good paddock hasn't he? Far out he needs to lose about 10 kilos.

looks like Krispy Kreme opened in his suburb.
He'll be ok though

 

[Snoop Dog]

Good review Snoop although I can't agree with your take on Harry O. Thought he had a pretty sad night full of errors. Hopefully it's just a blow the cobwebs out night for him.
You also mentioned Sidebottom's shot for goal. I've always been amazed that a bloke who kicked 10 in a TAC Cup Grand Final misses so many set shots. Frustrates me more than anything.
Clinton Young's kicking was off but I'm putting that down to missing so much pre-season training and he certainly seemed to be running himself into the ground so legs would have been battling a bit.
Jordan Russell was impressive and could be a good option for some of the forwards who have given us a tough time over the last few seasons.
Not really sure but I was wondering if Clokes 2 uncontested chest marks late in game 2 are partially a result of Lynch's presence. It's going to be harder to double team Cloke if Lynch keeps presenting and looks threatening which was sadly the reason why Dawesy dropped off.
Thought it was significant that in last few minutes against Bombers Ben Hudson was important with big mark, good chase and also had a massive hand in last centre clearance. Massive competitor.
Over all I thought we looked up and about for a rd one practice match.

Look I took a bit easy on H as it was his first game. lets hope thru the NAB Cup series he can use it a bit better bc as I said he got the ball in great positions he could have really opened them up if he used it better.

Lynch was good bc he marked it. Dawes has hands like feet I reckon.

yeah couple of Hudson efforts late v good.

 

[Snoop Dog]

Yagmoor is just playing out his Contract

the comment i got over summer was kid is surpremely talented but probably needs to work on 'presenting himself footy ready come Saturday'. He has some real tricks so I think they are invested in him and i thought a couple of 1:1 efforts vs Jetta? were pretty good.

 

[Snoop Dog]

Great review and Snoop's is one of the threads I wait to open up each week during the season But there was some definite channeling of Bruce in this one....

I am baffled with this Bruce Mac stuff.....what's the go?

 

[Beary17]

great work Snoop I wasn't able to watch it so love the write up. Was there anything about the gameplan you took note of, good bad or indifferent? Understanding of course it was our first hit in a trial match I'm still curious to see how we go about it this year.

 

[loki04]

I am baffled with this Bruce Mac stuff.....what's the go?

I said ages ago about the Shifter "Snoopdog" Sheeahn references where you were channeling him with the word 'Super', haha maybe they have picked up something similar with Bruce Smackafanny.

 

[76woodenspooners]

I am baffled with this Bruce Mac stuff.....what's the go?

It's the rhetorical questions

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Thoughts on Clinton Young's game? Met expectations?

Didn't set the world on fire, but I didn't expect him to be a Norm Smith Medallist in the NAB Cup with a brand new club.

I thought he was good overall though. Kicking was penetrating as f**k like I wanted.

Harry was just......horrid. Even Frost wasn't outpositioned so easily.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

It's the rhetorical questions

Yeah, you finish a statement with "doesn't he?" just like Bwuce.

 

[brockbruiser]

Sorry if this question has already been asked, but why didn't josh thomas play??

I really hope he has an injury free year, I think he could be a solid contributor

 

[TheGreatGrundy]

looks like Krispy Kreme opened in his suburb.
He'll be ok though

Krakouer turned up for training over-weight last season then did his knee. Perhaps he has problems doing the right thing by his body during the off-season.

 

[KJpie]

I am amazed by this too. Krak looked much fitter when he came back from injury for the last games of 2012. He went to Utah, then I queried if he was missing from some training sessions post-Utah. He appears to be carrying extra weight, and was huffing and puffing on the interchange bench on Friday night. I love the guy, really want him to do well this year, for himself and for us, but something seems amiss. Or maybe I am just paranoid and reading too much into this. Speculation usually gets me nowhere.

He's never been quick obviously and the game gets quicker every year, I just thought he looked slow and maybe a fraction of his perfect playing weight which is not unusual at this time of year.

The time will come where his value as a crumbing goal kicker is dated as his defensive pressure diminishes (hopefully later rather than sooner). What seems clear though is if he is half a yard behind his opponent he is out of the contest more often than not.

 

[KJpie]

Harry was just......horrid.

Agree Re: Harry

The kicking skills of the majority of our defence and defensive options are a real concern for mine, Reid and maybe Shaw aside. None of Harry, Brown, Johnson, Keeffe Maxwell, Toovey, Frost or Marley (as a small defender) are A grade, most are B grade at best. Frost's disposal by foot was well short of AFL standard as is Marley's (should have been retained on the rookie list to improve his skills in the VFL).

It's no wonder we recruited Russell or that Yagmoor was retained as a rookie or that Seedsman was trusted with the kick ins and trialed in defence. The one constant is they all have excellent kicking skills.

 

[HeavyPop]

Keefe has good skills and Toovey has improved a bit. Brown is good enough for someone who has limited touches and is just looking to get rid of the ball normally.

I can't comment on Harry because I can't remember the last time he kicked a ball that was a 50m bomb up field to a contest..

 

[half_back_flank]

He's never been quick obviously and the game gets quicker every year, I just thought he looked slow and maybe a fraction of his perfect playing weight which is not unusual at this time of year.

The time will come where his value as a crumbing goal kicker is dated as his defensive pressure diminishes (hopefully later rather than sooner). What seems clear though is if he is half a yard behind his opponent he is out of the contest more often than not.

He makes up for that lost yard of pace with his football brain though, incredibly intelligent player.

 

[Snoop Dog]

great work Snoop I wasn't able to watch it so love the write up. Was there anything about the gameplan you took note of, good bad or indifferent? Understanding of course it was our first hit in a trial match I'm still curious to see how we go about it this year.

Mate I think they definately looked to hit up thru the centre more and it was clear to me they were keen to get the ball in Harry's hands and run thru the middle. Only issue was he butchered it nearly every time. I get the theory but I am not sure his skills are up to it.....His other issue is I think he gets found out defensively at times. I think his go is small fwds. He has them for lunch.

The other thing I noticed was that Lynch and Cloke swapped a lot but I was disappointed that Cloke was taking 3 blokes and either the other fwds werent creating an alternative option or the players bringing it in werent looking at anything other than #32.

Still I was pretty happy - particularly that 2ndf gasme when 11 or so of the starting team were out. Was also happy with the depth we have and the performance of the new blokes along with Witts who has come along.

 

[Snoop Dog]

It's the rhetorical questions

Got it

 

[Avatar]

I thought Harry wasn't too bad watching at the game. Watched the replay and still didn't think he was too bad, perhaps I'm missing something.
Got caught out in the first minute -> Gia goal, not good but can cut a bit of slack due to it being the first minute of his first game of the year (was Gia's first too though).
Other than that I think his other mistakes were the kick to cloke that bounced in front of him, kicking to Caff where a perfect kick would have given Caff a 75-25 contested mark but the kick was not perfect and ended up closer to a 50-50 contest.
He had 2 free kicks against - 1 was out of bounds which would not be paid in the regular season and the other was from a bad handball from Yags.
I think otherwise he hit a few targets and had a couple of spoils.

Anyway I'm just going on memory which isn't the best but he was far from horrid imo.

 

[Kirby]

^^ I watched the replays again yesterday and the rubbish that gets said about Harry does my head in.

He mucked up a couple of times but didn't butcher it every time like suggested. In fact, he delivered a few lace out passes too.

He's everybodies whipping boy as of late. He actually had a great second half of season 2012 but all anyone remembers was his poor start to the year.

 

[forwardflanker]

^^ I watched the replays again yesterday and the rubbish that gets said about Harry does my head in.

He mucked up a couple of times but didn't butcher it every time like suggested. In fact, he delivered a few lace out passes too.

He's everybodies whipping boy as of late. He actually had a great second half of season 2012 but all anyone remembers was his poor start to the year.

Thought he was horrible pretty much all 2012 except for the prelim final. Same can be said with Maxwell. Now that we have some depth down there they actually need to play well to warrant a game. There's a good chance one of them won't be best 22 come finals and my moneys on O'Brien since Maxwell's the capitan