Positives to be taken from today.

[lemon chicken]

Agree with Whomb. Hird said after last week late in the Freo game there was some good signs and we carried it into today. Apart from the first qtr where they just waltzed it out of our fwd 50, the press was really good. I thought we over did the handball inside 50 though, would rather just a weighted kick to the top of the square, most of the time we should of scored and ended up with nothing.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

- Stanton's heart

- Hurley full stop.

- Zaharakis's run and delivery

- Hibberd has really stepped it up since being dropped last week (and reprieved)

 

[Kong]

I probably wouldve had Hibberd was BOG, were it not for his opponent kicking a few.

It was a mis match though.

His game was extremely good.

 

[AndyLesPaul]

And one was also a farce, remember

 

[DaSawx]

Memo to coaching staff, please keep giving Hurley space to do his thang.

 

[AndyLesPaul]

That is of course, if he isn't injured/suspended.

 

[Knight Ryders]

- Pears, played good today and obviously lacked match fitness. Will get better as season goes on.

- Hibberd, gun today. Was seriously unlucky by that ******** that paid the free against him at the end.

- Bellchambers, I wreckon played well in the ruck today, beat Goldstein.

- Zaharakis, absolutely awesome, will be elite.

- Hurley, could have kicked 10 if the ball supply was better

- Stanton's heart

- Hurley full stop.

- Zaharakis's run and delivery

- Hibberd has really stepped it up since being dropped last week (and reprieved)

All of this and the fact that I still had a TV to watch tonight. I was so disgusted by it all (mainly umps - just want a fair go) that I watched a nice rom-com with my wife tonight instead of the footy

 

[yaco55]

Pears was ok. I can't wait till he gets fit again.
Hibbard has all the guts in the world. Two things that really worry me about him
1) He can't dispose the ball under pressure
2) He ALWAYS goes for a mark instead of punching. He is a defender. Punch the ball!

Daffo

I was very disappointed in Hibberd's game today.

His work in the air was reckless - You need to impact the game. Needs to learn when to join the marking contest,when to punch and when to mark. I guess that he cost us 3 or 4 goals with his reckless efforts in marking contests.

 

[yaco55]

Pears by a mile.

Controlled one of the inform forwards in Edwards.

Pears and Fletcher were the only good defenders today.

 

[Darealrath]

Pears was ok. I can't wait till he gets fit again.
Hibbard has all the guts in the world. Two things that really worry me about him
2) He ALWAYS goes for a mark instead of punching. He is a defender. Punch the ball!

This is one concern I have at the moment. Not just Hibberd either. Fletcher, Hooker, Hardingham and Hibberd are all very good in the air but every so often they all try and mark and we have no one who stays down. I think they'll work it with more experience playing together out so I won't harp on it.

I agree with those who've already said we turned the corner today. Still a lot of areas to work on but I thought we dominated large portions of the game and if we'd either kicked straight or had anything close to decent umpiring we win. With both it could have been a rout.

I thought Myers did some really impressive things today. He has character.

Bellchambers played a fine game. Stanton was back to usual high standards and Watson could have been b.o.g if he'd finished better.

This is the type of loss that should burn at the playing group and I hope we come out firing next week.

 

[Skeeta Olly]

Michael Hurley.

 

[Knight Ryders]

T-Bell very impressive against one of the form ruckmen of the comp. Continues to show glimpses around the ground but overall is very competitive in the hit outs but probably needs to improve around the ground and in using his presence around the clearances. Really loving his improvement this year though.

 

[windyhill]

Hurley playing/starring while obviously hampered by injury
Stanton, b.o.g, which would have disappointed a large chunk of fans
Harvey being buried in a tackle after he went on one of his " i have no teammates" runs

 

[doug85]

Daffo

I was very disappointed in Hibberd's game today.

His work in the air was reckless - You need to impact the game. Needs to learn when to join the marking contest,when to punch and when to mark. I guess that he cost us 3 or 4 goals with his reckless efforts in marking contests.

This, plus letting the ball go out the back and his opponent get goal side of him. As the old saying goes - take the ball or the body.

 

[Yoda_]

Daffo

I was very disappointed in Hibberd's game today.

His work in the air was reckless - You need to impact the game. Needs to learn when to join the marking contest,when to punch and when to mark. I guess that he cost us 3 or 4 goals with his reckless efforts in marking contests.

I agree, that he can often be '"careless" as you put it, needs to go to the Kyle Hardingham school of spoiling where he puts the ball into the 10th row if he isn't going to have a crack at marking it.

A few times today I noticed he would back into a pack and take out a team mate whilst a Roos player would 'stay down' and clear the ball. Frusterating we couldn't 'kill' the ball but awesome to see him (Hibberd) back into a pack without fear.

 

[yaco55]

I agree, that he can often be '"careless" as you put it, needs to go to the Kyle Hardingham school of spoiling where he puts the ball into the 10th row if he isn't going to have a crack at marking it.

A few times today I noticed he would back into a pack and take out a team mate whilst a Roos player would 'stay down' and clear the ball. Frusterating we couldn't 'kill' the ball but awesome to see him (Hibberd) back into a pack without fear.

Funny how last week, I highly rated Hibberd's game against Fremantle - But this week thought he was in the bottom half of players today.

Agree about the Kyle Hardingham school of spoiling - Lets hope that Hibberd learns.

 

[Rack Watts]

The fact that no matter how badly our arseh*le fans treat Stanton he continues to bleed for them.

 

[Vass38]

I dont think we were as bad as last week today and poor kicking really let us down.
On the bright side we are still in the 8, and if we can knock off Hawthorn next week which is not beyond the realms of posibility we are still in the finals race. Its going to be a little harder now after dropping 4 in a row but we ARE still in the 8 and ARE still in the hunt.

 

[Smokin]

the fact is, our inability to kick goals totally skewed the outlook of that game yesterday. We were in it, if not the better side for probably most of it, but just got no reward on the scoreboard.

Really, not much more could have gone wrong for us. Could not buy a goal whilst they struggled to miss for a while, had key structural players go down and early as well, and really still could/should have won the game. I dont think we got the rub of the umpiring green either.

Again, one major thing is killing us and we MUST rectify it before we go anywhere:

Our inability to keep the ball in our forwardline. We need a serious re-assesment of our structure/personel/ball usage (probably obvious), but this area alone cost us at least the richmond, melbourne and this game.

The fact that we are winning the inside 50's is making this worse for us.

In the first quarter alone, they had 8 scoring shots. 5 of them started from our forward 50, where we they scored without us touching the ball.

Not good enough.

It exposed our backline - once they cracked that half back area of our press, the backline has little hope.

On Hibberd, I have said before I rate him and he will be the hardingham of this year, next year. He has the ability, skillset and attitude, just a little raw in parts of his game.

Yes, he went up a couple of times when perhaps IN HINDSIGHT he should not have gone - but Id much rather that that not going with his instinct and crashing the contest when he can.

but what about the drive he gave us in the 3rd? Obviously he was instructed to run off and give us something off half back, and proved he could do this while still proving a defensive role. I thought he was the most influential player on the game in that quarter. Yea, made a couple of small blues but sheesh, this guy wont die wondering. Polish the edges, and we have a cracker here.

Hardingham, Heppell, Hibberd simply offer so much more than the Welsh's, Mcveigh's, Slattery's etc, as they have the modern day athleticism to do so much more than slow, lock down roles and we should be excited about the change to this area of the team.

If we can just work our forward structure out, hold the ball in and get some goals from forwardline structures, we will be a very hard team to beat.

We did/are doing a lot of good things, but the problem areas are simply hurting us too much at the moment.

 

[Yoda_]

Funny how last week, I highly rated Hibberd's game against Fremantle - But this week thought he was in the bottom half of players today.

Agree about the Kyle Hardingham school of spoiling - Lets hope that Hibberd learns.

Yeah,

Have noticed he (nearly) always tries to mark the ball, loved that spoil of Hardingham's coming over the back on the flank, thumped the ball away and boy did it smash into the fence

One thing I would like to say, how bloody good was Zaharakis today?

The last few weeks, with an increased role through the midfield, he is really starting to show his wares as a classy on baller, (nearly) everytime he recieved the ball, something happened, be it coming out of defence or going inside 50. His awareness and composure with ball in hand is something that has always stood out to me and something that will hold this young man in good stead for many years to come. Is awesome to see him not pigeon holed as a medium sized Alan Didak type forward, but is being allowed more room to move playing through the midfield, hopefully we can see him starting in the square more often this season.

 

[Yoda_]

We did/are doing a lot of good things, but the problem areas are simply hurting us too much at the moment.

Smokin, I agree with what you said, the bolded bit probably sums up where our football is at, at the minute.

 

[lemon chicken]

Funny how last week, I highly rated Hibberd's game against Fremantle - But this week thought he was in the bottom half of players today.

Agree about the Kyle Hardingham school of spoiling - Lets hope that Hibberd learns.

I thought the reasons he was good last week carried over into this week, and that is the run and carry. He seems to be capable of filling Dempseys shoes for the rest of the year and i think it worthwhile fast tracking him this season. I think he suffered a lot from the forced mismatches after Hooker went down. Would be a good if he could develop further and release Dempsey to a wing next year.

 

[yage]

The work effort of Hurley, Heppell, Hardingham and Zakka are second to none.

Agree with the points made about Hardingham's spoils... he just hates a bit of hang time innit!?

 

[Super Gusto]

The work effort of Hurley, Heppell, Hardingham and Zakka are second to none.

Agree with the points made about Hardingham's spoils... he just hates a bit of hang time innit!?

I'm a fan of Zaha but I disagree that he has an outstanding work ethic. In fact he was one of the man guys missing when Nth got a few run on's. Rarely on the ground fighting for the ball either. His skills are great but I believe he needs to work harder to become the footballer he should.

Anyhow the positives.

- Hurley's desire and hardness
- Pears getting through a game
- Melksham, Hardingham and Hibberd continuing to improve
- We're still in the eight ....for now

 

[Ben the Gooner]

I loved Der-wayne Russell saying we could be out of the 8 this weekend.

Yeah, if Melbourne beat Freo by about 300 points.