Autopsy Rd 2 2018 Sydney vs Port Adelaide

[Wolftone]

No it’s not!

Yes it is. He is not on the MATCH DAY PANEL therefore he should not be in the main group. No other Director of Coaching sits next to the coach. Only their second sits next to them. Like sat stewie Dew sat on horse's left and in the case of Clarkson, Bolton and Fagan sat there. Both Match Day coaches

 

[Mick Oxlong]

What a load of codswallop. he is not on the Match Day Panel. He is director of coaching. It is an administrative position only. That is shit Mick.

So he’s not on match day duties but he’s the director of coaching? I don’t know, but am I missing something here? Thanks for the long winded IM, but my ‘blame’ today is fairly and squarely on the magnificent pressur that PA brought to the table! We just needed to be better and we didn’t learn from Rd 1 last year!

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

51% Kicking efficiency

 

[Banyo Bloods]

Under pressure in two GF this midfield has proven itself soft. Today again they were soft when it counted. Take the loss on the chin. What are you a boxing coach? Listen mate our mids have been overrated for years. If you look at the figures they tell the real story. We have one mid and if he gets blocked then we are cactus. Luke Parker is good until he gets huge pressure then he goes to water. Joey is the only one who in reality can blast out of hard situations but when they smother him there is nothing he can do. The rest need to get far harder if we are going to win a premiership. You might be happy reaching the finals every year but I'm pissed off. We might as well be bottom. Why should I take the loss on the chin? If you accept mediocrity then you are mediocre. Accepting a loss without questioning why is futility in itself. You will lose again and again and accept being a loser.

Somebody at school once asked if I was a boxer and before I responded he said yeah a box of shit. True story...and just as interesting as your post.

Some of those midfielders you are talking about have premiership medals and are anything but soft. That's a fact, even getting to a Grand Final would suggest they are not SOFT. You can berate their lack of skill or explosiveness from the contest but Hanners, Joey and Parker are not even remotely soft and you will hear that from their peers who have far more credibility than you on the subject.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Haven’t been able to watch the game, but from what I’ve read here and in the match reports, two things emerge-

The fumbles: we’ve never had the cleanest skills in the comp; that’s a given, but I really think the level of fumbles today can be safely written off as Just One Of Those Days. It just happens sometimes, to any but the most freakish of teams, and no-one should be catastrophising about our season on the basis of this.

Failure to put teams away despite a dominant first half: this is where I am concerned. It’s been a problem for too long and I really don’t know why we so often fail to convert on-field dominance to scoreboard dominance. (Notable exceptions being the Geelong and Adelaide finals in 2016).

Is it a mental thing, simply a fear of taking our chances?

Clearly something has to change, so what’s to lose? We cannot keep doing this.

There are no gimme games these days of course, but we could be making things a whole lot easier for ourselves if we could crack this problem.

 

[caesar88]

I've been thinking this about the SCG too, I really don't think the side is suited to it anymore. See us on longer, skinnier grounds and we generally play far more quickly and with more precision. See us on the SCG and we so often fall into the same old long bomb, fumbling plays against good sides.

I have been saying this for ages!!! We are better on grounds like Adelaide Oval or Etihad or Subi (formerly) or Geelong than the SCG. You can just see that we have no ******* space to have any semblance of a game-plan. At least on the bigger grounds we kind of accept the challenge of 'ok boys we're gonna have to be aggressive here'. We just end up constantly under pressure at home.

 

[caesar88]

On Rohan, yes he has all the attributes to be a star. But this far into his career we have to accept it's not going to happen. Because of his talent, he should be treated as a depth player - a la Cunningham, Towers, Fox, Newman, Florent, Hayward etc. These guys on the fringes that have had to carve out plenty of NEAFL time to earn their spots, and even then they're at risk of being dropped if they serve up one below average game. The fact that Rohan has never had to spend a decent stretch of time in the reserves considering his output is an indictment on Horse.

I'm not bashing. I have Rohan in my best 22 probably (subject to very imminent change), but fair is fair. He's been a NEAFL-worthy player for a lot of his career so that he's constantly been exempt from that really ticks me off. I think the frustration on here isn't that Rohan played, it's that he didn't have to prove himself to play. If he went to the NEAFL, showed he could work hard to earn his spot, and then forced his way into selection but still ended up playing crap in a senior game, we could at least appreciate that Horse made the call based on what was in front of him. Alas, that's not the case.

On Mills, I don't think he deserves much criticism. Yeah he's been ordinary, but we still need to remind ourselves this is a kid who barely played a poor game in his debut season. Just like Aliir, all the attributes are there to get him back to his best after some shaky form. Why not back the kid to do so instead of casting doubts on him so early in his career. My one concern is that he may end up cursed by the School of John Longmire. We've seen it before. Kids burst on the scene looking like supreme talents.. we marvel at the fact that "wow we finally have a rising star with good skills and good decision-making! They'll be our best player in five or so years!" And then a few years pass and those skills and decision-making traits sort of fall by wayside. Look at the skills of Dane Rampe in his first few seasons compared to his last few (admittedly he was injured a chunk of last year). Look at the skills of Isaac Heeney in his first few compared to now. Look at the skills of Zak Jones his first few seasons compared to now.

I think Horse places a lot of emphasis on enforcing contested doggedness rather than allowing players' natural flare and talent flourish, and I think quite a few of our players have lost some of their natural games en route to becoming a typical "Blood". I worry about that with our dynamic kids like Mills and Papley and Aliir and Hayward etc.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

51% Kicking efficiency

Generous. I'm surprised we had 51% that actually hit a target!

 

[Tedeski]

Am i allowed to say we really miss Tom Mitchell elite hands in traffic?

Wouldn't have made a difference as it was contageous.

 

[Tedeski]

But Paul Kelly?
We win.

 

[Tedeski]

Interesting stats

We scored 4.6 (30) from turnovers, they almost doubled us 8.6 (54) in this stat. The guilty parties were Fox (2), Mills (2), Towers, Hannebery, Jack and McVeigh.

They nailed 72% of their tackles, we only had 62% in comparison. Parker was surprisingly bad for us only making 6 of his 12 tackle attempts. By contrast, R.Gray, Powell-Pepper, Ebert completed 28 of their 30 tackle attempts.

Ball movement in the back half was ordinary to say the least. Smith, Grundy, Fox all below 50% KE. Mills and Melican right on 50% KE

Umpire 12 Andrew Stephens, he of the "I'm not a Hawthorn fan, I just like them on Twitter" fame, seemed to give every 50/50 call to them in the last quarter. And no prizes for guessing who gave the 50m penalty as well.

http://www.sportingnews.com/au/afl/...is-twitter-account/1jhfh9cnndddf1eo8drpuwrs4g

Again I say it.
As bad as the umps seemed, bad errors by senior experienced defenders like Rampe fumbling in the goal square for a goal & Reg dropping a signature mark for goal render the umpire argument useless.
We were just putrid with the ball when we had energy in the first & we slowly deteriorated as we became fatigued.

 

[caesar88]

Again I say it.
As bad as the umps seemed, bad errors by senior experienced defenders like Rampe fumbling in the goal square for a goal & Reg dropping a signature mark for goal render the umpire argument useless.
We were just putrid with the ball when we had energy in the first & we slowly deteriorated as we became fatigued.

They do say that bad skills puts you under the pump. Because of how ordinary we used it in the first quarter, it almost felt like every possession following that became even more important. And with that pressure our skills got worse quarter to quarter. It was like a team-wide capitulation really in the skills department.

 

[Number37]

Again I say it.
As bad as the umps seemed, bad errors by senior experienced defenders like Rampe fumbling in the goal square for a goal & Reg dropping a signature mark for goal render the umpire argument useless.
We were just putrid with the ball when we had energy in the first & we slowly deteriorated as we became fatigued.

Don't excuse the umpiring...
It is way past the point where the club has to cop a fine by publicly calling out individual umpires for their performance in our games. It happens so often now that it can only be described as cheating.

 

[melbournehammer]

Again I say it.
As bad as the umps seemed, bad errors by senior experienced defenders like Rampe fumbling in the goal square for a goal & Reg dropping a signature mark for goal render the umpire argument useless.
We were just putrid with the ball when we had energy in the first & we slowly deteriorated as we became fatigued.

Actually it was kind of strange that we kept looking to mark the ball in defence - it was obviously very wet given the level of fumbling that was occurring, and yet we kept going for marks instead of spoiling the ball to the boundary.

 

[MF]

Seriously though, why bring up Blakey? Are people that desperate to find excuses?

Reminds me of the people who can read unprofessionalism into the players haircuts/facial hair/boots etc

 

[Skeparovic]

What was his free differential tonight?

Couldn't tell you I'm afraid. Not sure where those stats are kept if they are at all. Anyone else know?

 

[tombomb]

There isnt much we can do because they are in our best 22-25 players, but I think in 10 years time we will look back and thick a lot of pretty ordinary footballers were able to play a lot of football for us through the Franklin era.

 

[mtooler]

Watching the game live, I thought Mills was one of our better players with his spoiling and making contest efforts compared to a below average team on the night. I must admit the team line up they announced at the ground was all over the joint, K.Jack on the ball etc, thank goodness for rotations.

 

[Tedeski]

Don't excuse the umpiring...
It is way past the point where the club has to cop a fine by publicly calling out individual umpires for their performance in our games. It happens so often now that it can only be described as cheating.

I hear you but how do you read this.
To half time we had 33 inside 50s to 14. That's total dominance. Not on the scoreboard. We only cored 6 goals to 4..
By full time it evened up 52 each.
We scored 4 to Port's 10.
Can't blame the umps for all of that.
We just don't know how to make the most of our dominance.
Who is our forward coach?

 

[6yearsold]

i don't normally talk about it but the umpiring was the worst i have seen in a while from our point of view.

that aside our defence was very ordinary. i made the call on nick smith last year and stand by it. we cannot afford to waste a spot on our 22 on someone so slow and poor by foot. the game has past him by in my opinion. melican had a very poor game with his fumbling and disposal costly and grundy was not too far behind. where was rampe? the quietest game i have seen him play in a long time. mills seems like he is at a crossroads. he is not asserting himself at halfback like he used to and i would move him up the field where he belongs.

up forward rohan and jack did nothing. i like papley but i am sick of the stupid frees he gives away. heath shaw might have been on to something as he doesn't seem very smart.

mcveigh, kennedy, florent, buddy, cunningham (he did dodge another contest) and towers were admirable.

 

[mikey_san]

On Rohan, yes he has all the attributes to be a star. But this far into his career we have to accept it's not going to happen. Because of his talent, he should be treated as a depth player - a la Cunningham, Towers, Fox, Newman, Florent, Hayward etc. These guys on the fringes that have had to carve out plenty of NEAFL time to earn their spots, and even then they're at risk of being dropped if they serve up one below average game. The fact that Rohan has never had to spend a decent stretch of time in the reserves considering his output is an indictment on Horse.


I think Horse places a lot of emphasis on enforcing contested doggedness rather than allowing players' natural flare and talent flourish, and I think quite a few of our players have lost some of their natural games en route to becoming a typical "Blood". I worry about that with our dynamic kids like Mills and Papley and Aliir and Hayward etc.

There really does seem to be a continual lack of fluid play under Horse - whether it's the players he picks or the game plan (or both). I don't think we'll win another premiership with him in charge - though through sheer doggedness and rotating so many through the mids and Buddy we'll make finals.
Maybe an unfortnuate injury here or there will change the style this year - it's a long season.
Our best mids in Kennedy, Parker and Hanners aren't gifted playmakers but sheer grafters - a bit of sugar around them might do the trick.

Rohan I believe gets an auto pick the last few years due to a desperate lack of pace elsewhere across the team - this also probably means he's given to doing too much chasing as nobody else has been capable. I wonder what the team might look like with Florent developing in McV's spot - Stoddart on the bench. Florent got his hands on the footy in Q1 yesterday by playing back- maybe that's where he'll belong.

Should be an interesting response from the selectors after that performance. In Florent, Ronke, Stoddart, Ling we have what's needed developing. Will they be used in time under Horse is the key question. We don't have time for them all to put on 10 kgs of muscle and be able to bang on the inside like Horse seems to want of all his players.

 

[The King!]

I think the problem is i just dont believe the port hype

Guess im looking way off

 

[Punts]

I think the problem is i just dont believe the port hype

Guess im looking way off

That makes us even more ordinary

Maybe we are not a top 4 team anymore

 

[mikey_san]

Don't excuse the umpiring...
It is way past the point where the club has to cop a fine by publicly calling out individual umpires for their performance in our games. It happens so often now that it can only be described as cheating.

I'd REALLY love to see Horse take in a video player to a Monday presser and ask reporters for opinions on: "Why isn't that 'holding the ball'"? "Why isn't that a 50 meter penalty, when this one is"? etc

I don't care how much the fine is (pass around a collection plate at the next home game).

 

[bungee]

Perhaps last week took it out it of their legs - it was described as a hard surface.
I'm confused about those umpiring decisions, but our fumbles and disposals were disappointing.
Port Adelaide did apply the pressure.
Bravo to Lance.
Oliver Florent answered some of those critics.
So many players played below par.

Nice to have someone put forward a reasoned opinion instead of a sook. I agree with these points. Though I think Lance could have done better given he spent much of the game with mainly a newbie on him. Trouble was our leaders just disappeared or completely shanked it.