AFL Autopsy RND 3: Done by the Dees

[Stopher]

It's Carlton's first 2-0 start in a decade. It's our first 0-3 start in over half a century.

Let them gloat over absolutely nothing.

 

[schmuttt]

Thought umpiring was maybe the most generous I've seen our way. Wright looked unplayable, wtf has happened to him?

 

[Yoda_]

So i started this;

Ridley Stewart Kelly
Francis Laverde Hind
Durham Shiel Cutler
Perkins Jones Langford
Snelling Wright Stringer
Draper Parish Merrett
Caldwell McGrath Heppell Redman

You can argue all should be superstars and i'd bold a few.
But as a unit, that's a decent team and still has a highly touted Hobbs, 2nd gamer in Martin and single gamers in Baldwin, Tex & Reid to come in.
I also don't have Cox in due to a lack of defined role.

Those last two on the bench i can make arguments on dropping for Martin and Cox.
Stewart is the main one for me. There's a lot riding on Reid.

What it highlights is it's less the names/talent on paper and more the balance, tactics and effort from the side.

The keys for me;
Players out of position (Francis forward, Stewart back)
Gifting games - Smith, Ham, i'm throwing Heppell in (captain or not)
IQ - Getting sucked into chasing one player with the ball and not minding the immediate space outside the contest
Skills - turnovers killed us last night. We're gonna battle through games with the top 4. We can't give them easy turnovers the way we do

Good template, I was suggesting a best 22 that could push for finals wins. We still have far too many unknowns for mine.

 

[Halftimehero]

Oh well, at least we aren’t Norf

 

[bing181]

I envy those tiger and now Dees flag sides who were gifted by the footy gods with minimum injuries to the bulk of their key senior players and had a good run at right from round 1

With all due respect, that's not true of the Dees: our backline has been decimated this year. From our GF team, only May and Bowey have played from Round 1. Rivers came back in last week (but is underdone), and we're still missing Hibberd, Petty and in particular, Lever and Salem.

Anyway, hope you get your injured players back on the park ASAP.

 

[Shane Heard]

With all due respect, that's not true of the Dees: our backline has been decimated this year. From our GF team, only May and Bowey have played from Round 1. Rivers came back in last week (but is underdone), and we're still missing Hibberd, Petty and in particular, Lever and Salem.

Anyway, hope you get your injured players back on the park ASAP.

Yeah I’m talking specifically about last season

The premiership season

 

[Shane Heard]

Oh well, at least we aren’t Norf

They’re in a world of hurt with all limbs amputated

Compared to them we just having a few minor scratches that’ll heal quick

 

[tesla1962]

I was afraid to look at the replay given some of the comments in here - expecting a car crash. Given our outs, it was nowhere near as awful as I expected. Even in the first quarter better kicking and a bit of luck and we could have had 4 goals on the board.

 

[Yoda_]

Unsure if I mentioned it during the game but one of the best takeaways from the game was that we had moments from our unheralded guys who showed they belonged.


Durham had a period in the second or third quarters where he was going, Martin showed he belonged, Caldwell had flashes of brilliance whilst we all know what Tex did in front of goal.


As mentioned by many, a bit of class and poise and the result may very well have been different but the Dees are the reigning premiers so can't complain with going with them for 3 quarters. Red time goals in the last exaggerated the result

 

[pazza]

Thought umpiring was maybe the most generous I've seen our way. Wright looked unplayable, wtf has happened to him?

I hope Essendon sees that effort every week on Wright. Has presence. Was helped by playing permanent forward with Phillips helping Draper in ruck.

 

[Nifft]

I thought Jake Bowey was very good for Melbourne. It's a shame Ham doesn't play with the same tenacity considering they're similar in size.

 

[citizen-erased]

Unsure if I mentioned it during the game but one of the best takeaways from the game was that we had moments from our unheralded guys who showed they belonged.


Durham had a period in the second or third quarters where he was going, Martin showed he belonged, Caldwell had flashes of brilliance whilst we all know what Tex did in front of goal.


As mentioned by many, a bit of class and poise and the result may very well have been different but the Dees are the reigning premiers so can't complain with going with them for 3 quarters. Red time goals in the last exaggerated the result

i thought Caldwell was excellent. cracked in and did some things that i thought were from Shiel. So he's got a turn of pace too.
but mostly just thought he brought a nicely balanced inside/outside game.

 

[faible]

It's an issue we have had for a while, last year included. We are really susceptible to quick transitions from defence and struggle to defend against it ourselves.

From memory Melbourne had similar issues a few years back, then suddenly they didn't anymore.

Wonder if it's a matter of time taken to learn to necessary system and structure, which in our case is hampered by having a few key players missing, and Heppell being unable to move well enough to be where he needs to be regularly enough.

 

[faible]

Yeah watching it on the TV you could see the option and just knew he would try it. He absolutely shanked the kick which didn't help.

The thing with Redman is that he is a risk taker by foot. You need guys like that in your team but Redman is at his best when he is linking up in transition with overlap run and taking risks inside the attacking half of the ground.

It's when he starts trying the high risk-high reward stuff out of the back half against a set defence that he gets in trouble. The key to taking risks is knowing the best times to take them, and that's where Red Dog struggles sometimes and the outcome can look horrific.

I don't hate the idea of trying Redman further up the ground, but also can't remember whether he's done that at VFL level and been found wanting.

His kicking i50 is quite good usually, and can kick a goal from outside the arc.

 

[faible]

I said exactly this. We drafted a tagger with the number 1 pick! Thinking of the guys we left on the draft board, makes me sick to my stomach.

Jack Steele spent most of his years playing as a tagger, then suddenly blossomed in to one of the best general defensive mids in the AFL and you'd take him Top 3-5 in his draft.

If McGrath needs to play a bit of time as a tagger to find his home as a defensive midfielder and grow from there, then so be it.

 

[eth-dog]

I don't hate the idea of trying Redman further up the ground, but also can't remember whether he's done that at VFL level and been found wanting.

His kicking i50 is quite good usually, and can kick a goal from outside the arc.

He has. But people ignore that.

He's tough and (usually) a good kick, defends well. He's a flanker that we actually settled on a flank.

I find it ironic that people complain about trying to turn Langford into a midfielder (and now he's a very good outside midfielder) but are desperate for Redman to move further afield.

 

[faible]

Also we got an absolute lesson in field positioning.

Brayshaw and Langdon obliterated us because they know when to hold their width and how to find space, and their players know to look for them.

Our players meanwhile get sucked in to the contest leaving spare opposition players sitting back, and completely ignore when we do have players (Cutler got burned multiple times) holding their width.

Do we really need to gang tackle everyone? Probably not.

 

[citizen-erased]

Good template, I was suggesting a best 22 that could push for finals wins. We still have far too many unknowns for mine.

that's what i went with
I think Stewart is the obvious one. Isn't a specialist defender and is there as he's the biggest player we have who can play back there.
alternatives are Zerk and Reid. Neither we can bank on in a final either.
Maybe Cox at CHB with Laverde deep? It's a position of concern at the moment

Redman is great when in form. But out of form and with our depth in mid-sized defenders, i wouldn't call him lock.

Cutler has been good of late. I'd want more of it (same with Wright) before i locked them into a finals winning 22
Sadly, the last one is Heppell. Is not Boak/Selwood when it comes to players in their twilight.
He and Hurley are the last two of the banned players as well....and both out of contract this year...do we be ruthless and thank both for their service and move on?

He has. But people ignore that.

He's tough and (usually) a good kick, defends well. He's a flanker that we actually settled on a flank.

I find it ironic that people complain about trying to turn Langford into a midfielder (and now he's a very good outside midfielder) but are desperate for Redman to move further afield.

i think Redman's defensive aspects, his build and aggression and that peg of his would be great on the other flank.

Sit him on a Brayshaw or a Rich and they have something they need to worry about. vs. the red carpet we usually lay out when exiting our forward line

would love to see a run of Redman at HFF and Francis back...but that would require Heppell replaced with some pace in the backline (also not a bad thing)

Also we got an absolute lesson in field positioning.

Brayshaw and Langdon obliterated us because they know when to hold their width and how to find space, and their players know to look for them.

Our players meanwhile get sucked in to the contest leaving spare opposition players sitting back, and completely ignore when we do have players (Cutler got burned multiple times) holding their width.

Do we really need to gang tackle everyone? Probably not.

we haven't learnt to mind that mid-level space between the contest and outside play.
Cripps will have a field day with us if we don't sort it out.
That said, admirable for Ham to get to them both and battle most of the day. Showed some good things on the wing and whilst he was comprehensively beaten, gotta ask why he was always there solo against 2 AA form wingmen.

 

[Runk]

I thought Jake Bowey was very good for Melbourne. It's a shame Ham doesn't play with the same tenacity considering they're similar in size.

Ham doesn't have the football intelligence Bowey does imo.

 

[Squeaky]

Also we got an absolute lesson in field positioning.

Brayshaw and Langdon obliterated us because they know when to hold their width and how to find space, and their players know to look for them.

Our players meanwhile get sucked in to the contest leaving spare opposition players sitting back, and completely ignore when we do have players (Cutler got burned multiple times) holding their width.

Do we really need to gang tackle everyone? Probably not.

I think we (Truck) generally send players up to the contest just so we can match it with teams in there.
The problem is when we win a clearance we kick it around the corner or over our shoulder straight to the spare men we just left!
Frustrating!
We need to have a midfield that can hold their own vs the good sides before we go anywhere...

 

[faible]

I think we (Truck) generally send players up to the contest just so we can match it with teams in there.
The problem is when we win a clearance we kick it around the corner or over our shoulder straight to the spare men we just left!
Frustrating!
We need to have a midfield that can hold their own vs the good sides before we go anywhere...

We run an outnumber player (Snelling) similar to Richmond, but too many of our players are the see-ball, get-ball types that get sucked in to the contest when they don't need to be. Snelling is actually one of the better ones at not doing that, and is extremely important to our structure around the ball because of it.

Often we'll have multiple players tackling one opposition player when it's really not necessary, whilst Melbourne (or other top sides) have players sitting off the contest.

Someone wrote earlier that other teams have to learn to 'trust the tackler' and that's exactly what we need to do. Trust the player laying the tackle, to lay the tackle. Hold your width and position. Against a side like Melbourne it gets really obvious that we're not holding our width properly, whilst guys like Langdon and Brayshaw are excellent at it and rack up possessions accordingly.

 

[Squeaky]

We run an outnumber player (Snelling) similar to Richmond, but too many of our players are the see-ball, get-ball types that get sucked in to the contest when they don't need to be. Snelling is actually one of the better ones at not doing that, and is extremely important to our structure around the ball because of it.

Often we'll have multiple players tackling one opposition player when it's really not necessary, whilst Melbourne (or other top sides) have players sitting off the contest.

Someone wrote earlier that other teams have to learn to 'trust the tackler' and that's exactly what we need to do. Trust the player laying the tackle, to lay the tackle. Hold your width and position. Against a side like Melbourne it gets really obvious that we're not holding our width properly, whilst guys like Langdon and Brayshaw are excellent at it and rack up possessions accordingly.

Spot on - we don't stick tackles either - that's another issue...
Yeah we really miss Snelling - a clever footballer: when is he due back btw?

 

[faible]

Spot on - we don't stick tackles either - that's another issue...
Yeah we really miss Snelling - a clever footballer: when is he due back btw?

There's a number of times we did stick the tackle but an extra player came in to help, leaving their man unattended who eventually ends up with the ball.

Hopefully he's only a week or two off, would be nice to have him back against Fremantle so he's got a game under his belt before Anzac Day.

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

I was afraid to look at the replay given some of the comments in here - expecting a car crash. Given our outs, it was nowhere near as awful as I expected. Even in the first quarter better kicking and a bit of luck and we could have had 4 goals on the board.

Was busy on Friday and now is the first chance to watch it. I agree with you, a lot of comments in here seem way off.

 

[ant555]

Also we got an absolute lesson in field positioning.

Brayshaw and Langdon obliterated us because they know when to hold their width and how to find space, and their players know to look for them.

Our players meanwhile get sucked in to the contest leaving spare opposition players sitting back, and completely ignore when we do have players (Cutler got burned multiple times) holding their width.

Do we really need to gang tackle everyone? Probably not.

Been an issue for a while now.