AFL Autopsy RND 6: Beaten by the Pies

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We seem to have no idea what our best 22 is and our injuries haven’t helped us settle at all. It’s no wonder that our team structures are failing all over the field.

We need move Cox behind the ball as he doesn’t have the confidence to make the play in the forward half. He has height, reach and athleticism so give him a go at CHB and let him sit behind the ball.

We need to play a second ruckman. I know Phillips is injured but we looked much better with him in the side against Adelaide. It enables us to have an out when we are forced down the line and ensures Wright can stay forward.

We need to move McGrath to the backline. He is much better reading the play and has the agility to shut down an opponent and play off him when the opportunity presents. There’s nothing wrong with some stints in the midfield here and there.

We need to keep Baldwin in the VFL for a consistent patch (I.e 10+ games) to learn his craft. Still a way off AFL level.

We really need Reid and Jones to be in the senior side after the bye (injury permitting) as these two are critical KPP to our structures and future.

We need to have some hard conservations with OOCs Heppell, Hurley, AMT and Francis as the year goes on.

If we can line up as follows toward the end of the year then I am sure we will see better results and give us a platform to 2023:


Ridley Reid Laverde
Redman Cox McGrath
Durham Merrett Martin
Stringer Jones Perkins
Tex Wright Snelling
Draper Parish Caldwell

Phillips Hobbs Shiel Kelly
Hind
 
Redman looked much better lurking through the middle - attacked the footy well. Merrett was super clean by foot. Stringer looked rusty but kicked 3. Draper beat Grundy for the majority of the game. Also Nic Martin is a jet.

Turnovers kicking forward killed us. Can tell the coaches instructed the boys not to bomb it long and that's why they got stuck handballing around so so so many times. Almost ripped my eyeballs out. Pies spread from contest to provide links along the wings, we just couldn't cover them and couldn't run and spread when we got our hands on it. Stagnant and over-reliant on 2MP bailouts.

Cannot expect all issues to be solved in one week, its a work in progress, but I think we made some improvement over the last week.

Go Dons
 

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Where to start... we make the easy look hard and the impossible look easy. That's the sign of a very dumb football team.

Rids - Has gone backwards the most, he had a number of times to take the intercept and looked as if he was playing in the rain.
LAV - tries his guts out, but ideally, he takes the medium tall, hurt his knee early which looked like it impacted him most of the time he was on the paddock.
Redman - Great game, been our best in defence along with Kelly.
Kelly - Solid, hard for him when he's one out against 3 pies.
Hep - getting the pill, but was on Vanilla ice in the 1st half and was always tailing him. I'd swing Hep forward as a last chance option.
BZT - Tries hard, but just doesn't have it I'm afraid.

Martin - Smooth operator
Duz - Tries his guts out every game - just needs a bit more size so he can stick more tackles, would love a few more of him.
Hobbs - just stick him in the middle - he actually got to a lot of good spots and wasn't used. He doesn't have a big kick, so get him in with Parish.
Shiel - he can FRO..what a waste of talent.. He starts well and then just fades out of games
McGrath - Just play him in defence.
Parish - That's the Parish we want to see, just be a bit more damaging with his disposals.
Merrett - Solid, just good he got through
Caldwell - Solid without anything special.
DRAPER - BOG for me, more of that please.

Package - Was threatening to blow the game open, he'll be better for the run and hopefully can just stay on the park.
Perkins - I'm very glad he plays for us, no 2nd year blues for this one. We got a genuine A-Grade Elite star. Needs more midfield time.
Cox - Just play him forward, Side-bum gave him the run around most of the day, he doesn't like to chase that much.
Baldwin - I can see him becoming a great defender, Howe had a field day on him. Hopefully he learns from today.
Guelfi - If we had more players like him, we'd be a much better team. Love his aggression and his 1%'s
Wright - Gave good contests most of the game, his kicking was a bit off until the end.
Waterman - Been critical of him, but the dude knows how to hit scoreboard and had his best game. I just worry about his ability when the ball hits the ground and his defence work, but 4 goals does smooth over those cracks.

Hind - Effort was there, but was running around like a headless chook and made some dumb errors at crucial moments in the last.
 
We seem to have no idea what our best 22 is and our injuries haven’t helped us settle at all. It’s no wonder that our team structures are failing all over the field.

We need move Cox behind the ball as he doesn’t have the confidence to make the play in the forward half. He has height, reach and athleticism so give him a go at CHB and let him sit behind the ball.

We need to play a second ruckman. I know Phillips is injured but we looked much better with him in the side against Adelaide. It enables us to have an out when we are forced down the line and ensures Wright can stay forward.

We need to move McGrath to the backline. He is much better reading the play and has the agility to shut down an opponent and play off him when the opportunity presents. There’s nothing wrong with some stints in the midfield here and there.

We need to keep Baldwin in the VFL for a consistent patch (I.e 10+ games) to learn his craft. Still a way off AFL level.

We really need Reid and Jones to be in the senior side after the bye (injury permitting) as these two are critical KPP to our structures and future.

We need to have some hard conservations with OOCs Heppell, Hurley, AMT and Francis as the year goes on.

If we can line up as follows toward the end of the year then I am sure we will see better results and give us a platform to 2023:


Ridley Reid Laverde
Redman Cox McGrath
Durham Merrett Martin
Stringer Jones Perkins
Tex Wright Snelling
Draper Parish Caldwell

Phillips Hobbs Shiel Kelly
Hind
I think that's an ok 22.
Hind isn't a sub though. tbh, im not sure what he is (in or out)
Maybe he stays in and we back him to rediscover his 2021 form.
Which could push Redman up to HF or Wing (with Martin HF) and not rely on Tex to play so early....like Baldwin, a year or two in the VFL has to be better for them. And get Redman's pressure up the ground where it's sorely needed.
 
Where to start... we make the easy look hard and the impossible look easy. That's the sign of a very dumb football team.

Rids - Has gone backwards the most, he had a number of times to take the intercept and looked as if he was playing in the rain.
LAV - tries his guts out, but ideally, he takes the medium tall, hurt his knee early which looked like it impacted him most of the time he was on the paddock.
Redman - Great game, been our best in defence along with Kelly.
Kelly - Solid, hard for him when he's one out against 3 pies.
Hep - getting the pill, but was on Vanilla ice in the 1st half and was always tailing him. I'd swing Hep forward as a last chance option.
BZT - Tries hard, but just doesn't have it I'm afraid.

Martin - Smooth operator
Duz - Tries his guts out every game - just needs a bit more size so he can stick more tackles, would love a few more of him.
Hobbs - just stick him in the middle - he actually got to a lot of good spots and wasn't used. He doesn't have a big kick, so get him in with Parish.
Shiel - he can FRO..what a waste of talent.. He starts well and then just fades out of games
McGrath - Just play him in defence.
Parish - That's the Parish we want to see, just be a bit more damaging with his disposals.
Merrett - Solid, just good he got through
Caldwell - Solid without anything special.
DRAPER - BOG for me, more of that please.

Package - Was threatening to blow the game open, he'll be better for the run and hopefully can just stay on the park.
Perkins - I'm very glad he plays for us, no 2nd year blues for this one. We got a genuine A-Grade Elite star. Needs more midfield time.
Cox - Just play him forward, Side-bum gave him the run around most of the day, he doesn't like to chase that much.
Baldwin - I can see him becoming a great defender, Howe had a field day on him. Hopefully he learns from today.
Guelfi - If we had more players like him, we'd be a much better team. Love his aggression and his 1%'s
Wright - Gave good contests most of the game, his kicking was a bit off until the end.
Waterman - Been critical of him, but the dude knows how to hit scoreboard and had his best game. I just worry about his ability when the ball hits the ground and his defence work, but 4 goals does smooth over those cracks.

Hind - Effort was there, but was running around like a headless chook and made some dumb errors at crucial moments in the last.
Waterman is an interesting one.
Strong, can play one on one and beat his man, and his boot is lovely and accurate.
but treacle slow. which is not good when you have Baldwin and Wright and Stringer down there too.

Thought Guelfi was best on, just ahead of Draper and Parish. Worked to do the team things. He looks a proper Rutten citizen (like Durham).
 

Yep, but no point going over a couple of incidents. There is so much grey in umpiring our game that you will find multiple things like this in every game. Pies probably didn't like when Grundy was shoved out of the way in the ruck and didnt get a free but then Draper got one for similar thing a few minutes later.

I get more frustrated with stuff like the 50m penalty on Hind. Should change the rule that if a player feigns a handpass that causes the moving on the mark, it isn't 50. It's just too big a penalty when someone acts on instinct like that.
 
My thoughts after attending yesterday's game were that the midfield was great at contested ball and handball use yesterday, but just need to fix up delivery inside 50. This is not entirely the midfield's fault - we lack a quality forward line which would hide a lot of the poor delivery i50. Nevertheless, there were too many shallow entries which resulted in turnover goals. We were winning contested ball and clearances, so the better strategy would have been to park Wright at FF to create a contest and bring the ball to ground/get a ball up. Far less chance of a full ground transition goal with deeper entries.
 

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My thoughts after attending yesterday's game were that the midfield was great at contested ball and handball use yesterday, but just need to fix up delivery inside 50. This is not entirely the midfield's fault - we lack a quality forward line which would hide a lot of the poor delivery i50. Nevertheless, there were too many shallow entries which resulted in turnover goals. We were winning contested ball and clearances, so the better strategy would have been to park Wright at FF to create a contest and bring the ball to ground/get a ball up. Far less chance of a full ground transition goal with deeper entries.

Our i50 entries weren't great, but when you take 17 marks inside 50 to 9, and kick 12.10 for the day, there's only so much you can read from that.

Accuracy was poor, meanwhile Collingwood were well above average from harder shots.

22 scoring shots to 18, 17 marks inside 50 to 9. On normal conversion rates we win the game.
 
How do we win every stat and lose the game?

This club has bean failing for that long they've forgotten how to win.
Well, we didnt win the tackle count which is a core sign of defensive pressure. We also didn't win scoring accuracy. More substantively, the quality of our inside 50 entries is generally inferior to pretty much anyone we play, given the speed of ball movement and lack of transition pressure. A mark 49m out on the boundary line is the same as a mark on the goal line in terms of marks within F50.
 
The opposition transitions the ball through from D50, through the corridor and laces their forwards out directly in front of goal....which is the fault of list management! /s
It is in a round about way. We lack forward pressure but we only have one guy on the list that is good in that department and that is Walla and he is 30. We have no speedy small forwards coming through other than Wanganeen. Right now we are playing a bunch of lead up forwards who are slow to average pace wise or a resting midfielder . There is actually no one that is able to play that sort of role coming through. Who have been our small forwards ? Tom Hird . Slow. Ned Cahill. Slow. Jordan Houlihan. Slow. There are no speedy little forwards who have the pace to create tackles or at a minimum put enough pressure on to create poor disposal.
Yesterday the midfield actually defended pretty well but with Wright who is not quick anyway playing ruck as well and slowing him down. Stringer not really at 100%. Waterman not overly quick. Geulfi a real hard nut but not quick plus Perkins who is still learning the defensive side and making a few mistakes it is not hard to see why the Pies where able get a bit of run going through the middle.
The side has holes in it. That is a list management issue. Coaches can only teach so much. Truck can not make them faster or as experienced as a 50 game player in 20 games or hold the marks for them or stop kicking the footy to the opposition.

You have big wraps on Cara. How has the ball movement been going ? That is 100% his show. Is that flying along ?
 
Having watched the game again a couple of times .Why did we lose ?
Poor turnovers going inside 50 from senior players. All of them had at least 2 kicks they would want back.
The kids are still making mistakes which you expect.
Playing Cox on the wing.
Sam Draper although pretty good is still struggling with the role they want him to play which is sort of the role Gawn plays but Sam has a few years before he can sort of replicate that.
So in reference to the above 3 learning on the job.
The forward line. No small pressure forwards. Too slow and we can not carry a young forward in Baldwin and have him have very little impact as well as taking our number 1 forward in Wright out of the forward line to ruck. Without a couple of decent small forwards we are too slow and have too many lead up forwards and we can not stop the opposition defenders getting involved. No way the likes or Moore and co run off his we a few speedy tacklers.
 
It is in a round about way. We lack forward pressure but we only have one guy on the list that is good in that department and that is Walla and he is 30. We have no speedy small forwards coming through other than Wanganeen. Right now we are playing a bunch of lead up forwards who are slow to average pace wise or a resting midfielder . There is actually no one that is able to play that sort of role coming through. Who have been our small forwards ? Tom Hird . Slow. Ned Cahill. Slow. Jordan Houlihan. Slow. There are no speedy little forwards who have the pace to create tackles or at a minimum put enough pressure on to create poor disposal.
Yesterday the midfield actually defended pretty well but with Wright who is not quick anyway playing ruck as well and slowing him down. Stringer not really at 100%. Waterman not overly quick. Geulfi a real hard nut but not quick plus Perkins who is still learning the defensive side and making a few mistakes it is not hard to see why the Pies where able get a bit of run going through the middle.
The side has holes in it. That is a list management issue. Coaches can only teach so much. Truck can not make them faster or as experienced as a 50 game player in 20 games or hold the marks for them or stop kicking the footy to the opposition.

You have big wraps on Cara. How has the ball movement been going ? That is 100% his show. Is that flying along ?
Yeah, I don't think we can play Baldwin and Waterman in the same side, too slow. Just get games into Wanganeen.

Crying out for a speedy forward who can pressure. Tippa looked miles off in the VFL

As much as Ham gets bagged, he does have speed.
 
Yeah, I don't think we can play Baldwin and Waterman in the same side, too slow. Just get games into Wanganeen.

Crying out for a speedy forward who can pressure. Tippa looked miles off in the VFL

As much as Ham gets bagged, he does have speed.
Wanganeen may be that man but his deficiency is he does not have the running power in him right now to stay in games and he inexperience is a greater level than pretty much all the rest. Was watching him live at Port for a half a couple of weeks ago and his inexperience and lack of stamina cost 4 goals and a few other escapes out of the back half. I am not sure you can carry him as well. I can not see a short term fix. They need VFL games into Wanganeen to build the base. I am not sold on giving him AFL games right now as I think it may actually be detrimental to his development. Right now there is no fix to the samll forward issue.
It is hard to say drop Baldwin again but we need Wright to be just playing forward and to do that we have to play two rucks and run them from the bench for most of the game with maybe giving Sam a little forward time
 
Wanganeen may be that man but his deficiency is he does not have the running power in him right now to stay in games and he inexperience is a greater level than pretty much all the rest. Was watching him live at Port for a half a couple of weeks ago and his inexperience and lack of stamina cost 4 goals and a few other escapes out of the back half. I am not sure you can carry him as well. I can not see a short term fix. They need VFL games into Wanganeen to build the base. I am not sold on giving him AFL games right now as I think it may actually be detrimental to his development. Right now there is no fix to the samll forward issue.
It is hard to say drop Baldwin again but we need Wright to be just playing forward and to do that we have to play two rucks and run them from the bench for most of the game with maybe giving Sam a little forward time
Do you throw Hind forward Ant? Or persist with putting him back in the VFL to find form from HB?
 

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AFL Autopsy RND 6: Beaten by the Pies

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