Review Rnd9 : Review/Rant/Roast megathread

[Bazza Bulldog]

Thought we played quite well. The game went pretty much how I thought it was going to pan out.

Would have preffered Grant>>Skinner though.

You might be right, but I'm stunned with the bagging Zephi has copped on this forum. In about 1.25 quarters, he kicked a goal, hit the post and competed well. He split a mark on a hard lead that he should have held + he had his hands on 2 (maybe 3) pack marks that didn't stick. From my point of view he was in the right spots and just needed to have a stronger set of hands. He is great value as a sub IMO. I hope we stick with him for a few weeks.

 

[tonydean]

You might be right, but I'm stunned with the bagging Zephi has copped on this forum. In about 1.25 quarters, he kicked a goal, hit the post and competed well. He split a mark on a hard lead that he should have held + he had his hands on 2 (maybe 3) pack marks that didn't stick. From my point of view he was in the right spots and just needed to have a stronger set of hands. He is great value as a sub IMO. I hope we stick with him for a few weeks.

Yeah mate, he definitely needs a run at it Zeph to see what he can do.

 

[Mr. Walker]

I agree with the need to fix the forward line but one area that needs more scrutiny is our skills. We consistently missed targets all night. Not necessarily turnovers but balls falling 2 metres short and putting the player under pressure with the ball eventually lost whereas putting the ball on his chest would have enabled us to set up under no pressure for the next phase. Geelong were clearly better than us in this area and that polish together with better options up forward was the difference.

On Gia, I am a fan and believe he is our best forward option but there were a couple of times when I thought he looked half hearted or didn't work hard enough to get in best position. We need a whole game effort from all our players and when we don't get we should be free to express our views (constrctively)

Granny - I think Sherman is in our best 22 and his pace and willingness to run all night is an asset to our team. I thought Friday night was quiet for him and his work rate was down. I hope he is retained in the team and tears it up next week. Just saying - not everyone on here is against him.

 

[TempleKelvington]

It's been the case in nearly every game. We just don't take our chances and it's the one thing that hurts us the most.

We simply do not kick the goals we need to and should kick when we have the chance to put some scoreboard pressure on.

Not saying we would have won on Friday, but if we kicked those 3 or 4 goals from set shots (that we just have to nail) then we really give ourselves a real chance.....But we didn't....again!

At least we made the Cats supporters squirm in their seats few times......

At least we give ourselves the chance....the boys that missed, they took the marks close to goal in the first place....just need to complete the job.

 

[MrChristo]

You may have noticed that every week, Macca pays tribute to the work of the senior players directing, teaching and setting the example for the young players. For getting them back on track when things start to get wobbly. Gia (or "Gian" as Bruce likes to call him ) and Higgins are 2 of the leaders he's referring to. Macca has also come out with pretty strong support of Higgins and displeasure at the flack he cops. No one should delude themselves that Higgins will be going anywhere anytime soon.

I hope he means on the training track, because if getting 5 touches in 3 quarters (4 of which were in the forward 50), letting players run off you all night and wating out the back for a cheap kick is this "teaching", then our forwards are going to struggle for a hell of a long time.

The funny part is that the "younger players" (both in age and experience I guess) are all playing with far more intensity than either.

Seriously, I understand that Higgins has been talked about now for so long that he has polarised supporters, but from a purely analytical perspective, I'm pretty sure there's only one conclusion.

Given we were never really going to make the finals this year they will probably both play out the season, but correct me if I'm mistaken here, Higgins is contracted until the end of this year?...

 

[stefoid]

Finally, we are still in the running for the Mason Shaw pick, a full forward who can fill that empty spot we so desperately need. Look to the future dogs fans the sun is gonna shine on us

Im going to keep harping on this, but I dont see that we have a huge hole in the forward line, we just have young forwards who need more time. Unless Mason is stupidly good, Id prefer us to take two electric mids with great footskills just to ensure that we have a well-rounded, extremely deep and classy midfield.

 

[Igloo]

I hope he means on the training track, because if getting 5 touches in 3 quarters (4 of which were in the forward 50), letting players run off you all night and wating out the back for a cheap kick is this "teaching", then our forwards are going to struggle for a hell of a long time.

The funny part is that the "younger players" (both in age and experience I guess) are all playing with far more intensity than either.

Seriously, I understand that Higgins has been talked about now for so long that he has polarised supporters, but from a purely analytical perspective, I'm pretty sure there's only one conclusion.

Given we were never really going to make the finals this year they will probably both play out the season, but correct me if I'm mistaken here, Higgins is contracted until the end of this year?...

The main thing is, he is performing with goals. 12 goals for the year, which is 2nd most for the club. Funnily enough, Gia is leading with 15. Not bad for the amount of crap they get from some people.

Higgins is doing his job, and he has a very good footy brain. I'd be happy with him giving his knowledge to the other young guys.

The facts are, we would be worse off without Higgins and Gia. While they continue to kick goals, they will continue to get deserved games.

They might not be the best at putting on forward pressure, but that is far from the be-all and end-all for their role. We know they don't have the best pace either, which can't be helped.

I think Higgins' contract does run out at the end of the year, but imo he isn't in any danger of not getting a new one.

 

[SonOfScray]

Higgins just has to knuckle down and perform as a forward. Not on being a leader, or a star. Just on getting the ball in dangerous spots and taking his chances, everything else takes care of itself.

I don't rate him highly and never have but he is getting scores on the board as a forward of late and that is what we need from him. If he keeps tracking that way I'll be pleased.

 

[maddog37]

Im going to keep harping on this, but I dont see that we have a huge hole in the forward line, we just have young forwards who need more time. Unless Mason is stupidly good, Id prefer us to take two electric mids with great footskills just to ensure that we have a well-rounded, extremely deep and classy midfield.

I Agree with this Stefoid.

 

[StringyDog]

Im going to keep harping on this, but I dont see that we have a huge hole in the forward line, we just have young forwards who need more time. Unless Mason is stupidly good, Id prefer us to take two electric mids with great footskills just to ensure that we have a well-rounded, extremely deep and classy midfield.

Mason is stupidly good but will be gone by our pick anyway, I'm happy to keep persisting with current group or if we really thought it was a weakness try to get one of the mini draft picks as there are 2 gun forwards available in Martin and Hogan. We really need some good ball users, fast would be good but skills are a must to finish off wallis and Libbas ball winning abilities.

 

[MrChristo]

The main thing is, he is performing with goals. 12 goals for the year, which is 2nd most for the club. Funnily enough, Gia is leading with 15. Not bad for the amount of crap they get from some people.

Higgins is doing his job, and he has a very good footy brain. I'd be happy with him giving his knowledge to the other young guys.

The facts are, we would be worse off without Higgins and Gia. While they continue to kick goals, they will continue to get deserved games.

They might not be the best at putting on forward pressure, but that is far from the be-all and end-all for their role. We know they don't have the best pace either, which can't be helped.

I think Higgins' contract does run out at the end of the year, but imo he isn't in any danger of not getting a new one.

ok, last post on the subject, because I'm clearly harping on now...

But I'm not sure you can count a players worth simply be the goals they kick. What's to say any other player on the list wouldn't have kicked as many if played in the same role?
Obviously it's tough now to go back over all his goals this year, but 2 of his 3 last night there was no-one within 20m of him. Most people here could have kicked them.
Sometimes it's a fine line between 'smarts' and sheer laziness when it comes to being out the back on your own...

Either way, the real question for me is, would we be worse off without them (in their current form)?
We may well be 3-6 rather than 4-5 (the North game), which for some I guess would be an automatic "yes"...but as I said before, and I'm sure we're all realistic enough to see, this year was never really about this year was it?

If the coaching staff are happy they are both teaching someone something then great (and I mean that), but I do suspect the odd mention from the coach is far more about diplomacy than future planning.

Im going to keep harping on this, but I dont see that we have a huge hole in the forward line, we just have young forwards who need more time. Unless Mason is stupidly good, Id prefer us to take two electric mids with great footskills just to ensure that we have a well-rounded, extremely deep and classy midfield.

And I too agree 100%.

 

[gs17]

One thing on Skinner was his pressure was much better. Last week he stood there with his hands on his hips while the ball pretty much circled around him a couple of times.

 

[The_Flying_Egg]

Players should never be rated entirely on goals. But they are a major component of a forwards job and their importance shouldn't be undervalued. Especially with our attacking difficulties

 

[MYOB]

10 pages and no mention of how horrible Murphy was tonight? He really should have stayed home. Just wasn't his night tonight, absolute shocker.

Maybe that's because he didn't have a shocker. He was actually given votes by a couple of journos.

 

[boydsno1]

I personally though Murphy was also having an off night. Turned the ball over abit.

 

[LondonBulldog]

I my opinion Geelong best 3 players were

Johnson
Mackie
Enright

There direct opponents for most of the night were
Murphy
Gia
Higgins

So even though our 3 above players did o.k when rating a player’s performance you must also look at their opponents something we all forget to do. Basically our 3 players were beaten by their opponents and it had an influence on us losing the game.

 

[tonydean]

That role Johnson played on friday night where he just roamed all over the ground, all night was a big win for them. Maybe Robert Murphy could play this role for us. It made it very hard to match up on him, as he wasn't in a fixed position. I don't know whether he was told to do that by the coach or if he did it himself, but he killed us

 

[stefoid]

That role Johnson played on friday night where he just roamed all over the ground, all night was a big win for them. Maybe Robert Murphy could play this role for us. It made it very hard to match up on him, as he wasn't in a fixed position. I don't know whether he was told to do that by the coach or if he did it himself, but he killed us

Shouldnt have mattered where he was on the ground, we were playing 1:1 footy so he should have had an opponent following him around - particuarly since he is one of their most damaging players.

 

[tonydean]

Yeah I agree Stefoid. Johnson should have been tagged no doubt. He's always been one of their most important play makers. We were outcoached with that move

 

[Nath09]

You might be right, but I'm stunned with the bagging Zephi has copped on this forum. In about 1.25 quarters, he kicked a goal, hit the post and competed well. He split a mark on a hard lead that he should have held + he had his hands on 2 (maybe 3) pack marks that didn't stick. From my point of view he was in the right spots and just needed to have a stronger set of hands. He is great value as a sub IMO. I hope we stick with him for a few weeks.

Baz, I'm not sure if you were at the ground or watched the game on TV but from my vantage point Zephi was a liability on more than one occasion on Friday night. His second efforts are lacking and often non-comital, he stands flat footed with his hands on his hips ball-watching, when he should be running to create space and he lets his man run metres off him. Yes he is capable of the miraculous but he is not doing the sort of work that is seemingly required of all other players.

Now I'm not one to bag players at all, Skinner is young and raw and has a truck-load of talent but in my estimation he is a fair way off deserving even the limited amount of exposure he has been given.

 

[stefoid]

I wouldnt be suprised if he was delisted at years end if his form doesnt drastically imrpove. In fact he may be getting this 'unwarranted' game time so that mac can make exactly that decision, or not, when the time comes.