Autopsy Round 1, 2023: Positives and Negatives vs North Melbourne

[thebutterflyeffect]

Was at the game today, was a fairly entertaining game.

Negatives
Given the amount of experience we have on our list, it is disappointing how we are just unable to stop a run on.
Not so much a direct negative, but get very tired of Simo and all our players mentioning Cole as huge loss last year. Definitely best 22 but his absolute best is b grade and he certainly isn't a difference maker.
Kelly - the concern is the difference between his best and worst. At the game felt like he was a liability - fumbles and basic skill errors are just not what you expect given what we paid for him
Our rucks - enough said

Positives
Fitness and fortitude to turn it around. Last year this would have been a 60 point loss
Young players - Ginbey was noticeable in the contest. Made some mistakes but I would have thought he's a 100 game player out there. Long is clean and its is a contrast in our team.
Shuey providing drive of half back. We really should have tried rotating him more earlier.
Ryan - our game breaker. Can't see us winning many games with him being quiet.
Hurn - just keeps on keeping on.

 

[Astro7]

Looks like another long season, but have a feeling we will improve as we go along, as in the wheels won't fall off like last season.
Had Yeo played, it might've been the difference? Might've freed up Kelly to some extent?
And what's with Kelly? Is he really the goods anymore or is he being unfairly maligned now in a Gaff way?
I expected to see players like Kelly come out of the blocks firing on all 8 cylinders? Was rag-dolled at times.
TBH I thought we would be a lot slicker or tighter than what we displayed today, especially after the Crows game.

There were some good signs in the 'comeback', might've been winnable, but it was a strange game combined with the umpiring and the ongoing Vic based/biased commentary.
So am not sure if this was the game (or sample size) to throw in the towel and have a total cheesy meltdown over. Hold the dummy-spits for the next few weeks to get some real form- and we have NN back.


Reckon we'll regroup next week and look sharper?
Yes Ginbey and Hunt are locks, and don't they stand out! Run+attack. Ginbey is complete 'plug+play'.
Chesser quite different, clearly needs to get games under the belt.

 

[Mulldogg]

Not many clean, one touch players out there today other than a first gamer in Noah Long. Had some very nice moments.

We all expect fumbles from Crippa but gee whiz it seemed contagious today. Cole, Kelly and Duggan all had a bad case of the fumbles around the ball which invited tackling pressure from Norf.

 

[PremiershipNo4]

Noah Long had a very good last quarter, we’ll done young man
JJ played well throughout

 

[Eaglemaniac]

Everything I saw in the preseason that I was worried about, was what I saw in the game today.
Our midfield was second to the ball, lazy, weak at the contest, and basically look like they didn’t care.
We kick to the right just about every time out of defensive 50 if Hurn has got it in his hands, which is way too predictable still. We did some good things in the first quarter with moving the ball, and then as soon as the opposition countered it we just stopped trying.
For the first half, darling, and Oscar Allen

12

Oscar Allen

Age

25

Ht

196cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.8

2star

K

6.6

3star

HB

3.2

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.4

4star

G

1.1

4star

No current season stats available

D

8.6

3star

K

5.8

3star

HB

2.8

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.0

4star

G

1.2

4star

did stuff all with the opportunities that were given. I can’t believe Oscar missed that goal running straight into the goals.
As others have mentioned as well, we have to be the worst team at picking the ball up below our knees. We should change our name to the West Coast Fumbles.
We need to only keep the bare minimum of senior players, and bring in the kids to see what we’ve got going forward in my opinion.

 

[Evo47]

Ginbey…didn’t guard space the West Coast way, back to the twos until he forgets how to tackle

 

[WCE_phil]

Ginbey…didn’t guard space the West Coast way, back to the twos until he forgets how to tackle

It's great Ginbey got so many tackles but it was literally what I expected. Always second to the ball and almost always closes the gap due to his athleticism. I genuinely think for his development we need to play him as a tagger on the best midfield bulls in the comp and balanced midfield stars as well. It's the only way I see him developing the genuine ball winning ability we need him to have. His kicking and overhead work is average but acceptable but we can't have a primary ball winner always being second to the ball and outside the contest his game needs work.

Thought Long was excellent. Couple of little moments early catching the pace but from then on everything he did was spot on the money. Just a natural footballer and will make a great pressure forward who kicks goals.

Chesser was disappointing. It is however to be expected. That was his 5th game in 4 years from memory. How the **** is a young player supposed to develop game sense and where to be if he's not on the park for 4 years.

Of our youngsters both Barnett and Hewett were excellent in the wafl preseason game today however the tempo was a lot lower than that of AFL. I've literally just got home from that (it's a ****ing long drive). I'll do more of a write up on our draftees tomorrow but I am very impressed with Long, Hewett and Barnett. All seem very natural footballers, fit roles we need and can be at or near the top of the league at what they do.

 

[MeltMan]

How many horror movies start with some unsuspecting victim taking a walk in the park on the way home...

 

[Schtinker]

How many horror movies start with some unsuspecting victim taking a walk in the park on the way home...

I'll bite, how many?

 

[MeltMan]

I'll bite, how many?

Oh, you're meant to know the answer if you pose a stupid comment relating to post titles?

FMD I'll see myself out

 

[MeltMan]

Might be more of a C.S.I or SVU trope to be fair.
The joggers always find the body.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

It's great Ginbey got so many tackles but it was literally what I expected. Always second to the ball and almost always closes the gap due to his athleticism. I genuinely think for his development we need to play him as a tagger on the best midfield bulls in the comp and balanced midfield stars as well. It's the only way I see him developing the genuine ball winning ability we need him to have. His kicking and overhead work is average but acceptable but we can't have a primary ball winner always being second to the ball and outside the contest his game needs work.

Thought Long was excellent. Couple of little moments early catching the pace but from then on everything he did was spot on the money. Just a natural footballer and will make a great pressure forward who kicks goals.

Chesser was disappointing. It is however to be expected. That was his 5th game in 4 years from memory. How the * is a young player supposed to develop game sense and where to be if he's not on the park for 4 years.

Of our youngsters both Barnett and Hewett were excellent in the wafl preseason game today however the tempo was a lot lower than that of AFL. I've literally just got home from that (it's a ******* long drive). I'll do more of a write up on our draftees tomorrow but I am very impressed with Long, Hewett and Barnett. All seem very natural footballers, fit roles we need and can be at or near the top of the league at what they do.

Was it Dewar who kicked 3 goals? There seemed to be some confusion about it.

 

[Keys]

Was it Dewar who kicked 3 goals? There seemed to be some confusion about it.

The WAFL site has been updated.

Those 3 goals have now been credited to Nitschke

 

[RookiePick]

I gave up 70 odd posts in.

How Kelly hasn't had the blow torch put on him by you lot is disgraceful!

Shuey, at least, lifted his work rate significantly in the second half. Even Sheed had a bit of a crack.

Ginbey and Long looked like out 2 best tacklers out there. Ginners full of intensity and Long showed some real class.

Chesser was quiet but we can cop that. Hopefully he can pick up the pace of the game rapidly after all the footy he has missed.

Rucks and senior midfield a big concern going into the next month.
Need a big lift in those areas if we don't want to come dead last.

 

[MeltMan]

I gave up 70 odd posts in.

How Kelly hasn't had the blow torch put on him by you lot is disgraceful!

Shuey, at least, lifted his work rate significantly in the second half. Even Sheed had a bit of a crack.

Ginbey and Long looked like out 2 best tacklers out there. Ginners full of intensity and Long showed some real class.

Chesser was quiet but we can cop that. Hopefully he can pick up the pace of the game rapidly after all the footy he has missed.

Rucks and senior midfield a big concern going into the next month.
Need a big lift in those areas if we don't want to come dead last.

Ah, forgot to pot the invisible bloke, sorry didn't see him out there...

 

[Magnum27]

Talking to a senior official at the after game function and NN could have played, but given his history they didn't risk him. And Barnett is rated very highly by the club, he will play at some point this year, they consider him far ahead of Williams and Jamieson where he is in his development right now. And the official was very disappointed with the 2nd as the players stopped looking to move the ball. The game plan from Simmo is to attack, not stop start.

Good
Kids played
Bad
2nd quarter was the game.
Ugly
Williams he is WAFL standard at best.

 

[Vic Eagles Member]

Clutching at straws to find any positives from that game.
This argument that we did well to fight back from 6 goals down is bizarre to me, that is loser mentality I’m sorry. You could maybe say that if we were playing a high quality opponent but this was against North.
We were almost at full strength yesterday…nobody put any physical pressure on Sheezel. He’d be sitting back laughing last night about how easy we made it for him.
We are in absolute disarray as a club, a complete laughing stock. What will they produce next Sunday? God help us if we lose that. How does 0-8 sound?

 

[Free Agent]

Good
Gibney Long great debuts, love the energy they bring.
Gov still creative and only one at times that looks like he gives a stuff.
Allen- he is back and provides so much. Has extremely long reach so is able to get to every contest and bring the ball down. He didn't have many defenders outmarking him and always crashed into packs. Loved his game for the limited opportunity he had.


Bad
Midfield is by far the worst in the AFL. Especially dissapointed in Kelly. His a shadow of the player he once was. Gaff again needs to play WAFL. Sheed one dimensional and plays like he thinks his Tarzan but in reality his Jane and offers no defensive game at all.

Rucks- What rucks. Williams and Jamieson are poor excuses for them.

Leadership- hardly had any for most of the game. That second quarter just horrible. No one stood up at all. At times I thought we were so bad we might be the worst team in history wondering when our next win will come from because honestly don't think we can beat any other team. That's how bad it was. The second quarter made me think we would be 0 wins and 23 losses this season. Was nothing but a disgrace to our club and if we play like that against some good clubs we will be in for some 100+ losses this season. It was almost coach sackable bad. Worst quarter then any quarter we played last season. Just completely let them run all over us and did nothing about it.

 

[CountryLad]

Is it worth developing Long into a part time midfielder. His clean one touch play and positioning around packs is impressive.

Xon is in his fifth year. I thought he would be doing more. He still has the season to turn things around.

Reckon Long will remain as a forward while he gains some conditioning and experience. However can definitely see him slowly spending more and more time as a midfielder over the next few years.

 

[CountryLad]

Plenty of posters have mentioned how we have just lost to the wooden spooners ect ect. Do agree that it looks both bad and ugly however just for the sake of it here’s a counter argument.
Maybe just maybe North under Clucko are going to be a hell of a lot better and todays loss isn’t as terrible as it seems based on last years Roos form.
We will know that answer over the coming weeks.
I posted earlier in the week that if we went 0-2 then we would most likely be 0-8 hard to see who we beat in coming games.

 

[Goroyals22]

Longs clean handling once he got upto speed with the game really stood out .. how is he the only one capable of bending over and cleaning picking up a ground ball under both pressure and on his own?

The rest especially the mids fumble, bumble and reach for the ball as though they have never played with the oval bal in their lives…

He and ginbey definitely the big shinning lights from yesterday

 

[Vic Eagles Member]

Plenty of posters have mentioned how we have just lost to the wooden spooners ect ect. Do agree that it looks both bad and ugly however just for the sake of it here’s a counter argument.
Maybe just maybe North under Clucko are going to be a hell of a lot better and todays loss isn’t as terrible as it seems based on last years Roos form.
We will know that answer over the coming weeks.
I posted earlier in the week that if we went 0-2 then we would most likely be 0-8 hard to see who we beat in coming games.

Even if they perform above expectations this year they’re still more than likely finishing bottom 4 though aren’t they?

 

[CountryLad]

Even if they perform above expectations this year they’re still more than likely finishing bottom 4 though aren’t they?

Yeah you would think so….I was just posing the counter argument and we will know for sure in about 3-4 weeks time how much they have or haven’t improved.
They looked a lot more organised defensively than previous years that was one thing I noticed and they have got some good youth.

 

[Zuma]

How many horror movies start with some unsuspecting victim taking a walk in the park on the way home...

Dunno the number but this particular one was right there on my tv yesty morning

 

[WA footy mad]

Course there are positives ;
Young guys got a game and looked O/K for there first game
We look a lot fitter than last year
high draft picks again this year
I can see us beating gold coast