Review Round 15 vs Carlton

[Macca19]

It was a win. Not sure i'd call it a good win, but it was a win. The Macca away curse is finally broken.

We were just too patchy in terms of winning our own ball. Could only get the ball out the middle for 10 minute bursts. For the first and third quarters our midfield was pantsed I thought. We seemed to relax too early and were far too handball happy at times. But, a win is a win. Our percentage won't matter if we keep on winning.

PLAYER REVIEWS
Westhoff - Is having a monster year. Was great once again, apart from his set shot kicking. Could have ended up with a 4 goal performance. His running and aerial ability is as good as its ever been and he is consistently having a big impact on games. Wouldn't surprise if he is leading our best and fairest and in the running for the AA squad.

Wingard - His best game for the year for me and our best player on the day. Thought his second quarter in the middle was one of the key reasons why we got that break. Had his Wingod moment for the first time in a long time as well.

Rockliff - The tortoise. Slow and steady all day. Just got himself in the right positions, ran well to receive and also won plenty of contested ball as well. Has found his niche at our club now.

Houston - Second week in a row I thought he was our best defender and just about best on ground as well. His positioning, attack and ball use was all outstanding. Gun

Trengove - A great debut for our club. Glad he got his chance and he made it a winner. Was super reliable across half back, great with the ball, good one on one and tackled well. Good performance.

Ryder - Wasn't entirely impressed with his performance. Thought he was beaten in terms of ruck work, his around the ground stuff was ok, took a few marks. Wanted more.

Ebert - A mixed effort. Some poor stuff but overall more good than bad on the day from my viewpoint. Was great in the air.

Boak - Was well held by Lamb for most of the day but showed his trademark running and stoked he got to seal the win in the last.

Wines - Good around the ground when in space but was beaten in the coalface today

SPP - A beast in the middle. Top 3-4 on the ground for me.

Thomas - So happy to see him performing like this. Has improved every week. Really deserved an extra goal for his efforts today. He's putting his body on the line and making an impact.

Clurey - Shut out Curnow after his big first quarter. Did a lot more intercept work than we are used to. Marked well, kicked well, defended well. Was good.

Motlop - Was in and out the game. Had a decent start, then went missing. Glad he got us going in the last, but needs to do more than that.

Polec - Feels like his first touch every week is some disastrous uncontested turnover that results in a goal. Recovered from that, but was far from his best.

Bonner - I thought defensively he was very good. With the ball was another story. Just seemed to panic kick all the time this week.

Dixon - One day he'll take 26 marks and kick 8 goals. Maybe.

R Gray - Well held but didn't need much of it to impact. Got us going in the first half and showed up at important times after that, without the quantity of the footy he normally gets.

S Gray - Totally shut out of the game.

Pittard - Was good with the ball when he was near it.

Howard - In terrible form, really. Might just need a spell for a week or two once Jonas is back

Marshall - Stoked he got a couple of goals, but he must do more. Competes well and his chasing was great, but just need him to find more football

Hombsch - Solid as a rock I thought. Another very good performance.

 

[pastmyprimus]

I've had my doubts about Clurey but thought he was our best defender today. Kept Curnow quiet after he dominated Doogs in the first qtr. Took nice marks and contested strongly. One thing I noticed being at the game. After a Carlton goal he would often round-up the defenders for a team talk. You can see he's growing in confidence.

 

[bluemoon86]

Rockliff is such a good pickup. Smarter footballer with better disposal than I realised. I think he's a big reason why we are winning games even if we aren't playing great. So consistent and gives us flexibility to throw Gray and Wingard around wherever we need them.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Last week we had 39 inside 50's kicked 11.9 and had 4 shots that didn't score, so 24 shots on goal from 39 I50's for 62% efficiency. Melbourne 9.11 and had 3 shots that didn't score, so 23 shots on goal from 69 inside 60 for 33% efficiency.

Today we had 64 inside 50's kicked 13.12 had 6 shots that didn't score, so 31 shots on goal from 64 I50's for 48%. Carlton 10.9 and had 4 shots that didn't score, so 23 shots from 38 I50's for 61% efficiency.

It would be nice if when we got the ball inside 50 over 60 times, we might regularly kick something like 22.12 ie scoring shots are over 50% and with 4 or 5 shots that don't score, the shots on goal are at 60% efficiency. And when it's 70+ inside 50's we kick at least 25 goals and have that 50+% for scoring shots and 60% for shots on goal.

 

[Fizzler]

No Jonas and we win by small amounts. I reckon if he was on Curnow we would have nullified his impact by a long way. When is Jonas expected to be in?

 

[The Mongrel Punt]

Hey guys,

Game review from my site hete. Hope you enjoy.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl/2018/6/30/port-adelaide-v-carlton-the-good-bad-and-ugly

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Trewth]

Carlton were gash and dragged us down to their level

 

[ROBBBO]

Soooo much better than last 2 years where we would not have stood up and won.

Westhoff having some sort of season. Must be leading the B&F

 

[Killer Power]

[QUOTE="Peck, post: 56518268, member: 82862]
Rockliff has changed this team. Now when our midfielders forget how to football he is there to win the ball and get us moving in the right direction. Our most important and consistent player right now![/QUOTE]
This. How many times in the last 2 seasons did our midfield go totally missing. Not happening anymore. Such a consistent player.

 

[ROBBBO]

Howard - In terrible form, really. Might just need a spell for a week or two once Jonas is back

Mate... you've got to be joking

 

[StuMan]

Finally getting a chance to watch this.
5 mins in, and I'm already impressed by Trengove.

I've also had enough of Dwayne already.

 

[Stryke]

I've also had enough of Dwayne already.

It only gets worse. One of the worst commentary efforts ever. The curnow Simpson jizzfest was intolerable.

 

[ifitaintboak]

[QUOTE="Peck, post: 56518268, member: 82862]
Rockliff has changed this team. Now when our midfielders forget how to football he is there to win the ball and get us moving in the right direction. Our most important and consistent player right now!

This. How many times in the last 2 seasons did our midfield go totally missing. Not happening anymore. Such a consistent player.[/QUOTE]


The crazy thing about Rocky is that I literally have not heard a single media pundit praise the recruitment decision this year.


To be able to bring in a player that is, on average, probably our second best mid every week since his sanfl stint - without giving up a pick, is good shit.

 

[Kingfish73]

Take the win. We had the rub of the green. Would not be complaining there. That 3rd quarter was very average. But our class players produced when needed in Wingard, R Gray and Motlop. Curnow and Cripps are 2 very talented players too.

Good to be at G to see win but still so much to work on. Hombsch is too slow for AFL football now. We really miss Jonas when out and still think we need to find a player with greater speed running from back 6...

 

[Capital Power]

Glad someone else noticed the pigeons. Lost count of the number of times I thought I saw a loose ball our guys weren't chasing, only to see it fly away

Perhaps a resident hawk would help. Works for the railways

 

[PJ Power]

Carlton were gash and dragged us down to their level

It didn’t seem like that to me.
They played above their usual standard and have two young stars who did heroic things to inspire them. We did what we have been doing for most of the year. Played good footy in patchy bursts to get the win, with a handful of players excelling and the others doing bits and pieces.

Watching the replay last night, I was very frustrated with Sam Gray’s game opposed to Simpson. That is not how to play HFF either offensively or defensively.

 

[Janus]

I’m hoping Watts was watching the game and seeing where he could have made a real impact - where he could have run to to get on a chain or spread the defence.

We are going to need him if we are going to win a flag. Sam Gray ain’t gonna cut it on the wider ground of the MCG.

 

[OneGreatClub]

This. How many times in the last 2 seasons did our midfield go totally missing. Not happening anymore. Such a consistent player.

The crazy thing about Rocky is that I literally have not heard a single media pundit praise the recruitment decision this year.


To be able to bring in a player that is, on average, probably our second best mid every week since his sanfl stint - without giving up a pick, is good shit.[/QUOTE]
It’s definitely starting to look like we won the trade period last year..and all for pick 31

 

[Capital Power]

Yeah I thought Carlton played well above their ladder position for much of the game. We had two periods of dominance for ten minutes, and some individual brilliance, and that was enough to get over them.

Had they taken their chances in the third there may well have been a different mood in here this morning. I think they had one run of 3.6 without a score from us. They were also attractive to watch with ball in hand.

Simpson was allowed to do as he pleased by both us and the umps, and their young guys responded.

Probably their weakest link was Casboult, who was well held.

 

[Capital Power]

LOL, just reading over my 'game day melts' sent via SMS yesterday. Perhaps the only repeatable one said "we have lots of players guarding space and no forwards". I guess that could describe any game in recent memory

I do recall one break where we had the ball on the wing (Westy?) and in the 50 were the brothers Gray and Thomas

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Oh and Bonner's attempted torp. WTF was that? Cost us a goal too.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Polly seems to have brain fades at the start of every game.

It was a very unimpressive win but a win nevertheless.

Carlton wete absolutely primed for this game for so many reasons:
Port have been their bunny in recent years so they knew they were in with a chance.
The heart and soul of their club had his 300th game. Probably their biggest event this year.
A loss would mean their longest stretch without a win and a record they were desperately trying to avoid..

So we take the result and move on.
No excuses next week though.

 

[Killer Power]

Oh and Bonner's attempted torp. WTF was that? Cost us a goal too.

If that had have been Pittard the board would have melted.

 

[Trewth]

It didn’t seem like that to me.
They played above their usual standard and have two young stars who did heroic things to inspire them. We did what we have been doing for most of the year. Played good footy in patchy bursts to get the win, with a handful of players excelling and the others doing bits and pieces.

Watching the replay last night, I was very frustrated with Sam Gray’s game opposed to Simpson. That is not how to play HFF either offensively or defensively.

They had Cripps and Curnow play exceptional football, Curnow we couldn’t do much about but I swear Cripps must of had a contagious skin condition that our players were afraid of because a lot of our attempts to tackle him while he made us look like traffic cones were pathetic. Simpson tried to inspire but like you said we let him.
Some of them were so bad they might as well have been playing for us, like Casboult.
I feel like the overrating of Carlton happening here is cognitive bargaining after we nearly dropped a game against a side that has won 2 of their last 24, from people who are hoping we can be a top 4 side. Nothing wrong with that, but it is a thing.

 

[Powerstufff]

Carlton were gash and dragged us down to their level

We selected our own level. We were pretty much in command much of the time, just couldn't lift to motor clear and get percentage. It was simply our last 2 Etihad games v them minus the 'crumple zone players' ChristopHaha discussed in the preview thread.