Autopsy Round 18, 2022: Western Bulldogs v St.Kilda

[D2D3]

It’s not surprising. It’s west coast and hawks. Two incredibly poor teams. Would genuinely be danger signs if we came near losing these ones. We lost a 50/50 against a team around the same strength. Lost it poorly but the result was always a toss up.

West coast and hawks are different beasts entirely. Should be percentage boosters to repair the damage from tonight. Play Owens and windy here give them some confidence

The way we are playing we can easily loose both of those games imo. Hawthorn aren’t that bad, they just tend to run out of steam. But it won’t matter if they bury us in the first half. And WC have been finding their feet in Perth at least. They’ve still been terrible but they aren’t the free 100 point win anymore and if we go up there expecting to cruise to a win I think we’ll be rudely awakened.

 

[Marlo]

We need a proper forward line coach with a system and leading patterns, at the moment our forward line is a dog's breakfast.

We just boot it in there and then hope that one of our forwards can pluck a goal from the lolly scramble that is our forward line.

Couple weeks watching them at the ground, and the forward set up is just an absolute head scratcher. It's nothing. No threat. No unpredictability. No tricks. No spunk. The best bet is kicking a scrubber into the 50 and hoping a couple oppo defenders collide with each other. The sad part is, that's not a joke

 

[NarklesHelmet]

In case you missed it, WE are an incredibly poor team. And seemingly bereft of confidence, not to mention footy skills and nous.
I have no doubt at all WC will beat us there.

Agree, reckon Hawks will give us an almighty shake too: Mitchell has them transitioning the ball nicely and everyone of them pulls the trigger and goes for their kicks which will likely slice through what has become of our defensive zone.

We are still the biggest ball-butchers in the league, Hawks have moved passed us on the kicking front with a young, pretty average list.

 

[plugger66]

Went to the movies tonight. I gather we won well. Started well but they came back in the last but steadied. Yes? In the 8 now. Can we hang on? Our mids obviously beat their mids? Thought so.

 

[Marlo]

Went to the movies tonight. I gather we won well. Started well but they came back in the last but steadied. Yes? In the 8 now. Can we hang on? Our mids obviously beat their mids? Thought so.

Hope Elvis was worth it, because you missed a real spirit lifter

 

[tomjoad]

Looked like he worked hard to me especially late. "Too lazy and entitled to put the effort in" honestly that's a bloody harsh criticism of a young kid trying to play as our full forward.

That's reasonable. I'm in two minds about Max, I can see why there is criticism, but also think he's at the mercy of what is going on up-field. I'd like to see him play CHF a bit more, unleash a bit more of his potential and abilities..also see if he is willing to chase down and hound the opposition a bit more. He's got too much talent to NOT be involved in the game. Maybe worth doing in the last few games...we may as well start improvising a bit, because our one trick has become pretty stale.

 

[plugger66]

Hope Elvis was worth it, because you missed a real spirit lifter

Went and saw elvis the 9/11 bomber.

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

In case you missed it, WE are an incredibly poor team. And seemingly bereft of confidence, not to mention footy skills and nous.
I have no doubt at all WC will beat us there.

I don’t think we’re that poor. We had our easier half of the draw at the start of the season which made us look better 8-3. We’re now playing the harder sides and surprise we’re losing some of these. We’ll beat the hawks like we did last time

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

Went to the movies tonight. I gather we won well. Started well but they came back in the last but steadied. Yes? In the 8 now. Can we hang on? Our mids obviously beat their mids? Thought so.

Lonie kicked 5 and Geary came on for a farewell match as the sub. Caleb Daniel shit himself when he saw gears

 

[Diehard Saint]

I don’t think we’re that poor. We had our easier half of the draw at the start of the season which made us look better 8-3. We’re now playing the harder sides and surprise we’re losing some of these. We’ll beat the hawks like we did last time

Essendon and the Dogs were harder sides?
Nup. chances are good we don’t win another game this season.

 

[Diehard Saint]

Our forward line under GT was so good as we had Riewoldt leading one way, Kosi leading another and the G Train could slip in there and kick a bag.

It was a defenders nightmare as no one knew which way to go and we also had Milney buzzing about kicking snags.

Exactly why we need to do the same with King and Sharman.
Split the defenders, with Higgins picking the crumbs.
And we have Membrey.

 

[StCicatriz]

"40M switch kicks is not in our game plan"

****in whack hahahaha

 

[MrFoster]

A few notes

I love Steeley, I do. I have never been one to judge leadership because I think it’s so unquantifiable. However just based on his body language as our skip when things go against us. I’m not sure it’s good for his own footy to be skip. He seems to carrying the world. I think between h and Wilkie they can share the load.

Loved Sharman in defence but no way should he and skunk play there at the same time. We missed Seb Ross poise tonight.

I think whilst our small arnt executing we need Gresh up forward. Over the last month I can’t think of how many times opposition defences have picked up the crumbs out of a marking contest.

We lost the game in the first when we turned it over for 5 goals imo. The dogs are not that good.

Our defence did the best they could

The recruitment of jones and hill and Higgins idk if it helped or hindered us.

Consider this.. we add an elite wing in Hill to a midfield that can’t get the ball and can’t use the ball when we get it.

We added a speedy half back in Jones and play him as a permanent mid because we have no one else

We are playing a small forward Higgins in a forward line with little space and 0 forward structure.. so he spend 95% of the time chasing pack of opposition players who have flooded our backline.

All these is a sign that our coaching group lacking judgement and do not know where the holes are and how to fix it..

Now, I think Crouch has been excellent.. but his role has become a full tackler because our mids are always 2nd to the ball.. we need natural mids who knows how to get the ball and then how to use it well to set up team mates.. I for one will go for

In: (all free agents) Matt Crouch or Angus Brayshaw; Amon

Out: Jones (OOC); Billings (trade); Gresham (trade);

This will fix our midfield and allow Owens, Winghager time to mature..

 

[elijahhanna19]

I think we saw tonight that our midfield depth is really bad. We need to get Owens back, Bytel has gone missing through injury, Byrnes is a VFL player I think we can draw a line through him unfortunately.

Tonight was the game where if we'd kept Dunstan he'd have been handy.

It's tough when you have no midfield depth because you can just get destroyed in that area so easily. It felt like it was just Steele and Crouch in there tonight. When Marshall took over it helped, then Jones got into it in the last quarter. But basically Ross was an enormous loss.

yeah who would’ve thought, we really missed ross


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

Essendon and the Dogs were harder sides?
Nup. chances are good we don’t win another game this season.

Dogs made the grand final last year beat us by 111 points.

I know I joke about us getting them “when it mattered in finals” but that was two years ago now. They have the quality even if they’re a bit disappointing this

 

[Plugger35]

Exactly why we need to do the same with King and Sharman.
Split the defenders, with Higgins picking the crumbs.
And we have Membrey.

Not enough leading and spread to confuse the defenders,

Our forwards stand together trying to take a pack mark.

Makes it easy for defenders.

 

[elijahhanna19]

Sharman can stay in defence if he keeps performing, Dougs can play forward/ruck where he’s needed and if he doesn’t want to he can play for sandy. Clearly attitude is something that needs to be fixed and if our leaders won’t even put the team first we’ve no hope.

and play with no one over 200cm in our defence, that’s a very bad call


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

I think we saw tonight that our midfield depth is really bad. We need to get Owens back, Bytel has gone missing through injury, Byrnes is a VFL player I think we can draw a line through him unfortunately.

Tonight was the game where if we'd kept Dunstan he'd have been handy.

It's tough when you have no midfield depth because you can just get destroyed in that area so easily. It felt like it was just Steele and Crouch in there tonight. When Marshall took over it helped, then Jones got into it in the last quarter. But basically Ross was an enormous loss.

Had bytel even played a game this year? Poor bugger might get delisted

 

[Murraj1966]

Interesting experiment.

Wilkie and Sinc pick themselves over Clarke & Ray.

Gresham has to play purely as a forward. Maybe a small stint on ball but not a starting mid. That takes out McQualter and gets Schneider up the ground.

King has shown that, with a decent midfield delivering, he can dominate teams. He would win a Coleman with that 09 midfield.

Kosi v Marshall - If I'm playing Marshall then Kosi misses out. Kosi was great in the ruck but we didn't see it enough to be sure. Could drop Smack Gardiner and rotate Kosi and Marshall? That would be pretty cool...

Ball v Steele - A fully fit Ball would be nice but we didn't have that for long. I think Jack has earned his place.

No DMac = No Saints. He replaces Clint Jones.

Blake - Dawson - Baker
Dempster - Fisher - Wilkie
Dal Santo - Hayes - Sinclair
Gwilt - Riewoldt - Schneider
Milne - King - Gresham
Gardiner - Montagna - Goddard
Gilbert - Marshall - Steele - DMac

09 CJ held some of the best midfielders in the game extremely well.

Big call to have him in instead of Dmac

 

[moirae42]

Lost clearances to a domination.
13 tackles in a bumbling, error riddled half.

Any chance for the mouthguards at training this week?

Blue mind/red mind....

 

[denisp]

Our year was done after the Essendon game - the next month and half is meaningless to us - flipping recruit a gun midfielder and Liam Jones

19

Liam Jones

Age

33

Ht

199cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.4

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.3

4star

T

2.0

4star

MG

134.5

2star

D

7.6

2star

K

6.1

3star

HB

1.4

1star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.4

2star

MG

116.3

2star

D

9.4

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

2.0

2star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

 

[Munga]

Our guy with the most forward craft at the club is deployed in defence, and doing a good job of that too.

But others have mortgages on their positions, soooo whatever....

No wonder the players love him. Not sure Highmore would though, I hope he sticks with us.

 

[Big 0]

Steele isn’t getting the boys up. Wilkie or members for captain next year I reckon.

Mason Wood

32

Mason Wood

Age

31

Ht

192cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.2

3star

K

7.8

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

CL

0.3

2star

D

8.3

2star

K

2.7

1star

HB

5.7

3star

M

1.7

2star

T

1.3

2star

CL

0.0

1star

D

15.8

4star

K

8.6

4star

HB

7.2

5star

M

4.6

5star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.6

3star

and Ben Long

22

Ben Long

Age

27

Ht

186cm

Wt

81kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.9

3star

K

6.2

2star

HB

4.7

3star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.7

4star

MG

166.8

3star

D

12.8

3star

K

6.7

3star

HB

6.2

4star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.3

3star

MG

129.0

2star

D

13.4

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.2

4star

T

3.2

5star

MG

223.0

4star

were huge. Keep them in the team for the rest of the year please ratts

 

[Munga]

Our year was done after the Essendon game - the next month and half is meaningless to us - *ing recruit a gun midfielder and Liam Jones

Agree. Actually our year was done in the lead up to the Bombers match. We rocked up cocky, completely disrespected Essendon, and they rammed our heads in the fence and gave it to us. Our confidence has been mostly shattered since. Luckily the Blues couldn't kick straight enough to dent our confidence that week. We're no guarantee to get over the Eagles, but we probably should. Based on our recent form, the Eagles would be our only hope of a win in the remaining matches. Some vocal onfield leadership would be handy, with skills to back it up.

I want pick 7 and to play the kids now. Unless in the next two months we suddenly invent a new gameplan, drill it into the players, and become world beaters in September... it's all about the future now. Winning two meaningless matches late last year cost us slipping down the order, just lucky we took NWM. Even the extra draft points are useful. We's cooked...

 

[t_94]

I had the privelege of watching two teams I love and support this week.

The first was Queensland on Wednesday night, the second was this mon tonight.

Queensland were given pretty much no hope of winning on Wednesday, they lost two players in the first 5 minutes to sickening head knocks (after losing their best player to covid 2 days out). Didn’t matter, one of the most brutally physical games of origin I’ve ever seen and they just dug in, they were up for the fight, literally and figuratively, for the whole 80 minutes and that win was bleed for jumper, culture fortifying stuff. I even thought to myself with 10 to go “even if they lose this I’m so proud”.

Contrast that to tonight…

I say this quite sincerely as I’ve struggled to get to games this year with a newborn and rupturing my Achilles. What’s the appeal for supporters to pay their membership and go along when that’s what get dished up. I was pretty down after I made the effort to go to the bombers game and I’m a pessimist.

Rugba Leeg