_RT_
Community Leader
- Sep 17, 2006
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- #1
After a surprising win in round 1 against Carlton, the Tigers hit the road to face Port in Adelaide yet again as 28 of 42 games against them have been in Adelaide.
The Tigers will be full of confidence after the round 1 win, while Port will be smarting after a shocking performance against the Pies in what was the first game of the final season of Hinkley in charge. You really have to wonder whether the players may well have checked out knowing that he won't be in charge after this year and that his message just doesn't have the impact that it should.
Port really looked like a bottom 6 side the way they played last night, they had no structure/system in their forward line, their midfield was poor despite having a mountain of possessions and their back line struggled to stop the Pies from scoring especially in the 2nd half as the Pies did as they pleased.
Now the question is how do Port respond? As mentioned is it a case of the players have checked out on Ken or was it simply a case of a bad R1 performance against a side that was also looking to respond after a poor game in their first hit out. For the fans of Port, you'd like to hope that it is a case of the latter otherwise 2025 is going to be a long long season with mounting pressure on Port & Hinkley to maybe part ways sooner than anticipated.
As far as the Tigers are concerned, this game provides an opportunity for us to prove that R1 wasn't an exception but is the type of performance that we should be expecting from week to week. Now that's not to say that we're going to go on a winning streak and put ourselves in the mix for finals, after all we won just 2 games last year, including beating last years runners up, so we have shown that we're capable of a big performance occasionally, but more often than not we were found wanting.
So before we get carried away with beating Carlton, lets see how we follow up that performance. If we can play with a similar level of intensity and effort the scoreboard will take care of itself.
Predicted Line Up:
Out: Lynch* (suspended)
In: Ryan/Fawcett
B: Miller Blight Broad
HB: Short Vlastuin Trainor
C: Banks McIntosh Trezise
HF: Mansell Campbell Green
F: Bauer Fawcett/Ryan Lalor
R: Nankervis Taranto Hopper
INT: Brown Dow Armstrong Ross Sonsie
EMG: Fawcett/Ryan Smith Alger
FWIW I don't believe that Lynch should get suspended, but the tribunal is a raffle and given the previous suspensions handed out for bumps like Lynchs, I am expecting him to miss a week. If somehow we can get Lynch cleared, then I'd go in unchanged as you have to reward last weeks side with a chance to back it up.
Prediction:
Port to hit back hard and put the Tiger cubs under the pump early on and see if they are capable of backing up the R1 performances. The heart says a Tigers win by 2-3 goals to get the season off to the perfect start, but the head says Port will hit back and get their first win of the season by a similar margin.
The Tigers will be full of confidence after the round 1 win, while Port will be smarting after a shocking performance against the Pies in what was the first game of the final season of Hinkley in charge. You really have to wonder whether the players may well have checked out knowing that he won't be in charge after this year and that his message just doesn't have the impact that it should.
Port really looked like a bottom 6 side the way they played last night, they had no structure/system in their forward line, their midfield was poor despite having a mountain of possessions and their back line struggled to stop the Pies from scoring especially in the 2nd half as the Pies did as they pleased.
Now the question is how do Port respond? As mentioned is it a case of the players have checked out on Ken or was it simply a case of a bad R1 performance against a side that was also looking to respond after a poor game in their first hit out. For the fans of Port, you'd like to hope that it is a case of the latter otherwise 2025 is going to be a long long season with mounting pressure on Port & Hinkley to maybe part ways sooner than anticipated.
As far as the Tigers are concerned, this game provides an opportunity for us to prove that R1 wasn't an exception but is the type of performance that we should be expecting from week to week. Now that's not to say that we're going to go on a winning streak and put ourselves in the mix for finals, after all we won just 2 games last year, including beating last years runners up, so we have shown that we're capable of a big performance occasionally, but more often than not we were found wanting.
So before we get carried away with beating Carlton, lets see how we follow up that performance. If we can play with a similar level of intensity and effort the scoreboard will take care of itself.
Predicted Line Up:
Out: Lynch* (suspended)
In: Ryan/Fawcett
B: Miller Blight Broad
HB: Short Vlastuin Trainor
C: Banks McIntosh Trezise
HF: Mansell Campbell Green
F: Bauer Fawcett/Ryan Lalor
R: Nankervis Taranto Hopper
INT: Brown Dow Armstrong Ross Sonsie
EMG: Fawcett/Ryan Smith Alger
FWIW I don't believe that Lynch should get suspended, but the tribunal is a raffle and given the previous suspensions handed out for bumps like Lynchs, I am expecting him to miss a week. If somehow we can get Lynch cleared, then I'd go in unchanged as you have to reward last weeks side with a chance to back it up.
Prediction:
Port to hit back hard and put the Tiger cubs under the pump early on and see if they are capable of backing up the R1 performances. The heart says a Tigers win by 2-3 goals to get the season off to the perfect start, but the head says Port will hit back and get their first win of the season by a similar margin.
