Review Round 5 v Brisbane @ Brighton Homes Arena

[Firewalker]

To be fair, I thought Hatchard's first half in the midfield was the best she's looked there all year. But I agree, there is a gaping hole in our forward line with Jones out and someone needs to fill it.

Having both her and Ponter as genuine A-grade options to run through the middle as needed is nice flexibility too. Hell, add Gould to that discussion as well.

The kicker is the Ponter in the middle part, always looks brilliant move on paper and shows flashes of brilliance like that Hawks game but still that question of when the going gets tough in the middle and the heat gets cranked up in the contest and around the ground ball is she best suited in there? She has been found wanting over the past 2 weeks against really good stoppage teams & also in the finals loses last year.

Teah Charlton is the one, she is ready to take that midfield by storm. She looks to have improved a lot even when compared to last year, one of the benefits to her injury looks to be how much time it meant she was in the gym during recovery as she is much stronger now and can break those tackles she couldn’t before. Needs to be trusted in that role now as she’s looked like in the past 2 weeks like she’s ready to take those games by the scruff of the neck but is just too far away from the action ahead of the ball.

 

[jenny61_99]

The kicker is the Ponter in the middle part, always looks brilliant move on paper and shows flashes of brilliance like that Hawks game but still that question of when the going gets tough in the middle and the heat gets cranked up in the contest and around the ground ball is she best suited in there? She has been found wanting over the past 2 weeks against really good stoppage teams & also in the finals loses last year.

Teah Charlton is the one, she is ready to take that midfield by storm. She looks to have improved a lot even when compared to last year, one of the benefits to her injury looks to be how much time it meant she was in the gym during recovery as she is much stronger now and can break those tackles she couldn’t before. Needs to be trusted in that role now as she’s looked like in the past 2 weeks like she’s ready to take those games by the scruff of the neck but is just too far away from the action ahead of the ball.

I thought she was part of our resurgence in the third quarter. She, Chelsea and Noffy in the middle opening of the quarter, we win the clearance and bang, goal.

 

[cmndstab]

Ponter looked good in the midfield yesterday, but was then almost invisible when she transitioned back into the forward line. Ponter playing as a midfield/forward only makes sense if she can still impact on the scoreboard after the stoppages - otherwise we might as well just play her as a permanent midfielder. I agree, it was a poor game from her yesterday by her standards, outside of a couple of eye-catching clearances.

Charlton certainly could play midfield again, although with Jones gone she's about the only person in our forwardline consistently applying pressure in the F50. In theory Martin/Waterhouse are meant to provide this but haven't been doing it much (albeit Martin was a bit better yesterday).

Just quietly, I thought Ballard looked good on return. She'll never be very quick but she just got to the right spots and was clean with the ball on a wet day. She looked physically strong, too, broke a few tackles and laid some good ones of her own. She could easily take over Charlton's F50 pressure role and release her into the midfield - or potentially go in there herself. Perhaps the two could rotate?

Was anyone able to figure out what happened to Boyle-Carr? She looked good for the first half, but then disappeared almost completely from the game after that. Was she just in the wrong spots, or was she on the bench? I wondered if she had been injured, but the match report says no injuries for us.

 

[jenny61_99]

Ponter looked good in the midfield yesterday, but was then almost invisible when she transitioned back into the forward line. Ponter playing as a midfield/forward only makes sense if she can still impact on the scoreboard after the stoppages - otherwise we might as well just play her as a permanent midfielder. I agree, it was a poor game from her yesterday by her standards, outside of a couple of eye-catching clearances.

Charlton certainly could play midfield again, although with Jones gone she's about the only person in our forwardline consistently applying pressure in the F50. In theory Martin/Waterhouse are meant to provide this but haven't been doing it much (albeit Martin was a bit better yesterday).

Just quietly, I thought Ballard looked good on return. She'll never be very quick but she just got to the right spots and was clean with the ball on a wet day. She looked physically strong, too, broke a few tackles and laid some good ones of her own. She could easily take over Charlton's F50 pressure role and release her into the midfield - or potentially go in there herself. Perhaps the two could rotate?

Was anyone able to figure out what happened to Boyle-Carr? She looked good for the first half, but then disappeared almost completely from the game after that. Was she just in the wrong spots, or was she on the bench? I wondered if she had been injured, but the match report says no injuries for us.

It really wasn't wet. We got a little shower for part of the day. It was hot, and the wind was blustery and unpredictable.

 

[cmndstab]

It really wasn't wet. We got a little shower for part of the day. It was hot, and the wind was blustery and unpredictable.

Fair call - fumbly conditions, anyway. I thought she handled the ground ball better than most, including reading the bounce well.

 

[Firewalker]

I thought she was part of our resurgence in the third quarter. She, Chelsea and Noffy in the middle opening of the quarter, we win the clearance and bang, goal.

Ponter looked much better after half time when she was moved away from her usual role of drifting deeper into the 50 post-stoppage/centre clearance as she was struggling in contests against a triple team of Koenen, Grider & Campbell in the first half. But the move of her playing higher up the ground did at least give her some time & space to get her hands on the ball, that was a good move by Clarke to get her away from the tight marking, it was her stoppage work which is separate from that move which is a concern especially defensively.

Clarke wants to have her off the back running through at the centre bounce contests/forward half stoppages obviously because he really rates her ability to be clean with the ball, read it off J.Allan’s palm, and break free from the centre and deliver it inside 50, however teams have shown especially in these last 2 games against Essendon & Brisbane that they are not giving the Crows that free flowing ball at stoppage they are instead forcing a ground ball extraction or a secondary stoppage where they’re bringing up extra numbers at the stoppage to force the Crows midfielders to commit to extracting the ground ball against their team’s extra to try work it out, this is where Ponter is showing she’s really not as natural around these contested situations.

Just look at Ponter get badly beaten for the ground ball in the centre bounce in the lead up to the Smith “mark” and goal, hesitated and her Brisbane opponent went in lower and harder and won the ball.

Ponter looked good in the midfield yesterday, but was then almost invisible when she transitioned back into the forward line. Ponter playing as a midfield/forward only makes sense if she can still impact on the scoreboard after the stoppages - otherwise we might as well just play her as a permanent midfielder. I agree, it was a poor game from her yesterday by her standards, outside of a couple of eye-catching clearances.

Charlton certainly could play midfield again, although with Jones gone she's about the only person in our forwardline consistently applying pressure in the F50. In theory Martin/Waterhouse are meant to provide this but haven't been doing it much (albeit Martin was a bit better yesterday).

Just quietly, I thought Ballard looked good on return. She'll never be very quick but she just got to the right spots and was clean with the ball on a wet day. She looked physically strong, too, broke a few tackles and laid some good ones of her own. She could easily take over Charlton's F50 pressure role and release her into the midfield - or potentially go in there herself. Perhaps the two could rotate?

Was anyone able to figure out what happened to Boyle-Carr? She looked good for the first half, but then disappeared almost completely from the game after that. Was she just in the wrong spots, or was she on the bench? I wondered if she had been injured, but the match report says no injuries for us.

Good to see that Ballard was back out there, still have my doubts about her as a player but I feel she ‘works’ in this team & is at her best when she is providing that option of leading up into space ahead of the ball and getting the ball on the wing/half forward and delivering it forward. Worry was, which has been an issue even before the knee, was her pace & positioning. She was again usually secondary to the contest when she competed for the ball, it may look good to have the 5 tackles she had but like with Jones in round 1 having all those tackles & Martin in most of her matches you want them to be actually winning the ball more often rather than having to always tackle an opponent who’s beaten them to the ball in the first place.

Think it was more a case with Boyle-Carr that while her confidence probably did unfortunately get a bit sapped after the holding the ball decision it looked like Clarke probably did not fully trust her to give her minutes when the game was becoming increasingly on the line, especially in the last quarter.