Autopsy The started-before-half-time All Time Insipid #norfball performance v. the team down the highway who shall not be named

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Makeshift Park said:
If we weren't so mystifyingly diabolical when it came to clearances, that would not have been such a blow out.

How LDU, Wardlaw, Powell and Simpkin could be so comprehensively outclassed by Atkins, Parfitt, Bruhn and Bowes is a mystery on par with the location of Cleopatra's tomb.

Having said that, even tho I thought Simpkin looked alright in the midfield, damn his disposals in the forward half were a hard watch.

Anyway, the good:
  • Best game of Drury's career
  • Sheezel confirms his status as one of the very best players in the whole comp
  • Ford and Curtis have X-factor squared
  • Nyuon was solid defensively, even tho his ball use was pretty shite
  • Chom continued to impress
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Because X should be renamed The Bible he gets read so often.

Midfields stagnant but he never taps to them.


Rest of your post is spot on. Except Simpkin. He was a liability.
 
Themanbun said:
Geelong was always gonna do away with us pretty easily. But this performance was alarming and I'm seeing so many insipid traits from a 22 comprised mostly of blokes who have been gifted a spot in the name of youth.

Selfish, dumb football.

The midfield.

They should not have given us a touch up in the midfield. This part of the loss simply should not have happened. And it's been happening for weeks.

There is no leader in that midfield. The de facto leader is best at ball hunting without thinking, and the ruck has no actual ruck craft (though is good in the contest).

I shudder to think how many times our trio of LDU, Wardlaw and Powell had LDU sitting on on the defensive side of our centre bounce setup. The one where our bloke is outnumbered by Geelong blokes. The one where you need to be very, very accountable. And not only does Xerri hit the damn ball to that exact spot (instead of the spot where we outnumber 2-1), LDU decides to hang off his man by 3m and bee line at the ball to try and win the clearance.

This happened time after time until Jy went in there. Not once did LDU or Xerri pull them in and discuss where they would position and where Xerri should tap. Not once. And they strolled it out of the centre time after time.

Seems like Jy had to settle for just whacking them all on a defensive side at the centre bounce, to stop the bleeding.

Watch how many times Powelly and LDU in particular, but even George to an extent let the Geelong blokes put the hammer down and torch us going forward. There were instances today when it was turned over centre wing, our mid or two is in line with that in the guts, and they track defensively about 5 metres while their opponents come from 25 behind them to be 25 in front and absolutely overwhelm our defenders.

This front running gets rewarded one in every 10 times, if that.

Not only is this laziness killing us going forward, as it allows the oppo to flood our defensive 50, we're then getting killed on the turnover because they quite simply refuse to put in the work.

It's just not good enough. We could have the best talent in the world and we won't win a single game if we're outnumbered going forward and outnumbered going back.

Dumb, dumb, selfish footy.

And the defenders.

What are our leaders doing down there? Comben had to direct everything in his second damn game as a key back!

There was one where Geelong had the ball just outside their 50, Charlie got caught guarding 2 loose smalls in the pocket. He calls one of our smaller defenders (I can't remember who and I shudder to look or else I'll hold a huge grudge) to swap so he can cover the key forwards and fly at the hotspot, and they snub him!

And don't get me started on screaming for the ball 1m in front of the carrier while you let your man waltz past and nail him in a tackle.

Forwards, you get a pass, although there were a few times when they should have let Sellers fly but went up and spoiled him themselves, lol.

Very few blokes out there actually care about doing the team things. It's sad and I'm not sure when we became this club. We aren't gonna win much while this continues.
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Great analysis.
 

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Themanbun said:
One side worked as a unit and the other side let their mates pick up their slack.
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They are also powerful, quick athletes. I am sick of saying it for 20 years but we do not have enough explosiveness in this team. And yes, it has to be balanced, it can;t be all one way. Dusty is a one way runner, and I don;t mind LDU being that, but you need balance and other than George we don't have it. Not up forward and not in defence.

I also have no faith in Clarko right now, just think that coaching has been poor.

We should select a side to fill positions of need, not just fill a position with a guy we like.
 
The draw has been brutal, but it's really disconcerting that the same senior players keep failing to execute the basics under little to no pressure. I expect that we'll be more competitive against Hawthorn, but I'm hardly confident of a win given that we'll see the same senior players failing to execute basics and giving the same shit efforts.
 
Oddly enough nowhere near as doom and gloom as I was about last week, our whole attitude and lack of effort in Norwood was as bad as I've ever seen. Today there was genuine endeavour, but a huge chunk of our team simply aren't quality footballers and were getting carved up by a team that doesn't have that problem.

bad-
*everything basically left to kids, but thats a given with the club in the last half decade.
*McDonald has killed about 7 good ball movement chains stone dead with his ineptitude, should never play again. Like, for real this time.
*If a mad genetic scientist, Dr. Frankenshittruck, were to create list clogging plodders in a lab, Fischer, Tucker and Stephens would be his finest creations. The irony of getting crucified for getting "handouts" that were "gifting us a flag" and actually ending up with them is something that could only happen to us
*People giving it to Corr, but this is as good as he gets. He is actually giving it a crack, unfortunately he is playing like he is on crack.
*Simpkin playing like he is still concussed. A full scale investigation should ensue. I'm semi-serious about that
*Something wrong with LDU, he either has some serious personal issues or is on the move at the end of the season and is beginning the process of emotionally and psychologically distancing himself from the group, ala JHF and Mckay.
*Charlie Lazarro is part of the 'Jared Polec crime syndicate' where hack players have blackmailing photographs of influential AFL people in a compromising sexual positions. If you have a better theory of how he gets a game, I'm all ears.
*Bailey Scott...apparently sometimes the apple can fall exceedingly far from the tree.
*Sellers :( debuting in our bad news bears phase, never stood a chance, poor bast*rd

good-
*at the final siren there was not players p*ssing their pants with laughter and clowning around after dragging the jumper through the cowsh*t for 2 hours, and there was not players doing screaming,Ronaldo-esque celebrations after kicking a meaningless goal in junktime when 10 goals down. Talk about baby steps, but didnt make me want to throw something at the TV so well done.
*Biggie good, has really keen vision but lacks poise and speed in his kicking to match, worth pursuing.
*Ford and Drury looked good on a day it was hard to look good.
*Sheeze exposed to some relentless physicality and stood up brilliantly, can only be good for his development.
*Curtis, going to be something, I mean imagine if our players didnt treat him like the invisible man and actually tried to lower the eyes and seek him out? the kid might actually get more than 10 touches
 
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apollo_creed said:
34 scoring shots from 61 entries. Again way over 50 percent of entries result in scores.

It’s not solely personnel whether Pink, Dawson, Biggy etc it makes no difference.

The s**t leadership from Corr and McDonald back there doesn’t help but everything points to a structural fault and the obvious things are numbers and the positioning of our loose players.
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So many of these opposition forward 50s this year, and last few years, come from turnovers upfield or centre clearance. Coming in at pace explains most of the high rate of scoring from them.

Even Corr and McDonald, admittedly sh*thouse, could be completely different players if there was even a marginal change in our disposal efficiency and competitiveness upfield. We’ve seen them both do well in close games and wins in the past.

Biggie and Charlie are clear answers down back. Both excellent. Add Bergman, Archer, Hardeman to the mix and maybe there is hope.
 
+:

  • Probably Sheez’s best game for his career, and that’s saying something. He was sublime, and right now we don’t deserve him.
  • I thought Biggy showed a lot. Couple of horror moments but he could be something.
  • Drifted out of it a touch, but Chom is a lock. Started magnificently.
  • The way Clarko spoke about Ashlee Good pre-game.

-:

  • Every single thing else.
  • Infantile kicking skills.
  • Plenty of players that didn’t look interested, no desperation, didn’t want to get their knees dirty.
 
We all bemoan our captains but truth is the players chose them. Obviously more as off field guidance and maturity. Let’s hope next year the group gets some balls and chooses an old field leader .
 
We really need to trial another small to help Drury. As much as he was good, there aren't many zippy options that can help with stopping the loose ball exit that the Cats could use up at every opportunity.

They also had far too much time to setup and kill off our inside 50s. Sellers couldn't get anywhere near it (although I can't blame him because the inside 50s were dreadful). In saying that, the forward line did look more open as a result of the two tall setup so I think we need to address how we can make that work. It looked like it worked fine in patches early but once the Cats got going we lost a lot of structure. Sellers should not be dropped.

I don't think Stephenson has done enough to earn a return back into the AFL side but it's so glaringly problematic that our setup in the forward 50 is missing someone that can make use of those half-chance opportunities. He's not the answer because he's not prolific enough in front of goal. PC tries but he needs to bust 3 tackles to get a look. Maybe it's positioning but when he's the only dangerous option it's easy for opposition to target him at ground level.

Our backline transition has regressed quite badly although it worked at times, it just looks like it's got the barebone pieces in place but it's still missing a huge injection of good ball users. McKercher going down was catastrophic and Lazz didn't provide much.

Our defensive setup in the midfield is made to look really bad because we have a difficult time reacting quickly enough to breakaway. Does Phillips help? I think it does in terms of winning the ball but there will still be issues with defensive accountability.

I don't know where to from here. It's hard to put a magnifying glass on one area of the ground to rectify because there are holes everywhere.
 

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The team is going nowhere.

We’ve got a really really nice group of talented young kids… BUT.

We have no spine.
We have no leaders.
We have no experience that are worth their spot.
Holes everywhere on the ground.

Good luck turning this shit hole around.

Grim days ahead.
 
Makeshift Park said:
I just can't understand how our clearance work got so bad. Let alone against Atkins, Parfitt, Bowes and Bruhn.
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Teams have already worked Xerri out... he almost always engages the body, usually tries to grab it out of the ruck and if he does tap it, it's more or less to his feet.

There's a clear disconnect between him and our mids who were incredibly stagnant today. Lost count how many times Xerri brought it to ground near his feet with a Geelong mid anticipating it and on the move, or they collected the spillage from his hands after he was tackled trying to take it out of the ruck.

Xerri is fit and has learned how to compete physically, now he needs to learn how to tap to advantage.
 
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The draw has been most unkind having played three 2023 Preliminary Finalists, Fremantle who look like a far better team than last year and Geelong who were Premiers in 2022 and playing like contenders again this season and have looked out of depth in at times in every game, but it has been disappointing that our performances have dropped away after some positive signs in the first three games. Now would have been the perfect time for a bye and go into some winnable games after a bit of a reset. Unfortunately, it's not to be so now Clarko is going to have to get our kids up and firing for the Hawthorn game after two beltings at the hands of Brisbane and Geelong.

It will be interesting to know if what happened at Bondi yesterday and the upsetting and tragic link to the club had an effect on the players, they didn't look all there today.

If Dawson is fit to play next week, he should come in for Corr and not Nyuon, Biggie was pretty good today while that was one of Corr's worst performances.
Scott looks a little out of his depth down back and needs to be moved back to the wing, he is a better option than Stephens.
Sheezel needs to spend more time in the middle, he looks so dangerous in the forward half and his ability to find a target inside 50 was elite.
Stop Xerri taking the ball out the ruck, it's not working and his teammates aren't reacting quickly enough to assist him.
 
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northbergs said:
We need to put that block of matches behind us now. That was the toughest opening fixture of anybody. We have to reset and believe that we can win any of the next 5 games (Gold Coast in Darwin will be the toughest). Hawthorn, Adelaide (in Tassie), Essendon and St Kilda are all gettable. Win 2 out of 5 and it gives something to build on for the 2nd half of the season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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This is how I see it. Forget what just happened. If we can. Re-focus on this upcoming block and start the season again. We are finding some players.

Chom looks like a lock at CHB. When Logue comes back and potentially with Nyuon and KDawson back there, I think we'll do okay.

Just on Biggie, I thought was the biggest positive today along with the red-hot form of Harry. Really has the smarts to go with athleticism and attacks the footy like he means it. Hopefully he keeps playing this way each week.

Sheezel is an amazing footballer. Will get Brownlow votes today, and I say votes in the plural.

Fisher I think has been better in recent weeks. Powell had a better game today than last week and a solid season overall so far. Well entrenched in our best 22. LDU may at times look disinterested, but seriously we'd be far worse off without him. Paul Curtis has had a good season. Eddie Ford likewise, since he's been in.

Tucker is slowly getting better. Maybe needs to play a bit further forward. Was a goalkicker at Freo.

Xerri has been good, but not so much today.

Many players are down on form: Simpkin, Larkey, Scott, Corr, McDonald (needs to get his Syd Barker form back somehow), Wardlaw (still young though) and Greenwood, who was mostly invisible. The jury is out on a few others.

We need to run two ways. Not doing enough of that. As soon as the opposition gets it off a turnover, we're cooked. We led the disposal count and lost by 13 goals. Individual form aside, something is clearly not working and needs to urgently be addressed.
 
l must have been watching another game...SEN ratings for North players.

North Mlebourne​

Harry Sheezel: A

Another 30+ disposal game for the Roo. His teammates want to get it in his hands as often as they possibly can. Finished with one major and 39 touches.

Eddie Ford: A

Kicked three nice goals and looked North’s most dangerous medium sized forward.

Luke Davies-Uniacke: B+

Got a lot of footy and again looked North Melbourne’s best midfielder. Not an overly dominant game though.

Bailey Scott: B+

Racked up a fair bit of footy off half back finishing with 28 disposals.

Blake Drury: B

Kicked a couple of goals and looked like a solid deeper small forward option.

Tristan Xerri: B

Won his ruck battle with Rhys Stanley but could have done more with his disposal.

Bigoa Nyuon: B-

A decent return in his first game for the club despite being beaten deep on a few occasions. Showed some nice signs playing primarily on Ollie Henry.

Aidan Corr: B-

Not bad himself but was under constant pressure in key defence mainly on Neale.

Tom Powell: B-

Started well in a midfield role but didn’t stand out as much as Davies-Unaicke.

Nick Larkey: C+

Kicked a couple of goals and probably wasn’t helped much by the delivery and lack of footy coming inside 50.

Charlie Comben: C+

Showed some great signs as an intercepting defender but needs to work on shutting down his opponent to become a well-rounded option down back.

Paul Curtis: C+

Had a few attempts at goal but only converted one.

George Wardlaw: C+

Did a few really nice things but didn’t get enough of it to impact majorly.

Zac FIsher: C+

Luke McDonald: C+

Dylan Stephens: C

Charlie Lazzaro: C

Played in the final three quarters after coming on as the sub for the injured Colby McKercher.

Darcy Tucker: C

Jy Simpkin: C

Not having as much of an impact in a role that doesn’t see him rack up big numbers at the source.

Hugh Greenwood: D

For some reason was used in the ruck sometimes. Laid a lot of tackles but didn’t impact.

Zane Duursma: D

Quiet day for the young half forward.

Tyler Sellers: D

Would have liked to have done more in his first game.
 
Sucks to be this numb to another 75-point drubbing, but here we are... again.

I actually thought we were better than last week, for the most part. That's not saying much, I know, but for maybe the first time this year we demonstrated something of a plan for those not-exactly-rare times when we aren't dominating clearances and hitting up forwards on the lead. Execution left plenty to be desired still - it was clear even early on just how much less clean our gather and disposal was than theirs, choice of target or even direction of play seemed like players weren't all on the same page every time, and we were exceptionally good at kicking straight to the spaces that Geelong had well-covered - but you could at least see the will to hold possession and move the ball around with short kicks to make an option, which IIRC was something we did really well in the win against Fremantle last year as well. Sheezel as a half-forward option for the inside-50 kick worked beautifully, and Drury as a forward definitely offers something of value too - with Curtis and Ford doing alright also, there were positive signs despite Larkey being well-beaten and Sellers hardly sighting it on debut. (Fair to say I don't think Zurhaar or Stephenson out particularly hurt us today, on current form.)

Clearances are still a real worry. Xerri simply doesn't have the discernment or the craft to build around such an all-or-nothing approach to stoppages, and we'll continue to concede easy entries for as long as we lack the will to stop opposition spread from the contest - which means not running with LDU/Powell/Wardlaw quite so often given their particular skillsets and deficiencies (we seemed to give Lazzaro a bit of a run on-ball later in the game to reasonable effect; I know he's been rewarded before with limited success but I'd like to see him in the starting 22 next week). Stopping their spread goes to workrate as well though, especially around the ground more than at the stoppages; it makes no sense for us to be this open on the turnover if the players who've just ended up out of position weren't really a factor in the surge forward to begin with (i.e., what exactly are they doing?).

Basically, the balance still feels too skewed towards half-baked attack rather than team defence, which leaves an inexperienced backline overexposed - no surprise we've conceded 100+ points every game this year, but while you could single out poor individual efforts here and there the actual defensive group hasn't been completely woeful - but there were signs today, however slight, that maybe we're remedying that. Hardly anything to be content with, but with the fixture opening up a little from here onwards, maybe basic competitiveness isn't as far away as it's felt for most of this season to date.
 
Amicalola said:
I'm aware this is an overwhelmingly negative take. But it's a feeling I've had growing all year, particularly since Good Friday.

I feel that LDU has been mentally broken by years of constant losses and absolutely appalling leadership. The same as Scott - they are both having stinkers, and have generally been poor this year. In LDUs case especially, it seems mental. Promising juniors that have received zero nourishment for years; it's not surprising they're pretty done and fed up.

I don't see how this club is fixed without solving the senior leadership crisis. We can't just wait for the kids to grow up without doing anything else. Sheezel, Wardlaw, Duursma, McKercher, Comben and all the rest will just become more LDUs and Scotts.

The cycle will continue unless something breaks it. But I don't know how we can do that. I think the club might be broken.
Click to expand...
I 100% agree with this.
LDU looks like he has checked out and rumour has it Carlton want him
 

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Autopsy The started-before-half-time All Time Insipid #norfball performance v. the team down the highway who shall not be named

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