Thoughts On The Port Game (post game)

[Go the Guts]

I agree with what most people have said, but I think we should give the veterans a break. I think some people still expect them to be game breakers, when they clearly will not be. They are in the twilight of their career, we should only expect them to be the supporting cast, with the focus and reliance on the next generation to play the major roles in the side, and to decide matches. I believe their role is to help the younger players along and provide a cool head and some leadership. To expect them to have the same impact they did in the past is fanciful, lets accept that.

Yeah I wasn't meaning to sound like I was bagging the 3 vets, quite the opposite. I love them all, and don't expect them to break the game open. I think Goody and Eddy were about as serviceable as we should expect tonight, and Macca has been quiet for 2-3 weeks. It'll just be sad to see all 3 of them go, but I do expect we will see the back of them at the end of the season. Possibly with the exception of Edwards, but time will tell.

 

[footy4ever]

I know Knights gets a lot of criticism in here, but hell we missed him getting the ball in the middle tonight. He will certainly come in next week.

 

[BunjiMac]

I do not believe we expect them to have the same impact however I expect them to be vibrant and do there best to inject themselves in the game

Like I said Nacca is a club legend however I am concerned that in his last couple of games he has not looked hungry, once this goes your in trouble

I guess i disagree, I don't believe they are the ones we should be expecting to change the course of the match. I think they are doing their bests, they just aren't as good as they used to be and no as good as some of the young opposition they come up against. I believe they are bit part players and not as important to the side, their form will not determine the result of matches this year.

 

[macca23]

The final margin flattered us. We should have lost by 60+ points given how poor we were and how exceptionally slick Port were (until time-on in the 4th).

Our gameplan is a complete ****ing joke. We will never be a top 4 side with such a slow, pointless gameplan. Every bloody time we kick it inside 50, we are outnumbered 4-1 and the opposition takes an easy mark and quickly gets it down their end to an open forward line and gets a goal. I'm sick of our goals coming from players having to pull something flukey out of their ass whilst the opposition gets goals running into an open goal. Chad Cornes FFS! Bring back the 2005/2006 gameplan, at least we were good at it.

If you want to play a zone, you need players who are prepared to work their butts off. You also need a gun in the midfield who can split the zone, like an Ablett or a Bateman.

Finally, too many players out there tonight showed a complete lack of heart. Not going to single out players but there were too many players out there who didn't put their bodies on the line. Bock, Vince and Goodwin (with an honourable mention to Petrenko) were the only players prepared to do the hard work. You talk about downhill skiiers, we have plenty of 'em, including a certain Norm Smith medal winner (ok I lied when I wasn't going to single players out).

We showed a total lack of physicality out there tonight, and Port were always first to the ball and they did it too easily. I hope Craigy tears strips off of them (and not just the first year players) after that effort. Why should we buy tickets to the Port home game when we put in a lame effort anyway?

I normally try to avoid having a big spit after the game, but jackster, you have summed it up perfectly for me.

In addition, Neil Craig - take note:

That game plan is utter crap

Hang on to the ball too long. Refuse to kick the ball forward to a contest. Kick the ball backwards. Cross to the other side. Kick to the outer wing. Turn the ball over. Watch the ball rebound into our under-manned defence and the opposition score a gimme goal.

Sickening!!

Does Craig really think that the opposition haven't worked out that we go through this robotic process time after time and don't set up for it??

Very very ordinary!!

 

[Stiffy_18]

I agree with what most people have said, but I think we should give the veterans a break. I think some people still expect them to be game breakers, when they clearly will not be. They are in the twilight of their career, we should only expect them to be the supporting cast, with the focus and reliance on the next generation to play the major roles in the side, and to decide matches. I believe their role is to help the younger players along and provide a cool head and some leadership. To expect them to have the same impact they did in the past is fanciful, lets accept that.

No, I expect the to be the leaders and set the tone. Not by dominating but by putting thier body on the line and showing the kids how its done. Other than Edwards and Bocks, every other member of the leadership group wouldn't have a single bruise or a scratch on them tonight. McLeod, Goodwin, Rutten, Stevens, Doughty....the list goes on. Petrenko showed more guts and determination than all of those players combined.

Its not a matter of them dominating but its a matter of them setting the tone with their leadership. Tonight they were soft as butter.

Oh and I give them as much stick as anyone but I thought the umpires did an absolutly great job tonight. That was probably the best umpired game I have seen in a very long time.

 

[Elite Crow]

I normally try to avoid having a big spit after the game, but jackster, you have summed it up perfectly for me.

In addition, Neil Craig - take note:

That game plan is utter crap

Hang on to the ball too long. Refuse to kick the ball forward to a contest. Kick the ball backwards. Cross to the other side. Kick to the outer wing. Turn the ball over. Watch the ball rebound into our under-manned defence and the opposition score a gimme goal.

Sickening!!

Does Craig really think that the opposition haven't worked out that we go through this robotic process time after time and don't set up for it??

Very very ordinary!!

Spot on and I edited your post for emphasis, hopefully it sticks out and Craig cant miss it!!!

 

[BunjiMac]

No, I expect the to be the leaders and set the tone. Not by dominating but by putting thier body on the line and showing the kids how its done. Other than Edwards and Bocks, every other member of the leadership group wouldn't have a single bruise or a scratch on them tonight. McLeod, Goodwin, Rutten, Stevens, Doughty....the list goes on. Petrenko showed more guts and determination than all of those players combined.

I think thats a bit harsh, I think they all tried, they just weren't good enough.

 

[macca23]

My thoughts:

ONe of the softest, most insipid performances that I have seen from us. We got absolutly SMASHED in clearences (especially centre clearences, that was ****ing embarassing). I lost the number of times that Port literally walked it out of the centre square under the most minimal of pressure. The tackling was as soft as butter. My dead grandma would shrug those pathetic attempts at tackling.

We were always going to get smashed in the ruck but FFS how hard is it to get inside your man, stand side by side and not let him walk it away from a "contest".

People we carry on about the game plan but thats bullshit. The Power were great defensively and we hard absolutly NOTHING to kick to. People want us to kick it long and not dick about with it and we saw EXACTLY what that leads to. 90% of the time we went long to the forward line and we had no hope of getting anything. Port were great at spoiling and going 3rd man up.

Some of the players didn't bother showing up. The "leadership" group showed no leadership. They were the biggest culprits in terms of softness. Big thumbs up to a couple of kids who actually hunt the footy. Petrenko and Dangerfield know the meaning of contested footy and tackling. Petrenko is easily our best tackler and probably the hardest at it player. While thats great, its sad at the same time. When a 5th year player is your hardest player and best tackler, well to me that means you have a pretty big problem.

I have to give a massive thumbs up to Bernie Vince who was our best player, especially in the first half.

Tyson Edwards was our best senior player.

While Rutten got spanked, to be fair, there wasn't a hell of a lot he could have done with some of the passes and space that Tredrea had in the first half.

Andy Otten was once again VERY good.

Scott Stevens is REALLY off the boil.

Graham Johncock is in AA form.

Porplyzia couldn't get near it but still kicked 3 goals and keeps the streak alive.

Walker REALLY needs to lift. He doesn't work anywhere near hard enough and tries to get some cheap goals rather than do the team thing.

Griffin was soft as butter.

I liked the flashes the kids have shown. As someone else said, we are about 50 games away from having a potent side.

Agree with your post Stiffy with one obvious exception.

The game plan is the very reason why we are outnumbered badly up forward and can't win the contested ball.

The truth is that we don't have the man power to play that type of game and it is a high possession, hard work, little reward, high risk game style.

You may be right that it will be fine for 50 games time but that is over 2 years away - we need something a bit more suitable for our resources for the present.

 

[Stiffy_18]

I think thats a bit harsh, I think they all tried, they just weren't good enough.

You cannot be trying when you get absolutly smashed in clearences. Its not that hard to not get your man walk it out of the centre square. Thats not trying. That just lack of effort.

Goodwin might have got his touches but most of them were cheap touches out the back without much of the hurt factor. Motlop touched him up. Look I love those guys and stick for them when they cop the pasting from other members but all I ask for is effort and leadership by example and that means putting your body over the ball, tackling hard and playing accountable football. What most of the leadership group dished tonight was just unacceptable IMHO.

 

[Mismatched]

We had no forward line & lack of system bringing the ball into the forward line.
Stevo has struggled since he has returned. How McPharlin got off is beyond me .. but build that bridge. We need another tall option - probably Moran over Maric, as more flexibility. Should have used Griff more forward & Tippett more on ball tonight IMO.

We should have tried to mix things up more in the coaching box, but failed to do so. Should change players struggling not those doing OK. We were outcoached. ie. Leave Otten in defence, but move Macca. He did look disinterested - easily the poorest of our fab-3. Why was Goody not moved up forward to help out ... or on ball? We had to score goals & we needed to sure up forward line.

This game was for the taking & he were more than disappointing.

Couldn't agree more, our forward set up at the moment is a joke and its not just a personnel issue either. We need a massive over haul in this department and a big change in thinking, we seem to have no problem getting the inside 50's, but we must be the worst in actual proper "effective" inside 50s.

Whilst he's doing the occasional good thing, I think NC needs to give Walker a rest in the SANFL and swap him with Moran. NC just doesn't seem confident to given him a decent amount of game time and I really don't see there being a point in playing him if this is the case. Also, to me he doesn't seem confident with his set shots, which are supposedly his speciality, as evidenced by that checkside cr*p he dished up late in the third I think it was.

With Moran in, I'd like to see Tippet played almost as a full time forward, with maybe the odd stint in the ruck. We also need to show him some the tape of Tredrea tonight and some others of players like Roughead, Brown and Fevola and how these blokes work in and around the forward line, lead hard and don't just wait for the ball to be lobbed on their heads. If Tippet can bring this into his game, he will become an extremely dangerous forward. However, I think half the issue is, is that a directive seems to have come from the coaching box for our forwards to sit static in our forward line when we have the ball around the 50-70m mark. What has happened to dummy leads, blocking and leading to create space, do these well thought out and solid theories no longer hold any credence in todays game?

On Douglas' game, spent the majority of the game in the midfield I think and whilst he got a lot of it, his disposal was disgraceful and its not his kicking that's the issue its his handballs, more often than not they either go to his teammates feet or they just sell them into trouble. I still rate him rather highly, but gee he needs to lift his game a bit.

On a night when we needed him to stand up Stevens was non-existant, seems to have lost all confidence or something following the Macpharlin incident. I think we need to play him in defence for a couple of weeks just so he can regain that confidence, gave us nothing up forward tonight.

Mcleod, was there ever a time when a bloke was more deserving of a rocket? Has barely fired a shot since the Collingwood game and at his current rate this will certainly be his final year.

Rutten, well I know there are some here who don't like the idea and I've been umming and arring about it for sometime, but I'm back to arring at the moment. He is struggling with our new game plan as a defender and is really being shown up for his lack of pace, however he is still an extremely good grab of the footy and his skills are still very solid. I would really like to see us give him a shot up forward again and not just a quarter or two, a game or two, yes he may not provide the best defensive pressure, but I think we could really use a big, experienced body up forward and he would be the kind of player who could draw a more experienced, better defender away from the likes of Porplyzia, Tippet and Walker. Just a thought, might be worth looking at for the future, because really whilst it may just be high expectations, I'm beginning to worry a little about Big Ben.

van Berlo, well I was actually extremely disappointed with his game today, he had a similar game against Fremantle where, especially up forward, he burnt the ball way too often for a member of the senior leadership group. Too many times he had the ball around half forward when I was expecting him to do something good with it, as he usually does and he just butchered it.

Vince on the other hand, gee, this bloke will be an absolute star of the competition in a year or so's time and a real potential game breaker for us. Has finally developed the strong body to go with his tall frame and with his exquisite skills he will be a very valuable player for us in years to come. Maybe a big call, but IMO has definitely taken over the mantle as our number 1 midfielder and if Scotty Thompson wants it back he has a lot of work to do.

Was also extremely impressed with Reilly's game, whilst he wasn't spectacular, he is slowly but surely working his way into this season. He was clean, strong over the footy, generally used the ball well and was cool under pressure, I reckon he might be building for a very decent second half of the year.

Bocky great again, the opposition supporters can keep booing him as much as they like, they just need to remember butter menthol's. Maybe Butter Menthol should sponsor us or something and hand out free samples to opposition supporters pregame for when they lose their voices from booing too much.

They are my thoughts for the moment, just a couple, I'm sure I'll have a few more later though.

 

[cmndstab]

Stabby, if the players aren't capable of executing the gameplan, then it's flawed.

They are not executing it well yet. That doesn't mean they are not capable of executing it, and to be honest, it seems like our senior players are the ones that are having the most trouble executing it.


I doubt very much that the game plan than Neil Craig has laid out is "get the ball, hold on to it for a long time to allow the opposition to set up a zone, then slowly kick the ball sideways and backwards until you get into trouble". The game plan is pretty clear - get the ball, if you can move it forward do so, otherwise go for a switch. The problem is we are not doing it quickly enough and we are clearly scared to take risks. That is the part of the execution of the game plan that needs to change.

 

[macca23]

You cannot be trying when you get absolutly smashed in clearences. Its not that hard to not get your man walk it out of the centre square. Thats not trying. That just lack of effort.

Goodwin might have got his touches but most of them were cheap touches out the back without much of the hurt factor. Motlop touched him up. Look I love those guys and stick for them when they cop the pasting from other members but all I ask for is effort and leadership by example and that means putting your body over the ball, tackling hard and playing accountable football. What most of the leadership group dished tonight was just unacceptable IMHO.

We were belted in the clearances at both the centre bounces and around the ground.

As an ex-on-baller, I've experienced that you can't just have good days when your rucks are dominating - you also have to be able to read the opposition rucks and rove to beaten rucks, be that defensively or aggressively. We were as weak as I've ever seen us in this regard, and our senior players were our greatest offenders in this respect.

The Port on-ballers carved through our on-ballers like a knife though butter on too many occasions, leading to easy goals.

Very disappointing.

 

[Rave Slave]

Unacceptable performance tonight and make no mistakes - that was an 8 or 9 goal loss.

Jonathan Griffin must be dropped and some of our midfield group needs to have a good hard look at themselves. I don't care if we get beaten in the stoppages but some of Griffin's efforts in and around the guts were pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. I'd rather have a ruckman give away 100 free kicks but try his guts out than have a guy run like a midfielder but shirk contested ball, make 1 handed attempts to spoil contests against their direct opponent and get outbodied and outmarked at the contest by blokes giving away 10 kilos and 15cm. Not acceptable performance. For every bit as bad as Maric may have been with giving away frees Griffin's performance tonight was 10 times worse.

He was followed up closely by Andrew Mcleod. The Bunj is a champion of this club and has a right to decide when he hangs up the boots. That being said it doesn't mean he has a golden tick allowing him to sheepdog packs, wait for the drop of the ball rather than attacking it, run off his man and be completely unaccountable and not be prepared to spoil or tackle. Some of our players seem to have this mentality of floating along and someone else will do the job for them. Not acceptable.

Jarrad Petrenko should be marched to the centre of the training ground come monday morning and have the midfield group gather around him so they can learn a thing or two about tackling or pressure. This bloke runs hard, chases, tackles, harasses and is accountable. When he tackles a player they don't get away. Perhaps some of our seasoned veterans could learn a thing or two since they seem to be under the impression that as long as you make an attempted tackle it's good enough. Near enough isn't good enough.

Our 'quick hands game'. Great in theory. Not the gameplan our lineup should really be using though is it when we have 4 blokes in our lineup who play in the guts and can comfortably kick it 50 metres. Surely we should be moving the ball as quickly as possible in an attempt to actually give our forwards a chance of some one on one ball. Walker can be criticised for many things but I'd love to see how he'd play if he was getting some quick delivery with long ball movement. It's all well and good trying to move quickly by hand but you actually have to hit the right option, not just the bloke running next to you. It's easy to dish off to a guy that has 3 blokes swarming upon him at once. Got so sick of seeing us dance around and allow the Power to roll their zone backwards before kicking it 30 metres long and 50 metres high... To PORPLYZIA. It's not like we have a Roughead down there who can pull these grabs down yet. Was also great watching blokes constantly choose the wrong option and go from being under some pressure to putting the nearest bloke under immense pressure with fairy handpasses. Not smart footy at all.

Can we have a plan b please? Rolling zones are great and quick hands are fantastic but if it's not working, how about we try ROTATION and MAN ON MAN and actually try winning the contest. Some of our centre square efforts in particular were absolutely insipid. You can lose the hitouts and lose the clearances BUT AT LEAST HAVE SOME PRIDE IN THE ****ING JUMPER!!! I saw some pea hearted efforts in that centre square tonight regarding tackling, pressure and second efforts and there's a few guys who should hang their head in shame. That was not AFL standard.

You can explain some inconsistencies on youth and what not but lack of effort is unacceptable at this footy club.

For as good as I felt about the Geelong loss I'm equally as shattered with that effort. Junktime goals flattered us greatly. It was a poorly coached and poorly played game by most.

Bernie Vince you're a star, Graham Johncock you're the best small defender in the land and Nathan Bock you're a gun. Tyson Edwards please never retire and to most of our young blokes hold your heads up high, you tried your guts out. To Jonathan Griffin if you ever put in another effort like that in our guernsey then I never want you to play for us again.

Shattered. Absolutely shattered.

 

[Drummond]

Well that was extremely pathetic, just a real nothing performance from beginning to end. Well that's not entirely true, good opening 5 minutes and then junk time goals which made us look more competitive than we were. I’ve got so many thoughts, not many good ones on the output of the group tonight.

Leadership group need to be questioned, Goodwin just isn’t a captain. McLeod should retire right now if that’s the kind of footy he’s going to play for the rest of the year. Pathetic “effort” by him tonight and actually really disappointed by what we’re seeing this year. The intensity, the desire looks to have gone.

Bernie Vince sensational, easily our best. 29 possessions, 12 marks, 2 goals, monster game and he really stood up tonight and did his best to lift his mates. Well done Bernie, elite midfielder he will be if he improves his consistency.

Jared Petrenko you are a gem, he was very good in limited time. And to think people wanted him dropped this week... He doesn’t need a lot of the ball to have a major impact and I think he’s one of the few who can hold their head high tonight. Barely played in the first half but the shift to the forward line in the second half was a smart one. His tackling was again simply outstanding and he won 2 holding the ball frees. How awesome was that bump late in the 4th? Bumped his opponent off, then got the loose ball and won himself a free. If only his teammates played with the same intensity. Watch his desire on Dangerfield’s second goal, late in the game and he’s still putting his body on the line for the team. Gun.

Andy Otten I love you. Remember I was the one who created a thread asking what was good about his game? I admit I was ridiculously wrong on that one; he was fantastic tonight and comfortably in our top half a dozen. How did he have only 16 possessions? Cool, calm, disciplined, does what he needs to do. Took some strong, well judged marks and he’s creative coming off the backline. We’re on a winner here, one of the real positives to come from the night.

I honestly don’t know what can be said about Griffin, he was beyond terrible tonight, worst on ground. He should have presented Brogan with the Showdown medal because he handed it to him on a plate. Ruckwork not up to the standard, work around the ground just as bad if not worse. I lost count how many times he let Brogan and Lade get away from him despite the fact he was standing side by side with them only a few seconds before. Maric would’ve been great tonight, we could’ve done with his intensity and competitiveness. Griffin= most overrated player on our list, Freo can have him.

Doughty is a bit of a gun, liked his game tonight. Brilliant goal in the second term and some strong overhead marks. Bock was very, very good, ran hard from defence and tried to provide rebound. Porplyzia was quiet and yet still finished with three and still has not missed!

Walker, yeah he was atrocious. Lazy, soft, didn’t chase, a spell with Norwood looms (pity we have the bye next week). Just didn’t want to go up for marks, didn’t chase (didn’t see it personally but was pointed out to me- explained why he was dragged after 1 or 2 minutes). That snap shot on goal in the third summed up his night, careless. Glad to see he kicked a goal which means a goal in every game but man he struggled.

Thought Cook tried hard, made a few mistakes and perhaps could’ve attacked the ball a tad harder at times but he did try. Had a few useful passages of play and looked decent in the last quarter. Needs to stop standing around though and waiting for things to happen, often the ball will be in his area and he just stands there when he should be trying to win possession. A like his game though and in time I think we’ll have a real player.

Dangerfield was okay, a bit quiet but bobbed up every now and then with a nice play. Looked a bit flat to me though and didn’t seem to be up to his usual pace. Nice to see him kick 2 goals when moved forward, one from a beautiful mark.

Tippett contested well, much better than the other ruckman. Oh and Johncock proves why stats are useless. Only had 13 yet was brilliant, well done Stiffy, you were committed all night.

Oh and the clearances, what the heck happened? Time after time after time they came away with the ball. The goal that Pearce kicked summed up the night, fumbled it a million times and STILL had time and space to kick a goal. Pathetic.

 

[cmndstab]

Jared Petrenko you are a gem, he was very good in limited time. And to think people wanted him dropped this week... He doesn’t need a lot of the ball to have a major impact and I think he’s one of the few who can hold their head high tonight. Barely played in the first half but the shift to the forward line in the second half was a smart one. His tackling was again simply outstanding and he won 2 holding the ball frees. How awesome was that bump late in the 4th? Bumped his opponent off, then got the loose ball and won himself a free. If only his teammates played with the same intensity. Watch his desire on Dangerfield’s second goal, late in the game and he’s still putting his body on the line for the team. Gun.

Andy Otten I love you. Remember I was the one who created a thread asking what was good about his game? I admit I was ridiculously wrong on that one; he was fantastic tonight and comfortably in our top half a dozen. How did he have only 16 possessions? Cool, calm, disciplined, does what he needs to do. Took some strong, well judged marks and he’s creative coming off the backline. We’re on a winner here, one of the real positives to come from the night.

How good was Petrenko after that nothing performance last week? His best performance for the club by a mile He has absolutely the right attitude to footy, he's going to be a cult favourite.

I'd forgotten that thread about Otten! I love the way he just plays on all the time. His low possession count would be from a patch of play in (I think it was) the third quarter. He went missing for so long I was wondering if he was on the bench, but being that he's had 90% game time pretty much every match that seems unlikely. Perhaps it was when he was up forward and we never won a clearance to get there. I know we have this image of him being a midfielder eventually but for mine, he needs to put on some weight next preseason and we need to build our defence around him, similar to how we built it around Rutten and Bock a few years back. He takes the game on, reads the play well and currently his only weakness is that he is still a bit slim - not surprising for a tall 19 year old.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

They are not executing it well yet. That doesn't mean they are not capable of executing it, and to be honest, it seems like our senior players are the ones that are having the most trouble executing it.


I doubt very much that the game plan than Neil Craig has laid out is "get the ball, hold on to it for a long time to allow the opposition to set up a zone, then slowly kick the ball sideways and backwards until you get into trouble". The game plan is pretty clear - get the ball, if you can move it forward do so, otherwise go for a switch. The problem is we are not doing it quickly enough and we are clearly scared to take risks. That is the part of the execution of the game plan that needs to change.

agree, some of our senior players are struggling to adapt

 

[Saethiaal]

I'm surprised that anyone thought that we were anywhere other than where we actually are! Playing 3 veterans on their final legs and 5 babies just learning to walk.... this years was ALWAYS going to be about learning and transition. Learning what we are - and aren't - capable of. How particular game plans work - or don't. And most importantly, getting valuable game time into the babies. Whilst it is frustrating and disappointing to lose games... we are still 3/3, and I think most people would have taken that at the beginning of the season given our circumstances and draw.

Well i wasn't really referring to myself, although i was rather confident that we would at least be competitive the whole game and it would be close (hopefully winning at the end). I was expecting 7-9th at the beginning of the year. But there are fans that i know of that have gotten caught up in our wins this year and think we are 100% to finish top eight.

 

[Stiffy_18]

How good was Petrenko after that nothing performance last week? His best performance for the club by a mile He has absolutely the right attitude to footy, he's going to be a cult favourite.

I'd forgotten that thread about Otten! I love the way he just plays on all the time. His low possession count would be from a patch of play in (I think it was) the third quarter. He went missing for so long I was wondering if he was on the bench, but being that he's had 90% game time pretty much every match that seems unlikely. Perhaps it was when he was up forward and we never won a clearance to get there. I know we have this image of him being a midfielder eventually but for mine, he needs to put on some weight next preseason and we need to build our defence around him, similar to how we built it around Rutten and Bock a few years back. He takes the game on, reads the play well and currently his only weakness is that he is still a bit slim - not surprising for a tall 19 year old.

Spot on!

Edwards is one veteran thats adopted pretty well!

 

[macca23]

How good was Petrenko after that nothing performance last week? His best performance for the club by a mile He has absolutely the right attitude to footy, he's going to be a cult favourite.

I'd forgotten that thread about Otten! I love the way he just plays on all the time. His low possession count would be from a patch of play in (I think it was) the third quarter. He went missing for so long I was wondering if he was on the bench, but being that he's had 90% game time pretty much every match that seems unlikely. Perhaps it was when he was up forward and we never won a clearance to get there. I know we have this image of him being a midfielder eventually but for mine, he needs to put on some weight next preseason and we need to build our defence around him, similar to how we built it around Rutten and Bock a few years back. He takes the game on, reads the play well and currently his only weakness is that he is still a bit slim - not surprising for a tall 19 year old.

He spent a fair slice of the 3rd quarter up forward watching the ball going down the other end form whence he came, which kept him out of the game for a fair time.

Otten is the success story of the year to date. As has been said, he plays on at every opportunity, runs FORWARD, and invariably finds a man with good disposal.

Petrenko embarrassed some of his so-called fellow "senior" players, by showing them what desperation really is and never say die with his tackling.
If these so-called stars had the same fighting qualities as Petrenko, we would be unbeatable.

 

[cmndstab]

I think one tweaking of our game plan that should occur is the margin of error we are allowing before we decided not to go forward. It's as if we won't go forward unless there is a "perfect" option which there is never going to be - and even if there is, there's no guarantee we will execute the kick perfectly. We need to simply back ourselves more often, and at the same time, the guys forward of the ball need to be instructed that they have to work their ass off to ensure that when we do back ourselves and go forward, there are players at the contest, ahead of the contest, and behind the contest so that we have a chance to win it.

 

[Mismatched]

We were belted in the clearances at both the centre bounces and around the ground.

As an ex-on-baller, I've experienced that you can't just have good days when your rucks are dominating - you also have to be able to read the opposition rucks and rove to beaten rucks, be that defensively or aggressively. We were as weak as I've ever seen us in this regard, and our senior players were our greatest offenders in this respect.

The Port on-ballers carved through our on-ballers like a knife though butter on too many occasions, leading to easy goals.

Very disappointing.

Couldn't agree more, the ease at which they cleared the ball from stoppages was just disgraceful, our efforts around the stoppages were just not up to AFL standard and I really hope we put a lot of work into them over the week.

 

[macca23]

I think one tweaking of our game plan that should occur is the margin of error we are allowing before we decided not to go forward. It's as if we won't go forward unless there is a "perfect" option which there is never going to be - and even if there is, there's no guarantee we will execute the kick perfectly. We need to simply back ourselves more often, and at the same time, the guys forward of the ball need to be instructed that they have to work their ass off to ensure that when we do back ourselves and go forward, there are players at the contest, ahead of the contest, and behind the contest so that we have a chance to win it.

This is exactly my point stabby.

We execute this current game plan as if it was being sung off of a hymn sheet, not to be deviated from. You know what they are going to do, I know what they're going to do, and as sure as hell the opposition know what we are going to do!!

We had umpteen opportunities on the grandstand side tonight to go forward to a 60:40 or even 70:30 contest in our favour, but NO!!

Kick backward, cross the ball, head out to the outer wing, turn it over etc etc etc.

 

[Power King]

know you guys might be hurting right now, but perhaps you might be able to smile knowing that Sam newman said if the crowd reached 40000+, he'd go to rundle mall and get tarred and feathered so adelaide can laugh at him.

The crowd was 41000+, so I'm sure we'll be hearing about when this might be occuring soon. Would be a laugh.

 

[Mismatched]

know you guys might be hurting right now, but perhaps you might be able to smile knowing that Sam newman said if the crowd reached 40000+, he'd go to rundle mall and get tarred and feathered so adelaide can laugh at him.

The crowd was 41000+, so I'm sure we'll be hearing about when this might be occuring soon. Would be a laugh.

Yes one of the few positives to come out of the night.

 

[cmndstab]

This is exactly my point stabby.

We execute this current game plan as if it was being sung off of a hymn sheet, not to be deviated from. You know what they are going to do, I know what they're going to do, and as sure as hell the opposition know what we are going to do!!

We had umpteen opportunities on the grandstand side tonight to go forward to a 60:40 or even 70:30 contest in our favour, but NO!!

Kick backward, cross the ball, head out to the outer wing, turn it over etc etc etc.

The thing is, this isn't an issue with the game plan overall as much as one part of it. I wonder if it's a direction from the coaching staff or just players looking over their shoulders? Again, it seems to me to be more of a senior players sort of thing - people like Otten, Petrenko, etc seem more than happy to bomb it forward when they get the ball, but someone like Doughty who would be concerned that his career is at a major crossroad doesn't seem as willing to turn it over. If it were me I'd be making a big impression on all the players, including senior players, that simply passing the back will be recognised and not tolerated. If you are going to go sideways, make it for a worthwhile option. If you're on the wing and you want to go to the centre corridor, that's a worthwhile option - even if it gives the opposition more time to zone back, it gives us more options to go forward. Going from the wing to further back on the wing is not a good option. Going to the centre corridor when it requires a floaty kick that gives the opposition a chance to cut it off is not a good option.