Bankers and Anchors: Rnd 6, 2020 vs Carlton

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

This is the round 6, 2020 edition of the weekly Bankers and Anchors thread. Once the game against Carlton is concluded post your nominations for:

The Bankers = 3 guys/aspects of the game that we banked on to do the right thing during the game
The Anchors = 3 guys/aspects of the game that weighed us down by their errors or poor play

Please limit it to no more than three of each player or aspect of the game, but feel free to make honourable/dishonourable mentions. As usual try to make it constructive criticism.

Try and restrict it to individual players rather than aspects of the overall match - I will allow more freedom now as the thread seems to be going down more of the aspects of the game path so you can have 3 for each made up of aspects of the game and individual players.

The thread is named in honour of a popular WOOF Contributor, The Banker, who passed away on 22/04/2012 after a six month battle with cancer.

[comrade]

The B&A thread is doing a bit of social isolating I see :D

It's almost impossible to name 3 bankers for a game like last night's but here goes:

B

1. Bailey Smith. Second year player carrying our midfield right now.
2. Alex Keath. Had his hands full all night but tried his butt off and unlike the rest of his teammates, was actually able to mark the ball.
3. Ummm. English was pretty ok.

A

Too many to list. Just not switched on from the first bounce, it's like we threw out everything that worked last week and decided that recycling the game plan from rounds 1&2 was the right move.

[bornadog]

Bankers

1. Bailey Smith first half - 19 disposals and looked dangerous. Second half he was kept to 7 after a tag. Imagine tagging a 19 year old.
2. Lipinski involvement in two goals - I think the second quarter.
3. Effort by Keath in the last when he managed to defend so brilliantly, then dished it off to Butler, (who lost the ball).

Anchors

1. Forward 50 entries - wasted them
2. Umpires and AFL - I believe the rule of prior opportunity is still a rule, but umpires are now confusing everyone.
3. JJ - gave away two goals in the first quarter that set them rolling.

[Ozza]

Bankers:

Hunter was superb
Libba 'stopped the rot' in the centre clearances when it was getting out of control. At least for a while.
Smith - I didn't actually love his game, he made some bad blunders and lost his way at times - but his effort and intensity is great.

Anchors:

The small/medium defenders were awful. Both at defending and also use of the footy.
The tall forwards. Not a night for tall forwards, but they were complete non-factors. Bruce's body language when things are going well for him.....
Overuse of the football in slippery conditions. This was the biggest difference between the two sides.
The umpiring in the start of the third quarter - we had about 5 holding the ball decisions missed and then they pay that atrocious one against Caleb.

[westbulldog]

Bankers
Smith - a 19yo sets the example and few follow.
Keath - thought he defended well against the odds.
Vendermeer - the kid has a go.


Anchors
The coach seemingly has no idea how to stem the flood and allow us to regroup. This is not the first occurrence.
We are a dry weather team, it is fairly obvious that being handball happy doesn't work in slippery conditions
JJ - gifted them 2 goals in the 1st quarter which savaged our morale (including supporters) and lifted theirs.

[soupman]

Bankers
Alex Keath: I said it in the gameday thread but there are huge Brian Lake vibes about him. That contest against Betts where he worked his arse off to turn a probably goal into a boundary throw in 50m upfield (ruined by Butlers inability to take the ball over the line, but anyhow) was just about the best bit of the match. He is certainly a player who plays with intensity.

Zaine Cordy: I have been very critical of him after the last few seasons, but it's mainly because i really rate him and what he brings. He was really good in the first half last night, intense, aggressive and impacted most contests he was in. Faded out as the game went on but thought he deserved a lot of credit.

Lachie Hunter: Not a player we love giving credit to, but i thought he was very constructive last night, as usual always an option and could be very happy with his return game. That kick to Bont the highlight.

Anchors:
Josh Schache: I rate his attributes, I just wish they were in someone else. For a 200cm big guy he can be a complete non factor in the air, and really struggles if the ball isn't coming to him because he sucks at being a natural ball winner. I'm a bit flat about this because i thought he was making huge strides and i really want him to succeed, but last night was crap.

Ed Richards: Another I thought was having a very promising season, moving the ball with intent and bringing a direct pacy ball mover we otherwise lacked. He was crap last night, and his two stuff ups in the goalsquare cost us two hugely important goals in the context of the game, and i believe both ended up with Carlton kicking the next one. I don't think I would drop him because even though he isn't getting a lot of it when he does it has an impact, it's just last night the coin flipped the wrong way and the impact wasn't for us.

Midfield and it's inability to stop the rot: English is a limited ruckman. We know that. For years we have been great at sharking the opposition hitouts, I mean it isn't like we have had the better ruckman since Minson retired. Carlton got a huge jump on us last night, and considering our midfield has been slaughtered earlier this year we need to find a way to lock shit down. Even when English was winning the hitouts they were still getting the clean takeaways.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Bankers

Keath battled hard with little support
Smith worked hard, and had impact
Hunter worked his way into the game and clearly understood the need to not finesse and actually play to the conditions. Good comeback from his club suspension.

Anchors.
Not potting the kid but Butler had what we could politely term a learning experience that hopefully holds him in good stead going forward.


Vandermeer- again not potting the kid, he's just got to be more polished. He could've really been influential last night.

Schache - his worst game. He really has to find a way to make an imoact even when conditions don't suit him. That means pressure, work rate and intent at every contest.