Bankers & Anchors; Rnd 10, 2020 vs Port Adelaide

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

This is the round 10, 2020 edition of the weekly Bankers and Anchors thread. Once the game against Port 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.

[Sedat]

Bankers:

Wally - excellent contesting in F50. A lone hand
Libba - fantastic in the phone box all night
Daniel - superior ball use to the rest of the team

Anchors:

JJ - putrid disposal. Gifted 3 goals.
Wood - see above. Gifted 1 goal and another should have been.
Bevo - terrible game awareness having Bont freezing his nuts off inside F50 for almost the entire 3rd qtr when we were getting smashed in the middle.

[Topdog]

Bankers
1. Played well for 3 quarters through work ethic and repeat efforts.
2. Mitch Wallis - always contests, never gives up and is often in the right spot.
3. McLean with 2 nice goals, a pretty classy finisher which we desperately lack.

Anchors
1. JJ - no detail needed
2. Bruce - devoid of confidence and looks utterly confused by our style of play.
3. 2020 - I'm sick of it

[ratsmac]

Bankers:

Wally - excellent contesting in F50. A lone hand
Libba - fantastic in the phone box all night
Daniel - superior ball use to the rest of the team

Anchors:

JJ - putrid disposal. Gifted 3 goals.
Wood - see above. Gifted 1 goal and another should have been.
Bevo - terrible game awareness having Bont freezing his nuts off inside F50 for almost the entire 3rd qtr when we were getting smashed in the middle.

fair call on Bont but I think he's playing injured. Holding his hip walking off. There's only so much he can take and probably needed a break. We needed someone else to stand up without him in there

[Mofra]

Bankers

1. Libba. Freak
2. Wallis, god I love his passion. Has he been outmarked this year? I can't recall it.
3. Daniel. If shit hits the fan, give it to Daniel. He's now being talked about as being the best kick in the competition. That nmay be correct

Anchors

1. Our forward structure. Wallis (who I love) is slow yet our best forward by a million miles. McLean played the best game of the year, and we still look a ,million miles off the pace
2. Outside run in the middle - or lack thereof
3. Our forward structure. Deserves mentioning twice. It's diaboloical.

[The bulldog tragician]

Bankers
1. The return of Dunkley, he ran out of petrol but he is an important player.
2. Libba. Almost willed us over the line. Having a great year.
3. Wally. He just oozes desperation. As well as literally blood for our cause.

Honorary mention - really liked Mclean's game, not sure what his role was but his tackling was fierce, his two goals very important, if only he's snagged that third.

Anchors
1. Bruce. It's no longer doing him any favours to play him, though I'm at a loss what we do.
2. Terrible skill errors from JJ and Wood at critical times.
3. All the squandered chances.

[Sedat]

fair call on Bont but I think he's playing injured. Holding his hip walking off. There's only so much he can take and probably needed a break. We needed someone else to stand up without him in there
I get that but it was obvious Port were getting a hold of us at stoppages and we needed our best players in the middle to wrest back control. And the move never came in 25 minutes of footy, so the ball lived in their forward half. I thought was really poor by Bevo to not be game aware.

Bont was elite in the last qtr and gave us that midfield dominance again, unfortunately too late.

[bornadog]

Bankers
1. Played well for 3 quarters through work ethic and repeat efforts.
2. Mitch Wallis - always contests, never gives up and is often in the right spot.
3. McLean with 2 nice goals, a pretty classy finisher which we desperately lack.

Anchors
1. JJ - no detail needed
2. Bruce - devoid of confidence and looks utterly confused by our style of play.
3. 2020 - I'm sick of it

Same here, not much to add tonight

[SonofScray]

B
Wally. Leading by example. He's one of the few that are really showing the right mix of professionalism, passion and skill. Really leading from the front.
Libba. Enough said.
McLean, hot the scoreboard, got busy at the coal face and in the air. Stiff with a few umpiring decisions.

A:
Bevo - our problems across seasons played out in a game. Silly move pulling Bont out of the midfield. Doesn't have enough cards up his sleeve.

JJ handball turnover, but not the other one. I want to smack him for the hand ball one, it was really dumb footy. The other turn over was courageous footy that fell apart. Not going to hang him for trying to get the ball moving and some run and carry, which we desperately needed.

Bruce. He is a bust, drop him and move on.

[ratsmac]

Bankers

1. Wallis. Heart and soul. I wish he had pace to still play midfield. Although we would miss him in the forward line at the moment. I think I saw red white and blue blood come out of his cut.

2. Libba. His game tonight was enormous. Its a shame we did have a forward line to reward hos efforts.

3. Not giving up. We have folded against lesser opposition this year. Honourable loss is a horrible phrase but fitting tonight.

Anchors

1. Forward line. I'm looking at you Josh Bruce. He's forgotten how to play footy. He needs a spell.

2. Fluffing so many opportunities. Take our chances and we win. Its as simple as that. When we made mistakes and they made us pay to top it off

3. Not responding at all in that 3rd quarter what they took it up a notch.

[Topdog]

I kinda want to add another banker

We continued to play and fought back. I genuinely thought we were going to lose by 7+ goals when Port got that run on. It's been rare for us to stop other teams getting on a massive run in similar situations recently so that was pleasing

[SonofScray]

I kinda want to add another banker

We continued to play and fought back. I genuinely thought we were going to lose by 7+ goals when Port got that run on. It's been rare for us to stop other teams getting on a massive run in similar situations recently so that was pleasing

Good call. This squad has made a habit of rolling over, but they didn't this time, even though I thought we'd raised the white flag at one point. Bontempelli lifted and the others followed. That was promising.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

B
Wallis - Just a smart footballer who gives his all at every contest. He’s become our most reliable forward. That’s a sad indictment of our current forward line but at the same time a testament to his adaptability to transform from a mid to a half forward. He’s the only player in our team besides Macrae who is currently reliable.

Effort - our effort was there tonight in spades. Unfortunately as usual we wasted it

Not sure if this is a banker or anchor but we dominated inside 50s and the middle for nearly 3 quarters tonight. Against the top team that’s a good sign. But when that 1 quarter you don’t dominate leads to the game being virtually over, you’ve got a problem somewhere. Our domination doesn’t lead to goals and when we’re off it leads to conceding a bunch of goals.

Libba - Contested beast. Our midfield would be under a lot more stress without him. He’s back to his old self.

Anchors

JJ - wow those were some bad howlers. I said at the time after his errant handball that it could well cost us the game and I was wrong and right. That and his two more howlers cost us the game. That simply is inexcusable for an experienced footballer earning the money he is.

Bruce - I didn’t really rate him at the Saints but I at least thought he’d bring contested marking ability to our forward line. If he isn’t bringing that then he’s a total liability

English - Hate to say it but he’s looking like rounds 1 and 2 English. He just doesn’t bother competing in some ruck contests and now can’t grab marks around the ground. I hope it’s just that he’s buggered because he’s been awful the last two weeks. On top of that our ruck situation has reverted back to seeing Dunkley and now Macrae taking ruck contests. Seriously wtf is going on there?

Weightman - I don’t want to bash a 2 gamer but I’m worried we’ve blown this pick. What I’ve seen from him is concerning. He hangs out the back of packs ala Stringer for cheap speckies, he’s not quick, he doesn’t apply much forward pressure and he’s not a great kick. I know it’s only his second game but as an early draft pick I was hoping to see at least some natural talent, goal sense and more importantly defensive forward pressure. I just haven’t seen any of that (apart from his first afl kick) but more worryingly the things I have seen from him are concerning rather than promising.

Wood - I think he’s finished sadly. He had one ripper game against north but apart from that he’s been largely unnoticeable.

Bailey Smith - I hate doing this I really do but he’s been awful the last two weeks. I’m guessing he’s buggered. But he no longer can burst from packs and his kicking and decision making has become horrendous. Have we just transformed him into a bulldog? Also is it just me or does he looks disinterested out there?

Our forward line - utter chaos. Everyone leads to the same ball and doesn’t know where to position themselves. It’s a rabble.

Inaccuracy - 5.12 to 8.7 and lose by 13 points. Frustrating. The saints beat port by kicking 12.1. This game was there for the taking. But there’s more to it than just inaccurate kicking for goal. Our game plan means the quality of shots we get are either rushed or from right angles at distance. Watch the saints vs porr game and see where the saints got their shots on goal from.

Contested marking - Smashed tonight. Embarrassingly so. It’s a big weakness of ours and we need more than Naughton to address it.

[EasternWest]

B
He’s the only player in our team besides Macrae who is currently reliable.
.

I think you're doing Caleb Daniel a disservice there.

[SonofScray]

Re: B Smith.

First time in his career he would be experiencing duress at this level. Concussion probably sapped some confidence from him.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Re: B Smith.

First time in his career he would be experiencing duress at this level. Concussion probably sapped some confidence from him.

To me a concussion isn’t something that’d sap confidence from Bailey. I honestly think he’s just buggered.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

I think you're doing Caleb Daniel a disservice there.

Yeah I can see that. I’m just not there on him yet. He’s next in line though. For me he can be shut out of games and become a non factor and his kicks can sometimes be too short/airy. That’s usually when he’s got no options in front of him I’m sure

[GVGjr]

Re: B Smith.

First time in his career he would be experiencing duress at this level. Concussion probably sapped some confidence from him.

Yep, it might take him a while to get over it

[comrade]

Yep, it might take him a while to get over it

If concussion is the reason Smith has turned into a panic merchant, aren't we doing him a disservice by playing him until he's right to go?

[azabob]

If concussion is the reason Smith has turned into a panic merchant, aren't we doing him a disservice by playing him until he's right to go?

Yes.

[Happy Days]

I’ve mentioned it before but Smith’s handball technique is busted, and last night the majority of his bad errors came by hand. It’s something we need to fix asap.

[Ozza]

Bankers:

Bailey Williams - feel pretty confident when he's in a contest that he will win it or halve it, and I like that he KICKS the ball.
Bont - Couldn't agree more with what Sedat has said. Having him forward for an entire quarter may have cost us the match. Was otherwise excellent and was really brutal in some contests, particularly in the last quarter.
Wallis - played with a real ferocity. When he cracked it for being sent off for the blood rule, my read of that was not that he just wanted to kick a goal - it was that he is trying to do whatever he can to win the game, and wants the responsibility, and knows he can kick it. Thankfully Lloyd and McLean kicked truly on the two occasions Wallis would have otherwise been shooting for goal.

Anchors:

Woody - had a shocker, looked really unsure of himself. He and JJ cost us goals...i'm not even going to include JJ in my anchors, becuase his are so obvious, but are mistakes out of trying to make plays, and up until the first blunder he'd been playing really well. But Wood really looked all at sea, which was worrying.

B.Smith - have to be hard on him because he's just so talented. In the second half of last year he got into a bad habit of referring pressure with half-metre handballs to stationery/under the pump team mates. Its emerging in his game again.

J.Bruce - as far as the inside 50 stuff....I certainly am understanding that it was congested and very difficult to play there. His effort was ok. But what drove me crazy was the amount of times he spoiled one of his team mates who were in a good position to mark. I don't exactly love the image of him crashing into the back of Bont onthe half forward flank at a squillion miles an hour.

[comrade]

J.Bruce - as far as the inside 50 stuff....I certainly am understanding that it was congested and very difficult to play there. His effort was ok. But what drove me crazy was the amount of times he spoiled one of his team mates who were in a good position to mark. I don't exactly love the image of him crashing into the back of Bont onthe half forward flank at a squillion miles an hour.

And he wasn't even really trying to mark after half time. Every contest he was in, he was more positioned to spoil and I remember that one you're referring to. Bont had his hands on it and Bruce literally swiped it away. Bizarre game from Bruce.

[Remi Moses]

Bankers - Libba and Wally , great to see the two playing well
- Managed to not get blown away when it looked like it
- tackling and pressure was great for most of the game
Anchors - Josh Bruce should take heed of their spearhead and lose some kilos and show the same intensity
- the overuse of handball usually resulting in either a rushed kick or the receiver being caught with the ball
- JJ’s mistakes , hate to say it , but it cost us