Bankers & Anchors: Rnd 20, 2022 vs Geelong

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

This is the Round 20, 2022 edition of the weekly Bankers and Anchors thread. Once the game against Geelong 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.

[azabob]

A1: English third match out of five where he has been non existent. The team desperately needs a plan B when he is getting smashed.

A2: Gee Caleb Daniel was rusty and pretty poor with his ball use. A couple of shocking kicks which resulted in goals.

A3: Midfield in general again couldn’t stop a run on when we needed to.

B1: Jamarra played another good game and managed to stay involved for most of the night

B2: Ed Richards easily our best; is having a ripping season

B3: Clearly we had a plan which worked for a half of footy. Shame the players couldn’t go to that next gear when Geelong did.

[Grantysghost]

Anchors :

1. No tempo, we just never swim against the tide. Become the salmon, BECOME THE SALMON!
2. The lack of love for pressure acts. I'm thinking it's time to run the inaugural Lachie McNeil Pressure Act cup on woof : prize a signed original Take the Pressure Down cassingle. It's coming.
1. The midfield after qtr time.

Bankers :

1. Marra. Looks like the guy everyone said he was.
2. Rhylee West's head. Copped two elbows from that mongrel Cameron in front on tackles and he didn't flinch.
1. Lachie McNeil. Constantly smiling as the sub. A real inspiration.

[Scorlibo]

Bankers

Ed Richards - played four quarters, often fielding hospital handballs or kicks and making his teammates look much better than they were. Should storm home in the best and fairest count this year.

Libba - 10 clearances, 16 contested touches, just doing what he does

Dunkley - strong finish to the game after a shaky start

Anchors

Match committee - for playing Bruce while his conditioning is clearly not there, now proven over three consecutive weeks. He can't push off at all. We've been here before with Bruce in 2020. If it isn't clicking with him, it's not going to change before the end of the season.

Our running - both away from the contest and getting numbers to the contest. At one point Darce said on the broadcast "we need to count the jumpers out there, it feels like there's twice as many Geelong players" and he wasn't wrong. The guys were outworked and then didn't block for each other, meaning the Geelong players weren't impeded while getting to three, four, five contests in a row.

Resilience - last week we showed so much resilience to somewhat weather Melbourne's surges and be able to come again. I really thought that we might be able to continue that through this week, alas. From when we were up 26-0 in the first quarter to when Cameron kicked the first goal of the last quarter, they outscored us 86-21.

[SonofScray]

Anchors

A1 English and the midfield. Two elements to this. One is the long running ruck issue for us. We really struggle if English runs out of gas, or doesn’t bring the requisite physicality to the game. He can ruck solo, but there’s no doubt that he performs better, and we get an elastic response from the mids when he has support. All that aside, the worst elements of the midfield were on show again. Too weak to stop the ball coming out the front of the contest. Not in their nature to disrupt, or get physical to set the tone. The first 3 ball ups after half time, Libba was held off the contest, they really were working him over. None of Bont, Dunks, Baz, Macrae worked for him to break it, none of them pushed, or shoved, or blocked. They are just way too steadfast in their own roles, or too confident in their own ability to get an outcome regardless.

A2 Bevo. Keeps getting his pants pulled down by Scott. Awesome start, which he should get credit for. But our scoreboard stops ticking over, the game teeters for long stretches and he never seems to be able to jump start things from the box. Last week we never really changed or lifted, we just executed our plan v theirs and executed long enough to win. It was an affirmation of the plan. This week ro me was really familiar. Plan B? It can’t always be do Plan A better. They adjusted, and we didn’t respond.

A3 Daniel. Needs time to get his eye in I think. Our small defenders don’t defend all that well as individuals, some terrible efforts to let the ball out the back to a loose man across the board, but if we aren’t getting incisive disposal and drive out them to compensate it looks bad. Caleb looked way off it, by his standards.


Bankers

Jamarra. Did what few of our forwards and midfielders were able to do. Kept at it and got himself back into the contest. C.F With Naughty, his ability to have an impact against a defence that has blanketed us at times, it’s really impressive. The other thing he showed last night was the ground ball work, he wins it on the deck and finds space, or naturally gets it on its way to advantage. Smart.

Richards. Our best on the night. He is brave in the air, running with purpose and showing huge improvements. A shame out other HBF crew have fallen away a little this year.

Buku. Thought he defended well in a backline under siege. Actually really impressed with how he applies himself, uses his strengths to advantage and is more than just an athletic spoiler. His positioning was an improvement on last week where Fritsch really worked him over on the way back inside 50. Something clicked for him around how to manage timing and when to defend space, and when to go man on man. I like that he looks to contribute without the ball too, keen to run and be an option, then show come care with the footy.

[AshMac]

Bankers

Ed Richards - best on for me. Amazing what playing a bloke in his preferred position does to his confidence and ability to impact a game. It’s more than his speed and kicking, he is taking contested marks, taking blokes on and transitioning through the ground superbly

Buku - I love watching him run at a marking contest from the side. Incredible leap

Plan A - take the game on, run both ways

Anchors

Plan B - there isn’t one

The players who have had a while off - Bruce, Smith, Daniel; all understandably getting back into it, unfortunately at the wrong time of year after we’ve forced ourselves to perform because we were so poor at the start of the year

Our bottom 6 players - I’m not going to name them, but they were well and truly on display last night in a fast free flowing clean game

Bonus Anchor - the senior players looking like they gave up in the 3rd quarter. Stopped chasing at points

[westbulldog]

Bankers
The continued improvement by Richards.
Libba, without him we lose by much more, admire his effort.
Jamarra, Garcia, West, Khamis, the future

Anchors
Bruce, Hannan, JJ, McComb, Cordy, the past
Daniel, brought in too early, rusty.
Naughton, didn't get near it.

[bornadog]

Bankers
The continued improvement by Richards.
Libba, without him we lose by much more, admire his effort.
Jamarra, Garcia, West, Khamis, the future

Anchors
Bruce, Hannan, JJ, McComb, Cordy, the past
Daniel, brought in too early, rusty.
Naughton, didn't get near it.

Agree with all except why is Cordy an Anchor. He actually kept his man quiet? I thought he had a pretty good game.

[GVGjr]

Agree with all except why is Cordy an Anchor. He actually kept his man quiet? I thought he had a pretty good game.

The MC made the right call in bringing in Cordy. He was competitive last night.