Bankers & Anchors: Elimination Final 2022 vs Fremantle

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

This is the Elimination Final 2022 edition of the weekly Bankers and Anchors thread. Once the game against Fremantle 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.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

Bankers at end of season and final:
$ Gardner, his best assets are his hands and fingers.
$ Sam Darcy may not take every mark but no-one else will.
$ Toby McLean gave his guts.
Anchors:
₩ Caleb is too short.
₩ JUH not there ... yet.
₩ Players only just coming back from injury. Too many injuries.

[Mantis]

Bankers at end of season and final:
$ Gardner, his best assets are his hands and fingers.
$ Sam Darcy may not take every mark but no-one else will.
$ Toby McLean gave his guts.
Anchors:
₩ Caleb is too short.
₩ JUH not there ... yet.
₩ Players only just coming back from injury. Too many injuries.

What a stupid comment… he was clearly our best defender tonight.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

A:

- Dunkley. Immense. Only one of 2 mids who have 100% effort for 4 quarters. I've been annoyed at the ongoing contract situation, but assuming he leaves, we need to rebuild. He will leave a big hole.

- Bont. Needed help, did all he could. Worked hard both ways.

- McLean. Reminded me why I liked him so much. Great effort.

B:

- 54 point turnaround after last year's capitulation. This team is weak.

- Richards. Poor effort, no care. I'd happily see him traded.

- Forwards. Naughton bitterly disappointing, gave less than nothing. Weightman is actually an average player who falls to ground, can never tackle and competes in the air when he shouldn't. VDM... Let's just stop here.

[SonofScray]

B:
Toby McLean's 1st quarter. What a terrific return to the senior team.
ROARKE'S MARK. He's done it twice in embarrassing choke final losses, given us a bit of late hope.
JJ goal after half time, should have got the scoreboard ticking over again, but didn't.

A:
Bont, Richards, Dunkley and whoever else ran into the scuffle and gifted Free an easy win, mark and goal. Just so, so stupid. You boys haven't been able to impose yourselves physically on an opponent for years, not since GWS showed us up. Bad time to try it on. Just kick the goals ffs. Weak.

Bevo - he is finished as a coach with us as far as I am concerned. No coming back from that.

VDM - as inept a performance as I've ever seen.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

What a stupid comment… he was clearly our best defender tonight.
Yes tongue in cheek, facile perhaps but not stupid.

[Bumper Bulldogs]

Bankers
McClean - huge game after so long off.
Dunkley- please tell me he has signed that 6 year contract
Pressure for one and half quarters.

Anchors
VDM - every time he went near the ball he gave the pill to Freo.
Forward line. - they need a reality check. Stop trying the take the hanger of the year. Work rate and leading pattens are needed. Stop these long bombs and dumb kicks into F50. Wait that is a coaching problem
Leadership - desperately need to recruit gif this. We just haven’t been able to find it since Moz, Boyd, Picken and Roughead left.

[westbulldog]

Bankers
Marcus Bontempelli
Josh Dunkley
Toby McLean

Their games could hardly be faulted, was not their problem that we lost.

Anchors
Tom Liberatore's injury, he just may have made the difference.
Tim English had a poor game, outclassed by Sean Darcy in ruck contests and did little elsewhere, get Grundy.
Days are numbered imo : Vandermeer (Freo's Young had 28 possessions including 11 marks off half back so VDM's so much vaunted "pressure acts" touted on here were non-existent as was his contribution) Johannisen (good luck Jason, hope you get a golden handshake elsewhere), Hunter (lacks speed and penetrating kicking, next VFL Captain), Williams (spooked by Optus oval), McComb (not AFL standard) and whoever the forward coach is they are not earning their money.

[Dancin' Douggy]

Bankers.
1. I quite like our away strip
2. Apparently Gold Coast have offered JJ a 3 year deal.
3. Hopefully that performance will put Rory Lobb off coming to the dogs because I CAN'T STAND HIM.

Anchors.
1. Selection committee. McComb, Vandermeer......... I just do not understand.
2. List management. Ruck back up is a problem year after year after year and we never fix it. And please don't say Lobb is the answer or I'll SPEW UP!!!
3. Forward line coach. We are utterly repulsive with our forward entries and 'craft'.

[Sedat]

Anchors.
2. List management. Ruck back up is a problem year after year after year and we never fix it.
Is ruck back-up a problem or is it ruck?

I said this a few weeks ago but if Lobb is the answer we are asking the wrong question - that's not questioning Lobb's ability as a player, moreso we have a massive issue with English as our no 1 ruck, and I don't see how getting a forward/ruck is going to help our clear issues at the coalface in big games.

[merantau]

Bankers
1. Bont - imagine if he was uninjured
2. Dunkley - immense game
3. McLean - great comeback game.

Anchors
1. Forwards non-existent
2. Can't take half chances
3. Lack of pace apart from a couple.

[bornadog]

Bont, Richards, Dunkley and whoever else ran into the scuffle and gifted Free an easy win, mark and goal. Just so, so stupid. You boys haven't been able to impose yourselves physically on an opponent for years, not since GWS showed us up. Bad time to try it on. Just kick the goals ffs. Weak.

Yet this board and you go into melt down when our boys don't stick up for players in a scuffle.

As far as I am concerned, Dunkley should have been paid a free for that retaliation, and should not have restarted the game without a warning.

[Mantis]

Yet this board and you go into melt down when our boys don't stick up for players in a scuffle.

As far as I am concerned, Dunkley should have been paid a free for that retaliation, and should not have restarted the game without a warning.

But do you need over a quarter of the team in the scuffle (or heading to it) against 2 Freo players?

[azabob]

Bankers

Dunkley our best player all night
Bontempelli second best player all night
Gardner third best player all night
Daniel fourth best player all night

(yes these are votes)

Anchor

Naughton - game was screaming for a forward to take control
Smith - game was screaming for a midfielder to break it open with breakaway pace
English: Grew up playing midfield, grew taller and became a ruckman by default. Never adjusted his game to suit his new found height
VDM/Richards: Worst games these two have ever played in RWB.

[Scorlibo]

Bankers

Bontempelli - one of his best games for the season when it counted. Head and shoulders above the rest.

Macrae - patchy season by his standards but he turned up on the big stage, as he always has done. Game high 9 score involvements and played four quarters unlike so many of his teammates. His desire to win sets him apart in finals.

Hunter, McLean and Daniel - the old 2016 firm showed their quality. All had asterisks going into the night for one reason or another, none had perfect games either, but they all shot better than par.

Anchors

Our young forwards - couldn't compete against Freo's seasoned defence. Another pre-season required and a serious look at our patterns of movement, a new forwards coach needed.

Richards - worst game for the year after making so much progress. You could see his confidence eroding and panic setting in, a learning experience hopefully.

English - 1 mark and smacked in the hitouts by Darcy, gave them first look at the stoppages.

[bornadog]

English - 1 mark and smacked in the hitouts by Darcy, gave them first look at the stoppages.


Yet we won Stoppage clearances 29 to 24. I checked this at every quarter and we were ahead each time.

[Scorlibo]

Yet we won Stoppage clearances 29 to 24. I checked this at every quarter and we were ahead each time.

Yes and 13-8 in their favour for the centre clearances. For our specialty area, we'd hope to do more than breakeven. Serong got on top of us again as the game went on.

[Raels_d]

Bankers
The Bont - magnificent as always. Hopefully stays 100% fit next year
Dunkley - best tackler in the team. We need him to stay!
MacLean - fabulous effort in his first game back.

Anchors
English - beaten in the GF and again last night. Not physically strong enough to compete in finals
Naughton - I felt he was our most disappointing player in last years GF and didn’t yelp again last night
Leadership- besides Bont who else says follow me and we’ll make a difference. Maybe Dunkley could but his contract negotiations make me lose confidence in him

[Ozza]

Bankers:

Bont - obviously
Dunks - best game for the year. Shame he wants out. Hard to reconcile the feelings about him.
Gardner - Battled manfully under a lot of pressure.

Anchors:

Vandemeer - Its really hard for me to understand how he would get picked ahead of West and others. Maybe I have a blind spot for anything he does well. His game was a disaster, but not all that surprising.
Treloar - just a very Treloar game. 26 possessions, no real impact or big moments. He's not the elite midfielder that people want to believe he is.
B.Williams - Has again looked nervous in the pressure of finals. Had a really down second half of the year, and I feel like if Doc was available, he'd have missed.

[Ozza]

Bankers
The Bont - magnificent as always. Hopefully stays 100% fit next year
Dunkley - best tackler in the team. We need him to stay!
MacLean - fabulous effort in his first game back.

Anchors
English - beaten in the GF and again last night. Not physically strong enough to compete in finals
Naughton - I felt he was our most disappointing player in last years GF and didn’t yelp again last night
Leadership- besides Bont who else says follow me and we’ll make a difference. Maybe Dunkley could but his contract negotiations make me lose confidence in him

Unfortunately Naughts just doesn't have an impact against the best defenders. Tries his backside off - but just can't have an impact against the likes of May, Pearce, Weitering...and this year De Koning. I'm very firmly in the camp that he should play in defence. It might mean that we go backwards in order to go forwards given that Marra and Darcy are still developing - but hopefully Bruce can get himself up and going to bridge that gap for a year or two.

[GVGjr]

Unfortunately Naughts just doesn't have an impact against the best defenders. Tries his backside off - but just can't have an impact against the likes of May, Pearce, Weitering...and this year De Koning. I'm very firmly in the camp that he should play in defence. It might mean that we go backwards in order to go forwards given that Marra and Darcy are still developing - but hopefully Bruce can get himself up and going to bridge that gap for a year or two.

While this has a lot of merit I really struggle with the notion that a player that has kicked 98 goals for us in the last 2 seasons should be moved away from the forward line. Granted that with the emergence of JUH and the very likely return to form of Bruce next year plus potentially bringing in Lobb it might end up being the most logical move for us.

It will be very interesting to see what we might do.

[Grantysghost]

While this has a lot of merit I really struggle with the notion that a player that has kicked 98 goals for us in the last 2 seasons should be moved away from the forward line. Granted that with the emergence of JUH and the very likely return to form of Bruce next year plus potentially bringing in Lobb it might end up being the most logical move for us.

It will be very interesting to see what we might do.

The question to answer is : Will we have less score for next year with Naughton back after rd 23?

I believe the answer is no.

[Ozza]

While this has a lot of merit I really struggle with the notion that a player that has kicked 98 goals for us in the last 2 seasons should be moved away from the forward line. Granted that with the emergence of JUH and the very likely return to form of Bruce next year plus potentially bringing in Lobb it might end up being the most logical move for us.

It will be very interesting to see what we might do.

He just has to be where he is of most benefit to the team. I think with the 6/6/6 in place and both with the way teams are getting momentum, and the reliance on players to defend 1 on 1 - we need him back there. Its such a glaring weakness in the team. Long term Marra and Darcy will have to play as forwards (fwd/ruck in Darcy's case.....he's never going to be quick enough to play as a defender.) And right now we have Bruce who kicked 50 before going down last season. Throw Lobb into the mix potentially too.

Another aspect will be Naughton's ability to intercept mark - which we really don't have a great deal of in our current set up. If he's taking 6-8 marks back there like some of the games best defenders do, then that's 6-8 inside 50s where we've got the ball rather than it hitting the deck for a second chance to score.

As I said before, I don't think we get a lot out of him against the teams with the best defenders. Of course its always harder to score against the better teams, but if we pick Geelong, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney as being the best performed teams in the last 2 years - he's kicked 17 goals in 12 games against these side (1.42 goals per game), and in the remaining 34 games he's played kicked 81 (2.38).

[josie]

Unfortunately Naughts just doesn't have an impact against the best defenders. Tries his backside off - but just can't have an impact against the likes of May, Pearce, Weitering...and this year De Koning. I'm very firmly in the camp that he should play in defence. It might mean that we go backwards in order to go forwards given that Marra and Darcy are still developing - but hopefully Bruce can get himself up and going to bridge that gap for a year or two.

I’m starting to think this too. Alternatively, hire a top notch forward line coach. Our forward line was a shambles against Freo, all leaping for the same mark, little if any sound, ground scavenging. No creation of space.

[Grantysghost]

I’m starting to think this too. Alternatively, hire a top notch forward line coach. Our forward line was a shambles against Freo, all leaping for the same mark, little if any sound, group scavenging. No creation of space.

Caleb forward, Naughton back.

Problem solved!

[Danjul]

I’m starting to think this too. Alternatively, hire a top notch forward line coach. Our forward line was a shambles against Freo, all leaping for the same mark, little if any sound, group scavenging. No creation of space.

Our most experienced (and in form ?) forward contributed zero, by design.

[Danjul]

Unfortunately Naughts just doesn't have an impact against the best defenders. Tries his backside off - but just can't have an impact against the likes of May, Pearce, Weitering...and this year De Koning. I'm very firmly in the camp that he should play in defence. It might mean that we go backwards in order to go forwards given that Marra and Darcy are still developing - but hopefully Bruce can get himself up and going to bridge that gap for a year or two.
In his last 7 games in 2021 Bruce averaged 1.5 goals per game. The only one with more than 2 Was against the bombers when he did his knee.

In 2020 his last 8 games produced 4 goals.

This year he was seen as our saviour and got 5 games for 1 goal.

I hope we have a real plan to fix the forward line and Bruce is simply a bonus.

A good start would be to examine what made Bruce and the team great for a while. That structure seems to have been thrown out in favour of ‘saviour’ psychology.

[soupman]

Unfortunately Naughts just doesn't have an impact against the best defenders. Tries his backside off - but just can't have an impact against the likes of May, Pearce, Weitering...and this year De Koning.

I think it's more because the only way we plan to use Naughton is by giving him bombs and relying on his contested marking. Most good teams have good key defenders, who can body him prior to the contest and more importantly set up to have tall numbers to that ball. e is underperfoming in big games but I dont think its because of him, its because good teams have good defences and also set up well to limit our ball movement forward which means they are able to get the necessary numbers back to stifle his opportunities.

[FrediKanoute]

Bankers:

1) The Bont - for 3 quarters he led from the front. Could he have done more...maybe another goal, but gee it was a Me September performance;
2) Gardiner - he has really developed this season and grown into a dependable defender. Needs help!
3) JJ - thought he was good until he went off. Not game changing but 2 goals out of 8 is a good contribution.

Anchors

1) L VdM - awful game.
2) Keath - a game that had some awful moments at key times
3) The Fighting 5 - the lack of game awareness to get sucked in to fly a flag.....

[FrediKanoute]

As I said before, I don't think we get a lot out of him against the teams with the best defenders. Of course its always harder to score against the better teams, but if we pick Geelong, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney as being the best performed teams in the last 2 years - he's kicked 17 goals in 12 games against these side (1.42 goals per game), and in the remaining 34 games he's played kicked 81 (2.38).

The thing with Naught's performance is that he struggles when we don't play a guy like Bruce as then he gets the best defender. The most mindboggling aspect of Bruce (or Schache) not playing on the weekend was that we went away from a structure that has served us well.

[Danjul]

I think it's more because the only way we plan to use Naughton is by giving him bombs and relying on his contested marking. Most good teams have good key defenders, who can body him prior to the contest and more importantly set up to have tall numbers to that ball. e is underperfoming in big games but I dont think its because of him, its because good teams have good defences and also set up well to limit our ball movement forward which means they are able to get the necessary numbers back to stifle his opportunities.

I think you are spot-on with this comment. He is good enough to make poor entries look good, or at least allow everyone to forget how bad they were.

The slow handball-around-the-boundary game plan allows opposition teams to flood back and swamp his area. With a well matured forward strategy he would be 70 goals a season. And dangerous in finals.

With a leading forward, who can kick long goals reliably, beside him the opposition would be split. Unfortunately that wasn’t in the game plan.

[AshMac]

But do you need over a quarter of the team in the scuffle (or heading to it) against 2 Freo players?

The most frustrating bit is of all the scuffles to go to. So often we leave blokes unsupported in those situations and don’t have a one in all in mentality.

That was the scuffle they went all in