3 things learned - R17 vs Port Adelaide

[GVGjr]

Please list the 3 things learned from our R17 encounter against Port Adelaide?

[merantau]

1. There were nine players selected who would struggle to get a game with most of the teams in the current 8.
2. When our best players are down or injured we are very ordinary
3. People who knock Libba need to back off. He was one of the few who really tried to lift after quarter time.

[EasternWest]

1. There were nine players selected who would struggle to get a game with most of the teams in the current 8.
2. When our best players are down or injured we are very ordinary
3. People who knock Libba need to back off. He was one of the few who really tried to lift after quarter time.

But what about before quarter time, when the game was lost?

[CarnTheScray]

1. There were nine players selected who would struggle to get a game with most of the teams in the current 8.
2. When our best players are down or injured we are very ordinary
3. People who knock Libba need to back off. He was one of the few who really tried to lift after quarter time.

Who would you name in the 9? I know who I would.

[westbulldog]

1. English' game was grossly overrated by some, he came on board with stats when the game was over, his influence in the early quarters was not there at all.
2. Selectors continue to gift games to those with limited ability and no AFL future, bewildering.
3. Ugle-Hagan is simply not delivering.

[merantau]

Who would you name in the 9? I know who I would.

Not in any particular order with some notes by way of explanation. Factors I'm taking into account are: 1) ability demonstrated so far. 2) age and potential

Bramble - I think he's done ok this year but makes costly errors that mean a question.mark will always hover over him.

Vandermeer: He gets where the ball ain't. Maybe that's why he racks up impressive sprint stats. If those stats resulted in turnovers and goals for us I'd be happy but I don't see it. He also makes bad decisions.

Khamis - he's not a defender. He lacks the physical strength. He's a goodmark and has pace and has potential as a winger or half forward. He's been on the list for a while. We haven't done him any favours the way he's been used.

Coffield - to be fair the jury is still out because he hasn't had a good run at it. I just have my doubts about his ability to cement a place in our side let alone in the more settled sides above us.

O'Donnell - jury is still out on him. He has shown a lot of promise but he lacks pace it seems. He would not be a walk up start in teams above us but he will make it, IMO.

Freijah - has youth on his side and will be a good player and cement his place in our line up but would not be an auto selection in teams above us atm. Ffs, we picked him as the sub for this game! I could not work that out.

McNeil - he fumbles too much and just cannot seem to stay in the game for any length of time. If he could take his chances he'd give himself a chance - but he doesn't.

Sanders - came with a big reputation but he's slow and doesn't kick the ball well. His handball game doesn't convince me either. But he has youth on his side and we must persevere with him. I just don't think he'd get a game in any team above us at this stage.

Gallagher - young and has shown some promise at times but seems to run himself into trouble a lot. He is worth persevering with

Others: Doc and Jacko are nearing the end of their careers.. JUH is struggling at the moment. Naughton out with concussion? West is not having a consistemt enough impact as a small forward. Lobb has failed, until now, to cement himself in the team. English has been underwhelming too often

All the above points to a team that is too dependent on too fewand if they don't fire, or we have outs like Jones and Weightman,we are in a world of pain.

Furthermore the cupboard is not overflowing, no one is knocking down the door. We should per persist with Garcia and play Busslinger. That's about it. I don't want to ruin my Sunaday any more than I have already.

[Bullies]

1. How we only lost by 48 points is bewildering. We absoutley got torched all day with no positives coming out of it. Put this one in the bin.
2. Coffield was not a regular with the Saints. He missed 10+ games with injury . Comes back and has one ordinary game in the 2's and is selected the following week in the 1's. Mind blowing selection.
3. VDM may the King of 1% but his football brain is non existent. A few recruiters were surprised we even drafted him. Can see why. If we want someone who can do pressure acts/tackling why not just get someone from Storm.
4. MacNeill just craps himself every time he has contact coming. Please no more. He aint gonna make it and he is not even depth.
5. Marra please donate some of your big coin to a worthy cause because you certainly don't deserve what we are paying you. At least look like you are trying and care.

[bornadog]

1. I haven't learnt why a whole team can just not show up like we did.

2. Yesterday showed why we need Bailey Smith to add to the midfield - we were torched by Rozee and Butler and couldn't stop them. Smith has some strength and pace and must play in the middle.

3. Backline big men are going down like nine pins - tough to replace them.

[hujsh]

1. I haven't learnt why a whole team can just not show up like we did.

2. Yesterday showed why we need Bailey Smith to add to the midfield - we were torched by Rozee and Butler and couldn't stop them. Smith has some strength and pace and must play in the middle.

3. Backline big men are going down like nine pins - tough to replace them.

How quickly we forget

[Grantysghost]

How quickly we forget

Are we getting Butler as well?

[bornadog]

Are we getting Butler as well?

Good player but a bit of an idiot. No wonder he has copped around $20k worth of fines. Could be more coming up.

[merantau]

1. I haven't learnt why a whole team can just not show up like we did.

2. Yesterday showed why we need Bailey Smith to add to the midfield - we were torched by Rozee and Butler and couldn't stop them. Smith has some strength and pace and must play in the middle.

3. Backline big men are going down like nine pins - tough to replace them.

Three weeks ago we turned up for a big game against Freo and obliterated them. Yesterday, we did not fire a shot. The game is also played above the shoulders. Maybe with the outs in mind the team goes out with a "this is going to be a lot harder now" attitude. You can help put that to bed if you nail simple set shots early on AND if the coach makes positional changes early.

Having Darcy at the opening centre bounce? How did English interpret that? I would have been in English's ear all week about him making a statement. But then again maybe he's not responsive to that narrative.

I spend my free time clutching at straws in order to make sense of the inexplicable.

[bornadog]

Three weeks ago we turned up for a big game against Freo and obliterated them. Yesterday, we did not fire a shot. The game is also played above the shoulders. Maybe with the outs in mind the team goes out with a "this is going to be a lot harder now" attitude. You can help put that to bed if you nail simple set shots early on AND if the coach makes positional changes early.

Having Darcy at the opening centre bounce? How did English interpret that? I would have been in English's ear all week about him making a statement. But then again maybe he's not responsive to that narrative.

I spend my free time clutching at straws in order to make sense of the inexplicable.

I guess it comes down to not being consistent

[Dry Rot]

JUH seems to be on a bad trajectory with bad habits and attitude. In a perfect world, a few games in the seconds and a really big talking to should happen.

Obviously we've been hit with injuries, but so have most of the teams. Quite a few on the field would not get a game with other teams and should not be on the list.

The vast difference between our best, and our worst is inexplicable and needs to be solved next season. I suspect that involves a new coach and hopefully new players.

[Grantysghost]

JUH seems to be on a bad trajectory with bad habits and attitude. In a perfect world, a few games in the seconds and a really big talking to should happen.

Obviously we've been hit with injuries, but so have most of the teams. Quite a few on the field would not get a game with other teams and should not be on the list.

The vast difference between our best, and our worst is inexplicable and needs to be solved next season. I suspect that involves a new coach and hopefully new players.
That's probably going to be a change of club to have new coach and players :cool:

Go the Swans or the Cats they never miss the finals im sick of them!

[Dry Rot]

Some new players, or the current ones get heart and brain transplants

Regularly, we put in really heartless poor performances that are much worse than much less talented teams that seem to have a crack.

[Mantis]

1/ Our mids as an entity pick and choose when they want to defend. Until they do it unconditionally we will continue to be an average team.

2/ Our forward line was disappointing. The smalls didn?t defend and the talls couldn?t compete in the air. The mix isn?t working.

3/ Embarrassing performance by our coaches for going down the path of starting English forward. English is the reigning AA ruck and was coming up against his longtime understudy for the 1st time. It sent a meek message and our meek response followed. In the words of RDB - weak as piss!

[CarnTheScray]

1/ Our mids as an entity pick and choose when they want to defend. Until they do it unconditionally we will continue to be an average team.

2/ Our forward line was disappointing. The smalls didn?t defend and the talls couldn?t compete in the air. The mix isn?t working.

3/ Embarrassing performance by our coaches for going down the path of starting English forward. English is the reigning AA ruck and was coming up against his longtime understudy for the 1st time. It sent a meek message and our meek response followed. In the words of RDB - weak as piss!

They were probably scared shitless that English would lose the centre bounce early and set the tone, which happened a few minutes later anyway.

[mighty_west]

1. Jamarra just seems too nice with his opponents, and his intensity needs to lift, the body language seems to be lacking at times, think it's time for a spell in the magoo's to work his way through his on field issues for a little reality check.

2. Reckon big Sweet would have penciled this game in at the start of the season hoping that Soldo was injured for this game and possibly the opposite for Timmy knowing Sweet would have his measure at the centre square, as was the case and Timmy seemed spooked early, but that was only one match up for the game and Tim did look more valuable than Sweet around the ground after that first quarter or so, also starting Darcy in the centre was a real head scratcher, think the MC can be too cute at times, just get back to basics, play the players in their set positions and stop any confusion, Lobb didn't need to back to the forward line when Naughton went down then back to defense again, we still had Jamarra, Darcy and English to rotate which should be more than enough up forward with our smalls and Bont zoning in at times.

3. Our midfield mix, whilst i like a settled structure i also like the way we have heavily rotated our centre square set up with rotating in the likes of West, Gags, Sanders, unfortunately Garcia wasn't also rotated in there as for some reason he's not being selected, I'm actually having Richards full time in the midfield with Bont perhaps 50/50 split in the forward line, Libba probably also spends the majority of time in the mid whilst those others are rotated in and out.

[The Adelaide Connection]

1. A week is a long time in football

2. There is not too much "glass half-full" left around the joint. The season is still alive. Given the context of the dark past we have endured, you would think we would be the last set of supporters to get out of our seats and leave at 3/4 time of the season to beat the traffic.

3. Like in form teams Freo and Sydney before them, Carlton are very gettable. When things aren't going their way you can see 20 years of mediocrity and mental trauma eek to the surface.
We just need some luck (unlike the Sydney game). Getting LJ back into the team is step 1.

[Boots]

1. We should trade JUH. His accuracy is woeful, as is his workrate. On top of that, we're better with fewer talls in the forward line (no more than two of the 'big four') and he is obviously the weakest behind Darcy and Naughton. With English and Bont rotating through the forward line, I think we can cover him. Last time I felt this strongly about a tall forward MJP schooled me so ready to be convinced otherwise, but from where I sit he feels like the fix.

That's it. The rest is broken record stuff: mids not defending, relying on an understaffed backline (who actually did really well under the circumstances), terrible mid-fwd connection, terrible fwd conversion.

One bonus thing I guess - we're gonna miss Bailey Smith.