View Full Version : Port v. Kangaroos - post-match
Others, like Macca19, are much better qualified for a proper review, but I thought I'd stick the boot in first :(
Well ... it looks like those concerns after the Crows match, that applying the pressure will cause our 'grand new gameplan' to fall apart look spot on the money. For the first 15 minutes Port were allowed to use their superior skills to good effect. Then Laidley wisely set up for a more close checking game and everything soon started to go pear shape.
I lost count of how many times we were playing handball and short kick across the half-back line, to inch it into the midfield and half-forward, only to turn it over and the Roos quickly take it down their end for a shot on goal.
Some of the match-ups seemed strange on TV. Was Peter Burgoyne playing midfield ? Everytime I saw him he appeared deep in defense. How are we supposed to get it out of the centre if Choco or his man has him buried there ?
One of the few bright points was Damon White's game. There was some early nerves, but he presented well. Unfortunately the problem wasn't forward of centre, so I don't see the return of the monolith changing things greatly.
Hats off to the Roos, they brilliantly exploited our weaknesses tonight, but they are a solid mid-table side - if we can't put away a mid-table side at home, then things don't look good when we play sides like Adelaide, West Coast and the Saints who have blue chip midfields.
Whoever it was querying Dew's future during the week was particularly astute.
Eddie Woloschek
1 Apr 2006, 21:38
The gameplan is a shocker. Oh yes, let's be patient while the players learn it. And when they execute properly, it will still be a shocker. Williams is a a coaching conman, with no answers, no Plan B and no idea. We won a flag despite him, not because of him.
Peter Burgoyne? Port Magpies. Dew? Was he even out there?
Shaun Burgoyne, according to the smarmy Andrew Maher was playing brilliantly at half-time. Certainly, his dozen and a half first half touches set new stndards in futility.
Ebo tried, as did Whitey and those efforts are worthy of note. Motlop? Reminded me of Richie Bray.
It's going to be a long year. I will get through it in the hope that it's Choco's last.
Whoever it was querying Dew's future during the week was particularly astute.
True. He wasn't of any use at all that I could see.
Bishop, on the other hand, looked fine. Lade was wonderful. Brogan still needs to calm down, but he certainly was busy tonight.
Cassisi should get some sort of combat medal for that game.
A couple of times in the last quarter things jelled for us, and you could see that our new midfield will work well. We do have the speed and the skills, but it looks as if we just have to want it a little more than we do. Cassisi, Kane and Mahoney play as if it's for real. Dunno about anyone else.
I guess we'll keep White. Lad shows promise. Mahoney was good when he wasn't being awful. Ditto Motlop. Where was Pearce hiding before the last quarter? Lots of skill errors from Chad. Burgoynes got better as the game went on.
Bah. Good signs, good signs. I guess that's what we'll be watching for this year.
What was with all the mystery frees, for both sides?
Tredders66
1 Apr 2006, 21:45
I feel bad for Wangas but thats about it. Its gonna be a long year people.
windsock
1 Apr 2006, 22:16
Good game guys. Score didn't reflect the toughness of the game all up. Your guys just seemed to lose it a bit at the end.
Good game guys. Score didn't reflect the toughness of the game all up. Your guys just seemed to lose it a bit at the end.
A lot of that was Harvey sucking them in at the last stage,Like all short arses,he's the master at shooting his mouth off,but it worked.
Ford Fairlane
1 Apr 2006, 22:55
I was one of the people questioning Dew. He loafed thru the pre-season and he loafed thru this game. He will never be a midfield option ... at best sit him in a forward pocket and hope his half a dozen touches do some damage.
Motlop is the new Che. I believe Porthos coined that phrase and sadly it's true. Sadly because it means Choco thinks he's a third tall. He's not. We suffered up forward today because - no matter how we tried to convince ourselves that it was a night game and side had the right balance - we went in one tall down. So if Lade or White ever moved outside the 50 the roos dropped a couple of talls back on the remaining tall and yet again we were reduced to the precision pass into the forward line. Which mostly we couldn't execute. It's not fair to ask Lade and Brogan to work their buns off in the ruck and then go forward and do the same in the F50. Get Willits up there with Tredrea when he's fit.
Wangas was used abominably by Choco. Why ask him to play on when you have no idea how you will use him? And he was virtually unsighted. Do yourself a favour champ and pull the pin now - you've got to 300. No one will think less of you. I still remember Paul Roos saying how he decided to play on for one more season - preseason was good, warm sun, his body felt fine. By the middle of June he was wondering what he had been thinking. And the bench space can be shared by the rucks.
Salopek is too slow for the modern game and is NOT an HBF. Do not play him there.
Bishop has rabbit in the spotlight fever taking kick ins. How often did he wait for the umpire to stop waving his flags before he kicked? And not because there were no options. We sucked at kick ins last year. We still do.
Pettigrew. Is he a forward? Is he a back? Anyone here know? Choco doesn't. And he's just getting plain confused. Make a call.
White was terrific. Presented well, marked strongly. Just had too much to do on his own.
Ebert impressed, really buzzed around, got the ball out of the middle and looked good. Why was he wasted for so long?
Thomson did some good things, got caught out by the pace of the game a few times, but tried to do the right thing. The best thing for him is to stay in the side to pick up the pace - he will do it. I expect he'll be dropped.
Andre, I'm with you. Junior should be in the middle. He's a rare talent and any other coach would have him in the midfield. Is he 0.01 secs off the required time trial to get in there. Choco seems to want to play him anywhere but around the ball. And when he kicked a goal in the last qtr that raised faint, starngled hopes, he was returned to a back pocket. Rail against the foolishness Andre, I won't tire of your words.
Peter B ... two words .. brain fade.
My fear is Lonie will be rushed in next week with Thurstans, then Francou, then Kingsley as Choco tries to salvage something from the season.
To be honest, I was thinking an 11 win season, assuming a win in this game. I think I called it an 8 point game to kick the season off. Well, this game is gone and I think this season can be dedicated to uncovering what talent is in our ranks.
Ford Fairlane
1 Apr 2006, 22:58
I said it once, I'm prepared to say it again ... :D
lenny&carl
1 Apr 2006, 23:03
Good game guys. Score didn't reflect the toughness of the game all up. Your guys just seemed to lose it a bit at the end.
I had $10 on North melbourne to win by under 39 points @3.4. I liked that last goal about as much as the Port fans did. Off the ball free before the bounce, 2 or 3 50 metre penalties, and a gimme goal from the square. All I could do was laugh, really.
My fear is Lonie will be rushed in next week with Thurstans, then Francou, then Kingsley as Choco tries to salvage something from the season.At least Lonie will kick it...
Ford Fairlane
1 Apr 2006, 23:26
At least Lonie will kick it...
Yeah, but where ...
I am going to go against the trend here. (how unusual I hear people say :o :D )
Gameplan_ The so called new tweak looked allright IMO. We can only go on what we saw before the Roos shut it down, but it seems to be a lot more "chain of handballs" to get it into space followed by longer kicks into the forward line. What is so wrong with that?
The shutting down of it occurred because of our midfield rather than gameplan, plus if our footskills had been better, mainly kicking it to our forward line, we would have had the game won by half time.
In our midfield we are starting to see too many players that get a lot of the ball but with very little so called "hurt factor".
Peter Burgoyne hasn't hurt an opposition team for a while now. Dom is a negator and Kane gets heaps of possessions but neither negates nor hurts unless given a shutdown job on a big name player.
Chad Cornes needs time to recover from injury and so far Sal has not shown anything in that department.
That leaves us with Ebert and Thomson. Both too inexperienced to be relied upon this year, plus a few who rotate through there.
Motlop going in the midfield for a few minutes late in the game did more than others who had been there all game wrt "hurt-factor", same goes for Pearce.
That IMO is more telling than the so-called lack of hardness. We get the ball heaps but do not make the opposition pay enough times.
PJ Power
1 Apr 2006, 23:48
After tonight it seems more imperative than ever before, that playing kids is the only way forward.
If we leave it to our senior players, we will take nothing out of this year - nothing but disillusionment.
I actually thought Motlop showed some courage at the contest tonight, and was pretty lively up on the wing in the last term - discipline lapses though and trying to do the freakish will be a problem.
Cassisi certainly lifted his workrate after halftime, but just couldn't get it out of the middle in the second quarter in particular.
Broges got to alot of contests, but that tap down Wells' throat in the second quater summed up his night. Hands to it, either a fumble or a tap to them. Needs to get his touch back quickly.
PJ Power
2 Apr 2006, 00:29
I was one of the people questioning Dew. He loafed thru the pre-season and he loafed thru this game. He will never be a midfield option ... at best sit him in a forward pocket and hope his half a dozen touches do some damage.
Motlop is the new Che. I believe Porthos coined that phrase and sadly it's true. Sadly because it means Choco thinks he's a third tall. He's not. We suffered up forward today because - no matter how we tried to convince ourselves that it was a night game and side had the right balance - we went in one tall down. So if Lade or White ever moved outside the 50 the roos dropped a couple of talls back on the remaining tall and yet again we were reduced to the precision pass into the forward line. Which mostly we couldn't execute. It's not fair to ask Lade and Brogan to work their buns off in the ruck and then go forward and do the same in the F50. Get Willits up there with Tredrea when he's fit.
Wangas was used abominably by Choco. Why ask him to play on when you have no idea how you will use him? And he was virtually unsighted. Do yourself a favour champ and pull the pin now - you've got to 300. No one will think less of you. I still remember Paul Roos saying how he decided to play on for one more season - preseason was good, warm sun, his body felt fine. By the middle of June he was wondering what he had been thinking. And the bench space can be shared by the rucks.
Salopek is too slow for the modern game and is NOT an HBF. Do not play him there.
Bishop has rabbit in the spotlight fever taking kick ins. How often did he wait for the umpire to stop waving his flags before he kicked? And not because there were no options. We sucked at kick ins last year. We still do.
Pettigrew. Is he a forward? Is he a back? Anyone here know? Choco doesn't. And he's just getting plain confused. Make a call.
White was terrific. Presented well, marked strongly. Just had too much to do on his own.
Ebert impressed, really buzzed around, got the ball out of the middle and looked good. Why was he wasted for so long?
Thomson did some good things, got caught out by the pace of the game a few times, but tried to do the right thing. The best thing for him is to stay in the side to pick up the pace - he will do it. I expect he'll be dropped.
Andre, I'm with you. Junior should be in the middle. He's a rare talent and any other coach would have him in the midfield. Is he 0.01 secs off the required time trial to get in there. Choco seems to want to play him anywhere but around the ball. And when he kicked a goal in the last qtr that raised faint, starngled hopes, he was returned to a back pocket. Rail against the foolishness Andre, I won't tire of your words.
Peter B ... two words .. brain fade.
My fear is Lonie will be rushed in next week with Thurstans, then Francou, then Kingsley as Choco tries to salvage something from the season.
To be honest, I was thinking an 11 win season, assuming a win in this game. I think I called it an 8 point game to kick the season off. Well, this game is gone and I think this season can be dedicated to uncovering what talent is in our ranks.
Great summary of just about everything Ford. I agree with it all.
Sal did look slow. I am trying to work out what might be his special quality. He isn't a huge accumulator of touches (not on the field that much I know), lacks either burst speed or hard running to make space, isn't a brilliant tackler or disposer of the ball. We need to see more of him, but normally kids who are going places have something that stands out about them - Pearcey's pace, Chaplin's coolness, Ebert's penetration by foot and marking strength for his size. I need to have more of a think about Sal's strengths.
PJ Power
2 Apr 2006, 00:37
In our midfield we are starting to see too many players that get a lot of the ball but with very little so called "hurt factor".
Peter Burgoyne hasn't hurt an opposition team for a while now. Dom is a negator and Kane gets heaps of possessions but neither negates nor hurts unless given a shutdown job on a big name player.
Chad Cornes needs time to recover from injury and so far Sal has not shown anything in that department.
That leaves us with Ebert and Thomson. Both too inexperienced to be relied upon this year, plus a few who rotate through there.
Motlop going in the midfield for a few minutes late in the game did more than others who had been there all game wrt "hurt-factor", same goes for Pearce.
That IMO is more telling than the so-called lack of hardness. We get the ball heaps but do not make the opposition pay enough times.
Shaun Burgoyne is another with some hurt factor.
I thought we looked very lively with JB, Pearce and Motlop around the contests late. It was as if the three of them decided to try to take everything into their own hands to do it for Wangas.
We had something like 8 missed opportunities in the last quarter
4 missed setshots
3 snaps that missed or dropped short
Lade's mark that wasn't paid
Plus other wasted forward entries (White's dropped mark, Holding the ball decisions against us, Mahoney and Wilson on the siren).
We created opportunities.
When the guys ran the lines early and late in the game, we were exciting to watch. At all other times we looked very flat-footed.
Even after some good clearances in the last quarter, Shaun still rotated from the centre square to the full forward line to the HBF from one centre square bounce down to the next.
That was really strange today. We didn't persist for long enough with certain guys in there. Even Ebert after his goal from the 50m penalty in the second quarter, moved straight out of the centre square for the next bounce down.
Why????
Eddie Woloschek
2 Apr 2006, 07:16
That was really strange today. We didn't persist for long enough with certain guys in there. Even Ebert after his goal from the 50m penalty in the second quarter, moved straight out of the centre square for the next bounce down.
Why????
Because rotations for the sake of rotations are every coach's excuse for lack of tactics and an idea of what it is they want to do.
I have said it before - Choco coaches to outwit, not to outplay. An egotist and egoist of the first order, he is Patton without a plan or even a philosophy. And he should be fired.
portentous
2 Apr 2006, 22:04
I see that the usual sooks are sooking-already.