Postive And Negatives in GF

[The Stid]

I'll add this bit of play by Wellingham to the positives as well. When he did this i thought f**k yes, the boys are up to the challenge, willing to go in hard etc... not to be unfortunately.

http://www.westcoasteagles.com.au/video/2015-10-03/wellingham-collides-with-hodge

 

[Gizza]

Where was the direct pressure on the ball-carrier
that served us so well in the QF?

There was a moment in the third after we had kicked a couple, McGovern laid that crunching tackle. The next 4 or 5 tackles we laid were equally fierce. And I'm thinking, finally we've turned up and realised this is a bloody grand final.

It lasted all of two minutes and then we went back to looking like we didn't give a s**t.

 

[EagleEgo]

I'm surprised on how harsh people here are on Darling. Sure that dropped mark was atrocious but other than that he was our best forward by a mile. Was the only bloke out there who looked like taking a mark in our 50 and kicking goals.

He looked like carry some sort of injury as he seemed to kick poorly in the last few matches and today's warm up.

 

[Auric Goldfinger]

Negative

We were overawed, it hurts. It hurts a lot. As fans we are all feeling pain. The players will be feeling 100 fold what we feel.

Positives

This reminds me of 91 so much. We weren't bad in 92.

Mrs felt sorry for me.

 

[mulehoops]

Only just noticed this but in the pre-match photo Ellis was calming Dom's nerves. Good to see.

Don't know if this is true or whether he was just balancing, but I'd like to believe it is the former. Didn't have many touches today but was one of the few composed players.

Shuey looks full blown ranga, thought Ronald McDonald snuck into the team photo.

 

[fidstar]

Negative

We were overawed, it hurts. It hurts a lot. As fans we are all feeling pain. The players will be feeling 100 fold what we feel.

Positives

This reminds me of 91 so much. We weren't bad in 92.

Mrs felt sorry for me.

In terms of team, this feels nothing like 91. 91 we knew we were the best team going around and it was only a matter of time. I really hope it is the same this time around, but that early 90s team just was amazing. If that team had the mastered travel routine of today's AFL teams, it would have probably won 3 or 4 Premierships.

 

[The Passenger]

I'll add this bit of play by Wellingham to the positives as well. When he did this i thought f**k yes, the boys are up to the challenge, willing to go in hard etc... not to be unfortunately.

http://www.westcoasteagles.com.au/video/2015-10-03/wellingham-collides-with-hodge

The first 5 to 10 minutes showed that we turned up today. I don't think there was any lack of effort until late in the third quarter when it became apparent we weren't coming back.

But skills errors in the first 10 minutes that cost us a goal or two (and some serious scoreboard pressure), and then skill errors that gifted Hawks possession and ultimately goals from halfway through the first or halfway through the second are what cost us big time today.

 

[placebo]

Negatives:
- People can crap on all they want about Priddis' improvement, his Brownlow, and how the 'haters' were all wrong like they've been doing all year, but at the core, the fundamental issue with him has always been that for a guy that spends all his time in the middle, is our focal point there and doesn't have the flexibility to play anywhere else, he's never ever been able to match it with the best midfielders in the game, and today was once again proof of that, he's never been able to match it with the best when it's mattered, and he never will. Absolutely terrible performance. Poor skills, poor decision making, and his inside work was non-effective and easily defended.

- Our midfield outside of Gaff and Shuey (made a couple critical errors, but tried to make things happen and got his hands on the ball early) was very poor. Hutchings, Masten, Sheed, the aforementioned Priddis, and the other rotations were simply way too poor. Terrible decision making under pressure, were smashed at the contest, and weren't clean enough.

- The midfield didn't give Kennedy a chance. I've seen some harsh criticism of JK today, but it's not his fault. Our midfield absolutely killed any chance he had. Slow, unclean ball movement or quick high bombs to an outnumbered contest. Our midfield should be ashamed with the delivery they gave him today.

- I've seen criticism of Simpson's game plan but that is way, way off base. Any game plan would have gone to pieces today if the teams midfield were getting smashed at the contest, were turning the ball over and making bad decisions constantly. The back line did the best it could, but they weren't helped in the slightest by our mids.

- Midfield, midfield, midfield. It's been the bane of our existence since 2008. We've got more depth there now, and better quality players, but we still lack class and we still lack composure. Sheed will be better for the run, Yeo will continue to improve and I'm super happy to have Duggan back next year, but we still lack polish and class. Some smart (miraculous) trading might be needed.

- There's too many other poor players to detail all of them. Darling obviously, but he wasn't alone, some really poor efforts from a lot of players today and if you can't execute basic skills, you'll never win a grand final.

- Sinclair has had a good year, but there is still the fundamental issue that his ruck work just isn't that good. We lose so much momentum when he's in the ruck, and he gets dominated way too easy. I hope Lycett's body and form returns next year, he's a better ruckman.

Positives:

- Sheppard. Goddamn, I love you. Great game, and easily our best player on the day. The only one that even remotely looked composed.

- Gaff. Our best midfielder on the day. Worked his butt off, and his disposal and decision making was generally pretty good.

- I thought Gov was pretty good too.

- That's about it. I'm extremely proud of how we've performed this year, and making the grand final was a huge achievement that shouldn't be overlooked, but there's still core, fundamental issues with our team that need to be fixed.

 

[EagleShore]

Was very hard to watch.

Looked afraid walking out onto the G. Nerves got the better of him. Wasn't vocal enough in the rooms before the game and his tension would have flowed on to the boys.

I didn't feel pumped up watching our boys come out of the room onto the ground...they seemed subdued, as if they new what was about to happen.

 

[boondy]

Great Year Despite injuries to Waters EMac and Brown
positives :
- Sheppard and Gaff
negatives:
- When we seemed to be dominating the 1st quarter our lack of scoring and easy scoring at other end sapped us and allowed them to grow in confidence
- 50m penalty resulting in Hawks 1st goal
- shueys dribble kick at goal, burning a teammate.
- shueys brain fart not using his 2 teammates in a 3 on 1 contest running inside 50m
- Hodge goal from boundary and their accuracy compared to ours
- Hutchings run down altho handballing still getting pinged in 3rd quarter , crucial part of game
- darlings turnover at halfback costing us a goal
- darling falcon which shoulda been easy chestmark in 3rd quarter.
- Priddis missing an easy shot at goal from 25m out directly in front under no pressure.
- Yeo, Sinkers Kennedy and Hurn having their worst games of the season on the biggest day of the year.

 

[The wily weagle]

It's still very raw, so I will try to be as rational as I can.....

Positives: Andrew gaff. Stood up, had a crack, always kept trying. Just didn't have any mates to help him

Negatives:

Jack darling deserves his own roast thread. Got a free pass in the qualifying final after doing nothing. Got a free pass in the prelim after doing nothing and absolutely was woeful out there today. Simpson need rightfully put the acid on this kid to either learn from this and step up, or become the next Leon Davis. Reputations are made and forged in finals and after today darling has doused his in kerosene and torched it

Our rucks. I love Nic Nat, he is my favourite player, but when our rucks have 8 possessions combined, it just isn't good enough. Nic Nat had played 60% of game time for the last 6 weeks so I can only presume he is injured. If he isn't injured and it's a fitness thing well then he needs to step it up massively in the pre season. I realise he will never play 100% of game time, but surely he can get his numbers up to ruck 80%

I'm not going to bake Simpson as raw as things are ATM because he got as to a grand final, but, I would pose 2 very significant questions:

1) Cyril Rioli. Coaching 101, if a player is torching you, particulary one as good as Cyril, you lock down on him. Why nobody was assigned a job on him after quarter time is beyond me

2) the half time address.....now I don't know precisely what was said, but, the impresario I am getting was it was all very calm......I know Simpson is a friendly chap, but if there was ever a need for a ball tearing, rip the paint off the walls, old fashioned head kicking spray, it was then.

I apologise for any ranting, it's still all very raw. I just hope our boys lose from this. I can deal with a lose. But when 90% of the team just fails to show up mentally, it's a huge kick in the guts

 

[i am a logo]

NEGATIVES:
*NO home ground advantage. Will always be a tainted and unfair premiership
*Josh Kennedy. Biggest game of the year and he goes missing. What a surprise. Still a major flat track bully
*Mark Hutchings and all the other spuds lining up. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to let a WAFL standard player into a Grand final?
*Scott Selwood should have been playing
*Having to deal with Fremantle/Richmond/insert flog team supporters in the coming days

POSITIVES:
*Luke Shuey
*We still have better looking supporters than the Hawks do. About 50% percent of the Hawthorn supporters were fat ugly women
*At the start of the year we were lucky to play finals, let alone a Grand Final
*The FULL wings guernsey looked great.
*It was hilarious seeing VFL pets Hawthorn wearing white shorts in the Grand Final
*Could just be a 1991 like aberration for us.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

*Mark Hutchings and all the other spuds lining up. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to let a WAFL standard player into a Grand final?
*Scott Selwood should have been playing

What difference would Selwood have made? None. Hutchings has been in better form and deserved his spot over Selwood. He should be overtaken by others next year though.

 

[fidstar]

*Josh Kennedy. Biggest game of the year and he goes missing. What a surprise. Still a major flat track bully

Have you watched this final series? Has been great to date. Today he still took 3 marks inside 50 on a very poor day (no player in the league other than him averages more than 3.1 a game fwiw). If he had shot from each one instead of being unselfish he probably would have ended with a couple of goals. Pretty good for a bad day.

He wasn't good, but your comment is just horribly wrong.

 

[rexj]

I'm not sure we should be comparing this team to 91 or 05. Those teams had class players all over the ground. Kemp turley matera etc and judd kerr cousins etc are a class above what we have at the moment. It was just a matter of time with those teams. I'm not sure what 2016 will bring but don't get your hopes up. We'll be up there but so will hawks dockers swans bulldogs tigers crows. It was very tight up the ladder this year and we need to show more fight under pressure like in 06 when we had the confidence that we were going to win even if 40 points behind.

Unfortunately only a few positives yesterday and I'm still getting over it. We missed a golden opportunity that crows brisbane port swans cats hawks all achieved in their first grand finals or after many years.

 

[Jack_the_Ninja]

Anyone know why Beau Waters never got a send off yesterday in a car around the mcg ?

 

[wraglesweb]

Positive: At least we didn't lose as bad as Sydney last year ....

 

[Prem87]

He looked like carry some sort of injury as he seemed to kick poorly in the last few matches and today's warm up.

Maybe he's still got foot issues. Would hate him to miss another preseason.

 

[BS_82]

It's still very raw, so I will try to be as rational as I can.....

Positives: Andrew gaff. Stood up, had a crack, always kept trying. Just didn't have any mates to help him

Negatives:

Jack darling deserves his own roast thread. Got a free pass in the qualifying final after doing nothing. Got a free pass in the prelim after doing nothing and absolutely was woeful out there today. Simpson need rightfully put the acid on this kid to either learn from this and step up, or become the next Leon Davis. Reputations are made and forged in finals and after today darling has doused his in kerosene and torched it

Our rucks. I love Nic Nat, he is my favourite player, but when our rucks have 8 possessions combined, it just isn't good enough. Nic Nat had played 60% of game time for the last 6 weeks so I can only presume he is injured. If he isn't injured and it's a fitness thing well then he needs to step it up massively in the pre season. I realise he will never play 100% of game time, but surely he can get his numbers up to ruck 80%

I'm not going to bake Simpson as raw as things are ATM because he got as to a grand final, but, I would pose 2 very significant questions:

1) Cyril Rioli. Coaching 101, if a player is torching you, particulary one as good as Cyril, you lock down on him. Why nobody was assigned a job on him after quarter time is beyond me

2) the half time address.....now I don't know precisely what was said, but, the impresario I am getting was it was all very calm......I know Simpson is a friendly chap, but if there was ever a need for a ball tearing, rip the paint off the walls, old fashioned head kicking spray, it was then.

I apologise for any ranting, it's still all very raw. I just hope our boys lose from this. I can deal with a lose. But when 90% of the team just fails to show up mentally, it's a huge kick in the guts

Solid post this

 

[Matera LeNui]

Positives: not still watching the game.

Negatives: in regards to "the bounce of the ball not going our way" I thought structurally about 80% of the time they were in the right positions Hawthorn. Just always in the right spots and always helping each other out. Bah.

There backline.....
Gibson 29 touches
Burgoyne 26 touches
Duryea 26 touches
Birchall 22 touches
Frawley 22 touches
Lake 17 touches

+ bucket loads of marks

Then you've got Schoenmakers and Hodge having crackers not sure how often they were back can't remember but just a domination.

 

[Wadsworth]

Believe, Shuey can be a leader and has shown signs throughout the year. That QF final against Hawthorn he lifted the whole team.

I agree. I think Shuey is a natural leader. I've started noticing more and more things pointing to leadership skills this year. I've always noticed that he's the first one in to celebrate big moments with teammates but this year Ive started to notice his leadership more and more. In addition to the on filed Qf performance, the couple that stand out are in Duggan's first game - as he stood on the boundary about to come on for the first time, Shuey grabbed him by the jumper real close and just spoke to him for 10 seconds before he ran on. Then during the Adelaide game after Phil Walsh's tragic passing, Shuey was the one consoling Adelaide players longer than anyone else. He's also often talking directly to Simmo one on one either at half time or after the games. I'm sure there's been a lot more examples, but they stand out to me.

I think last year when the captaincy was up for grabs, he was still probably working on his game - the ability to break a tag, this year, he's been able to be himself a bit more and it's come out naturally.

 

[WCE1987]

Negatives:
Masten needs to go, should of been sub and is scared of a contest.

Positives:
Sheppard

 

[Ben88]

Should've put Selwood in for Masten and just got him to sit on Mitchell's face.

+ Next Year
- Poorest game all year

 

[Obeanie1]

Negatives:

Yeo - 5 possessions.
Naitaniu - 4 possessions, 37 hit outs.
Sinclair - 4 possessions 10 hit outs.
Wellingham - 0 tackles and pulled out of a important contest.
Darling and Kennedy - no impact / zero.
Goals missed that should have been kicked - Shuey in opening minutes should have hand balled, Hurn directly in front, Darling and Le cras set shots, Hill and Cripps running into almost open goals.
The ball didn't even bounce our way once.
Hawks kicked everything.

Positives:

Gaff
The experience.
The year.
The pain.

 

[BS_82]

Negatives:
Masten needs to go, should of been sub and is scared of a contest.

Positives:
Sheppard

Why we started Rosa as sub is plain bewilderment.