Review Good/Bad vs Gold Coast, Round 1 2024

[Southerntakeover]

Round 2 is everything because we’ve got another tough away fixture in round 3

Yep, season could really get away from us quickly if we're not ready to play Friday night.

 

[Rags_118]

The backs were under siege for all but the last 15 minutes and I thought did a great job to limit the damage. It could have been a lot uglier. Milera in particular was the general back there. Max is Ben Hart mk2, only stronger in the hips and is already so reliable, and getting better and better.

Max is half the player that Ben Hart was at the same age.

 

[MrBarry]

how bloody good is our boy Max. Plays beyond his years. And has the poise/footy iq to be a midfielder one day. Put that IQ into Jones and we have a player. But you can’t teach stupid.

*in love how he doesn't back down as well. Proper player.

 

[40porpoise]

My take from the game - I don't like rankine as a full time midfielder. He's most damaging for us in the forward line, pinch hitting in the midfield when we need a spark.

 

[ABAB]

My take from the game - I don't like rankine as a full time midfielder. He's most damaging for us in the forward line, pinch hitting in the midfield when we need a spark.

Rankine didn't play full time mid.

 

[Sanders]

Yep, season could really get away from us quickly if we're not ready to play Friday night.

If we get the boost from an invigorating round 2 performance, we could find ourselves up and about, snatching a couple of other tough wins in the opening few round and setting ourselves up for a strong season.

If we fall behind, lose in round 2, the pressure builds and the air comes out of the tyres we could easily find ourselves 0-5

And what we certainly know of Nicks is that when the pressure is on his selections get very conservative

We have got a very tough start to the season, fixture wise, there isn’t a lot of margin for error on these home games if we’re going to set ourselves up for the rest of the season

And call me crazy, I’m not convinced a 0-5 side sees a coach extension, or there is it’s a ticking time bomb 1 year extension like Longmuir just got

 

[Sanders]

You absolutely have form in outright lying about having inside sources, and I do not for a second believe you have one now.

Savage, and true.

 

[Sanders]

‘Spam’ because you don’t understand what he does

You don’t have any idea of how a modern day football department runs

And neither do you. As your increasingly bonkers dysregulation demonstrates

 

[ftmch]

OK - after a night of swearing and a morning of shaking my head, here's my take:

• Rankine needs to play forward, only occasional midfield attendance
• Rachele needs to play forward, only occasional midfield attendance
• Soligo is in the best 5, let alone 22
• Anyone who does not rank Keays is blind
• Sholl is backup
• Smith is backup
• Burgess is backup
• Gollant is backup
• Murphy is #22 picked

As soon as we put Rankine and Rachele back in the forward line our other players looked better - like Dawson and Pedlar and Berry.

It's not "oh no, no Tex no forward line" - last night it was "No Tex, No Thilthorpe, No Rankine, No Rachelle" ... that is nuts. Poor Fog was left to "compete" which he did, without a single honoured lead to my memory.

We need to trust more of our players coming through to take on real roles, not fill those roles with guys that have excelled elsewhere - leaving new holes to worry about. We cannot keep the experience is king going with ANY players or we will die on the vine.

Cook and Nank and Curtin can not provide less than Murphy and Sholl and Smith ... not in the short term, and definitely not in the longer term.

The things we couldn't control:

• the weather
• playing a team that had already had a game in round 0, at their home ground
• the umpires (no holding the ball, no idea what deliberate is, no idea what advantage is, a free against the runner is pretty rare)

Things we could control:

• who we picked (including the sub)
• where they played
• not giving away 50m for soft idiocy
• not kicking directly to oppo players 20m out

Disastrous to think this is the best we could come up with after 5 months of planning and practice.

I understand (and was onboard) the rotation of Rachele and Rankine in the middle when we had our full forward line in play, but when we have the legs cut out from injury ... you have to come up with something better than what we saw for the 1st hour 45 mins.

Nicks needs to do better, or he needs to step aside. We CANNOT waste this group of players on mid-table finishes.

I hated what was said after the game. If Nicks backs in the team for next week then the black marks get multiplied.

/rant

Bloody good summary

 

[feenix67]

Few weeks? I thought it was nearly a month which is a lot to miss toward the end of the preseason.

Eff me do you know how many weeks are in a month???

 

[Pugsley]

Eff me do you know how many weeks are in a month???

He may need to ask someone.

 

[Stephen2]

You know what sucks about your position AFC979810 ... It seems it's mostly "the experts know what they're doing and have a perfect plan"

But then you also get to say Soligo should have come on a quarter earlier!

If you get to say the plan was wrong by 1 quarter of football, why can't others say it was wrong by 2 quarters of football?

 

[Stephen2]

So frustrating!!

I think someone said Soligo got like 35% tog? So you're saying that 50% would be fine, but if I suggest like 70% I'm a madman!

 

[WeeBlake]

Rachele's ability to kick a set shot in pouring rain that comfortably went 55m+ is not a skill I thought he had, very impressive

Didn’t he roost a couple of long ones in his first game?

 

[George Kramer]

You know what sucks about your position AFC979810 ... It seems it's mostly "the experts know what they're doing and have a perfect plan"

But then you also get to say Soligo should have come on a quarter earlier!

If you get to say the plan was wrong by 1 quarter of football, why can't others say it was wrong by 2 quarters of football?

Why didn’t you post this earlier, would of saved a lot of posts!

I said something similar but not as succinct.

You’re right though, he’s said we should back in Burgess and Nicks making Soligo sub as he couldn’t play a full game but then he pulls out of his arse that he could have played an extra qtr.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

And neither do you. As your increasingly bonkers dysregulation demonstrates

Settle down splinters

This is a discussion board about footy which you don’t seem to do

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Why didn’t you post this earlier, would of saved a lot of posts!

I said something similar but not as succinct.

You’re right though, he’s said we should back in Burgess and Nicks making Soligo sub as he couldn’t play a full game but then he pulls out of his arse that he could have played an extra qtr.

That’s the thing , hard to say whether it’s correct without the info and especially the expertise re sports science

But that’s how the decision came about

The high performance guys have a big say on loading and return to play

Nicks however should have activated Soligo earlier ( in my opinion )

I’m worried for nicks and he needs to improve , the pending contract thing is a worry too . Reckon there would be some nervous people putting it together . Nicks didn’t seem to have us prepared for the conditions or the opposition which was disappointing

But anyone that thinks that Nicks doesn’t have Soligo best 22 is wrong

 

[George Kramer]

That’s the thing , hard to say whether it’s correct without the info and especially the expertise re sports science

But that’s how the decision came about

The high performance guys have a big say on loading and return to play

Nicks however should have activated Soligo earlier ( in my opinion )

I’m worried for nicks and he needs to improve , the pending contract thing is a worry too . Reckon there would be some nervous people putting it together . Nicks didn’t seem to have us prepared for the conditions or the opposition which was disappointing

But anyone that thinks that Nicks doesn’t have Soligo best 22 is wrong

I don’t doubt Nicks has Soligo in his best 22, but if it was a Tex, a Smith, Dawson etc, they would have played with the time Soligo had off.

The thing is if you’re going to hang your hat on that Burgess advised Nicks for Soligo to be sub then you can’t also say Nicks should have played Soligo sooner, you can only assume he was working with Burgess advice.

Personally I think taking in a player that’s not fit enough to play a full game as sub is playing with fire and it also robs you of flexibility to make an early change. I also think if a player needs game time to build his fitness, you give him a full game in the SANFL, not a quarter and a half of AFL. You’re shooting yourself in the foot. You’d know players don’t build much fitness between games, that’s done preseason, it’s all about rehab and conditioning during the season.

As for Nicks, the loss hopefully is a bit of a wake up call to management but I fear we’ve already committed. Hopefully the haggling on terms gives us wiggle room. If Nicks is holding out for longer call his bluff and put off talks until later in the year. We’ve got a tough start and there’s no way they will want to announce a contract extension in the middle of a bad run. If they sign him I’m sure they’ll wait until we get some wins on the board. Geelong is absolutely crucial to our season and Nicks future with Freo now a hard game.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

I don’t doubt Nicks has Soligo in his best 22, but if it was a Tex, a Smith, Dawson etc, they would have played with the time Soligo had off.

The thing is if you’re going to hang your hat on that Burgess advised Nicks for Soligo to be sub then you can’t also say Nicks should have played Soligo sooner, you can only assume he was working with Burgess advice.

Personally I think taking in a player that’s not fit enough to play a full game as sub is playing with fire and it also robs you of flexibility to make an early change. I also think if a player needs game time to build his fitness, you give him a full game in the SANFL, not a quarter and a half of AFL. You’re shooting yourself in the foot. You’d know players don’t build much fitness between games, that’s done preseason, it’s all about rehab and conditioning during the season.

As for Nicks, the loss hopefully is a bit of a wake up call to management but I fear we’ve already committed. Hopefully the haggling on terms gives us wiggle room. If Nicks is holding out for longer call his bluff and put off talks until later in the year. We’ve got a tough start and there’s no way they will want to announce a contract extension in the middle of a bad run. If they sign him I’m sure they’ll wait until we get some wins on the board. Geelong is absolutely crucial to our season and Nicks future with Freo now a hard game.

Hearing it’s a 2 year extension so will be interesting , they’ll prob wait for a win then announce

Hopefully the win isn’t in round 6

Lots of pressure coming if we can’t beat Geelong at home and by no means will it be easy

I’m sure Soligo coming on as sub 15-20 mins earlier fits in with framework of the the plan they hatched , just less time running post game

Tex was left at home so not sure that theory exactly fits and people comparing milera with soligo don’t know how many kms milera got into his legs outdoors ( while Soligo was rehabbing inside in the gym and alter G)

 

[FR0GGY]

That’s the thing , hard to say whether it’s correct without the info and especially the expertise re sports science

But that’s how the decision came about

The high performance guys have a big say on loading and return to play

Nicks however should have activated Soligo earlier ( in my opinion )

I’m worried for nicks and he needs to improve , the pending contract thing is a worry too . Reckon there would be some nervous people putting it together . Nicks didn’t seem to have us prepared for the conditions or the opposition which was disappointing

But anyone that thinks that Nicks doesn’t have Soligo best 22 is wrong

Him doing run throughs after the match proves they got something wrong somewhere along the lines.
Absolute wasted energy when it could have been used in the match.

 

[George Kramer]

Hearing it’s a 2 year extension so will be interesting , they’ll prob wait for a win then announce

Hopefully the win isn’t in round 6

Lots of pressure coming if we can’t beat Geelong at home and by no means will it be easy

I’m sure Soligo coming on as sub 15-20 mins earlier fits in with framework of the the plan they hatched , just less time running post game

Tex was left at home so not sure that theory exactly fits and people comparing milera with soligo don’t know how many kms milera got into his legs outdoors ( while Soligo was rehabbing inside in the gym and alter G)

So Tex will be sub this week given his lack of training and not playing for a few weeks?

 

[Jeffcrowe]

So Tex will be sub this week given his lack of training and not playing for a few weeks?

Has he spent 5 weeks inside ? Don’t be silly

 

[footy4ever]

Max is half the player that Ben Hart was at the same age.

'Half' is probably an exaggeration. I'd be interested to see the comparison. Max is tracking beautifully.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Him doing run throughs after the match proves they got something wrong somewhere along the lines.
Absolute wasted energy when it could have been used in the match.

Yep I’ve said that

Should have come on earlier , that’s my opinion

 

[Jeffcrowe]

'Half' is probably an exaggeration. I'd be interested to see the comparison. Max is tracking beautifully.

Max is one of our locks to be an elite player for us for the long term IMO

Just a very high quality player in terms of the competition for his role