Review vs Adelaide Crows

[fronkalicious]

So guys are jumping off hrovat and hunter?? Sheesh. Tough crowd. Two 20 year olds with 20 games to their names that have both shown they can play excellent footy at afl level and that have both had interrupted preparations this year.

 

[King Harold]

So guys are jumping off hrovat and hunter?? Sheesh. Tough crowd. Two 20 year olds with 20 games to their names that have both shown they can play excellent footy at afl level and that have both had interrupted preparations this year.

Definitely still on Hunter for me Fronk. Great talent with plenty of tricks.
The problem for me with Hrovat , will he end up better than a lot of short people we already have.
Right now I believe he may fall behind some of them.
Fast forward 2 years , Libber , Wallis , Honeychurch , Maclean , Daniel , Dahlhaus don't see how they all can play together ?

 

[WesternBull]

Very, very late here but just a few of my thoughts on some players.

Murphy: Super player, has been for a long time. A down week against Hawthorn was dismissed from everyone's memory with a display that cut Adelaide to shreds

Talia: You don't beat one of the premier forwards in the competition without being an absolute gun. Add in great zoning and game awareness and you have an elite player. Talia will be elite

Roughead: I liked how he followed Jenkins into the ruck. Was more effective than Cordy. The new zone, as said, suits him much better and he is able to use his long arms to take some superb intercept marks

Wood: Will be an important player for a long time if he can stay fit. Great marking ability, running ability and I sense leadership too. Sets up play by linking the forward line to the back. Great game defensively and offensively

Johannisen: Good speed. Good disposal this week. Great defence as well. There is nothing else you can ask for from a defender.

Webb: Shows he will be a great pick up. Lots of intercept marks and, one moment I noticed, was a laser kick inside 50 resulting in a mark to Grant I believe. Has been missing from the Bulldogs team for years.

Grant: Not in the best, but has an important role for the team. Kicked a goal, created some play and has a creative knack matched by Murphy (although Grant can't execute nearly as well)

Cordy: Needs to be better in the ruck but was okay around the ground. Had some good moments but, as a ruckman, you have to give better for your mids

Jong: Kicked some goals, was great at the clearances and the rest will come with a few more games.

Hrovat: Wasn't a great game but a young player returning from injury. Could need a few more games to retain some touch and feel for the game. Whether these come in the AFL or the VFL I am not sure.

Stevens: Had some important marks coming out of defence. Just needed to make some quicker decisions around the forward line where we had some good options. Speed not an issue because we need the bigger stronger bodies in the midfield

Bontempelli: Worked harder than other weeks for a similar result. Was a little off his best but his game was still very good. Very hard to fault him as he does the easy and the hard stuff

Macrae: Workhorse. Gets the job done. Had his disposals, took some good marks and just needs to push into the forward line to use his skills there a little more often.

Boyd: Small Boyd was great again. Almost faultless disposal and so calm unlike other years. Wouldn't surprise me if Beveridge has made him take Tai Chi or something because of how much calmer he is under pressure

Honeychurch: Didn't have heaps of time to have an impact as the sub but did okay. Light frame made it hard because he was on in the dead time of the game. Not sure the sub suits him as he is good enough in the early game

Crameri: Had a good game and popped up and kicked goals. Like the rest of the team, a little wasteful in front of goals

Dahlhaus: Another tick for him as he progresses to full time midfield. The only consequence is that he has less spark in the forward line which is what we lack a little. But he is a great clearance player and has amazing pressure so is worth the transition into midfield

Boyd: Big Boyd was again very good. Great contests against Talia and brought it to ground time and agian. Kicked a few too which is what we all like from him in his development

Stringer: Best player on the ground. Could have had ten and would have, but good precaution as he is not a player we can afford to lose. 6 goals a great effort and he continues to improve. If he wasn't so good at everything the set shots would be a worry though

Dickson: Pretty quiet but has had a good few weeks so doesn't have a lot to answer to. Was wasteful but is not a general problem. Just an off week

Picken: Was probably one of the best outside of Stringer and Murphy. Has evolved from the player he was to a great, consistent player who does things at both ends of the ground. Super effort

Smith: Was good on return to AFL. A good news story for our team. Kicked a goal and with a little more fitness will be a beast in the midfield again.

Overall, a good team performance with a few standouts above and no one that really dragged the team down. Same performance against the Swans and we will be a good chance.

Go Dogs!

 

[Nath09]

Watching the replay with commentary, geez its embarrassing listening to Sandy Roberts. You can just hear him fumbling for the names of players and covering bombast and self important proclamations.

It was weird when he made a comment about Stuart Crameri celebrating his 21st birthday. The other commentators were clearly all like WTF but went along with it anyway.

 

[fargy]

It was weird when he made a comment about Stuart Crameri celebrating his 21st birthday. The other commentators were clearly all like WTF but went along with it anyway.

Got Crammers and Jake mixed up haha

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Bullies are officially my 2nd team now, awesome display. Beveridge has got you guys playing some great footy, all without your best mid. Scary stuff. Reckon Bontempelli is a future Brownlow winner and Tom Boyd was worth every cent you paid.

Wait till next year and the years after when he is clunking them. not far from doing it now atm

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Did not see that coming was amazing to watch great birthday present, Really like the look of Webb got an absolutely beauty there, Wood returned in great form, ditto Boyd, Talia great yet again

Was for me too

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Was so good to see Crows supporters leaving at the 10 min mark of the last qtr.

What a team effort, our defence and pressure was amazing. I think Webb is the successor to Rob Murphy as our back line general. Impressed by his intercept marking.

Yeah thinking the same thing about Webb, but think Murphy has a few more years yet.

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Can't wait to get home and watch the replay. So glad Sandy Roberts commentated. My favourite at the moment. All time was Rex. Commetti still very good though.

Mines Huddo

 

[Snake Livermore]

Yes Mutt!

The theme of afl footy for me is the importance of leadership. Lists are lists with ages and skill sets but the ones that are lead by men who lead to lead are the ones going well right now. Haha.

What would it do to you as a player if your captain built his game around cheeky handballs out the back and sideways kick.

The Hawks and cats have blokes who smash in and say this is what I'll do with my body for you blokes.

The dockers have a bloke who says trust me boys, just trust me and I'll take us where we need to go.

And we have one who is the exact symbol of how we've played footy this year, daring, fearless, intelligent and with a point to prove for a club that's been whacked.

It's such a marvellous show

Yep he's been inspirational this year, and the last few. The team is instructed to take the game on, and he knows he has to lead by example. He always takes the game on, no matter what the pressure, no matter what the game situation, no matter that his brain is screaming at him to get off a quick handpass, no matter that there's a bloke 20kg heavier than him steaming towards him intent on taking him out, no matter that he got caught once and had his knee snapped, no matter what he always takes a few extra steps until a teammate presents and then he delivers and we're away.

It would be mentally as well as physically taxing to do that every time you touch the ball. But he does because he's the captain and he has to, and boy do his players love it and respond. In his own way he's up there with Hodge and Pav as leaders.

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Simon Dalrymple. Recruiting Maestro.

Yes but Bevo would have said get me the best kicks in the draft, thats why he got Webb, Dale, Maclean, Hamilton and Daniel.

 

[stefoid]

So guys are jumping off hrovat and hunter?? Sheesh. Tough crowd. Two 20 year olds with 20 games to their names that have both shown they can play excellent footy at afl level and that have both had interrupted preparations this year.

Libba, Stringer, Macrae and Bont have spoiled us.

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

L. Jong - 21 disposals @ 90.5% DE. Throw in 5 clearances and a couple of goals.

Linsanity is here, ladies and gents.

Has become mt fav player with Webb closing in

 

[Fossie 32]

 

[Snake Livermore]

Yes but McCartney would have said get me the best kicks in the draft, thats why he got Webb, Dale, Maclean, Hamilton and Daniel.

EFA

 

[Zgope1]

Just re watched the game- or the first 3 quarters (how much time do you think I have people?) and God I can't get enough of that 3rd term. So high octane. No wonder we missed a couple handpasses, we just did not stop attacking.

Of all weeks someone could question Roughy, who literally made one non costly error for the whole game and was brilliant in all other cases, this just ain't the one. He ate Jenkins. Although as he's an intelligent player Id be fine with us getting another kpd and we'd just have a clever versatile tall leader to float around which'd be great.

Kept an eye on Cordy. His ground skills were brilliant and his tackling very clean, he covered the ground exceptionally well for a big man, almost as well as a small, and was very very accountable but he was eaten alive in clearances. Can see the positives but if the negatives don't get fixed then it won't work out in the long run. But let's be good blokes and enjoy the positives!

Was more impressed with JJ on second viewing. Really did most things right and is growing to be a viscous, integral aggressor for us in moving the ball.

Wood is also just unbelievable. Takes heaps of intercept marks and just runs on. Good handpasser and a long kick. Gotta love that.

Interested to see what we do when teams cotton on to our running swarm of players. I think that's why Murph is so important, he gives us the ability to not be too handpass heavy.

Another thing I noticed is an obvious emphasis on using or tall mids as marking targets. It means we can play more runners quite simply and the more marking targets you have the better contests you'll get because you can separate them.

It's so funny though if there was one thing that a new coach was going to expose as a strength I never thought it'd be pace. We've got a bloody quick team though! And some handball specialists- several plays were set up from spear handballs from Bont, Moyd and Stevens, I even saw Macrae Mark and play on inboard and forwards by hand straight away. Good mentality they're getting.

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

EFA

Very funny

 

[Yojimbo]

Yes but Bevo would have said get me the best kicks in the draft, thats why he got Webb, Dale, Maclean, Hamilton and Daniel.

Harrison Wigg Adelaide pick 35 ?

 

[ExRoyboy]

Just managed to watch the replay. I missed the game due to family commitments and was only able to catch a little bit of the radio broadcast. Just a few comments.

Firstly, while our young players are fantastic with their fearless play and pace, I am just so impressed with our older guys particularly Murph and Boyd. They were just so composed and super efficient. After the last couple of years I honestly didn't think Matty Boyd had it in him still to improve his kicking, but wow he is just killing it this year. Great move by Bevo to put him back that no one else would have thought of and most were critical of but it has been a master stroke. Really it makes sense to put your older heads in defence to shore things up and then put your young speedsters into the midfield but credit to Bev for having the guts to do it.

Stringer was absolutely brilliant and could have easily kicked 8-10 goals. Also loved the way Tom Boyd was competing. He got his couple of goals but created many more through his efforts.

The other defenders in Talia, Roughy, JJ and Webb were all fantastic. This is one of the real strengths of our team now. Also it seems we have really picked up a diamond in the 20's in Lucas Webb. I can't believe how composed he is for a 2nd game player. Intercept marks and accurate kicking were great to see from such a young player. Looks like having a very bright future.

Finally, the main thing that hit me from watching the game is the pressure they are applying through constant tackling, harassing and just generally closing down all of the space as quick as possible. They are causing the opposition to turn it over even when they are in the clear because they think they are about to be caught. They actually remind me a lot of Port Adelaide which is great because that style of game is the perfect balance of attacking flair with defensive accountability. If they can keep this up I think they are a sneaky chance at the top eight and will give anyone outside of the top 4 teams a really tough game. They may even sneak a win against one of them as well but that might be a bit too much to ask at this point. But give them another year or two and watch out the rest of the league. We are coming again and it is being built on a very solid foundation and really exciting talent along with a smart coach.

 

[Next Waiting]

Definitely still on Hunter for me Fronk. Great talent with plenty of tricks.
The problem for me with Hrovat , will he end up better than a lot of short people we already have.
Right now I believe he may fall behind some of them.
Fast forward 2 years , Libber , Wallis , Honeychurch , Maclean , Daniel , Dahlhaus don't see how they all can play together ?

Good thing is though that while we probably won't keep all of them they're all likely to have trade value which may be important in securing an FA or upgrading a pick down the track. One of the biggest plusses out of our recent drafting. Which one(s) we trade probably won't be answered for 12 - 18 months.

 

[dogwatch]

Got to get a couple of things out of the way.

First one is :

Me on Thursday when teams were announced:
Me on Friday when final teams were announced:
Me on Sunday when we won: ... ...

The point is, I was bewildered by the team selections and thought MC had got it wrong re Cordy. Most of us were wrong in fact. We are all sagely analysing the tactical genius today as if we knew all along that it made obvious sense, but that's not what our faceoff thread was filled with on Friday night and Saturday.

Anyway I'm happy to bow to the greater wisdom of the coaching staff. Bev/MC got it right with the team selection and game plan. They also backed the available personnel to do the job and we were all rewarded for it. Well done guys.

 

[Next Waiting]

Got to get a couple of things out of the way.

First one is :

Me on Thursday when teams were announced:
Me on Friday when final teams were announced:
Me on Sunday when we won: ... ...

The point is, I was bewildered by the team selections and thought MC had got it wrong re Cordy. Most of us were wrong in fact. We are all sagely analysing the tactical genius today as if we knew all along that it made obvious sense, but that's not what our faceoff thread was filled with on Friday night and Saturday.

Anyway I'm happy to bow to the greater wisdom of the coaching staff. Bev/MC got it right with the team selection and game plan. They also backed the available personnel to do the job and we were all rewarded for it. Well done guys.

You and mostly everyone else may have been wrong DW, however, it was only my assertions that were erroneous

 

[dogwatch]

The second thing is one that came up in the match day thread and is worth probing into a bit further.

Hrovat24 made a comment along the lines of: we are blazing away and too selfish in front of goal. He got slapped down for being negative when we were on fire, for not being able to enjoy the moment. However I thought he had a point. We need to keep improving all aspects of our game and it's not impossible both to enjoy the winning feeling AND to identify how we could do even better. After all, we'll need to be even better when we play Port, Sydney, Freo and the like.

Without going back over the tape I can think of Hrovat's shot (final quarter?) which hit the post when Picken was unattended 20m out. I also thought Stringer's best goal (his 5th? where he sold candy to his opponent and kicked it from wide out near the 50) was also a candidate for being a bit too single-minded. There were certainly other instances, including the one that Hrovat24 commented on (can't remember who the player was now).

So what do we make of this?
The contrast is striking: Stringer is lauded for his audacity and flair because his shot went through. Hrovat might have been a hero too, but his shot clipped the post. So he's a villain. If Stringer's shot had missed we might have been saying he should have lowered his eyes and chipped to one of 2-3 players who were much closer to goal.

We do want to back players in to take their shots. In fact sometimes they can be too unselfish and a pass for a gimme goal comes unstuck.
But also I've noticed that the very good sides are extremely selfless if there is a low-risk option to pass off to a player in a better position to kick the goal. Hawthorn are a good example and did this on several occasions against us last week.

It didn't matter much against Adelaide because we smashed them anyway, but 2 or 3 additional goals (instead of points) would be critical in a match against Freo for example if it's going to be a very close tussle.

I think this is mainly a coaching and an experience thing. The more mature players know when they can afford to look for better options. With our young guns, however, the eyes just light up at the sight of an open goal and the chance to drive home another one. You can't help but admire the positive mindset - and you don't want to curb their flair - but will it always get the best result?

 

[Somebody]

The way they played on at all cost instinctively was vry impressive. I ddin't watch the hawthorn game but did they do taht in that game too? It's a test of maturity that if you are getting creamed, do you go into your shell or continue to play on at all cost even when it results in turnover after turnover? - ie stick to the game plan through thick and thin?

 

[Hrovat24]

The second thing is one that came up in the match day thread and is worth probing into a bit further.

Hrovat24 made a comment along the lines of: we are blazing away and too selfish in front of goal. He got slapped down for being negative when we were on fire, for not being able to enjoy the moment. However I thought he had a point. We need to keep improving all aspects of our game and it's not impossible both to enjoy the winning feeling AND to identify how we could do even better. After all, we'll need to be even better when we play Port, Sydney, Freo and the like.

Without going back over the tape I can think of Hrovat's shot (final quarter?) which hit the post when Picken was unattended 20m out. I also thought Stringer's best goal (his 5th? where he sold candy to his opponent and kicked it from wide out near the 50) was also a candidate for being a bit too single-minded. There were certainly other instances, including the one that Hrovat24 commented on (can't remember who the player was now).

So what do we make of this?
The contrast is striking: Stringer is lauded for his audacity and flair because his shot went through. Hrovat might have been a hero too, but his shot clipped the post. So he's a villain. If Stringer's shot had missed we might have been saying he should have lowered his eyes and chipped to one of 2-3 players who were much closer to goal.

We do want to back players in to take their shots. In fact sometimes they can be too unselfish and a pass for a gimme goal comes unstuck.
But also I've noticed that the very good sides are extremely selfless if there is a low-risk option to pass off to a player in a better position to kick the goal. Hawthorn are a good example and did this on several occasions against us last week.

It didn't matter much against Adelaide because we smashed them anyway, but 2 or 3 additional goals (instead of points) would be critical in a match against Freo for example if it's going to be a very close tussle.

I think this is mainly a coaching and an experience thing. The more mature players know when they can afford to look for better options. With our young guns, however, the eyes just light up at the sight of an open goal and the chance to drive home another one. You can't help but admire the positive mindset - and you don't want to curb their flair - but will it always get the best result?

With the Hrovat behind I wasn't as worried as he looked at his options and decided that it was on him to kick the goal and he missed all good , I wasn't happy with crameri and Dickson as they didn't look at all to see other options they just blazed away from around 40 to 50 out both snapping over there shoulders , this is a problem with both players as it happens way too often if anyone is willing to look over some tapes or can think of back to previous games both players are what you all goal hogs and I think beveridge needs to really give them a spray .. I'm happy with both players wanting to take responsibility and kick a goal but you have to look inboard sum up your options then have a shot , to become that premiership team we all want so badly we have to become unselfish not just crameri and Dickson everyone together