Autopsy 2024 Rd 5 Blundering Blues give game away to Crows

[Arr0w]

How often does a side kick 16 goals from 20 shots?
As well as the last 3 goals to win?
NOT BLOODY OFTEN!

However this game is going to cost us, with injuries(to add to enough injuries already) and a tough draw coming it has last years 6 game losing streak written all over it!

I'm calling it 4-6 after 10 rounds just like I called losing our last 4 of 2022 missing finals....

Can't see us losing the next 5 games, we still have enough talent in the side

 

[gab213]

I think that it's quite feasible that we will be 7-4 at the midway point of the season with the injuries that we have suffered. This is still a fairly healthy position to launch into the second half of the season.

 

[Blue__Balls]

I know there has been a lot said on here re, "to Pitto or not to Pitto" but for Pitto to play, he has to be 100% fit and raring to go other wise he just unbalances the side. Yes, he is a big body and helps in clearances but if he can't take a mark around the ground, down the line or defensively, his value drops.

TDK does so much better as the lone ruckman, as he gets better as the game goes longer, look at last week as an example v Jackson. Then when Harry enters the fray it changes things up in our forward line, it gets Harry into the game if he has been quiet and makes us lower the eyes more going forward. TDK struggles to play as a forward as I still believe our talls play too close to each other allowing the opposition to come off their man and spoil in a 2 on one.

There are games that, yes, we will need Pitto, but he needs to be fit and if he is not at full fitness, he should be in the VFL. (Even though O'Keefe did a pretty good job on Sunday v Pies.)

If he's only getting 50% TOG then he absolutely should not be in the side.

Doesn't really matter who the player is, if they're not on the park for half the game then they're a burden for everyone else. Simple as that.

I'm generally supportive of the team changes we make, and even when I think I'd do something differently I can usually recognise some valid reasons as to why the MC do what they do.

But playing a second ruckman and having him spend half the game on the bench was a massive error. Huge. Like...there is no justification for that at all, unless he suffered some kind of minor injury early in the game and just had to be managed through it.

I think that selection is emblematic of the fact that we're still not sure of our best team/structure. We're tinkering. If there's a time to do it, it's probably at home against an 0-4 interstate side early in the season, but end of the day it's contributed to a costly loss. Adelaide were losing games partly because their midfield was slow and out of form. They finally cottoned on and made adjustments. We were winning games despite our midfield being slow and out of form, but then inexplicably decided to make personnel changes that slowed us down even more. They got it right, we didn't.

 

[Stamos]

If he's only getting 50% TOG then he absolutely should not be in the side.

Doesn't really matter who the player is, if they're not on the park for half the game then they're a burden for everyone else. Simple as that.

I'm generally supportive of the team changes we make, and even when I think I'd do something differently I can usually recognise some valid reasons as to why the MC do what they do.

But playing a second ruckman and having him spend half the game on the bench was a massive error. Huge. Like...there is no justification for that at all, unless he suffered some kind of minor injury early in the game and just had to be managed through it.

I think that selection is emblematic of the fact that we're still not sure of our best team/structure. We're tinkering. If there's a time to do it, it's probably at home against an 0-4 interstate side early in the season, but end of the day it's contributed to a costly loss. Adelaide were losing games partly because their midfield was slow and out of form. They finally cottoned on and made adjustments. We were winning games despite our midfield being slow and out of form, but then inexplicably decided to make personnel changes that slowed us down even more. They got it right, we didn't.

Yeah, I think they liked the 2 rucks last year, and wanted to see how it went.
And given Cerra was out, with no obvious replacement, so why not give it a go.

It didn't work, and we lost.
But kick a little straighter, or don't make one of many monumental * ups in the last few minutes, and we would have gotten away with it.

 

[Y Goat]

I’ll back us to win 2 or 3 of this next 5 tough games. They just need to bring the manic Pressure game.

Need multiple guys to step up and take on Fog’s pressure role

 

[The Blue Weirdo]

Mate, he's 27 and a forward/mid - if he's still a work in progress at this stage then the horse has bolted.

Probably being too generous towards Cunners, but he's still younger, has a similar injury history and has more impact than the bloke with a 2 year contract he was compared to.
I don't like to right anyone off this early in the season, but I'm getting bad vibes from the Fanta inclusion decision.

 

[Blue__Balls]

Probably being too generous towards Cunners, but he's still younger, has a similar injury history and has more impact than the bloke with a 2 year contract he was compared to.
I don't like to right anyone off this early in the season, but I'm getting bad vibes from the Fanta inclusion decision.

Despite his injury history, Fantasia has been available every week for us. I know he's yet to really significantly impact a game, but his last decent block of games was in 2021, so that's probably somewhat to be expected. Hard to tell how much of it is him needing to find touch/form vs he and the rest of the team needing enough games together that they can read each other more instinctively.

Find me any point in Cunner's career where he's been able to do this:



Fantasia had more mutliple-goal games in 2021 than Cunners has had in his career...

The reality is that Cunners has put together maybe 2-3 complete games to date. He's 27. He's injured again. I've always loved his profile and skill set, I've always held great hope that with a clean injury run he might break out and become a quality mid/forward with the ability to break games open. But if history continues to repeat itself, he's gonna have to play til he's 35 just to hit the 100 game milestone, and I don't see how he fulfils his potential when he can't string together any meaningful run of games.

 

[The Blue Weirdo]

If he's only getting 50% TOG then he absolutely should not be in the side.

Doesn't really matter who the player is, if they're not on the park for half the game then they're a burden for everyone else. Simple as that.

I'm generally supportive of the team changes we make, and even when I think I'd do something differently I can usually recognise some valid reasons as to why the MC do what they do.

But playing a second ruckman and having him spend half the game on the bench was a massive error. Huge. Like...there is no justification for that at all, unless he suffered some kind of minor injury early in the game and just had to be managed through it.

I think that selection is emblematic of the fact that we're still not sure of our best team/structure. We're tinkering. If there's a time to do it, it's probably at home against an 0-4 interstate side early in the season, but end of the day it's contributed to a costly loss. Adelaide were losing games partly because their midfield was slow and out of form. They finally cottoned on and made adjustments. We were winning games despite our midfield being slow and out of form, but then inexplicably decided to make personnel changes that slowed us down even more. They got it right, we didn't.

I don't think the 2 rucks plan is going to work.
If the benefits of selecting Pitto is as conclusive as some believe, then lets 'rest' TDK for a game or 2(cause the 3 big forwards don't gel) and see how the contested game improvement compares with the negatives of a 1 dimensional ruckman.(Walsh's stellar game contributed more to our clearance numbers)
But you are right, he has to be capable of at least 70% game time.

 

[Blue since 72]

A smidgeon unfair to defend Weiters and his defensive buddy's efforts for this loss, and lay all blame on Owies and a couple of other missed scoring opportunities.
The injuries didn't help, but lets face it, we should have towelled this mob up in Viccy. Crows looked like a less skilled version of Freo last week and it's obviously a tactic that works against us.

Defence will always struggle to cover all bases when the ball is coming in hot though and the Crows were cleaner with ball in hand when it counted; ie in transition ending with shots on goal. In contrast our bounce out of the backline was slower and we know how that usually goes.

Where the stats become misleading is we had clearance dominance, less clangers, gained more metres, had slightly less turnovers and actually laid more tackles inside our forward 50.

But our F50 entries were often shallow and often messy and we didn't apply scoreboard pressure when we did get a look at 28 shots vs 20.

Tbh most of our games so far have been messy with very few clean multiple possessions, almost like we're trying of force it.

 

[jj1978]

I think that it's quite feasible that we will be 7-4 at the midway point of the season with the injuries that we have suffered. This is still a fairly healthy position to launch into the second half of the season.

Problem is to make top for you can't concede more than 6-7 games. Being 5-0 meant we could at least afford to win 2/3 games, relieves pressure and builds confidence. Losing what should have been unloseable at what I'd expect our game plan intelligence should now be at after being up by 16 with 6 minutes to go and then add 3 fresh injuries is a huge blow to team psyche no matter how you try to spin it.

If we're to hit a lull this season the next month is an obvious candidate.

 

[The Blue Weirdo]

Despite his injury history, Fantasia has been available every week for us. I know he's yet to really significantly impact a game, but his last decent block of games was in 2021, so that's probably somewhat to be expected. Hard to tell how much of it is him needing to find touch/form vs he and the rest of the team needing enough games together that they can read each other more instinctively.

Find me any point in Cunner's career where he's been able to do this:

View attachment 1961016

Fantasia had more mutliple-goal games in 2021 than Cunners has had in his career...

The reality is that Cunners has put together maybe 2-3 complete games to date. He's 27. He's injured again. I've always loved his profile and skill set, I've always held great hope that with a clean injury run he might break out and become a quality mid/forward with the ability to break games open. But if history continues to repeat itself, he's gonna have to play til he's 35 just to hit the 100 game milestone, and I don't see how he fulfils his potential when he can't string together any meaningful run of games.

Fanta does have a more decorated football history than Cunners, but that doesn't mean much when comparing their 'futures'.
I'm not confident with either of them, though I think Cunners has more potential(I know, 'famous last words')
Owies, despite his limitations is one of the smalls(with Fog) who I'd like to keep. All the rest are proving to be equally injury prone.

 

[gab213]

Problem is to make top for you can't concede more than 6-7 games. Being 5-0 meant we could at least afford to win 2/3 games, relieves pressure and builds confidence. Losing what should have been unloseable at what I'd expect our game plan intelligence should now be at after being up by 16 with 6 minutes to go and then add 3 fresh injuries is a huge blow to team psyche no matter how you try to spin it.

If we're to hit a lull this season the next month is an obvious candidate.

I'm not attempting to spin anything, it's far too early to say we can't make it and these kind of results (losing to a team you shouldn't have ) happens to the best teams more years than it doesn't. There's a good chance that it happens again too.

I wanted us to be 5-0 too but it's far from being the end of our campaign. I'm sure that the club has reviewed the game and that the players know where they have gone wrong and have moved on to thinking about the upcoming game.

 

[jj1978]

I'm not attempting to spin anything, it's far too early to say we can't make it and these kind of results (losing to a team you shouldn't have ) happens to the best teams more years than it doesn't. There's a good chance that it happens again too.

I wanted us to be 5-0 too but it's far from being the end of our campaign. I'm sure that the club has reviewed the game and that the players know where they have gone wrong and have moved on to thinking about the upcoming game.

Didn't mean yourself spinning, meant the scenario of us leading, being in control and dropping off and the injuries hitting us is not something that can be ignored as just one of those days. We might win our next 4 which will be great, but as I said if we're due for a lull and a few losses, our next month is high risk.

 

[gab213]

Didn't mean yourself spinning, meant the scenario of us leading, being in control and dropping off and the injuries hitting us is not something that can be ignored as just one of those days. We might win our next 4 which will be great, but as I said if we're due for a lull and a few losses, our next month is high risk.

Agreed, the next 4-6 weeks is crucial.

 

[Blue Pulse]

If he's only getting 50% TOG then he absolutely should not be in the side.

Doesn't really matter who the player is, if they're not on the park for half the game then they're a burden for everyone else. Simple as that.

I'm generally supportive of the team changes we make, and even when I think I'd do something differently I can usually recognise some valid reasons as to why the MC do what they do.

But playing a second ruckman and having him spend half the game on the bench was a massive error. Huge. Like...there is no justification for that at all, unless he suffered some kind of minor injury early in the game and just had to be managed through it.

I think that selection is emblematic of the fact that we're still not sure of our best team/structure. We're tinkering. If there's a time to do it, it's probably at home against an 0-4 interstate side early in the season, but end of the day it's contributed to a costly loss. Adelaide were losing games partly because their midfield was slow and out of form. They finally cottoned on and made adjustments. We were winning games despite our midfield being slow and out of form, but then inexplicably decided to make personnel changes that slowed us down even more. They got it right, we didn't.

It's arrogance that we can ill afford, I would say playing Pitto for a half and inject Carrol for more run was their plan but with Saad going down it threw a spanner in the works.

As I said, if Pitto was 100%, go for it, because his then role is to wear down the opposition ruck man and crash and bash the mids for TDK, but I didn't note O'Reily slowing down at all for his 4 quarters

 

[BlueJet]

Pittonet is awful. His first instinct of a ruck contest is to put his arm around the opposition's waist.
More interested in defending than attacking.

Yet TDK is much worse at the stoppage..
IMO the extra 3-4 possessions more around the ground that TDK gets don't warrant conceding at the coalface.
TDK's impact around the ground has taken on almost mythological proportions.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Just looking at the pressure acts from this match. Interesting.

Ordered by total pressure acts, but to the left are the defensive half pressure acts so you can see the breakdown.



Walsh and Cripps are amazing. They will themselves to contests.

Elijah Hollands efforts were pretty good, getting an even split in both halves, despite being a midfielder/forward.

I expect to see our wingers racking up a lot of back half pressure acts and Acres has a perfect balance. Hollands however is either not getting back enough or not working hard enough when back there. His heat map shows he spent 59% of his time in the defensive half so 4 out of 19 pressure acts is not good enough.

All of our small forwards were pretty bad when it came to expected pressure acts for their position.

TDK had an even split, while Pittonet had zero defensive half pressure acts. That's a concern given he spent 67% of his time back there.

 

[The Flying Doormat]

28 scoring shots to 20, 16 4 by the Crows won't happen against us again this year

No, will have to wait for the next Crows encounter in 2025

 

[skadoosh]