Review Dees v the Paddlepop Lions: the Good, the Bad & the Fugly

[Djcjdees]

I think the vast majority of our problems come down to one thing. We have an astonishingly high number of players that simply can't kick or even handball when under the slightest amount of pressure, and a similar number that can't kick the ball when under zero pressure. Every other problem we have stems from that fact. Rule number 1 from here on in should be "Has to be able to kick and preferably on both feet. Otherwise, sign someone that can."

I'd have thought that would have been rule number 1 when recruting footballers, but clearly I'm too old fashioned

 

[Dory_77]

I reckon the bigger issue is with guys firmly entrenched in the 21 just not giving us enough on a regular basis. Watts, Dawes, Garlo just not impacting games lately is a bigger problem, IMHO.

That and the fact we still really don't have enough good mids - it blows me away that some people have started to talk about us taking a KPP in the draft

Realistically we need a couple of good young mids and a couple of good KPP. Frawley is likely leaving; Dawes is mediocre; Hogan is injured (how badly?); Pedo is okay but not what you'd build a side around; Garland has been poor this season; TMac can't kick; Fitzy can't get a game...

 

[saj_21]

The good;
Jones, Jetta, Tyson
Pederson's courage
Viney competed with Rockliff

The bad;
I will skip this part because everything was FUGLY;

The fugly;
The game was horrendous, regarldess of the result halfway through that last quarter i planned to walk out as soon as the siren went.
Paul Roos coaching was very un-inspiring, not to mention coaching a team who didn't come to play its the perfect storm for a result that occured
Tom McDonald, will give him credit for his defending, but for *s sake do not kick the ball. Players who hand ball to him are even worse.
Jordie McKenzie, not good enough missing from 12m out looked like he was lining up in front of the firing squad.
Riley's short chip, viney would not of made the distant even if he hit the target.
Vince has offically been melbourne'd
Jamar, letting Martin run riot
Garland just blasting the ball away back to his 2012 form of contniual brain fades
Terlich, use your first option you are a limited footballer stop taking the entire forward line on
Dawes bloody lead at the footy
Frawley lost interest after the first quarter (i will cut these two a tiny amount of slack because of slow ball movement and horrendous skills)
Blease, doesnt work hard enough both ways. I was all for giving him another shot until yesterday.
Watts, terrible took 3/4 to hit some kind of gear when being in park all day

 

[Topkent]

I think the vast majority of our problems come down to one thing. We have an astonishingly high number of players that simply can't kick or even handball when under the slightest amount of pressure, and a similar number that can't kick the ball when under zero pressure. Every other problem we have stems from that fact. Rule number 1 from here on in should be "Has to be able to kick and preferably on both feet. Otherwise, sign someone that can."

I'd have thought that would have been rule number 1 when recruting footballers, but clearly I'm too old fashioned

Or they need to be like Viney and Tyson who are going to be elite clearance players one day
Look at Nathan Jones, You can become a good AFL kick if you work hard enough to be confident with the footy in hand

I would have thought that Number 1 would be the ability to kick under pressure and not your actual kicking skills, because every young kid can kick to a decent level, its being able to do it under extreme pressure

But I agree with some other guys, we need to take more quality midfielders before we worry about topping up our KPP stocks

 

[Trav 20]

Did I read some say Watts wasn't soft ? FMD. I've never seen a player go to ground as often or as easily as Watts in my time watching footy. And it was never more evident than yesterday.

Guess what ? It's usually on the back of soft efforts, or when one is fearful of contact. Watts was as soft as he's ever been yesterday. He's the most insipid player I've ever seen.

 

[Topkent]

Did I read some say Watts wasn't soft ? FMD. I've never seen a player go to ground as often or as easily as Watts in my time watching footy. And it was never more evident than yesterday.

Guess what ? It's usually on the back of soft efforts, or when one is fearful of contact. Watts was as soft as he's ever been yesterday. He's the most insipid player I've ever seen.

That all may well be true, but as one of Watts harshest critics I didnt notice his soft efforts yesterday
Maybe that was because everything else was so bad but yesterday was one of his less soft efforts

 

[Djcjdees]

Or they need to be like Viney and Tyson who are going to be elite clearance players one day
Look at Nathan Jones, You can become a good AFL kick if you work hard enough to be confident with the footy in hand

I would have thought that Number 1 would be the ability to kick under pressure and not your actual kicking skills, because every young kid can kick to a decent level, its being able to do it under extreme pressure

But I agree with some other guys, we need to take more quality midfielders before we worry about topping up our KPP stocks

I think you are basically agreeing with me. We can't have a whole team full of clearance players though. Also, 'ability to kick under pressure' and 'kicking skills' are part of the same package to me, or at least they should be when considering whether to draft or trade for a player given how much pressure sides come under these days.

We simply don't have the confidence as a team to carry players that can't reliably hit targets particularly when we are playing this flooding, wait-for-players-to-run-forward-so-i-can-kick-it-to-them footy. We simply crumble almost every time. Then next time we fail again because we remember the last time we tried it and resort to taking the easy option. The result is slow, dull, unproductive, member-killing, prospective member annihilating Neeldball.

That brings me to set shots. So many on our list can't kick easy set shots. We dont go forward enough to give up easy goals. Bit us on the arse this time.

So. DJCJ's First 2 rules of drafting.

1) Must be able to kick, especially under pressure.
2) Must be able to kick goals from a set shot. No exceptions

 

[melbournemartin]

I reckon the bigger issue is with guys firmly entrenched in the 21 just not giving us enough on a regular basis. Watts, Dawes, Garlo just not impacting games lately is a bigger problem, IMHO.

That and the fact we still really don't have enough good mids - it blows me away that some people have started to talk about us taking a KPP in the draft

Frawley's movements, and any trades, will strongly affect this.

We need some fast wingers and skilful users off half back. Malceski would be a god-send.

 

[melbournemartin]

2) Must be able to kick goals from a set shot. No exceptions

 

[Cannon82]

One of the problems with this time of year is that we just don't have anything to play for. Garland has definitely been disappointing this year - I'd imagine after 7 years of shameful football, he and a fair few others are just going through the motions to get to the end of the season. Unsurprisingly, the players who appear to give a s**t are Chunk, the new guys and the fringe spuds playing for their careers.

What's the go with Frawley? Is he putting in a half shift to avoid tearing a hammy off the bone so he'll be ready for his new club next year?

 

[Cannon82]

People call Watts soft... had nothing on this bloke.

 

[Theseventhhamster]

Judging by what I'm reading I can chalk up as a good the fact I couldn't watch the game due to a bad back.

 

[Trav 20]

That all may well be true, but as one of Watts harshest critics I didnt notice his soft efforts yesterday
Maybe that was because everything else was so bad but yesterday was one of his less soft efforts

He was as soft as he's ever been. Watch the replay. He needed a tent and pegs for the amount of time he needlessly went to ground.

He's the biggest embarrassment to ever wear red and blue.

 

[Supermercado]

All we need for Watts is a reliable plan to get the ball into his hands without him having to work for it. Once he gets it he's fantastic, but if there's anybody within 5m then he's stuffed.

 

[Trav 20]

All we need for Watts is a reliable plan to get the ball into his hands without him having to work for it. Once he gets it he's fantastic, but if there's anybody within 5m then he's stuffed.

He'd be great at a non contact sport.

He should have chosen basketball.

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

I reckon the bigger issue is with guys firmly entrenched in the 21 just not giving us enough on a regular basis. Watts, Dawes, Garlo just not impacting games lately is a bigger problem, IMHO.

That and the fact we still really don't have enough good mids - it blows me away that some people have started to talk about us taking a KPP in the draft

I do have some trouble blaming any of our forwards for our current woes (Watts and Dawes), the delivery to them has been really poor - although some of Dawesy's decision making errors recently have been frustrating.

It probably goes both ways, but I've felt that a lot of our guys who were performing their roles well at the start of the year now aren't.

What are we basing Michie's 'high ceiling' on? I'm happy to give him a more of a chance but he didn't show much in the games he played this year.

I think he's got plenty to like about him - he was given 2 games and even then he showed a fairly clean skill set and good movement in the clinches.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

What are we basing Michie's 'high ceiling' on? I'm happy to give him a more of a chance but he didn't show much in the games he played this year.

Needs more games at AFL level. Plays very well in the twos but it's going to take more than three AFL games for it to show in the seniors.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Surely this post deserves a ban for explicit content and violent, depressing themes?

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

He was as soft as he's ever been. Watch the replay. He needed a tent and pegs for the amount of time he needlessly went to ground.

He's the biggest embarrassment to ever wear red and blue.

Come on Trav, that's going a tad far? I've seen many more embarrassing players over the past 7 years than Jack (although, that doesn't say too much).

Maybe it's just me but I'd have a different word to describe Jack going to ground, weak - he just doesn't have the strength in his legs to hold ground.

There are times Jack's soft, but generally I think soft implies you aren't going in to the contest - while I get as annoyed as anyone when he goes to ground, I can live with it (for the moment, and if I see improvement - however slight) if he's at least got the intent to go for the ball.

I mean one time he went to ground after contesting the ball against three different Lions players, no doubt you would have ripped into him about it though.

Whoever's been teaching him to squat has done a terrible job, I'd be honestly surprised if he could squat more than 100kg's.

 

[melbournemartin]

Surely this post deserves a ban for explicit content and violent, depressing themes?

 

[The Dr]

One very minor positive in an otherwise (standard) horrendous day for our footy club: Smashing the Lions in contested footy (136-108). Great work Jonesy, Viney, Tyson and co.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

It's so unnatural.

One very minor positive in an otherwise (standard) horrendous day for our footy club: Smashing the Lions in contested footy (136-108). Great work Jonesy, Viney, Tyson and co.

If anything this is more demoralising. We do all of the hard work but we don't have the skills to gain the rewards.

I know people say this all the time, but I'm genuinely happy that we didn't win with the performance we turned in yesterday. If we'd fluked victory it would have set up an expectation among supporters, etc, that it was a good enough standard, and all day it just wasn't.

 

[d33my]

It's so unnatural.


If anything this is more demoralising. We do all of the hard work but we don't have the skills to gain the rewards.

I know people say this all the time, but I'm genuinely happy that we didn't win with the performance we turned in yesterday. If we'd fluked victory it would have set up an expectation among supporters, etc, that it was a good enough standard, and all day it just wasn't.

I don't know about that. From reading the game day thread people were livid. If we'd won I think most would have realised that we got extremely lucky. The FD would also have known this. A win is a win, and can go some way to eradicating those demons (sorry) from the last ~6 years

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

I don't know about that. From reading the game day thread people were livid. If we'd won I think most would have realised that we got extremely lucky. The FD would also have known this. A win is a win, and can go some way to eradicating those demons (sorry) from the last ~6 years

People on BigFooty aren't the average Melbourne/footy supporter. Just looking at the MFC Supporters Group on Facebook tells us that. For less engaged supporters and neutrals who might not have watched the game, if they'd seen a win it would be all they care about and hence they'd relax the heat on the club that the players need.

I'd have loved a win of course but it had to be a win that came with better skill execution and game sense. Not a win that came because Brisbane were worse than we were.

 

[Sprout]

I just can't understand why Watts can't keep his damn feet. Yes he is timid. Yes he handballs to stationary players who are immediately under the pump (he's not alone there). But it is the constantly going to ground that I find infuriating.

Stay on your feet. Use your size against players who possess half of it.

Such a frustrating player to watch. I'm really close to the point of saying enough, it hasn't worked, you can go play basketball where the chance of getting hurt is alot less.