2018- What Went Wrong

[Nemisis]

Look theres some fingers to point.

Rockliff was in no way shape or form fit. We rushed him back too soon without a pre-season and its shown.
Our lack of willingness to play a second ruck, yes Frampton might not have been ready, but not having a viable option is just poor list management

For our upper level players

Wingard did absolutely nothing for the best part of 13 weeks
SPP has shown some second year blues
Trav has been serviceable as a high half forward (is serviceable enough for your captain tho)
Ebert has had ups and downs
Robbie has been hit and miss (but how much of that is where he is played)

Now for the easy stuff

Broadbent is cooked
Neade is just depth, nothing more. Similarly Sam Gray had a good year 2 years ago, thats it.
Ollie has had a poor finish post signing the new deal
Pittard is like a rabbit in headlights, as is Bonner
Hombsch has regressed
McKenzie was a waste of a pickup
Motlop has played about 130 minutes of good football for the year, and 75% of those were on the weekend
Toumpas and Trengove - nice sentiment but both are in the too good for SANFL, not good enough for AFL category
Amon/Bonner. Brilliant one second, terrible the next 20 minutes

In the wins column... or more the i dont really blame them column

Clurey has shown some improvement
DBJ has turned into a decent player
Polec has really elevated his game
Marshall had an interrupted year
Dougal has been solid
Tom Jonas has been sensational (apart from last week, sticking him on JDG wasnt the right match up at all)
Westhoff has had a great year
Farrell has shown some things
Hammer was going great until the injury
Lienert has shown something

The rest.... to a large extent i put down to gameplan and coaching.
Our forward play is diabolical. Our disposal into forward 50 is terrible, and all too often we play with too many smalls who dont or cant impact the game.
Thats the main reason i'm hesitant to judge Watts or Dixon too harshly. Hell even Jarman Impey has looked decent in another coaching structure.
Now thats everything from forward coaches, midfield coaches, head coach and defensive. Yes our defensive numbers are great but all too often we flood back and look to counter. Keeping teams to low scores is great but if you arent scoring yourself then it doesnt really matter.

Honestly though, i think we over rate our talent. Our A graders are Robbie, Dixon, Ryder and i'd almost have Jonas there. Under that though... we dont really compare favourably with other teams, especially in midfield depth.

tldr/we need to review the whole football department and our talent just isnt that good

Good summary but please ... Dixon is not an A grader. R Grey, Polec and to a lesser degree Wines and Wingard are in the A graders. Dixon is a goodish player with perhaps an a grade desire.

 

[Us against the rest]

What went wrong is that apart from bits here and there we didn't look like a team.
Lots of individual class around the place but not a team.
Anything else is over analysing.

Dunno about individual coaches but the coaching team as a whole messed up.
The players could have coached themselves into a top 12 spot.

Just watching the sport, the coaches are all in denial and believe they are on the right path.

 

[Capital Power]

Good summary but please ... Dixon is not an A grader. R Grey, Polec and to a lesser degree Wines and Wingard are in the A graders. Dixon is a goodish player with perhaps an a grade desire.

Disagree, I think Charlie is A grade - he's been asked to fill all sorts of roles this year, it's no wonder his marking and goalkicking has fallen off. If we'd played a regular ruck, or even a regular forward line, he'd have been in a far more comfortable role. He's also for mine the most passionate of our players and seems to generally care about the guernsey. We missed him last week, not just in F50.

We have a strategy that forces players into role rather than finding the right role for individual players' skills. That's been to the detriment of Dixon, and arguably players like Gray (both), Wingard and Boak.

Oh, and I'd add Westhoff. In a structured team he's invaluable, because he's so hard to match up on.

 

[OneGreatClub]

The media have and will continue to roast our club and for once I welcome it.
We have gone backwards this year and it is totally unacceptable.

 

[Portology]

what a year,,, cutting new lows for both Power and Pies



just to paste a bit from that link

“I think Ken Hinkley’s disarmed Port Adelaide,” King told SEN’s Whateley.

“They had strength areas last year. They were a very good scoring from clearance team, they had the second best attack in the competition, third best defence, they played a forward half game – best in the competition at locking the ball in that forward half.

“It was impossible to move the ball end to end against Port Adelaide.

“I think Hinkley has to look at the way he’s set this team up. Not just for the last few weeks, not just the scoring problems they’ve had, this is a full season-long problem.

..yada..

“They’ve been the most disappointing side this year. You can throw Essendon in there as well, but I think this has been done by design. This is the way Port wants to play,” King said.

“To be honest with you, I have no idea who Port Adelaide are now.”.

Quoted because I can’t bring myself to “like” it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Grave Danger]

Maybe there's been too much of this going on...

 

[*PAF]

Just watching the sport, the coaches are all in denial and believe they are on the right path.

Yeah and we will probably get told of all the KPIs we hit.
Have fewer points scored against - Check
Win more games than lose - Check

Playing as a team week in week out - Not a KPI next

 

[jack_black16]

What a feeling waking up this morning knowing you’re not making the 8 after being 11-4.

And then fronting up at work to be made fun of by crows and Brisbane supporters.

****ing BRISBANE SUPPORTERS!

 

[JUSTWORK]

Re-wrinting our game plan is where it went wrong. We were #2 Offensively, #3 Defensively, Dominant time in forward half side (#1 was it?) sides couldn't transition the ball against us.

We bought in, Rockliff (who albeit didn't have a preseason) Motlop and Watts, this should have improved out efficiency, I50 entries, scoring and made our midfield more dominant. It didn't, somehow the exact opposite has happened.

 

[RossFC]

“To be honest with you, I have no idea who Port Adelaide are now.”.

Yep we've lost our soul at all levels.

 

[EskimoPAFC]

what a year,,, cutting new lows for both Power and Pies



just to paste a bit from that link

“I think Ken Hinkley’s disarmed Port Adelaide,” King told SEN’s Whateley.

“They had strength areas last year. They were a very good scoring from clearance team, they had the second best attack in the competition, third best defence, they played a forward half game – best in the competition at locking the ball in that forward half.

“It was impossible to move the ball end to end against Port Adelaide.

“I think Hinkley has to look at the way he’s set this team up. Not just for the last few weeks, not just the scoring problems they’ve had, this is a full season-long problem.

..yada..

“They’ve been the most disappointing side this year. You can throw Essendon in there as well, but I think this has been done by design. This is the way Port wants to play,” King said.

“To be honest with you, I have no idea who Port Adelaide are now.”.

Damnit why does David King have to be so damn accurate and correct. This is a brilliant, perfect article, by a bloke who just last week was doing everything he could to claim the title of biggest douchebag in sports media.

 

[Lawnchair Larry]

Damnit why does David King have to be so damn accurate and correct. This is a brilliant, perfect article, by a bloke who just last week was doing everything he could to claim the title of biggest douchebag in sports media.

I do not agree with this comment from King re last year:

It was impossible to move the ball end to end against Port Adelaide

This is not the first year I have despaired at how easily the ball has squirted out of attack for an easy goal to the opposition.

 

[*PAF]

I do not agree with this comment from King re last year:

It was impossible to move the ball end to end against Port Adelaide

This is not the first year I have despaired at how easily the ball has squirted out of attack for an easy goal to the opposition.

Agree. There were some sides or coaches who did it too easily and if anything we over compensated for the exception rather than the rule, to the point were we forgot how to do the things we were good at.

 

[Lawnchair Larry]

Agree. There were some sides or coaches who did it too easily and if anything we over compensated for the exception rather than the rule, to the point were we forgot how to do the things we were good at.

When you combine a few "easy squirts" out of our attack for opposition goals, with an inability for us to score, it makes for frustrating and poor outcomes.

 

[x_les_x]

moreover by recruiting 3 players for our best 22 we lost players in our best 26 young ah chee trengove etc and were really feeling it now. You dont win premierships with 22 you win it with anywhere between 26-30 time and time its shown again. Anyone who thinks the rejects we picked up were any better than them really need to take their glasses off. Ah chee etc at least knew our style and their roles. "star" recruits watts and rockcliff both spent time in the sanfl because they werent fit, wasnt adept to our style or both. This is why i think we will push maybe next year but most likely the year after as we build up a solid foundation list. No rejects, no short people genuine depth.

by rejects i mean thomas mckenzie trengove barry etc

 

[Byrons Firen]

This is one problem we have ... many a time a player makes position up forward but the ball is bloody held on to while the player with the ball works out if to pass it forward or back ..

Talking to Max James ('77 Premiership player) this morning and he said...
"I would hate to be a forward now the way Port play. We were taught to start a lead the moment the ball carrier looked up".
The DE% of so many of our senior players is below AFL standard.
Malcolm Blight tonight on aa said this
"there are stats on everything these days, I don't care about mids having to kick under pressure that comes with the position
BUT
if your not hitting targets while under minimum pressure (out in the open) find another living".
He then went on to Q our list
backup ruck/s
too many similar types
way too many players with sub par skills especially kicking
stop/start footy doesn't work well with poor skills

^ not word for word but close'ish
went on to say season not a disaster, hang tough supporters and Ken has delivered 10+ wins each yr

make of it what you will

 

[El_Scorcho]

Our kicking issues stem from a lack of cohesive system. We didn't just accidentally draft and trade for the worst kicking team in the league. Teams that appear to kick well do so because they know exactly where the options will be well ahead of time.

 

[Byrons Firen]

Agree with a lot of this post but you are being way too harsh on Bonner. He was pick 37 and is only in his third season yet played 19 games (up from 3 last year and 1 the year before).

Should he have been rotated out more? Yeah probably. But he still has a lot of potential and plenty of upside (that we will almost definitely completely waste of course).

Your right it's early days but he aint a defender imo. Wing of anywhere but defence. If his awareness doesn't improve then ouch

 

[JUSTWORK]

Your right it's early days but he aint a defender imo. Wing of anywhere but defence. If his awareness doesn't improve then ouch

Needs a big pre-season, in the gym to toughen up but also an SAS like off-season training session thats tough mentally and also physically. (can take some friends with him)

(just non in the collective-mind wank that the crows did)

 

[Byrons Firen]

Our kicking issues stem from a lack of cohesive system. We didn't just accidentally draft and trade for the worst kicking team in the league. Teams that appear to kick well do so because they know exactly where the options will be well ahead of time.

and this is coaching. Pyke had the neighbours #1 last yr D50 to F50 it's one of the reasons Ken's record v them is awful.
They are better coached than us. Pyke turns average players into better ones, we on the other hand

 

[RossFC]

 

[Handyandy]

Our kicking issues stem from a lack of cohesive system. We didn't just accidentally draft and trade for the worst kicking team in the league. Teams that appear to kick well do so because they know exactly where the options will be well ahead of time.

Yeah but, most of our mids are poor kicks. Boak has always been a bad kick, ollies kicking technique is flawed, Ebert is hit or miss, mostly miss, spp has terrible kicking stats but his technique is ok, Rockliff hits targets but lacks penetration. Then we have Dixon who got his goal kicking radar set right for one game of the entire season and the hoff who has no confidence in front of goals. The fact many of our players can't pass the ball 10 metres is not entirely the coaches fault. if Hinkley were sacked tomorrow would these players disposal miraculously improve?.
In Hinkleys time at port our disposal efficiency is amongst the lowest in the afl and in my mind it was the major factor which prevented us going further in his first 2 final series with us. I still watch that game we lost to Geelong in 2013 and hawthorn in 2014 and it was a succession of bad kicks/ turnovers from senior players like boak that cost us. And years later it's the same story.

 

[Janus]

“Winning the ball, simply getting your hands on the ball. Last year they were top four for contested possession, this year - 10th or 11th.

“For locking the ball in your forward half, they were number one, now they sit 13th.”

Way we want to play, huh? King has no ****ing idea. Our entire game is built on getting numbers to the contest. We recruited Rockliff to help with this, but instead Powell-Pepper saw this as an opportunity to slack off instead of viewing it as help so he could crash in harder.

As for not being able to lock the ball in...that falls squarely on the shoulders of Lade, who has advocated not scoring points from pockets to not ****ing scoring at all, favouring trying to get the ball into the right position slowly instead of just getting the ball on quickly. Remember in the preseason when someone posted that Lade criticised the midfield for delivering the ball “too ****ing wide”, and everyone cheered? This season is the product of that shit. Nothing wrong with hitting pockets if that’s your only option.

 

[GremioPower]

I do not agree with this comment from King re last year:

It was impossible to move the ball end to end against Port Adelaide

This is not the first year I have despaired at how easily the ball has squirted out of attack for an easy goal to the opposition.

It was either impossible or damn too easy. In those patches when we would simply get into "stand-by," teams would roll us over at will. We probably tried to fix that this season, but the treatment ended up being worse than the malaise.

Agree. There were some sides or coaches who did it too easily and if anything we over compensated for the exception rather than the rule, to the point were we forgot how to do the things we were good at.

The exception were the best teams, though.

“Winning the ball, simply getting your hands on the ball. Last year they were top four for contested possession, this year - 10th or 11th.

“For locking the ball in your forward half, they were number one, now they sit 13th.”

Way we want to play, huh? King has no ******* idea. Our entire game is built on getting numbers to the contest. We recruited Rockliff to help with this, but instead Powell-Pepper saw this as an opportunity to slack off instead of viewing it as help so he could crash in harder.

As for not being able to lock the ball in...that falls squarely on the shoulders of Lade, who has advocated not scoring points from pockets to not ******* scoring at all, favouring trying to get the ball into the right position slowly instead of just getting the ball on quickly. Remember in the preseason when someone posted that Lade criticised the midfield for delivering the ball “too ******* wide”, and everyone cheered? This season is the product of that shit. Nothing wrong with hitting pockets if that’s your only option.

Plenty was said about this, but let me get back to the argument:

a) teams won't simply give us the corridor, it is necessary to play the pockets and kick from outside, so the corridor opens up;

b) we have struggled to keep the ball in our fwd half (fwd pressure), but when we did, it is easier for the opponent to close the corridor;

c) we haven't won contests as we should;

d) our defensive rebound wasn't efficient;

e) Our transition fwd was slow.

In brief, our execution has let us down. The question here is why? There were too many flaws...

 

[Janus]

Lade saying that moving the ball quickly out of defence increases the risk of turnovers in the back half vs moving slowly decreasing the opportunities to score shows why he needs to be fired into the sun.

Moving the ball quickly only increases the risk of turnovers if players are forcing options that aren’t ****ing there. And that comes from not running into space to provide free ball. Get the ball moving and pull the defence out of position. It’s not that ****ing hard. In defence, sure, be stagnant and keep zones. Offence should be fluid. The only time you shouldn’t be moving the ball fast out of defence is when the opposition is hanging back waiting to play you on the counter.