Autopsy Autopsy: North Melbourne vs Fremantle: Round 1, 2019 - 82 point L (59-141) (No opposition posters)

[Contra Mundum]

We should have had a 5 goal lead at quarter time.

Freo luck in to some breaks, some umpiring calls, we drop our bundle, they grow a leg..........................and on it goes.

Our inside fifties where s**t house - either low burners or on the top of the head


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[D23D]

We should have had a 5 goal lead at quarter time.

Freo luck in to some breaks, some umpiring calls, we drop our bundle, they grow a leg..........................and on it goes.

Why are we so mentally fragile?
It’s embarrassing and pathetic for grown men to cower like this under pressure.
Need a couple of hard nuts out there.

 

[Supreme_Chancellor]

All this criticism of Scott. I’ve been saying this s*** for years, even before I got on Bigfooty. I never bought into what he was selling. He always came across as a soft coach, with no initiative to truly adapt and push players to their limits. People look at the “Prelim Finals” as “playing above ourselves” but to be honest, I felt cheated out of at least a Grand Final appearance. 2019 has to be the last straw for Brad. You can’t be our longest serving coach and not ever win anything, let alone even make the top 4 once. It’s a shame, because Brad comes across as a nice bloke, but nice blokes don’t always succeed. We have a loser mentality at this football club, where mediocrity is accepted. It’s time this club actually gives back to the supporters for once. Don’t just talk about trying to win premierships, actually build towards it and achieve it properly. Personally my optimism and passion gets drained on a yearly basis, because Im still sitting here wondering ‘When are we going to finally win that goddamn Premiership?’ Knowing my luck with all my sports teams, probably when I’m in my 40’s like when my Grandfather had to wait to see the Club win their first.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Why are we so mentally fragile?
It’s embarrassing and pathetic for grown men to cower like this under pressure.
Need a couple of hard nuts out there.

Because the players are forced to adhere to something that doesn't work and they don't believe in.

 

[benbanjo]

Because the players are forced to adhere to something that doesn't work and they don't believe in.

I remember bumping into some of the Nth boys back in 2006. We asked them what's going on with our game plan, they said Laidley told them they had to chip it around, they hated the game plan but did it anyway. Next year though everything changed, Laidley was 10X the game day coach that Brad is.

 

[Shagga is all Class]

I remember bumping into some of the Nth boys back in 2006. We asked them what's going on with our game plan, they said Laidley told them they had to chip it around, they hated the game plan but did it anyway. Next year though everything changed, Laidley was 10X the game day coach that Brad is.

2006, 3rd last with the likes of Kasey Green and Dan "The Man" McConnell.

Those were the days.

At least Essendon helped us out by picking up Gumby. Boak or Selwood could have been handy. We did get super Gav to add to our stockpile of flankers.

 

[Only Forwards]

You don't get the impression that Brad gets any heat from the Board when he serves up this s**t.

Nope.

We recontract early every time and the team has been serving s**t up like that since Brad's second game.

There maybe episodic feedback that occurs but from an overarching perspective Brad is clearly protected and he know it.

It seems near enough is good enough while we have a stable club. We are exceedingly risk adverse and it shows.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Nope.

We recontract early every time and the team has been serving s**t up like that since Brad's second game.

There maybe episodic feedback that occurs but from an overarching perspective Brad is clearly protected and he know it.

It seems near enough is good enough while we have a stable club. We are exceedingly risk adverse and it shows.

There's a self reinforcing clique down there, who are all simply serving the purpose of securing each others long term tenure.

The Brayshaw era is over.

The place needs a broom taken to it.

I look forward to an alternative administration emerging.

 

[Event Horizon]

I'm watching the replay and with four minutes to go in the first we are the better team and we're getting screwed by the umps. Freo's second goal (from the bounce in the middle) looked like it should have been bounced again (it looked like the ball was outside the circle after the bounce) and Goldy should have had a shot on goal from an infringement in the ruck.

Fyfe - holy diver batman!!

Yes, in some ways that first quarter wasn't too bad, but the way we folded after that was pathetic.
It is critical, in away games especially, for the forwards to take their opportunities early. But our forward line looked like it was still in November preseason mode. Our backline looked like they have just been told the game was starting 5 minutes before the bounce and they barely had time to put the boots on.

Midfield put some ok work in for a while but then realised it was going to be a long day and just gave up.

 

[ferball]

I haven't watched past the first quarter cos I'm pretty pissed off about how meekly they folded.

 

[Psychic Roo]

There's the result, before you even look at how it impacts forward entries.

Modern footy. Back half turnovers = loss. 25 = thrashing. Worst thing is they are the three experienced small/ mid backs. I am staggered that this keeps getting tolerated. At any level of footy you would be under the pump with 2 or 3 bad back half turnovers. 12 and youd be in the twos regardless of what else you did. Message needs to be sent. Turn it over down back and play 2s. It will change things. If they cant improve then delist or trade and find someone who will keep the ball.

 

[benbanjo]

Dont card this bloke he's funny.

 

[andana]

Under the rule a free kick will be paid for prohibited contact with an opposition player if a strike with a closed fist occurs, regardless of force, an elbow is delivered with force to the back or a player is bumped off the ball.
In the vision, the umpiring department showed that a free kick should have been paid against North Melbourne's Ben Cunnington when he struck Fremantle's Nathan Wilson off the ball during the closing minutes of Sunday's game at Optus Stadium.

 

[domiroo]

I reckon you vote one nation .. ..

 

[Snake_Baker]

I am always amazed when dickheads go to the extent of signing up alt accounts just to post absolute lame s**t.

Has to be a kid.

 

[Twinkletoes]

I am always amazed when dickheads go to the extent of signing up alt accounts just to post absolute lame s**t.

Has to be a kid.

A kid now lacking access to this thread.

 

[Snake_Baker]

A kid now lacking access to this thread.

Oh well, back to coloring in stuff I suppose.

 

[Mixed Results]

Was watching some of the first quarter again and I thought it was interesting that we let Freo play with a spare midfielder, which I didn't pick up on at the time.

Three of their first four goals actually involved using that extra mid to get the ball forward quickly from their defensive half.

This Hill goal shows it pretty well, as you can see their extra man run in from their forward line as Polec kicks the ball inside 50. When Freo gets the ball back out you can see that they kicked to a three on two, which they win easily, and then when they get the ball forward you can see that we've left a man spare.


This gif also highlights just how bad of an idea it was matching up Scott on Brad Hill, which I think most people noticed when watching the game live. Bailey Scott is a tremendous player already, but putting a slower first gamer on Freo's most dangerous mid is absolutely terrible coaching in my opinion.

 

[ferball]

Was watching some of the first quarter again and I thought it was interesting that we let Freo play with a spare midfielder, which I didn't pick up on at the time.

Three of their first four goals actually involved using that extra mid to get the ball forward quickly from their defensive half.

This Hill goal shows it pretty well, as you can see their extra man run in from their forward line as Polec kicks the ball inside 50. When Freo gets the ball back out you can see that they kicked to a three on two, which they win easily, and then when they get the ball forward you can see that we've left a man spare.


This gif also highlights just how bad of an idea it was matching up Scott on Brad Hill, which I think most people noticed when watching the game live. Bailey Scott is a tremendous player already, but putting a slower first gamer on Freo's most dangerous mid is absolutely terrible coaching in my opinion.

Yeah that match up cost us imo.

 

[Only Forwards]

Under the rule a free kick will be paid for prohibited contact with an opposition player if a strike with a closed fist occurs, regardless of force, an elbow is delivered with force to the back or a player is bumped off the ball.
In the vision, the umpiring department showed that a free kick should have been paid against North Melbourne's Ben Cunnington when he struck Fremantle's Nathan Wilson off the ball during the closing minutes of Sunday's game at Optus Stadium.

How's bout when the bloke whacked McKay in the nuts?

 

[shintemaster]

Yeah that match up cost us imo.

True. To be fair, so did just about every other matchup as well.

 

[ferball]

True. To be fair, so did just about every other matchup as well.

Playing your first game on a three time premiership player who is fast as lightning is a big ask. Hill was one of their best players and instrumental in their victory imo. Its Bailey's first game and if other players had put in as well and as much as he did we would have been in a much better position. And we'd probably have said they broke even across the match.

 

[shintemaster]

Playing your first game on a three time premiership player who is fast as lightning is a big ask. Hill was one of their best players and instrumental in their victory imo. Its Bailey's first game and if other players had put in as well and as much as he did we would have been in a much better position. And we'd probably have said they broke even across the match.

That's all I'm getting at. Not saying that he didn't have a big impact, just saying that in the end I'm not convinced that any one player of his stature should be able to impact that much if the rest of our team was pulling their weight. In the end if we'd actually put some pressure on Fremantle - of any sort - I doubt this single matchup would be the difference. As it stands it was, but we could have put Ben Jacobs on Hill last week and the team would have still got flogged even if Hill had 0 touches IMO.

 

[ferball]

That's all I'm getting at. Not saying that he didn't have a big impact, just saying that in the end I'm not convinced that any one player of his stature should be able to impact that much if the rest of our team was pulling their weight. In the end if we'd actually put some pressure on Fremantle - of any sort - I doubt this single matchup would be the difference. As it stands it was, but we could have put Ben Jacobs on Hill last week and the team would have still got flogged even if Hill had 0 touches IMO.

I haven't watched the whole game yet but when it was there to be won Hill got the ball repeatedly. I know cos I heard his name on the radio so many times. if everyone else had pulled their weight it wouldn't have mattered as much or at all tho.

 

[CBSlogger]

I'm up to page 16 and what hasn't been covered too much is just how much the 6/6/6 was always likely to hit us hard, much harder than most.

A common frustration I've had the last few years is Brad's incessant use of a spare defender/s, which would drive me nuts as the opposition's spare (with their superior skills) would usually chop us to pieces from the other end. It just seemed so ill suited to our player skillset, with our lack of elite ball use to capitalise on it. Yet it always been Brad's go to option. Often 8 defenders to start.

I saw some stats in pre season which had us at the very high end of spare-defender use over the last few years, and it dawned on me that it was about to bite us fairly and squarely on the arse.

Who was the 6/6/6 rule likely to affect most? Logic says:
1. Teams that set up with a spare/s by default
2. Teams with poor 1-on-1 defenders
3. Teams lacking in quality back-half users

Unfortunately we're rock solid candidates for every category above.

I hope we rebound but i worry that the long term affect of the 6/6/6 is that it unfortunately suits our team and gameplan perhaps the least in the entire comp. Worse still, Brad probably knows it.