Autopsy North v Cats

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zoomba23

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 17, 2017
5,485
15,117
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Shaw is completely out of his depth.

Structure and gameplan are completely f’ed.
This is one of my main gripes right now. Like yes, it's an interrupted season. But every other team's going through the same s**t. Yes, we have injuries, but that doesn't mean we're putting a VFL team on the park every week like Adelaide are. There's a bit of talent in this team. More talent than Freo, Hawthorn and Sydney I would argue. But there's no gameplan, no conviction from the players about where they're gonna move the ball, no genuine intent in terms of actual ball movement. It's just bomb it long to the bloke with 4 defenders on him, turn it over and defend. We're getting there at the contest, but there's no one outside the contest, and then we get killed on the spread. The only good periods we've had this year have been when opposition pressure has completely dropped off. 2nd half against the Saints, last week, last bit of the 4th quarter against the Hawks. You can't be an AFL side and be so utterly s**t at dealing with pressure. It's gonna come. Find a gameplan to work around it, try something new, just do something different, for Christ's sake.

I honestly thought Shaw was the man for the job after seeing us at the back end of last season. Even the shitshow at the Cattery I dismissed as an off night from a coach and a team going in the right direction. But I'm really second guessing that call now.
 

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Aug 25, 2006
18,246
33,723
Mount Waverley
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Yeah was thinking the same. And the fact that if we had a full list some of these kids wouldn’t be getting an opportunity - so the positive is that they’re really getting a good run.
Also a lot of blokes coming back off injury.

We haven’t been able to pick anything close to a full strength lineup for a long time.

Another game into some kids and they had a crack.
 

Bigming

Club Legend
May 31, 2015
1,335
722
Hong Kong
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
The Millers
Geelong is designed to beat us . They have their KPPs who don't run, and runners who stay on the ground. We have little dudes jumping for everything, and talls who rove. Atley, for instance, gets the ball, likes to wave his hand around then kick conservatively, or handpass to a still patient. Yes patient, because you know the guy is going to get crunched.

Defensively we couldn't seem to hold tackles and made too many silly errors running forward - especially today when it seemed to occur when players had time and options.
 

hcd199

Club Legend
Apr 29, 2009
2,376
2,556
Hobart
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Waterford GAA, Glenorchy, Hob (BBL)
I think everyone is well aware of the many mitigating factors this season, but the gameplan simply has to come under greater scrutiny. Our ball movement is frequently completely predictable, just gather everyone 50m down the line and kick it straight there - and on the occasions where we tried to do something different to that, our disposal was too far below standard to make anything much of it. That issue is only made all the worse by how easy it is for our opponents to move the ball around once they get hold of it, often looking like they have spare men all over the ground. This has been the issue in pretty much every loss this season, and there's basically no evidence of us doing anything to address such an obvious deficiency, which is not to say Shaw hasn't tried some things (he seems quite willing to experiment, which given our position is perfectly sensible), just that the core of our system seemingly remains the same.

Effectively, we played in patches tonight, and were lucky Geelong struggled to convert when they were all over us in the second quarter. Some of those patches were good (how brilliant was Scott's effort in the first that resulted in Hosie's second goal?), and given the short turnaround you could maybe accept that if every other team was doing the same, but in general we simply have to do those few good things much more often. Forward mix has looked better since the Blues game, backline has broadly been better since McKay came in, but the midfield is lacking...
 
May 24, 2011
1,978
2,413
Richmond
AFL Club
North Melbourne
It was hard to watch, we looked slow our small backs are just terrible, I know we say this very week but Atley must go.

Will Walker looked lost, Hosie was OK but I don’t think he will make it when we have a team to chose from.
 
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showusyacunningt

Premiership Player
Aug 17, 2010
3,390
3,921
doghouse
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Haleing goals
Shaw is completely out of his depth.

Structure and gameplan are completely f’ed.

Think about what he has at his disposal. Such a horrible hodgepodge of half-fit guys, kids and senior players who can't kick and make poor decisions.

Need to give him a chance to put together a team that can play the style he wants.
 

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Mar 14, 2002
61,764
83,157
Gasometer Wing
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Kangaroos
Well your got understand this man has had a tremendous hatred of our club since the mids 90s never had a nice word to say about North and in many ways like Luke Darcy has cost us players in AA teams.

So this...and when something goes our way it's through gritted teeth

I suspect it goes back to the Swans losing the 1996 Gold Cup. Lol. Get over it.
 

Bigming

Club Legend
May 31, 2015
1,335
722
Hong Kong
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
The Millers
Well your got understand this man has had a tremendous hatred of our club since the mids 90s never had a nice word to say about North and in many ways like Luke Darcy has cost us players in AA teams.
I saw Healy once having a coffee in Hobart before a game once a couple of years ago, and he reminded me of Spinal Tap's reaction on tour to sharing a bill with a puppet show.
 
Meh.


Glad McKay was on Hawkins for most of it, he’s being backed in. Thought he was ok. Kids mostly good again. Move on.


There is a lot of Forrest for the trees posts on the board at the moment.
 
Mar 14, 2002
61,764
83,157
Gasometer Wing
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Kangaroos
Think about what he has at his disposal. Such a horrible hodgepodge of half-fit guys, kids and senior players who can't kick and make poor decisions.

Need to give him a chance to put together a team that can play the style he wants.

Hardwick lost his first 9 games as a Coach.
 

ChoppyGun

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 19, 2020
5,673
10,063
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Shaw is completely out of his depth.

Structure and gameplan are completely f’ed.

It might take time to undo a decade of incompetence in charge mate.

But yes, it isn't good that's for sure and we must improve.
 

StrokerAce

Senior List
Aug 17, 2009
279
214
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Well then you should know better.

FWIW been a Member since 1976.
You’ve been a member longer, well done. I wasn’t born then and don’t know you so I’m not going to argue if I should be frustrated about the game or not. Have a great rest of the week mate.
 
Apr 17, 2007
24,888
43,452
melb home of the kangas
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
hellas,liverpool,storm,au
One passage of play we look fantastic, moving the ball quickly and hitting targets.

Next, we go slow down the line, invite pressure and turn it over.

Don't even get me started on getting sucked into the contest.

We could have the best list in the comp, but we play this way and we won't be winning a flag.

It’s called working hard - we get outworked in defence and attack.
Always led to the ball is our biggest issue.
 

blisk

Senior List
Aug 3, 2018
271
493
AFL Club
North Melbourne
We’re simply not good enough to play games our own terms. Last week was an anomaly, we played one of the worst teams in recent history.
Beyond frustrating watching players like atley and Macmillan(who admittedly was one of our better performers tonight) rackup continuous Afl games showing no signs of continuous improvement or game breaking ability. Why we are trying to turn Bonar who has explosive abilities into a lockdown defender whilst we have Murphy not able to get a game is bizarre.
 

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