Review Round 16, 2020 vs North Melbourne

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FutureShock

Team Captain
May 13, 2019
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Glad to get another win but it's another unconvincing win that demonstrates why we won't have success in finals. All the usual issues were there, the mental lapses, the shoddy disposal, the bombing into the forward line, the keystone cop level screw-ups. We did hit up a few passes going forward which was a rare treat.

Good to see Wines and Boak in form, Lycett was good in the ruck too, DBJ ok.
Rozee and Duursma seem to be having major cases of the 2nd year blues, both been poor all season.
Butters has gone the other way, been terrific after struggling a bit in his first year. We're going to miss him badly.
SPP has gone up a level, having more impact and less of the dumb stuff - can't recall the last stupid attempted fend off.
Too many non-contributors, we can't afford to have 4-6 doing nothing each week, we won't get away with that in finals.
 

davo999

Club Legend
Nov 5, 2009
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Can someone please tell me what Farrell brings to the side. He’s a nice kick but I’ve seen him play only one really good game. Surely there is a better option.
Reminds me a bit of Amon when he first came in , just no one on one skills but good when he had the ball .
I don’t know how long we can carry him until he gets the power in his body to be more competitive.
I think the wing is his go butDuursma is in front of him .
 

Ned_Isakoff

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Aug 27, 2018
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I've watched the footage of the Butters incident several times and have frozen the vision at various stages and I am struggling to see what is wrong with his actions.
At normal speed he had little time to respond and seemed to brace for impact. Simpkins head collided with Butters upper shoulder from what I am seeing.
Personally I saw nothing malicious with the the incident.
Thoughts?
Also why were the commentators suggesting the number of weeks Butters was likely to be suspended for throughout the rest of the quarter? I didn't think this was commonplace.
 

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MrMeaner

Brownlow Medallist
Jan 15, 2004
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There is certainly still a lot of room for improvement but I’m impressed we are grinding out the wins.

As others have pointed out, we really need to work out the forward line. I thought we went some of the way to doing that tonight with other players leading away from Charlie and getting a couple of pretty easy marks and shots on goal. We just need to keep mixing that up.

More worrying recently is how easy it’s been for teams to chip over us and work their way out of defence. But that should be able to be tweaked (especially if Motlop goes out, as he should).

Despite a nothing game, I think Farrell gets a reprieve with Butters getting a coupLe of weeks’ rest. Ladhams coming back in will stretch Essendon’s defence but we will miss Zak buzzing around at the base of those packs.

Really, it’s just another week down with a win. if somehow we stumble to two more that’s a whole minor round on top of the ladder, which is a stunning achievement.
 
Oct 7, 2005
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Are there other teams?
Look, the Butters thing. Careless, high contact, medium impact = 1 game.

It’s not going to get 2 games unless graded high impact. It won’t.
A one game rest for Butters won’t hurt him. Hasn’t had a rest all year.

The rules are that a bump to the head is careless minimum.
 
Apr 27, 2007
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Surprised McKenzie is getting a pass from everyone tonight. Thought his disposal tonight was terrible. A couple of costly turnovers and missed targets.
 
Jun 19, 2005
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They reckoned that the initial part of the test for Simpkin was clear and they didn’t need the rest. From a medical perspective, that’s fair enough. But let’s see Christian rule it as ‘severe’ as a result.


Christian - "NM, can you please supply me with a medical report of the incident?

NM Medical Report - "Simpkins' head is hanging on only by a bit of skin".
 
Jun 12, 2012
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There is certainly still a lot of room for improvement but I’m impressed we are grinding out the wins.

As others have pointed out, we really need to work out the forward line. I thought we went some of the way to doing that tonight with other players leading away from Charlie and getting a couple of pretty easy marks and shots on goal. We just need to keep mixing that up.

More worrying recently is how easy it’s been for teams to chip over us and work their way out of defence. But that should be able to be tweaked (especially if Motlop goes out, as he should).

Despite a nothing game, I think Farrell gets a reprieve with Butters getting a coupLe of weeks’ rest. Ladhams coming back in will stretch Essendon’s defence but we will miss Zak buzzing around at the base of those packs.

Really, it’s just another week down with a win. if somehow we stumble to two more that’s a whole minor round on top of the ladder, which is a stunning achievement.

Good assessment this and whilst staying top all year would certainly be an achievement it will prove to be the only achievement of the Hinkley era if we don’t tighten things up. We desperately need to get back to that intensity from the Richmond win.
 

MrMeaner

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Jan 15, 2004
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Looking at the Butters bump on Simpkin, Butters didn’t move much. It was mostly Simpkin‘s momentum that took him into Zak. Zak didn’t jump. Simpkin’s knees were bent as he tried to go around and then brace. It was just bad luck. I know it was a split second decision, but it would have been better for Zak to have gone for the tackle.
 

Skindy

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Sep 18, 2016
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Surprised McKenzie is getting a pass from everyone tonight. Thought his disposal tonight was terrible. A couple of costly turnovers and missed targets.

Kept trying to float his kicks rather than kicking low and hard to targets. The turnover in the defensive 50 when he was kicking to Houston was criminal purely based on the hang time of the ball.
 

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Surprised McKenzie is getting a pass from everyone tonight. Thought his disposal tonight was terrible. A couple of costly turnovers and missed targets.
He did it at SANFL level a bit too, I reckon it's the coaches telling him to kick short.
 

rogerjames

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 7, 2014
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A comfortable 6-goal win that could've been 10 if we'd kicked straight, uninspiring but better than the past two weeks. We were clearly in control for the entirety of the game and it was a lazy 6 goals in the third quarter when we decided to start running the ball instead of missing targets by foot. Both teams clearly didn't have their kicking boots on today with so many fumbles and slips as well. Reckon it was a lot more slippery on the deck than what we could see.

One thing became really clear to me tonight: our core of Boak, Wines, Robbie, SPP, Rockliff, Amon, DBJ, Charlie and Butters have been carrying us during this run of uninspiring wins versus lesser teams. It's really important we've got that core all playing consistent footy and that it's enough to get us over the line most weeks. Jonas, McKenzie and Hartlett are servicable pretty much day-in day-out as well.

What's concerning is our bottom half: Motlop, Sutcliffe, Farrell all non-existent. Marshall and Duursma were honest triers, especially Duursma in and under, but we should be expecting to see a little more from them with the talent they have. Burton injured again is so disappointing, he's probably done for the season now, would be a risk to play him in finals. These blokes on the edge need to find some form fast or be out of the team come finals.

Butters is a jet, he's been one of our best this season and I love his attack on the footy, but that bump could cost us bad. He should've tackled instead of bumped, it didn't look good and Simpkin didn't play out the match. It's going to be more than a week taking into account the Port tax, and missing crucial games against Essendon and Collingwood that can lock in our top-2 spot is a big disappointment for Zak. Still, couldn't help a sh*t-eating grin when Ziebell tried to take out Butters and he came off worse, shades of Biglands v Pickett! He hit about half a dozen other perfectly legal bumps tonight, it was just unfortunate that one of them was off. Don't stop being our crazy little kamikaze kid Zak, just learn when to tackle instead.

To end on a positive, SPP nailing two perfect piercing kicks to forwards on the lead back-to-back shows just how far his disposal has come this season. Ollie shanked the ball a bit but with 30 possies and 2 goals, the Bash Brothers have showed they are a little more than just their big bodies this year. In great form heading into finals.
Excellent summary. Think Durrs will be fine, starting to show some signs of his previous form.
 
Strange game, but we did everything required.

Shame about Burton, but we're at the stage where his availability is a bonus.
We will miss Zac, there's no way that Christian will show any mercy.

Trav superb, such a universally respected player now.
Who said that Ollie and Rocky couldn't play well together in the same game?
Pep played like a load was off his mind. Lycett gave Goldstein a hiding.

The unheralded are starting to hear some trumpets - DBJ and Amon, also Houston.
Dixon looked tired. Todd also, we need a better option as second ruck. Ladhams straight back for mine.

Our structure behind the ball receives a lot of plaudits, it must be better than I remember from last season.

Highlights:
- umpire calling Todd Marshall "Dougal"
- Hammer's drum solo
- Zac backslamming Goldstein.
- Pep twice turning back the clock and going for the ol' hair slickback on his bald scalp!
- Robbie calmly explaining to Ziebell the meaning of the word "campaigner" at halftime
- Zac laughing at Ziebell
- Pep's facial expression after his gift goal
- Josh Walker claiming one-hand, one- bounce.
 
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The Good
12-3 (11-4 hoodoo be gone)
Ports first win in September in 6 long years!
Port will be playing finals in October
Boak, Wines, Lycett, Dixon, SPP, Amon, Hammer and Butters
Played an explosive patch of footy in the 3rd quarter
.....
5 years. we beat Peel Thunder Rd 23, 5th September 2015. Mr Gui rocked up for that game.
 
How the fu** does North Melbourne get away with not performing a concussion test? From the moment they started viewing the vision and ruled out Simpkin based on that you knew their primary objective was to stitch up Butters. Maybe they're pissed off at Port for giving them Polec.

Lol, carn. They're 17th, in a dead rubber they were never going to win, in front of a crowd of a few thousand people, and they didn't want to risk one of the handful of good young players they have on their list. If anything their primary objective was to tank. The world doesn't revolve around our club to everyone you know.
 
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