Autopsy GC Suns V Roos - Rd 2, 2021

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Trent the flight Steward

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 30, 2006
6,553
6,389
Cessnock
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Geelong
I tuned in last night, as I think north has a real exciting list of guys 22 and under.
I was underwhelmed with the effort to run both ways and the fact that it appears already that guys in the 150 game bracket have given up on the season already, Atley, Tyson, Turner should not play again unless they have a host of injuries.

Larkey is a good second fwd, he needs someone else down there, I would be already looking at trading to get Fogarty there.

They could be a different proposition with Cunnington feeding out to the outside runners especially at marvel, if Powell Stephenson and ldu fire.

Remember that Fagan had a lean first year start at the lions, yet by the end of his first year they were playing exciting footy, where Neale decided to join them

Cons:

Tyson is not taking his opportunity. You can forgive his first game back but his efforts in his second game were not good enough. Dropped for Cunners

Larkey is not working his opponent hard enough and not working hard enough to create space although on this point our forwards are not working as a unit so not much space to deal with to be fair but he's not helping by not working.

Atley is playing well, badly at present. What I mean is that he's getting in the right positions and is trying to get the ball into the corridor but gees Louise he has had a lot of howlers attempting to do so. I'd swap him and Zurhaar around next week.

Simpkin get back to basics. Loved his effort but trying too hard. Relax son and play your natural game.

Pros

Aiden Bonar looked like a quality footballer. His pace and aggression last week was met with some quality skills and disposal this week. Some midfield minutes might be coming with his pace and size.

Jed you're a beauty. Missed the last part of the preseason and comes in and has 27 possessions and 14 ******* tackles. How is this bloke not in the leadership group? :think: Threw his body around as usual and gave it his all.

Nobes for throwing the players around during the game to come up with something and not be rigid in his approach. He might have found something with Zurhaar across half back

Finally our young blokes, who I thought showed something amongst the dross most senior players dished up. While Mahoney cops a lot of sh*t on here, his endeavour and energy was really good and it will click with him. Powell, Lazzaro, Scott, Young, Bonar, McKay and Thomas all showed something and had a crack. Not their fault.
 

Colbys Boots

Premium Gold
Oct 3, 2017
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I don’t post much but this has sent me over the edge. We get rid of Brown,the best tall forward in the land is there to be picked and we take a midfielder. We are supposed to be rebuilding you rebuild around big forwards. Seriously we are stuffed as we haven’t got a recruiting staff who have any idea of what they’re doing.

Best tall forward in the land? He wasn't even top 2 in his age group. Jamar Ugle Hagen was universally regarded as the stand out player of his draft year quite aside from being a tall forward.
 

FrangaRoo

Premiership Player
Mar 16, 2004
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We were terrible last year then decided to cull the list to the max possible, enter a rebuild and people expected us to be MORE competitive this year?

I’ll turn up next week and every week and take a few positives away but fully prepared to see a whole lot I don’t like / hate. Expectation is at an all time low.
 

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May 20, 2009
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coburg
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Not a great week.
Id love to throw out selection changes. But we just dont have the cattle currently to improve a great deal.
On a bright note.
Ive converted my geelong supporting mrs into a kanga.
Got her a membership the lot.
 

DrZaius

GENERATIONAL
Mar 28, 2016
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I don’t post much but this has sent me over the edge. We get rid of Brown,the best tall forward in the land is there to be picked and we take a midfielder. We are supposed to be rebuilding you rebuild around big forwards. Seriously we are stuffed as we haven’t got a recruiting staff who have any idea of what they’re doing.

Except he was actually the third best tall in the draft considering Ugle-Hagan & Thillthorpe were both taken before him...
Bloody hell it's not the 1980's anymore, you don't just draft a big forward and then expect everything to fall into place around him. It doesn't work like that anymore.
The angst around not drafting McDonald from some around here is getting really ******* tiresome. He is a Sydney player, end of ******* story.
 

Nutjob

Premiership Player
Oct 23, 2014
3,076
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We reminded me of Fitzroy in the mid 90’s in the first half, it was that hard to watch. Improvement in the second half, particularly the 3rd, but still really poor.

Positives: (yep I found some)
- Bonar has been really solid early in the season. He reminds me of a quicker Josh Gibson, particularly when spoiling. I think he has found his home and we have been crying out for someone to play that role for quite some time.

- I thought Powell backed up his first week really well. Has great composure and looks elite by hand. If he is notching up 20 disposal games playing half a game in the midfield, his numbers will be off the chart down the track.

- Biggest highlight for me was Lazzaro. His burst speed is exceptional and seems to have no trouble getting into the play. He always seemed to be in around the play for the most part. Quick, hard and clean which is what we need more of.

- Both Simpkin and LDU didn’t have their best games, but they still got their hands on the ball which is a positive. A poor game from LDU last season would have got him 12-14 disposals and a poor game from Simpkin would have been 16-18. The improvement is there, but our expectation is higher. It looked at times they were trying to do a bit too much when they got the ball. LDU spinning or Simpkin side stepping, it becomes predictable when you always revert to it.

- I thought Turner was very good tonight. He got involved in the game more than usual and got involved in scoring shots more than usual. Anyone criticising his game should go have a look at the replay. He seemed to play higher up the ground also.

- I think we would have lost by double the amount if Anderson wasn’t playing. With barely a preseason he seems to just get better and better. Kicking isn’t his strength, but everything else he brings is very good.

- I liked Young’s game he did some good things and some poor errors at times. Hopefully the errors reduce with more games.

- Thomas had a good second half. He seems to be running games out better than previous years. Pleased with his start to the season.

- Scott is building nicely and always seems to hit the scoreboard.

- I think our defensive unit of McKay, Corr and Bonar has been very good. With the amount of inside 50’s coming in (a lot from turnovers), they have done incredibly well to keep both loses to 50 odd points.

Negatives:
Too many to mention but I have to mention some of the efforts and basic skill errors from some of our senior players. Tyson, Atley and Polec should be embarrassed with what they dished up.
Polec seriously was a passenger, no intensity and just didn’t care. I have been a supporter of his, but I can’t support that trash.
Some of Atley’s kicking my god. Kicking a 10 mtr pass across goal and it dribbles along the ground leading to Suns goal.
And Tyson well he sums up the depth of our list and how far we still have to go.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

SonofSamsquanch

Enjoy decent coffee but don't dunk yer biscuits
Mar 31, 2016
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Yes 50% of the time they lead to forfeiture of at least 50% of your net worth.

Turner had 2 goal assists last night but only 1 tackle. 1. This defensive behemoth that we could live without.

He has a crack, but his hurt factor both with and without ball is just not there.
In all honesty how many players are lining up in their correct positions? That is, the positions that best match their skills.

Injuries are a limiting factor so we have holes that need to be filled - I get that. But we seem to have some really odd selections and players doing roles they are not built for. Versatility is a great attribute and it would be great to have a few utility players who can slot into a spot to fill a gap....If only!

Our key positions are just a mess right now. No full forward, CHF (Larkey is a great second but is not a KPP at this time), ineffective centre, Corr is good at CHB and McKay is developing now but you’d prefer him on the opposing secondary forward. I would prefer Josh Walker to cover for Robbie just now.

Cunnington will make a difference, and I just can’t get over why JZ is not on the half forward line. That is where we need a leader, and if he can get his game back on his marking and kicking would be a real benefit.

Sectors have to be ruthless. No point saying that north are rebuilding if they aren’t prepared to bring in young blokes to replace poor performers.

The misalignment of the VFL is a stinking disgrace.
 

Moti

Brownlow Medallist
Mar 4, 2001
13,841
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Melbourne
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North Melbourne
Was out tonight and just watched on delay.

Our skills are putrid. ******* putrid.

We need to pull a gun key forward out of our arse. We've got no presence down there at all.

You know you're struggling when your best players are all from the backline.

Young talent wise we are miles off Gold Coast, probably 3 drafts worth.

It's going to be a long year.

If only there was one available at the draft last year. ..


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Dirty_11

Norm Smith Medallist
Jan 28, 2014
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Perfect.

It is the biggest problem we have to solve and I don't think we have the pieces to solve it.

It'll be the biggest source of pain this year.

We'd have been 5 goals better off with an even semi functioning forward line.

Too much on too few at too young.
We need to move Ziebell forward. Corr, Walker, McKay, Young, Bonar and LMac have the defense covered.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
 
may be the case but dropping the only bloke having a crack is a very poor precident,

Larkey was putrid last night, on a couple of occasions resembles richo in body language, sure he got a few ordinary passes but he hardly toiled to break better than 50/50, compare that to king at the other end who was relatively well held by McKay and still worked his way into contests to get the advantage. he got a silver service delivery from jaiden where he just needed to stick the dukes out and couldnt even glove that.

Zurhaar was just lazy in the first half and moving him back at least meant he had to be accountable , so you can see that the players have the ability, just when they choose when to apply themselves.

Anyone got the telstra tracker on these 2?
They just don't have the tank.
 

BigRedRoo

Club Legend
May 17, 2006
1,509
2,423
Geelong
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North Melbourne
I'd really like to see us stop the coast to coast goals we seem to freely give away.
Other than that there seems to be some real lack of accountability.

Poor skills I can forgive, but the GC player standing by himself 10 meters in the clear at a boundary throw in and then hits up a leading forward is just inexcusable.
Second to the ball all night and by a long way while hard running GC players had a party at our expense.
Seriously at times GC looked like they were conducting training drills.
Getting 6 or 7 players dragged in to the pocket with no one goal side around the square is just undisciplined rubbish.
I get we are just starting a rebuild but come on, we need basic structures and a modicum of discipline.
 

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We need to move Ziebell forward. Corr, Walker, McKay, Young, Bonar and LMac have the defense covered.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Shuffling deck chairs.

Jack wasn't exactly lighting the world of fire forward when he was playing there.

My prediction for watching the forward line:

 
It’s hard to just blame the performance on the rebuild when the kids played fine and it was senior players in Atley, Tyson, Polec who were terrible.

The 2018 offseason where we hunted Gaff and instead landed Polec, Hall, Tyson and Campbell is going to bite us on the ass for years.
Brad and Joyce royally f’ed us and the fact both we’re gone not even 6 months after signing those players was unforgivable. Catastrophic trading.
Disastrous list management.
Call it what you want but both can fu** right off.

I was thinking of Brads tenure and can only think what a wasted 10 years it was.
Just shithouse.

Yes yes yes. The single biggest millstone around our neck is a decade of deskilling, poor decision making across the board and a slow but steady hard to define sucking out of players belief and confidence, it’s almost like the players exposed the longest to the cult of Brad require greater intervention and need to be deprogrammed and brought back to reality. Thank goodness our new recruits have some natural ability, skills and have started to show the required spirit to wear the jumper.

More pain in the short term but the stain of Brad will be wiped from the shinboner spirit and North will rise again ✊
 
Aug 25, 2006
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Watch the Richmond F50 today, it’s perpetual motion, there are guys moving all the time. This doesn’t allow for defenders to get set and also opens up space for their small crumbers when the ball comes to ground.

Now go back and watch us last night. Small and Medium forwards trot in the F50, stop and put their arms up. All this does is allow for the opposition to set their defensive structure and clog up the area.

Noble needs to train these forwards to be constantly on the move. There is nothing worse as a defender when you are constantly having to shift to man up and can’t get set.
 
Mar 14, 2002
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Gasometer Wing
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I can live with Scotts up to the end of 2015.

But when the cliff appeared mid way through 2016 and we went looking for...

Kelly

Dusty

Gaff

..as one player panaceas to flaws all over the List, I now have to think thanks very much for the mess we are in by being so narrow minded.

Chris Scotts is doing the same thing atm.

Can you believe wat Dusty would be thinking about his decision?



This guy has some balls though.

Iirc u were firmly in the Scotts Camp.

Idiot...

Wat, oh wait a mi
 
Aug 25, 2006
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This guy has some balls though.

Iirc u were firmly in the Scotts Camp.

Idiot...

Wat, oh wait a mi
I think early on a lot of us were in the Scott camp, but it was very evident towards the end of 2016 that he was cooked.

Unfortunately the club gave him another 2 and a bit Years in hope he could turn it around and it all went pear shaped. He got desperate and destroyed the list through poor list management and player development.

He spoke of a reset at the end of 2016 and all we got was a coach who put the list on pause to try and save his own job with some meaningless wins.

If we had gone with a rebuild in 2017/2018, who knows where we would be now?
 

Johnny99

Club Legend
Sep 15, 2011
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For me, the biggest worry is the skill level and disposal efficiency between us and port and gc. It is like watching soccer and you are watching the Brazil national team vs fiji.
It feels like we are a minimum 3 years away from these teams.

And I am not criticising north. What do you expect is going to happen when GC get multiple high first round picks. And we get pick 9 that ends up being pick 13, after free agency compo.

But in hindsight, I think the biggest mistake the club made was wasting time and resources chasing Heeney Kelly Martin Gaff De Goey etc etc when all we needed to do is focus on getting the best young talent at the club. Trading to get as high up the draft order as possible.

We would have been in a much better position now....
 
Aug 25, 2006
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For me, the biggest worry is the skill level and disposal efficiency between us and port and gc. It is like watching soccer and you are watching the Brazil national team vs fiji.
It feels like we are a minimum 3 years away from these teams.

And I am not criticising north. What do you expect is going to happen when GC get multiple high first round picks. And we get pick 9 that ends up being pick 13, after free agency compo.

But in hindsight, I think the biggest mistake the club made was wasting time and resources chasing Heeney Kelly Martin Gaff De Goey etc etc when all we needed to do is focus on getting the best young talent at the club. Trading to get as high up the draft order as possible.

We would have been in a much better position now....
A lot of the skill errors come from workrate. If your teammates don’t work hard enough to create space and separation, then you are constantly trying to hit 50/50 kicks.

Yes there are some blatant skill errors, but a lot of our errors are a product of not having an option up the field or players not working hard enough to make the kick easier to hit.

The skills will improve simply by the team lifting its work rate.
 

RossHenshaw

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Sep 12, 2020
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A lot of the skill errors come from workrate. If your teammates don’t work hard enough to create space and separation, then you are constantly trying to hit 50/50 kicks.

Yes there are some blatant skill errors, but a lot of our errors are a product of not having an option up the field or players not working hard enough to make the kick easier to hit.

The skills will improve simply by the team lifting its work rate.
We lost to a team that will not finish above 14-15th spot on the ladder this season by 10 goals ..
that is the reality on where we are at ...& how far back this rebuild is coming from .
 
Aug 25, 2006
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We lost to a team that will not finish above 14-15th spot on the ladder this season by 10 goals ..
that is the reality on where we are at ...& how far back this rebuild is coming from .
The rebuild is at ground zero. The quicker people realise that, the quicker they will be able to get their head around that we are going to really struggle to win games this year.

Noble has another year where he will need to clear players, let alone develop a team. In building terms we are still clearing and leveling the block, let alone pouring the slab.
 
Aug 25, 2006
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Some little 'wins/small highlights' from the game that I've put together:


A lot a Tom Powell in that package.

I said it in another post, while his numbers arent huge at the moment, he is a maximum damage player when he gets it in his hands.

Footy IQ is off the charts for a player in his 2nd game.
 
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