Review R9: The Good, Bad and the Ugly vs. Port Adelaide

[WaynesWorld19]

Balanced discussion disappeared from this board some time ago .....you make some good points .... I'd add, to quote many AFL Coaches ....."the gameplan is only as good as the player's ability to implement"

To lump the outcome of a move / tactic solely on the coach is ludicrous ....this is how supporters react ...if the move works, all the plaudits are directed at the player's job ....if it fails, it was a dumb coaching move

Looking at the game, i'd make these observations ....and no George this not a summation of the Coach, just last nights game ....the summation will be at season's end, how we perform in Finals:

1. We were out-coached last night ....I doubt anyone planned for Bergman covering Dawson

2. Our midfield fortunes this year have centred around Soligo's performances ....he reflects our form

3. Our 2x KPD's for all their good efforts, give away far too many cheap free kicks

4. Our game has been built late last season & this year on large numbers of uncontested possessions, and short hit up kicks ....this was taken away from us last night

5. I was really disappointed in Hinge ....he seems to always struggle first game after a lay-off

6. People say "play the kids ".....but the after the new smell wears off, they want to see the next new toy ......Curtin's been good, he's developing nicely ....keep playing him, the experience last night is invaluable

7. I'd remind people, our balance of DEF / ATTACK is #1 in the AFL ....not bad for a dud Coach huh?

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Yet he still found a way to win the game for us

Who cares if a player is down on form for most of the game, as long as their form patch pretty much wins the game

Dawson/Soligo are the ones that deserve the criticism

Soligo was our worst midfielder.

Dawson at least tried to get on Butters to free up a midfielder & did plenty of tacking.

Soligo has gone missing in a few games, so we need to change his role when this happens. Perhaps move him to a wing.

 

[Go the Guts]

It is honestly hilarious coming onto this site after only having talked to people in the real world since the game. You’d truly believe that we lost by 10 goals and are last on the table. I’ve read that Nicks must be sacked immediately, that our forward line lacks pizazz, that we should have dropped Taylor and Curtin before last night as well as that our midfield whoes would have been fixed if we’d kept Draper in the side.

Nicks derangement syndrome is rapidly replacing Trump derangement syndrome here, where the blind hatred of the coach doesn’t enable people to evaluate anything unemotionally. There is simply no logic to most views about last nights game.

For the record we are 1 umpiring decision against GC from potentially being equal top of the ladder, we have a brilliant percentage and have unearthed some true gems in Worrell and Peatling etc. As for last night

• giving Taylor (a young player that Nicks apparently gives no responsibility to) the job on Rozee was perfectly sound. He was just found badly wanting.
• trying to get Dawson to break his tag by going to their hottest midfielder in Butters is also a perfectly sound and creative move. The skipper simply wasn’t up to the task on the night. The player freed up by this also obviously didn’t exploit that situation.
• getting numbers back when you are 4 goals up with 10 minutes to go in a showdown is also perfectly sound, however when a senior player like Milera miskicks directly into the centre of the ground with no one between that mistake and their goal is such a terrible individual decision that I wonder how anyone could be blaming any coach for it.

All in all that was a fantastic win and has set our season up beautifully. I said before the Carlton game that if we can win 1 of the next 2 we should make finals, and if we win both then top 4 is a real possibility. We have at least 11 games coming where we would be favourites at the moment and several others that are quite winnable, anything is possible this year with this team if we can stay relatively injury free.

Our midfield is, quite simply, not even close to being strong enough to withstand 3-4 weeks of finals pressure football and last night was a CLEAR example of that. We are in the mix this year, but not even close to being strong enough in the midfield to be considered a real threat.

 

[steve9798]

Brent Reilly in 2012 against Sydney is the last one like that I can think of off the top of my head.

There was also his mark against Collingwood (Tarrant from memory).

 

[Danger in Texas]

Soligo was our worst midfielder.

Dawson at least tried to get on Butters to free up a midfielder & did plenty of tacking.

Soligo has gone missing in a few games, so we need to change his role when this happens. Perhaps move him to a wing.

It’s not even that Soligo was bad when he got it, he just wasn’t getting enough of it

Moving him to a wing when struggling is a good idea

 

[Southerntakeover]

I feel good about the game, but largely because the hill was packed and not ideal for viewing, I probably didn't take in much of the quality of our play or lack thereof, and you know, we beat the ****ing Power and took back the ledger which is really what I'm about at Showdowns.

Never should have gotten that close at the end, and really we do need to review our strategies for holding a lead. The fact that we couldn't find any chip kicks for an entire 10 minute window isn't great.

I chose not to spend the evening frustrated about Nicks rather than trolling every Port fan that I know in increasingly merciless ways, because we get very few things to celebrate as a fan and **** missing that opportunity.

 

[Smart Fella]

Laird not getting dropped in a million years , having a good season

Big difference to last year

He's not having a good season, he's probably had one good game. He's just playing his role and when he makes stupid mistakes, his selection becomes unwarranted.

By no means is he playing bad, but dropping him for Bond for example, does not make us a worse side. It could potentially make it better though.

 

[Southerntakeover]

There is an opportunity, if our club can take it, to really take control of that ledger over the last few years.

We might not be objectively good, and I'm not convinced we're trending to a powerhouse team, but we're ascendant, and Port are on the decline.

That we've come out of their era of being up, and our all time lows, with the ledger in our hands really gives us the chance to put a serious gap between us when the reverse happens. That would be nice. Because **** Port Adelaide and their sulky entitled front running fans.

 

[Cromulant]

He's not having a good season, he's probably had one good game. He's just playing his role and when he makes stupid mistakes, his selection becomes unwarranted.

By no means is he playing bad, but dropping him for Bond for example, does not make us a worse side. It could potentially make it better though.

I'd drop Milera for him.

Edwards does have to come in at some point.

 

[rabidcrow]

Should've put this shit side away.

Same shit side that smashed Hawks, comfortably beat Sydney away? I know they have put some poor performances away from home on show but have generally been pretty good - particularly at AO.
Never sneeze at winning a Showdown

 

[rabidcrow]

It should never be a close game when you are up by 4 goals with 10 minutes left.

You could argue it shouldn’t be a close game when you lose clearance by 23 and inside 50 by 21.
Statistically we wouldn’t have won that game very often over the last 10 years

We should be pumped that with our midfield well below their best we tougher out a win

 

[Bovo]

Played to defensive but guess what we won , and people were complaining we were letting too many goals being scored earlier in the season .Simply on here they whinge if we win or lose

It’s why I love being a happy clapper. You’ll never see me angry about footy. It’s my super power!

 

[Southerntakeover]

A more interesting part of the 'did we go too defensive' side of things is why were we so poor at it. No clock control, no possession, seemingly no system designed to milk out the game.

Didn't feel like a team that knows what to do in that situation.

 

[ABAB]

You could argue it shouldn’t be a close game when you lose clearance by 23 and inside 50 by 21.
Statistically we wouldn’t have won that game very often over the last 10 years

We should be pumped that with our midfield well below their best we tougher out a win

How many of those inside 50 and clearance were in the last 10 minutes though, +10????

 

[Hodgy]

Our midfield is, quite simply, not even close to being strong enough to withstand 3-4 weeks of finals pressure football and last night was a CLEAR example of that. We are in the mix this year, but not even close to being strong enough in the midfield to be considered a real threat.

Our midfield consists of Dawson, who is leading the coaches award for the whole league, Rankine, who is clearly an All Australian standard footballer, forward or mid, Soligo who has flashed A grade ability but is inconsistent and Peatling who last night showed how good he can be. We also have Berry and Rachelle showing some real flash.

That group is easily good enough to compete with any side in the comp.last week against a top 5 midfield showed it, their challenge is to bring it consistently.

 

[rabidcrow]

He's not having a good season, he's probably had one good game. He's just playing his role and when he makes stupid mistakes, his selection becomes unwarranted.

By no means is he playing bad, but dropping him for Bond for example, does not make us a worse side. It could potentially make it better though.

Laird is having a great year

 

[Bovo]

Good: we won against a Port Magpies team and then won against a team dressed as Port Magpies!

Bad: I thought RTT could have won the showdown medal. Not overly fussed though

Ugly: the cost of alcohol at AO

 

[baldandbroke]

Thought Thilthorpe woud have had more votes

Port Adelaide captain Connor Rozee has won the Showdown Medal in the 57th meeting between the Crows and Power.

Here are the votes from the night:

Showdown Medal voting

14 - Connor Rozee
5 - Riley Thilthorpe
4 - Zak Butters
4 - Josh Worrell
2 - James Peatling
1 - Miles Bergman

Votes:

Tim Ginever (FIVEAA)

3 Connor Rozee
2 Josh Worrell
1 Miles Bergman

Simeon Thomas-Wilson (The Advertiser)

3 Connor Rozee
2 Riley Thilthorpe
1 Zak Butters

Rod Jameson (ABC)

3 Connor Rozee
2 James Peatling
1 Zak Butters

Shaun Burgoyne (Fox)

3 Riley Thilthorpe
2 Connor Rozee
1 Zak Butters

Mark Bickley (SEN)

3 Connor Rozee
2 Josh Worrell
1 Zak Butters

All of the medals for individual games should be the best player from the winning team … shared if it’s a draw.

Stupid having a loser win a medal for their performance in a team sport imo.

While we are on the topic of individual awards, awards across the season are pretty useless. The Brownlow is a largely soulless award given by umpires - that really counts for nothing. Coaches votes for MVP feels contrived. I even think the Coleman is a bit silly nowadays. What if the Coleman went to the team with the highest goal tally for its top 3 goal scorers … would be more reflective of the modern game, and more interesting for fans. </end old man rant>

 

[Moonwatcher]

We do but I outside Mikera I think the defence has been good. I feel like our issues are more up the ground.

If we can efficiently turn forward 50 entries into goals then there will be a lot less ball in our defensive 50. Our errors kill us more than our opponents.

 

[1970crow]

Good:

Beating the pear.
TT - 5 Contest Marks. Pear - 6 contested marks. He is our best player and if he fires we can beat anyone. Still has improvement in him.
Forward line is the best in the league. So damn efficient.
We are 6-3. One game and 4% away from top spot on the ladder and a very real possibility of being 2 games clear of 9th.
We have only played one of the bottom 5 sides so far this year and have the 3rd best percentage.

Bad:

Soligo - what happened to him after the first month. Is it injury? Is it other teams figuring him out? Is Peatling taking over as the better option?

Finlayson 3 goals. What a muppet that bloke is. Face you want to punch.

Ugly:

Nicks - Butters, slowing the game down in the 4th, Not putting Tilly behind the ball
This boards opinion of Cumming. Hasn't performed anywhere close to what we are paying him to do. Need to swap him with Milera and get him across HB ASAP.

Wings are a problem, but I think it's time to put the Cumming wing experiment to bed. Might as well play Curtin there and get another forward/mid into the side.

 

[Smart Fella]

Laird is having a great year

By what metrics? His role requires ground ball gets and handballing to better users. He is doing that fine.

But having a great season? That would mean he is clearly undroppable which is definitely not the case.

 

[WeeBlake]

By what metrics? His role requires ground ball gets and handballing to better users. He is doing that fine.

But having a great season? That would mean he is clearly undroppable which is definitely not the case.

Two shocking, first year player type errors in F50 yielded free kicks. Disposal errors too. He’s among our most senior players. We need him to be rock solid, not flaky. He’s underperforming, measured against his role (small half back, the easiest posn) and experience.

 

[Alwaysacrow]

I've been reading the Port board and they are in a world of pain.
The best thing is the knowledge that they are 13th, probably won't make finals and yet don't even have a 1st round pick this year.

 

[Crow till I die]

Same shit side that smashed Hawks, comfortably beat Sydney away? I know they have put some poor performances away from home on show but have generally been pretty good - particularly at AO.
Never sneeze at winning a Showdown

I suppose the flipside to the doom and gloom is that we still found a way to win having lost most key stats against a side that did beat the hawks here and did go to sydney and win. That we were so bad in the middle for much of the game should mean there is plenty of room for improvement and if we can get it right at some point as the season rolls on means we should be beating this port side a lot more comfortably next time. Butters and rozee are not going to play better than they did last night and horne francis was also important for them..thats it, thats their big 3 in the middle all playing well and they still didn't beat us.

 

[Southerntakeover]

Rachelle visibly saying 'thank ****' on camera after the siren