Review Dees v Poort in the Jack Watts Cup: the Good, Bad & Fugly

[Proper Gander]

That’s it. I’m not buying a Jag now

 

[Topkent]

To be honest now the game is done I'm pretty meh, like how many players were down an looking unfit?

We are a better side than that. Whether we can discover it before we fall too far behind will be key.
It's worrying that we will probably drop Wagner an bring in Lewis making us much slower

 

[schmuttt]

We will probably play better in Geelong anyway as we play the small grounds better

 

[Topkent]

I blame extending Goodys contract

 

[Toump Ass]

Good
Salem
Frosty
Kept the margin under 30. Should have been 60+
Jack Watts. Get on the blow and hit up the strippers tonight son, you've earned it!
Ripper day at the G, lovely seeing all those beautiful people in the red and blue!

Bad
Football

 

[Benwah83]

One team came with a purpose and a strategy today, the other just strolled in and looked stuffed both on the ground and in the coaches box.

Pretty much this. Outplayed and out-coached. A complete shambles of a round 1 effort. Also, the fact that we were 'underdone' coming into the game isn't really acceptable.

We were sooo slow. Port were able to outrun us and spread us laterally with ease.

Salem was solid.

Sparrow didn't look out of place at AFL level, which is encouraging.

Lack of coverage for Gawn when he was getting targetted borders on embarassing.

Jones - underdone, or just done? Hopefully the former, but we'll find out soon enough.

P.s. - FFS I'm sick of hearing ' the 666 rule'. I swear there's some weird, AFL-led subconscious satanism going on here. I'm worried I'm going to start sacrificing goats or something...

 

[Dark Avenger]

To be honest now the game is done I'm pretty meh, like how many players were down an looking unfit?

We are a better side than that. Whether we can discover it before we fall too far behind will be key.
It's worrying that we will probably drop Wagner an bring in Lewis making us much slower

Lewis will miss next week as well. I actually thought Wagner was OK. If they are going to drop someone for Lewis I'd be dropping Hore.
Hard decison to make whether we drop OMac or Frost for May next week as they were both awful.

 

[harry000]

Usually an optimist in these threads.

Feeling pretty low right now not sure what to say?

Melksham, Wagner and Spargo tried hard? Hunt was good in patches.. Not sure about the rest of them! Gawn was rattled having the Port players getting into him all game.

Our mids seemed to be waiting for each other to do something instead of working together like they did so well.

We seemed to just let Robbie Gray do as he pleased.

And all our depth players are injured, sweet.

 

[Topkent]

In all seriousness I wonder when the media will highlight our terrible record at the MCG under goody, we have dropped way too many home games

 

[Jamurp]

Last year taught me to hold off on the melts, had some awful losses before eventually winning two finals.

But that doesn't make today any less disappointing, we looked absolutely cooked, spent all day slipping over and spilling marks, really was a horrid day at the footy.

We're going to have to work really hard to put ourselves in a good spot after round 4, some tough games coming up.

 

[Spirit of 26]

Thank god that’s the last of the preseason comp....... now for the real stuff next week.

 

[Topkent]

Lewis will miss next week as well. I actually thought Wagner was OK. If they are going to drop someone for Lewis I'd be dropping Hore.
Hard decison to make whether we drop OMac or Frost for May next week as they were both awful.

To be clear I thought Wagner was good was saying they'll probably drop one of the blokes who actually ran for a bloke in a wheelchair

 

[RandB]

On the game itself...

Couldn't spread, hung off opponents too much. Killed on the outside and we're a MCG tennant.

Concept of evening a contest non-existent. Too many players trying to win 1 on 1s in disadvantaged positions and ending up losing them. Jones, Spargo, O McDonald and others were farcical man on man today. This is coaching.

Broken tackles 2nd quarter onwards.

Over handball against a side outrunning us.

Forward defensive pressure non-existent.

Dumb footballers. Nobody knows what Frost is trying to do including Frost himself. Coaches need to drill the basics into that bloke.

Midfield didn't show up. Sloppy in congestion.

Co-captains contributed nothing. Jones a big concern long term.

 

[El Gringo]

Jones and Viney looked very much underdone, the match committee might have made a bit of a blunder there. With how slow and fatigued the side looked it’s probably fortunate Sparrow for Lewis was a late change, could have gotten a bit uglier.

 

[Proper Gander]

Good - feel sort of flat and meh rather than ragingly angry.

Started wondering in the 4th what this would look like without Salem. I can’t even ... nup

No wonder Hogan spent his formative years getting blind

 

[Toump Ass]

Gotta say, wAtching us win the contested ball only to ram it down the throat of a port adelaide player on his own outside the contest got a little boring towards the end.

Kicking a goal in the last would have been nice too.

 

[rhaz]

I can't count how many players were poor today. Even the stars like Brayshaw and Oliver.

The worst game I've seen Jones play in years.

Gives me faith we could turn this around very very quickly. Round 1, not concerned yet

 

[Tulip]

Bloody hell, what a farcical afternoon. Got to work for most of the weekend, so had cleared the calendar bar an afternoon at the G. Storms all morning, opens up to 32 in the afternoon, and set to rain again tonight. Farce. No trains and half the tram network offline too. Farce. Outcoached by Ken ******* Hinkley. Farce. Jack Watts beating us whilst roughing up our players and copping nothing in return. FARCE. Lewis goes down, and we have a total of nine AFL games amongst our emergencies. Farce. I'm just glad Sparrow's family had enough warning to get up from SA and watch him.

Big props to the MCG for providing free iced water. Downed about two litres of it in the breaks. That's where the positives end. Going to go by it player by player.

Jetta - Decent without being great.
O.Mac - Took huge strides forward in 2017 but still hasn't corrected his remaining weaknesses. Slow thinker and slow to react to quick entries.
Hore - I'd like to think I'm beyond hyperbole these days, but maybe I'm not. This guy was really, really bad in the pre-season and even worse today. That first contest he squibbed was like Pedersen on this day six years ago. We wanted a Lever fill in, we ended up with a vastly inferior Colin Garland.

Salem - Today's big winner. Super composed down back. The player Hibberd used to be.
Frost - So, so dumb. Almost as dumb as Steven May missing a week for hitting some bloke in a pre-season game and missing a week, giving Frost his spot.
Hibberd - Ok today, but bad by foot and looks like he's the wrong side of his peak.

Jones - Oh sweet summer child. I thought he was decent for a guy who is clearly underdone, but that dropped mark finished the match for us. Can't abide the abuse though, he's been great for us and deserves the chance to bounce back.
Oliver - the heck was that? Totally absent today. The lack of repeat ball ups in the centre might hurt him, he relies on his clean hands and they deserted him.
Fritsch - Did some nice things but was generally quiet.

Melksham - Our best forward. Could have had four today but was selfless. Didn't run hard enough though, looked gassed.
Weideman - Competed, but those sticky hands from the end of last season are M.I.A
Petracca - He nailed a set shot at last, but you look to your mercurial players to turn the game around for you and he was nowhere. Enough if enough. You're a fifth year player now. Stop teasing and start seizing tight games by the balls.

Spargo - Skills were poor and he was slow, but at least he competed. Not sure he's going to be a forward at AFL level at his pace. But is he too small to play anywhere else?
McDonald - Absent.
Sparrow - Enjoyed his game, given he was a debutant. Would have looked better in a good team.

Gawn - Oh boy. Lycett hit him at every opportunity, and Ryder (who hasn't eaten solids for weeks) outran him at every throw in. Perfect coaching from Port. Looked like he would rather be anywhere else in the second when he hadn't had a disposal yet. Dropped marks and poor tap work made me sad. 100th game next week, hope he improves (I'm not counting today).
Brayshaw - Kicking not great, but hey, he competed?
Viney - He is ****ed. He ran just like Jack Trengove today. I think his foot is gawn, but pray it isn't.

Harmes - Another one who was ok in tight, but definitely had to do more.
Hunt - He will never kick straight, but at least he broke lines, knew when to dispose of the ball (unlike Frost), and tackled and chased and competed. Pass mark.
Wagner - Didn't do much, but what he did I liked for the most part. Not our worst by any means.
Neal-Bullen - Sprayed two important set shots, but still seemed to run hard and get a lot of ball. Not a good enough game from one of our fitter players. Can't just skirt round the edges your whole career. I had to look up the team sheet to remember who our 22nd player was today.

----

I'm confident today was just a blip and we will work our way into the season, but that would want to happen sooner rather than later given our next three matches. Anyone who thinks we won't miss Hogan is ****ed. Nine goals for the game today, and we absolutely couldn't find an option on the wing when we were running out of defence. Weideman wasn't moving, and Petracca was gassed during the warm up as is customary. Goodwin is fortunate that he has four years of breathing space, now he needs to sort this game plan our and having them breathing fire next week. They said the Prelim final burned them. Bull ******* s**t. They were pleased to get there. You don't win medals for fourth place, fellas. Get back to work.

 

[Demons Advocate]

Yuck.

We were severely outrun by a side that showed a lot more effort. Disappointing that we played so s**t particularly kicking the first 3 goals.

Still, anomalies happen rd 1 and I'll back us in to settle back into the season even if I think we'll only scrape in to finals, if we make it at all.

Cats, Bombers, Swans isn't as difficult a run as people are making out.

We lacked leadership today and I bloody hope it is due to players being underdone. Gawn was terrible.

Also thank * for the Melk, would have been goalless if not for him.

 

[Proper Gander]

MCG provided free iced water? Bugger me sideways - I spent about 15 bucks on water in plastic bottles.

 

[The Dr]

Same issues as last year: spread and pace. If we don’t dominate contested footy/clearances we’re not much chop.


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[Headless]

Salem bowled well. Good line and length. Would probably give him the new ball next week and see if he can get a few early.

 

[stEdy]

So many underdone and flat players

Salem, Harmes and Fritsch early were good

Watts Kingsley-ing us was a highlight

 

[FAIRANDBALANCED]

Pretty much this. Outplayed and out-coached. A complete shambles of a round 1 effort. Also, the fact that we were 'underdone' coming into the game isn't really acceptable.

We were sooo slow. Port were able to outrun us and spread us laterally with ease.

Salem was solid.

Sparrow didn't look out of place at AFL level, which is encouraging.

Lack of coverage for Gawn when he was getting targetted borders on embarassing.

Jones - underdone, or just done? Hopefully the former, but we'll find out soon enough.

P.s. - FFS I'm sick of hearing ' the 666 rule'. I swear there's some weird, AFL-led subconscious satanism going on here. I'm worried I'm going to start sacrificing goats or something...

The PS is gold!

Backing you to bounce back and beat the Cats, which will probably infuriate even more...

 

[Bluelegs]

Pretty much this. Outplayed and out-coached. A complete shambles of a round 1 effort. Also, the fact that we were 'underdone' coming into the game isn't really acceptable.

We were sooo slow. Port were able to outrun us and spread us laterally with ease.

Salem was solid.

Sparrow didn't look out of place at AFL level, which is encouraging.

Lack of coverage for Gawn when he was getting targetted borders on embarassing.

Jones - underdone, or just done? Hopefully the former, but we'll find out soon enough.

P.s. - FFS I'm sick of hearing ' the 666 rule'. I swear there's some weird, AFL-led subconscious satanism going on here. I'm worried I'm going to start sacrificing goats or something...

Maybe we can sacrifice Frost's ears.