- Nov 23, 2015
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- AFL Club
- GWS
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- #1
Unfortunately for GWS fans, after the brief spirit-raising win over Adelaide, normal 2022 service returned to Manuka Oval last weekend as the Giants put in a disappointing display against Geelong and sputtered to an 8 goal loss. This week pits the 4th last Giants against the 4th place Carlton. Carlton are finally making some gains after a decade in the AFL wilderness, although they are not invulnerable. However, their midfield has been revitalised with Patty Cripps in possibly career-best form, with plenty of support; while their twin tall forwards in Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay are tearing it up, sitting 2nd and 7th on the Coleman ladder respectively.
Given how we played against Geelong, we will struggle to contain Carlton. Their midfield has proven to be very effective, and getting plenty of ball into their twin towers forward, who have both kicked multiple bags. Both are strong and mobile, and I really fear for our defence. Against the Cats, Sam Taylor was forced to swing from Cameron to Hawkins, with Keeffe largely ineffective against either. Although tall, he is not particularly mobile, and consistently gets caught behind his man. Do we try Stein, as a slightly more mobile player, but still quite limited in his ability to defend against the better players for a whole game. Nick Haynes has been quite off his game this year, and has really not impacted games by disrupting kicks coming into our D50. Do we try Leek Aleer? I really doubt Leon would, plus it would be a real hail mary idea. Who else is there? No-one really.
So, we have to stop the ball getting into our D50 so often, which means the heat will be on our mids to win the contested battle. Tom Green continues to do the hard yards, but we need Taranto and Ward to step it up, and the rest of the midfield. Do we tag Cripps? I'm not sure it will be entirely effective, as Carlton now have other options who can win ball - but conversely, if we can disrupt their play but doing that, it might be worthwhile. We do have the mids to do this, but they need to play at 100%.
The last two elements of what we need is the connection between the mids and our forwards, and goalkicking. Notwithstanding that Geelong were inaccurate, any chance we had of staying in touch was to kick every chance we got, and we failed miserably. Hopefully we're doing a lot of practice this week. But we need to do it in a game - and I suspect it's as much mental as physical. The biggest issue has been our deficiency all year, and several years previously ... actually having a plan to move the ball into our F50.
All in all, I can't see us fixing all of these problems in a week, so I suspect this game is going to be painful.
This thread has our thoughts on changes. I daresay we'll make a couple, but I also doubt that they will miraculously make us a better team. What changes would you make (in the realm of the possible!) to improve?
Given how we played against Geelong, we will struggle to contain Carlton. Their midfield has proven to be very effective, and getting plenty of ball into their twin towers forward, who have both kicked multiple bags. Both are strong and mobile, and I really fear for our defence. Against the Cats, Sam Taylor was forced to swing from Cameron to Hawkins, with Keeffe largely ineffective against either. Although tall, he is not particularly mobile, and consistently gets caught behind his man. Do we try Stein, as a slightly more mobile player, but still quite limited in his ability to defend against the better players for a whole game. Nick Haynes has been quite off his game this year, and has really not impacted games by disrupting kicks coming into our D50. Do we try Leek Aleer? I really doubt Leon would, plus it would be a real hail mary idea. Who else is there? No-one really.
So, we have to stop the ball getting into our D50 so often, which means the heat will be on our mids to win the contested battle. Tom Green continues to do the hard yards, but we need Taranto and Ward to step it up, and the rest of the midfield. Do we tag Cripps? I'm not sure it will be entirely effective, as Carlton now have other options who can win ball - but conversely, if we can disrupt their play but doing that, it might be worthwhile. We do have the mids to do this, but they need to play at 100%.
The last two elements of what we need is the connection between the mids and our forwards, and goalkicking. Notwithstanding that Geelong were inaccurate, any chance we had of staying in touch was to kick every chance we got, and we failed miserably. Hopefully we're doing a lot of practice this week. But we need to do it in a game - and I suspect it's as much mental as physical. The biggest issue has been our deficiency all year, and several years previously ... actually having a plan to move the ball into our F50.
All in all, I can't see us fixing all of these problems in a week, so I suspect this game is going to be painful.
This thread has our thoughts on changes. I daresay we'll make a couple, but I also doubt that they will miraculously make us a better team. What changes would you make (in the realm of the possible!) to improve?
