Autopsy 2023 Rd 16 Blues don't give a ruck but thrash Hawks anyway

[Coops93]

I've thought Cripps kicking lately has been very good. Often gets called a bad kick without much though in throwaway lines, but I think he's only a bad kick when he tries to kick too hard. He's not a long kick, naturally probably 45-50 if he flushes it on the run, so often tries too hard and gets under it or miss hits it. Then there's obviously the scrappy clearing kicks. But when he's hitting up 20-25m passes he's pretty good, and lately I feel like that's what he's been doing it a lot more instead of going long.

Particularly this weekend I think he hit 4 or 5 short kicks, 2 of which were leads inside 50 - as well as a left foot highish baal that hit Harry perfectly on the move. Maybe a little some luck involved and it looked awkward, but it was exactly what he wanted to do with the ball. Doesn't look like much but when you're talking about a guy that is generally thought to be a bad kick it's worth noting when they actually aren't being a bad kick.

 

[bmaurizio]

Solid wins in the last two weeks, but we should have destroyed a young inexperienced team, without their regular back line, Sicily, Impey, Barras & CJ.
The real gauge of how we've improved and real challenges will come over next two games. Go Blues bring home the 8 points.

 

[Lukeblueboy]

i think we will be the team to burst ports bubble in two weeks time at marvel!
They will win at home next week, but I think there just starting to lose there edge a little and with our team balance now a lot better we can get em.
There, I said it!

 

[Aphrodite]

probably been mentioned but thought 66k on sunday was an amazing crowd......

Was there

 

[Juddernaut08]

I've thought Cripps kicking lately has been very good. Often gets called a bad kick without much though in throwaway lines, but I think he's only a bad kick when he tries to kick too hard. He's not a long kick, naturally probably 45-50 if he flushes it on the run, so often tries too hard and gets under it or miss hits it. Then there's obviously the scrappy clearing kicks. But when he's hitting up 20-25m passes he's pretty good, and lately I feel like that's what he's been doing it a lot more instead of going long.

Particularly this weekend I think he hit 4 or 5 short kicks, 2 of which were leads inside 50 - as well as a left foot highish baal that hit Harry perfectly on the move. Maybe a little some luck involved and it looked awkward, but it was exactly what he wanted to do with the ball. Doesn't look like much but when you're talking about a guy that is generally thought to be a bad kick it's worth noting when they actually aren't being a bad kick.

Agreed. I'd call it good vision. He puts it into the right spots and can see the right leading space.

 

[fizzkakz]

I was at the game on Sunday and left unsure if we'd played incredible or if the Hawks were just woeful. Just finished watching the replay and all I have to say is wow! The intensity from players I would have considered conditional with their effort like Harry, Martin and Gov was fantastic. The best games I've seen Martin, Fog, Acres and a few others play for the Blues. I hadn't appreciated the amount of Cripps had done inside the content until watching it on tv. Very, very happy with that! If Voss can work out how to get the guys that focused every week, I'll be pretty excited about the next couple of years!

 

[4flagsin5yrs]

I was at the game on Sunday and left unsure if we'd played incredible or if the Hawks were just woeful. Just finished watching the replay and all I have to say is wow! The intensity from players I would have considered conditional with their effort like Harry, Martin and Gov was fantastic. The best games I've seen Martin, Fog, Acres and a few others play for the Blues. I hadn't appreciated the amount of Cripps had done inside the content until watching it on tv. Very, very happy with that! If Voss can work out how to get the guys that focused every week, I'll be pretty excited about the next couple of years!

We would have won 75%+ of the games we lost in the horrible mid season slump we endured (8 losses from 9? i lost count) if we had played with the intensity we delivered on Sunday.

And be top 4!!

 

[4flagsin5yrs]

Agreed. I'd call it good vision. He puts it into the right spots and can see the right leading space.

Very, very few players are good kicks when they've got two opponents hanging off them...

 

[katmanblue]

Is the gap between my best and worst narrowing or still a gulf?

Like the Straight of Hormuz.

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[GoBlues!]

I don't remember him playing at Sunbury

He might’ve been part of Queen’s entourage…. I think they got booed off the stage and he came on as sub.

 

[katmanblue]

In the Bulldogs game Motlop was the quickest player on the ground at 34.4km/h. I think we will see more of that when he builds his tank.

I had no idea. For some reason he looks so slow to me.

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[Erko Blue]

Kemp.

He's an interesting one.

Initially I thought he might be a line breaking flanker after showing some fancy footwork in his first few games.

Then he languished in the 2's.

Then he played a few mild games as a purely defensive defender with an ok ability to read the ball.

Then he languished in the 2's

This year he comes in with an intercept marking game reading the flight of the ball very well.
Unfortunately eariler in the season he made several errors by losing his feet.
This was a bit of a deal breaker for me. Gotta keep your feet.

The last two games he has kept his feet all game.
Great improvement.

Watch this guy.

 

[Blue and Blue]

Paddy Dow - gotta have been with Jim Keays in the Masters Apprentices surely?

speaking of Jim's

If Dow was around when Ratts was coach he may have been in the early Doors

 

[windows1]

Just a small but important point, am sure has been mentioned…..

S Walsh. Well done. Well done.

He has totally dropped the dinky little runs to get a stat hitting up the short 15m marks.

He’s gone from an average of 4.5 marks a game for the year and a half to 4 weeks ago. Is now down to 2 a game.

He wasn’t getting dinky cheap backwards work. He was invovled way more in the flow of the game and ended with 13 score involvements. He’s topped that sta 2 weeks running.

Whether he has changed on the back of feedback or his own assessment….who cares. Who knows.

But let’s not miss the importance that shows from a team first perspective.

Clearly a cultural shift has happened. Clearly. It’s palpable.

And it’s chaos creating. What do the oppo do now? Tag him or let him keep creating scores with his link up play? And if you tag him do you just leave Cripps?

Have never seen Cripps chase harder btw. But that’s another story.

Good luck this week Freo. It’s the only way you’ll beat this mob.

 

[windows1]

I had no idea. For some reason he looks so slow to me.

On SM-F926B using BigFooty.com mobile app

He’s not aerobically very fit so you’re probably watching him fatigued

 

[Sector 7G]

Just a small but important point, am sure has been mentioned…..

S Walsh. Well done. Well done.

He has totally dropped the dinky little runs to get a stat hitting up the short 15m marks.

He’s gone from an average of 4.5 marks a game for the year and a half to 4 weeks ago. Is now down to 2 a game.

He wasn’t getting dinky cheap backwards work. He was invovled way more in the flow of the game and ended with 13 score involvements. He’s topped that sta 2 weeks running.

Whether he has changed on the back of feedback or his own assessment….who cares. Who knows.

But let’s not miss the importance that shows from a team first perspective.

Clearly a cultural shift has happened. Clearly. It’s palpable.

And it’s chaos creating. What do the oppo do now? Tag him or let him keep creating scores with his link up play? And if you tag him do you just leave Cripps?

Have never seen Cripps chase harder btw. But that’s another story.

Good luck this week Freo. It’s the only way you’ll beat this mob.

I think this is a team related improvement. .If Lewis Young is standing frozen with indecision, SW will run to give him an option that will likely be sideways. If players are running through the middle of the ground he will be run to give them options. Seems like we made a change against the * but we struggled to link up the chains of possessions. A bit less pressure against Suns and Hawks and it seemed to click.

A couple of other things of note from re-watching the game on the weekend. We seemed to purposefully kick the ball lower. Quite a lot of balls were at players feet which allows the player a chance to pick up the ball but very few were over the players head which just about always leads to a turnover.

We also seemed to make much greater effort to come off our man to pressure up the field. Cost us goals a couple of times with Gov coming off Greene to pressure Chad leaving LY to cover Greene and Meek and Cinc coming off his man after the Cripps fumble in the last which resulted in the Lewis goal. Generally it resulted in the high tackle count.

 

[JustaBattler]

Just a small but important point, am sure has been mentioned…..

S Walsh. Well done. Well done.

He has totally dropped the dinky little runs to get a stat hitting up the short 15m marks.

He’s gone from an average of 4.5 marks a game for the year and a half to 4 weeks ago. Is now down to 2 a game.

He wasn’t getting dinky cheap backwards work. He was invovled way more in the flow of the game and ended with 13 score involvements. He’s topped that sta 2 weeks running.

Whether he has changed on the back of feedback or his own assessment….who cares. Who knows.

But let’s not miss the importance that shows from a team first perspective.

Clearly a cultural shift has happened. Clearly. It’s palpable.

And it’s chaos creating. What do the oppo do now? Tag him or let him keep creating scores with his link up play? And if you tag him do you just leave Cripps?

Have never seen Cripps chase harder btw. But that’s another story.

Good luck this week Freo. It’s the only way you’ll beat this mob.

have you maybe just maybe considered the possibility that Walsh has been less than 100% fit since his back operation and is slowly building his way back to full running capacity and endurance - strange thing to ponder I know. Same for Cripps who ran the best I have seen him since this time last year - maybe he hasn't been 100% since Parker tomped on his ankle? Maybe just maybe you might consider that Hewett is also working his way back to full fitness after not only no pre-season but also early year injury ...

surprised you seem to not include this basic level of comprehension about injury/recovery in your statements about player performance.

 

[Blue and Blue]

Walsh two years in a row has taken time to get up to full potential after injury. Hitting his straps now.
Thats all part of the game.
Plenty of examples of the same thing around.

Fittest list we've had in an aeon now.

A lot of the injuries over time have been basically borne out of playing youngsters that arent ready for full seasons at senior level.and no choice in the matter.

 

[JustaBattler]

Walsh two years in a row has taken time to get up to full potential after injury. Hitting his straps now.
Thats all part of the game.
Plenty of examples of the same thing around.

Fittest list we've had in an aeon now.

A lot of the injuries over time have been basically borne out of playing youngsters that arent ready for full seasons at senior level.and no choice in the matter.

Teenagers bodies might be 'fit' enough to run if they are really elite and look and play strong enough - but they aren't. It catches up with them - you see it all the time. AFL bloods kids way way too early against developed hardened bodies.

 

[Blue and Blue]

Teenagers bodies might be 'fit' enough to run if they are really elite and look and play strong enough - but they aren't. It catches up with them - you see it all the time. AFL bloods kids way way too early against developed hardened bodies.

Back in the day Jab most of these teenagers were still playing U19's.
And most of those never made it to the next level.
Theres only one Jimmy Buckley in a generation. The rest started around 20 -22.

 

[Sector 7G]

I don't think H has had enough praise so far. Was so close to a near perfect CHF game. Should have kicked 5 if not for the ridiculous miss from 25m, Acres taking a risky mark rather than shepherding the ball through and the crazy advantage paid rather than the free 20m out. His ability to set up shots I50 was something we haven't really seen before. Was great in the last when he set up Hewitt who can't kick 50 so ran himself into trouble kicked it back outside 50 for H to set up JSOS with a dart (I am assuming that wasn't a shot at goal)

Only down side of the day was really letting them score 3 goals from kick outs. Need to guard the centre square better.

 

[Blue and Blue]

I don't think H has had enough praise so far. Was so close to a near perfect CHF game. Should have kicked 5 if not for the ridiculous miss from 25m, Acres taking a risky mark rather than shepherding the ball through and the crazy advantage paid rather than the free 20m out. His ability to set up shots I50 was something we haven't really seen before. Was great in the last when he set up Hewitt who can't kick 50 so ran himself into trouble kicked it back outside 50 for H to set up JSOS with a dart (I am assuming that wasn't a shot at goal)

Only down side of the day was really letting them score 3 goals from kick outs. Need to guard the centre square better.

Acres had to go for it or would have been touched otherwise yeah.

 

[SurreyBlue]

Very, very few players are good kicks when they've got two opponents hanging off them...

Not true. Diesel didn’t have a problem and he also had the umpires as well.

 

[4flagsin5yrs]

Not true. Diesel didn’t have a problem and he also had the umpires as well.

you missed the words "very, very few"?

 

[4flagsin5yrs]

I don't think H has had enough praise so far. Was so close to a near perfect CHF game. Should have kicked 5 if not for the ridiculous miss from 25m, Acres taking a risky mark rather than shepherding the ball through and the crazy advantage paid rather than the free 20m out. His ability to set up shots I50 was something we haven't really seen before. Was great in the last when he set up Hewitt who can't kick 50 so ran himself into trouble kicked it back outside 50 for H to set up JSOS with a dart (I am assuming that wasn't a shot at goal)

Only down side of the day was really letting them score 3 goals from kick outs. Need to guard the centre square better.

Easily top votes from me!

He's a freakishly quick fella these days....