Preview AFL R1 vs Port Adelaide @ Metricon 6:25pm 21 Mar 2020

Stroppy

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After 10 minutes it was pretty clear that we were not playing well and there was not enough effort/endeavour/attitude/skill/whatever to turn that around. Looked a bit shell shocked at the pressure from Port and the speed of the game.

But I will wait to see if it is a pattern or a dud game. A bit like the Bulldogs. Are we really that bad or was that a stinker?

I thought we would be on or near the bottom of the ladder but with a big improvement over last year. If we are going to see improvement, need to adjust to the intensity pretty quickly and then actually execute the game plan under that intensity. Plenty of headless chooks out there running out of position, especially getting sucked into the contest and leaving open players on the outside. I mean, I am pretty sure (I hope?) that what we were doing in the first half was not the plan. Right Stuey? That's not the plan is it? Please?

Had a few chances in the first quarter to do more, did not take them. Suspect that made it worse. Anyway, looking forward in a realistic manner to next week, hopeful that we can actually play and hopeful that we will play better.
 

The Victorian

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Really disappointing day for the suns With two thumpings unfortunately

I was actually thinking we were going to improve this year but I guess we have just gotten worse......
 

robo_1

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What do people expect, suddenly from wooden spoon to premiership team?

I think some sort of improvement people expected..

19 losses in a row and after last night not looking like another one is close


The Suns are now just two wins away from equalling their worst losing streak of 21 (2011-12) and closing in on Sydney’s horrendous run of 26 straight losses in the early 1990s, which is the worst streak in the AFL era.
 

Mt Isa Mustang

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Sexton would not have helped us today at all. We need to actually get it forward for him to impact the game. Rarely does he venture beyond 80 meters from goal.

Onus on this is on the mids. Strange choices to run through there all the time. Are we bleeding youngsters? Is this what we should expect more of? If it is tell us now so we know what to expect coming into games. Brodie barely has any experience playing fulltime mid at AFL level, and Rowell hasn't played against men at all. Touk battles hard, but he's also undersized. Throw Weller in there too and suddenly we look very small. Rocky and Boak just toyed with them. Only when Holman came in did Boak slow down. Greenwood helped and did his part. Surely we need someone more experienced in there with guys like Rowell and Brodie to help them out.

Collins and Budarick looked good down back. Those are the only two who I would say 'won' against their opponents. I thought Joyce actually looked okay tonight, but he was on a slippery slope. Probably the worst game I've seen Luko play. Looked completely void of all confidence. I'm sure he's trying his guts out but his laconic style is grating. I like Bowes down back still - he is such a special player that he can adapt to play anywhere. I don't like Fiorini there. Looking at it, we had (most of the time) Luko, Collins, Graham Bowes, Fiorini, Budarick and Joyce. IMO that's two mids, one first-gamer, one mature-age player, two second year players (one at 6 games) and Joyce who has played 50-60 games. Did we go too young there? Harbrow back will help, but this is likely Harbs' last year. We can't rely on poor ol' Harbs to get us out of trouble anymore. Rory and/or Hombsch will help maybe.

Swallow battled hard and impacted as best he could, but clearly got frustrated at the end. If I were him I'd be frustrated at being stuck in the forward 50 while watching the oppo clear it out of the centre bounce with ease. I'm still surprised at the usage of Darce. Maybe we're trying to save these guys so we can play them more mid in the future this season? That's the only reason I can think of. Instead of just running them into the ground.

Anderson looked cooked after half time. Rowell a bit less so, but he's not used as much on the spread. Really need to temper our expectations of these guys. Even Jaeger took a game or two to get going. For these two it's just about getting their hands on the footy. Both of them did that.

Lach Weller hit or miss. He just looks so good with ball in hand, and then sometimes fires off this handball that goes straight to the opposition. If he hit his targets he would be one of the prime mids in the game.

Ellis about to learn what it's like to be a Sun. He signed up for five years of this. Didn't see much of him.

Greenwood did about as much as could be expected from someone of his skillset. At least he got a couple of key clearances against the flow of it all.

Ainsworth and King looked good forward, but it must be so hard for them on a night like tonight. I only really noticed Lemmens very late. I didn't notice Holman at all until he moved into the midfield. Day tried, but I think it's clear to all that this is the guy we have now. As a CHF I would rather 2MP. Better in the ruck and at least he doesn't drop chest marks.

We seemed to really struggle with the conditions, when a few weeks ago against the Cats we handled them beautifully. Combined with the lack of cohesion and communication, just very strange.
Agree with just about everything you said Sunny.
I was thinking when Ellis took a mark not he. defensive wing he looked up and at Richmond he had options. At the suns he just had nothing to kick to and you could see it on his face.

Anderson supposed to be in our top 5 runners - heard Dew say this numerous times. Could hardly run after half time.
 

Mt Isa Mustang

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I love Dew but I think Corbett, burgess and Mclennan are in his blacklist.
Even for you that is a ridiculous statement.
Mclennan has done nothing to deserve a spot last year.
Was s**t in both Marsh games. Should be pushing up to take Jesse Joyce's role but Joyce is just better.

Corbett and Burgess played 23 games in their first year combined. Not too bad at all. Burgess playing in defence looked the best of the two and reckon he's not far from games. Was an emergency I believe?
 
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I was hoping for better last night but expected that really
Where were 12 or 13 goals going to come from in order to win the match?
Pre-season's are wonderful for fans because we forget that Port Adelaide team would have rolled us by 100+ at the end of last season
The only difference between then and now is we potentially have potential
And we are not a Club that can carry 2 injuries to our best 22 let alone 6-8
The only way Clubs like ours get some W's is by bringing sheer intensity and catching other Clubs off guard
If we don't do that we're stuffed
 
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Agree with just about everything you said Sunny.
I was thinking when Ellis took a mark not he. defensive wing he looked up and at Richmond he had options. At the suns he just had nothing to kick to and you could see it on his face.

Anderson supposed to be in our top 5 runners - heard Dew say this numerous times. Could hardly run after half time.
Interesting about Anderson. First game so maybe went a bit too hard too early out of excitement, not used to the intensity of the real thing?
Team as a whole though were very disappointing in this aspect. Dew said at 3 quarter time that they’re very fit and expected them to come home stronger but Port were in third gear and matched them easily. Do our players really know how to work hard enough or was it just more tiring from chasing tails all night?
 

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Arguably the worst game of football we've played and there have been many!

Some of my personal observations and probably not agreed by some of you BUT:

Luko is a forward - I've said it many times before. We are in danger of him being 'Jack Martin'd' and watch his career blossom somewhere else. Play him on a wing or half forward flank. You can see he's being demoralised down back while his best mate, Rozee is carving it up down front.

Lemmens and Joyce and possibly Holman need to go and not get another chance. 19 losses in a year says we can't keep playing some of the squad and expect results.

Miller is not a mid. Gets the ball but is far too erratic with delivery to next player. He's improved but would be better suited as a lock down defender in back pocket on the likes of Gray etc.

We need size in the mid and so if that means Greenwood, Brodie and Swallow play there primarily, so be it. Rowell will emerge as the 4th with Bowes and Fiorini providing relief.

Ellis (I believe) will turn out to be a mistake. He's a front runner and anybody would have looked good in Richmond's side. Play him off the HB flank and let's see what he delivers for us.

Bowes and Fiorini are NOT defenders. Play them on the wing, in the middle or down forward or don't play them at all.

Collins is a gem but so glad he signed before this game as I'd say he's already having second thoughts.

Witts was underdone and although I've never been a big fan of Zac Smith, he needs to come in until Witts is ready.

Cannot for the life of me understand why Sharp was not included. Did enough to earn the spot and would have provided speed around the wing area.

Weller is too light to be a mid and does his best work on the outside as a receiver. Keep him on a wing.

Desperately need Harbrow, Hanley, Ballard and Thompson to come back in. Defence is paper thin and that was shown up in massive lights last night. Hombsch not so important but better back up than what we currently have.

Day vs Wright? I'd still stick with Day but his game last night was woeful. It's a position (CHF) we have no answer for at the moment - another reason to play Luko up front and get him into the attack mode.

McPherson - didn't seem to get as much mid time as usual but I'd still prefer him as an attacking, bulldogging forward.

Brodie seemed to be missing in action but saw he only had 60% TOG and much of that was down forward. He's a big mid and we don't have enough of them so play him there.

Rowell and Anderson both did enough to keep me excited and we just have to try and keep positive.

Rankine needs to be played as soon as he's fit - assuming he gets fit.

Stewie's 3rd year and if we don't show improvement under his game plan I would hate to see him extended. We stand a good chance of 'winning' the most losses in a row ever this year and I can't see a coach being rewarded for that!

.....and finally WTF is going on with Flanders? I know he's injured but does anybody know when he will be playing? He's supposed to have a bit of junk yard dog in him and that's sorely missing from this current crop of players.
 

Peel67skin

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Even for you that is a ridiculous statement.
Mclennan has done nothing to deserve a spot last year.
Was s**t in both Marsh games. Should be pushing up to take Jesse Joyce's role but Joyce is just better.

Corbett and Burgess played 23 games in their first year combined. Not too bad at all. Burgess playing in defence looked the best of the two and reckon he's not far from games. Was an emergency I believe?
What you expect?
i don't expect Mclennan be better than Joyce just based on the number of defender available in AFL and NEAFL last year and this is his proper 1st pre seasons (Collins and Hombsch ,thompson should all help Mcleennan development not burgess, joyce ,graham ,leslie and academy kids like koenan). scrimshaw still played a bit better with Hawthorn and Boxhill learning from semi pro players (Collins ,TIm kelly, Martin Hore ,callum wilkins type before they get drafted ).
Better to learn from mature age players than from Koenan or Joyce in NEAFL.


* to be fair to Burgess he played forward for a few round in AFL before demoted to NEAFL playing alongside Leslie and graham in defence . Joyce is lucky GCS drafted him , if he is under GWS zone he most probably playing for Canberra ,some lower league or not get drafted at all. I begin to understand why Knightmare said GCS is the worse place to develop players.
 
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Mt Isa Mustang

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What you expect? Better than four pre season Joyce with plenty AFL games than none AFL game Mclennan.
You said Mclennan was s**t, did he played with Collins last year, Joyce had been playing with most of the defender ( burgess, Lukosius, Ballard, May, Thompson ) from the day he get drafted in AFL level and learning from Harbrow too.
So you're saying Joyce is better because he's had longer in the system. Yes, that's true.
At a time where we need to be playing our best team why would you put in an inferior player.
Joyce was actually decent last night. 14 possessions, @ 78%, 6 intercept possessions, 256m gained, 1 TO.
Intercept possessions Collins 12, Bowes 8, Joyce 6 - 3rd most.

In Marsh series where we played a defence line of Caleb Graham, Burgess, Jacob Dawson, Connor Budarick all who played in the NEAFL a lot of last year Mclennan showed very little. If this season goes to s**t he'll probably get a few games this year and we can see how he goes in the seniors.

Everyone was in love with this 'intercepting defender' and comparing him to Jeremy Howe. The dude is 10cm shorter than Howe - he was never going to have the capacity to play the same role. We drafted a guy who could only ever play back pocket with pick 23. I'm not going to 100% condemn it because not many drafted below him have done anything so far - pretty weak draft class. But still, I'm pretty down on it.
 

Mt Isa Mustang

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I actually thought Ellis was ok.
Is he a 600k player - no. But I thought he did what we needed.

Patrolled that Western side we go down non-stop.
Thought he ran hard and was faster than I realised.
Provided an option for us coming out of defence. Probably needs to move it to the next link in the chain a bit faster so we don't get bogged down.

I'm not super down on the performance. Just hope he can keep his head in the game when the losses start to pile up.
 

Mt Isa Mustang

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We had an average age of 23 years and 2 months. The next youngest so far this round is Freo at 24 and 0 months, then Sydney at 24 and 5 months, everyone else 25+ years average age.

Whilst Sharp definitely showed a bit adding another 18 year old does not help our performance. Who would you suggest he plays instead of? I'd be ok with him in instead of Anderson but not really anyone else.

The sooner we get some more experience in the better IMO.
 

Peel67skin

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So you're saying Joyce is better because he's had longer in the system. Yes, that's true.
At a time where we need to be playing our best team why would you put in an inferior player.
Joyce was actually decent last night. 14 possessions, @ 78%, 6 intercept possessions, 256m gained, 1 TO.
Intercept possessions Collins 12, Bowes 8, Joyce 6 - 3rd most.

In Marsh series where we played a defence line of Caleb Graham, Burgess, Jacob Dawson, Connor Budarick all who played in the NEAFL a lot of last year Mclennan showed very little. If this season goes to s**t he'll probably get a few games this year and we can see how he goes in the seniors.

Everyone was in love with this 'intercepting defender' and comparing him to Jeremy Howe. The dude is 10cm shorter than Howe - he was never going to have the capacity to play the same role. We drafted a guy who could only ever play back pocket with pick 23. I'm not going to 100% condemn it because not many drafted below him have done anything so far - pretty weak draft class. But still, I'm pretty down on it.
Then don't move up and get him . You will have similar emotion if Sharp turn out to be the same like him. IN his draft year there are similar type but cost less
Eg. the now famous Sydney Stack ( but not sure how he look if in GCS system, most likely MCleenan v2), Callum WIlkins, Martin Hore both mature body taller than Joyce and Mclennan.

why don't GCS recruiteter draft both Callum WIlkins and Martin Hore . ( Joyce on the list hoping he become good, and promise to redraft leslie in rookie draft).
You cannot have both world you need to delist player to draft players. You need to prioritize what you want in your list and not keep delay de-listed players until they are no good , the 18-19 years old will not learn anything from them. Why would Leslie teach Mclennan if he is on the chopping block , why Joyce need to input to Mclennan and make him better , if Mclennan become better than him in his second year and he himself get delisted. AFL wages is a lot better than southport just ask Brad sheer.

*burgess , Corbett and Mclennan all get four year AFL contract and a bit similar to Joyce who is in AFL system 2 1/2 year earlier that is a big big advantages than all of them in term of experience.
 
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robo_1

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Do our players really know how to work hard enough or was it just more tiring from chasing tails all night?

Bit of both I think.. but one thing that’s been with this team for years they never fight until the ball is dead! So many times you see the ball go to the boundary line or goal line and they just presume the ball will go out so they give up but the opposition fight hard and keep the ball alive and most of the time goal from it
 

Mt Isa Mustang

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Then don't move up and get him . You will have similar emotion if Sharp turn out to be the same like him. IN his draft year there are similar type but cost less
Eg. the now famous Sydney Stack ( but not sure how he look if in GCS system, most likely MCleenan v2), Callum WIlkins, Martin Hore both mature body taller than Joyce and Mclennan.

why don't GCS recruiteter draft both Callum WIlkins and Martin Hore . ( Joyce on the list hoping he become good, and promise to redraft leslie in rookie draft).
You cannot have both world you need to delist player to draft players.
I have zero idea what point you're trying to make.

I would not have moved up to get Mclennan - I think that is pretty clear from my post you bolded. Made this comment about the ridiculous comparison to Howe back before the draft.
Would have loved us to take a mature ager like Wilkie
 

robo_1

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We had an average age of 23 years and 2 months. The next youngest so far this round is Freo at 24 and 0 months, then Sydney at 24 and 5 months, everyone else 25+ years average age.

Whilst Sharp definitely showed a bit adding another 18 year old does not help our performance. Who would you suggest he plays instead of? I'd be ok with him in instead of Anderson but not really anyone else.

The sooner we get some more experience in the better IMO.

Average age doesn’t make skills any less.. look at Georgiades for port better skills than some of our second and third year players in his first game
 

Mt Isa Mustang

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Average age doesn’t make skills any less.. look at Georgiades for port better skills than some of our second and third year players in his first game
No, I'm sorry but that take is just wrong.
Being a young player in an experienced team is so much easier than being a young player in a young team. Our guys are no less skilled as players but they're just not able to show their skills in current set up.

Our midfield got smashed by a more experience and harder outfit.
Our defence was young and paper thin. The 6 defenders (Collins, Graham, Buderick, Bowes, Lukosius, Fiorini) have less than 150 games between them.

Georgiades was surrounded by Gray, Ebert, Westhoff, Rozee, Marshall - about 800 games between them. That makes a huge, huge difference.
 
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Had a lot to do with the excellent pressure Port was putting on our guys and the lack of shepherding/ providing a get out handball, but I’m so tired of the big sideways bomb it out of the area forward kick. Seems we haven’t learned anything from previous years. Port killed us there and getting numbers to the drop of the ball when these predictable kicks were smashed down by their defence.
 
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No, I'm sorry but that take is just wrong.
Being a young player in an experienced team is so much easier than being a young player in a young team. Our guys are no less skilled as players but they're just not able to show their skills in current set up.

Our midfield got smashed by a more experience and harder outfit.
Our defence was young and paper thin. The 6 defenders (Collins, Graham, Buderick, Bowes, Lukosius, Fiorini) have less than 150 games between them.

Georgiades was surrounded by Gray, Ebert, Westhoff, Rozee, Marshall - about 800 games between them. That makes a huge, huge difference.
Would’ve loved to see Georgiades against a fit Rory Thompson. A fit Rory Thompson...sigh. More chance of seeing a fit unicorn.
 
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Had a lot to do with the excellent pressure Port was putting on our guys and the lack of shepherding/ providing a get out handball, but I’m so tired of the big sideways bomb it out of the area forward kick. Seems we haven’t learned anything from previous years. Port killed us there and getting numbers to the drop of the ball when these predictable kicks were smashed down by their defence.
Even though he was 37, that’s why we made a big push for Burgoyne. Cool head down back and help steady things down instead of panic. Hodge did exactly that job with the Lions. When we are under pressure our first instinct is that hurried hack kick across our body.
 
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