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

[The Dr]

Possibly the most important stat
Total Touches
Port - 426
Melb - 333

Uncontested touches
We both averaged ~227 last year
Port had 276, we had 180

Thats a ******* disgrace

Yeah, at the ground it was so obvious how they were much more willing to spread than us.

At risk of repeating myself on here, it’s exactly like the last few years- if we don’t totally dominate contested footy and clearances, we’re f*cked ... it’s only R1 but I’ll be filthy if the coaches haven’t found a way to rectify that.


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[DeesFanTheMan]

Can some please explain the logic to me of going down the members wing ad nauseam for 3 and a half quarters when it is clearly not working?

 

[stretcharmstrong]

The fellating of Jack Watts after his interview is sickening.

Well I’m glad they at least waited until after

 

[stretcharmstrong]

Answer me this coach . seeing how all teams are physically targeting Gawn , why are we not doing the same ?

Surely that would be counter-productive?

 

[dee_mac]

Answer me this coach . seeing how all teams are physically targeting Gawn , why are we not doing the same ?

Was s**t yesterday. I didn't see one Melb bloke come back at Port when they were into Max. Motlop was banging into him every chance he got and hunt literally just stood idly by

 

[Djcjdees]

I think most of this comes down to Misson. The state of the list coming into round one is pretty terrible. The injury list is half a km long, and then there's the underdone players..

His one job is to get the list fit for round one. I get that unlucky injuries happen but it was pretty clear yesterday which team was on their toes and which wasn't

 

[stretcharmstrong]

I think most of this comes down to Misson. The state of the list coming into round one is pretty terrible. The injury list is half a km long, and then there's the underdone players..

His one job is to get the list fit for round one. I get that unlucky injuries happen but it was pretty clear yesterday which team was on their toes and which wasn't

I doubt it’s that simple. Misson has possibly contributed to the state of things that we saw yesterday, but there’s gotta be other factors at play too.

 

[All Aboard the Dee Train]

Good: MFC finally played Watts into form.
Bad: He was playing for Port.
Fugly: His post match interview. It's as if he was wearing a cape with that 'middle-distance' stare...

 

[Djcjdees]

I doubt it’s that simple. Misson has possibly contributed to the state of things that we saw yesterday, but there’s gotta be other factors at play too.

I'm certain there are other factors. Playing unfit players though would be pretty high up on the list though

 

[BG32]

Doesn’t misson deal with injuries and rehab? He’s not the fitness guy/s

 

[Topkent]

I doubt it’s that simple. Misson has possibly contributed to the state of things that we saw yesterday, but there’s gotta be other factors at play too.

Yeah misson is supposed to get them fit, but he isn't selecting them to play.

 

[mrmonkey]

Having a bit of time to think about it and as a few posters have pointed out. We never seem to learn from our mistakes, we play like auskick kids all running at the ball trying to get a kick mean while port players stayed on the outside for an easy release once they won the contested ball. This was highlighted in round 1 last year and they still do it. I think someone said we never switched, we did but nobody worked hard enough to push across. In contrast to port when they switched they had a line of players queued for the next three kicks. I think port worked harder and used the width of the ground to expose us. We need to learn to defend the ground better. Felt like port had a plan and completely out coached us. Perhaps some players were under done but overall they just didn't work hard enough.

 

[deeco]

Well played Port.

Surprising that the very same glaring issues we've carried right throughout Goodwins reign as head coach is still causing us to drop games like this. Said it in the JLT matches, not sure what the * the bloke does all day. Your game plan has flaws or your players aren't playing to your instructions. It's literally your job to fix whichever of those is the issue.

The bloke seems to have one plan and if it doesn't work we just roll over and let the other team pet our belly. He needs to work on adapting to the opposition. He figures it out and we might go places, either that or we just keep waiting for that miracle lucky year where everything falls into place and we win a cup. I really hope we don't have to pay this dickhead out in 2 years when we haven't made any progress.

Also players were very very ordinary.

 

[jhong]

Surely that would be counter-productive?

should of added "to them" .

 

[stEdy]

I cant believe our lack of physicality too, that was especially galling

Gawn was getting run into at every opportunity and we copped a few late/high ones and not ONE player did anything about it. Especially when the other team is playing a raft of debutants you'd want to put them on their ass at least a couple of times to get them second guessing themselves

We really missed AVB to be honest, you could have bet when Port started to get on top he would have at least buried someone.

 

[Proper Gander]

I’ve slept on it now so can compile the following key points:

Excellent - Salem. I’m really pleased for him. I’ve always thought he was going to be a player, and he had some unfortunate years there where his thyroid health or hamstrings didn’t let him get a run at it. I’ve changed my stance on human cloning. We would be a much better team if we had two more of him to use around the ground.

Good - Fritch. Can hold his head up also.

Bad - most of everything really. But particularly our obsession with the contested ball that brings about a cluster* of 10 swarming players scrambling at every stoppage only to leave nobody on the spread to take the ball forward. Port read our idiocy perfectly. We could have won every clearance and still lost easily. We pretty much won the stoppage only to gift it to them in a nice bow and let them move it, uncontested at their leasure. We’re not a quick team anyway, but this gets compounded by half the team writhing in a grounded pile like spitfires most of the time.

Concerning - the coaching. For reason, see above. Why aren’t we improving in this? Either crazy Goody thinks our approach is a great idea (it’s not), or players just aren’t implementing the plan properly. If that’s the case, it’s still a coaching concern. If with all the drills, match simulations and planning we still keep returning to default, then I’m starting to ask why our coaching team can’t seem to get our guys to absorb the concept of spread.

More concerning - Gus. Grow up son. Right away. A player that we know is a decent kick and can be a good ball user, but time after time throws it on the boot to bomb it to either nobody in particular, or better still cleanly to the opposition. It’s getting very old. Plus it’s about time for Petracca to perform consistently. Even with aerodynamic hair he didn’t contribute much of anything.

Also concerning - TMac doesn’t look right.

Deeply concerning - Viney seems really impaired. I can’t come up with another explanation for his game. I’m worried for his future.

WTF - Sam Frost. One of the dumbest games I have seen.

Weird - that message to the fans from Goody. Too bizarre. Unsettling.

Slight positive - the terrible standard of virtually everyone meant that Sparrow by contrast had and okay debut, so good for him. Also the low standard made Hunts game look better than it really was - but he’s still got a way to go. Hopefully it acts as a confidence builder and he gets his s**t together in 2019.

To the people sitting near me - SHUT UP you weirdos. They talked loudly to each other from beginning to end. Woman next to me was literally turned around through the whole game to talk to the group behind throughout. I know more about their lives than I do my own. Melbourne do honestly have some real units for supporters. Still, maybe going to the footy to ignore the game has it’s upside on days like yesterday.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

I’ve slept on it now so can compile the following key points:

Excellent - Salem. I’m really pleased for him. I’ve always thought he was going to be a player, and he had some unfortunate years there where his thyroid health or hamstrings didn’t let him get a run at it. I’ve changed my stance on human cloning. We would be a much better team if we had two more of him to use around the ground.

Good - Fritch. Can hold his head up also.

Bad - most of everything really. But particularly our obsession with the contested ball that brings about a cluster**** of 10 swarming players scrambling at every stoppage only to leave nobody on the spread to take the ball forward. Port read our idiocy perfectly. We could have won every clearance and still lost easily. We pretty much won the stoppage only to gift it to them in a nice bow and let them move it, uncontested at their leasure. We’re not a quick team anyway, but this gets compounded by half the team writhing in a grounded pile like spitfires most of the time.

Concerning - the coaching. For reason, see above. Why aren’t we improving in this? Either crazy Goody thinks our approach is a great idea (it’s not), or players just aren’t implementing the plan properly. If that’s the case, it’s still a coaching concern. If with all the drills, match simulations and planning we still keep returning to default, then I’m starting to ask why our coaching team can’t seem to get our guys to absorb the concept of spread.

More concerning - Gus. Grow up son. Right away. A player that we know is a decent kick and can be a good ball user, but time after time throws it on the boot to bomb it to either nobody in particular, or better still cleanly to the opposition. It’s getting very old. Plus it’s about time for Petracca to perform consistently. Even with aerodynamic hair he didn’t contribute much of anything.

Also concerning - TMac doesn’t look right.

Deeply concerning - Viney seems really impaired. I can’t come up with another explanation for his game. I’m worried for his future.

WTF - Sam Frost. One of the dumbest games I have seen.

Weird - that message to the fans from Goody. Too bizarre. Unsettling.

Slight positive - the terrible standard of virtually everyone meant that Sparrow by contrast had and okay debut, so good for him. Also the low standard made Hunts game look better than it really was - but he’s still got a way to go. Hopefully it acts as a confidence builder and he gets his s**t together in 2019.

To the people sitting near me - SHUT UP you weirdos. They talked loudly to each other from beginning to end. Woman next to me was literally turned around through the whole game to talk to the group behind throughout. I know more about their lives than I do my own. Melbourne do honestly have some real units for supporters. Still, maybe going to the footy to ignore the game has it’s upside on days like yesterday.

At least I got a free cup out of the day.

 

[There's other teams?]

My take was that the game was won and lost in the ruck. Melbourne played one and Port played two plus Port targeted Max at every opportunity which takes energy out of any player. If Melbourne had played 2 ruckmen and dished out a bit of niggle to Paddy then it would have been a different game.

 

[Topkent]

My take was that the game was won and lost in the ruck. Melbourne played one and Port played two plus Port targeted Max at every opportunity which takes energy out of any player. If Melbourne had played 2 ruckmen and dished out a bit of niggle to Paddy then it would have been a different game.

Wouldnt have made a single difference, Port had nearly 100 more uncontested touches. Nothing to do with the ruck.
Thats a side who wanted it a *load more than us an spread.

 

[There's other teams?]

Wouldnt have made a single difference, Port had nearly 100 more uncontested touches. Nothing to do with the ruck.
Thats a side who wanted it a ****load more than us an spread.

I think that rucks rule last year first 5 games Paddy fit Port were unstoppable then Paddy gets injured and Port struggle for rest of season. Watching the game yesterday I thought that both teams were pretty even in general play you have stats that say different so maybe your correct. My take is that Max was expected to dominate the ruck and dominate marks around the ground but he couldnt do it against 2 opponents and every port player who were obviously under instructions to bang into him.

 

[Topkent]

I think that rucks rule last year first 5 games Paddy fit Port were unstoppable then Paddy gets injured and Port struggle for rest of season. Watching the game yesterday I thought that both teams were pretty even in general play you have stats that say different so maybe your correct. My take is that Max was expected to dominate the ruck and dominate marks around the ground but he couldnt do it against 2 opponents and every port player who were obviously under instructions to bang into him.

Nullifying max was a good tactic no doubt and it clearly worked. For sure you will trouble teams who don't have back up rucks.
I'm not saying we could have won, but you can't win when you are -100 on uncontested possessions. That shows you were able to move the ball up the field under no pressure from us which allowed clean entries into your 50.

Port were better than us in almost every part of the game. The ruck was just one of a list of things

 

[Demon 16]

We were certainly underdone.

I know we had a shorter preseason (following finals) and a number of surgeries, but good sides don’t turn up to round 1 like that.

In the first half of last year I remember cracking the shits on several occasions because we would get cut up when sides switched the play out wide, and we often failed to slow the game down when the opposition got a run on.

That said, coming towards finals our ability to move the ball through the middle with sharp handball and sticking strong tackles in our forward half was what got us to a prelim. Chaos footy in our forward half didn’t emerge as our brand until half way through the year.

I think we’ll turn it around but we can’t lose too many early games if we are aiming for top 4 or even top 6..

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

We were certainly underdone.

I know we had a shorter preseason (following finals) and a number of surgeries, but good sides don’t turn up to round 1 like that.

In the first half of last year I remember cracking the shits on several occasions because we would get cut up when sides switched the play out wide, and we often failed to slow the game down when the opposition got a run on.

That said, coming towards finals our ability to move the ball through the middle with sharp handball and sticking strong tackles in our forward half was what got us to a prelim. Chaos footy in our forward half didn’t emerge as our brand until half way through the year.

I think we’ll turn it around but we can’t lose too many early games if we are aiming for top 4 or even top 6..

Worried now about screwing the season by losing too many early games due to fitness

 

[stEdy]

Funnily enough though, good sides regularly do turn up poorly to round 1

It's what happens in the next 3-4 rounds that we'll find out if we're pretending or potentially just still underdone/cooked

EDIT: as per above

 

[Toump Ass]

Possibly the most important stat
Total Touches
Port - 426
Melb - 333

Uncontested touches
We both averaged ~227 last year
Port had 276, we had 180

Thats a ******* disgrace

Yeah well I was sick of how much we were over-possessing the footy anyway.