Autopsy Doomsday - Diabolical Dogs Downed by Blues

[Libbaaaa]

Few more thoughts now that the disappointed has subsided a bit.

- Last year we beat them with Sweet solo rucking (albeit with a fit and firing Josh Bruce

17

Josh Bruce

Age

31

Ht

198cm

Wt

97kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.2

3star

K

6.6

3star

HB

4.6

3star

M

4.5

4star

T

2.1

4star

MG

90.4

1star

D

8.9

2star

K

3.5

1star

HB

5.4

3star

M

2.5

3star

T

1.3

2star

MG

90.4

2star

D

11.2

3star

K

5.6

3star

HB

5.6

4star

M

3.6

4star

T

0.8

3star

as well). Timmy was fantastic in all areas except the ruck. Someone mentioned earlier the Blues got all the hit outs to advantage early, it was worse than that. I think it took until the 4th quarter for Tim to even show up on the screen when they showed hit outs to advantage. He simply cannot ruck against brute Ruckman, even if they are a journeyman spud like Pitto.

- We have nobody with closing speed in defence. Curnow who hadn’t played for 3 years easily got 5m on all our guys, same with McKay.

- I lost count how many times we had 3 guys fly for the ball against 1 or 2 Blues players. Happened in both attack and defence. We have zero crumbing presence (where the hell are Vanders and Cody?). 2-3 times we were in a dangerous position about 40m our from our goal and within 5-10 seconds Carlton had kicked a goal.

- Twice Vanders and Hunter were our sole targets when entering F50, simply unacceptable in the third quarter. Simply unacceptable.

 

[Foxman98]

Tim's big issue for CB ruck contests is he looks at his opponent before the tap and never changes his angles. He's taller and more athletic then most ruckmen yet he tries to beat them with strength. Pitonett tore him apart early because he kept running head on at him.

 

[The Slitherin' Snake]

The talent in the team is there for all to see - but the tactical set ups or ability to change tactics on the fly is basically non-existent. If we bring the 4th quarter intensity in the second quarter, we win that game by 10 goals.

Our selection / team structure is so weird that we basically have to be on our game for 4 quarters or the obvious weaknesses (ruck, tall defenders, high defensive zone) get exploited and the opposition scores easy goals.

Last night felt like every time Carlton went inside 50 they had a shot at goal from a really straightforward spot on the ground

 

[Dogs Rule]

Thankful I was nowhere near a TV in that last quarter. I would be looking for a new one today.

 

[Dog 36]

Few more thoughts now that the disappointed has subsided a bit.

- Last year we beat them with Sweet solo rucking (albeit with a fit and firing Josh Bruce as well). Timmy was fantastic in all areas except the ruck. Someone mentioned earlier the Blues got all the hit outs to advantage early, it was worse than that. I think it took until the 4th quarter for Tim to even show up on the screen when they showed hit outs to advantage. He simply cannot tuck against brute Ruckman, even if they are a journeyman spud like Pitto.

- We have nobody with closing speed in defence. Curnow who hadn’t played for 3 years easily got 5m on all our guys, same with McKay.

- I lost count how many times we had 3 guys fly for the ball against 1 or 2 Blues players. Happened in both attack and defence. We have zero crumbing presence (where the hell are Vanders and Cody?). 2-3 times we were in a dangerous position about 40m our from our goal and within 5-10 seconds Carlton had kicked a goal.

- Twice Vanders and Hunter were our sole targets when entering F50, simply unacceptable in the third quarter. Simply unacceptable.

Agree with you on all these especially regarding English.

People say we kicked badly in the last, I suggest if we kicked straight (kicked a goal) the ball would have gone back for a centre bounce and there was not even a hint of danger we would win the clearance.

Sweet/Martin should have played against a ruck like Pitto who is more of a big body ruck and less athletic.

Pitto and De Koning took English to town with regards to hit outs to advantage. Our game was forced to start on the half back line.

 

[dergert]

After a good night's sleep I'm more reasonable and clear minded.

Our midfield needs to improve. Iirc Sweet didn't overly dominate the hitouts last year, except for against Gold Coast when they had Burgess rucking.

Our forward line looked more dangerous when Naughton was cleared out of there imo. Hannan actually looked half decent.

I'm not a fan of Bont spending so much time forward.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

I'm not a fan of Bont spending so much time forward.

He had to, he was barely fit to play. Not sure the captain made the right call putting his hand up to play this week to be honest.

 

[stefoid]

The main concern is our stoppage strategies, I think. Starting to build a pattern of letting the opposition take the ball away too easily and too purposefully, while our own handball-happy stoppage play leaves us flat-footed both offensively and defensively.

 

[dergert]

Again I will ask: do we now concede that Steven King

Steven King

Age

45

Ht

201cm

Wt

104kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.8

3star

K

7.9

3star

HB

4.9

4star

CL

1.3

3star

HO

16.8

5star

No current season stats available

D

11.8

3star

K

6.4

3star

HB

5.4

4star

HO

8.8

5star

and Ash Hansen were actually great line coaches?

 

[The Inbetweener]

I know it was a corky, but we really need someone to teach Naughton to protect his body when launching. His body is already copping a hammering at the age of 22.

 

[Dog 36]

Again I will ask: do we now concede that Steven King and Ash Hansen were actually great line coaches?

Way too early to make that call.

I could easily argue years of neglect of a proper forward line both in structure and functioning cannot be solved in one pre season especially without Bruce.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

Sorry guys, I know you probably don't want to hear from a Blues supporter right now, but I come in peace.

You guys are being too harsh on yourselves. You don't just stop being a good side all of a sudden. You're missing Bruce pretty bad. It would help JUH if he was developing as a 3rd tall rather than 2nd banana, and Smith gives you a spark that was missing early. Even at half time I wasn't confident and was almost proven right.
I wouldn't read too much into starting 0-2. Dees are a bit of a bogey side for you at the moment and we've matched up quite well against you guys in recent years for whatever reasons.
You'll bounce back and wouldn't be surprised if you end up higher on the ladder than us. It's only round 2. In 2017 Sydney started 0-6 and finished 6th.
Is Bruce out for the year? What's his timeline?

 

[Bulldogs85]

Sorry guys, I know you probably don't want to hear from a Blues supporter right now, but I come in peace.

You guys are being too harsh on yourselves. You don't just stop being a good side all of a sudden. You're missing Bruce pretty bad. It would help JUH if he was developing as a 3rd tall rather than 2nd banana, and Smith gives you a spark that was missing early. Even at half time I wasn't confident and was almost proven right.
I wouldn't read too much into starting 0-2. Dees are a bit of a bogey side for you at the moment and we've matched up quite well against you guys in recent years for whatever reasons.
You'll bounce back and wouldn't be surprised if you end up higher on the ladder than us. It's only round 2. In 2017 Sydney started 0-6 and finished 6th.
Is Bruce out for the year? What's his timeline?

Bruce is about 4/5 months from returning

 

[threenewpadlocks]

We lost our nerve and structure early in the second quarter, and were too willing to to beat Carlton at their own-fast paced game. There was opportunity to take the sting out of it, but Carlton's attack was leaving them exposed and we were wanting to punish them for that exposure, rather than accepting we had to weather the attack. There was I reckon 2 two-goal swings in that period due to turnovers after blazing away.

 

[doggies ftw]

the fact that Hannans stats in the hitouts were good so Bev can pat himself on the back for a good move and we’ll see the same thing happen for the next 6 weeks

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Alex Keath

42

Alex Keath

Age

32

Ht

198cm

Wt

93kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.0

4star

K

8.9

3star

HB

5.1

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.5

3star

MG

206.7

3star

D

11.0

3star

K

7.3

3star

HB

3.8

3star

M

3.6

4star

T

0.6

1star

MG

193.4

3star

D

11.4

3star

K

6.2

3star

HB

5.2

4star

M

4.6

5star

T

2.6

4star

MG

165.0

3star

is either short of a gallop, playing injured, or both. He wasn't even playing this poorly in his first games for Adelaide when he naturally looked a bit hesitant and lost. His form has been more or less consistent and on an upward trajectory in the 70-odd games he's played that it's so bloody bizarre that he's played so poorly to mean that you can infer that his two pre-season injuries are still affecting him, because it's a lot more logical explain for his form to just randomly drop off a cliff.

We have to hope it doesn't last, because it leaves us bloody exposed if it does.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

For the lambasting that Cordy and Gardner (me) get here, Keath's form in the first two games is as much a concern given he is the absolute cornerstone of our defence. The problem is that the ball is coming in at pace under little or no pressure at all from our mids or our first line of defence across half back. When its not coming in long and direct and over their heads, that is.

Its little wonder that Keath always looks around accusingly when he is left exposed and a step behind his opponent. A leading forward is always going to have an advantage in these circumstances.

The converse is happening at the other end. On the rare occasion when we win centre clearance our mids are immediately under pressure and forced into a scrappy game of hot potato. This gives our opposition time to double team/triple team Naughton and block the single obvious avenue to goal that we have.

It was only when Carltons pressure and exception efficiency dropped off marginally around 3qtr time that we gained the ascendency and were able to kick points with relative ease that we played as we would expect.

Most observers would consider our midfield brigade to be our greatest asset and on paper it is. In reality is that aside from Treloar its proving to be somewhat one paced (Bailey Smiths absence made this even more glaring) and a defensive liability who don't have any answers for when the games big bodied and aggressive mids take hold of a game. We also need to do something about the wing situation. Lachy Hunter for all his hard work running up and down the wings providing coverage just is not an effective wingman in the modern game. He cannot mark overhead, cannot kick the ball beyond 40 and offers nothing much in the way of tackling of defensive pressure.

The season is far from over and I dont think there is much doubt that we could've won last night. However, Bevo needs to sort out the glaring issues that were apparent in the Grand Final and now the first two rounds and get a cohesive ruck/midfield rotation working soon... or it will be.

Because right now all it takes to put us on the back foot is a competent ruckman and a midfield bull.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Keath almost certainly has an issue with the shin that got kicked in the pre-season. His form in that game was excellent until he got taken off, and since then he's been barely able to move. I wouldn't be shocked to see him come out of the side for a spell.

 

[Leon]

Playing Seeet and English solves more problems for our side than it creates.

Agreed with this.

The problems with the ruck are all on the recruitment and coaching staff.

Whilst I do like Stefan Martin, recruiting him at the age of approximately 100 million and at a stage where he is more injury prone than Lin Jong, Tom Williams and Harry Kewell combined isn’t exactly great strategic thinking.

Week after week English gets slaughtered as the only ruck and is burnt out, whilst we play non rucks such as Cordy as the relief who also gets slaughtered.

Gawn and Jackson had a field day against us in the Grand Final. Was the ruck problem even attempted to be rectified in the trade of draft period?

Sweet hasn’t been too bad when he has played and we continue to go with just English and Cordy as relief.

He has to have a run of games. What was the point of re-signing him if we’re just going to play him at Footscray and leave English and Cordy to be exposed week after week?

Insanity = doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

[Claudonious]

Look everyone knows i'm pretty bias towards Marra

but honestly, i'm really enjoy watching him play with a bit of campaigner last night
hitting blokes and making the tackles, really should have had 4-5 goals last year

Future super bright for this kid

Agree - could have kicked 5 , Treloar should have fed him one, should have had a shot on another, marked one when a free was given to Naughton, and narrowly missed 2 other shots . Hit a few hard too - huge promise, has to play every week


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[doggie dog]

Keath almost certainly has an issue with the shin that got kicked in the pre-season. His form in that game was excellent until he got taken off, and since then he's been barely able to move. I wouldn't be shocked to see him come out of the side for a spell.

So who can we even hope to replace Keath, that's some poor planning on Sammy.
Keath is 30 with no like-for-like option down back for coverage, no decent backup or developing KPD in the VFL

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

2 weeks in a row we've been beaten comfortably in contested possessions. last night we just always lost the 50/50 contest.
we had no luck

 

[footscray1973]

We don’t have many magnets to move. The only obvious one is to get Sweet in hopefully he can knock the door down today. But we have no other tall options bar the ones that we played last night. Schache is the only key position player that was left out last night (that isn’t on the injury list). The cupboard is bare for quality in those key position posts and our list balance is out of whack. We need quality talls (including a second ruck who is dangerous forward).

I’d like Jones and Bedendo in. Two players with real talent and speed. But they won’t make a real massive difference this year.




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TOB is off the injury list, playing VFL apparently. Bring in TOB and Sweet. Question then is, do we use TOB as a third KPD and interceptor, or second KPD with Keath Sweet and English split ruck, Sweet told when playing forward, smash packs and hurt oppo backs. Clear path for Naughton, JUH and smalls. If Sweet hits the scoreboard, it's a bonus. The challenge for him will be impact when rucking.

 

[Al dente]

Tim's big issue for CB ruck contests is he looks at his opponent before the tap and never changes his angles. He's taller and more athletic then most ruckmen yet he tries to beat them with strength. Pitonett tore him apart early because he kept running head on at him.

He does the same thing every time, at bounces he runs straight in jumps early into the opponents body, then he is trying to tap as he's falling back to the ground at his lowest point allowing his opponent an easy tap. at throw ins he makes body contact early again, the result often being he gets bumped off the line and allows the opponent a tap or walk away.

i cant believe this is how they want him to ruck, these tactics are more likely his choice to minimise injury and pain, but arent good for winning

 

[Munnez]

I don’t think anyone can blame English across the first two rounds. He’s playing really well.

Pretty much averaging 22 touches, 6 clearances and 20 hit outs across the first two games. If we were told that in November last year we’d be stoked.

Desperately needs a ruck partner though, let him sit 30% of the game at FF. Sweet is needed as he can play 50% game time up forward and make up the rest in the ruck.

To me it’s such a bleedingly, frustratingly, astonishingly obvious solution.

Agree with this whole heartedly, thought English has battled strongly and brought a combative side that hasn't been there as much previously. Our midfield group as a collective got slaughtered last night.
Can't afford makeshift rucks with 6-6-6 centre clearances are gold.
Cord God bless him gives his best but it isn't good enough to have him rucking.
Put us immediately on the back foot every time.