Eagles v Dockers- GBU

Mead

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hey all.. Sorry about the lack of reviews in recent weeks for anyone who's been paying attention- uni's been particularly dire of late. Anyway, I'm back, and also posting the GBU back here in this form, after protracted negotiations with the ever reasonable GoEagles, the results of which can be seen above :)
So far, the big change is that I'm not the only person writing. From now on, there'll be a guest reviewer from the opposition camp each week- in round 5 Kenny_01 does the honors for the dockers. There may be different gimmicks in the pipeline depending on how creative i'm feeling. Anyway, lemme know what you think of the new look


So, anyway.
There's nothing like basking under the golden sun and blue sky above Subi and enjoying a solid, comfortable win over everyone's favorite whipping boys. More importantly, we've got a (technical) away win, are sitting third on the ladder after 5 rounds and have the best percentage in the league.

The Good
Our win began with Gardiner. He tossed the in form Simmonds around like a rag doll all day, and ranged the ground giving our midfielders possessions at will. There were periods of this game where a rushed out of bounds was as good as a mark for us, because Gardiner would invariably give us clean possession moments later. It’s difficult to overstate how well he is playing at the moment- Put simply, Gardie’s form so far this year makes him clearly the best ruckman in the league, and 17 similar performances away from a place in the AA side, and a serious chance at the Brownlow.

As a result of this dominance in the ruck, our midfielders got a lot of ball. Fletcher continued his trend of playing blinders against Freo with a 4 quarter effort that featured innumerable line breaking runs that saw him finish with a trio of goals. After 5 solid performances in as many rounds,
Fletcher appears to have turned the corner from the talented but inconsistent runner of previous years, and suddenly looks like a blue ribbon midfielder at least on par with Judd and Cousins.
Speaking of Cuz, he probably had his best outing this year, with a lot more of the ‘quarterbacking’ type forward kicks that tend to be a feature of his game. If the ankle injury v Hawthorn was what was bothering him, he looks like he’s just about back to his lofty best. Around the midfield, Jones had another solid outing, Judd picked up a lazy 20 touches and Phil Read looked happy to be back with and impressive return to AFL footy which included a crucial goal when we really needed steadying. Embley continued to enjoy having about 10cm on most midfielders around, taking 9 marks to go with his 24 touches.

Meanwhile, Chick did a truly outstanding job on Pavlich, matching him touch for touch and following him everywhere. Nothing he did is going to end up on the highlight reel, but today Chick was given a very difficult assignment, and he kept his head down and completed it to perfection. I get the impression Woosha will be very pleased with Chickybabe’s professional attitude.

In defence, McIntosh toweled Longmuir and Carroll looked delighted to be playing on a bigger hack than himself in Croad. Green and Hunter were also effective, although the latter didn’t get a huge amount of the ball, our HB duo of the future were both solid, with help from Banfield and Morrison. It looked very much to me as though our defenders had figured that the best way of neutralising Croad, Medhurst and Farmer was to make them aggro. There looked to be a lot of baiting going on, and by and large it did the job in distracting the danger men from the contest. I’m don’t think there are many defender in the league who could have bettered Green’s effort on Medhurst.

Up forward, we still lacked a single focal point. Haynes’ leading was good, but his inability to convert blunted his game a bit. The big story was of course Chris Lewis’ stirring comeback to league footy- the #28 doppelganger led our goal kicking with four, including another astounding punt from the 50m line, against the boundary, which should see him garner a rising star nomination.
Jako put in another lively performance at CHF, marking strongly and booting one huge goal from 55+. After that kick, Jako celebrated with an exuberant Phil Read- a scene which would no doubt warm the ****les of any Freo supporter’s heart.

Kenny_01:
For us, Hayden, Polak, Woods and Haddrill were again solid. All 4 did decent jobs on Sunday… Hayden did a great job on Matera and would have kept him to 1 goal if it wasn’t for a Pavlich blunder in the dying minutes. Woods was great of half back and has really improved, and he really does have such a sweet kick of the football. There is not much experience between these 4 but all of them have been very consistent this year and will form a good nucleus for our backline in the years to come, along with McPharlin. They are the no-names in our side but have been some of our better performers, especially in games we have struggled in.

Peter Bell continued his good form and led from the front. He was the only midfielder with maybe Cook to show any sort of resistance and we would have been flogged by over 10 goals if it wasn’t for him. Over the last few weeks, has got a lot of the ball forward of centre too which is pleasing.


The Bad
Our supposed ‘only goal kicking threat’, Fido was well held, with his best delivery all day coming courtesy of a Pavlich handball. 2 goals is still an acceptable return from a small forward, but isn’t on par with the lofty heights scaled by the shortest guy in the league in recent weeks. The fact that he only got two was due to a combination of poor conversion, and excellent, unrelenting pressure from Hayden.

Paul Johnson struggled to find a touch in his first AFL game, and looked a bit lost. However, I’d like to see him get another game or so under his belt before they send him back to the WAFL, just so he has a bit of experience to draw on when he next gets a call up. Incidentally, kudos to Cousins for a classy gesture after the game- he was being carried off because of his 150th , but he got down, went and found Johnson, and dragged him up the front and got him to lead the club down the race whilst the (eagles supporting) crowd went sick. Doesn’t seem like much, but it’s the sort of thing that good chemistry is built on.

Once more, our kicking from set shots was worse than it could have been, although this was probably disguised a little by how appalling Freo were in this regard. Haynes leads like a genuine full forward option, but he *must* consistently convert from inside 50- the alternative is, well, Clive.

Although our defence played extremely well, there were a few issues in that half of the field- midfielders from Fremantle frequently drifted forward untagged, with Cook, Carr, and Pavlich getting in amongst it. We were let off the hook in this regard due to poor execution on Fremantle’s part, but our midfielders must be more accountable.

Kenny_01:
Set shots killed us. Every time we had a sniff, we seemed to miss dead set easy set shots, 30m out. Clive missed 3 or 4, Medhurst and Cook missed a couple, Longmuir 1 or 2 as well, etc. It was just so frustrating to watch.

Worsfold also did out coach Chris Connolly. Connolly might have out coached him in Rd.16 last season but Worsfold definitely got one back on him. He had all the matchups worked out and it went perfectly to plan for the Eagles (Chick on Pavlich, Embley on Headland, Banfield on Farmer, etc). It was like we gave the Eagles our team and said to them “here, try to work out the best way to play us”. We were too predictable and didn’t do a whole lot to change the matchups or gameplan, even though they obviously weren’t working. Worsfold did a good job ensuring we had no space up forward. And the Eagles seem to be able to get the most out of the players. Worsfold has developed players like Haynes and Carroll who might have struggled elsewhere into players that can contribute every week by finding a position that suits them and giving them the confidence to hold that position.

I can’t go any further without mentioning the rotation policy. I’m in favour of rotating the players, but is it too much to leave our best players on the ground, especially after they have just kicked a goal? It can’t be too tiring playing in the forward line. Hasleby goaled yesterday and had been playing in the forward line for at least 5 or so minutes, brought the margin back to 9 points, then he went off, followed by Bell… and it was no surprise the Eagles kicked 3 quick goals straight after.

I don’t know if it’s a case of being mentally weak or what but too many players yesterday were staging for free kicks and attacking the man rather than focusing on the ball and attacking that. Medhurst would be far more dangerous if he just focused on the ball. I know sometimes the umpires miss free kicks for him, but I guarantee he would get more free kicks than he does when he is waving his arms around and constantly looking at the umpires. Croad didn’t much opportunity but when he did, he seemed to lose focus and attack the player. I know Connolly wants Trent to show toughness and put physical pressure on his opponents but he would be far better off showing his toughness by attacking the ball ferociously and tackling rather than trying to give them a hip and shoulder. If Croad wants to become a good forward, he should just keep leading and leading, and presenting himself. I reckon he should go to a couple of Collingwood games and see how Tarrant is playing his footy. If that isn’t for him, then he would be better suited down at CHB IMO where he can just follow an opponent and use his strength and speed to his advantage. We have other guys that can move forward like Polak or McPharlin.

Also, Headland does seem out of sorts at the moment. I know he is trying hard because apparently he is staying back at training and working on his skills. It just hasn’t clicked for him over the last month. Connolly has been trying to improve his defensive qualities over the last few weeks as well because he wouldn’t have been defensively orientated at Brisbane. If he is still injured as some people are suggesting, then he shouldn’t be playing. But if not, then I think we should just throw him in the middle and let him find his own way back to form. It might take a couple of games but he will hopefully get there sooner than later. There is no point keeping him on the bench.

It was just disappointing we had so many quiet players in the first half when the game was there to be won. As I mentioned, Pavlich and Headland were well held, as was Hasleby. Cook couldn’t find the ball until half time. Carr was quiet. Other players like Koops and Haines didn’t do much. Subsequently, with our midfielders being quiet, the forwards were quiet as well… You can’t our forward line to fire when you only get the ball inside 50 16 times in a half, and none of those were with any rhythm at all. We were a bit better in the 2nd half but it wasn’t enough. And all of our midfielders need to play with a bit more accountability. It was fine against the Kangaroos but when the pressure is on and the game is tight, you can’t afford to let your player run loose. When the ball was in the Eagles forward line, Bell a couple of times was sucked into getting the ball which left Fletcher with a couple of metres of space, and that’s all it took him to kick a few goals.


The Ugly
I say this every week, but the standard of umpiring really plumbed new depths this time around. The only thing which could be said in favor of the men in white was that they were consistent- consistently bad, to be precise, with both teams getting the wrong end of the stick on numerous occasions. On one hand, you had an inexplicable free given against Fremantle in their goal square after a mark, and a (to quote Cometti) ‘just ludicrous’ holding the ball non decision which saw Judd not get pinged, and on the other, you had Kerr get scragged around the neck and dumped on the ground virtually at the umpire’s feet, and again no call. I think you’d be searching long and hard to find anyone from either side who was satisfied with the umpiring, and its very depressing to see the same old **** doled out each week.

Meanwhile, I was sweating when Kerr went down with an ankle injury which didn’t look good at all, but apparently he’s a chance to be available for round 6. If not, it might be a blessing in disguise, because we have a number of midfielders tearing it up in the WAFL who were desperate for a look in. For freo, aside from their laughably bad kicking on goal, perhaps the ugliest thing would have to be the cheery sight of Phil Read celebrating with Glen Jakovich after the latter had kicked the sealer. I love derby week.

Kenny_01: The umpiring was bloody shocking yesterday. So many bad decisions. The Eagles got a couple of bad decisions as well but to me, the ones against us just seemed to happen at critical times. Like with Longmuir marking in the goalsqaure when we desperately needed a goal, but then apparently Medhurst blocked his opponent. And Judd had about 3 hours to dispose the ball, but got away with it, then down the other end, he threw it and a goal resulted from it. Carr should also have been given a 50m penalty as he blatantly ran in between the player with the ball and the man on the mark even though Cousins went around him. And Hasleby got a reasonably soft free as well. And what was with the controlling umpire missing the most blatant of free kicks when Medhurst had his head over the ball then Green I think it was charging straight into his head? There were heaps of other bad decisions but I’ve forgotten them now. It’s not like it affected the result or anything but I would have been annoyed if we lost by about a goal.

Well that’s it for now- next week for Fremantle, a must-win game against the Bombers at home, for us, another chance to break the away hoodoo, and set up an away win with a game against the Dees at the ‘G. See you then.
 

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ozzult

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#2
Excellent game. Good review by you two blokes.

Umpiring was soft as!! If you want to see a well umpired game, check out the Anzac day game.. they let most of everything through, and only paid the most blatant and obvious frees. None of this soft shyte!
 

carlyp

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#5
Good review Mead and Kenny!
Its good to see Woosha beginning to outcoach some other coaches. He is only a rookie coach and for him to be pulling moves here and there is good because it shows that he knows what he's on about and can actually win games for us!
 

The Passenger

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#6
Great review lads,

one thing though for Kenny, when he said the free kicks seemed to happy against your lads at critical times, I would say they came against us in critical places.

If you look at where the Free's were handed out, Fremantle recieved 6 free kicks inside their forward 50, while we only recieved 1.
 

pauljam

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#10
Excellent review Mead and Kenny! Much better than the shyte that is served up in the general media.

Some of the umpiring was unbelievable - I'd like to see a game where only the obvious frees are paid and no soft ones in front of goals. The one they took off Longmuir was an absolute joke (good for the Eagles though:D)
 
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