Agree with everyone's positive comments regarding Taberner, Neale, B. Hill and Blakely. My thoughts:
- Pressure vs No Pressure: We are a completely different side in these situations - at this stage under pressure we're one of the worst teams in the comp, lob it on the boot to no one, kick's to 2 on 1's, 3 on 1's that are turned over everytime and goal's scored against us on the run of play. Essendon tired due to the heat, travel and their short-turnarounds and we completely capitalized in the second-half. It's not a coincidence that guys like B. Hill and Walters began to make an absolute meal out of the opposition when they were given that lead, under pressure their bodies regularly can't handle the contact. We used to be awesome at this and the reason was because of some of our less popular players thrived in that environment - Barlow (notwithstanding), Suban, De Boer, Mayne, Mzungu etc; these guys were not flashy but provided enough intensity to win the ball and lock it in our forward 50. On the weekend it was really only Taberner and Hamling who won the contested ball, Neale and Mundy do their best hear but Fyfe is struggling with it at the moment - Blakely's another one who comes to mind who can handle the heat. Under little pressure/lots of space we truly look like one of the best teams in the competition - and it's something we're going to have to work towards improving because we're going to get turned inside out by anyone with endurance and strength.
- Also thought Hamling deserves some more kudos, made some incredible defensive/intercept marks deep in defence and up the ground that were vital - including some solid spoils that certainly would have led to Bombers goals. I also felt Hughes gave another solid contribution and set up a few great forward plays. He seems to be able to handle the heat a little better than others.
- Spurr isn't as bad as everyone makes out, and outside of poor kicking Sutcliffe wasn't atrocious; the issue for him in his role kicking is his most important role and the constant misfires under no pressure at all, and 50/50 OOB's is going to be an issue for him. Outside of that he does a good job as a lock-down defender and made a few goal-saving grabs.
- It's still early days for Taberner, but he proved he's no mug. As some one else mentioned the opposition have no choice but to respect him and I really believe this 3 tall-forward set-up could be a go. Maybe we're not going to land the dream-forward in Hogan that we're so sorely after, and perhaps we need to adjust and work towards 3 durable forwards instead. I definitely prefer this over the dual resting-ruckman method that's been tried and tested for years, perhaps because of the personnel - when we have a small forward spending all their time in the forward line as well this will make certainly increase our average goal spread.
Interesting times.
- Pressure vs No Pressure: We are a completely different side in these situations - at this stage under pressure we're one of the worst teams in the comp, lob it on the boot to no one, kick's to 2 on 1's, 3 on 1's that are turned over everytime and goal's scored against us on the run of play. Essendon tired due to the heat, travel and their short-turnarounds and we completely capitalized in the second-half. It's not a coincidence that guys like B. Hill and Walters began to make an absolute meal out of the opposition when they were given that lead, under pressure their bodies regularly can't handle the contact. We used to be awesome at this and the reason was because of some of our less popular players thrived in that environment - Barlow (notwithstanding), Suban, De Boer, Mayne, Mzungu etc; these guys were not flashy but provided enough intensity to win the ball and lock it in our forward 50. On the weekend it was really only Taberner and Hamling who won the contested ball, Neale and Mundy do their best hear but Fyfe is struggling with it at the moment - Blakely's another one who comes to mind who can handle the heat. Under little pressure/lots of space we truly look like one of the best teams in the competition - and it's something we're going to have to work towards improving because we're going to get turned inside out by anyone with endurance and strength.
- Also thought Hamling deserves some more kudos, made some incredible defensive/intercept marks deep in defence and up the ground that were vital - including some solid spoils that certainly would have led to Bombers goals. I also felt Hughes gave another solid contribution and set up a few great forward plays. He seems to be able to handle the heat a little better than others.
- Spurr isn't as bad as everyone makes out, and outside of poor kicking Sutcliffe wasn't atrocious; the issue for him in his role kicking is his most important role and the constant misfires under no pressure at all, and 50/50 OOB's is going to be an issue for him. Outside of that he does a good job as a lock-down defender and made a few goal-saving grabs.
- It's still early days for Taberner, but he proved he's no mug. As some one else mentioned the opposition have no choice but to respect him and I really believe this 3 tall-forward set-up could be a go. Maybe we're not going to land the dream-forward in Hogan that we're so sorely after, and perhaps we need to adjust and work towards 3 durable forwards instead. I definitely prefer this over the dual resting-ruckman method that's been tried and tested for years, perhaps because of the personnel - when we have a small forward spending all their time in the forward line as well this will make certainly increase our average goal spread.
Interesting times.
