Game Day Game 2 Marsh Series v Swans Kingston Ovals Tasmania

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the flying ham

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The Match.

Better, but still not good. Dot point takeaways.

- Xerri and Mahoney are not quite up to speed with the pace of AFL.
- Anderson & Dumont's disposal remains an issue. Intensity around the contest is still excellent.
- McDonald & Ziebell are not match fit.
- Curtis Taylor is ready to go. Class.
- Jy Simpkin looks ready to take the next step.
- Goldstein is the single most important asset in the team.
- Zurhaar finally worked in to the game as it proceeded.
- Tarrant, Walker and Daw have earned round 1 defence spots.
- Larkey is producing better football than Drew Petrie at the current respective stages of their careers. Will be a top shelf AFL KPF when he puts on another 5kgs+.
- Bonar just needs ~20 games to settle and will be an AFL quality midfielder.
- Marley Williams is going to be a big loss, and the club needs to add depth in the quick forward defender match ups.
Taylor and Bonar adds already to a pretty deep list of talented kids! Agreed Marley is a huge loss particularly with Gresham and Lonie sniffing about.

Walker is no Turbo, but a very astute pick up. Wouldnt surprise Walker will sometimes go to the Number 1 to allow Tarrant to intercept more.

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Taylor and Bonar adds already to a pretty deep list of talented kids!

Yes, drafting & development in recent years appears to be going very well, relative to picks.

Agreed Marley is a huge loss particularly with Gresham and Lonie sniffing about

I would be sending Atley to Lonie & MacMillan or Pittard to Gresham. I can't mount an argument for Luke at the moment as he isn't fit.
 

Pykie

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Thought Garner was good in the second half. Was strong in the air.

If Brown doesn't get up and we are hell bent on 'small ball', it should be Garner as the other marking forward, not Ziebell imo.

Garner is a legitimate threat overhead.

I'm surprised we also didn't see any TT at FF with Larkey, that's another option for St Kilda.
 

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arden station

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We look a lot better when our midfielders don't try to do it all themselves around stoppages especially by not trying to break tackles as their first option. This includes Cunnington, Higgins and Anderson who have been caught holding the ball doing this or haven't used team mates when they should've in the Marsh games a number of times - big momentum killer and not team focused.

It was actually the younger guys including Thomas whose first option is to work with their teammates in close through a quick tap, handball or block.
 
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Thought Garner was good in the second half. Was strong in the air.

If Brown doesn't get up and we are hell bent on 'small ball', it should be Garner as the other marking forward, not Ziebell imo.

Garner is a legitimate threat overhead.

I'm surprised we also didn't see any TT at FF with Larkey, that's another option for St Kilda.
you dont put SILK at FF. you want TT setting up play. Hawthorn never put SILK Burgoyne at FF...
 

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Thought Garner was good in the second half. Was strong in the air.

If Brown doesn't get up and we are hell bent on 'small ball', it should be Garner as the other marking forward, not Ziebell imo.

Garner is a legitimate threat overhead.

I'm surprised we also didn't see any TT at FF with Larkey, that's another option for St Kilda.




Happy to go along with you Pykie BUT, l would like Garner to take 6 marks inside f50, kick 3, give off 2 and have at min. 3 tackles.

Otherwise he's had his chance. I'd rather give big Xerri a chance and just have him create havoc and learn on the job.
 

GarnerSmash

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Thought Garner was good in the second half. Was strong in the air.

If Brown doesn't get up and we are hell bent on 'small ball', it should be Garner as the other marking forward, not Ziebell imo.

Garner is a legitimate threat overhead.

I'm surprised we also didn't see any TT at FF with Larkey, that's another option for St Kilda.
Agreed, although we know that we will also see Ziebell up there. Garner will hold his own physically againstba KPP as long as he is able to move towards the ball. He is a strong bugger and is also very good in the contest when the ball hits the ground. I certainly hope that he plays rd 1.
 
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Happy to go along with you Pykie BUT, l would like Garner to take 6 marks inside f50, kick 3, give off 2 and have at min. 3 tackles.

Otherwise he's had his chance. I'd rather give big Xerri a chance and just have him create havoc and learn on the job.

He'd be just about AA, and would lead the competition for contested marks, if he averaged that return mate.

Take this down a notch if you want to be realistic.
 
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Taylor and Hall would improve our 21st and 22nd player dramatically. When Marley returns, he takes a small defender's position no doubt, Atley another with Pittard rounding out the 3rd. Daw needs 3 week in VFL to get his fitness right, once he is fitter and gets his confidence up, his rhythm will return and will be unstoppable. McMillan and McDonald are the 2 in the gun as they neither have the strategic value of key positional players nor the skills to be small defenders. Towards the end of 2019, Ahern stepped up on the half back line to be a solid contributor. This bolds well for the evolution of our team as we gradually replace the bottom 6 with players more suited to 2020. The mcmillans, mcdonalds, ziebell, cunnintons even were very much for the early 2010s if not 2000s. The midfield just run so much better without ziebell and cunnington. Either tough decisions have to be made or new strategies are need to maximize the use of the 2 club leaders.

Cunnington is our best player ...
 
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Just want him to tear apart one game Snake and justify his selection.
Nothing more, nothing less.


He plays in the toughest position on the ground mate. There's not many marking half forwards that rip apart games any more.
 

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I also didn't watch the game live , but watched the repay last night . I haven't read any of the earlier comments on this thread. My thoughts on the game

Anderson - same old, cracks in but disposal can be a concern
Higgins - is our class user and noticed he was directing players around ball ups. Does tend to put the blinkers on near goals.
Larkey - showing all the signs will be better this year. When Brown comes back in, will be even better. Put on some weight will be a force.
Goldstein - Is so good at his craft and gets around the groun like a midfielder. I only wish he showed some presence but cant have everything
Hall - showed good signs. Just needs to stay involved and then will be a valuable team member.
Taylor - WOW really impressed, showed he will be playing AFL
Simpkin - Is now an AFL midfielder. On the upward curve
Pittard - Not as good as he was last year , but was ok. The Falcon made me laugh
Polec - We missed his foot skills
Tarrant - didn't do a lot , but wasn't beaten
Atley - provided a lot of run but still like deer in highlights moments
Walker - was ok took some marks but also had some marks taken on him. Should play
Macmillan - gets a lot of the footy and creates. missed tackles a issue
Dumont - gets up and down the ground provides link up. disposal can be a worry at times but he cares about his game
McDonald - played on papley was ok but at times let him get away.
garner - only played second half. needs to get involved more but had some ok moments
ahern - not sure what to think, doesn't seem to have urgency
Mahony - looked a little lost at times. When he gets the ball he has a good footy brain
Thomas - Will be a STAR
Daw - improving back to old form, in time will get back to pack marking
Xerri - has really impressed , has taken a huge step forward. Has the aggression.
cunnington - same old will pick it up a notch when Round 1 comes around. Looks to be covering the ground better
Murphy - Didn't really notice
Zurhaar - best game this year. Back to aggressive self.
Ziebell - First run for the year and it showed, will get better
Bonar - Only played second half but I thought he showed something. He got caught a couple of times but will get better at it
 

Pykie

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Bonar had 9 touches and 2 tackles, 2 clearances in 27% TOG.

Which was the same amount of ball as Cunners got in twice the game time.

It's going to be interesting to see where he sits.

He got more of the ball proportionally than all of Hall, Dumont, Anderson.


He clearly added a different dynamic when there.
 
I went to the unusual extent of undertaking an experiment by not watching yesterdays match live, rather preferring to log in here and take on board posters commentary of the game, then watching a recording of the match last night, and my strong conclusion was that there was some absolutely woeful criticisms of certain players that were little more than exhibitions of outright negative confirmation bias (as mentioned by Hearts to Hearts). You folks are making yourselves look silly.

I can also see that the practice of praising a particular player for no other purpose than to provide a platform to shitcan another player, is still a practice that is very much alive and well.
The Match.

Better, but still not good. Dot point takeaways.

- Xerri and Mahoney are not quite up to speed with the pace of AFL.
- Anderson & Dumont's disposal remains an issue. Intensity around the contest is still excellent.
- McDonald & Ziebell are not match fit.
- Curtis Taylor is ready to go. Class.
- Jy Simpkin looks ready to take the next step.
- Goldstein is the single most important asset in the team.
- Zurhaar finally worked in to the game as it proceeded.
- Tarrant, Walker and Daw have earned round 1 defence spots.
- Larkey is producing better football than Drew Petrie at the current respective stages of their careers. Will be a top shelf AFL KPF when he puts on another 5kgs+.
- Bonar just needs ~20 games to settle and will be an AFL quality midfielder.
- Marley Williams is going to be a big loss, and the club needs to add depth in the quick forward defender match ups.
BTW, MacMillan was pretty bloody good on an outright star in Heeney. Some of the criticisms leveled at him were little more than absurd examples of CB.
Snake, ocasionally you sound very astute, almost "Yoda-ish" in your wisdom. What a shame it only occurs after a full moon. :)
 
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Snake, ocasionally you sound very asute, almost "Yoda-ish" in your wisdom. What a shame it only occurs after a full moon. :)

Consider any deviations as a result of the noise pollution that passes for football judgement that is exhibited by some around here.
 
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Bonar had 9 touches and 2 tackles, 2 clearances in 27% TOG.

Which was the same amount of ball as Cunners got in twice the game time.

It's going to be interesting to see where he sits.

He got more of the ball proportionally than all of Hall, Dumont, Anderson.


He clearly added a different dynamic when there.

Got caught a couple of times, but you can see he has the makings of a quality AFL player. Just needs more matches under his belt.
 
BTW, MacMillan was pretty bloody good on an outright star in Heeney. Some of the criticisms leveled at him were little more than absurd examples of CB.
I actually thought he played alright, but I am probably in the minority on that front.
 
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I actually thought he played alright, but I am probably in the minority on that front.


Rational thinking in contemporary society tends to isolate people from the pack.
 

Pykie

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Got caught a couple of times, but you can see he has the makings of a quality AFL player. Just needs more matches under his belt.

Yep, which is the point.

He needs to be played imo.

I feel he starts in the VFL though, based on being the 25/26th player yesterday.


It will be interesting to see who suits up for the VFL against Collingwood this weekend. You'd think the skipper would have to be one of them.
 
Got caught a couple of times, but you can see he has the makings of a quality AFL player. Just needs more matches under his belt.
Both times he got caught, he was doing the right thing and taking the game on. Just needed quicker hands, which will come. He clearly brings something different to the table.
 
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Both times he got caught, he was doing the right thing and taking the game on. Just needed quicker hands, which will come. He clearly brings something different to the table.


I reckon it's age related strength. He'll bust most of these tackles in a couple of years, as I don't see him losing much in the way of pace due to what I see as a longer striding gait than what is usually exhibited by AFL mids. He has some eye catching physical traits.
 
Overall, it's hard to work out what to make of this game. If Sydney is a bottom 6 side, which I suspect they are, we can't get too excited. Yet there were plenty of positives. My biggest worry is the forward line and quality of our entries. Not only is Brown likely to miss a couple of games, you'd think he will be under done when he does play, so we'll need to find other avenues to goal for the first month or so. And from what we've seen so far, it's going to be an issue.

I was curious why we didn't give Wood a go, at least for a half.
 

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