Review Good/Bad vs Western Bulldogs - Rd 20

[Deaneus!]

Ah it’s 3am and I finally got to watch the match

what a fabulous waste of time

Good
- finally worked out why McPherson plays like s**t sometimes - it’s his stupid ******* hair. He plays well when his head is shaved, terrible when he grows it out and looks like a poodle. He can now organise his weekly barber trips accordingly.
- no.

Bad
- one day Doedee is going to be captain after Sloane and I will say, “Yay, another captain who is an excellent player and is extremely ******* dumb”. Five minutes left in the 2nd Q he has the opportunity to flatten JUH but makes sure to avoid contact, * make him earn it.
- McHenry, why are you helping your opponent up off the ground. And why can’t you kick the required distance for a mark?
- every year, we threaten to hire a real tacking coach. Every year, we * it up.

Ugly
- due to the arbitrary enforcement of rules to manufacture results in keeping with the AFL’s desired outcomes, I’ve realised i no longer enjoy AFL.
- not 15!
- holding the ball

Ugly:
The people responsible for our list still there.

Not all of them… but some.

It’s depressing watching the Dogs, already stacked with youngish talent, then realizing that they are going to get even better with gifts like JUH and Darcy. Plus Treloar, who was a salary-cap gift. I think the next five years could see Hawks-levels of dominance by them. Kudos to their recruiters for nailing their picks, too.
Our list is in a different post code, talent-wise.

Helps when you get the okay to draft tamper

Rumour - Bailey Smith avoids being drafted interstate by way of medical reason

Reportedly told non Victorian clubs he only wanted to stay in Victoria. And got a doctors certificate saying it would be bad for his mental health. Where’s the investigation by the AFL for draft tampering? Will Bailey forgo insterstate matches?

www.bigfooty.com

Berry only had 4 disposals.

Pretty good 4 disposal game.

It was so good, it was like it was 7. SANFL time. WTF is he gonna learn getting 4 touches? Or 7?

Thought fogarty presented well and was a bit unlucky not to have a multiple goal haul today. His game deserved it

That ******* wind.

Agreed. Not even a local crowd there to justify it at least being good for country fans

I loved the telecast when they said “crowd dressed for COVID” and 2 out of 10 people had masks

Well we keep doing stupid sh*t.

It’s the Adelaide way

Rubbish it's the best surface in the AFL and the facilities and catering are excellent.

rubbish I ordered the duck a la orange and they were out, I had to get the lobster

honestly, the catering? It’s not the same flash-fried crap they have at every other ground?

Could Mitch Hinge be a swingman? I presume he is close best 23 when fit given his R1 selection.

Considering 4 quality players on our list have been unavailable for essentially the whole season I think we've had an OK year.

Crouch
Milera
Talia
Hinge

i look at that list and think, which 4 kids are getting pushed out so they can play?

Crouch pushes out Berry?
Talia pushes out Murray?
Hinge pushes out Hamill?
Milera pushes out Murphy? Idk

not great, I’d rather have those kids in the side

 

[1970crow]

As a minimum these games should be spread around by all sides rather than the non-Victorian teams carrying the load.

non-vic sides should only play at potential finals venues.

 

[1970crow]

Yes it does, it changes how you analysis the win.

That was the point I was making, you disagreed saying Melbourne were in great form and now you back up my point. So yes, our win against Melbourne isn't as good as it looks on paper. Thanks for agreeing.

 

[maxlilly]

Bulldogs have the top 7 players rated for the game, I think it shows how far away our list really is

 

[Mutineer]

Ah it’s 3am and I finally got to watch the match

what a fabulous waste of time

Good
- finally worked out why McPherson plays like sh*t sometimes - it’s his stupid ******* hair. He plays well when his head is shaved, terrible when he grows it out and looks like a poodle. He can now organise his weekly barber trips accordingly.
- no.

Bad
- one day Doedee is going to be captain after Sloane and I will say, “Yay, another captain who is an excellent player and is extremely ******* dumb”. Five minutes left in the 2nd Q he has the opportunity to flatten JUH but makes sure to avoid contact, fu** make him earn it.
- McHenry, why are you helping your opponent up off the ground. And why can’t you kick the required distance for a mark?
- every year, we threaten to hire a real tacking coach. Every year, we fu** it up.

Ugly
- due to the arbitrary enforcement of rules to manufacture results in keeping with the AFL’s desired outcomes, I’ve realised i no longer enjoy AFL.
- not 15!
- holding the ball





Not all of them… but some.



Helps when you get the okay to draft tamper

Rumour - Bailey Smith avoids being drafted interstate by way of medical reason

Reportedly told non Victorian clubs he only wanted to stay in Victoria. And got a doctors certificate saying it would be bad for his mental health. Where’s the investigation by the AFL for draft tampering? Will Bailey forgo insterstate matches?

www.bigfooty.com

It was so good, it was like it was 7. SANFL time. WTF is he gonna learn getting 4 touches? Or 7?



That ******* wind.



I loved the telecast when they said “crowd dressed for COVID” and 2 out of 10 people had masks



It’s the Adelaide way



rubbish I ordered the duck a la orange and they were out, I had to get the lobster

honestly, the catering? It’s not the same flash-fried crap they have at every other ground?



i look at that list and think, which 4 kids are getting pushed out so they can play?

Crouch pushes out Berry?
Talia pushes out Murray?
Hinge pushes out Hamill?
Milera pushes out Murphy? Idk

not great, I’d rather have those kids in the side

Sure you can get that kind of s**t in the outside vans etc if that's your fancy but there is way better available as well

Bistro Menu - North Ballarat Sports Club

Bistro Trading Information:

www.northballaratsc.com.au

Cafe Menu - North Ballarat Sports Club

View our menu online

www.northballaratsc.com.au

 

[ABAB]

That was the point I was making, you disagreed saying Melbourne were in great form and now you back up my point. So yes, our win against Melbourne isn't as good as it looks on paper. Thanks for agreeing.

No, I said you need to look at the form the teams were when we played them and whether we beat them on that night playing their best. They didn't loss to the lower teams when we played them and were top of the ladder after beating the top 4 contender in Brisbane and Bulldogs which is the point you are incorrectly making again.

 

[Crow_Magnon]

Did my post blame the ground? No. Just stating a fact. It's a shithole.

And we seem to be only bloody interstate club that has to play at that god-forsaken place. How about the Power / WCE / Freo / Bris head down there for once. The AFL have 2 perfectly good AFL standard grounds in Melb. The bloody Western Oval has a good surface too....would rather play there!

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

And we seem to be only bloody interstate club that has to play at that god-forsaken place. How about the Power / WCE / Freo / Bris head down there for once. The AFL have 2 perfectly good AFL standard grounds in Melb. The bloody Western Oval has a good surface too....would rather play there!

Port and the Lions have played there twice before.

 

[SugarShane]

--- absolutely no awareness of or accounting for the windy conditions. Gotta be the worst in the League for playing in the wind, so dumb. We all learned in Primary School to play in front when the ball is coming into the wind, and stay down and behind when the ball is coming with the wind, but not this mob. Their kicking out to the RHB flank into the wind was abysmal/dumb.

Surely we can hire some big industrial fans or something and run a few training sessions in front of them? Seems every time we come up against anything stronger than a slight breeze we play like martians who have never experienced wind before. Watching balls sail over our head one way then caught behind every time the other way, hugging the boundary line that has a gale force blowing towards that line.

 

[1970crow]

Surely we can hire some big industrial fans or something and run a few training sessions in front of them? Seems every time we come up against anything stronger than a slight breeze we play like martians who have never experienced wind before. Watching balls sail over our head one way then caught behind every time the other way, hugging the boundary line that has a gale force blowing towards that line.

We probably head indoors if it's too windy. Messes with our perfect execution of our drills.

 

[Betts are off]

Didn't watch the game, had an kids birthday party that I had to go too at the same time. Was pretty irritated, but in the end the snacks table at the party was f**king on point, and by the posts in here the game looked like it was bog average.

Is it worth catching the replay, or should I just keep the memory of this weekend on the epic homemade Macadamia Brownies?

 

[CrowBloke]

Watching balls sail over our head one way then caught behind every time the other way, hugging the boundary line that has a gale force blowing towards that line.

I had Flashback nightmares to R7 vs NM 2017. 10.4 to zip in the first quarter, then in the second NM kicked out to the LHS sheltered by the grandstand; smart.
Crows' kick-outs boooomeranged ootf time and time again into the wind. Same on Saturday.

 

[CrowBloke]

Is it worth catching the replay, or should I just keep the memory of this weekend on the epic homemade Macadamia Brownies?

Honestly? Give it a miss. Stick with the Brownies' happiness.
If you don't believe me watch the lowlights on AFC website.

 

[Betts are off]

Honestly? Give it a miss. Stick with the Brownies' happiness.
If you don't believe me watch the lowlights on AFC website.

Brownies it is!

 

[relapse]

Didn't watch the game, had an kids birthday party that I had to go too at the same time. Was pretty irritated, but in the end the snacks table at the party was f**king on point, and by the posts in here the game looked like it was bog average.

Is it worth catching the replay, or should I just keep the memory of this weekend on the epic homemade Macadamia Brownies?

You didn't miss much, was simiilar to many of our games this year.

Start okay, fall away, end up being down about 5-6 goals and then the game just goes through the motions.

 

[Golumless]

It's debatable whether we are better than last year. Wins can't be the sole arbutrator whether we are better or not and game style, watchability, ball movement, skills, mental acuity and general decision making improvements all need to be factored in. I think we need to look at which teams have improved this year, which teams have gone backwards and which have stayed the same.

Teams that have improved:
Bulldogs
Melbourne
Geelong?
Sydney
Essendon
North?

Teams that have gone backwards:
Richmond
WCE
Brisbane
Carlton
Crows?
Hawthorn
Gold Coast
Collingwood
St Kilda
Powaa?

Teams that have stayed the same
GWS
Crows?
Fremantle?

Now it could be argued that the crows have either stayed the same or gone backwards imo. The players that have improved are Walker, Seedsman, Laird, Keays, Butts, Schoenberg, Berry, Doedee, Jones, Thilthorpe, Fogarty?, Cook, Gollant, Worrell?.

The is balanced against the players that have gone backwards such as Sloane, Frampton, Brown?, Mackay, Smith?, Hately, Himmelberg, O'Brien, Murphy, McPherson?, McAsey, McAdam, Lynch, Kelly, Davis imo.

The players that have stayed the same are Borlase, Newchurch, Hamill, McHenry, O'Connor, Sholl, Strachan imo.

The injured players and Pedlar who has been injured for a lot of the year obviously aren't judged.

Therefore it could be argued either way that we have either stagnated or gone backwards this year. Although we have more wins (influenced by a longer season) the overall competition standard for a majority of teams has dropped with a small group stagnating. The footy we were playing at the backend of last year was better to the naked eye imo.

I'm just amazed that someone has rose-tinted glasses with our 2020. A year where we were not only the worst team in the league, but on track to have been the worst team in modern history at the half way mark.

Wins? Yup, we're winning at a higher rate than last year. It's not a case of "oh we just played more games", it's a decent jump at this point. Last year, 0.17 wins/game, this year the lowest it could be 0.27 wins/game. Beat North and it's at 0.31 win/games.

Quality of wins? The highest finishing team we beat was 11th. This year we have two top 4 scalps.

Watchability is irrelevant garbage, as winning is all that matters. No, they're not particularly related either.

2021 has seen Adelaide really cement that they've taken the step from being the standout worst team in the league, to just a bad team in the league. Wins and percentage are the only indicators of improvement.

 

[Murray2503]

I'm just amazed that someone has rose-tinted glasses with our 2020. A year where we were not only the worst team in the league, but on track to have been the worst team in modern history at the half way mark.

Wins? Yup, we're winning at a higher rate than last year. It's not a case of "oh we just played more games", it's a decent jump at this point. Last year, 0.17 wins/game, this year the lowest it could be 0.27 wins/game. Beat North and it's at 0.31 win/games.

Quality of wins? The highest finishing team we beat was 11th. This year we have two top 4 scalps.

Watchability is irrelevant garbage, as winning is all that matters. No, they're not particularly related either.

2021 has seen Adelaide really cement that they've taken the step from being the standout worst team in the league, to just a bad team in the league. Wins and percentage are the only indicators of improvement.

I was talking about the back end of 2020. That football was better than the football I've seen sporadically for a game here and a game there throughout this year. I haven't seen any improvement this year other than a few of our seniors take their game to a new level or revisiting past form like Tex, Seedsman, Laird. While we have found some good kids this has been offset by a drop off in other players. Every team this year has has shown something, even Hawthorn beating the lions. We caught an underprepared Geelong off guard round 1 and were lucky to fall over the line against Melbourne who haven't turned up against bad sides consistently all year. Let's not get carried away with our year. We are the worst team in the league by a margin. The club thinking we are better than we are got us into this mess. It's not going to help us get out of it.

 

[Golumless]

I was talking about the back end of 2020. That football was better than the football I've seen sporadically for a game here and a game there throughout this year. I haven't seen any improvement this year other than a few of our seniors take their game to a new level or revisiting past form like Tex, Seedsman, Laird. While we have found some good kids this has been offset by a drop off in other players. Every team this year has has shown something, even Hawthorn beating the lions. We caught an underprepared Geelong off guard round 1 and were lucky to fall over the line against Melbourne who haven't turned up against bad sides consistently all year. Let's not get carried away with our year. We are the worst team in the league by a margin. The club thinking we are better than we are got us into this mess. It's not going to help us get out of it.

Yeah, no. You can make any excuse you want for Geelong or Melbourne to die on this bedwetting hill, but they are just that, excuses. Top 4 teams usually just need to rock up to beat bottom 4 teams as the league isn't as even as we like to pretend it is. We earned those wins, and they deserve every drip of credit and then some.

Clearly, the table, which is the only thing that matters, indicates otherwise. That we're not the worst team in the league, nor is it by some margin. The worst team is clearly North with a 4 win/1 draw/70% record. Though let me guess, you really rate their wins against the powerhouses like Carlton, Gold Coast, Hawks and West Coast. They're not those utter spuds like Geelong, or Melbourne. North really haven't shown anything of note, neither have Gold Coast.

Nor will abandoning reality so you can live with a pessimistic safety blanket about our situation. Our situation is really as follows: We've taken a step forward and have a good claim to being the strongest of the bottom four teams, noting we have a 3-1 record against other teams at the foot of the table, as well as the aforementioned scalps of Geelong and Melbourne (however, there isn't a standout team at the bottom 4, seeing Gold Coast/Hawks and Us are all very even, though North has been clearly the worst team out of the 4). We seem well structured for the most part, and Nicks has shown a skill so far of getting the most out of a list in particular with this year. Like all bottom 4 sides, we're one or two key injuries away from falling away, though this is a more extreme risk due to our list profile seeing even our oldest lineups are rather young/inexperienced (and once you've pushed into that < 70 games per player average, you're in belting city). Are we likely to move from being a bottom 4 team next year? Hard to say, seeing we might end up moving up the ladder due to how weak that middle of the table is, and there are certainly a few implosion candidates in the band above. It's certainly a weak bunch, but I doubt we're ready to join the mid-table group on our own just yet.

The expectation for next year is a repeat of this year. 6-8 wins, and improving on the percentage from a sub 80 to 85-95%.

 

[1970crow]

Didn't watch the game, had an kids birthday party that I had to go too at the same time. Was pretty irritated, but in the end the snacks table at the party was f**king on point, and by the posts in here the game looked like it was bog average.

Is it worth catching the replay, or should I just keep the memory of this weekend on the epic homemade Macadamia Brownies?

we were good in patches. Worth watching just to further consolidate your knowledge that our midfield is incapable of keeping up with the best and has no way to stop opposition running forward of the contest with the ball in numbers.

 

[BRL121]

we were good in patches. Worth watching just to further consolidate your knowledge that our midfield is incapable of keeping up with the best and has no way to stop opposition running forward of the contest with the ball in numbers.

This. I think this needs more analysis: what is the best method to stop this? A lot more pressure would help. Maybe we could try the same in reverse, but our skills are not up to it. However, we never try it. The thing that bugs me is that the oppo running in numbers must mean that we have free players elsewhere: why can't we pressure and exploit this? Of course, they were a lot faster.

 

[Sanders]

If you don't think we've made progress then you didn't watch last year (or have forgotten). We were playing 4 quarter sh*te for the majority of the season.

Did last year stop at round 13?

 

[CrowBloke]

Wins and percentage are the only indicators of improvement.

Dunno.
(Word is that the barbies at Roo's have taken a step up; now serving Steak and thick sausages, instead of forequarter --- I was tempted to write fourquarter --- chops and those crappy thin snags )

 

[StonesThrow]

Did last year stop at round 13?

You know what the word 'majority' means?

 

[Sanders]

You know what the word 'majority' means?

That’s your argument? Wow

Did last year stop at round 13 when we were 0-13?

It’s disingenuous to ignore the last 4 rounds where we went 3-1.

 

[StonesThrow]

That’s your argument? Wow

Did last year stop at round 13 when we were 0-13?

It’s disingenuous to ignore the last 4 rounds where we went 3-1.

You're an insufferable campaigner