Unofficial Preview JLT cup Strathalbyn, Sunday 25th Feb @ 1.35pm

[Mismatched]

His entire first half was awful. His second half was better. Not good, but definitely better than what preceded it.

I wouldn't bet on him even making the JLT2 team, given that we should have a number of senior players coming back after being rested (or injured) for JLT1.

You say this, yet he was the one in the Centre at the crunch making the match winning clearances. His finishing today was off, but it was very good in the week before in the AFLX, but his contested work, tackling/pressure and running to dangerous positions was top notch.

For someone whom you insist doesn’t have a hope, the coaches certainly seem keen on giving him plenty of opportunities when he’s fit.

 

[CrowBloke]

Lol. Isnt good enough for Norf, we take him on, plays s**t and should be playing in the 2nds with us.
Tell me of all these super young mids that Gibson was keeping out at North? With your amazing list profile knowedge...

I'll weigh into this, since I think your sarcasm is unwarranted and that Gibson's a good get for us. 7 kicks and 11 handballs yesterday is hardly playing "s**t", unless they all went to Docker players.
Gibson was certainly good enough for NM, finishing 7th in their BnF last year and playing 130 consecutive games due to his elite fitness, professionalism and game preparation --- those last 3 are reason enough to have him, to guide our junior players. In the pre-season he trained his butt off, winning time trials. My guess is he'll play when we need a run-all-day-with tagger eg vs Geelong, or to tag Dusty.
In his post-game presser Pyke said it was not a game for wingmen or forwards who would normally have more room in which to operate and impress (might have been good practice to play the SCG, but).
Maybe Gibson will get a start-up in our best 22, maybe not, but he cost little and is a quality individual.

 

[Vader]

You say this, yet he was the one in the Centre at the crunch making the match winning clearances. His finishing today was off, but it was very good in the week before in the AFLX, but his contested work, tackling/pressure and running to dangerous positions was top notch.

For someone whom you insist doesn’t have a hope, the coaches certainly seem keen on giving him plenty of opportunities when he’s fit.

He needs to be making hay while the sun is shining, because the opportunities will dry up when teams go back down to 22 and players like Sloane, Brouch, Douglas & Greenwood come back in. Murphy may well have stolen the only position left available to Hampton.

Hampton looks a million dollars, until he actually has to do something. Then he's a turnover looking for somewhere to happen. 5 clangers from 17 disposals yesterday. Only Mrouch had more clangers, but his 6 came from 36 disposals - roughly half the rate of Hampton's.

 

[ad victoriam]

I think a few of you need to listen to Pyke after game interview. when judging the Forwards and wingers.
That ground was short and narrow. Mate even joked it was too narrow to play soccer on.

 

[jirkago]

My amateur thoughts:

Newbies:
Gibbs - going to be a tough midfield to control when you add in a player like Bryce to our starting mids. Good start.
Doedee - looked at home, like all intercepting defenders ... will do better with Talia and Hartigan back.
Murphy - excellent attack on the ball, loved his game. Should be leading the charge for second small forward.
Dear - fantastic efforts. Ran hard, made lots of contests, took marks, nice kick. Definitely a chance in 2018.
Fogarty - he just has something this boy, gonna be special. Must play in 2018.
Poholke - I can see why he is being talked about, he attacks the contest and has some great qualities
Signorello - loved his efforts, plays with real fearless intent
Gibson - we'll see what role he gets, expected him to take some time to fit into the systems. Will be better for the run
Hampton - frustrating as usual. He needs to understand what giving 100% means.
CEY - I think it's the role we are struggling to find for him. He has great attributes, but has a panic about him that just stinks it all up.
Keath - doesn't fit the modern defender profile, if he had the tank he might be big winger ... not seeing it.
ROB - decent in the ruck, ordinary skills let him down around the ground.
Hunter - horrid, no way he plays anything beyond SANFL

Existing Notables:
Mackay was his usual self. Did nothing to push for the 22 imo.
Jenkins was beyond putrid, was he injured early?
Otten is slower again.
Cheney is going to struggle this season unless we have injuries.
Seedsman looks great, should play a full season for us.
Atkins could be anything, he has the tools.
Crouch will be one of the best players in the league in 2018.
McGovern is ready to blossom.
Lynch is worth whatever we pay him.
Laird is close to our best player
Brown and Kelly are perfect modern defenders.

After this game, and counting the injuries we have ... my new best 22 for round one is:

B Jake Kelly, Daniel Talia, Luke Brown
HB Rory Laird, Kyle Hartigan, Tom Doedee
C Paul Seedsman, Brad Crouch, Rory Atkins
HF Rory Sloane, Taylor Walker, Tom Lynch
F Harry Dear, Mitch McGovern, Eddie Betts
FOL Sam Jacobs, Matt Crouch, Bryce Gibbs
I/C Sam Gibson, Hugh Greenwood, Richard Douglas, Lachlan Murphy

More and more i see of Atkins, he doesnt do enough as a winger to me but he'd be perfect as a half forward. A great kick at goal and so creative with ball in hand

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[Bicks]

You say this, yet he was the one in the Centre at the crunch making the match winning clearances. His finishing today was off, but it was very good in the week before in the AFLX, but his contested work, tackling/pressure and running to dangerous positions was top notch.

For someone whom you insist doesn’t have a hope, the coaches certainly seem keen on giving him plenty of opportunities when he’s fit.

What do you think of Lachie Murphy now?? Looked alright in both the AFLX and yesterdays games to my eye? AFL attributes?

 

[Deaneus!]

More and more i see of Atkins, he doesnt do enough as a winger to me but he'd be perfect as a half forward. A great kick at goal and so creative with ball in hand

I liked him hanging around the goals - opposition must know he can't be given room, 2 goals in a minute...

 

[DangerSloane]

If CEY could get his head together he could be a top AFL player. Yesterday, as always, his 1st instinct on gaining the ball was to take on the tackler or tacklers instead of looking to move the ball quickly. Hampton suffers the same failing. Both have the ability and the pace. Both seem to lack the instinctive reactions top footballers have. I don't see either of them as 1st 22 unless they can somehow resolve this problem.

Dont disagree with your comments, but at times Hampton showed really quick hands yesterday.
There was one in particular that was brilliant.

Then again I didnt see his first half mistakes.

 

[Freshj]

I would love to see CEY make it. He's a hard worker and really wants it. I actually like him resting forward, he's a big strong body that always competes and decent shot on goal.

 

[baldandbroke]

CEY showed what he is capable of again ... his ceiling is pretty high. He competed one-on-one with Fyfe and clearly won a couple of contests. The problem is, Fyfe gets to so many more contests and influences most of them. That is where CEY needs to improve. He needs to be someone who wants the spotlight.

I feel Hampton is in a similar cluster, but he loves being the man. He has everything in the tool kit to be a big part of our success ... but he seems to over-think things sometimes instead of just going with his instincts. He has a touch of the "look at me" which most good players posses, he just needs to minimise the weak spots and he will be fine. Still some questions for me on his tank.

Performance = Potential - Interferences

Get rid of those pesky interferences and it's amazing what can happen.

I'd love to see CEY given a shot. He is a unique footballer that would cause problems to opposition.

I'd like to see Hampton given an extended shot at a position, but his work rate makes me wonder how many positions he can survive in.

 

[Jarman3]

I think a few of you need to listen to Pyke after game interview. when judging the Forwards and wingers.
That ground was short and narrow. Mate even joked it was too narrow to play soccer on.

It does make you question what the hell they were doing even playing there? I'm all for getting the JLT games out of the city and to places that don't normally get to see AFL footy, but you'd think the bare minimum prerequisite is that the ground be a close-enough facsimile of an actual AFL ground, otherwise it undermines the whole purpose of it has a warm-up match. We already had AFLX last week for those wanting to watch the game on a novelty ground, JLT should be about preparation for the real season.

 

[Carmo]

He is correct though , I was banging on about it all last week !!

Our forward line is our potential weakness coming in to 2018

I rate your footy knowledge jeff and i rate dermie higher than a lot in here it seems but my view of our issues is the direct opposite, i pin it all on defensive setup. It will be interesting to watch the season unfold and see who gets bragging rights at the end.

 

[azza77]

Whether it's midfielders or forwards I think Dermot got the sentiment right.

For us to be a championship team we need to be able to win the big games when it's not being played on our terms.

This is as much a mental thing as it is physical.

We appear to be very, very good at swinging the moment at home and halting teams when we are getting battered from pillar to post and they are peppering the goals. Normally only lasts for about 10 minutes max before we wrestle back control and really slow the game down.

We ***ing suck at it away from home though, and I dont know why. You'd think it's a mental thing more so than anything else. A ground or crowd should make no difference whatsoever on implementing a system. Pyke and Co. need to learn how to address this fast. I consider us quite a weak team mentally. That Collingwood game was one of the very few where they proved me wrong.

We saw first hand on the day of the GF how much of a mental thing it is. You can't just go along and absolutely whack an elite, seasoned and finals-hardened team like Geelong out of the park (albeit it being at home), only to dish up what we did the very next week. Again, I thought after that game we may have turned a corner in terms of mental strength, but obviously not.

I'm just praying that the players have learnt a lot from such a pathetic performance.

 

[Large 1]

What do you think of Lachie Murphy now?? Looked alright in both the AFLX and yesterdays games to my eye? AFL attributes?

I liked how clean he was with ground balls and in traffic and he seemed really decisive when he needed to be.

Not sure if it is the shaved head, but it felt like Jason Porplyzia MKII.

 

[1970crow]

Drop Jenkins, play Gov at FF, Tex CHF, Lynch half forward. Then surround them with Betts, Murphy and Hampton.

I've been posting similar lately. I don't think our best combo includes both JJ and Lynch. It's great when everything is going swimmingly, but when it becomes an arm wrestle, being able to throw a half forward into the stoppage rotation to spread the load a bit more is an important option to have. We limit ourselves in this regard, which is odd, because if you'd tried to predict what would be important with limited rotations, I'd think most people would go with running power. We like height.

 

[1970crow]

Not sure why so many lauding Dear from this game. Apart from one good contested mark he didn't do much. Not anti him as I think he has good attributes, but I'm not seeing what others are from this hit out.

Well, you must have hated JJ's game then.

 

[Golumless]

We appear to be very, very good at swinging the moment at home and halting teams when we are getting battered from pillar to post and they are peppering the goals. Normally only lasts for about 10 minutes max before we wrestle back control and really slow the game down.

We ***ing suck at it away from home though, and I dont know why. You'd think it's a mental thing more so than anything else. A ground or crowd should make no difference whatsoever on implementing a system. Pyke and Co. need to learn how to address this fast. I consider us quite a weak team mentally. That Collingwood game was one of the very few where they proved me wrong.

We saw first hand on the day of the GF how much of a mental thing it is. You can't just go along and absolutely whack an elite, seasoned and finals-hardened team like Geelong out of the park (albeit it being at home), only to dish up what we did the very next week. Again, I thought after that game we may have turned a corner in terms of mental strength, but obviously not.

I'm just praying that the players have learnt a lot from such a pathetic performance.

Geelong are much more frail mentally then we are basing off their abysmal finals record in the past 5-6 years (3 wins 8 losses since 2011).

It's just as much mental as it is structural seeing a lot of our issues stem from we are too outside of a team, and the quality of our inside brigade was weak enough to break under extreme pressure (mind you, there wasn't a side last year which could handle extreme pressure). The biggest question I do have with that grand final is would it have been different if Greenwood didn't injure his ankle seeing he was a big part of us rectifying a lot of those inside issues we had just by being a big aggressive bastard (which is a much needed breath of fresh air seeing we have one of the smaller midfields going around) as well as McGovern being the bail out kick.

 

[1970crow]

CEY showed what he is capable of again ... his ceiling is pretty high. He competed one-on-one with Fyfe and clearly won a couple of contests. The problem is, Fyfe gets to so many more contests and influences most of them. That is where CEY needs to improve. He needs to be someone who wants the spotlight.

I feel Hampton is in a similar cluster, but he loves being the man. He has everything in the tool kit to be a big part of our success ... but he seems to over-think things sometimes instead of just going with his instincts. He has a touch of the "look at me" which most good players posses, he just needs to minimise the weak spots and he will be fine. Still some questions for me on his tank.

Performance = Potential - Interferences

Get rid of those pesky interferences and it's amazing what can happen.

I'd love to see CEY given a shot. He is a unique footballer that would cause problems to opposition.

I'd like to see Hampton given an extended shot at a position, but his work rate makes me wonder how many positions he can survive in.

CEY just looks a beast out there. He's tantalisingly close in my view, I hope he gets a crack and proves the patience was worth it. But, can't really see him getting one, although Greenwood's late start might give him a crack. Dumping Dmac in favour of another genuine midfielder would be another opportunity to strengthen the team, but they do love his running patterns. So I'm not holding my breath on that one.

 

[Jack is Back]

I went to the match and my impressions fwiw;

The ground was great for contested ball beasts, a nightmare for tall forwards and wingmen.

From our Grand final players;
Fanbloodytastic: M Crouch, he may go to an even better level this year.
Looking good; Lynch, Laird
Solid Effort; Brown, Kelly, Atkins, Seedsman, Jacobs
Otten; A mixture of good and bad, too many poor turnovers for a fringe player, in with a chance for round one
Mackay; Refer to Otten, I regret to report he is a big chance to retain the Brodie Smith spot
Jenkins; 1 kick and 3 handballs in 78% ToG (can that be correct). Where was he hiding?

Other experienced contenders
Gibbs; SOS was right, worth two first rounders .
McGovern; Tough day for tallish forwards but looks ready to rumble.
Gibson; IMHO better than many have suggested. We rotated Seedsman, Atkins and Gibson through the wings and they all had similar stats. Check out the stats for Brad Hill and Pearce etc. Not a great oval for a wingman.
Cheney; Similar to Otten, did some nice stuff but also made some mistakes. I like his endeavour.
Hampton; usual mixture of good and bad, needs to improve to make round one.
CEY; IMHO better than Hampton, a chance if THE MIGHTY THOR is not ready for round one.

New/newish players
Lachie Murphy; Up to number 25 on the Vaderlist, I’m tellin you he’s a chance (for round one).
Doedee; Poised, used the ball well, Lock him in Marty.
Poholke; Didn’t get a heap of the ball but handled the ball cleanly and hard at it. IMHO in front of Curly and Curtly.
Keath; Reads the ball well, uses it well but needs to improve in one-on-ones. Next behind Talia and Hartigan IMHO.
Dear; No where for tall forwards to lead but looked handy, must play JLT2 (if only just to annoy JJ).
O’Brien; Solid effort. Can we keep him in the Twos until Sauce is cooked?
Signorello; Not yet
Fogarty; Not yet, one kick in 37% ToG but has a presence.
Hunter; Looked a bit overwhelmed by the bigger bodies.

Disclaimer; First hit out of the season on a smallish oval with lots of new players. I wouldn’t finalise the Vaderlist just yet. I recall several posters writing off THE MIGHTY THOR after his first JLT match last year .

 

[Vader]

I went to the match and my impressions fwiw;

The ground was great for contested ball beasts, a nightmare for tall forwards and wingmen.

From our Grand final players;
Fanbloodytastic: M Crouch, he may go to an even better level this year.
Looking good; Lynch, Laird
Solid Effort; Brown, Kelly, Atkins, Seedsman, Jacobs
Otten; A mixture of good and bad, too many poor turnovers for a fringe player, in with a chance for round one
Mackay; Refer to Otten, I regret to report he is a big chance to retain the Brodie Smith spot
Jenkins; 1 kick and 3 handballs in 78% ToG (can that be correct). Where was he hiding?

Other experienced contenders
Gibbs; SOS was right, worth two first rounders .
McGovern; Tough day for tallish forwards but looks ready to rumble.
Gibson; IMHO better than many have suggested. We rotated Seedsman, Atkins and Gibson through the wings and they all had similar stats. Check out the stats for Brad Hill and Pearce etc. Not a great oval for a wingman.
Cheney; Similar to Otten, did some nice stuff but also made some mistakes. I like his endeavour.
Hampton; usual mixture of good and bad, needs to improve to make round one.
CEY; IMHO better than Hampton, a chance if THE MIGHTY THOR is not ready for round one.

New/newish players
Lachie Murphy; Up to number 25 on the Vaderlist, I’m tellin you he’s a chance (for round one).
Doedee; Poised, used the ball well, Lock him in Marty.
Poholke; Didn’t get a heap of the ball but handled the ball cleanly and hard at it. IMHO in front of Curly and Curtly.
Keath; Reads the ball well, uses it well but needs to improve in one-on-ones. Next behind Talia and Hartigan IMHO.
Dear; No where for tall forwards to lead but looked handy, must play JLT2 (if only just to annoy JJ).
O’Brien; Solid effort. Can we keep him in the Twos until Sauce is cooked?
Signorello; Not yet
Fogarty; Not yet, one kick in 37% ToG but has a presence.
Hunter; Looked a bit overwhelmed by the bigger bodies.

Disclaimer; First hit out of the season on a smallish oval with lots of new players. I wouldn’t finalise the Vaderlist just yet. I recall several posters writing off THE MIGHTY THOR after his first JLT match last year .

Decent assessment, and I agree with most of your comments. I was really impressed with Murphy, and could easily see him going into the top 22 on the "Vaderlist" before R1. I think you're under-selling him by putting him at #25!

 

[beartoo]

Decent assessment, and I agree with most of your comments. I was really impressed with Murphy, and could easily see him going into the top 22 on the "Vaderlist" before R1. I think you're under-selling him by putting him at #25!

Pyke mentioned in his presser that Murphy is well in contention for Round One, dependent on another performance or two like that of yesterday. I remember Murphy in an interview after he was rookied saying that he wasn't here to make up the numbers and would have a red-hot crack.
Seems he told the truth.

 

[GreyCrow]

Murphy may or may not play round 1 . He may play a few games but I can't see him as a smoky for RS. Maybe next year because he will only play 9 this year.

*but I do like what I see

 

[ams4crows]

Have to say i was very Happy with Fog's mark and goal that glimpse even though a very small sample size of what he did do out there make me think what could he be?

 

[CrowBloke]

Jenkins; 1 kick and 3 handballs in 78% ToG (can that be correct). Where was he hiding?

You answered your own question in your Intro.

a nightmare for tall forwards and wingmen.

He had no place to hide, no room to get into and might just have shown Pyke and Co his true worth (ie not much, unless he lifts substantially).
I've seen only the highlights and in one segment he looked thinner. Anybody else notice that?

 

[CrowBloke]

We appear to be very, very good at swinging the moment at home and halting teams when we are getting battered from pillar to post and they are peppering the goals. Normally only lasts for about 10 minutes max before we wrestle back control and really slow the game down.

Even the weakest teams can get a run-on for 10 minutes or so.
My interpretation is that you're suggesting we're better at halting a team's charge at home, than away, but it wasn't only the Collingwood game where we fought back. Carlton game comes to mind.
Still, most teams play better at home than away.
I think our problem is an inability to meet fire with fire, when the Opposition really comes out to play. Under intense pressure as in the GF, we folded. Really good teams don't eg Brisbane when they were hot, Hawks as well --- they got more aggro than the opposition!
Without Gov and Smithers and with the infighting surrounding Leaver (thanks Jake, for nothing) we were unable to lift and overcome Richmond's (Umpire-aided**) pressure. Mentally, heads not right.

** by which I mean obvious frees not given --- eg Betts in the goalsquare and their propensity to hold players down (hidden) in marking packs. The latter has to be a coach-driven, behind the scene directive. Hardwick was a grub as a player too. On the subject, I'd like Pyke to encourage more aggro/mongrel via unsociable football in the style of Clarkson, Matthews (not Hardwick, ugh ).