Preview JLT1: Dockers vs Collingdidnt, Monday 4th March

[Johnny Dalmas]

.... Hogan should help significantly with stopping us from bombing long as he is great on both long and short leads, so he should get separation on his man to allow for more effective leading play.

Hogan also has the personality (charisma?) to demand the ball, which is something we have lacked in the recent past. Guys like McCarthy, Kersten, Tabs, a 1st/2nd year Cox don't have the same presence and so can be ignored a bit by the mids.

I reckon if the mids think they can ignore Hogan when he is on the lead, the might be in a for a rude shock at the quarter-time huddle. Its one thing for the coaches to bang on about "lowering your eyes" during the match review. In the heat of the moment, some players might take a bit more notice when they see Jesse.

Of course none of this will necessarily happen straight away but it may well be having a bit of "ego" out there won't be as bad as some east-coast players seem to think.

 

[Channels]

For perspective, here are the 2018 JLT results, compare these to full season performances.

JLT clearly doesnt mean a great deal

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_JLT_Community_Series

 

[Cesoir]

Had a look at the replay with all the emotion taken out of it, and I think there is a lot to like. Surprisingly, I thought our defence was our weakest area when I thought that should have been one of our strengths given that they have played a bit of footy together. Was not expecting any type of cohesion from a forward line which has never played together and they certainly met my expectations! Would have loved to see a few more contested marks taken, but there were a number of easy marks dropped - Tabs seemingly the main offender from what I saw. We know Tabs can mark the thing, so I'm putting that down to a bad day, but if he continues in that vein we have a wealth of tall forwards who can keep him at Peel to regain his confidence.

My biggest positives:

Brennan Cox - the guy is barely 20 years old and was by far our best forward. Has great footy smarts for such a young player and will only get better.
Rory Lobb - played a great game and I thought he matched Grundy in the ruck, definitely had more impact around the ground.
Darcy Tucker - great to see him impose himself physically on the game, and hopefully this is a precursor to a breakout season. We need him.
Andy Brayshaw - kid is going to be a gun for many years to come. Needs to tidy up his kicking, but that will come with experience.
Brad Hill - cruised around and I don't think he was going at 100%, why would he? His kicking looked much improved, back to 2017 levels.

My biggest negatives:

Joel Hamling - don't think I've seen a worse game from Joel. Maybe not 100%? We know he can play, so not too worried.
Ethan Hughes - sorry, I like Ethan but his decision making under pressure was atrocious and cost several goals. Was a clear liability form mine.
Taylin Duman - too easily moved off the ball and looked well below AFL level for mine. Again, I like the guy but he needs to do better than that.
Ballas - not going to put the boots in as he has been a fine servant of the club, but he needs to be an "emergency" player only.
Brandon Matera - Didn't think he was as bad as some seem to think, but certainly did not do enough to be a key small forward.
Sam Switkowski - he has been absolutely burning at training and started as our best small forward. Hope he doesn't become a permanent fixture on the injury list.

Puzzling:

Not sure what was up with Adam Cerra, but I thought he looked a bit unsure of himself. I know he was off half back and not where we want to see him, but he played well off half back last year.
Some have bagged Griffin Logue, I thought he was pretty fair for a guy coming off a year out of footy. Made some mistakes, but some of his work was outstanding - loved when he absolutely burned Mihocek on the wing. He will get better as he finds touch.
Not sure how people are saying we have not changed the game plan. This was the most obvious thing to me. There was barely any kicking backwards and sideways in the back line, and they looked to be trying to play on at all costs, often to their detriment. It will take time for everyone to get used to the changes, and in the meantime we will get burned at times, but at least they tried - and 60 inside 50s was pretty good. Pity it wan't 60 quality inside 50s.

Overall:

Great to have footy back, even though it is only JLT. We will probably get smashed next week, so not looking forward to the wrist slashing brigade after that one! But then it is the season proper and we can judge ourselves against real teams playing real footy.

I'm tipping 10 - 13 wins and a fair bit of inconsistency on the way.

 

[Scham]

Hughes looked confused at times because he seemed to want to attack but unsure how.

Cerra setting him up with a loopy handball didn't help him any.

More like whether he’s allowed to. Have a look at his games at Swans before being drafted, he was very attacking.

 

[Scham]

I agree with most of what you. Just want to make comment on a couple of things.

3) Cox. It seems so obvious to me that Cox is an extremely promising forward, yet our coaching panel don't seem to see it - they have him training in defence, or maybe not best 22. This worries me.

4) Midfield - we are building a small body of work that suggests we have a better midfield without Fyfe than with Fyfe. This is not to suggest that he is not a fantastic player, just that in some way we don't get best value from his presence. Maybe other players step back, maybe we lack variety when he plays, who knows? Not me. The body of work is that last year our winning % was better without Fyfe than with him, our best wins of the year were Essendon, Adelaide and Port, 2 without Fyfe, and our best win IMHO was against Adelaide where we lost the hitouts and won the clearances, something we generally struggle with whenever we are without Sandi. Yesterday we lost the hitouts and won the clearances.

8) Ballas - I still have every expectation of seeing him line up in Round 1.

10) Many of us want to see Nyhuis get some real opportunity. I am with that group.

Gotta say you’re very insightful and your analysis of a game or training session is second to none on this board.

 

[theGav56]

It was Logue. Logue isn't a footy players arsehole so far. He's an athlete, but some of his skill work needs some serious attention

I am obviously less familiar with footy players assholes than some, but I think his main area of need is decision making. Just keep it pretty simple for now. But in a wobbly showing by a backline with pretty decent decision makers, he wasn't the worst.

 

[sumavich]

I think that Logue being built up as the saviour is a bit ott. He is still learning the game, what’s he played 20/30 games in 2 and a bit years?

 

[Dale147]

After quarter time, Collingwood defenders stayed home and our forwards went up, as a result, 9 times out of 10 it was a long bomb which resulted in a 3 on 1. Need to get smarter.

 

[Righteo]

I think that Logue being built up as the saviour is a bit ott. He is still learning the game, what’s he played 20/30 games in 2 and a bit years?

Logue is the saviour? Citation needed. You’re right though that we need to be patient with him

 

[Cesoir]

I think that Logue being built up as the saviour is a bit ott. He is still learning the game, what’s he played 20/30 games in 2 and a bit years?

13 games in one season - his second year he was injured the whole season. Not sure I've seen anyone building him up to be a saviour, but he can definitely be a handy piece of the back line with some more games.

 

[theGav56]

Clearances F41 v C38
Inside 50 F60 v C46
CP F168 v C163
Tackles F63 v C56
HB F165 v C173
Stoppages F29 v C26
HO F32 v C50

Given the young midfield we largely put out there, that's some good stats.

That's with Collingwood having 72 more possessions.

So we got the ball, used it ok until the last third?

We also won the ball back a lot, but got burned defensively...they scored freely from cleaner entries

Thanks for highlighting these stats. If they can be maintained and other areas of the game improved, then there is a lot to like.

I think two tall forwards is ideal if you have some lethal "others" in there. We don't and that is a problem, and one of the ones I want to see worked on the most this season;

• get some games in Switkowski, Schultz and (later) Sturt. Ballantyne in the "in case of emergency" basket. Matera purely based on performance.
• transition McCarthy into a medium forward role, especially with some focus on forward pressure. Must dominate in the wafl to get an opportunity.
• forget about Cox as a "swingman" or defender. Ideally pair him with Hogan when Hogan's fully ready as our KPFs.
• be clever about the use of Lobb and don't fall for the trap of being too tall and too predictable forward. Hogan doing some midfield/roaming work could help balance this.
• Taberner in if dominating at wafl.

 

[Deveraux]

I don't think I saw Tabs or Hogan without 2 defenders climbing over them each at once which would have freed Cox up a fair bit.

At the same time Cox is going to be insanely good. It's incredible that he was the best tall AND small forward yesterday, the way he was front and centre at a couple of those pack crunches by Tabs to collect and deliver was epic.

 

[rgauci]

Controversial opinion, Ballantyne has a shocking start. But remember he didn’t play the intraclub. I thought he settled and was influential with his pressure in the 2nd half.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I really don’t think a man who has been on a list for three years should be ‘learning the game.’ You should understand football by the time you’re 15, not patronised until 25.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Docker82]

What I thought I learnt:

- Brayshaw is better than I thought he was going to be this year.
- Tucker is best 22.
- Lobb is better than I thought.
- Hamling shouldn’t play on smalls - with Logue around this year dropping one of these two for smaller forward lines may be an option.
- Cox has much more ability at ground level than Taberner. Ultimately this probably gets him the last spot in the forward line.
- We need Schultz or Switkowski to go past Ballantyne as quickly as possible - preferably both so one can go past Matera too.
- Defender number six will be up in the air. Reckon they may go with Conca and Cerra sharing it at this stage.

 

[FreoRicci]

Hard to expect a side that has hoofed the ball up forward for five years to start hitting targets inside 50 all of a sudden just because we’ve got some tall timber. Give it to about round 8 before we judge whether we’re still playing dumb footy.

It’s a whole different team though. In 3-4 years we’ve had massive player turnover and new talent come through means, it’s a fresh start. I just don’t want to see Cerra at half back, he’s one our great ball users.
Ryan and Wilson should generate enough attack from defence. Problem is they’re instructed or set up for them to kick it long and high. Just would like the coaches to turn the elite kickers to our advantage.
The gameplan we had for 2012/13/14, sure it worked well. But now we have a spread of talent that should see us using them in their natural positions. It was evidence that Cox isn’t a CHB, talent wise he’s an elite forward in the making. Let’s keep it that way

 

[FreoRicci]

I've been in Taberner's corner all year but damn Cox was good yesterday. I can't remember when it was, but he did a slick shimmy and handball to a runner that really moved me along the arousal curve. Also he kicked straight, which has been his only knock really. Tabs would want to put in a better effort week 2.

Cox would suit that third/fourth forward well then McCarthy tbh. His contested marking has improved.

 

[FreoRicci]

I'm in the group of people who were disappointed in how many times we bombed it long to the top of the square. It was not encouraging but I still think there was a lot to like and work with, and some valid disclaimers

1) Final score means nothing, in front in the last qtr of a JLT match in 40 degrees. Couldnt be more unconcerned with going down by close to 30 points
2) If Switta can keep his body together I really think we have a player on our hands. Seems ridiculous from how limited we've seen him but he applies an incredible amount of pressure and was massive that first qtr. Injury history starting to build up though...
3) Cox is going to be an absolute star, is already a better player than Taberner with that game being the perfect example.
4) Might be making excuses but you'd have to argue since our depth is pretty average that missing our best two midfielders impacts us just about more than any other team, its a big drop off in talent. To compete with the best midfield in the comp was a good effort
5) Happily surprised with how good Lobb was, will be the best ruck combo in the comp with Darcy for the next 4 years.
6) Want to see more of that marking from AP this year. Its what he'll need to do to take the next step
7) I have never seen a worse game of football from a defender than what Hamling put out, only up from here.
8) Ballas is so cooked its not even funny. Will remember the good times.
9) AB will be unstoppable with another 8kg of muscle. Will play 250 games of football
10) I think we have a serious issue against fast/small forwards. It's why I'm confused about the obvious non-rating of Nyhuis. He is clearly our best small defender, and by a long way. We have the attacking defenders in Wilson and Ryan, not sure why Nhyuis isnt getting more of a gig

Agree ie Nyhuis. Having a lockdown small defender helps us significantly. There’s dangerous smalls out there and don’t feel confident that a Duman nor Hughes will counter them. Nyhuis lockdown on Gray a prime example, the tackle taken out. Wilson needs to run off half back same as Ryan so Nyhuis provides the cover.

Another problem for me is the small forwards depth. Swit going down means Matera and Ballas next in line. To say that Swit is your best small forward with limited game time is pretty damning on Ballas and Matera, as they either have dropped significantly in form or don’t provide consistency. Can see Sturt perhaps fast tracked, if Matera doesn’t show more improvement.

 

[Scatter]

After last years JLT game against the Eagles when we looked like a top 8 team and they looked like the wooden spooners, I don’t think you can take anything out of these games. We were competitive against a good team (and top midfield) and that is enough.
Think the wind in these games outside of stadiums makes a big difference too (and makes the bomb into the forward line more likely too occur, and less likely to be marked by the forward).
Did enjoy what Tucker, Cox, Brayshaw, Hill & Lobb showed.
I’m not writing any of our players off after that.

 

[theGav56]

It was evidence that Cox isn’t a CHB, talent wise he’s an elite forward in the making. Let’s keep it that way

The irony of course is that he came to the club as a CHB, and the club have groomed him as a forward.

 

[Scham]

Wind, sun, etc etc was experienced by both teams. Just saying...

 

[Docker82]

After last years JLT game against the Eagles when we looked like a top 8 team and they looked like the wooden spooners, I don’t think you can take anything out of these games. We were competitive against a good team (and top midfield) and that is enough.
Think the wind in these games outside of stadiums makes a big difference too (and makes the bomb into the forward line more likely too occur, and less likely to be marked by the forward).
Did enjoy what Tucker, Cox, Brayshaw, Hill & Lobb showed.
I’m not writing any of our players off after that.

Agree but what’s wrong with playing the game at Optus Stadium. Joondalup, Mandurah and Leederville are just in the Perth Metro area anyway.

It’s not like when we used to play in Geraldton and Mt Barker - those people probably don’t attend an AFL game all year. Whereas those who go to Joondalup, Mandurah and Leederville probably attend one game every fortnight.

 

[Okinakashi]

Agree but what’s wrong with playing the game at Optus Stadium.

1 cost.
2 Optus wasn't available. They're still packing up from Eminem.

 

[Taylor]

There would be AFLW games played at Optus if it were commercially viable to open the gate for a small time crowd drawing event.

 

[Docker82]

1 cost.
2 Optus wasn't available. They're still packing up from Eminem.

Number 2 is a decent point. Number 1 maybe as well but I doubt its really a issue