Key Moments - Skill errors killed us

[Bluebear]

The summary is:

• Stevens and Simpson made poor decicions which cost us goals
• Betts tunovers cost 2 goals
• Cloke and Bower shouldn't kick to leading forwards if it can be helped
• If Scotland and Stevens pay to their usual standard we would have been somewhere near level.
• Hadley gives us the hardness inand under than we need, just short on endurance but will improve.
• Pfeiffer looked good for a guy in his first senior game.
• We had Judd, Stevens, Pfeiffer, Hadley, O;hAilpin, Fisher and Hampson less than 100% fit (returning from injuries or less than complete pre-seasons) whcih is a significant number and will get better week by week.

In short, we are a crap side that needs to be at 100% to beat anyone, let alone a side that has the wood on us.

Will need to improve the kicking into F50 next week or the Bombers run out of defence and through the middle will kill us.

I'd like to see Kreuzer come in and rotate with Hampson as the second ruck with the other not going to the bench, but going to the goal square.
Hampson could be Kosi-esque as a forward IMO.



The detail:

This may be too long for most, and seem somewhat pointless to others, but these were just some key moments that stood out to me from the game on review that really shaped the contest.
I took some solice from it thinking if the decision making of some of our senior players was up to scratch we might have won this game.

Quarter 1

• Fev peeling off to the left (away from goal) while the ball breaks right. Fev complaining to the ump about free kicks while the footy is lost and kicked out the far side.......Fev with his back to the passage of play.
• Saints first goal comes through Gehrig who blatantly shoves Setanta in the back. Umpire in perfect position.........
• Second goal for Saints comes after Gibbs kicks to a Jordan Russell lead and it goes out on the full, turnover goes inside 50 and goal.
• Close to quarter time Cloke intercepts the football 70m from goal. Hampson leading to the near pocket and Russell coming up the ground from the goal square. Cloke bombs away towards Russell who is easily outmarked by King who is trailing Hampson. Would have been an easy goal to Hampson. Gram then runs forward unmarked and receives the ball from Harvey on 50 and kicks the Saints third.

A two goal turnaround on quarter time. Saints lucky to have kicked a goal let alone only be 11 points down. More pain in time on for us.


Second quarter

• Scotland, who has turned the ball over a couple of times already, kicks to Pfeiffer on the outer wing. The ball is too high for Pfeiffer, who does well to bring it to ground as he falls, but the panicked disposal is turned over and Schneider goals from the inside 50.
• Cloke bombs away towards Fev in a 1 on 3. The rebound goes straight back for a goal. Saints now lead.
• Betts intercepts and kicks to Fisher who is 20m clear at the top of the goal square. The kick slews off the side of the boot, King mark in the centre of the ground and Hampson crudely bumps him. 50m penalty and goal. Our second two goal turnaround. 9 points down.
• Betts sprays another pass to Scotland in the pocket.
• Scotland receives from Judd at CHB and kicks too high for Fev flying over Hudghton - free kick. Ball up to Saints forward line, Kosi flies into Scotland without touching the footy, no free, goal to King.
• Fev hits the post OOF from 50m directly in front......not on his game mentally.
• Stevens snaps OOF, currently 13 points down.
• Carrazzo great kick under pressure hits up Russell on the wing who takes a very good contested grab......hits Pfeiffer who goals from 50m........7 points down
• Stevo dives on loose ball in the centre, tackled high, called for holding the ball. Gets a 50 for backchat (no worse than what several Saints have delivered already).....goal and 13 point lead again.
• Gibbs on the HBF delivers to Murph, delivers to Fev, feeds off to Judd who hits Russell 30m out at the top of the goal square........Misses the goal.
• More poor contesting from Fev, and Carrazzo has a kick smothered going inside 50.

Missed too many opportunities in the second quarter, with Betts to Fisher, and Russells kick, and gasve away too many easy ones with 2 50m penalties. Should not have trailed, and might be up, taking the first Q comments into the equation, by around 4-5 goals at half time.

Third quarter

• Bower hits Edwards on the lead. Fev break to the right, Edwards kicks to opposite direction and hits Hudghton.
• Betts hit the ball at pace and misses everything from 40m out.
• Bower blazes away into the flood - turnover
• Carrazzo roves Gardiners tap, doesn't kick immediately and is tackled
• Hadley kicks to Judd's lead on the bounce at F50
• Murph misses Stevens lead in the FP
• Bower bombs away and the kick bounces in front of Fev, turnover goes down for Gehrig's second goal.
• Scotland's kick bounces in front of Edwards lead, then next oassage of play Scotty snaps to the top of the square to 3 Saints on their own, turnover.
• Scotalnd up and under to Edwards, turnover kicked to 3 on 1 in centre of the ground, hit Riewoldt, poor kick marked by Milne who goals.
• Bower hits Simmo on the 50m arc. Instead of running onto his left Simmo fakes and goes onto his right. Rather than kick he hanballs to Carrazzo who is under the pump and snaps a behind. (23 points down ATM)
• Murph steal ball, no forwards inside 50 and loads up with a Torp, off the side of the boot.
• Murph marks on 50m, takes kick quickly for behind, ball goes quickly up to Saints 50m (manning up?) where Milne is held and goals from kick (27 points)
• Thornton wins contest but is held and dragged to ground after getting rid of the ball - no call - X Clarke crumbs and kicks his first (33 pts)
• Gibbs kicks directly to Blake......then with his next possie kicks OOF.
• Hayes throw off the ground not paid near F 50.
• Fev blazes away into flooded forward line and Waite turns it over on 3/4 time.

More missed cahnces but the Saints did play better this quarter getting on top on the ruck and clearances. Would have sides close to level at 3/4 time, maybe us still holding a 1-2 goal lead IMO.

Fourth quarter

• Stevo wins the footy running into an open goal, tries to handball to Judd. Would have gone from 35 to 29 points (or 2 up to 3 goal lead). Gehrig gets his third from the rebound. Lead to 41 points. Our third 2 goal turnaround.
• Judd kicks inside F50 to Russell in 1 on 4 contest.
• Carrazzo just misses to left on the run whilst being tackled.
• Soft goal to Clark - Scotland leaves him to spoil mark (helping out as Ratts spoke of last week) X Clark roves spill and kick easy goal.
• Goal to Riewoldt from Waite free when Scotty marked uncontested over the back. Commetary team speechless at how bad the free was.
• Hoops misses 2 shots from 40m
• Milne snap touched by Setanta on the line not paid - 47 points.
• Waite chases the ball, Riewold runs to the square - turnover hits Roo who goals unmanned.

 

[Beloved]

I must say, excellent write up.

It's still so painful to know that we were up so early, only to be beat so convincingly! I was saying that it would happen from the get go, but when it becomes reality, it's quite depressing.

 

[Jezza U Beauty]

Very good summary BB. I lost count of how many times i sighed last night at the mistakes which we made which you just can't afford to make if you wanna be a good side.

I think a fair percentage of the errors you've outlined can be attributed to a few of our players being underdone, and a few being young/inexperienced - this is where we can obviously get real improvement from.

Unfortunately, i think some of the mistakes listed were also due to some of those mentioned just simply not being quite up to AFL standard. And dealing with that is obviously a longer term thing.

It's tough being patient.

 

[murph3_bbs1012]

It is so frustrating to watch, as you said in the post how Carlton constantly kick the ball to fev when he has 3 on him. i was at the game last night and realized just how Fevola conscious Carlton actually is. surely if there is 3 on fev, at least one Carlton bloke has to be free in or around the 50

 

[phantom 309]

We need a way of countering the flood as soon as the flood tap is turned on us we are gone, Richmond did it last week and stopped us and the saints did it as well.

 

[dukester95]

We miss to many goals that any other side would bury. One that comes to mind is Stevens running into an open goal square, and hand passes, to who...a St Kilda player.....why..have some conviction and kick the f***in thing. Seriously we need a shrink in there to convince these guys they can play good footy.

 

[iRemember87]

Two things that killed us against the Saints.

Our mids were beaten and most had down days, this will hopefully turn around against the Dons.

Our delivery into the forward line has been very poor for 2 weeks.

We seem just to find opposition and hit them lace out, we really need to work on that. What doesn't help that is that RFC and Saints both flooded, so we are out numbered, and there is alway 3 on Fev. But the hard thing to accept from that is that teams flood, but then they get it out so easily, and the only players that i see give chase are Betts and Fev.

We need to work on that, we need to avenue the ball to other players, we need to move away from being Fev focused, use him as a decoy, players like Fish can take marks and kick, so use him more often, Edwards can mark the ball but needs to work on his kicking, its things liek this that won't make us predictable, which is what we need going into the forward line.

And against the Saints we missed having a CHF, although i don't rate Harltett, he needs to be in there as a target and a decoy for another opposition player.

 

[bibi01]

We miss to many goals that any other side would bury. One that comes to mind is Stevens running into an open goal square, and hand passes, to who...a St Kilda player.....why..have some conviction and kick the f***in thing. Seriously we need a shrink in there to convince these guys they can play good footy.

we have been missing the gimmie goals since 2002.

 

[sosos]

we have been missing the gimmie goals since 2002.

We also specialise in comical mess ups.

 

[Pamam]

quality effort Bluebear!!

just shows we had our chances.

with a little bit more fitness into the body, we will be a little bit more polished in possession and a lot of skill errors should be minimised.

 

[Bluebear]

At the end of the day the Saints were off their game and ripe for the picking.

There were 3 seperate two-goal turnarounds.

That's six goals........pretty close to the final margin.

This says to me that we aren't far off being good.......not great, but good.

Lets hope we see it this week.

I got sick of sighing as well.

 

[Pamam]

definately think we were a 3 to 4 goal better side on the night!!!

we just need to kick the goals at the crucial time, which we seem the last couple of years to be struggling to

anything that is in front of the sticks we should be putting away with 6 points!

and definately need to stop these no goal quarters.

otherwise am looking forward to a cracker game this week.
i would love to try Kreuzer in the ruck this week and put Cloke as the permanant forward. Essendon dont have such a dominant ruck team like Saints, i actually rate Tigers ruck department better than the Dons!!

 

[Bluebear]

Cloke has been very good in the ruck though. Not dominating, but competing very well, and the Saints ruck combo, when fit, this year will rate behind WCE and Port as a very dominant combo.

I would actually like to see Hampson spend some time at the top of the goal square.

Option 1 - Fev on the lead
Option 2 - Over the top to Hampson at the top of the square
Option 3 - Fisher/rotating small forward-mid

Lets watch Fletcher and Michael decide who will stand next to Hammer.

 

[Brighton_Diggins]

At the end of the day the Saints were off their game and ripe for the picking.

There were 3 seperate two-goal turnarounds.

That's six goals........pretty close to the final margin.

This says to me that we aren't far off being good.......not great, but good.

Lets hope we see it this week.

I got sick of sighing as well.

near on exactly what i thought of the game....
We definitely showed some ok/good signs.
I thought Tbird on Kosi was a plus.
Skill errors still an issue for sure....
We really could've made a statement in that 2nd qtr.
How many times do we squander the lead we make for ourselves.?
There's definitely a base to work from.

 

[NWTYRX]

The times we have used Fev as a decoy last year, we kicked 21 and 22 goals, with Fev kicking only 3 goals

 

[JuddtoCarlton]

nice read, thanks bluebear