Meek & Mild

[71011]

Whilst watching Footy Classified last night, they were talking how the Saints & in particular Riewoldt was back in form. They asked GT of his thoughts, he said Nick was ok, but North were "meek" in their efforts against the Saints. When he said this, I thought no way, Patch, Cunners, Levi etc were as hard & tough as they come. Then he mentioned Pratt & Firritos efforts were meek & mild, also said Boomer & H had no real influence. Gary agreed then added, much unlike Firrito & Pratt to be like that. When they showed replays, they were right, the Saints & Nick got the ball way too easy, sometimes with no pressure at all. Considering what the game meant to us, it's a bad sign.
The North I grew up watching were never labelled "meek & mild". I hope this is a one off!

 

[scottywiper]

Whilst watching Footy Classified last night, they were talking how the Saints & in particular Riewoldt was back in form. They asked GT of his thoughts, he said Nick was ok, but North were "meek" in their efforts against the Saints. When he said this, I thought no way, Patch, Cunners, Levi etc were as hard & tough as they come. Then he mentioned Pratt & Firritos efforts were meek & mild, also said Boomer & H had no real influence. Gary agreed then added, much unlike Firrito & Pratt to be like that. When they showed replays, they were right, the Saints & Nick got the ball way too easy, sometimes with no pressure at all. Considering what the game meant to us, it's a bad sign.
The North I grew up watching were never labelled "meek & mild". I hope this is a one off!

Absolute garbage spoken by a buffoon, who has some weird discontent with North.
We didn't lose because we were meek and mild.
The first quarter we more than matched them for intensity, but we couldn't maintain it. Perhaps because we are a team of kids largely, while they are well-drilled, have several stars, a number of seasoned players they recruited and are in premiership mode.
Meek and mild is the umps when St Nick looks at them. And St Kilda throughout its entire history.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

You could pick highlights from the game to prove the opposite too, I wouldn't stress too much. I watched at the ground and kept thinking we were so close but so far - a good chain of handballs that then went to an opposition player, or a guy in the right place to tackle who was pushed aside, that kind of thing. More size and experience will fix a lot of what was missing on Sunday.

And if you want rewasons to pout faith in time and Scott and where these kiids can go, you could compare last weekend with R2. No comparison - still a fair way off sides who have been buildng much longer, but growing faster than we could have expected. The scoreboard said we were exactly twice as close (or twice as good, or half as bad) compared to St Kilda 2010 and that seems a good step for now.

 

[The OBSTacle]

I thought we were pretty hard at it and I was pleased with how we physically matched St Kilda. I was very impresseed with our young midfielders attack on the loose ball.

Pratt and Firrito have played better games.

 

[Event Horizon]

Pratt did have an ordinary game I thought. Firrito was far from his best as well. But in general, the effort was good.

I thought our tactics of switching play in the backline backfired, and was predictably so. Against a team like St Kilda, the way to play was to move the ball quickly at all cost, and run it out. Going backwards in order to switch play may work against many sides, but against St Kilda's press all it does is squeese us in the deeper position, of which there is no way out.

I thought that was perhaps a coaching oversight. Switching maybe part of our gameplan, but gameplans must change against various opposition IMO.

But individually, I thought the kids held up well, which was pleasing.

 

[kekka]

For most of the game our young, inexperienced midfielders smashed them in the centre clearances.

You don't achieve that against one of the AFL's most hardened engine rooms by being "meek & mild".

Roll on 2011 !

 

[Mr Reliable]

Turnovers killed us. As the Zebra pointed out elsewhere, they kicked 15-11 from our turnovers.

15-11

And being there it was obvious that in addition to turnovers we were back to our bad habits of missing targets and handballing to the feet which puts us under pressure.

I'll be amazed if Bon doesn't spend the pre-season teching the boys to kick and handball under pressure and if our recruiting doesn't focus on picking more players with disposal skills.

 

[Event Horizon]

The most bizzare thing I find with St Kilda, is that while their midfield comprehensively spanked ours, they've got at least half a dozen blokes in their 22 that I wouldn't have thought would get a game for us. Yet they all function perfectly under their structure.

 

[scottywiper]

The most bizzare thing I find with St Kilda, is that while their midfield comprehensively spanked ours, they've got at least half a dozen blokes in their 22 that I wouldn't have thought would get a game for us. Yet they all function perfectly under their structure.

But it's also why they probably won't win a grand final.
It was their bottom six that cost them dearly last year.

 

[GarnerSmash]

Turnovers killed us. As the Zebra pointed out elsewhere, they kicked 15-11 from our turnovers.

We are not there skillwise yet and we try to play through the middle when attacking so when we turn it over we get burned.

The reason why the Pies are so good atm is that they are skillful enough to hit their targets by hand and foot for the most part, but combine this with the fact that they play down the line so when they do turn the ball over they have a better chance of setting up defensively than if they turned the ball over going through the corridor.

You are right Mr R., practice makes perfect. Working on skills over summer and continually playing this way in matches will eventually mean that our skills will improve and hold up under match conditions. Same applies with the structure. It just takes time and effort. The raw materials are there.

 

[The OBSTacle]

The most bizzare thing I find with St Kilda, is that while their midfield comprehensively spanked ours, they've got at least half a dozen blokes in their 22 that I wouldn't have thought would get a game for us. Yet they all function perfectly under their structure.

This is the reason why we need to judge our defence and forwards with Norths immature midfield in mind. Prismail was taken from Geelong with big wraps and he has been shown to be a very average midfielder and I doubt James Kelly would be a superstar at Richmond. West Coast and Sydney also had their share of lemons that were made to look much better by doiminant midfields.

 

[Mr Reliable]

We are not there skillwise yet and we try to play through the middle when attacking so when we turn it over we get burned.

The reason why the Pies are so good atm is that they are skillful enough to hit their targets by hand and foot for the most part, but combine this with the fact that they play down the line so when they do turn the ball over they have a better chance of setting up defensively than if they turned the ball over going through the corridor.

You are right Mr R., practice makes perfect. Working on skills over summer and continually playing this way in matches will eventually mean that our skills will improve and hold up under match conditions. Same applies with the structure. It just takes time and effort. The raw materials are there.

St Kilda really chased and harrassed us hard. Every time Wellsy in particular got the ball he had 2 or 3 blokes chasing him.

Our skills held up well against Freo's "pressure" but not against St Kilda's.

 

[GarnerSmash]

St Kilda really chased and harrassed us hard. Every time Wellsy in particular got the ball he had 2 or 3 blokes chasing him.

Our skills held up well against Freo's "pressure" but not against St Kilda's.

Well, yeah.

As Bon would say, we need to play footy that will win finals. Execution under real pressure needs to be improved for sure.

 

[Twinkletoes]

Absolute garbage spoken by a buffoon, who has some weird discontent with North.
We didn't lose because we were meek and mild.
The first quarter we more than matched them for intensity, but we couldn't maintain it. Perhaps because we are a team of kids largely, while they are well-drilled, have several stars, a number of seasoned players they recruited and are in premiership mode.
Meek and mild is the umps when St Nick looks at them. And St Kilda throughout its entire history.

Bang on s'wiper.

Re the gameplan......

I thiink the most pertinent point about our effort came from Sir James, on On The Couch, when he said "The idea's were right, but the workrate required to push hard and break when switching was not quite there. It's a sign of a young side well into a season against a seasoned opponent who prides itself on it's pressure. It takes nerve to pull off and North did so a number of times but it's a very taxing style if you're not accustomed to it." He heaped praise on Boomer for that play when he took on the Saints press and fired off the torp to clear their zone and set us free on the break.

We'll get there......................eventually.