Preview [NAB Challenge] Round 3 vs Adelaide

[TheSunGod]

His disposal just lets him down soo much. He can find it in space but you can almost guarantee he'll either spray it or choose the wrong option. Its such a shame because he could make that wing spot his own.

I think it has to be a confidence thing? One of the things he was praised for by Shaun Hart I think it was when he was first recruited was his disposal under pressure but it has really gone to s**t in his last few games.

 

[Cochblocked]

Well yeah cos we were. Its hard to go up against a midfield like Adelaides without 5! of your best 8 mids. Plus kk I guess but Malceski seemed to cover him alright-ish.

Guys. of course we were smashed in possessions. Thats what happens when you dont have the likes of GAJ, Omeara and Swallow who are such smooth movers and do most of the linking and outside running in the midfield. All of our mids last night were pure inside mids. None of them bar Hall provide much run and carry and they're not expected too. Its just that due to circumstances they had too last night because we had no choice. Theres no point in worry/complaining about it yet. If come round 1 we lose to Essendon by 100 possessions then yeah we can go crazy.

I agree with this, just gotta take it one week at a time. I can almost guarantee the next time we play Adelaide our team will have better players with it. Replacing Sexton for Ablett already makes me happy for playing Essendon.

 

[Matchu]

As is always the case early in the season at Metricon, the dewy conditions resulted in a slippery ball which made it harder for some of the guys to dispose of the ball cleanly. It's a factor when you don't have your best midfielders out there. Of course experienced veterans like Scott Thompson and Nathan Van Berlo are going to handle those conditions better than a younger player like Sexton. I think Tom Lynch also got a taste of what it's going to be like as the number one forward (regularly double teamed) and he struggled to have a big impact.

I look at the clearance stats and see the potential for Gold Coast this season. The Suns won the clearances 40 to 33. They also won the contested possessions 153 to 142 but were smashed in the uncontested possessions and total disposals. That tells me Adelaide were much cleaner with the ball (they were, I was there) and the disposal efficiency stat backs that theory up. Gold Coast had more inside 50s (63 to 50) but that's not really reflective of what was happening. I feel like the Suns were kicking and hoping many times they went inside the forward 50 and weren't necessarily trying to hit a target.

Bring in cleaner disposers of the ball like Ablett/Prestia and it'll make a world of difference when you're winning the clearances/contested possession.

 

[kreglze]

We just need to learn how to get the easy ball. Our contested possessions are solid and in the packs we win the ball, but when we win the ball the people we are dishing off to people who don't have the footskills to hit a pass. On the TV coverage, the commentators were suggesting we were playing it like wet weather footy and bombing the ball in, which may have been a tactic as opposed to lowering the eyes, I'm not sure..

If we do decide to bomb it on over the season, we need crumbers front and centre ready to pick the ball off the pack and they weren't there for some reason last night. Martin and Ah Chee should be reading the ball and creating chances.

 

[TARGETMAN]

ahhh s**t still 14 days to go