Game Day North VS Port (in a meaningless game)

[the flying ham]

Odds on ever seeing that money?

3 practice games against AFL teams and numerous match simulations.....zero correlation? Not even the last practice game going into round 1?

Carlton and Gold Coast won both JLT last year. How'd they go again?

West Coast got smoked by Freo in the JLT. How'd they finish up?

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[darko]

Tougher schedule this year but we'll win at least 10 games.

 

[Event Horizon]

I don’t get how we went from being too competitive for our own good in the intraclub, to failing to lay a tackle in a JLT.

Just 3-4 weeks ago all we heard in the interviews was how the battle is on for best 22 spots for round 1. Now with just couple of weeks out we have 80% of blokes out of form or injured and are showing no clear game plan or even will to compete.

But who is to say we don’t simply flick a switch in Perth?

I like this preseason stuff - all the crap we are seeing can just be written off as “tinckering and experimenting” while anything even slightly positive is highlighted like we are watching a future premiership captain emerge


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[Groin guru]

1. Hrovat - delist
2. Turner to backline now! He kicked 8 goals last year...8...from a full season of staying inside the forward 50...8. Marley needs another small quick defender down there.
3. Jy doesn't do enough yet. HFF with Wilkinson
4. Lmac
5. I prefer Atley as a defender. He's never going to be a mid. With TT and more mids = Higgins and Cunnington can play forward. Atley is a really good 1v1 defender (just not on Eddie Betts) and has no pace issues.
6. Zurhaar has disappointed me. Wood too.
7. Very disappoint Watson didn't get a go.
8. Bailey Scott is going to be a ripper
9. We will still win the flag.

 

[Dirty_11]

Watching the game again. That inside 50 by Wood. Missed our closest player by about 30 metres. He had to have mistook a Port player for one of ours, surely.


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[Snake_Baker]

Watching the game again. That inside 50 by Wood. Missed our closest player by about 30 metres. He had to have mistook a Port player for one of ours, surely.


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The jumper allocations were idiotic, so that definitely may have been the case.

 

[DarwinRoo]

No, that is why though they don't have confidence to just kick it long and why they pi$$ fart around.

Not buying it when you have a bloke who has came 2nd and 3rd in the Coleman the last two years

 

[Zondor]

Hmmm. Sure this was a meaningless preseason game but what has not been pleasing in both the JLT games has been the lack of defensive application.

Sure against Port we were missing both Goldstein and Cunnington in the middle but we still won Clearances both out of the middle and around the ground. We also won contested possession so the issue with this game wasn't winning the ball but how we moved the ball and how we defended without the ball.

In both JLT games we have handballed meaninglessly too often. Handballs to players under pressure. Handballing too often. We have also kicked to short targets that have not been free. What ever Scotts was trying on this front didn't work. Sadly this poor ball movement has resulted in terrible turnovers. There are turnovers and then there are turnovers. Know what I mean. *Scratches Testicles*.

In part these very ordinary Turnovers has made it difficult for us to defend. Still a major concern for mine is our defensive structures. I would've been more pleased with these JLT games if we defended better and played a style of play that allowed us to do so.

Things need to change come Round 1 or we could be in for a very ordinary start to the season. :stern look

 

[tazaa]

Different rules for Ziebell with that non double 50 call
Oh, and by the way, we’re not even trying. Just look at the tackle numbers.
You’ll all see a completely different North when Round 1 rolls around


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The one thing I never understood is that this team doesnt have the ability to turn it off and turn it on when it wants to.
I look at players like Wood, Atley, McDonald and MacMillan and all dont seem to be the best preparers when it comes to footy.
They need to be on from the get go.
I mean 5 players had 2 tackles or more. Alarming considering how tight it is for spots right now

 

[Waussie]

Watching the game again today and what is glaringly obvious is our lack of good solid grunt. Midfield was dominated by SPP, and nobody stepped up to shut him down, we needed Cunners or Jed to play him at his own game. Scott was the second toughest player out there and he's a bloody kid, says a lot for the rest of them. All I have read about is Mc Kay and for his lack of opportunity he was serviceable, he had very little to no back up, LMac was a bloody disaster.
Thank the Lord for Ahern, Polec,Scott and Zeebs. The rest need to lift, LDU was ok but seems to be contact shy, caught to many times holding it, would have liked to see more from Hall and don't get me started on wood. Hrovat should just concentrate on coaching the girls, Jye was killing me, needs to get involved Tarryn's shown some really good signs, Turner and the rest average. I would hope the word from the coach for the day was don't get hurt, because it was really a soft game.

 

[Caracas]

Simpkin is a worry for me ... seems to really struggle to find uncontested ball.

We really don't know what the coaching team's priorities were during the JLT. I'd like to think that a few of the players (Jy, for example) were focussing on the weaker side of their game. That would make perfect sense to me, as a team can't afford to do that during the season proper - unless you're tanking.

 

[The Other Dean]

I like this preseason stuff - all the crap we are seeing can just be written off as “tinckering and experimenting” while anything even slightly positive is highlighted like we are watching a future premiership captain emerge.

I hear you on your cynicism, Horizontal Event, but isn't what you described kind of the 'nature of the beast' to some degree?

From the handball happy first JLT game to the 'chip it around and don't worry about tackling' we saw in the second JLT game, there was clearly "tinkering and experimenting" going on during the pre-season comp. That's obvious. So it would seem wise not to put too much stock into what we saw unfold.

As for the positives being (over-)emphasised, again I hear you. Bigfooty gonna Bigfooty. However, at the same time, the "tinkering and experimenting" doesn't necessarily negate signs of 'good form/good touch' from a player. In fact, there's a line of thought that says - given the obvious "tinkering and experimenting" at play in these games (the team working on specific facets of the game, guys playing out of position, reduced TOG's, etc) - sometimes it can actually be a little more difficult to shine in those circumstances.

 

[the flying ham]

I hear you on your cynicism, Horizontal Event, but isn't what you described kind of the 'nature of the beast' to some degree?

From the handball happy first JLT game to the 'chip it around and don't worry about tackling' we saw in the second JLT game, there was clearly "tinkering and experimenting" going on during the pre-season comp. That's obvious. So it would seem wise not to put too much stock into what we saw unfold.

As for the positives being (over-)emphasised, again I hear you. Bigfooty gonna Bigfooty. However, at the same time, the "tinkering and experimenting" doesn't necessarily negate signs of 'good form/good touch' from a player. In fact, there's a line of thought that says - given the obvious "tinkering and experimenting" at play in these games (the team working of specific facets of the game, guys playing out of position, reduced TOG's, etc) - sometimes it can actually be a little more difficult to shine in those circumstances.

Well said

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[Caracas]

The jumper allocations were idiotic, so that definitely may have been the case.

This absolutely. I know my eyesight is not 20/20. However, I never encountered such difficulty between teams’ jerseys on TV in my life. I think that was one of the main reasons I switched off the television early in the third - that and the fact that we seemed to drop completely off the pace after halftime. It was very frustrating.


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[Caracas]

Watching the game again. That inside 50 by Wood. Missed our closest player by about 30 metres. He had to have mistook a Port player for one of ours, surely.


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Lol. But, how about Watts’ kick immediately after. That, actually, trumped Wood’s effort. You could argue that the two of them are peas in a pod. I know - that’s just not funny!


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[KiwiRoo]

meh ..predicting the outcome of a season after a couple of pre season games is like using beach cricket as a guide to the Ashes

 

[muttley45]

I just had a look at the stat's for this game on AFL website

Q, With a disposal efficiency of 58.6 who would you reckon led the clanger count with 9 ?























A, Shaun Higgins (was a bit of shock to me actually)

 

[Mav]

I hear you on your cynicism, Horizontal Event, but isn't what you described kind of the 'nature of the beast' to some degree?

From the handball happy first JLT game to the 'chip it around and don't worry about tackling' we saw in the second JLT game, there was clearly "tinkering and experimenting" going on during the pre-season comp. That's obvious. So it would seem wise not to put too much stock into what we saw unfold.

As for the positives being (over-)emphasised, again I hear you. Bigfooty gonna Bigfooty. However, at the same time, the "tinkering and experimenting" doesn't necessarily negate signs of 'good form/good touch' from a player. In fact, there's a line of thought that says - given the obvious "tinkering and experimenting" at play in these games (the team working on specific facets of the game, guys playing out of position, reduced TOG's, etc) - sometimes it can actually be a little more difficult to shine in those circumstances.

What I don’t get is if we play poorly in the JLT then we’re not taking it seriously and are obviously tinkering, but if another team plays poorly, ala Freo, then they are the worst team to have ever dug studs into turf.

 

[DrZaius]

What I don’t get is if we play poorly in the JLT then we’re not taking it seriously and are obviously tinkering, but if another team plays poorly, ala Freo, then they are the worst team to have ever dug studs into turf.

Do you derive some sort of bizarre pleasure from being a contrarian about absolutely everything?

 

[Heaps of fun]

What I don’t get is if we play poorly in the JLT then we’re not taking it seriously and are obviously tinkering, but if another team plays poorly, ala Freo, then they are the worst team to have ever dug studs into turf.

Bit of a strawman there. Not every poster here contradicts themselves so fully and frequently.

 

[Mav]

Do you derive some sort of bizarre pleasure from being a contrarian about absolutely everything?

Yep. Don’t believe in conforming to popular opinion for the sake of it. And thank god I don’t, otherwise I’d be watching that MAFS s**t, listening to Taylor Swift and have Ken Done posters on my wall.

But feel free to bleet like a sheep if you want.

 

[Mav]

Bit of a strawman there. Not every poster here contradicts themselves so fully and frequently.

And I’m certainly not saying TOD does. But certain posters do. I have t watched Saturday’s game so haven’t commented on it, but not for once do I believe we weren’t taking it seriously. 2 weeks before the season starts and our last game against an opposition and we don’t take seriously? Bullshit. We should be trying new things, we should be reinforcing the game plans we have put in place over the summer. If not then we are starting on the back foot. Port are a decent side and had just as many players missing as we did.

 

[DrZaius]

And I’m certainly not saying TOD does. But certain posters do. I have t watched Saturday’s game so haven’t commented on it, but not for once do I believe we weren’t taking it seriously. 2 weeks before the season starts and our last game against an opposition and we don’t take seriously? Bullshit. We should be trying new things, we should be reinforcing the game plans we have put in place over the summer. If not then we are starting on the back foot. Port are a decent side and had just as many players missing as we did.

How can you definitively say we weren't? Sounds like you already are making a comment on it.

Only 24 tackles in an entire game of footy this week, and the week before we had over 100 more handballs than our opponents. Both decidedly un-north like styles of play suggests to me we sure as hell were trying different things. When else would we get a chance to test out different things against actual opposition other than JLT?

 

[Mav]

How can you definitively say we weren't? Sounds like you already are making a comment on it.

Only 24 tackles in an entire game of footy this week, and the week before we had over 100 more handballs than our opponents. Both decidedly un-north like styles of play suggests to me we sure as hell were trying different things. When else would we get a chance to test out different things against actual opposition other than JLT?

I said we were taking it seriously. You don’t need to watch to know that. And yep, we may have been trying out new things but these aren’t off the cuff let’s try something different plans. These would be game styles we have practiced for over the summer. The fact neither game plan worked should put a little bit of doubt into out preparation. But to laugh off the game as, oh s**t we weren’t trying, we didn’t care, we were giggling the whole time is just stupid.

Now, do we think Freo we’re trying new things? Were they playing a game style that was completely foreign to them? Maybe they all blew cones and watched The Club as thier warm up.

 

[The Other Dean]

I said we were taking it seriously. You don’t need to watch to know that. And yep, we may have been trying out new things but these aren’t off the cuff let’s try something different plans. These would be game styles we have practiced for over the summer. The fact neither game plan worked should put a little bit of doubt into out preparation.

Not necessarily. Without being privy to the specific designs of the coaching staff, I'm not sure how anyone could make such a definitive summation.

As supporters that aren't 'in the know' on the above, we have to be cautious and discerning in what messages we take away from these pre-season games. They are definitely not something to be taken purely at face value.

But to laugh off the game as, oh s**t we weren’t trying, we didn’t care, we were giggling the whole time is just stupid.

I'm not sure there's too many doing that.

"Trying" is a hard thing to nail down, particularly in a pre-season game. But sub-30 tackles for a team that's going full tilt? Yeah, nah. If we see another sub-30 tackles game during the season proper I'll eat the most unappetising hat I have in my house (and then post the video).

Watching the game I thought it was fairly obvious that some players were just cruising around in second gear. If I saw that in a legit game, I'd be apoplectic.

The fact remains that there is no direct or meaningful correlation between a team's pre-season outings and what they produce when the real stuff starts. This is well-documented and the historical data is there for all to see. I'm not sure why the doomsayers keep ignoring this unassailable fact.