Review Porf vs. Nort

[OneGreatClub]

I lost all nervousness about this in the first 5 minutes, when it became obvious that North's bravado was as fake as the weapons wielded by the ADF reps in the pre-game ceremony. Even conceding the first 2 goals of the second half was of little concern, and we soon re-established our dominance, junk time goals notwithstanding. At times, we just looked like the Harlem Globetrotters, flicking the ball around merrily, knowing that the Roos would play the Generals and minimise our errors. Our one-grab, first-give ball handling was the best it has been for aeons. We really should have dropped the guillotine, and won by more, but it was fun to watch. (Side note: the Roos are full of cheapshot campaigners. Cunnington, Ziebull and Thompson should not leave their rooms alone. Their problem is that the rest of their team is softer than fairy floss.) As disappointing as it was to erode our lead at the end, it was an enjoyable match to watch, with our fast footy on national display.

Our midfield was the starter motor. We look so much more organised in there this season, all players playing clear roles at different times. Wines and Rockliff as the extractors; Boak, Ebert and Rockliff as the distributors and SPP, Boak and the running half backs powering it forward. All are getting plenty of the ball, and all have tidied up their ball use considerably from last season.

Rozee was exciting up forward, and Marshall showed great attack on the ball as a lead-up forward, but we still lack the big beacon forward that was Dixon. Robbie is sadly out of form, and Westhoff cannot be the number one guy, so we're stuck with the resting ruck for now.

Our defence was magnificent. Clurey, Howard and Houston, in particular, not only shut down their opponent but covered for each other, won battles against superior numbers and marked everything in sight. Tom who?

PLAYERS:
Powell-Pepper - Such an irrepressible force. Charges straight at the ball regardless of obstacles, but could be more careful with his use. 5/10

Burton - Great courage backing into packs got him hurt before half time, and it was barely worth risking him after that. 5/10

Ryder - One of the most co-ordinated ruckmen in the league when the ball hits the ground. Needs to compete better in the air, he wants to be the leading forward but should be the bailout option, as he's a great reader of dirty balls. 6/10

Ebert - Played a lot more midfield tonight, but still looks a better full forward than Sammy. At least Ebo has the height and bulk to compete, and has defensive midfielder nous to pre-empt what the defenders want to do to clear it. His forward line tackling is perhaps the best attribute he has introduced. Has always had outstanding courage standing in front of a stampede. 7/10

R Gray - A little bit cleaner tonight, but beaten for the 6th consecutive game. Just his presence is enough to draw defensive groups to him, allowing Sammy and Connor to get free, and someone will pay for this early season slump. Showed some signs of a resurrection as the pressure dropped. 4/10

Boak - Superb, clearly relishing the leading role in the midfield, and is used as both a distributor and deliveryman around stoppages. 38 disposals, and very few wasted. His combination work with Ryder is becoming the new Ryder2Gray. Deserving winner of the Peter Badcoe Medal, and no boos! 9/10

Rockliff - A smart footballer. Gets to the right spots by running hard and reading the play beautifully. His role around the packs of receiving the hard-won ball and distributing it, whilst still guarding the defensive exits, goes a little unnoticed, but is critical. 7/10

Marshall - Contested fantastically in the air, starting to really attack the ball and lead straight at the kicker. Needs that goalkicking breakout game to truly believe in himself, but you can tell that his teammates believe in him. 5/10

Wines - At the bottom of every pack, and is so hard to shift off the pill. His ball-handling is back to his best, and he looks fit and confident in his shoulder. His first win as solo captain. 8/10

Clurey - Destroyed BBB, rendered him impotent in the air and beat him pointless at ground level. Even developed the confidence to run off and join the half back wall. Great job. 8/10

Butters - Plays his role nicely, not consistent throughout a game yet as his draftmates are, but when he gets near it good things happen. 5/10

Rozee - Peak cheeky Rozee drew an early response from Pittdawg, and was clean and classy. His kicks have penetration and imagination, and he is so, so clean. Absolute star. Too bad he didn't get the scoreboard reward with some golden last term opportunities, but he got under the Roos' collective skin and still had 23 classy touches. 7.5/10

Duursma - Nailed his first set shot, showing no residual nerves. Love the bow and arrow celebrations, and he shows spunk and passion for the club. The most intense of our rookies. 23 disposals and 8 marks is a solid game for even a seasoned player, and has been the most consistent of our rookies, both weekly and within games. 7.5/10

Polec - Magic early goal, followed by lots of outside receiving. Has regressed into a pure receiver, and if no-one gives him the ball, can disappear. 3/10

Bonner - Great run off half back, and we clearly look to use him to hit up leading forwards. Put his head over the ball well. Takes his time to make sure that he hits a target and doesn't blindly hack it. 7/10

Drew - Rockliff's apprentice. Playing the distribution role at the moment, which is probably not his A-game, and needs to get a little more of the ball to be effective, or to tidy up his kicking and become a deliveryman, to lock down his spot. 4/10

Lycett - "Ruckmen aren't supposed to do that!" - Bruce, after that checkside goal. Was the instigator of our midfield dominance, constantly tapping the ball into the path of a motoring mid. 8/10

Pittard - Typical couple of horror show errors gifted a fifty, then a goal, and he continued in that vein throughout. Cannot rebound from early errors. A liabilty as a defender. 10/10, a perfect Pittdawg game

Howard - Superb. Impassable across half back. Pain scant regard to his nominal opponent Larkey and essentially stalked the half back line. Great to see him with the confidence to go for his grabs. 9/10

Byrne-Jones - Did little, forgot he was out there at times, as the tall defence was so dominant that it bypassed the running backs and went straight to the mids. 5/10

Lienert - Had Mason Wood, and other than some chaos marks in the third, controlled him nicely. Used the ball well when he got it, and it was a night and opponent where he would always be more effective than TJ. 6.5/10

Westhoff - Sprang to life in the second term when he realised that his opponent couldn't run with him nor jump with him. 7/10

Houston - Beautiful reader of the play, coming off his man to intercept time and again. So reliable, a plank of our defence for years to come. Confident enough to take screamers now! 8.5/10

S Gray - Wishes every week was vs the Roos. Still caught one-out at full-forward too often, but when the ball hit the ground, was deadly. His second great game in a row, 27 and 4 is wonderful in any language. 9/10

Lol good one. No wonder we won with 24 on the ground

 

[Noobz0r]

Watching the game had me wondering why Sam Gray keeps ending up our deepest forward.

Is it him sneaking back, others not playing their role or something else. Just seems we find the 50 almost clear after a turn over and he is the one starting out of the square.

He works the hardest back to the forward 50 after we get the footy back.

 

[Magus]

Anyone got footage of Butters celebrating Lycett's goal from the boundary?

 

[PJ Power]

Six games in and we still haven’t been able to kick 100 points. We’ve been weirdly consistent though, low score 87 high score 95. It’s good, but it won’t be good enough when the whips are cracking.

Agree. I can’t believe that we have kicked the second highest number of goals this year (and the most behinds, comfortably!)

 

[PJ Power]

So according to Ken it was a "significant performance"!

FFS. Every single time I start to think/hope Hinkley might actually be something he turns around and just dribbles shit trying to justify another poor performance.

Stop treating the supporters as idiots. YOU are hurting the Club by doing so. The atmosphere at our home games now mirrors the way the team plays and that's because of you. Nobody really believes and largely this has been your doing by continuing the spin of everything we all see. The way we play, the reasons why we play as we did, team selection blah blah blah.

Honest coach, honest players and then the crowd can once again be honest - win lose or draw.

It was a "significant performance" against a horrible team and that type of "significant performance" would have resulted in an ugly loss to most others teams. That would have led us to listening to your press conference where once again you would have sat there trying to sell to the supporters something that didn't really happen - spin again.

Stop insulting supporters and your own team with lies.

"It wasn't the performance we were looking for and we'll have to be much better next week against Collingwood".

It's not that hard.

Significant performance - lol ...... yeah, sure it was.

Email this to the club and tell them to explain to Ken that he continues to lose supporters because of the language he uses.

BTW, Ken uses the word significant a lot! So much that it has lost all significance

 

[Byrons Firen]

Need Dixon badly , Hoff and Ryder are way too inconsistent up forward and Marshall too young

In the mean time Frampton who loves a scrap and can take a contested mark languishes in the sanfl.
Watched Todd closely from the southern end and surprised he hasn't bulked up a bit more.
Gets lost too often in our chaotic forward mess that masquerades as a plan.
Hoping he'll have a breakout game and soon. As of right now we're stuck in tease mode.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Dia-****ing-bolical. North would not have beaten Norwood yet we almost gifted them the win.

To put things into perspective, Norf can’t be that bad. They have already beaten the potential Premiers this season.
Also what was weird was I flicked onto 3 different radio stations during last quarter and after the game and they were all praising Port. Even Rushitto was.
I guess because they expected us to be way down the ladder this year.

 

[Lagooner]

Agree. I can’t believe that we have kicked the second highest number of goals this year (and the most behinds, comfortably!)

We Are Point Adelaide

 

[yepits2020]

In the mean time Frampton who loves a scrap and can take a contested mark languishes in the sanfl.
Watched Todd closely from the southern end and surprised he hasn't bulked up a bit more.
Gets lost too often in our chaotic forward mess that masquerades as a plan.
Hoping he'll have a breakout game and soon. As of right now we're stuck in tease mode.

Frampton is his own worst enemy. Got suspended at the wrong time. Seems to lack a bit of discipline.

 

[Malibu#27]

I love Burton. Not seeing what others are obviously.

Nah he’s been good.

Showed a willingness to put body on line tonight. Looks assured. Definitely best 22.

 

[Amarula]

View attachment 662723

All hail our leading goalkicker so far, Brsd Ebery.

Cunnington been getting away with this for years, and never gets held to account for it, either by umpires or the various forms of "match review". Any other team and the AFL would want to stamp out this sort of thing.
Was clearly a deliberate elbow to the face, but he'll get fined at the most.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Did Ken go on his deck chair at 3/4 time and bring in Choco as a ring in coach for the last quarter? That "looks like being a 9 goal win but ends up being a 2 goal win" was straight out of the Choco 2005-2010 play book. Disappointing, annoying, frustrating, infuriating, but a win is a win.

Yes we've said a win is a win many times over the last few years and yes it usually means we get thrashed the next week. I guess we'll have to see what happens.

Was a game that never really got going. It won't be one I watch again. But there were a few standout performances. Boak was brilliant again. He could be leading the Brownlow right now. Clurey is in AA form. He's been a star all year. Howards has really hit his groove too. Rozee exciting. Duursma played his best and most composed game. Westhoff back into it. Lycett showing Eddie Betts a thing or two. Sammy playing another good game.

There were some not some good efforts too. Robbie has to be injured. Has to be. Wines was truly awful. He could have been any SANFL grade midfielder out there tonight as opposed to our captain. I thought Houston for much of the night was poor.

Pittard was bad but got better as the game wore on. He tried his best, as he always did, he's just not a good footballer. The fact they only trusted him standing Rozee or Butters all night said it all. Polec, people can complain that we got rid of him and wouldnt match the offer all they like, i'm ******* glad the seagull is gone. How can you go an entire game playing in the midfield and not lay a tackle? He played like a scared little boy all night. 7 tackles in 6 games. Not winning clearances anymore. Nothing footballer now. Good ******* riddance.

Onto next week!

PLAYER REVIEWS
SPP - He was tough, he went in 100%, he was winning the ball and really driving it forward well. Just needs to finish at some point.

Burton - A bit up and down tonight. Had some good moments. Had some moments where I thought wtf are you doing. Overall was solid and did his job.

Ryder - Ok in the ruck, only able to provide a contest and not much else up forward.

Ebert - Copped a few knocks and was beaten around a bit. Could have had a big day out had he kicked straight, but to end up with another 2 goals, another 20 touches is a good effort. His ball use was comical at times, but he's really performing his role superbly up forward.

R Gray - Absolutely nowhere in the first 3 quarters. Not just nowhere, but when he had it he was just unable to do anything with it. Dropped the ball, turned it over, poor decision making. He's in a rut that he hasn't been in since 2013. Give him a week off and a rest.

Boak - 11 clearances, 9 inside 50s, a goal, 38 touches. Career best form. He's doing it all at the moment. I love him. So happy he's playing like this.

Rockliff - Had a big start but was slowly shut out of the game. Didn't see a lot of it after half time.

Marshall - Thought his first half was really promising. Some of his knock ons and taps and quick handballs are so clever and very Tredrea like. But his second half was poor. Just provided nothing. What did he have, 1 touch after half time? Its not enough, but he has to stay in. Needs to stay in. I know some don't agree, but again, he just needs to start going for some marks. Have some confidence, demand the ball, lead to it, put your hands up and try your best.

Wines - Was thrashed by Cunnington. Thrashed. It was embarrasing.

Clurey - Well, I was wrong on him. I thought he should have been dropped, almost never to return mid way through last year. He was solid to good through the second half of last year. This year, he's been nothing short of fantastic. Reading the play really well, defending really well, taking some really great intercept marks each week. Brown hasn't had a good year but he's still Ben Brown and is still dangerous. Clurey destroyed him.

Butters - In and out. Was super when he had the ball, but just coudln't get into it consistently. I'd almost give him a weeks rest just to reset before coming straight back in.

Rozee - I'm 37. I (as we all have) have been blessed in being able to see an 18 year old Trigger, an 17 year old Gav, an 18 year old Wilbur, a 17 year old Tredders, a 17 year old Peter, a 17 year old Shaun, 18 year old Chad. I don't think i've been so excited by a youngster in my time watching Port Adelaide. He's just exciting. Everything he does is exciting. I'm glad he finally stuck a speccy. Some of his little touches were gold. He's going to be a magical

Duursma - **** he was good. Really really good. That was his best game. He was composed. He used the ball well. He was creative. He was quick. He was everything he needs to be.

Bonner - Is getting better and better. 3rd week in a row he's been good. Smarter with the ball, better decision making, better skill execution.

Drew - Slow start but worked into it. Had some smart plays through the second half.

Lycett - Was a good match against Goldstein. Goldy probably took the points, but Scott had some good pieces of play as well and that goal just topped it off.

Howard - Yes his opponent kicked some goals late, but overall I thought he was very good for the second week in a row. Is taking more marks now, is more confident with what he's doing and isn't making as many disastrous errors.

DBJ - Thought he was great through the first half, but was really poor after half time. Lost his way.

Lienert - I didn't mind that he was slowing the play down a bit. We needed that at times. Thought defensively he was ok. Ok disposal. I think he fits in well at AFL level.

Houston - I don't know what was wrong with him in the first 2 1/2 quarters but he was sloppy, was double or triple touching everything. Whilst his skills were still good, it was like he was playing in the wet. Did get better through the second half.

S Gray - Well. He's doing everything we need him to do. Getting heaps of the ball, kicking goals, laying tackles, running hard. He's been so clean with the ball the last few weeks. It's hard to see him dropping out for some time now.

Wines is a worry

 

[OneGreatClub]

So it was ANZAC round, good conditions, Friday night and after a very good win against the reigning premiers and all we could get to the match was 36,000? What the hell are our supporters doing? That really isn't good enough

Looked like more, but that’s another story.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Nope I didn’t.

There were worried it might be a # cheekbone

 

[Powerstufff]

I love Burton. Not seeing what others are obviously.

While I've quickly grown to appreciate the stats he accrues last night was the first time I 'saw' him involved in hard, speccy stuff. Of course he's been tough and skilful in other games but last night I went 'Wow!' about 3 times with stuff he did. I've finally bought in to why the club hunted him.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Some random points:

- we are still too cute going inside 50 and handballing it one too many times. When the low percentage shot is there to be made, go for it!

- our intensity dropped off when we got a comfortable margin in front. Easy to do but you can't underestimate anyone when there's still plenty of time on the clock

- we are having extended periods of losing centre clearances. I haven't paid enough attention to the personnel when this is happening but it's becoming a problem

- Robbie. Have a spell mate, this isn't enjoyable to watch.

- Westy. What's going on? Super in round 1 and anonymous since.

- Duursma, Butters, Rozee. Hnnnngggg

- Boaky. What a man. Still my captain

- felt bad for Jasper at the beginning but his clangers were pretty funny.

- why do we suck at Adelaide Oval

- why does AO reduce bar staff AND close the craft beer bar at 3QT? Lines were ridiculous still and missed the first few mins of Q4.

Why are you buying beer at that place anyway? I drink before and after. They ain’t getting my money.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Oh and I hated the booing of Pittard

I didn't get this either considering your club gave him the flick in the first place. What's the bloke supposed to do?

It was pretty obvious he was emotional playing against his old club at their home ground for the first time, and had his worst quarter of footy (1st) for the year as a result. I reckon he was good after that. We're wrapped with him. Definitely been the best of our 2018 trade bunch so far, and he was only the steak knives in the deals.

 

[GremioPower]

So according to Ken it was a "significant performance"!

FFS. Every single time I start to think/hope Hinkley might actually be something he turns around and just dribbles shit trying to justify another poor performance.

Stop treating the supporters as idiots. YOU are hurting the Club by doing so. The atmosphere at our home games now mirrors the way the team plays and that's because of you. Nobody really believes and largely this has been your doing by continuing the spin of everything we all see. The way we play, the reasons why we play as we did, team selection blah blah blah.

Honest coach, honest players and then the crowd can once again be honest - win lose or draw.

It was a "significant performance" against a horrible team and that type of "significant performance" would have resulted in an ugly loss to most others teams. That would have led us to listening to your press conference where once again you would have sat there trying to sell to the supporters something that didn't really happen - spin again.

Stop insulting supporters and your own team with lies.

"It wasn't the performance we were looking for and we'll have to be much better next week against Collingwood".

It's not that hard.

Significant performance - lol ...... yeah, sure it was.

Significant in the sense of 'meaningful,' 'revealing.' It showed we aren't reliable.

 

[OneGreatClub]

The club once again got my $2.40 for attending tonight but gee it isn’t as joyful an experience as it used to be

 

[Powerstufff]

Agree. I can’t believe that we have kicked the second highest number of goals this year (and the most behinds, comfortably!)

It's the astonishing consistency with our final quarters where we create decent numbers of scoring shots but then begin missing. It is a genuine tic, not a 1 or 2 match aberration.

 

[OneGreatClub]

I am with you on this. I enjoyed the match, and was super relaxed throughout, even when Norf had their last run going.

The issue for me is the missed easy goals. Just fix that, and we smash them by 60 tonight. By missing these goals, we waste the effort to get it there, deflate the team, and give them possession and opportunity to score in return, which they did in that last term.

Its not about being soft, its not about poor coaching, its about the players doing what they did last week ... take your opportunities and nail the frigging goals! Fix this, and Port will be very hard to beat.

It is so weird and so disappointing that it is our senior players who keep missing the goals. One can only dream of having a reliable confident goal kicker ie Riewoldt,Cameron, Lynch, Sexton, Tredders, Schulz.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Apart from the 2007 Prelim, tonight was the largest crowd, home or away, in the history of the fixture.

Had forgotten that lol Norf have so few supporters. Come to think of it I only saw a couple in the blue and white apart from their cheer squad at the game. Our Anzac home game deserves a better opponent.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Lienert just looks like another Lewis Stevenson or Nathan Blee type. Kicking is ‘elite’ at the lower level but nothing special in the AFL. Very vanilla so far.

First game for the season and very late inclusion

 

[LP7_]

Is it just me or is the ‘We win, You win’ offer from the club absolutely shithouse?

 

[OneGreatClub]

It must be shattering as a North Melbourne supporter watching Conner Rozee. Not only is he miles better than their number 4 pick from the year before but LDU looks as vanilla as the rest of the plodders on their list.

Plus who did we get with the pick they gave us for Polly? I think that was a win too at this stage.