Autopsy Port beat Dogs 70-56

[hutchy31]

Even though we got beat, I thought we looked better than our previous 4 matches. Not playing finals quality football but still higher quality than what we've dished up so far this season. We'll hopefully continue to improve but I still see us as an 8-12 side because we fall away so badly after our top 8 or so players.

We look so much better with Weightman in the team, particularly as he can actually be relied upon to kick straight. The defensive approach and effort looks slightly better, but it's difficult to know because I think we played another couple of middling teams - at least in terms of ball movement - the past two weeks.

The thing is we have English, who might be the best-performed ruck this year so far, and Bont, who might be the best clearance player so far, and are still struggling to score (albeit we have had two weather affected games the past couple of weeks). Outside of Weightman, the team kicked four goals on Saturday, which is pretty damning. We also haven't really had any injuries to critical players, whereas most decent teams are dealing with multiple injuries and still performing better. Bombers don't have a KPF, Pies don't have a ruck, Sydney don't have a KPD and Saints are missing their equivalent of Bont and Naughton and are still performing well.

We'll probably still beat a few bottom teams comfortably when we dominate contest/clearance/territory game, but I don't see how we match up against the best 4-6 teams in the comp. Likely we'll end up putting a run of wins together to stay in contention, but probably finish with around 10-11 wins and in no-man's land again.

 

[Doggy]

So fun reading the sky is falling posts all the time.

No other supporter base melts like the dogs.

 

[Some Idiot]

To be fair, he's only had 7 kicks for the season, 5 of them in the wet in his only real game for the season and a game where he didn't play very well. Looks bad because of small sample size.

Was more surprised about Treloar's 36.5%. I'm not concerned about his games, he has stepped up in the clearance game with Dunkley gone and his effort and raw numbers are there but he has been a little sloppy which would be the only reason his season is good instead of very good but I had a double take when saw his percentage.

I did think Treloar's disposal had been pretty poor at times. Interesting to see the statistical confirmation.

 

[doggies ftw]

So fun reading the sky is falling posts all the time.

No other supporter base melts like the dogs.

Should we be positive that we’ve topped up with senior players for a flag push, are coming to the end of some of our best players of all times careers and yet are going backwards every 6 months, getting worse in the key statistics we need to improve in and keep making the same decisions off field? With no sign of improvement whatsoever.

Not sure if you haven’t noticed but the sky is in fact currently falling, in football terms

 

[Doggy]

Should we be positive that we’ve topped up with senior players for a flag push, are coming to the end of some of our best players of all times careers and yet are going backwards every 6 months, getting worse in the key statistics we need to improve in and keep making the same decisions off field? With no sign of improvement whatsoever.

Not sure if you haven’t noticed but the sky is in fact currently falling, in football terms

Yep... hell of alot of improvement required.

But some of the takes are still ridiculous

 

[The Inbetweener]

Find it odd that Bont didn’t get 1 vote from the coaches

 

[ExRoyboy]

I felt effort was clearly there, just execution was lacking a bit. I think if we can win next week and get to 3-3 after a reasonably difficult first 6 weeks that would be not a bad outcome.

If we lose and are 2-4 then it’s a really difficult road back.

A bit hard to have had such terrible weather conditions two weeks in a row. Certainly makes scoring difficult so any assessment of our offensive production does need to take that into account.

Not panic stations just yet but we need to improve and fast. And we need better output from those bottom 6 players because at the moment those players are really costing us goals at both ends. Bont needs more help from the midfield. When Baz gets back in the team he has to stop butchering the ball with his disposal.

Great to see Cody back and firing in front of goal. Awesome return from him.

Lastly, even though Liam Jones

19

Liam Jones

Age

33

Ht

199cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.4

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.3

4star

T

2.0

4star

MG

134.5

2star

D

7.6

2star

K

6.1

3star

HB

1.4

1star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.4

2star

MG

116.3

2star

D

9.4

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

2.0

2star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

is at the other end of his career, thank god he is back at the Dogs. Already one of the most important players on the list. We need to be grooming whoever his replacement is because he probably only has another year or so left in him most likely.

 

[GettingLibbered]

We lack forward structure. It’s time for a decent forward coach, Matt Spanger isn’t the answer!

I feel our strategy is bomb it long because we now have a tall forward line. Our Talls arnt built like Tom Hawkins

26

Tom Hawkins

Age

35

Ht

197cm

Wt

105kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.2

3star

K

7.9

3star

HB

4.4

3star

M

5.5

5star

T

1.9

4star

G

2.1

5star

D

12.7

3star

K

8.6

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

5.1

5star

T

2.1

3star

G

1.6

5star

D

7.8

2star

K

5.6

3star

HB

2.2

2star

M

4.2

4star

T

1.0

3star

G

2.2

5star

. They leading forwards… but maybe our skill to execute the delivery isn’t there?

 

[Optimistic Dog]

Just got back from Adelaide, liked the gather round, but the dogs, the Adelaide oval and I do not gel. This is the second time I have been to the Adelaide oval. I went a few years ago pissed rain all night we kicked to goals to crows 8 or 9. Spent most of the night watching on the big screen to keep dry, Ditto pissed rain all Saturday night spent most of the night watching on the big screen to keep dry. At least we kicked more goals this time. From what I could see English, Cody, Liam Jones

19

Liam Jones

Age

33

Ht

199cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.4

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.3

4star

T

2.0

4star

MG

134.5

2star

D

7.6

2star

K

6.1

3star

HB

1.4

1star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.4

2star

MG

116.3

2star

D

9.4

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

2.0

2star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

and Bont we all good and not much from anyone else.

O'Brien and Hannan total liabilities. Love Arty but after this weeks home coming needs time to develop. Hope he makes it that smile and freshness has lot Eddie Betts about it.

 

[4THAWN]

From an outsider's perspective really weird decision making at the selection table. JUH, Lobb, English, Naughton, Bruce, T.Obrien all picked? Understand the conondrum when most are arguably best 22 but at some point Bevo and crew need to draw the line and favour the shorter, faster, nimbler types in the wet.

 

[geoffjennings79]

No other supporter base melts like the dogs.

You should try reading Saints or North board in recent seasons. We aren't even close to their nihilism.

 

[Unorth]

From an outsider's perspective really weird decision making at the selection table. JUH, Lobb, English, Naughton, Bruce, T.Obrien all picked? Understand the conondrum when most are arguably best 22 but at some point Bevo and crew need to draw the line and favour the shorter, faster, nimbler types in the wet.

Just as confusing from our perspective really

 

[Proffessor]

I get the impression that the game must have looked quite different on the TV than it did at the ground.

Not necessarily too surprising considering the horrendous weather conditions, but I'm talking more about the off the ball, and probably off screen, stuff.

I've never seen a team focus so heavily and consistently on employing illegal tactics, i.e. contravening the rules of the game, as Port did on Saturday night. For so many of their players their first action was to hold and interfere with their opponents, rather than go for the ball. They rolled the dice and got away with it on a dirty night in their hometown, because they fancied themselves in a test of strength against the Dogs, and guessed that the umpires would let them get away with it more often than not. Aliir put on a first class clinic of crashing into and blocking Naughton as he was running to try and get to marking contests. So obvious yet embarrassingly invisible to the officials. Had the umpires enforced the rules, Naughton could have kicked a bag. Of course they didn't and so the tactics worked.

Whilst very disappointed with the result. I wasn't too disappointed with the team's performance. They tried pretty hard and played pretty well for most of the night. Even though the conditions didn't suit us we held sway in general play for a large part of the game. Had we made a few less mistakes or taken a few more of our chances we might have gotten the chocolates.

A few players just needed to play the percentages and resist the temptation to over commit in some key moments. We got hurt on the rebound in those moments when the options we chose to take were never likely to pay off, and the players involved need to play smarter in such situations.

English, Weightman, Libba and Liam Jones

19

Liam Jones

Age

33

Ht

199cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.4

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.3

4star

T

2.0

4star

MG

134.5

2star

D

7.6

2star

K

6.1

3star

HB

1.4

1star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.4

2star

MG

116.3

2star

D

9.4

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

2.0

2star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

were all terrific. Bont was awesome early but obviously faded a bit.

Arty Jones shows some positive signs for the long term but clearly isn't ready yet and should have been dropped two weeks ago. I really don't think we can keep him in any longer with such low impact.

Jamarrah also needs to find an extra gear, in either desperation to get the footy or in finish quality like he did a few weeks ago. He needs to finish well consistently or get more of the footy. With the enormous focus Port had on Naughton, there was plenty of opportunity for Marrah to have a greater impact than he did.

Lobb had plenty of opportunity to have an impact early on although he didn't make the most of his chances, on the brightside he seems to be on an upward trajectory.

It's not all doom and gloom. Remember, it's a long season.

 

[BulldogMuscle]

From an outsider's perspective really weird decision making at the selection table. JUH, Lobb, English, Naughton, Bruce, T.Obrien all picked? Understand the conondrum when most are arguably best 22 but at some point Bevo and crew need to draw the line and favour the shorter, faster, nimbler types in the wet.

Yeah, don't worry, we've been confused about our match selection for years now, almost like they have no idea what they're doing. Anyone could see it was going to be a pouring slog on Saturday, yet we went in super tall, makes zero sense, but here we are.

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

We play Port again at home, let them try their cheating illegal moves then.

 

[Proffessor]

From an outsider's perspective really weird decision making at the selection table. JUH, Lobb, English, Naughton, Bruce, T.Obrien all picked? Understand the conondrum when most are arguably best 22 but at some point Bevo and crew need to draw the line and favour the shorter, faster, nimbler types in the wet.

I think you're barking up the wrong tree, 4thawn. The only two out of your list who are deserving of criticism were Lobb and JUH, and Lobb could have set the game up for us early had he kicked straight, so their selection wasn't the issue.

The problem was our smaller forwards apart from Weightman, weren't productive at all. B. Smith was out injured and sorely missed. I wouldn't have selected Arthur Jones, but we also don't actually have much in the way of fast nimble types who are not injured and ready to bring in.

 

[Dogs Rule]

From an outsider's perspective really weird decision making at the selection table. JUH, Lobb, English, Naughton, Bruce, T.Obrien all picked? Understand the conondrum when most are arguably best 22 but at some point Bevo and crew need to draw the line and favour the shorter, faster, nimbler types in the wet.

We shake our heads at the decisions made at the selection table most weeks. I think it's a one man table and I think Hannan is written in permanent texta.

 

[The Slitherin' Snake]

I believe I brought this up in 2020, the lack of adversarial nature the journos have towards the coaches in this league with regards to game day tactics. They will be adversarial and question other stuff, like ask about a MRO incident, or players being inaccurate, but never something that actually puts pressure on the coach for being a s**t coach. They will never get that specific.

Its because they don't understand game day tactics... AFL media are gossip reporters