Still very lacklustre and a world away from our peak form - I'm glad we had enough class when it mattered, but compared to the league pacesetters at the moment it was rather unconvincing. It seems that teams have discovered that the method of beating the Dockers now is to clog our forward line and then destroy us on the slingshot; why do we have to work so hard to grind out a score, while our opposition do it easily after our periods of dominance?
Thank God WCE missed eight very gettable shots in that second quarter or we would have been battling underwater in that second half. Still, we actually did box on efficiently once it looked like the game was getting away from us early in the third - mind you, all 42 players looked absolutely knackered by the final 10 minutes which doesn't bode well for next week.
Interesting new technique of maintaining control of the ball with Hawthorn-esque chip passing and very deliberate buildups. Against teams like the Eagles it actually did work most of the time, but given the way our ball movement broke down in the second quarter you do have to wonder if it would stand up to close scrutiny. Still, Pav almost played a decoy role this week and combined with the emergency move of Mayne to the half back line, it did make our forward structure look much less predictable and more varied.
Many of the suspects under the gun responded with good games - Clarke, Suban, Neale, Mayne. De Boer was better and did a solid job nullifying an underdone Hurn, but until I actually see his offensive disposals getting results I will continue to call him out until he either contributes in this regard or really is dropped. I wish Crozier hadn't panicked after fumbling that bounce and kicked his goal, because little by little he is edging himself into games more, too.
Crowley doesn't seem to be playing as tightly on his opponents anymore. Some days like today it actually works and he contributes going the other way, but after a stellar last couple of years he certainly wouldn't be up there challenging MJ or Sandi in the Doig this year...
Sandi, Mundy, Barlow, Fyfe and Neale. Together with other rotations of course, if they are there at centre bounces, we will always be a chance.
We won. We had to win. After the quietest buildup to a derby in living memory, but that's something I'll take any day!