Positives and Negatives vs Adelaide

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Yeah it was interesting watching Eddie Betts give away about 4 "Dangerous" free kicks yesterday and not getting pinned for them albeit they were actually in marking contests and should have been tunnelling calls.

Unfortunately for Eddie not the first time I have seen him do this. Doesn't seem to have the leap anymore so just tries to take the legs out of the defender jumping for the ball so it spills to the ground.
 

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People up in arms over Hutchings performance or how he is being used need to get a grip. It was his first game back, the role he was used in was as much to get his match fitness and touch up to scratch as it was to fill the role Masten vacated. I expect he'll go back to his tagging role against Richmond.
 
People up in arms over Hutchings performance or how he is being used need to get a grip. It was his first game back, the role he was used in was as much to get his match fitness and touch up to scratch as it was to fill the role Masten vacated. I expect he'll go back to his tagging role against Richmond.

In fairness to the people making that argument (of which i'm probably one) its not just the Adelaide game that people have been saying that. When Hutch doesn't have a clear match up he looks lost and doesn't have the skills to hurt the opposition and this has been said most of this season.
 
Who was playing on Fogarty this weekend?

If there is one glaring criticism i have over the last 2 months, we are playing too loose defensively. It's all well and good to want to play the intercept marking game, but someone has to be able to play tighter without the loose checking. As was aforementioned in the thread, at least one opposition forward has managed to get off the chain and kick a bag. That's a big concern.
 
Who was playing on Fogarty this weekend?

If there is one glaring criticism i have over the last 2 months, we are playing too loose defensively. It's all well and good to want to play the intercept marking game, but someone has to be able to play tighter without the loose checking. As was aforementioned in the thread, at least one opposition forward has managed to get off the chain and kick a bag. That's a big concern.

We seem to be giving up a heck of a lot of marks uncontested at 35-40m out dead in front. Seems to be a chink in the armour that teams are exploiting with a mid of half back pushing i50 there.
 
Who was playing on Fogarty this weekend?

If there is one glaring criticism i have over the last 2 months, we are playing too loose defensively. It's all well and good to want to play the intercept marking game, but someone has to be able to play tighter without the loose checking. As was aforementioned in the thread, at least one opposition forward has managed to get off the chain and kick a bag. That's a big concern.

This is where I think we miss Duggan I reckon. Need someone with close-checking aggro around to prevent these kinds of plays. Nelson is serviceable, but doesn't have it.
 
In fairness to the people making that argument (of which i'm probably one) its not just the Adelaide game that people have been saying that. When Hutch doesn't have a clear match up he looks lost and doesn't have the skills to hurt the opposition and this has been said most of this season.

There won't always be a player that requires tagging. The AFL hasn't quite evolved to make selections on a "horses for courses" basis, players only get dropped due to injury or form. Which is why Hutch gets played in a role he's not suited to, because what else do you do with a player that on previous form deserves his spot?

We've seen it many times over the years where we've gone in too tall. JK is back from injury, but Waterman has done ok, so we line up with JK, JD, Vardy, Waterman and OAllen in the forward line :drunk:
 
This is where I think we miss Duggan I reckon. Need someone with close-checking aggro around to prevent these kinds of plays. Nelson is serviceable, but doesn't have it.

Interesting. The Mongrel Punt had Nelson down as keeping Tom Lynch under wraps for the whole day, culminating in a cuddle on the 50m line. I'd have Nelson down as one of our better stoppers, which is probably keeping his nose in front of Rotham and Watson.

I like Duggo but giving away 4 inches and weight to Fogarty I can't see he would have been a likely match up there either.
 
One thing I think we’ve definitely improved on is limiting damage when the tide is against us. No teams are playing 4 quarters on their terms so obviously the initial thing is limiting the time the opposition is on top.. but if they do happen to get on top for a quarter or half, you find a way to stay in touch. That’s an area we have improved as the seasons gone on. We may not blow teams away (don’t know why there’s an expectation we win by 50 every week) but it’s not often a team has been more than a goal or two up or kicked 3-4 goals on the trot either (apart from the last 5 minutes when we’ve clocked off 🤦🏻‍♂️).
 

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This is where I think we miss Duggan I reckon. Need someone with close-checking aggro around to prevent these kinds of plays. Nelson is serviceable, but doesn't have it.
It seems to be the high small forwards who let their player go and create the loose man. Certainly was against Carlton but I thought Rioli helped the backs out a bit yesterday. I just watched the replay. Adelaide played well and had a bit of luck with it. It was a good effort to get over the top of them at probably their best. I reckon Nelson has been better than Duggan this year as he doesn't seem to get caught out as much and may have a yard more pace. One thing Duggan does well however is to block the leading spaces for opposition forwards. Did I someone criticising Hickey on this earlier? Don't know why as he has done well.
 
People up in arms over Hutchings performance or how he is being used need to get a grip. It was his first game back, the role he was used in was as much to get his match fitness and touch up to scratch as it was to fill the role Masten vacated. I expect he'll go back to his tagging role against Richmond.
Just re-watched some of the game, Hutchings popped up a few times with generally clean disposals, tackling and a direct goal assist. Hutchings looks like he belongs out there. It wasn't like he was invisible. He also doesn't get rag-dolled like Masten. People banging on about Hutchings, JK and Hickey? It was only 3 weeks ago JK told the press in answer to all the punters saying he was in bad shape, banged up, out of form etc - "My body has never felt better, I feel great. Fans don't realise I'm also playing a different role now, which doesn't involve just kicking goals, and the role will probably change again!"
For those complaining about Hickey, so who are you bringing in, an out of touch Vardy, or someone with no AFL experience just in time for finals pressure? Yep, that'll work.
 
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I think the midfield relies on yeo and shuey to do too much of the grunt work. Both are our best midfield weapons yet they are the ones doing the defensive actions.

Time for the B graders to get down and dirty
Nah, Redden is lifting as year goes on. Wasn't at his absolute best against the Crows, but has been excellent generally post-bye.
 
Maybe I'm on drugs, but honestly I thought that was a pretty impressive win. Adelaide were playing like a top eight calibre team in an elimination final. They threw everything they had us and, despite the margin, I never felt like the game was out of our keeping. The intensity (Yeo, Redden, I love you both) was high, the skills were broadly good (Willie, my heart is yours). Granted our forward entries were garbage and we're leaking too much out the back (Hutch for Cole if no tag?), but on the whole I thought it was a good tune up.
I agree with this. Adelaide were no slouches and even so, they relied on Tex getting an arsey goal, a weird meltdown from Hurn gifting them another and Fogarty nailing long range shot after shot to keep them in it. I reckon if we could just have kept that 30+ point barrier for more than 15 seconds we could have had a very easy win.
 
Yeah it was interesting watching Eddie Betts give away about 4 "Dangerous" free kicks yesterday and not getting pinned for them albeit they were actually in marking contests and should have been tunnelling calls.

Unfortunately for Eddie not the first time I have seen him do this. Doesn't seem to have the leap anymore so just tries to take the legs out of the defender jumping for the ball so it spills to the ground.
He did it quite a bit.Tex is another who likes a good low shove when hidden away in a pack.Its gotta be stopped or somebody will get badly hurt.Its ok to move a guy forward when his feet are on the ground, but when your in the air with your eye on the ball, you are very vulnerable.
 
This is where I think we miss Duggan I reckon. Need someone with close-checking aggro around to prevent these kinds of plays. Nelson is serviceable, but doesn't have it.

I kinda agree but let’s face it Nelson is still learning and getting experience about playing his AFL role once he gets more confident he will know when to step in and out of he role ..


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Watching the replay helped me pick up some things I didn't really notice at the game from my seat.

Hickey - Actually dominated, 3 contested marks, 7 intercepts, 12 contested possessions, 2 i50, 3 r50, 5 one percenters. He gets dirty and did some heavy lifting at both ends of the ground, one s**t set shot aside, he's playing like a top 5 ruck in the league.

Darling - Knew he was good, didn't realise just how good. 16 touches, 3 goals, 2 goal assists, 4 marks i50, 7 tackles i50 (and absolute bone crunchers reminiscent of Yeo) and how clean is he right now under huge amounts of pressure to gather a ball, keep his feet and give off the perfect handball. He's always on his feet, people just part for him as he leaps and his legs could get taken out from beneath him but they never seem to, allowing him to play on immediately or at least get behind the mark and look downfield 4 seconds quicker than someone who goes to ground.

Cripps - Actually impressed with his game, nearly had an incredible goal where he almost broke 3 tackles. 3 goal assists, 5 tackles, 20 pressure acts and 6 inside 50s. His ability to run and bounce and not cook the kick ala Petruccelle/Yeo is very good, he doesn't get over excited by the fact he's had 3 bounces. Some good ball use and will be better for the run. Dropped an easy mark that could have been a goal.

Shuey/Yeo/Redden - Didn't realise at the game how much they were putting their bodies on the line. Yeo especially with tackles, Shuey with clearances and breaking tackles of his own. These 3 players are all in the top 25 in the entire AFL on pressure acts averaged per game, they carry a lot of burden! Shuey-JJK connection is off, they're not on the same page these days, Shuey could tidy up these i50 kicks.

Gaff - Had a stellar game, specifically in the back half and patrolling the corridor, was an outlet for Hurn multiple times, used the ball really well himself except when sold into pressure, was super clean below his knees and always stands over an awkward ground ball so even if he can't get it his body stops others having a clear run into space.

Sheed - So much better than last week, so much better. Appreciate if he tidied up his goal kicking, gets into so many good positions (30 shots for the year) but only converting 50% of those. His kicking to advantage was good, at the very least he put the ball to our advantage and gave the forwards a chance.

Hutch - Invisible from the stands but he was fine, has no ability to change his trajectory on kicks and can sometimes slow things down but he's got the tank to play the wing and he was quite clean, have no issue with him kicking long if it's to a 1 on 1

JK - Looks off with his marking, but he's getting to the ball and dropping them, then there's other kicks over his head, specifically the past two weeks. Has 14 free kicks this year. Ben Brown has 39, Jeremy Cameron 19, Tom Lynch 30. Interestingly Hawkins only 12. Seems like he's getting his arms chopped all the time for no reward and he does well not to sook in my opinion, must be frustrating as hell.

Rioli - Was a joy to watch 21 touches, 2 goal assists, 7 tackles, 3 one percenters (lovely tap ons they were). It's just his intelligence with the ball in hand, knows the game better than everyone else in the team except Jetta maybe. Ominous touch.
 
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JK - Looks off with his marking, but he's getting to the ball and dropping them, then there's other kicks over his head, specifically the past two weeks. Has 14 free kicks this year. Ben Brown has 39, Jeremy Cameron 19, Tom Lynch 30. Interestingly Hawkins only 12. Seems like he's getting his arms chopped all the time for no reward and he does well not to sook in my opinion, must be frustrating as hell.

Been saying he gets manhandled all year and not getting any frees, quite nice to be backed with stats on this. Surely simmo sends a memo to the umpires showing the glaring difference.
 
Been saying he gets manhandled all year and not getting any frees, quite nice to be backed with stats on this. Surely simmo sends a memo to the umpires showing the glaring difference.
Going to assume Ben Brown gets a few as a part time rucks as well though. I think it just got to me on the weekend the amount of "15m kicks" the crows got away with as well as dropping the ball, you could see Shuey and Yeo getting super upset with the umpires towards the end, they gave us nothing despite the guys earning multiple HTB calls with great defence. Poorly umpired, the fact we won and I still feel the urge to look things like this up says enough really.
 
Schoey during the WAFL telecasted stated that Vardy has been taking 100 marks a weeks at training. You could see it was working with him taking a some solid clunks. Maybe JK should do the same.
 
Going to assume Ben Brown gets a few as a part time rucks as well though. I think it just got to me on the weekend the amount of "15m kicks" the crows got away with as well as dropping the ball, you could see Shuey and Yeo getting super upset with the umpires towards the end, they gave us nothing despite the guys earning multiple HTB calls with great defence. Poorly umpired, the fact we won and I still feel the urge to look things like this up says enough really.
There's been a definite change in the way the umpires have behaved at Optus this year to avoid the so called "noise of affirmation".
 

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