Positives from last week

[Darkhour]

Aggression! - Need plenty of it. More, more, more. If our players are down on form or leaving the field injured, I want to at least see some hunger and passion for the ball and opponent... Good to see Armitage go 'ard!..

Kids - Eddy and Allen (to a degree Big Mac also) were great for first gamers proper. Blooding and depth is good for them and us.. More of it if we can.

Form - Roo, Hayes etc.. Some of our so called elite players playing so when we need them to put their heads up to be counted..

Roo - Kicking and roving effort around the ground. I've been promoting Roo to float up the wing and around the ground for a fair while and his BOG I think proves he has the capability to do so and still kick goals..

Gameplan - Apart from all the 'people' wanting Lyon's goat, I think they did reasonably well at executing the gameplan considering we had a non functional forward line.

 

[Squizz]

Clinton Jones - 5th game in a row of 19 or more possessions (minimal clanger count).

Goddard was missed last year.

Gram's goalkicking seems like it is back.

King's ruckwork against the best in the league.

Dempster's form will allow Baker to play as a mid when he returns.

Kosi, X, Baker, Schneider, Gardiner, and Attard all close to resuming.

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

What's Jonesy's effectiveness? He may not have many clangers, but I wouldnt be surprised if he has a fair few ineffective kicks? Even still I love the kid, looks lost when he gets the ball, but at least he gets it!

 

[Squizz]

Don't have the stats, but to me he is kicking to the advantage of players up-field. I've no doubt kicking efficiency is well up on previous games and has learned a bit after going back to Casey for a few weeks. His handballing (inclination to give off to a stationery player) still needs work, but as a rookie promotion and depth player you can't be too disappointed. Having said all this, I was watching him kicking for goal and he was still shanking them with nervous prods even though it was practice!!!

 

[Squizz]

Founds the stats.

Disposal efficiency was 84% vs Freo.

 

[CHBench]

Playing the kids & the maturity of the senior playing group like Riewoldt, Ball, Goddard etc to stand up when they were needed.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Loved watching Goddard fire up. It's been a while. He does not belong down the back.
I also like Jones, at the moment he rates in my best 22. Possibly ahead of Schneider ( who I am a bit disapointed in).

It is good to know the kids have got what it takes. We don't have to worry about keeping some of our other less effective players when we know these guys are just as good and likely to improve.
I hate using dream team points, but it is a quick and easy way to compare stats. ( except taggers don't rate very high)
Fiora played 5 games this year and his maximum score for a game is below Allen, or Eddy's debut score. At the end of the year the list will need to be reviewed to make way for new talent, and it good that Allen, Macca, Eddy, Geary and Armitage will probably all make the grade.

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Founds the stats.

Disposal efficiency was 84% vs Freo.

That's awesome.

Better than about 90% of Carlton yesterday!

 

[Sainters66]

What's Jonesy's effectiveness? He may not have many clangers, but I wouldnt be surprised if he has a fair few ineffective kicks? Even still I love the kid, looks lost when he gets the ball, but at least he gets it!

You're a very hard man. He's been great. There's a difference between getting an easy effective kick in the backline as opposed to getting a kick at a stoppage......

 

[Kildonan]

Also you might note that Jonesie has broken the line and looked forward to pass the ball and there was no-one. He's had to do a u-turn and search for a player wide, or behind him. This suggests to me that we need some hard runners to break away - offerring options to the player carrying the ball.
Just from my experience with juniors - this is very hard work - the unrewarded efforts - but it often is the difference between a fast paced team and one that looks slow and indecisive.

We are not that far away from being able to reproduce the pace of game that we were routinely producing in 2004/5.

This may be where a Howard / Connors / Xavier Clarke can really contribute.
Fitness is a big issue though

 

[TassieSaint]

Biggest positives for me:
- Lenny Hayes. Make him Captain. Like Garry Lyon said, the most inspirational and best quarter of footy he's seen all year, real leadership.
- Riewoldt. Ironic given above comments, but he played a great Captain's game. Stood up when he needed to FINALLY
- Goddard. Best game for a while, was great when up forward as well as all around the ground. Hope to see it again next week
- Younger players, Clnt Jones was great, Allen and McEvoy showed a lot as well.
- Heart. Lenny, Ball, Harves and Max have had it in spades all season, but this week we saw heaps of it from Riewoldt and Goddard. Hopefully more players join them next week.

 

[Darkhour]

always a big fan of Jones as some people are aware.. good to see him doing well and being consistent..

Goddard forward is a good sign in my book but surely, even though I've always wanted Hayes as captain, they cannot change the captaincy again.. I thought we'd stopped that...