Positives / negatives vs Gold Coast

[Wet Toast Rule]

Positives

NN for the first 3/4 - esp first half; After a full pre-season he would be AA contention again
Back line - Bennell - that guy continues to amaze me; Fast, good mark, footy smarts, where has he been??? Recruit of the year surely
Hurn - marshalled the back line; Brown was solid; Shep also, good run;
JK - 7 goals, accurate kicking, was immense; Maybe captaincy would suit him

Negatives - continue to get killed on the spread mainly due to our fitness; We need to work on that next pre-season
Darling and Cripps - need more from those two
Midfield got killed in the last qtr

 

[Jarlcorbz]

+
NN played his best game so far.
Midfield coped well against a superior opponent (for three quarters).
Forward 50 entries were much improved, giving our forwards great opportunities.
Wellingham responded well. Needs to be consistent though.
Defense was solid with Hurn, Mackenzie, Bennell, Schoey and Shep playing great games.
Yeo was excellent. Moving him to the midfield was an excellent decision by Simpson.
Lycett now offers more than Cox.
Gov is playing extremely well for a 3rd gamer.

-
Obviously the last quarter. Fitness was only partially to blame. We started to get hammered for clearances with Yeo going down and that's just about half the battle. Butler's injury also prevented us running the game out well.
Ellis has been inconsistent, not a great start to the match but he did some good things.
Brown needs more ball.
Darling had a poor game but is still learning his new role in the side.

 

[Adzam]

Yeah I agree. I think Darling has been used differently over the last couple. I'm confident he will be back to his best soon

 

[TOA.]

I dont think Darling is fit, carrying an injury for mine.

 

[Adzam]

I dont think Darling is fit, carrying an injury for mine.

If that's the case he should really be rested. Nothing to gain by playing him at the moment.

 

[Underdog]

If that's the case he should really be rested. Nothing to gain by playing him at the moment.

Hopefully that's the route Simpson takes now that we're developing depth. Perhaps Darling can have a rest and Tunbridge can come in.

We need to rotate the team, not only due to fitness concerns but for development reasons.

Nobody wins if Darling is struggling to impact and playing at 70%. If we rotate him out, he gets fit and someone like Tunbridge or Colledge gets experience. Win/win.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Ellis has been inconsistent, not a great start to the match but he did some good things.

Personally I thought Ellis was very good yesterday.

 

[MWPP]

+ Win!!!! (and not choking for once) EMac!! NN, Kennedy, McGov!, Wellingham, Hurn
- LeCras, Darling , final quarter/fitness concerns, % loss, injury concerns (Yeo especially but also Scooter. Feel bad for Butler too but not such a team loss obviously).

 

[Jarlcorbz]

Personally I thought Ellis was very good yesterday.

Where was he playing yesterday?

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Where was he playing yesterday?

Seemed to be playing mainly off half back, was very good whenever he was in a contested situation, was good with ball in hand.

 

[Jarlcorbz]

Seemed to be playing mainly off half back, was very good whenever he was in a contested situation, was good with ball in hand.

Fair enough. I must have only really saw a couple of bad kicks and didn't notice the rest haha.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Fair enough. I must have only really saw a couple of bad kicks and didn't notice the rest haha.

What I love about Ellis is his smarts; just a very calm and composed presence which the team has been crying out for. So while he wasn't as explosive as Sheppard or as prominent as many of our other players possession wise, I think he had a fair influence on the performance.

 

[UpForGrabs]

Are you actually serious?

You need to watch it again and see what happened - he was doing the exact right thing and the ball took the most erratic bounce and went over his head - seriously watch it again.

There's lots of things you can criticise Masten for, he has become a very outside player when we have the ball (to the point where Simpson doesn't even start him in the middle when Selwood and Shuey are out) and there were some contests today where he got pushed off a bit easy, but he can kick the footy. Every time in the open he hits a target, and can actually vary his kicks dependent on the situation. We've only got only 2 or 3 that can do that.

He's playing as a high HFF again, but he has the run to go right back to defence.

Think he is doing the exact job asked of him ATM.

Can't fault him on his ball skills. He's as good a kick of the ball as we have (outside of Hurn). But his intensity is non-existant. You've got one version of what you saw with that contest, and I've got mine. That's fine. All I know is that I hate to play the "right in front of me" card, but that's what it was. Second-guesses himself far too often.

 

[royalsfan]

+ Wellingham stepping up to the plate
sheppard continuing his good form
Bennell - Melbourne will be regretting their decision to let him go
Brown - great game on Matera and also getting stuck into him verbally and physically
JK - 7 goals
Scott Lycett - much better footballer than Sinclair
And of course, NN playing a monster game in his 100th

- Darling being continually infringed and no free kicks from the maggots
Yeo's injury
Seeing so many WA midfielders playing for the opposition!

 

[the harry]

+ Wellingham stepping up to the plate
sheppard continuing his good form
Bennell - Melbourne will be regretting their decision to let him go
Brown - great game on Matera and also getting stuck into him verbally and physically
JK - 7 goals
Scott Lycett - much better footballer than Sinclair
And of course, NN playing a monster game in his 100th

- Darling being continually infringed and no free kicks from the maggots
Yeo's injury
Seeing so many WA midfielders playing for the opposition!

Yeah I hope yesterday makes people realise this. Is as good or better in pretty much every aspect.

 

[Monocle]

What I love about Ellis is his smarts; just a very calm and composed presence which the team has been crying out for. So while he wasn't as explosive as Sheppard or as prominent as many of our other players possession wise, I think he had a fair influence on the performance.

He makes good decisions and then delivers the ball well........bit of an uncharacteristic trait from our midfield.

 

[WCEswift]

Lycett also has really decent pace from someone that tall

 

[WereFlyingHigh4]

Wellingham and Priddis had 19 clearances between them, they were both immense. I think it was Wellingham's best game for us, really stood up when we needed him. I think it shows how good he can be when he gets the chance to play a full game in the middle. Priddis cops so much hate on this board but he's such a warrior, some of the work he did feeding the ball out to our runners yesterday was brilliant. He may not be the most skillful player but he certainly gets the most out of himself, some of our other players need to learn off him in that regard.

 

[WCEswift]

Wellingham and Priddis had 19 clearances between them, they were both immense. I think it was Wellingham's best game for us, really stood up when we needed him. I think it shows how good he can be when he gets the chance to play a full game in the middle. Priddis cops so much hate on this board but he's such a warrior, some of the work he did feeding the ball out to our runners yesterday was brilliant. He may not be the most skillful player but he certainly gets the most out of himself, some of our other players need to learn off him in that regard.

I agree on priddis front he is a very big cog in our midfield never a superstar but he gets it done.

 

[Lucky Luc]

I dont think Darling is fit, carrying an injury for mine.

I agree , was at the game and on several occassions he gave up the hunt for the ball rather quickly, something he never did last year.
I also noticed that during a marking contest he went into a protection stance & put his hands over his head when players where coming over the top for the mark, It looked very odd , it was if he did'nt want the contact on one side of his body, definately looks like hes carring an injury.

 

[Ogopogo]

Congratulations on the win, it was one of most exciting games we will see all year.

Nice to see such big crowds at Patersons - you guys do a great job of supporting footy in WA.

Good luck the rest of the way.

 

[Xsess]

- If Abblets kick goes through (instead of hitting the post) we are staring down another dreadful capitulation. WTF is wrong with this team?
- Yeo's injury
+ Selwood and Shuey out - replaced by better players
+ Masten was WOG. End of season player review should be dead easy
+ Priddis and Nic Nat were immense at the stoppages
+ Kennedy and Wellingham

 

[The_Reaper]

Wellingham and Priddis had 19 clearances between them, they were both immense. I think it was Wellingham's best game for us, really stood up when we needed him. I think it shows how good he can be when he gets the chance to play a full game in the middle. Priddis cops so much hate on this board but he's such a warrior, some of the work he did feeding the ball out to our runners yesterday was brilliant. He may not be the most skillful player but he certainly gets the most out of himself, some of our other players need to learn off him in that regard.

Wellingham needs to play in the guts and tag.
Give him responsibility and he'll rise to it, let him play without responsibility and he'll buggerise around

 

[Prem87]

- If Abblets kick goes through (instead of hitting the post) we are staring down another dreadful capitulation. WTF is wrong with this team?
- Yeo's injury
+ Selwood and Shuey out - replaced by better players
+ Masten was WOG. End of season player review should be dead easy
+ Priddis and Nic Nat were immense at the stoppages
+ Kennedy and Wellingham

Great point - Everyone would be in meltdown if Ablett's goal went through. We were very very lucky to win. We should have lost!

We desperately needed it, purely for confidence.

 

[East coast eagle]

Agree with above ^^. Although there were many positives the big negative for mine was that we very nearly lost again after being in an almost unloseable position.