Post JLT: Should we be worried?

May 24, 2011
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Hrovat shouldn’t ever get a game, LMC and Wood will because we don’t have the stocks to cover the back or forward lines.
If we had Maj, McKay wouldn’t be playing ether.
 
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Jul 27, 2006
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Prior to the game yesterday we had lost our last four pre season games by an ave margin of 46 points.

Let’s not burn the house down just yet

We scored five goals from centre clearances in the first term with combinations of Ldu ahern Simpkin Campbell dumont and larkey ffs.

Imagine what that will be like when goldy cunners and Higgins go on ball. Add Tyson and we are fine there.

Our ball use from half back has either been stagnant and horrible or lighting quick and elite (see that passage last week with pittard kicking i50 to Ziebell) - I get the look that they are playing around with structures and have specifically been told that if there is no option to go fast, we want to play chip kick footy that sees us hold onto possession.

Retaining the footy will be crucial this year as if you don’t win it you don’t have the extra outnumber, teams who have the ability to win the ball and hang on to it will end up scoring more and retain momentum.

Clearly we’ve got issues at either end of the ground, forward line I’m not so fussed about - mids will bob up and kick some goals, on top of brown Ziebell and wood so we will have no issue scoring particularly if we go aggressive.

I actually think that Thomas could fill a huge void for us and almost play a Gunston like role, with those three mentioned he won’t get a key defender and I think he’s shown that there is plenty to work with.

Down back we just have to put in the best available and look to win the footy first. Retain possession and squeeze the opposition

Not all doom and gloom
 

Egga

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Coming into this year, I was thinking that to mix it with the best teams we needed to improve:
Depth in general
Outside run and polish
Small forward scoring
Rebound from defence

It looks to me that we might have made some progress on the first three but not the last and we have got a new problem with KPDs.

I’m nervous, but not silly enough to pass judgement after JLT.
 
My only concern is no Anderson, Jacobs and Cunnington leaves us exposed in the midfield defensively. The back line is suffering from injuries and new personnel and our best forwards are way underdone due to pre season surgeries.
 
Coming into this year, I was thinking that to mix it with the best teams we needed to improve:
Depth in general
Outside run and polish
Small forward scoring
Rebound from defence

It looks to me that we might have made some progress on the first three but not the last and we have got a new problem with KPDs.

I’m nervous, but not silly enough to pass judgement after JLT.
The 2 major factors crucial to an improvement here for me are:

-Personell; who are the elite disposers? who are the elite decision makers? who has the wheels? Polec is the one for me. Nobody else on the list comes within a bulls roar of ticking all those boxes. The one who can carry the ball 30 mtrs, sum up the options and hit a 50mtr bullet on a free forward. Shot on goal.

-Tactics: No point zooming out of defence if it's a numbers behind the ball shitfest. No point drafting pace only to chip it backwards, etc.

It's going to be interesting to see how we approach the new rules and an evolving list.

Fingers crossed we stay fit and healthy as I think we could do some damage in September.
 
Port's chip, chip, chip stuff took away our tempo, and then we broke down going the other way.

Hopefully, we can learn from the experience and adapt more quickly when the serious stuff starts. On the face of it, once the opposition employs the chip/chip approach to curtail our run, we need to switch to a high pressure/close marking game-plan. Easier said than done, I know. However, the success of our season, probably, depends on how we re-adjust when other teams counter our run.


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The 2 major factors crucial to an improvement here for me are:

-Personell; who are the elite disposers? who are the elite decision makers? who has the wheels? Polec is the one for me. Nobody else on the list comes within a bulls roar of ticking all those boxes. The one who can carry the ball 30 mtrs, sum up the options and hit a 50mtr bullet on a free forward. Shot on goal.

-Tactics: No point zooming out of defence if it's a numbers behind the ball shitfest. No point drafting pace only to chip it backwards, etc.

It's going to be interesting to see how we approach the new rules and an evolving list.

Fingers crossed we stay fit and healthy as I think we could do some damage in September.

Higgins can, also, do what Polec does, with regard to elite disposal and good pace, no doubt. Ahern’s disposal will, probably, prove to be our most elite as time goes on. I believe we’re fairly well served on the elite disposal front. However, one of our issues is that we are even better served on the absolute crap disposal front. Let’s hope that improves.


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When we go forward, our players upfield dont get good separation while coming back, their players are free. It really shits me.
 
Nov 14, 2012
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I just watched Mr Scotts presser and he doesn't seem worried at all. And if he's not worried, I'm not worried. With 7 new players, there were always gonna be some teething issues. I was actually concerned by us only laying 27 tackles yesterday but as Mr Scott said, "you can't tackle the opposition if they've taken a mark." So true. And the new rules make that even more pertinent. I'm quite confident we'll be 0 & 2 but that's when you load up on us to make the top 4. The media will write us off, and that's exactly what Mr Scott wants - he said as much on Wednesday night.
God its hard not to get excited. I'm on half a tabby cat and the season hasn't even started yet.

Haven't decided if I'm flying up to Perth to meet SW again. Things are still a bit fiesty between us after I suggested that Amber from Survivor is not "slammin" but that's what I'd like to do to her. He proceeded to throw a squid jig at me, and then threatened to jam a packet of Catchit down my throat if I ever said that again. I soon got it.
 
Macmillan last week may have conceded more territory than the French military did during WW2, however, I think he at least creates some run and initiates some movement, we have a lot of defenders who go back over the mark, slow it down, allow the opposition to set up their press and then we cough the ball up.

This may not be popular with some people, but I feel Pittard has been the better than the rest of the group including EVW, Wright, McDonald, etc. He has made the odd mistake, but has generally been a decent 1v1 competitor and he is a fairly reliable short-to-medium range disposer of the ball, at Port he often went long and turned the ball over, he seems to be playing smarter, got 20 disposals last week at 85% DE and had 16 at 81% this week.

EVW and Wright have looked very rusty so far this pre-season. McDonald's strong pre-season hasn't translated into anything significant on-field just yet, I am not sure the back half is the position which will bring the best out of him. Not sure if the middle is going to be any better but I have concerns about his footy going forward.

Simpkin is another in the great pre-season basket that hasn't fired a shot in the JLT. That attempted candy sale against Port epitomised his pre-season games to date.

Hrovat gets a lot of hate, but I didn't think he was terrible, didn't get much of the ball but had a few goal assists.

What made us very competitive last year, especially early on, was our relentless pressure. We didn't allow the opposition to take a lot of uncontested marks, it slowed down their ball movement and it gave us time to get numbers down back. Our pressure has been poor and haven't been in position to tackle much. On the plus side, from memory, I don't think we were much different in the pre-season games last year so I think we can turn it around fairly quickly, however, we had a pretty good run with injuries from memory over last year's pre-season. While we lost a few critical players early on I felt we were physically in a good position to hit the ground running.

While there is nothing preventing us from emulating that again this year, the disruptions are a concern.
 
Pretty much my thoughts too.

If I were to elaborate:

That we’re no good and haven’t improved the list? No.
That we might be in a bit of trouble for depth in round 1 and it’s 4 points we can I’ll afford to throw away? Maybe a bit.

Agree. If we lose round 1, it will hurt.
 
Higgins can, also, do what Polec does, with regard to elite disposal and good pace, no doubt. Ahern’s disposal will, probably, prove to be our most elite as time goes on. I believe we’re fairly well served on the elite disposal front. However, one of our issues is that we are even better served on the absolute crap disposal front. Let’s hope that improves.


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I know there are other blokes in the side who can kick, Higgins & Ahern definitely amongst them.

I don't want either of them as permanent members of a settled back 6 though, which was my initial point.
 
Pretty much my thoughts too.

If I were to elaborate:

That we’re no good and haven’t improved the list? No.
That we might be in a bit of trouble for depth in round 1 and it’s 4 points we can I’ll afford to throw away? Maybe a bit.

What can we do, except suck it up and do the best we can in R1? It’s a notoriously fickle round at the best of times, anyway. We all know we’re in strife backline-wise for the start of the season. However, apart from Majak, they’ll all be back fairly quickly. On the plus side, we’ll get a proper look at McKay. He’ll actually be our No. 1 defender in R1. It will all be on him. Conversely, he will get to call the shots. I’m sure Thommo was in his ear constantly on Saturday. That can mess with your focus and composure. I guess I’m trying to be “glass half full” here. As I said, we just have to suck it up for R1/R2.


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I know there are other blokes in the side who can kick, Higgins & Ahern definitely amongst them.

I don't want either of them as permanent members of a settled back 6 though, which was my initial point.

If Tarrant, JMac, Marley miss R1 - along with Thompson, we won’t have any option, I suppose. However, if those 3 get up, then all our talk has just been more or less hot air.


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If Tarrant, JMac, Marley miss R1 - along with Thompson, we won’t have any option, I suppose.
So if all those guys are out then Polec goes back? Is that what you're saying? My initial post was about addressing an area of weakness in our ball movement from defence to attack. I'd have Polec back there permanently, move JMac to the wing/hf rotations and improve a weakness whilst making the most of Jamie's assets.
However, if those 3 get up, then all our talk has just been more or less hot air.


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Yeah I'm not sure what point you are trying to make mate.

It's a discussion board. It's all hot air.
 

GarnerSmash

They tried to make me go to rehab
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So if all those guys are out then Polec goes back? Is that what you're saying? My initial post was about addressing an area of weakness in our ball movement from defence to attack. I'd have Polec back there permanently, move JMac to the wing/hf rotations and improve a weakness whilst making the most of Jamie's assets.
Yeah I'm not sure what point you are trying to make mate.

It's a discussion board. It's all hot air.
I'd have Polec as a deep sweeping wing rather than a permanent fixture back there. It would give him licence to get upfield too.
 
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