AFL Autopsy Preseason Game 1: Defeated by the Blues

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Oct 2, 2007
42,462
42,002
Perth
AFL Club
Carlton
From Oppo, your ball movement through the guts looked pretty good. Caught us out a few times on the counter, and pushed us wide on the attack.

Anecdotally it looked like you guys took a lot more uncontested marks in F50 than us. Your defenders did OK I thought, we had to work for most of the goals we got. Ours were caught out of position often, likely due to the speed you rolled it through the middle.

I felt like we had you in the contested stuff and clearances and that was probably the difference.

Merrett stood out to me as probably your best.
 
From Oppo, your ball movement through the guts looked pretty good. Caught us out a few times on the counter, and pushed us wide on the attack.

Anecdotally it looked like you guys took a lot more uncontested marks in F50 than us. Your defenders did OK I thought, we had to work for most of the goals we got. Ours were caught out of position often, likely due to the speed you rolled it through the middle.

I felt like we had you in the contested stuff and clearances and that was probably the difference.

Merrett stood out to me as probably your best.
What did you think of your team selection? Any key pieces missing or heavily rotated that might’ve made us look better than we are in one area or another?
 

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Oct 1, 2006
25,985
20,024
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Everton, Storm, Victory
I thought Wright was pretty solid, prefer him to McKernan already.

Agreed, even at Gold Coast. People judging him for what he could be, rather than 1.5 goals and decent relief ruck.

Even still I can’t help but think how much a better player he would be if he just used his size to smash bodies in the pack.
 
Oct 2, 2007
42,462
42,002
Perth
AFL Club
Carlton
What did you think of your team selection? Any key pieces missing or heavily rotated that might’ve made us look better than we are in one area or another?

We were down key tall forwards - Curnow, McGovern and Casboult all out injured, leaving only McKay (who did his ankle late in the game) so that might have contributed to your backs looking good.

Our backs were untouched barring Newman (Weitering, Docherty, Saad, Plowman, Jones, SPS pretty much played defence most match) and that's a solid defensive back six (and probably our best back six at present), so that makes your uncontested marks up forward look even better.

We otherwise pretty much played at full strength, subbing out a few blokes in the 4th quarter to give LOB, Stocker and Gibbons a run.
 

blitzer

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 27, 2006
7,483
8,749
House
AFL Club
Essendon
Thought Stewart was pretty good. People who don’t want him back just seeing what they want to. Shut the bigger McKay out after quarter time.

Its very interesting to see how divided opinions are on his performance. I thought he was good myself but I'm genuinely wondering if maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. Oh well these things will become clear within a few games anyway.
He'll certainly have his work cut out for him against either of Hawkins or Cameron next week.
 
Thought Stewart was pretty good. People who don’t want him back just seeing what they want to. Shut the bigger McKay out after quarter time.
I think the opposite. People who want him back are seeing what they wanted to see.
 
I think the opposite. People who want him back are seeing what they wanted to see.
It’s probably a bit of both and in reality he was neither here nor there.
 
I think the opposite. People who want him back are seeing what they wanted to see.
I thought he was OK but he did get caught out on a few occasions. The new man on the mark rule makes the ball movement through the middle of the ground much faster and doesn't give the defense as much time to set up as in previous years, so a relatively inexperienced defender getting caught out isn't unexpected or necessarily a bad thing if they can improve over time.
 

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I think the opposite. People who want him back are seeing what they wanted to see.
Looked as good as anyone else in the back half to me. Had some moments but was generally good. I have more concerns about the midfield zone which was all over the place for long periods. Carlton where able to use the ball short to players in the clear very effectively. I thought we did well in the back half to hold them out for most of the game given how easy we let them move the ball at time.
 
I thought he was OK but he did get caught out on a few occasions. The new man on the mark rule makes the ball movement through the middle of the ground much faster and doesn't give the defense as much time to set up as in previous years, so a relatively inexperienced defender getting caught out isn't unexpected or necessarily a bad thing if they can improve over time.

The new rule also highlighted how poor our midfield defense can be. Our midfield zone looked like swiss cheese at times with our blokes running around in circles while they chipped through it.
 

ghostdog

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 18, 2008
15,909
11,686
gondawanaland
AFL Club
Essendon
Looked as good as anyone else in the back half to me. Had some moments but was generally good. I have more concerns about the midfield zone which was all over the place for long periods. Carlton where able to use the ball short to players in the clear very effectively. I thought we did well in the back half to hold them out for most of the game given how easy we let them move the ball at time.
The new rule also highlighted how poor our midfield defense can be. Our midfield zone looked like swiss cheese at times with our blokes running around in circles while they chipped through it.
Maybe tighter defensively through the middle if McGrath plays, but we also have Caldwell now, Cox, and Perkins pushed up a bit at times. Shiel didn't do a lot defensively. Someone in there needs to be more vocal on-field to help apply the learnings.
 
Maybe tighter defensively through the middle if McGrath plays, but we also have Caldwell now, Cox, and Perkins pushed up a bit at times. Shiel didn't do a lot defensively. Someone in there needs to be more vocal on-field to help apply the learnings.
None of them did much defensively in the middle as far as setting the zone goes. Not fair to just point out Shiel when others where just as bad. As a team we sucked. My hope is that it was more about the hit out because if it was not then we sucked big time.
 

ghostdog

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 18, 2008
15,909
11,686
gondawanaland
AFL Club
Essendon
None of them did much defensively in the middle as far as setting the zone goes. Not fair to just point out Shiel when others where just as bad. As a team we sucked. My hope is that it was more about the hit out because if it was not then we sucked big time.
Rather, Shiel was just who I noticed. Caldwell, Cox and Perkins I mentioned because they're young and might have struggled with the pace.
 
Rather, Shiel was just who I noticed. Caldwell, Cox and Perkins I mentioned because they're young and might have struggled with the pace.
I was not going to name names as I thought all of them where going in circles.:)
 

60sbomber

Club Legend
Jul 4, 2011
1,882
2,044
Frankston
AFL Club
Essendon
One thing I've noticed with Smith is that every time he lays hands on the ball inside 50 he shoots for goal. He will not handball even when it is clearly a better option. He did it again yesterday when we extra players and could have used handball to run it in to goal - instead he had a quick unsuccessful snap.
 
The new rule also highlighted how poor our midfield defense can be. Our midfield zone looked like swiss cheese at times with our blokes running around in circles while they chipped through it.

This has been an issue for the best part of a decade, if not more. Our midfield (and forward tbh) defensive efforts suck, oppo moves the ball I50 with ease and its our backs that get roasted for it.
 
Oct 1, 2006
25,985
20,024
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Everton, Storm, Victory
I think the opposite. People who want him back are seeing what they wanted to see.

Couldn’t care if he played at all. Personally I’d prefer to see Reid get his games. Regardless of if he’s a long term option or not, he looks immensely more capable there than Hurley and Hooker have the last two years.
 
Couldn’t care if he played at all. Personally I’d prefer to see Reid get his games. Regardless of if he’s a long term option or not, he looks immensely more capable there than Hurley and Hooker have the last two years.
Yep. Lets rush the raw KP bloke who played zero footy last year. Sounds like a good plan.
 

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