Review R11: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly vs. Waalitj Marawar (West Coast Eagles)

[n4sir]

Here's my take from the ground.

The good: 11 goal margin, no injuries, I'll take that.

Dawson BOG all day. Seemed to be in everything, contested marks, tackling, goals, assists. An effort above everyone.

Rachele was the one guy who had his kicking boots on, and couldn't miss.

Rankine and TT had almost games... could have been elite, but at crucial times something went astray.

ROB had one of his best games... still a mixed bag though. The goal was ugly brilliant. His two tackles on Harley Reid for HTB decisions were glorious. Some of his taps to Rankine and Berry were spot on... yet the others were random hits to no one or the opposition.

Curtin seemed to be stranded at wing on the other side of the ground away from the play, yet almost all the times he got near the ball the skills were truly elite. It was a good game, and another reminder we just have to play him all year and let him develop.

That has to be one of Keane's best games - he did get iced on a goal square contest with Butts off the ground, but he really shouldn't be put in that situation in the first place.

The bad: At times we were flat out atrocious. We missed wide open targets, ignored good leads, a mix of poor skills and poor decision making. There must have been a damp patch out on centre wing near the Bradman stand, because players from both teams seemed to lose traction under a mark on that side.

Laird had a good game, except every one of his turnovers were absolutely lethal. He was hardly Robinson Crusoe today with his mistakes, but all of them stood out like a Rhinoceros appendage.

The Ugly: Waterman's injury. It looked awful, and such a good player in a crap team is way overdue for a bit of decent luck.

Baker shoving Peatling's head into the turf. It deserved the 50m penalty and the melee... and he should at least get a fine equivalent of what everyone else copped after that fiasco.

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

I don't get the criticism from some for Berry's game. Sure, his disposal wasn't overly polished, but he's not exactly alone there. I don't think he's in our best 22 going forward, especially once Draper can get some more game time and develop, but if he can perform like that when he's in the side, then I'm happy to keep him around as depth.

 

[ABAB]

We all know RoB does this for a few games every year where he looks like he is back to 2020 form and then play shit for the entire year.....

 

[Samcro24]

Can we piss the sub rule off yet?

Then Sid wouldn’t play at all

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

We all know RoB does this for a few games every year where he looks like he is back to 2020 form and then play shit for the entire year.....

I would want more than a month of great football to hand him an extension... but this has been a reminder that his best is very good, but unfortunately he just doesn't do it enough

 

[Jetwa5h]

I like Lairds game when he gets it in general play......When he gets a free or takes a mark i know i have time to go to the loo and come back before he has kicked it though

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Here's my take from the ground.

The good: 11 goal margin, no injuries, I'll take that.

Dawson BOG all day. Seemed to be in everything, contested marks, tackling, goals, assists. An effort above everyone.

Rachele was the one guy who had his kicking boots on, and couldn't miss.

Rankine and TT had almost games... could have been elite, but at crucial times something went astray.

ROB had one of his best games... still a mixed bag though. The goal was ugly brilliant. His two tackles on Harley Reid for HTB decisions were glorious. Some of his taps to Rankine and Berry were spot on... yet the others were random hits to no one or the opposition.

Curtin seemed to be stranded at wing on the other side of the ground away from the play, yet almost all the times he got near the ball the skills were truly elite. It was a good game, and another reminder we just have to play him all year and let him develop.

That has to be one of Keane's best games - he did get iced on a goal square contest with Butts off the ground, but he really shouldn't be put in that situation in the first place.

The bad: At times we were flat out atrocious. We missed wide open targets, ignored good leads, a mix of poor skills and poor decision making. There must have been a damp patch out on centre wing near the Bradman stand, because players from both teams seemed to lose traction under a mark on that side.

Laird had a good game, except every one of his turnovers were absolutely lethal. He was hardly Robinson Crusoe today with his mistakes, but all of them stood out like a Rhinoceros appendage.

The Ugly: Waterman's injury. It looked awful, and such a good player in a crap team is way overdue for a bit of decent luck.

Baker shoving Peatling's head into the turf. It deserved the 50m penalty and the melee... and he should at least get a fine equivalent of what everyone else copped after that fiasco.

Nah Laird was rubbish , his worst game this season IMO

 

[LC40]

I don't get the criticism from some for Berry's game. Sure, his disposal wasn't overly polished, but he's not exactly alone there. I don't think he's in our best 22 going forward, especially once Draper can get some more game time and develop, but if he can perform like that when he's in the side, then I'm happy to keep him around as depth.

Berry had a really effective game. He ran hard and was a link man all day. The most pleasing part of his game was his clean possessions. None of the fumbling that had previously marred his effectiveness.
He's a bull and well worth persevering with if he plays in this manner. Kicking a goal was the icing on the cake and if that becomes a regular aspect of his game he'll have a spot in this team.

 

[craig crowing]

Remember when we used to rip Rachele for burning teammates when trying to kick goals?

Funny we don't apply the same to senior players. Tex and Dawson developing a not so great habit.

Great point as said to mate at game when Dawson sprayed his first long shot that was my only criticism of Dawson that he goes for those long bomb attempts and doesn't look for options or give forwards opportunity, and he preceded to do 2 more later in game .
Understand Tex maybe some excuse as he there to kick goals and needs to keep heat off to get his 300 games.
However have to note Rankine 2 assist he gave Rachelle when could have easily goaled.

 

[jo172]

Bad/Ugly, Mcleod not being part of the indigenous past players honour guard with Betts, Johncock, Eddie Hocking, Ricky O'Loughlin and Shane Tongerie

 

[Hodgy]

Great point as said to mate at game when Dawson sprayed his first long shot that was my only criticism of Dawson that he goes for those long bomb attempts and doesn't look for options or give forwards opportunity, and he preceded to do 2 more later in game .
Understand Tex maybe some excuse as he there to kick goals and needs to keep heat off to get his 300 games.
However have to note Rankine 2 assist he gave Rachelle when could have easily goaled.

Well he had a team high 2 goal assists and 10 score involvements so not sure that holds up. The skipper was simply awesome yesterday. You will never see a clearer 3 vote game and I thought he brought teammates into the game beautifully. The kick to Pedlar in the square was A grade and certainly selfless.

It all comes down to percentage play and when he’s streaming through 50 then I think going for goal is the correct decision. If he sprays the kick it’s an execution error rather than a decision error.

 

[BRL121]

Berry had a really effective game. He ran hard and was a link man all day. The most pleasing part of his game was his clean possessions. None of the fumbling that had previously marred his effectiveness.
He's a bull and well worth persevering with if he plays in this manner. Kicking a goal was the icing on the cake and if that becomes a regular aspect of his game he'll have a spot in this team.

He won a match last year with a goal like yesterday's.

 

[davos44]

That has to be one of Keane's best games - he did get iced on a goal square contest with Butts off the ground, but he really shouldn't be put in that situation in the first place

Keane has learned a lot about 1 on 1 defending, its good to watch him work live. He does a nice early push off and reads the drop well.

He had a couple of moments yesterday where he was out-positioned but halved the contest.

If we left him one out, we could trust him to do the job.

 

[Golumless]

That ended up being a rather boring game, which is a good thing when you're versing 18th. Felt like it would be a 12 goal win at the 20 minute mark of the second quarter and it ended up around that margin.

The big thing is we seemed to have tried to speed up our ball movement against West Coast compared to previous weeks, and it got us into all sorts of trouble in the first 40 minutes. That said, West Coast completely wasted that period which pretty much guaranteed that we were in for a percentage booster.

Rachele got his bag which was a genuine highlight as he needed a game to really cement his breakout year. Thilthorpe and Dawson missed out on two bags as well, which is the biggest shame.

 

[Coopers]

Being at the game, high up in the eastern stands, it was apparent we were just sort of treading water for the first half. Really sloppy skills in some situations - and half efforts.

Even so, because of West Coast doing West Coast things, we were a few goals up... and then half way through Q3, inexplicably, WC tried to rough up Dawson a few times in a row, after he kicked that great ball to Pedlar and grabbed another bloke for HTB. Didn't make sense - everyone gets on the angry pills and we play like a proper team for 10 minutes, kick 5 more goals, and that's it.

Back to sleep for the start of Q4 too.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Thilthorpe's game was so frustrating. He was a monster in the contest but his kicking was a huge let-down.

 

[Cromulant]

Thilthorpe's game was so frustrating. He was a monster in the contest but his kicking was a huge let-down.

I do wonder whether having his hands all taped up has affected his ball drop.

That said he wasnt alone in his poor finishing

 

[Cleric]

The biggest shake my head moment of yesterday wasn't on field, it was off.
The commentary team including Kelli Underwood spent half the pregame commentary around how Taylor Walker

13

Taylor Walker

Age

35

Ht

192cm

Wt

102kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.0

3star

K

9.0

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

5.7

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

2.3

5star

No current season stats available

D

8.0

2star

K

6.4

3star

HB

1.6

2star

M

4.2

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.6

5star

was out, and good old Kelli during the game goes on to commentate that Walker had a mark and was going to have a kick at goal.
She is the poster child.for DEI

 

[Cleric]

Thilthorpe's game was so frustrating. He was a monster in the contest but his kicking was a huge let-down.

It was wildly windy at ground level, not helped by the grandstands and lack of them at one end.

 

[happy_knackers]

It was wildly windy at ground level, not helped by the grandstands and lack of them at one end.

This.
We were sitting in the Riverbank Stand and had a great view behind a shot at goal in the third by WC (down the other end) that started off missing to the left only to swing back with the wind for what we thought would be a goal, only to keep going and ended up missing to the right by a fair margin.
Anyone who has played in shitfully windy conditions would have experienced the balldrop moving between hand and foot too which I was accounting for a lot (at least some) of the bad kicking seen by both teams.

 

[Crow_Magnon]

I might be on the outside here, but I think we have missed, Crouch.
I dont think its a coincidence that our midfield has struggled since he has been out.
We don't have an extractor in the middle, and someone who gets 36 possessions a game.

Good point. The stats bear this out. Our top possession getters are often our half backs (apart from Dawson). Laird, Worrell, Milera, Hinge all 20 or more possessions yesterday, when you'd really like to see the mids get these numbers. TBF Berry and Rankine got it a bit too, but the likes of Peatling and Soligo aren't getting it enough at the moment. Not sure Crouch is the answer, however, give the deficiencies in two-way running. Even yesterday I thought we were sluggish and reactionary at CB's, and WC ran it out of the midfield easily on a few occasions. This will spell disaster against Sydney if we repeat that.

 

[Golumless]

Good point. The stats bear this out. Our top possession getters are often our half backs (apart from Dawson). Laird, Worrell, Milera, Hinge all 20 or more possessions yesterday, when you'd really like to see the mids get these numbers. TBF Berry and Rankine got it a bit too, but the likes of Peatling and Soligo aren't getting it enough at the moment. Not sure Crouch is the answer, however, give the deficiencies in two-way running. Even yesterday I thought we were sluggish and reactionary at CB's, and WC ran it out of the midfield easily on a few occasions. This will spell disaster against Sydney if we repeat that.

We've been pretty 'by committee' when it comes to midfield/half back this year, as that was a problem with Crouch as well. Seeing most weeks it's been pretty inconsistent who is getting those 20+ possessions.

I think it's getting to a point it needs a rethink, seeing it does have a whiff of Adelaide not using it's best players as well as we could. That said, it may also be a quality issue in these sectors, especially on the half back line as it lacks a genuine A-grader.

 

[Mattrox]

If we had of played a good team we would have got smashed.
It was a game we had to win, we won, and we better tighten up or Sydney is going to flog us.

Soligo has been down for awhile now, so that's a concern.

If we played a good team, I hope we would have had more intensity from the start.

 

[BRL121]

If we played a good team, I hope we would have had more intensity from the start.

What? There was nothing wrong with our intensity. In fact, the globe-trotter performance, with associated bad turnovers, was totally repsonsible for the oppo scoring in that period.

 

[Cromulant]

What? There was nothing wrong with our intensity. In fact, the globe-trotter performance, with associated bad turnovers, was totally repsonsible for the oppo scoring in that period.

Looked like we were trying to go too quickly, made some really dumb decisions early