Review R9: The Good, Bad and the Ugly vs. Port Adelaide

[Cromulant]

Thats the toughest thing for a fanbase to swallow.

The one positive of 2024 was that we got a top 4 elite midfield talent (disregard he is stuck in the SANFL right now).

And to get one they'll have to get rid of their best player

Trading Houston to get Luko wont work out for them either

 

[George CantStandYa]

It is honestly hilarious coming onto this site after only having talked to people in the real world since the game. You’d truly believe that we lost by 10 goals and are last on the table. I’ve read that Nicks must be sacked immediately, that our forward line lacks pizazz, that we should have dropped Taylor and Curtin before last night as well as that our midfield whoes would have been fixed if we’d kept Draper in the side.

Nicks derangement syndrome is rapidly replacing Trump derangement syndrome here, where the blind hatred of the coach doesn’t enable people to evaluate anything unemotionally. There is simply no logic to most views about last nights game.

For the record we are 1 umpiring decision against GC from potentially being equal top of the ladder, we have a brilliant percentage and have unearthed some true gems in Worrell and Peatling etc. As for last night

• giving Taylor (a young player that Nicks apparently gives no responsibility to) the job on Rozee was perfectly sound. He was just found badly wanting.
• trying to get Dawson to break his tag by going to their hottest midfielder in Butters is also a perfectly sound and creative move. The skipper simply wasn’t up to the task on the night. The player freed up by this also obviously didn’t exploit that situation.
• getting numbers back when you are 4 goals up with 10 minutes to go in a showdown is also perfectly sound, however when a senior player like Milera miskicks directly into the centre of the ground with no one between that mistake and their goal is such a terrible individual decision that I wonder how anyone could be blaming any coach for it.

All in all that was a fantastic win and has set our season up beautifully. I said before the Carlton game that if we can win 1 of the next 2 we should make finals, and if we win both then top 4 is a real possibility. We have at least 11 games coming where we would be favourites at the moment and several others that are quite winnable, anything is possible this year with this team if we can stay relatively injury free.

It isn’t pretty sound, the commentators were all saying it’s very dangerous to be going that early. We are lucky Port butchered their chances otherwise you wouldn’t be able to write your all is glorious post.

We were getting smashed in clearances and contested ball and yet Nicks turned it into a contest and with the crowd behind them, it wasn’t going to take much for them to come charging, which is exactly what happened.

As for Dawson, you saw him kick 3 against Carlton right? Would you have expected to break the tag we might have played him up forward for 5 minutes?

 

[AFC979810]

If they had him last night for example they would have won.

I love a good what if after a 5 point win.

Willie Rioli - averaging 12 disposals, 1.6 goals, .8 behinds and 1 Goal Assist per game.

His replacement?!?!?

Jed McEntee with 1 kick, 3 handballs and zero impact on anything.

Just makes that win a little bit sweeter!

 

[Danger in Texas]

I love a good what if after a 5 point win.

Willie Rioli - averaging 12 disposals, 1.6 goals, .8 behinds and 1 Goal Assist per game.

His replacement?!?!?

Jed McEntee with 1 kick, 3 handballs and zero impact on anything.

Just makes that win a little bit sweeter!

The fact that McEntee still finds a way to get games is funny

He’s Murphy but worse

 

[Hodgy]

A few here have mentioned Laird giving away the 50m penalty for "pushing" after the mark, honestly I think that was one of the softest 50m penalties I've ever seen. He barely even touched the guy and he took a swan dive. Shouldn't have been paid.

Laird was like most of our team last night, alright in patches but down overall. Did some nice things, not great but certainly not our worst.

I would be filthy at one of our players obviously diving for a 50 as well. It always amazes me that umpires can’t see players diving, ducking or throwing their arms up and that they are actually showing contempt for said umpire in the process. Similar one against Cumming a few weeks back.

 

[AFC979810]

And yet they could add NWM and get given Cochrane for free the year after.

And they could also get Daicos, Thilthorpe, Bont. Or they could get absolutely nothing at the end of the season.

My point wasn't to speculate about their offseason prospects.

It was to bask in their misery that a year they are currently 13th - they don't have the corresponding draft top 6 draft pick to make em feel a little better.

 

[George CantStandYa]

Balanced discussion disappeared from this board some time ago .....you make some good points .... I'd add, to quote many AFL Coaches ....."the gameplan is only as good as the player's ability to implement"

To lump the outcome of a move / tactic solely on the coach is ludicrous ....this is how supporters react ...if the move works, all the plaudits are directed at the player's job ....if it fails, it was a dumb coaching move

Looking at the game, i'd make these observations ....and no George this not a summation of the Coach, just last nights game ....the summation will be at season's end, how we perform in Finals:

1. We were out-coached last night ....I doubt anyone planned for Bergman covering Dawson

2. Our midfield fortunes this year have centred around Soligo's performances ....he reflects our form

3. Our 2x KPD's for all their good efforts, give away far too many cheap free kicks

4. Our game has been built late last season & this year on large numbers of uncontested possessions, and short hit up kicks ....this was taken away from us last night

5. I was really disappointed in Hinge ....he seems to always struggle first game after a lay-off

6. People say "play the kids ".....but the after the new smell wears off, they want to see the next new toy ......Curtin's been good, he's developing nicely ....keep playing him, the experience last night is invaluable

7. I'd remind people, our balance of DEF / ATTACK is #1 in the AFL ....not bad for a dud Coach huh?

Yes Nicks was out coached, you’re right.

Can you tell me what you thought of our change to go slow in the last 10 minutes, giving up momentum and having to withstand an onslaught?

Would you as coach, given Dawson excelled up forward last week, given him some forward time?

Would you have put a close check on Rozee early in the game when he was killing us?

 

[AFC979810]

The fact that McEntee still finds a way to get games is funny

He’s Murphy but worse

Look I am all for sticking it to the Pear, but that might be too far.

Poor Jed has relatives that could read this!

 

[Cromulant]

Look I am all for sticking it to the Pear, but that might be too far.

Poor Jed has relatives that could read this!

His parents are/were die-hard Crows fans, when he's not playing they love it when they lose.

 

[Cromulant]

Yes Nicks was out coached, you’re right.

Can you tell me what you thought of our change to go slow in the last 10 minutes, giving up momentum and having to withstand an onslaught?

Would you as coach, given Dawson excelled up forward last week, given him some forward time?

Would you have put a close check on Rozee early in the game when he was killing us?

There could be 119 other things we could bring up too.

 

[dogs105]

He also made a lot of defensive mistakes and cost goals.

Rozee? I can remember a couple, but maybe not a lot.

 

[AFC979810]

Yes Nicks was out coached, you’re right.

Can you tell me what you thought of our change to go slow in the last 10 minutes, giving up momentum and having to withstand an onslaught?

Would you as coach, given Dawson excelled up forward last week, given him some forward time?

Would you have put a close check on Rozee early in the game when he was killing us?

You also forgot keeping TT in the forward line in the last minute.

Ohhhh and a plan for Butters. We didnt have a plan for Butters (well we kinda did, but it was the same plan we used on Smith & Serong)

Good thing is Nicksy will be well ahead of the game for this game against Collingwood.

Nick Daicos averages 30 touches a game over the past two seasons. His last two games against us he has 41 and 37. Its gonna get ugly.

 

[Hodgy]

It isn’t pretty sound, the commentators were all saying it’s very dangerous to be going that early. We are lucky Port butchered their chances otherwise you wouldn’t be able to write your all is glorious post.

We were getting smashed in clearances and contested ball and yet Nicks turned it into a contest and with the crowd behind them, it wasn’t going to take much for them to come charging, which is exactly what happened.

As for Dawson, you saw him kick 3 against Carlton right? Would you have expected to break the tag we might have played him up forward for 5 minutes?

Dawson was forward for big chunks last night, just didn’t manage to have a similar influence to the previous week.

Putting numbers back isn’t bad in itself considering we were loosing the contest so badly and Port having no choice but to start throwing caution to the wind at that point. the main problem was how badly we executed during those 10 minutes. The idea is to avoid giving up possession and avoid stoppages, however our most senior players in Milera and Laird coughed up the footy repeatably by giving away frees, skill errors under pressure and centering to dangerous areas one on one. This led to them getting momentum and belief and the crowd getting into it.

I’m not sure how keeping one on one over the ground would have helped at that stage as to my eye we didn’t win one contested ball or clearance in that time until Berry in the last 20 seconds. We might well have lost it in fact as they would have had an open forward 50.

 

[kirky]

We tend to play reasonably well against them

It is one of those sides we match up well with, not sure why but if Saturday is like 5 out of the past 6 it will be a belter.

Looking forward to going to the G and third time lucky - 2023, 2024 so 2025?

 

[CharlieCrow]

Yes Nicks was out coached, you’re right.

Can you tell me what you thought of our change to go slow in the last 10 minutes, giving up momentum and having to withstand an onslaught?

Would you as coach, given Dawson excelled up forward last week, given him some forward time?

Would you have put a close check on Rozee early in the game when he was killing us?

I'm glad we have finally moved on from the Sack Nicks droning and into a reasonable dialogue - even if there are disagreements.

I agree with you George about Nicks being outcoached, and your questions are excellent. Its a funny game because last week Nicks clearly outcoached Voss. He showed imagination, flexibility and the capacity to see the need for change and do it. This week we were back with old stubborn Nicks. How does one explain that? And that purposeful last ten minute thing was blindingly incorrect but he did nothing about it!

Anyway, the other two things I wanted to mention are the terrible umpiring for both sides and the horrible lapses in judgement by Laird that cost us two goals, or was one Rankine? Anyway, these lapses should be easy to fix, that is, however, based on the presumption that these players aren't stupid!

Back to the umpiring - it was dreadfully inconsistent. I of course thought we were disadvantaged but, having looked at the Keane mark, it is clear that both Port forward were held out of the contest and could easily been awarded game changing frees.

 

[kirky]

A few here have mentioned Laird giving away the 50m penalty for "pushing" after the mark, honestly I think that was one of the softest 50m penalties I've ever seen. He barely even touched the guy and he took a swan dive. Shouldn't have been paid.

Laird was like most of our team last night, alright in patches but down overall. Did some nice things, not great but certainly not our worst.

It may have been soft but it was unnecessary - he wasn’t in the marking contest, end of story.

And then another brain fade, tossing the ball out into a bunch of Port players.

He is an experienced player and both incidents cost goals, when they didn’t have to.

 

[Captain Furious]

Good: TT looking like a superstar with even more gears to move through.
Keane’s mark and Rob’s soon after; not as spectacular but just as important.
Not really much else except we won, which is a good in itself. Got smashed in the midfield, destroyed at the contest, massacred for I50s - still won. Have won 3 of the last 4 in a challenging run of games. Won 2 of those rough that we would’ve lost last year.

Bad: Port have 197cm Lord and Finlayson - so we chose to play Butts on fast, agile 192cm Georgiades. In what world does that make any sense? Either trying to be cute or just plain stupid.

Ugly: This team, this coaching group, this club, does not deal with pressure. Instead of staring down challenges, we turn and run. We had Port on the ropes with all the momentum and instead of powering through, blinked and went into our shell. This is the third season we’ve had a team capable of beating any other, yet we’re still to play a final because we retreat in fear rather than stand up and fight. Maybe we need to do a Kokoda Track thing, month long muy thai retreat in Thailand or something that’ll teach this group to deal with attrition, toughen up and stop being afraid to lose.

 

[Samcro24]

I'm glad we have finally moved on from the Sack Nicks droning

Sack Nicks

 

[Southerntakeover]

Love the Port fan suprise.

"Yet again, we won the inside 50s and they're far better at converting them into goals", like that isn't the obvious result of the two teams comparative strengths.

Yes, it's a fluke that our blue chip elite KPPs are better than Finlayson and Lord.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Didn't you answer your own question.

If his role is ground ball gets and hand balling to better users - he is currently 4th (behind Baker, Wilmot, Sinclair) for all defenders for ground ball gets. He is averaging 21+ disposals a game and has a DE of 81.6%.

Absolute chalk and cheese with his shite season last year

 

[Jeffcrowe]

The fact that McEntee still finds a way to get games is funny

He’s Murphy but worse

Way worse , incredible he gets a game

 

[GreyCrow]

This is not a bad argument but my thinking is geared towards positive movement

Putting numbers back isn’t bad in itself considering we were loosing the contest so badly and Port having no choice but to start throwing caution to the wind at that point.

This confuses me slightly - was this when we were 24 points up or a bit later? Because once we got 24 points up was when the handbrake went on. ie I dont think we were losing the contest that badly to warrant negativity

the main problem was how badly we executed during those 10 minutes.

Yes no maybe

The idea is to avoid giving up possession and avoid stoppages,

Giving up possession correct - stoppages - why not have stoppages that chew the clock up - why couldnt we win the stoppages.

I’m not sure how keeping one on one over the ground would have helped at that stage as to my eye we didn’t win one contested ball or clearance in that time until Berry in the last 20 seconds. We might well have lost it in fact as they would have had an open forward 50.

Again chicken or egg - did we not win a contested ball because we didnt care to? ie we took a step back to defend

I'm not sure an open forward line is a correct interpretation - we already play a back 7 . By maintaining our structure we force them to play cute - and Port arent doing cute at this stage

I loved loved loved Dawsons grab out the middle to drive us forward - sheer brilliance - reminded me of Merrett last year - more of that thank you . Not standing next to your opponent and waiting for them to react - react first make them chase

 

[WeeBlake]

A few here have mentioned Laird giving away the 50m penalty for "pushing" after the mark, honestly I think that was one of the softest 50m penalties I've ever seen. He barely even touched the guy and he took a swan dive. Shouldn't have been paid.

Laird was like most of our team last night, alright in patches but down overall. Did some nice things, not great but certainly not our worst.

That is getting paid 8 out of 10 times these days. It was stupid.

 

[Samcro24]

That is getting paid 8 out of 10 times these days. It was stupid.

Watching it live it looked diabolically dumb

 

[AFC979810]

Dawson was forward for big chunks last night, just didn’t manage to have a similar influence to the previous week.

Putting numbers back isn’t bad in itself considering we were loosing the contest so badly and Port having no choice but to start throwing caution to the wind at that point. the main problem was how badly we executed during those 10 minutes. The idea is to avoid giving up possession and avoid stoppages, however our most senior players in Milera and Laird coughed up the footy repeatably by giving away frees, skill errors under pressure and centering to dangerous areas one on one. This led to them getting momentum and belief and the crowd getting into it.

I’m not sure how keeping one on one over the ground would have helped at that stage as to my eye we didn’t win one contested ball or clearance in that time until Berry in the last 20 seconds. We might well have lost it in fact as they would have had an open forward 50.

Hodgy mate - go back and watch from when we went up 88-66. 13 minutes left on the clock. We had scored 88 points through the first 3 and a half quarters. Then 1 point in the last 13 minutes (last 10 seconds).

We are flooding numbers back - keays is effectively a backman. From 13 minutes - 8 minutes left every single possession we have goes out very wide and ends up with us kicking long to a contest (and the ball coming back right back).

Pay special attention to Cumming winning a free kick on the wing with over 7 minutes to go. He wins the free kick makes a slow down gesture whilst seeking confirmation from the bench and then takes his full time allotment and kicks it long down the line to another contest. We just dont take on the game from here.

What was also interesting was our 100+ game players making the crucial errors. Milera to the middle, Laird scoop, Keays kicks blindly out of bounds (deliberate) despite being 10 metres in the clear. Need more from these players when it gets tight.