Autopsy Rd 23, 2021 - 44 point loss vs. Crows

B4Bear

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 6, 2011
8,215
16,492
Melbourne
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North Melbourne
The midfield without Cunnington is not as good as some would have us believe. Considering how badly we got pantsed in there today, I am pleased the score line wasn't worse. The defenders were on a hiding to nothing with the ball coming in like a rocket time, after time.
 
Jun 9, 2001
37,642
145,026
Fogarty Street
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Nothing against Nobes, but due to timing, we're missing out on a super coach like Clarko.

Nobody wants to say it but of course that thought crosses the mind.

That's no slight on Noble who is showing a lot of good signs but fact is if Clarkson's exit had occurred in either of the 2 previous years we'd have been up to our necks in getting him over.

"Wasn't meant to be" is the exact phrase for Clarkson coaching north though.
 

justroyal

Premiership Player
Jul 1, 2014
4,077
8,222
AFL Club
North Melbourne
If Adelaide end up bringing Rankine and or Lukosius, that will definitely propel their talent ahead of us. And when we're talking about clubs in a similar position, I hope we're not sitting pretty with these trade options
 

franjon

Premiership Player
Oct 27, 2004
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Altona
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It starts in the centre, when Goldy is negated by 3 gamer i have never heard of, alarm bells started ringing.

Personally, i think Goldy started to show he was running out of petrol tickets about 3-4 weeks ago, not unexpected as he has basically been a 90%+ TOG Ruckman for season after season, this must be addressed asap. At this stage the succession plan is a bit of a conundrum, and consists of Xerri and Edwards, although i like him, Tom Campbell is not part of the future senior Ruck picture.
Goldstein won his fair share of hit outs but was often hitting it to their midfielders. Where were ours? They were hungrier, ours were reactive.
 
Isn't that what caused the whole furore in the first place?
I don’t know🤷🏽‍♀️ All I heard was we offered him something and I hopped on the bandwagon lol
 

franjon

Premiership Player
Oct 27, 2004
3,272
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Altona
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Agree and it's definitely not going to be Jy or Ldu.
Too different
It could be Davies-Uniacke if he puts time into his fitness. Sprinting. He doesn't need to be taught how to play football, but he does seem to drag his arse when opposition players have it. Sprinting sessions and plenty of them.
 

Psicosis

Brownlow Medallist
May 7, 2012
13,165
58,685
Bird Rock
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Cunners is to us what Dusty is to the Tigers.
Severely underated, even by us.
We need someone to be his apprentice.
Irreplaceable.

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He's the most important player to keep on the park in 2022.

What we saw yesterday, is our young midfielders out muscled & out worked by a seasoned midfield - Laird, Sloane & Keays. It was kids against men & the clearance numbers reflected that. Adelaide's kids benefited from them winning it at the coal face, as ours do when with Ben in the side. Cannot be underestimated how important Cunners is to the success of Simpkin, LDU & TT, for at least the next couple years.
 
Jun 25, 2008
1,212
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Shisha bar
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Very frustrating game.

- Goldy’s form dips when Cunnington isn’t around. They have an innate understanding of each other. The other mids just don’t have the same synergy.

- Todays game shows why Ziebell needs to be captain again next year. Simpkin isn’t ready yet. He tried hard today but was overwhelmed by a rampant opposition and doesn’t have the capacity to lift those around him with his voice just yet.

- These last few games has set Bonar’s confidence back a fair way. Hopefully he can find his mojo next year because he was a deadset worry anytime he was near the ball.

- When we fight back after facing a deficit it is always Zurhaar who changes the course of the game. The man is our spirit. With him injured today we had no hope of sustaining the momentum we briefly built.

- Hall was great as usual. A few people putting an asterisk on his game due to some turnovers but a precision robotic couldn’t do much better with the stagnant crap going on upfield. He’s an important leader for next year.

- Walker has been a serviceable stop gap since he was brought in and could yet play a bit of a Leigh Brown at the Pies role in the future but his lack of polish just unravels a lot of good that happens. Harvey Norman should sponsor him given how many new TV appliance sales he may have contributed to.

- Ford just simplifies everything and does the basics so well. I can hardly understand a thing he says when he speaks to be honest but that’s ok, I enjoy his footy doing the talking.

- Thomas will be our best player. The guy is silk somehow fabricated from steel. He did everything he could today but we just had too many passengers. Lucky to have him.

Now looking forward to the draft. Hopefully 2022 is going to be quite the ride.
 

Royal Flush

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 14, 2008
8,453
6,833
Brisbane
AFL Club
North Melbourne
He's the most important player to keep on the park in 2022.

What we saw yesterday, is our young midfielders out muscled & out worked by a seasoned midfield - Laird, Sloane & Keays. It was kids against men & the clearance numbers reflected that. Adelaide's kids benefited from them winning it at the coal face, as ours do when with Ben in the side. Cannot be underestimated how important Cunners is to the success of Simpkin, LDU & TT, for at least the next couple years.

Exactly spot on.

Winning the clearances has been our signature. Without it, and we get what we witnessed yesterday.
The game plan falls to bits.

Cunners has been critical since 2013 for us winning.

I'm not sure who steps up, TT would be a waste of pure talent to have that role. As his strengths are on the outside, for himself and the team.

Id just like to know who steps up?

I hope that club has a couple of names penciled in, whether that be in the draft, free agency or within the squad.





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franjon

Premiership Player
Oct 27, 2004
3,272
2,582
Altona
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
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Very frustrating game.

- Goldy’s form dips when Cunnington isn’t around. They have an innate understanding of each other. The other mids just don’t have the same synergy.

- Todays game shows why Ziebell needs to be captain again next year. Simpkin isn’t ready yet. He tried hard today but was overwhelmed by a rampant opposition and doesn’t have the capacity to lift those around him with his voice just yet.

- These last few games has set Bonar’s confidence back a fair way. Hopefully he can find his mojo next year because he was a deadset worry anytime he was near the ball.

- When we fight back after facing a deficit it is always Zurhaar who changes the course of the game. The man is our spirit. With him injured today we had no hope of sustaining the momentum we briefly built.

- Hall was great as usual. A few people putting an asterisk on his game due to some turnovers but a precision robotic couldn’t do much better with the stagnant crap going on upfield. He’s an important leader for next year.

- Walker has been a serviceable stop gap since he was brought in and could yet play a bit of a Leigh Brown at the Pies role in the future but his lack of polish just unravels a lot of good that happens. Harvey Norman should sponsor him given how many new TV appliance sales he may have contributed to.

- Ford just simplifies everything and does the basics so well. I can hardly understand a thing he says when he speaks to be honest but that’s ok, I enjoy his footy doing the talking.

- Thomas will be our best player. The guy is silk somehow fabricated from steel. He did everything he could today but we just had too many passengers. Lucky to have him.

Now looking forward to the draft. Hopefully 2022 is going to be quite the ride.
I'm not convinced that Bonar will end up making the grade. He gets beaten by pretty much every one he plays on and doesn't appear to have the smarts when the ball hits the ground. He isn't helped much by the inefficiency of the midfield, but his lack of instinct worries me a bit. I think he knows what he should do but doesn't appear to be capable of doing it.
 

Swallow_Wood

Premiership Player
Jun 11, 2015
3,104
12,273
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Exactly spot on.

Winning the clearances has been our signature. Without it, and we get what we witnessed yesterday.
The game plan falls to bits.

Cunners has been critical since 2013 for us winning.

I'm not sure who steps up, TT would be a waste of pure talent to have that role. As his strengths are on the outside, for himself and the team.

Id just like to know who steps up?

I hope that club has a couple of names penciled in, whether that be in the draft, free agency or within the squad.





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In fairness since Cunners surgery we have competed well in clearances against a Sydney team who ran with Parker, Kennedy and Hewitt, against Geelong with Guthrie, Selwood and Dangerfield, dominated Richmond who had Cotchin and Prestia in there but got smacked around this week.

I think we have the goods in there already in LDU, Simpkin, Anderson, Thomas, Powell and Phillips, its just that outside Jed they are young and relatively inexperienced and accordingly form will fluctuate. Add in a poor performance from Goldy and we get what we got. I don't think that we see contested ball winning at stoppages as a weakness moving forward to be fair.
 
Nothing against Nobes, but due to timing, we're missing out on a super coach like Clarko.
Bad call. Get behind Nobes 100% and don’t confuse the “what ifs” with the “what we haves” which is one of the best teachers, and I firmly believe will prove to be the best coaches in the comp.

2021 was a rebuild year. Half our list slashed at the end of 2020 and Nobes only got the job in November. Ninths months in the job. Nobody could have done better with such a young list and overhauled game plan as Nobes has done. Time will tell of course but I think we should feel ourselves extremely lucky to have landed ourselves Nobes after the Rhyce Shaw disaster.
 

Royal Flush

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 14, 2008
8,453
6,833
Brisbane
AFL Club
North Melbourne
In fairness since Cunners surgery we have competed well in clearances against a Sydney team who ran with Parker, Kennedy and Hewitt, against Geelong with Guthrie, Selwood and Dangerfield, dominated Richmond who had Cotchin and Prestia in there but got smacked around this week.

I think we have the goods in there already in LDU, Simpkin, Anderson, Thomas, Powell and Phillips, its just that outside Jed they are young and relatively inexperienced and accordingly form will fluctuate. Add in a poor performance from Goldy and we get what we got. I don't think that we see contested ball winning at stoppages as a weakness moving forward to be fair.

It would be good if someone could do a quarter by quarter clearance perspective for those games, for the sake of a debate. I just don't have the time.
I'm hopeful some of those will step up.
But cunners is an absolute contested beast, an incredible ability to create space and time, especially for a "plodder". Handballing execution is of the charts
I think we all agree he is great.
But I think, because those skills aren't as highly rated, nobody views him as a once in a generational talent.

There's a stat floating around that we haven't won a game since 2013 without cunners. Not sure how accurate it is?

But, I think the hole he leaves is bigger than we believe.




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Swallow_Wood

Premiership Player
Jun 11, 2015
3,104
12,273
AFL Club
North Melbourne
It would be good if someone could do a quarter by quarter clearance perspective for those games, for the sake of a debate. I just don't have the time.
I'm hopeful some of those will step up.
But cunners is an absolute contested beast, an incredible ability to create space and time, especially for a "plodder". Handballing execution is of the charts
I think we all agree he is great.
But I think, because those skills aren't as highly rated, nobody views him as a once in a generational talent.

There's a stat floating around that we haven't won a game since 2013 without cunners. Not sure how accurate it is?

But, I think the hole he leaves is bigger than we believe.




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Oh I have massive love balls for Ben. Probably my favourite player ever and any team he leaves will miss him massively. He will never be replaced fully, but I think what we do have coming through will be excellent.
 
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