Analysis Rioli, Mitchell, Gibson - Simpson better have a plan for these blokes

[Keys]

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Agreed re: Gibbo.
Hutchings could play on that slippery f Mitchell.

here's the highlights from the QF last year.. if this doesn't fire you up, nothing will! *note minus Priddis!



And get that Badger out there onto the Squirrel!!
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I want that side back

Fierce pressure, closing down space, strong attack on the footy, clean ball skills, instinctive decision making........

 

[Big_Tony]

I'd rather we were trying to win the game by outscoring the opposition than saving it by denying the opposition. Playing as a key defender has always been considered easier than playing as a key forward. What confounds me is that we tried Mitch Brown up forward this year but a clearly better forward in McGovern hasn't been given a run up there.

It's understandable. Just look how bad our defense went against Collingwood without the Gov down there... they were all at sea for the patches when he was providing chop-out in the ruck. It is tempting to throw Gov forward, but I've come round to the thinking that he is just too valuable in defense. I think he stops more goals than he would kick, put it that way. Also, our current forward line is among the most potent in the league anyway; give them enough supply and we shouldn't struggle to kick a winning score.

 

[Big_Tony]

I want that side back

Fierce pressure, closing down space, strong attack on the footy, clean ball skills, instinctive decision making........

It's quite remarkable looking at that vision. Honestly looks like a different side. I hope Simmo gets the squad to watch that tape as homework.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

How many times have we seen these 3 carve up our team in the last 2 years? Sam Mitchell often gets off the chain and has 35+ disposals against us. Rioli can kick 3 goals in a quarter and still have no-one stand near him as evidenced in the Grand Final. And Gibson was allowed to do as he pleased earlier in the year across half-back. You can understand if one of these 3 players has a blinder for a quarter or maybe even a half, but the trend with the Eagles is that we allow these opponents to continue to dominate for 4 quarters. Its as if Simpson and the players stick their head in the sand and pretend its not happening.

How will our coach plan for them on Friday nights must win game? For me, Simpson has failed to be a good match day coach against the Hawks in the last couple of encounters. Preferably, id like to see a forward tag applied to Gibson if he even looks like trying to be the spare man in defense. Hutchings has had 21 tackles in the last 3 weeks. I dont think we sacrifice much if Hutch is called upon to stand on any +1 that Hawthorn try to free up. Its crucial that we dont let the Hawks setup play as they please across half-back.

Rioli - someone hobble this bloke. But in all seriousness, we need a system where our zone can operate excluding 1 defender. And that defenders role is to wear Rioli like a glove. Stuff reading the play, manning space, or rolling backwards or whatever the hell our web is meant to achieve. We need someone like Sheppard who can keep up with Rioli, to stand on his feet at centre bounces, to knock Rioli off balance around stoppages in their F50m, and to have the speed to chase the bastard down if he tries to run into space up the ground. But its not just sheppard - we need everyone who comes near Rioli to bump into him and make life as tough as possible. He should return to Victoria bruised and battered. Its about time we were the unsociable team on the field.

Mitchell - not the quickest bloke around, but if we ignore him he will have 40+ possesions and be BOG. Is it crazy to suggest that Priddis tag him? They are both slow, Priddis is our best tackler in the team averaging 8.4 per game this year, and he has the fitness to run with Mitchell all over the ground. Sure it will mean that other mids will have to find the ball, but its a gamble that we could try for 1 quarter. Shuey should always be our primary ball winner, and in the absence of Priddis hunting the pack we would need Yeo and perhaps Sheed to pick up the slack. If Priddis is not the answer, then we need someone else running with Mitchell and devoting their attention soley to stopping him.

Post probably comes off as bit of a rant, but fair dinkum im sick of us letting the same Hawthorn players run amok for 4 quarters. On the plus side MacAvaney will still be in Rio so we wont have that closet homo frothing at the mouth every time Cyril is on screen. Nonetheless, i hope to God that we shut him down for once. Just once.

With all due respect mate Mitchell can get 30 plus with a heavy tag and Rioli is a freak.
If Butler or Wellingham go to Rioli I will be annoyed as they will get smashed. The problem is then who does go to him? I agree that Shep is the obvious choice and i agree it must be man on man not playing a kick in front of them.
Not sure we cab do much about Mitchel, he would carve up Priddis on one leg.

Hawks have our game plan under control, we must play like other sides do against them which is one on one. You give them any room and they will tear us apart.

 

[domo]

It's quite remarkable looking at that vision. Honestly looks like a different side. I hope Simmo gets the squad to watch that tape as homework.

ahuh, they all really were living and breathing the "time to hunt" mantra!
Most don't like hearing it, but not having the slowest player ever in the most important position on the ground also makes a difference.

 

[Galileo9]

Rioli-make sure ball doesn't get in forward line.

Mitchell-tag

Gibson-lower eyes

 

[avishka5]

i cant remember who did it but i remember a few months back, someone tagged mitchell and kept his impact to a minimum. Mitchell still got +25 touches but most of the handballs. The key to stopping mitchell is closing his space down and rushing his disposal. Hutchings is slow and too dumb to play on mitchell. I think someone like yeo needs to go on him. Yeo pressure and tackles with some agression. Also if Yeo can get off the leash for 5-10mins he will really cause mitchell and the hawks a headache.

Like other have said, gibson doesn't need to be tagged. Tuners would have been a good match up on him tho.


Cyril will be hard to stop but i think wellers needs to go to him.

 

[DanWCE]

Lol Hutchings slow when we are talking about tagging Mitchell

 

[Dark Sharks]

Yes but Hutchings brain is slower than Mitchells.

 

[avishka5]

Lol Hutchings slow when we are talking about tagging Mitchell

mitchell maybe slow but he will side step and spin a round hutchings.

 

[frenchconnection]

The concept of McGovern going forward seems to have been forgotten on match days, even when we're staring at defeat. Teams can always find defenders, what's in short supply always are guys who are good forwards, we've got a potential beauty who can't get past the centre circles.

Probably because it would be robbing Peter to pay Paul - the coaches no doubt would be worried about bleeding too much in defence if Guv is moved forward.

 

[BrotherDodge]

Yep Gov would be a very good forward, but he probably saves us a Coleman's worth of goals in defense.

 

[frenchconnection]

Thanks for the highlights package Domo.

Thank heavens its Rio time and we won't have to listen to Bruce - Cyril, Poppy, Hodgey, Roughy etc etc!!

Had forgotten what a brilliant game Wellingham played that night - his pressure was superb! Would love to see him play to that level again. The tackling was A1 - our tackling this year has been MIA a bit - hopefully they have been saving themselves for this time of the season.

 

[frenchconnection]

I want that side back

Fierce pressure, closing down space, strong attack on the footy, clean ball skills, instinctive decision making........

I would like to see that Le Cras back also.

 

[2006_Eagles]

Simpson eh

 

[The Stid]

My picks to take Cyril and Mitchell.


Hopefully Wellinghams fit for Friday so he can "out Hodge, Hodge" again

 

[Pottering]

Probably because it would be robbing Peter to pay Paul - the coaches no doubt would be worried about bleeding too much in defence if Guv is moved forward.

While that's a legitimate concern I feel that finding a top line key forward is a higher priority than finding a top line key defender. On paper we have Schofield, Barrass, MacKenzie and Brown who can play tall in defence but only Kennedy and Darling as tall forwards. Last week Darling had a poor game, fortunately Kennedy and our on ballers were able to pick up the goal kicking slack (Priddis, Shuey, Naitanui, Sheed, Hutchings).

 

[The Dodger]

Which is why we need a 6 man forward line, so Gibson is accountable. It was embarrassing last time how he was allowed to play all game as a spare man and rack up world record stats.

But we need more ball. The extra man tries to give that. The fact that Gibson had so many possessions showed how many times we had possession but moved the ball poorly forward. Do you remember the stat they were showing about Hawthorn early in the season? Where the only times they won the contested possession stat was in the GF and round 2 this year and that was over the course of 15 to 20 games.

So we either get whooped around the ground and then it doesn't matter what Gibson is doing as he wont see the ball down his end anyway. Or we play the man up and try to get our share of ball but move it carefully. In an ideal world if we were able to match it with the Hawks in the middle without needing the extra man at the contest I am sure Gibson won't be left alone.

 

[The Dodger]

I'd rather we were trying to win the game by outscoring the opposition than saving it by denying the opposition. Playing as a key defender has always been considered easier than playing as a key forward. What confounds me is that we tried Mitch Brown up forward this year but a clearly better forward in McGovern hasn't been given a run up there.

It would probably help if some of our other defenders could read the play like McGovern. I think if Barrass continues his trend we might be afforded the luxury. Mackenzie is too man on man, and Schofield gets lost when the ball come in over shoulder height and hasn't shown to be particularly adept at intercept marking.

 

[KamakazeSalami]

here's the highlights from the QF last year.. if this doesn't fire you up, nothing will! *note minus Priddis!

F***, that's so good to watch. Couldn't help feel a bit hollow though, knowing what came a few weeks later.

I just hope we don't become one of those pathetic supporter bases that end up with that one game as the pinnacle for the next decade. Ughgh.



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[Bender_]

I look forward to the day when the commentators just call the game. It's turned into a circus.

They all want the sound bite. It's ****en cringeworthy.

 

[Pottering]

But we need more ball. The extra man tries to give that. The fact that Gibson had so many possessions showed how many times we had possession but moved the ball poorly forward. Do you remember the stat they were showing about Hawthorn early in the season? Where the only times they won the contested possession stat was in the GF and round 2 this year and that was over the course of 15 to 20 games.

So we either get whooped around the ground and then it doesn't matter what Gibson is doing as he wont see the ball down his end anyway. Or we play the man up and try to get our share of ball but move it carefully. In an ideal world if we were able to match it with the Hawks in the middle without needing the extra man at the contest I am sure Gibson won't be left alone.

I think you answered your own question, we won the ball and sent it forward "poorly" where an unmarked Gibson got leather poisoning. If he had had an opponent we may have been able to lock it in there, despite the poor entries. We essentially gave ourselves no chance.

 

[The Dodger]

I think you answered your own question, we won the ball and sent it forward "poorly" where an unmarked Gibson got leather poisoning. If he had had an opponent we may have been able to lock it in there, despite the poor entries. We essentially gave ourselves no chance.

The reason why we won the ball was the extra at the contest. Simpson said so in his presser. Said we were being beaten at the contest so he had to bring the extra into the middle. So we then won ball but because of our bomb and hope ball movement Gibson had a field day.
Man up Gibson we take that extra away from the ball. We do that then we go back to being beaten soundly at the contest. Gibson doesn't get any ball but neither do we.
The plan is we get the ball but retain it knowing that there is a sweeper, but most of our mids have no composure when it comes to that.

Therein lies the issue. We win our own ball as most teams do against Hawthorn except us recently we can have a full forward line and Gibson is accountable.
I think he didn't try it in the Grand Final and backed the web and it failed.

 

[frenchconnection]

The reason why we won the ball was the extra at the contest. Simpson said so in his presser. Said we were being beaten at the contest so he had to bring the extra into the middle. So we then won ball but because of our bomb and hope ball movement Gibson had a field day.
Man up Gibson we take that extra away from the ball. We do that then we go back to being beaten soundly at the contest. Gibson doesn't get any ball but neither do we.
The plan is we get the ball but retain it knowing that there is a sweeper, but most of our mids have no composure when it comes to that.

Therein lies the issue. We win our own ball as most teams do against Hawthorn except us recently we can have a full forward line and Gibson is accountable.
I think he didn't try it in the Grand Final and backed the web and it failed.

We have to stop relying so much on Kennedy, as if he's well held who's going to bob up to kick the goals. In the GF last year Kennedy was held goalless if my memory serves me right.

 

[Chris_6678]

The reason why we won the ball was the extra at the contest. Simpson said so in his presser. Said we were being beaten at the contest so he had to bring the extra into the middle. So we then won ball but because of our bomb and hope ball movement Gibson had a field day.
Man up Gibson we take that extra away from the ball. We do that then we go back to being beaten soundly at the contest. Gibson doesn't get any ball but neither do we.
The plan is we get the ball but retain it knowing that there is a sweeper, but most of our mids have no composure when it comes to that.

Therein lies the issue. We win our own ball as most teams do against Hawthorn except us recently we can have a full forward line and Gibson is accountable.
I think he didn't try it in the Grand Final and backed the web and it failed.

In round 2 Simmo probably thought having Emac, Jetta and Redden in + the web would have got the job done. Now that we are back with a more flexible backline it will be interesting to see what Simmo has up his sleeve. But at the end of the day it will all come down to how much pressure we can put on their mids. We need players like Masten, Hutchings and Yeo to have big games and support Gaff, Shuey and Priddis or we will see the same results as the last two games v the Hawks.