Autopsy Round 1, 2023: Positives and Negatives vs North Melbourne

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+Ve
-Ginbey and Long both showed some good signs
-The fightback
-Liam Ryan back to his best

-Ve
-Cole was rusty
-Witherden is shizen
-They lost their ruckman, and combined between our rucks and out midfield we still got pantsed
-Gettable shots on goal by senior players not converted in the last (Darling, Cripps, Gaff)
 
Pros:
  • Shuey, had an excellent game and really got us back into the game with some gut running and aggressive kicks into the forward 50.
  • Gov, some impressive marks but was surprisingly clean with his hands when the ball hit the deck. Hopefully has a good year.
  • Ryan, really lifted when we looked down and out. Some great grabs and huge goals today. We need to see that consistently from now on.
  • Hurn, had a couple of shocking free kicks played against him early, but rebounded well and made some important intercepts.
  • Longy, looks so clean and has good pace. Super happy he got some minutes.
  • Reubs, 12 tackles on debut and tried his guts out. What a ripper.

Cons:
  • BBBW, had some huge brain farts, especially when the game was on the line at the end.
  • Commentators, were absolutely creaming themselves over Norf and Clarko.
  • Umpires, had some absolute howlers today.
  • Witho, looks really slow. I always clench when he gets it as he looks like he’s going to get caught holding the ball.
Overall, I’m pissed that we lost, but some positives to take away. I’m glad we didn’t roll over when we were down by 35 points, and was impressed by Longy and Reubs on debut.
 
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Ginbey a huge positive, Long also had a good impact once he worked his way into the game.

I actually thought Ryan looked a fair way off his best, although he did improve as the game went on.

Cole was rusty but showed he’s willing to be bold and attacked the footy.

Sheed and Kelly had barely any meaningful impact. Far too much work left to our defenders once again.

Shuey showing he’s far from a spent force in the midfield
 

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Biggest thing I’m looking forward to is the inevitable hot take from some peanut about how we traded out of pick 2 & could have taken Sheezel :rolleyes:

Boy oh boy, if we don’t get up next week that’s 10 losses in a row, with a pretty tough six weeks to come after that.

Very much conceivably looking at 16 on the trot.

No pressure Simmo!!
 
Good: N/A
Bad: Jamieson, O'Niell, Witherden, Simpson.
Chesser for all the hype was non existent, but can't be too hard on a first gamer. Williams as our back up ruck. After NN retires that will be the first time in my time as an Eagles supporter we won't have one of the best rucks in the comp.
Ugly: we will have 5+ 100 point defeats and a spoon. Dom Sheed the ruckman. Kelly, the worst trade in eagles history, he had multiple balls bounce off his chest in the last few minutes.
 
Is it worth developing Long into a part time midfielder. His clean one touch play and positioning around packs is impressive.

Xon is in his fifth year. I thought he would be doing more. He still has the season to turn things around.
 
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The good - Ginbey, Long, Chesser getting games
The bad - Williams, Midfield
The ugly - The fact that we've had three months to train and match sim with high intensity, high workrate and develop a game plan and cohesion and we haven't achieved any of those things. Simpson immediately on thin ice.
 
Hats off to Ryan.

Bloke bust his ass in the second half and was the catalyst getting us back into the game IMO.


Other seniors were hit and miss. Shuey tried but cost us with errors, as did McGovern.

Kelly and Sheed improved in the second hald but were still sub standard overall. Wouldn't complain of either were dropped for our best performed mid in the two's. That's how selection should work.
 
Biggest thing I’m looking forward to is the inevitable hot take about how we traded out of pick 2 & could have taken Sheezel :rolleyes:

Boy oh boy, if we don’t get up next week that’s 10 losses in a row, with a pretty tough six weeks to come after that.

Very much conceivably looking at 16 on the trot.

No pressure Simmo!!
Ginbey will still be a better player than Sheezel.

I don’t particularly rate seagulls.
 

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Gaff better than I thought. Looked like he was that sweeping fat side winger but at times when the ball was up and back the left wing, kicking to Gaff in space is completely useless. He has no right foot and it killed any momentum it was designed to generate.
 
Clearly a lot of rusty players. Disappointing finish but a lot more positives than last year.

Positives:
  • Ginbey, best debut from a young player we've had in a long time and clearly up to it
  • Long looks like an absolute steal
  • Good to have Allen back, bit rusty but understandable
  • Ryan
  • Hunt makes sense as a pickup, had some good moments
  • Good to see us actually come back from a decent way back and not just roll over and get belted. I know it was against North but we bled out plenty against bad teams last year too
  • When the new game plan occasionally appeared it looked quite good.

Negatives:
  • Standard lapses letting in a shitload of goals
  • Mids pathetic in first half
  • Bad umpire calls (especially the kicking in danger farce) arguably cost us the game
  • Rucks - other than Bailey fighting back in the second half a bit before costing us at the death it was a pretty rotten outing.

Get Culley, Yeo and Nic in ASAP please.
 
Positives - we fought it out well in the end - we may be getting fit. Another pre season should be telling.
Two big dogs down back and Hurn
Hunt is a good addiction.
Trying to run and carry but withdrew under pressure
Kids had a crack but need time and patience.

Negatives:
We have two undersized inexperienced second ruckman - not sure we will get much out of Nic unfortunately.
XON and Cole were well below WAFL quality. Targically we have quite a few.
We went missing for over half the game - mental and leadership.
It is absolute arrogance to trade down Pick #2. I hope it works out.
It is just as arrogant and misguided to not pick up a Hickey type firts ruckman
Blew scoring opportunities
Gave away some really dumb frees (I know the two bottom teams don't get the top umpires)
I suspect we drink our own bath water - this could be a good reality check (but the last few years should have been enough)
Tackling is still a weakness.
 
Ginbey and Long the big positives today.

Long looks a one touch player. Worked his way into the game and so nice to see him get a goal. Can see him being a full time midfielder soon actually. Some real nice work in close.

Ginbey is just a competitor. He was a big part of our comeback. Would have been a beautiful first goal had he snagged it, too. 12 tackles fought right to the end. He didn’t get the win but he did so everything he could for us.

Liam Ryan’s second half was electric.

Darling & Allen will be better for the run. Nice to see Allen take some marks.

-

2nd quarter was reminiscent of our worst days last year which was really disappointing after a brightish start. Felt our midfield in that second quarter let us down and we lost confidence in our ball movement.

We seem to love letting 1st year half backs float around and pick up cheap kicks. Sheezel barely had anyone next to him all day. Clear rising star this week.

Disappointing to lose, I thought we might snag a late goal to snatch it but I think the Roos deserved the win in the end.
 
Weird game really.

Xerri going down was a net-negative. They were faster and had more run in the 2nd and third.

Because most average ruckman don't that offer much and ours even more average.

I'm happy with the fightback, but it drives me crazy how our midfield can go from absolute dogshit to on top. That shouldn't happen....

+
We are clearly fitter, had more run than North late.
Game plan has been mixed up, we need to trust it and need to develop the list to carry out.
Ginbey is a competitor and will continue growing.
Long very clean.
Our backline us still very good, even if cobwebs. Non-ironically we should draft a quality HBF, or station Chesser there.
Gov and Barrass are the best one two intercept punch in its short, valued history.

-
Still playing in patches.
Our ruck stocks are going to be ****ed until Barnett develops and/or we pick up English.
Williams continues to drive me insane, two hands, just use two hands!
A loss we didn't need to have.
 

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