Autopsy Round 1, 2024: Positives and Negatives vs Port Adelaide

[Truckosaurus]

Center half bench, Left right out

Fullback of the line
Wing seat of a flight home

 

[mehow2g]

I don't how we can keep Harley Reid without seriously going hard in the paint in trading in the next 2-3 years.

The age profile is absolutely cooked.

 

[Spoon_Man]

 

[Dark Sharks]

Those thinking we weren't as bad as we were until late because we "just ran out of puff" or whatever you want to call it..

You do realise Port just had 40 shots on goal right? We were lucky it wasn't a 20 goal pantsing.

40 scoring shots to 20. That's laughable.

Other than the 1st quarter it was an annihilation. Had they kicked straight Simpson would already be under the blowtorch for his job after one game.

 

[mat11]

For some reason Barass kept watching Dixon and not the ball. He’s one of the best high marks in the game, why not just watch the ball.
Ginbey seemed unsure at times whether to stay on his man or go and try and impact the contest. Hunt, young man, hunt!!
When we split the picks I was keen on Hewitt/Phillipou.Time will tell.If nothing else he will make a formidable B/F er.

I won't say barass is cooked but what he did to his back last year he'll prob never be the same again. Harry edwards is barass' (I hope you all can appreciate that apostrophe) replacement and can play but is made of glass. Rotham is a crab. Bazzo still developing to take over from mcgovern. Nisbitt, simmo and co would've know this (sydney swans certain did) and yet they went into the draft overlooking O'Sullivan, murphy, zz top, shoenmaker for our future KPB stocks. We could of even picked up will patton out of the rookie draft for a packet of chips

 

[Hook461123]

Lots to work on.
Simpson keeps going on about forward pressure and locking the ball in the forward half. Well I've hardly seen a team run it out of defense as easily as port did. Hardly any forward half pressure. Lots of intercept marks and then just strolling out of D50. Coast to coast goals from kick ins.

He talks about doing the small things and pressuring the opposition but there was still a lof of missed tackles, poor chases and brain fades. How many times do you have to watch Farrel kick to know he is going to wheel around and have a ping at goals. I knew it was coming, surely the coaches and players should be doing their homework.
Our tactics look stale (especially from kick ins) and our skills are terrible with the number of turnovers and out on the fulls.

A lot of people have said to me today that they think we did alright yesterday. Shows the standards that we've become accustomed too that a 50pt loss (could've been much more) was a pass mark.

I did enjoy watching Harley who looked a class above. As well as Chesser have an impact when he came on and Jamieson showing a little bit in defense.

Out: Gaff, Darling - Make a statement Simpson
IN: Chesser, Barnett, Maric (sub)

Play Barnett in ruck and get BWill playing forward more to create a contest. It will help with both of their developments while we wait for Flynn and as good as BWill's follow up and clearance work is, he has poor tap work and is unpredicatable. Which makes it hard for our mids to read anything and be proactive.

 

[Dugg]

I don't how we can keep Harley Reid without seriously going hard in the paint in trading in the next 2-3 years.

The age profile is absolutely cooked.

Get his new missus over to WA into the AFLW team

 

[DanWCE]

Those thinking we weren't as bad as we were until late because we "just ran out of puff" or whatever you want to call it..

You do realise Port just had 40 shots on goal right? We were lucky it wasn't a 20 goal pantsing.

40 scoring shots to 20. That's laughable.

Other than the 1st quarter it was an annihilation. Had they kicked straight Simpson would already be under the blowtorch for his job after one game.

It's not an idea completely without merit. 8 scoring shots for us to their 19 to the half heavily swings in their favour. We were accurate, they kicked points and are very good at locking the ball in their front half, which amplifies their scoring shots.

In the third quarter we had 6 a piece and wrestled the game back to 5 goals after Port kicked away late in the second and early in the third. No doubt we spent a lot of petrol tickets doing that. The last quarter is an annihilation. 14 scoring shots to 6. We were reasonably efficient again going at 50%, whereas they kicked a goal from 35% of their shots on goal.

Given that they lock the ball in so well but also kicked like s**t, the total scoring shots makes it look worse than it was, in my opinion.

We didn't get obliterated in clearances or contested possessions. The ball returning to the middle wouldn't have served them up more goals on a silver platter. In fact we edged them out in centre clearances. What happened from there was we delivered the ball like s**t inside 50 and/or to a dysfunctional forward line, which Port were able to then set up some electric counter attacking forays and go coast to coast where the ball remained until they finally kicked another goal.

 

[TY24]

…a more anally retentive animal.

Can’t say this was at the top of my ‘sentences i’ll see today’ list.

 

[Jed Clampet]

The biggest negative was the ease of them moving the ball out of our forward line, it was the same in the practice match against Freo.
Every time we kicked a point or turned it over it was straight up the other end for a score.
If we allow that this week, we will get smashed against the Giants.
I know it's old school but if we kick a point I want all of our players to man up, no easy first kick, make them work for it.
If you have to stand off after that fine, but no more easy kick out.
The problem is at the moment we give them the easy first kick, then the easy second kick, then third then score.

Only changes I would make would be JJ in for Witherden, but won't happen think Witherden is a favourite and Gaff out Chesser starting.

 

[eaglesnutcase]

I can’t wait to play Brisbane. We will break the world record for high kicks to Andrews .
Darling gets vilified; and at times he certainly deserves it; but he’s constantly sitting under a hospital kick trying to beat two on one.
With some very good small forwards and OA very good below his knees why oh why can’t we kick short or long and low. We seem obsessed with kicking as long as possible.
Our players must have neck problems cos they can’t seem to look anywhere but straight ahead

 

[garlic munchers]

Kane Cornes bemused by Andrew Gaff’s selection as he torches West Coast veterans after poor display​

West Coast were outclassed by Port Adelaide to the tune of 50 points to open their 2024 season and former Port star Kane Cornes believes the team’s failures lie on the shoulders of their veterans.
The Eagles showed plenty of fight in what was always going to be a tough match-up but the performances of some of their experienced heads left plenty to be desired.
Top of the list was Andrew Gaff, who had just four touches before being subbed out for Campbell Chesser in the third term, while Jack Darling was also poor with just one kick - a goal - among four disposals.
Cornes questioned why the Eagles continue to persist with Gaff on a wing.
“Why is Andrew Gaff still playing?” Cornes said on SEN.
“He’s washed up. He’s had more free games given to him in the past two years than anyone else in the history of the AFL.
“So him and (Jack) Darling are they that hard up that they can’t find younger players to take their spots.”
“There needs to be some selection integrity.”

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley believes a positional switch could solve Gaff’s woes but admits he looks like a player with no confidence in his game.
“Why would you just not play him off half-back? If he’s a good left-footer, use it,” he said.
“It’s a great mystery how he’s gone from a player who struggled to not get 30 disposals to this.
“He should be dropped because he’s giving very little if you’re not going to give and perform as a senior player, the fact that he can have a round one performance like that his confidence must be shot.”
Gaff wasn’t the only veteran to catch the ire of Cornes, who said many of their senior players failed to stand up.
“Port Adelaide still laid more tackles than West Coast despite having a million more disposals,” he said.

“(Tom) Barrass four touches, Gaff four touches subbed out, (Jack) Petruccelle eight touches, (Oscar) Allen was awful and didn’t hit the scoreboard.
“These are the players that need to stand up because they’re so inexperienced.”
Eagles coach Adam Simpson defended his selection of Gaff but admitted he is under pressure after Chesser impressed in his place.
“He didn’t have a good half,” he said post-game.
“His form over pre-season warranted selection. He was out of touch today, so we subbed him in the second half.
“I thought Campbell was pretty good when he came on so we will have to assess that during the week.”

"Why would you just not play him (Gaff) off half-back? If he’s a good left-footer, use it,” he said.

Oh god no, that would just push us all over the edge completely!

 

[twce13]

Good ball user lol. Can he even kick beyond 20m anymore?

 

[Big_Tony]

Those thinking we weren't as bad as we were until late because we "just ran out of puff" or whatever you want to call it..

You do realise Port just had 40 shots on goal right? We were lucky it wasn't a 20 goal pantsing.

40 scoring shots to 20. That's laughable.

Other than the 1st quarter it was an annihilation. Had they kicked straight Simpson would already be under the blowtorch for his job after one game.

Yes, but 10 of those 40 shots came in the last 10 minutes of game time. This was against a premiership hopeful on their own patch, with a few green shoots shown from youngsters and no obvious injuries, I'll take it after the pure filth of the past 2 years.

 

[plays tall 1]

Watching Port launch their transition from defence with the precise kicking of Houston and Farrell underlined what we’re missing since Jetta and Hurn finished up.

At present Gov is our best kicking option from defence, hopefully another will emerge soon or we’ll continue to struggle with transition.

 

[THE A5]

Watching Port launch their transition from defence with the precise kicking of Houston and Farrell underlined what we’re missing since Jetta and Hurn finished up.

At present Gov is our best kicking option from defence, hopefully another will emerge soon or we’ll continue to struggle with transition.

When Simpson first came in to the side one of his biggest wants was great kicks. Drafted both Sheed and Duggan as they were both elite kicks as juniors. I genuinely don’t know what happened to Duggans kicking cause it’s one of the greatest regressions in man kind.

Think once the midfield and the spine is sewn up we will likely look at drafting elite users or bringing them in

 

[eaglevision]

Positive:


Negative:
Has been a wonderful servant of the club. Thanks Gaffy.

 

[bzparkes]

Positive:


Negative:
Has been a wonderful servant of the club. Thanks Gaffy.

 

[bzparkes]

Now for Darling...

 

[eaglevision]

Now for Darling...


View attachment 1932238

I genuinely think it will be best for everyone including Darling*. Should get to 300 but needs to know it’s not a given if he doesn’t perform.

*unless he was shitting his pants the whole game because Oscar didn’t wash his hands before touching the footy.

 

[Goroyals22]

Positive:


Negative:
Has been a wonderful servant of the club. Thanks Gaffy.

Actually sounded genuine that he has passed on its time to gaff… it may be latter than it should but massive props for doing it.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Bender_]

Interesting he told him on the Monday.

 

[bzparkes]

I genuinely think it will be best for everyone including Darling*. Should get to 300 but needs to know it’s not a given if he doesn’t perform.

Going off Simmo's comments tonight, it seems that the directive is to reward performances. For all Gaff's credits, dropping him after a poor game first up is a positive step, considering how much seniors were underperforming these past few years.

Player availability played a big role too then also.

*unless he was shitting his pants the whole game because Oscar didn’t wash his hands before touching the footy.

That would require Darling actually touching the footy to begin with...

 

[eaglevision]

Good move to come out day 1 and saying it. Indefensible to play him and not Campbell again. Takes the media speculation off Gaff, Chess knows he’s playing. I like it.

 

[bzparkes]

Interesting he told him on the Monday.

Was poor last season also but played mostly due to player availability. I daresay with Nisbett gone, perhaps some of the old stalwarts on the club have been put 'under notice' by Pyke, as he's been pretty firm on WCE rebuilding and pushing the youth narrative.

Hopefully poor performances from senior players will be 'rewarded' with WAFL time so that the young blokes playing well don't feel they're being ignored due to the credits crew receiving favouritism.