Autopsy Round 10 vs GWS plus changes for Essendon

[SumTingWong]

thomas at some time or some stage on saturday will be required to sit on and run with watson and that cunning jobe we be trying to sneak forward at every chance, matty thomas will give his all and the acid test will be there for one and all to see. l personally would hope his role would be run and tag his guts out for 3 quarters and set up a few goals then be subbed off.

The first 4 rounds weren't enough for you to see. The so called "acid tests" on Pendles and Ablett were practice matches? What a joke.

 

[SumTingWong]

Half to 3/4 of the blokes in our side now won't take us to a Premiership.

And I'm the negative one I actually believe we have a squad that is good enough to win a flag.

 

[SumTingWong]

Obviously hes not, but thats no reason not to play him. If we stopped playing players that wern't going to take us to a premiership then half our team would be out. This is about right now and right now we don't have enough players that win contested ball, thats why he should be playing.

And I'm the negative one. I bag one player out and I'm a crap supporter? You are a joke. I believe we have a the squad good enough to win a flag. Last year proved we can match it with the best. We bet the premiership side as well as the runners up. What other evidence do you need. Imo all we needed was continuity, more finals experience and giving games to a few kids in Miles, Dea, Astbury, Lennon, Mcdonough, Griffiths who will be there when we are successful. Not treading water and keeping the status quo like Thomas.

 

[Bazzar]

And I'm the negative one. I bag one player out and I'm a crap supporter? You are a joke. I believe we have a the squad good enough to win a flag. Last year proved we can match it with the best. We bet the premiership side as well as the runners up. What other evidence do you need. Imo all we needed was continuity, more finals experience and giving games to a few kids in Miles, Dea, Astbury, Lennon, Mcdonough, Griffiths who will be there when we are successful. Not treading water and keeping the status quo like Thomas.

I agree and Leigh Mathews said at the beginning of the season that the games over the last 2 years that he seen where the Tiges were at their best was some of the best footy he has seen in recent years.

 

[Tiger71]

And I'm the negative one. I bag one player out and I'm a crap supporter? You are a joke. I believe we have a the squad good enough to win a flag. Last year proved we can match it with the best. We bet the premiership side as well as the runners up. What other evidence do you need. Imo all we needed was continuity, more finals experience and giving games to a few kids in Miles, Dea, Astbury, Lennon, Mcdonough, Griffiths who will be there when we are successful. Not treading water and keeping the status quo like Thomas.

Change your name to SumTingRight IMO, spot on

 

[TiggerMan22]

And I'm the negative one. I bag one player out and I'm a crap supporter? You are a joke. I believe we have a the squad good enough to win a flag. Last year proved we can match it with the best. We bet the premiership side as well as the runners up. What other evidence do you need. Imo all we needed was continuity, more finals experience and giving games to a few kids in Miles, Dea, Astbury, Lennon, Mcdonough, Griffiths who will be there when we are successful. Not treading water and keeping the status quo like Thomas.

How is that negative? Its called the truth. In 2-3 our best 22 would have changed a lot, this happens to every team every few year. Players retire/get injured/traded etc.
And right now, we need a contested ball winner, not in a few years. If Jackson is out with injury and then Thomas is dropped like you want then we would be left with Conca and Cotchin to win contested ball. Every single team would smash us

 

[theflea]

But, (it makes me so angry) he was brought in round bloody 1. Coming off a season when our midfield was in great form. He didn't come in round 4/5 after our midfield had a poor start. Dimma changed up a winning formula before the season had actually bloody started. What's more, he was given roles on the best opposition who in two games won the games for their respective teams off their own boots. And before anyone says again that we needed to replace Jackson, well try this one on for size. We replaced Jackson with a guy who would allow his opponent to win the games for their teams themselves. So that is a massive fail. It would have been nice if our proven midfield over a whole year had been given at least one game to show that they could carry on with that form. Thomas is garbage.

So can I ask, since Jacko was unavailable, who was to take his place?

 

[Tiger71]

So can I ask, since Jacko was unavailable, who was to take his place?

I would say Miles to be honest. In the pre season he already showed his hunger for the hard ball and more importantly showed that he knew where the goals were ala jackson. Thomas is a poor mans Jackson, when he is under minimal pressure he is clean but so far when thomas has been placed under pressure his mistakes come in. I would not go as far as to say Thomas is rubbish but he should only be picked as a 4th string mid, that way he can bust a pack and give a clean possession away to a team mate.

Miles in my opinion should be playing every game in Jacksons old role. Put Jacko as a defensive forward to tackle and kick goals.

 

[SumTingWong]

How is that negative? Its called the truth. In 2-3 our best 22 would have changed a lot, this happens to every team every few year. Players retire/get injured/traded etc.
And right now, we need a contested ball winner, not in a few years. If Jackson is out with injury and then Thomas is dropped like you want then we would be left with Conca and Cotchin to win contested ball. Every single team would smash us

It's negative because after only 10 weeks a year after we finished 5th you think half our side is not good enough. Doesn't get any more negative than that.

But why? I don't buy that. When Thomas was playing we were still getting smashed so what good did that do. It's not like he steadied the ship for us. He is just as liable for our losses as others. But at least the "others" are kids with huge potential to be 10 times the player Thomas ever was so we should stick with them. Dimma wants to play Thomas because he can "smash in". How many top sides have contested ball beasts who can't kick. None. We have Thomas.


My solution would have been to play Dusty in the middle permanently. Not at half back where I thought it didn't work at all. Dusty is a contested ball beast as we all know and finally seems to have built a bigger tank able to run all day. And this should have been alternated with Miles to a lesser degree to give him game time. I can see though that Dimma is very protective of the kids as he doesn't want to burn them out but a few sub spots and about 6-8 full games spread throughout the year would be more beneficial than Thomas. Look it's all just an opinion and I appreciate your honesty but for me Thomas is at the detriment to our future.
My other great disappointment has been that Deledio has not been able to fulfill his promise as an elite mid as I thought he would. We should be talking about Deledio in the same awe as Pendles, Selwood, Dangerfield etc. But he hasn't gone to that level as a midfielder unfortunately. Last years final was especially disappointing where it should have been a time for him to finally show how good a player he should be. It should be Cotchin, Deledio, Martin and Conca as our gun mids but it hasn't panned out like that so far. I'm confident it will. But I digress

 

[SumTingWong]

I would say Miles to be honest. In the pre season he already showed his hunger for the hard ball and more importantly showed that he knew where the goals were ala jackson. Thomas is a poor mans Jackson, when he is under minimal pressure he is clean but so far when thomas has been placed under pressure his mistakes come in. I would not go as far as to say Thomas is rubbish but he should only be picked as a 4th string mid, that way he can bust a pack and give a clean possession away to a team mate.

Miles in my opinion should be playing every game in Jacksons old role. Put Jacko as a defensive forward to tackle and kick goals.

He played this role extremely well in 2012 and should be alternated between the two to give him a chop out every now and then.

 

[tropicaltiger]

Half to 3/4 of the blokes in our side now won't take us to a Premiership.

The first 4 rounds weren't enough for you to see. The so called "acid tests" on Pendles and Ablett were practice matches? What a joke.

no joke for me mate, those people that you mention are superstars, when they are on fire, even putting cotchin and delideo on them as a double tag team wont slow them down, thomas is prob no good as a hard tag on strong quik ablett types anyway. give him another chance mate

 

[TiggerMan22]

It's negative because after only 10 weeks a year after we finished 5th you think half our side is not good enough. Doesn't get any more negative than that.

But why? I don't buy that. When Thomas was playing we were still getting smashed so what good did that do. It's not like he steadied the ship for us. He is just as liable for our losses as others. But at least the "others" are kids with huge potential to be 10 times the player Thomas ever was so we should stick with them. Dimma wants to play Thomas because he can "smash in". How many top sides have contested ball beasts who can't kick. None. We have Thomas.


My solution would have been to play Dusty in the middle permanently. Not at half back where I thought it didn't work at all. Dusty is a contested ball beast as we all know and finally seems to have built a bigger tank able to run all day. And this should have been alternated with Miles to a lesser degree to give him game time. I can see though that Dimma is very protective of the kids as he doesn't want to burn them out but a few sub spots and about 6-8 full games spread throughout the year would be more beneficial than Thomas. Look it's all just an opinion and I appreciate your honesty but for me Thomas is at the detriment to our future.
My other great disappointment has been that Deledio has not been able to fulfill his promise as an elite mid as I thought he would. We should be talking about Deledio in the same awe as Pendles, Selwood, Dangerfield etc. But he hasn't gone to that level as a midfielder unfortunately. Last years final was especially disappointing where it should have been a time for him to finally show how good a player he should be. It should be Cotchin, Deledio, Martin and Conca as our gun mids but it hasn't panned out like that so far. I'm confident it will. But I digress

Did I say that ever? Nope. I said half our team (our current 22) won't be there when we win a Grand Final, not because they're not good enough, but because players will retire/get injured/traded/new players will be recruited and drafted/young players in the 2s will knock current players in the 22 out. I swear I said this last comment.

Our contested ball numbers Clearances
Rich v Opposition Rich v Opposition
Round 1: 150 v 156 L (No Jackson) 47 V 30 W
Round 2: 145 v 141 W (No Jackson) 42 V 43 L
Round 3: 129 v 127 W 46 v 45 W
Round 4: 152 v 148 W 47 V 37 W
Round 5: 125 V 119 W 45 V 41 W
Round 6: 118 V 136 L (No Thomas) 32 V 44 L
Round 7: 152 V 140 W (No Thomas) 44 v 44 D
Round 9: 121 V 138 L (No Thomas) 32 v 41 L
Round 10: 135 V 99 W 35 v 39 L


So basically we haven't lost contested ball when both Thomas and Jackson are playing and 2 out of the 3 times we did lose was in the 3 games Thomas didn't play.
How do you still not understand this? Thomas is to plug a whole that we have right now, when theres a young kid that can win contested ball as much then he takes his spot, but at the moment there isn't.

 

[SumTingWong]

Did I say that ever? Nope. I said half our team (our current 22) won't be there when we win a Grand Final, not because they're not good enough, but because players will retire/get injured/traded/new players will be recruited and drafted/young players in the 2s will knock current players in the 22 out. I swear I said this last comment.

Our contested ball numbers Clearances
Rich v Opposition Rich v Opposition
Round 1: 150 v 156 L (No Jackson) 47 V 30 W
Round 2: 145 v 141 W (No Jackson) 42 V 43 L
Round 3: 129 v 127 W 46 v 45 W
Round 4: 152 v 148 W 47 V 37 W
Round 5: 125 V 119 W 45 V 41 W
Round 6: 118 V 136 L (No Thomas) 32 V 44 L
Round 7: 152 V 140 W (No Thomas) 44 v 44 D
Round 9: 121 V 138 L (No Thomas) 32 v 41 L
Round 10: 135 V 99 W 35 v 39 L


So basically we haven't lost contested ball when both Thomas and Jackson are playing and 2 out of the 3 times we did lose was in the 3 games Thomas didn't play.
How do you still not understand this? Thomas is to plug a whole that we have right now, when theres a young kid that can win contested ball as much then he takes his spot, but at the moment there isn't.

What was the point of winning all of that contested ball when we lose the game anyway. Geelong proved last year that contested ball, although good to be on top in, is not crucial to success. What those stats also tell me is that there isn't a direct correlation between contested ball and clearances. Don't get caught up in the stats too much.

 

[TiggerMan22]

What was the point of winning all of that contested ball when we lose the game anyway. Geelong proved last year that contested ball, although good to be on top in, is not crucial to success. What those stats also tell me is that there isn't a direct correlation between contested ball and clearances. Don't get caught up in the stats too much.

Ahh, because the more contested ball you win the more of a chance you have to win. Last year a large chunk of outscoring came straight from stoppages, this year we aren't winning the ball as much and doing even worse when we do win it. If we actually kicked into the forward line well, then winning contested ball would win us most games.

 

[theflea]

I would say Miles to be honest. In the pre season he already showed his hunger for the hard ball and more importantly showed that he knew where the goals were ala jackson. Thomas is a poor mans Jackson, when he is under minimal pressure he is clean but so far when thomas has been placed under pressure his mistakes come in. I would not go as far as to say Thomas is rubbish but he should only be picked as a 4th string mid, that way he can bust a pack and give a clean possession away to a team mate.

Miles in my opinion should be playing every game in Jacksons old role. Put Jacko as a defensive forward to tackle and kick goals.

I would agree, if it was a direct comp between the 2 in the same form I would pick Miles. At the start of the year Thomas, was a little better hence he got the nod. We still don't know how Miles will go at AFL level. But I still agree in going for Miles, but that wasn't what I was getting at with that post. I was merely going to say that if your blaming all our ill's on the fact that Thomas has played Imo, its a cop out for the rest of the team particularly the midfield and their poor showing.