Autopsy Round 18: Collingwood 45-61 Port Adelaide

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JezzasOnTheAsphalt

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May 14, 2018
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I know we scored a goal out of it, thanks to Mihocek, but what on earth was WHE thinking with that handball?? Surely there was no doubt he marked it. Most guys surely just take a shot from the top of the square. The chance of that turning to poo was greater than Mihocek kicking the goal. Was waiting for the Benny Hill music to kick in.

As hilarious as it was, as well as their faces as they looked at each other afterwards, I am sure something happened which made WHE think it was play on.
We are not a silly enough side yet to be doing what he did just because he wanted to.
 
Jul 21, 2008
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Looks like your up against us in Optus. You usually don't match up well against us.

You done well against them considering you had no Sidey and Howe. Cox looked pretty good when he was targeted in the first half but I noticed they didn't target him that much in the second half I felt he should've been the main target since he looked dangerous when the ball was going to him. Sidey's class and polish would've been useful as Port had the class to wrestle back momentum. I thought Varcoe did the off the ball things well but WHE and Thomas was missing. Moore destroyed Marshall and Roughead nullified Dixon. Madgen was composed down back, Cripps, IQ, Noble, Daicos, were good. Stevo was poor and fumbled too much maybe he's confidence is down but I reckon he has to play against us. De Goey should've been in the centre bounce once Port got those two goals.

I don't know why the team didn't take advantage of Port's undersized backline like Geelong, Brisbane who have an average forward line and St Kilda did where you can maximized Cox's attributes and DeGoey and co can crumb. Your midfield lacks hardness and clearance winning power despite Grundy winning hitouts, bring Sier in otherwise he's going to the Bombers. You look more damaging if you kick it more in the corridor since the top teams except Richmond kick a lot more than they handball. If this continues to happen where Grundy wins taps but midfield gets smashed against us then Shuey and co will have a field day in clearances since Nic Nat is probably the only ruck in the comp who can beat Grundy.
If Sier goes to the Bombers, we may as well pack up shop for the next 5 years. He is one of the few bright hopes we have who also strengthens an obvious weakness i.e. big skilled midfielders.
 
It was a pies home game right? You wouldn't be able to tell from the straight up biased commentating on ch 7.

Anyway. Quite disappointing. But its same old, as the rest of the year (bar a few games). Can't score. Turnovers and not hitting targets.

The ball movement and game plan is the issue. Something they need to fix up in the summer, because it aint happening right now. Go back to that fast ball movement of 2018. Exciting, not this slow, stagnant style. Kicking long to the boundary. Never, or rarely using the middle.

The effort was there. But the mistakes is the same as any other game. We just haven't improved.

Now we head to perth. This won't be pretty, but might as well get it over with.
 

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Feb 27, 2017
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Someone please defend Stephenson and Thomas. I dare you.

Please try to tell us all yet again how dangerous they are and that they're worth persisting with week in and week out despite never kicking goals or having an impact on the game in any other way.

Come on...... who still wants to die on that hill? Anyone who said that sh*t over and over again wanna have some humility and finally admit they were wrong?
Stevo is obviously a top talent, he’s just v low on confidence / fitness / mental application, and has been physically targeted by opponents. Future cloudy, but would never get good value on open market atm. Have to persist with.

Thomas used to be good, but game has mostly gone past him now. Sad as he should be peaking now. Also v talented, but just hasn’t come on. Quite a few others havent / don’t as well. Tough caper.

Prob is our depth is v poor atm, so no one there to replace him...
Callum, Wills, Broomhead, Shaz and Murphy havent progressed, Bianco and Rantall mustn’t have shown enough, Atu too raw and Coming from a long way back.

Sidey, Howe and Sier need to be 100% fit and available to help this team contend. As overall we’re a team of 17 flag standard players, and 25 NQR and rookie types...
 
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JLC

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A very, very disappointing performance.

Our centre square work is terrible. Grundy is too predictable as to where he is going to hit the ball. Mix it up ffs. Grab the ball out of the ruck and boot it forward.....Smash the ball out of the centre....When we did get our hands on the ball, we are programmed to handball and handball, give up ground and eventually turn it over. Whereas Port were happy to just gain ground by kicking the ball forward.

Our game awareness at times is terrible. It’s like we practice something at training and then implement on game day but forget that there is opposition out there. The ball is in Ports forward line and from the ball up, Grundy taps the ball into space goal side. That’s just plain dumb.

our kick outs are so predictable. Goes to the same spot and is too easy to force a stoppage or intercept mark. Mix it up a bit.

Our forward line entries are similar - very predictable and easy for the opposition to converge and intercept mark. How we could not exploit Ports lack of height in defence doesn’t say much for our coaches.

we had a very good forward line last night, so it was a coaching issue.

our decision making is terrible. when we should be kicking for goal, we are trying to pass the ball (Elliott) and when we should be passing, we go for glory (Brown).

Positives - IQ. played a great game. Uses the ball well, uses his speed at the right time and makes good decisions.
 
Sep 11, 2006
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CENTRE. *******. CLEARANCES. How can you not win 1 at all in a half?!

Port just took territory all night from the middle. They weren't looking for the perfect kick or a string of 5 handballs to find a guy in space. It was get it forward and lock it in your front half. We just never gave our forwards a look at it. We have no connection between rucks and mids. Don't get me started on the goal Grundy gifted to Dixon.

Not throwing De Goey in the middle at any stage baffles the mind. Meanwhile we are getting pantsed at every centre clearance. The notion of us being the best midfield was well and truly put to bed last night. It's largely a coaching issue as its gone on for too long, but that's a discussion for post season.

Going to Perth might not be the worst thing. It'll be a typical Collingwood backs to the wall win, or we'll get torn a new one and lose by 10 goals.

The reality is we lost to Port and Brisbane the same way. A 5 min burst of 4 goals and we don't have the ability to score and catch up from there. We aren't going to miraculously kick 12 goals plus so our only hope is rain and a shitfight of a match against WCE.

Very hard to see 1 of Richmond (red hot faves) or Geelong not winning the flag.
 
Sep 11, 2006
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Hopefully they don’t. Twice they held up play deliberately that should’ve resulted in 50 metre penalties (first was Cox where three Port guys jumped on him after he took a mark at centre half forward, can’t specifically recall the details around the second now) and Port bloke standing literal metres in front of the mark all night but particularly early. Taylor Adams has the right to be seething with his late misdemeanour given how many consecutive frees were missed involving him.

I’m not one to ride umpires generally but some kind of consistency needs to be applied through the year. I’m over the current lack of a dropping the ball interpretation too.

This was something I noticed a lot. Port players would run 2-3m over the mark every time. Umpire would call him back, Port player wouldn't move. Pay the 50m you *in maggot! It kept happening and they got away with it each time.
 
14-4 Center clearances.
40-28 clearances.

Embarrassing.
Yes, Grundy and the mids are a big problem. We can't get a clearance if our life depended on it. Grundy usually taps to a opponent
 
Sep 11, 2006
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In 2018 we played some quick direct football that allowed our forwards the space and 1 v 1. However Buckley decided that a successful gameplan wasn't to his liking and hitched a ride on a DeLorean at 88mph back to pre-2017 when we sucked because that is so much better.

Talk about banging your head against the wall and expecting a different result.


Buckley has decided he is a midfielder instead of a forward and is playing him out of position. Maynard is more of a midfielder than Elliot.

The issue with Elliot as a forward is that he goes missing far too often. He's genuine trade bait as he's lost his leap and marking ability in a contest.
 

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Sep 11, 2006
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Someone please defend Stephenson and Thomas. I dare you.

Please try to tell us all yet again how dangerous they are and that they're worth persisting with week in and week out despite never kicking goals or having an impact on the game in any other way.

Come on...... who still wants to die on that hill? Anyone who said that sh*t over and over again wanna have some humility and finally admit they were wrong?

They're both bog ordinary but the issue is who replaces them? And don't say Cal Brown because he's on par with the other 2.

We are crying out for forwards. We have to go after Gunston or Breust.
 
Sep 11, 2006
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Stevo is obviously a top talent, he’s just v low on confidence / fitness / mental application, and has been physically targeted by opponents. Future cloudy, but would never get good value on open market atm. Have to persist with.

Thomas used to be good, but game has mostly gone past him now. Sad as he should be peaking now. Also v talented, but just hasn’t come on. Quite a few others havent / don’t as well. Tough caper.

Prob is our depth is v poor atm, so no one there to replace him...
Callum, Wills, Broomhead, Shaz and Murphy havent progressed, Bianco and Rantall mustn’t have shown enough, Atu too raw and Coming from a long way back.

Sidey, Howe and Sier need to be 100% fit and available to help this team contend. Otherwise we’re a team of 17 flag standard players, and 25 NQR and rookie types...

No he hasn't. He's just decided to shirk body contact in his past 4-6 games and it's become really hard to watch. Talented, no doubt about it. However, right now with his mental application he can't be playing at AFL level.
 

stormskye

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Sep 24, 2019
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No 1 for handballs, what a great stat to be leading bucks!... 17th for effective inside 50, 16th for marks inside 50 (ahead of only suns and adel)

If it wasn’t for our star studded defence we would not be in the 8. If Sanderson and Harvey remain next year don’t expect to make the 8. I’m not sold in trading next years first as we may end up with a pick before daicos with these statistics
 

JC83

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May 6, 2017
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Interestingly, our forward setup tonight was exactly the same as what we played in 2018 V Richmond and West Coast. That year Elliot did not play, this year he's in the middle to try and help win a clearance which has been an ongoing issue for the past 2 years.

I know we need a key fwd, but even on a night that Cox seemed to be dominant our mids still couldn't get the ball deep enough, quick enough or often enough for him to impact where it matters.

We lack another A grade mid, and have for years. T Brown will take time, C Brown is more a pressure small, Sier can't get right, Sidey is best placed on a wing, Wills doesn't do much more than tackle.

They tried to fix this via Wells, then Beams, and failed.
 
Mate, not 1 centre clearance in the 2nd half. What an embarrassing effort by the mids.
Grundy can’t ever seem to time his leap, always jumps too early.
 
This is so so true. This is why I prefer it when the umpire throws the ball up.
Yes, he does seem to do better with a throw up. Umpire bounces were poor last night.
 

stormskye

Brownlow Medallist
Sep 24, 2019
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The only positive of this team is our defence which arguably is the product of Longmuir who has now left and brought that to freo within a season. Despite missing their entire key backmen they’ve managed very well and deservedly beat us.

Our midfield and forward line are just not top 8. We can’t change personnel immediately, we can try and bring in a key forward over the off season.

What we can do immediately is remove Sanderson, Harvey, rocca. They simply cannot stay. results speak for themselves. If there’s no changes we know the boys club exists, and we will have to wait until bucks is gone at the end of 2021...
 

littlegg

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Aug 8, 2020
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most annoying thing is port is getting big game time into young players. meaning they will stay strong for years to come, marshall,woodcock, ladhams, rozee, duursma,butters ...

while we pot along
 

kaistar

Team Captain
Jul 31, 2014
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I love bucks as a bloke and Collingwood figure. But imagine we had longmuir as coach. Would of won a flag by now and would be competing with this list year in year out, exactly what he’s gonna do at freo. If we have the same coaches and game plan around Buckley next year, we will be no better, no matter who we get back.
And I hope Grundy is told you go away and have a ******* massive pre season because injured or not, his performances this season have not been acceptable.
 

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