Unofficial Preview Round 2, 2019: Changes/pre-match discussion vs Brisbane Lions

[Event Horizon]

I think Larkey is a better forward at the moment but agree with you on McKay. He's physically ready for games this year and I wouldn't be dropping him after that game for balance particularly given we need another tall anyway - albeit at the other end of the ground. I'd possibly play him even deeper and get Brown on his bike up the ground. McKay strikes me as much more of an old fashioned sit under the ball and use his size type of player.

We spend over a year converting McKay to full back, and spent this entire preseason converting Watson to full forward. To throw it all away after one game and move McKay forward? I can't see Scott doing it.

 

[Tiberius]

I'm in the school that says changing individual players isn't the answer. It's the game style. If we're determined to play chippy chippy handball out of the backline then we're going to be murdered. A lot is being made of Freo's brave new attacking gameplan, but I'm not buying it. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if it takes them another 5 years to score that highly again. We made them look fast and attacking because of our appalling disposals.
Basically the game went like this: we gain possession in the backline, our players run forward into attacking positions, we handball sideways to Mcmillan who racks up his 55th disposal, our players run further forward into more attacking positions, we chip sideways, our players run further forward into even more attacking positions, we handball backwards, our players run further forwards, we handball, etc. Then we come up with a shocking soft turnover and suddenly Freo have 5 players in acres of space goal side of their man, who has continued to run forward into an attacking position. These 5 players run towards goal and score at will.
If we're going to turn it over, we're better off doing it on the first possession than the fifth.
And if we're going to bomb it into our forward line, we're better off doing it on the head of a big body who'll at least bring it to ground rather than Brown one out against 4. Let Brown be the leading forward not the pack marker.
It seems to me that McMillan and McDonald were the main culprits and the rest didn't really have a chance. Except for Wood who was non-existent.
Out: McDonald, Wood, Vickers-Willis, Gameplan
In: Campbell, Thompson, Ahern, fast ball movement out of the backline.

 

[BrainOfMorbius]

Anyone else concerned we look to be doing thr same pre-match routine? Stay in Melbs until the last minute then fly to Bris?

Should be an easy win to Brisbane if that turns out to be the case

 

[shintemaster]

Anyone else concerned we look to be doing thr same pre-match routine? Stay in Melbs until the last minute then fly to Bris?

Given the location for the game this weekend... not overly.

We spend over a year converting McKay to full back, and spent this entire preseason converting Watson to full forward. To throw it all away after one game and move McKay forward? I can't see Scott doing it.

I completely agree with what you're saving but not sure we need Tarrant, Thompson & McKay down there while we do need height forward. Which would appear to leave us with the option of dropping him - something that doesn't seem overly justified to me. I don't think McKay was even remotely close to the reason we lost last weekend. We shall see I guess.

 

[muttley45]

After watching the replay, as much as i don't really rate the Darcy/Lobb Ruck combo, at best Goldy could claim to have broken even, seems like the 2 Ruckman structure is being adopted by quite a few, so i would expect Campbell to be a strong chance of coming in to help out this week.

 

[Groin guru]

I've reported every post that had "Out: Pittard"

It's blatant trolling and I won't stand for it. Read the board rules before you're going to mess around!

 

[Caracas]

Your game plan against Freo would work against our game plan against West Coast. The main concern would be if you guys can limit your turnovers, and possibly adapt if we manage to successfully change our defensive scheme by quarter or half time.


We haven’t beat you guys at Etihad in a long time, but it’s no longer Etihad .

In reality, Brisbane are the perfect opponent for us to get a handle on where we’re at right now. Make no mistake, if we haven’t sorted out our glaring shortcomings in defence by Sunday, the Lions will literally dance on our graves and, most likely, our season is toast. On the other hand, if we do perform well, it would provide us with good hope that, maybe, we are on the right track after all. Brisbane are a young, up and about, exciting team, who are more or less on a roll. They have positioned themselves well with regard to the direction the game is going. These are the guys we need to be able to handle going forward- as well as others, obviously.


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[Dirty_11]

Mate, they will trouble us if we go down the line. They were seriously impressive with the way they tactically neutralised West Coast.

Brisbane and the Bulldogs impressed me the most in regards to tactical adaptations in the last round.

I am tipping they watched the Freo game and will forward pressure the **** out of us and watch us cough it up.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[king rising]

Scott must make changes this week. For too long this team has been comfortable. Make a stand against underperforming players and drop them until they prove something.. in the case of McDonald and Wood preferably for life.

 

[Mcarcherey]

Failed drafting exposing us
Key defenders - Neilson, Durkin
1st rounders - lmac, Simpkin

Was at Optus and it was notable how much we turn it over and how slow we are when opposition on the break

We have no young defenders playing that look AA of the future, and our fwd line is BBB or bust

Lmac, Simpkin, turner and wood are all diabolical. All 25 and younger

We just re-signed Scott for another 3 years so nothing changing medium term

Scott needs to get tough at selection and go from there.

simpkin is fine, he was easily best available in that draft. Lmac isn't great but again, he was best available, if you start quoting hindsight crap like "we could've had cripps" then stop posting because you can only make the best decision at the time.

Durdin was another that was said to be possible top 5 and was a bargain at the time....

Neilson was a second rounder, after the top 5-10 picks it's a lottery and clubs recruit on a needs only basis, plenty of second rounders are a bust.

The whole team was flat at optus, have no doubt the team will turn it around and be more proactive when brisbane are on the spread.

scott hasn't signed for another 3 years, his contract expires at the end of next year...

 

[Groin guru]

It's not the personnel. It's the people behind the scenes. For years we've seen a team that has been balls to the wall 1 week and failed to back it up for a second. Look at last year - We started off hunting and pressuring the opposition. Once it dropped off we fell and the season went.

You need to have the team breathing fire and willing to work for one another or it just doesn't work. Hardwick got a bunch of s**t trucks to turn it around and win a flag. Dogs did it too. The worrying thing is some players that had mongrel are now boring toothless shells. Look at Simpkin's first season - more dancing than a baz lurhmann movie. Turner was a maniac - now he just runs around like an auskicker not knowing WTF to do or where to run.

If the personnel can't get through to them then what are the fringe players doing? I honestly just don't know what goes through players minds. Wood, Turner, Durdin, Zurhaar...it's the end of the road. Shape up or it's VFL for the rest of your career.

 

[ferball]

Yes, no surprise at all, Ferball. The amazing thing is that the only person to really flag what was going to happen was media man, Jay Clarke, who stuck his head out and predicted 40+ to Freo. We, at North, were all all so diverted towards the shiny objects that were Polec, Pittard, Thomas, Bailey and Tyson that we ignored our glaringly obvious shortcomings going into the Freo game. We mentioned them in passing but just expected Tarrant and Marley to rock up and play blinders and Benny to be Majak-like and and fill in for Thommo as well. In hindsight, it was laughable.


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Hindsight is great.

TBF Freo had four new players as well.

I don't think its that simple tho.

I think Freo counterattacked us very effectively and their game plan was to force turnovers at every opportunity. Its something we're vulnerable to sometimes (and its a very momentum dependent tactic imo, which can hurt us) but if it fails then it fails spectacularly. However our s**t play assisted them. Just a little bit of composure and ball control would have made a huge difference, even Bailey Scott, who actually showed a bit of it also had plenty of panic moments.. And they wouldn't have been in a position to do it so well if we'd been effective with our ball use in the first quarter.

That makes a side with so many new and inexperienced players extra vulnerable. Polec, Hall and Tyson and the place it fell down was midfield transition out of defence. Possibly why JMac had so many possies too - being one of the few who got the process he could probably see where it was most vulnerable and anticipate what to do and where to be when it broke down.

 

[ferball]

I'm in the school that says changing individual players isn't the answer. It's the game style. If we're determined to play chippy chippy handball out of the backline then we're going to be murdered. A lot is being made of Freo's brave new attacking gameplan, but I'm not buying it. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if it takes them another 5 years to score that highly again. We made them look fast and attacking because of our appalling disposals.
Basically the game went like this: we gain possession in the backline, our players run forward into attacking positions, we handball sideways to Mcmillan who racks up his 55th disposal, our players run further forward into more attacking positions, we chip sideways, our players run further forward into even more attacking positions, we handball backwards, our players run further forwards, we handball, etc. Then we come up with a shocking soft turnover and suddenly Freo have 5 players in acres of space goal side of their man, who has continued to run forward into an attacking position. These 5 players run towards goal and score at will.
If we're going to turn it over, we're better off doing it on the first possession than the fifth.
And if we're going to bomb it into our forward line, we're better off doing it on the head of a big body who'll at least bring it to ground rather than Brown one out against 4. Let Brown be the leading forward not the pack marker.
It seems to me that McMillan and McDonald were the main culprits and the rest didn't really have a chance. Except for Wood who was non-existent.
Out: McDonald, Wood, Vickers-Willis, Gameplan
In: Campbell, Thompson, Ahern, fast ball movement out of the backline.

In the first quarter we had a bit of fast movement out of the backline on the back of aggressive, intelligent handball. But it wasn't sideways it was to advantage and it was selective. The sideways handballs under pressure are a sign of the game plan not being followed or not working/breaking down and it broke down cos Freo attacked the ball at a traditional weakpoint of ours - transition out of defense. If we'd been more effective moving forward they wouldn't have been able to attack that way as easily because a/ we'd have more score and b/ we'd be more likely to score which forces the opposition to defend or at least think about defensive options instead of that manic attacking pressure.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

In the first quarter we had a bit of fast movement out of the backline on the back of aggressive, intelligent handball. But it wasn't sideways it was to advantage and it was selective. The sideways handballs under pressure are a sign of the game plan not being followed or not working/breaking down and it broke down cos Freo attacked the ball at a traditional weakpoint of ours - transition out of defense. If we'd been more effective moving forward they wouldn't have been able to attack that way as easily because a/ we'd have more score and b/ we'd be more likely to score which forces the opposition to defend or at least think about defensive options instead of that manic attacking pressure.

It's what makes Cunnington such a vital player, his long direct forward handballing opens up the player and promotes attacking moves that the opposition have little hope of stopping.

 

[RobZombie]

Anyone else concerned we look to be doing thr same pre-match routine? Stay in Melbs until the last minute then fly to Bris?

If we fly to Brisbane this week I reckon we’re stuffed

 

[kangaspurs]

Lose this week and our chances of playing finals become almost non-existent. Only a scant handful of teams have made finals from 0-2. We'd be fighting against an established statistical trend.

It goes without saying, but this is a huge game for a number of reasons.

 

[ferball]

Lose this week and our chances of playing finals become almost non-existent. Only a scant handful of teams have made finals from 0-2. We'd be fighting against an established statistical trend.

It goes without saying, but this is a huge game for a number of reasons.

We lost the first 2 games in 1999. Ironically the opposition scored 141 in both of them.

We lost the first 4 in 75, first 3 in 76 and made GFs both years.

 

[rm3504]

A

simpkin is fine, he was easily best available in that draft. Lmac isn't great but again, he was best available, if you start quoting hindsight crap like "we could've had cripps" then stop posting because you can only make the best decision at the time.

Durdin was another that was said to be possible top 5 and was a bargain at the time....

Neilson was a second rounder, after the top 5-10 picks it's a lottery and clubs recruit on a needs only basis, plenty of second rounders are a bust.

The whole team was flat at optus, have no doubt the team will turn it around and be more proactive when brisbane are on the spread.

scott hasn't signed for another 3 years, his contract expires at the end of next year...

Im not playing hindsight I don’t care who was taken after
I’m just saying u can’t move up the ladder if your first rounders don’t become star players
It’s the problem of always finishing mid table and we now paying the price
Relieved Scott only has 2 more years

 

[Groin guru]

We lost the first 2 games in 1999. Ironically the opposition scored 141 in both of them.

We lost the first 4 in 75, first 3 in 76 and made GFs both years.

Premiership confirmed

 

[kaboom kid]

Premiership confirmed

Would probably get juicy odds ATM too......

 

[Val Keating]

I'm in the school that says changing individual players isn't the answer. It's the game style. If we're determined to play chippy chippy handball out of the backline then we're going to be murdered. A lot is being made of Freo's brave new attacking gameplan, but I'm not buying it. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if it takes them another 5 years to score that highly again. We made them look fast and attacking because of our appalling disposals.
Basically the game went like this: we gain possession in the backline, our players run forward into attacking positions, we handball sideways to Mcmillan who racks up his 55th disposal, our players run further forward into more attacking positions, we chip sideways, our players run further forward into even more attacking positions, we handball backwards, our players run further forwards, we handball, etc. Then we come up with a shocking soft turnover and suddenly Freo have 5 players in acres of space goal side of their man, who has continued to run forward into an attacking position. These 5 players run towards goal and score at will.
If we're going to turn it over, we're better off doing it on the first possession than the fifth.
And if we're going to bomb it into our forward line, we're better off doing it on the head of a big body who'll at least bring it to ground rather than Brown one out against 4. Let Brown be the leading forward not the pack marker.
It seems to me that McMillan and McDonald were the main culprits and the rest didn't really have a chance. Except for Wood who was non-existent.
Out: McDonald, Wood, Vickers-Willis, Gameplan
In: Campbell, Thompson, Ahern, fast ball movement out of the backline.

Not being able to deal with a forward press has been something North under Scott have really struggled with. When we’re held in our defensive half with the oppositions press, our blokes just can’t get it out. They either just bomb it, kicking to an opponent, or they try to run it and gets closed down. I reckon this messes with our blokes mental state as they become panicky with the pressure and make poor decisions. In these cases of repeat entries from the opposition our blokes seem to adopt a siege mentality. Watching the behind the goals videos, there’s very little movement up field providing options.

If I was an oppo coach I’d be saying forward pressure is the best way to break North.

 

[Caracas]

I just want to see McKay play in a game where he has got good solid, experienced support around. So far, he's only played as our number one backstop. Tarrant was so underdone last Sunday, it stood out like a sore thumb. That's hardly fair for a young big man. This weekend, if he plays (and I sincerely hope he does), he'll be third banana. That's giving him the same opportunity to settle in as Majak got last year.

 

[shintemaster]

I just want to see McKay play in a game where he has got good solid, experienced support around. So far, he's only played as our number one backstop. Tarrant was so underdone last Sunday, it stood out like a sore thumb. That's hardly fair for a young big man. This weekend, if he plays (and I sincerely hope he does), he'll be third banana. That's giving him the same opportunity to settle in as Majak got last year.

Absolutely should play this week IMO. I'd be just about ready to burn the club down if he's one of the few dropped based off last week. Can't even comprehend them doing it.

 

[NinjaTurtle39]

I bet $200 on Brisbane now.
If North wins dramatically, I'm still happy.
If North is like Norf this week, I still can make more than $200 and feel better.

I feel this is the only way I'll get through the season

 

[Snake_Baker]

Your game plan against Freo would work against our game plan against West Coast. The main concern would be if you guys can limit your turnovers, and possibly adapt if we manage to successfully change our defensive scheme by quarter or half time..

Yeah well, we have to execute it in the first place.