Autopsy Round 21, 2025: Positives and Negatives vs Melbourne

[Byron_Clanger]

It's always one quarter where they play like witches hats and the oppo pile on like 7,8,9,10 goals and kills the game. The Dees doing that imagine what it's gonna be like against the Crows and Dogs in the next two weeks

We legit have the worst collection of experienced players in the history of the game.

 

[bzparkes]

I'm not sure I can mentally handle both teams B2B...

 

[Cuzz09]

I think people had a feeling we could push or even win today that's why its annoying too.

But a positive is next 2 weeks no one has a single hope for us so maybe we will just go out and have a go and enjoy it pressure off.

Clutching at straws but need something FFS

 

[bzparkes]

It's always one quarter where they play like witches hats and the oppo pile on like 7,8,9,10 goals and kills the game. The Dees doing that imagine what it's gonna be like against the Crows and Dogs in the next two weeks

We legit have the worst collection of experienced players in the history of the game.

It's because our good players ended up retiring and our role players are the ones who were more durable and able to play on.

 

[Elite Pete]

Pos

• McCarthy, need another one of him off the hff and in the middle.
• the young Big boys showed glimpses.
• Chesser, run and carry and hitting the kicks. Team will be asking the question if we don’t sign him.

Neg

• Contested possies from our mids. Was way too easy and that’s with Kelly and Baker in there.
• The umps trialling out a rule in our game again.
• 10 goal quarter against us from Melbourne. Teams are really struggling to stop momentum but that was next level, even if 3 of them were from rule of the week… rule of the game….
• The next 2 weeks is going to be next level bad.

 

[unty11]

Positives

• Chess i've been an advocate of having him play for his career in the final few games, he actually looked quick today as well
• some of the other younger guys getting touches
• archer played ok kicked a goal would like to see him get more of time in the ruck but can understand why mini might not want to expose him to afl level rucks for four quarters

negatives

• bailey can't defend around the ground if his life depended on it
• our tackling in the midfield was really poor, too many broken tackles a lot of the young fella's need a full pre-season in the strong room
• I know mcarthy and maric racked up a some touches but it's never a good sign when your half backs are major ball winners
• also what where all those hero kicks out of the goal square in the first quarter literal witho tier stuff?

 

[Dark Sharks]

- Gross got 1 solitary CBD all game. After all the talk of him filling the void of no Harley, this is the opportunity he gets?? Go look in the mirror McQualter.

- This whole Hough midfield thing is a waste of time. I'm all for just leaving McCarthy there and Hough goes back into defense where he's played his best footy.

- Tall forwards have an excuse as they're only young, but Williams letting Gawn do whatever he wanted all game in marking contests was abysmal. Drop him plz.

- No real green shoots. Good to see A.Reid get more of an opportunity in the ruck, and good to see McCarthy get 4 CBA's finally, but for anyone who didn't watch this game you miss absolutely nothing. Nothing good. No shoots, nothing worth looking at again. Give it a miss.

- Cripps, Owies just awful again. Cripps is totally getting an extension given he's leading our goal kicking, so be prepared for this pairing again come round 1 next year.

- Trounced in the midfield, uncompetitive at CBD's. Would love a coaching and stoppage shakeup because it's not not feasible or good enough.

- First quarter was one of the most pathetic displays of a footy team I've seen this year. I questioned how the AFL can actually let us even be a part of the comp still with how we played. The fumbles, the skills, the lack of direction and game plan... Just pathetic.

- Maric annoys me. It's harsh, but I don't care if he gets 50 touches a game, his defensive efforts and decision making isn't wining me over. I'd prefer he got it less tbh. 7 direct turnovers, excluding the dumb kicks to a 50-50 which get spoiled and turned over as well.

- Davis as sub. Why? You give a young player a go to see what they can do, especially this late in the year, so what is he going to show in 1 quarter ffs. Should've been Owies.




+ McCarthy bounced back after a quiet couple weeks with some dare and dash. Actual elite kicking, as opposed to what Maric does.

+ Happy for Chesser. I do expect he'll get an extension, I said as much even before this game. Hopefully he can carry on with it for the final 3 game.s

+ Cole was good. Rarely gets praise on this board but deserves it. 24D, 9 intercepts, 3 tackles. Solid.

+ Career high disposals for Hewett. The build continues. Just gonna have to be patient.

 

[Coasters7]

The umpiring is frustrating because it came at a point where we were actually starting to swing the momentum.

Then they get handed 2-3 goals to get the margin back out over 30, our blokes all drop their heads, and it’s the same old story again.

Semi competitive for large parts of the game -> shit umpiring calls or poor individual errors cost us a goal or two -> floodgates open as a result. Same script every week

 

[Wce17]

Wonder what excuses mcqualter will have this time..

Please tell me exactly what he should be doing with what he's got to work with?

 

[Scotland]

• I know mcarthy and maric racked up a some touches but it's never a good sign when your half backs are major ball winners

Josh Daicos, Wanganeen-Milera, Ash, Sheezel, Dale, Whitfield, Sinclair are all in the top 10 ball winners in the comp. Most them are also high up in the standings for rebound 50s too.

No shade that our half backs get 20-30 touches, especially given kick ins count. The bigger concern is that Kelly 26 and Hewett 23 touches is good for us. Baker who is a part time mid is our only mid averaging over 20 touches a game. As much as Reid and Hewett have shown as young players you can't have your top 2 clearance winners averaging 19 and 16 touches a game. Brisbane who have one of the elite midfields have 3 players with 100+ clearances averaging 26 touches. Harley has 74 clearances and Baker averages 22 touches. That's how far off we are compared to the best.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Sack Mini

 

[Broken_Chairs]

+

• McCartney is so bloody good, such a great pick up. A shining light in a whole lot of darkness.
• Hewett: impressive game, 23 touches 4Q effort ️️️
• Chess: really good return to AFL, looked to be everything advertised. Clean disposal & beautiful kick. Looked a big upgrades on Hutch.
• Ginbeast what a monster, one of our best
• Gross big first quarter but dropped away somewhat. Not unexpected, needs to build his tank but has the tools required.
• AReid, Shanahan - not an easy day to be a 19yo KPF, our connection to our fwrds was awful. Both competed hard, kicked goals & showed their quality. Will be very good with time.
• Cole was excellent, our best senior and perhaps our best in defense.

-

• Basically everything else. Got flogged, kicked every ball to Gawn like he had magnets in his hands, made spuds like Petty look like superstars and gave Culley the most depressingly fairytale debut for the Demons.
• Duggan has become a real problem. Captain, 28yo in his prime, does nearly enough right yet has so many shockingly bad moments.
• BWill not an AFL ruck, mistimed every contest, gave us nothing
• Hough was nowhere. looked like he was on Viney who got off the chain, brought nothing the other way. Just a bit disappointing overall for someone I rate so highly.
• Bazzo was poor, still very young for a KPP, but signs not looking good.
• Umps for using our game to softlaunch a reinterpretation of the in the back rule. Glad it's back tbh, but was jarring to our backs give away frees for something that hadn't been called in 5yrs

 

[Couchpotato]

+
Ginbey proving that last week was an aberration- a very good defender, he is

 

[Scotland]

The umpiring is frustrating because it came at a point where we were actually starting to swing the momentum.

Then they get handed 2-3 goals to get the margin back out over 30, our blokes all drop their heads, and it’s the same old story again.

Semi competitive for large parts of the game -> shit umpiring calls or poor individual errors cost us a goal or two -> floodgates open as a result. Same script every week

The umpiring was a joke. Harry Edwards breathed on an opponent and it was a free, but any kind of arm chop, over the shoulder, front on contact against him was fine. Guaranteed the same sudden change in interpretation won't apply in the Pies/Lions game tonight which means something.

Brockman was penalised for a block because he led at the ball and we kicked it over his head. Meanwhile Melksham is actively working off the ball to block one of our talls from contesting Gawn in the goalsquare (when the ball is still 50m away) and the commentators are praising him.

 

[unty11]

Josh Daicos, Wanganeen-Milera, Ash, Sheezel, Dale, Whitfield, Sinclair are all in the top 10 ball winners in the comp. Most them are also high up in the standings for rebound 50s too.

No shade that our half backs get 20-30 touches, especially given kick ins count. The bigger concern is that Kelly 26 and Hewett 23 touches is good for us. Baker who is a part time mid is our only mid averaging over 20 touches a game. As much as Reid and Hewett have shown as young players you can't have your top 2 clearance winners averaging 19 and 16 touches a game. Brisbane who have one of the elite midfields have 3 players with 100+ clearances averaging 26 touches. Harley has 74 clearances and Baker averages 22 touches. That's how far off we are compared to the best.

My sentiments exactly I didn't mean to throw shade on mcarthy and maric's performance well maric had a few howlers but yeah i'd much rather our midfielders racking up the numbers. I'm starting to think it's not just a ruck problem but as others have said a stoppage problem. Like our running lanes and where guys are setting up is wrong.

 

[braddalzielleoursaviour]

Thought Maric actually had a great game bar a few errors. Hes much better forward of centre with his kicking.

Tmac is our best player and would be a deadly pairing with Josh Lindsay.
Ginbey was good today.
Hewett had 23 touches, must say I thought he didn’t offer a lot really. A solid transition midfielder but where is the stoppage/powerful clearance player I was promised?
When he’s not sprinting he doesn’t cover the ground very well.

 

[unty11]

+

• Cole was excellent, our best senior and perhaps our best in defense.

-

• Duggan has become a real problem. Captain, 28yo in his prime, does nearly enough right yet has so many shockingly bad moments.
• BWill not an AFL ruck, mistimed every contest, gave us nothing
• Hough was nowhere. looked like he was on Viney who got off the chain, brought nothing the other way. Just a bit disappointing overall for someone I rate so highly.
• Bazzo was poor, still very young for a KPP, but signs not looking good.

Agree on most of this besides bazzo.

I think bazzo was under a lot of pressure and disposed of it poorly but I thought he competed well and offered an outlet I think in time he'll get used to afl pressure and dispose of the ball decently. I think theirs something to work with in bazzo.

 

[KERRPOW]

Positive: i wont waste half my day getting to Optus stadium to see the eagles down 10 goals at quarter time next week.

Negative: will fold cheaper than dark sharts on leg day and see the eagles down 10 goals at quarter time next week.

 

[The Gtrain]

Typical WC game that spuds like Petty and Fritsch kick goals. Fritsch is a good player but has been so poor this year he was dropped. Happy to see Culley get a game and do OK (he had 13 touches and kicked 2, calm down commentators) but I don't want to hear about how we de-listed the next Ablett Jr all week.

Same faults as usual in how we actually play. What other team chips the ball around the back 50 to contests? Every week we manage to oscillate between 18 players and none of them free when we have the ball to 18 opponents all in space when we don't have the ball. It's like we train against a bowling machine set at 120 km/h then go out and think we can face the Windies quicks of the 80s and 90s with a stacked slips cordon.

Gawn wasn't as good as he could've been but we gave him every chance. Williams leads up, we kick it on his head. Williams plays from behind (why??) and we drop it in front. Seriously dumb football. A few times Williams wasn't within 50 metres of Gawn and we still kicked it to him. Whenever Gawn was up the line we looked so much better switching to the open side even if it is slow ball movement.

Was hoping during the 3rd quarter we could go in 30-40 down so there was a 'chance' of another choke. We don't have the weapons to put on a 7, 8, 9 goal quarter but just to get it back to 20 or so and make them fight it out would've been nice. When Duggan and Cole both turned goal opportunities into turnovers and goals at the other end and the umpires decided that every inside 50 from then on would be a free that ruined the game as any kind of contest or spectacle. Going into the last 10 goals down I'm surprised they only added 20 to it.

On the plus side I think Owies did something. Not much but more than last week's nothing. Worked up the ground and at least gave a leading option and took 4 marks. Would've been more if we stopped kicking it to Max Gawn instead.

Get ready for it, you know its happening, probably on the back page of the west.

"You must Jaiking as Culley has last laugh"

 

[FKASC]

Thought Maric actually had a great game bar a few errors. Hes much better forward of centre with his kicking.

Indeed. I’d much prefer we play him as a high half forward.

 

[Scotland]

We're shit at every aspect let's be honest. That's why we are 1-19.

If we had Reid, Yeo and Kelly in the middle all fit and playing well we could at least hang our hat on having a competitive centre square setup. We don't, that's footy.

Even last year we had Gov at one end and Waterman at the other, and for the last 5-10 games Allen also. Teams had to respect that. Spine today was Edwards and Bazzo at one end and Archer Reid and Shanahan at the other. Not even 100 games between 4 of them.

Melbourne still have Gawn, Viney, Petracca, Oliver, Pickett plus Salem and others which is much stronger than anything put together in the middle. The reason they can flog us and concede 9 in a row to St Kilda is their ordinary spine looks good against us. No Lever and May and no real good key forwards on the list.

 

[WCErevival]

Poor Cole was staring at the ground on the bench at the end of the game. Probably thinking can he bothered going on again next year.

 

[Cornelius Roy]

Positive: Tom McCarthy is the most well balanced player on our list.

Negative: A bloke that was stacking shelves at Woolworths and didn’t do a preseason has surpassed blokes who have been in a professional environment for multiple years.


Ginbey was fantastic as well.

 

[Broken_Chairs]

Agree on most of this besides bazzo.

I think bazzo was under a lot of pressure and disposed of it poorly but I thought he competed well and offered an outlet I think in time he'll get used to afl pressure and dispose of the ball decently. I think theirs something to work with in bazzo.

I hope so, we're desperate for a KPD to come on. I have to keep reminding myself how young he is and how awful Darren Glass looked early on.

 

[Goroyals22]

Mcqualters has lost his happy go lucky attitude at the after match press conference. Hopefully some home truths are about to be told to a few of the remaining credit crew members