Kennedy Parker
🎨𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙🎨
- Moderator
- #1
Alright so usually try to leave the GDT open a few hours after the match end so people have some time to blow off steam and gather thoughts.
All round pretty miserable day, sadly first with JK Sr's passing, thoughts are with JPK and the Kennedy family. Then Sam Naismith's knee injury after all of his issues over the last couple of years, that's some devastating news, and in general the really flat performance on a milestone game for legend of this club and one of the true greats of the AFL, extremely disappointing result.
In terms of the finer details of the game, a few observations:
Positives
Negatives
All round pretty miserable day, sadly first with JK Sr's passing, thoughts are with JPK and the Kennedy family. Then Sam Naismith's knee injury after all of his issues over the last couple of years, that's some devastating news, and in general the really flat performance on a milestone game for legend of this club and one of the true greats of the AFL, extremely disappointing result.
In terms of the finer details of the game, a few observations:
Positives
- Papley is a boss - 4 goals, set up opportunities for others, every time he was near it he looked dangerous and was the only one who consistently found space inside 50 for us on the night.
- McInerney and Rowbottom really competed all night and showed some good signs that they belong at AFL level.
- Parker tried all game, lacked some polish but led from the front with his grunt; 9 clearances I think deserves props.
- We made some changes in the second half which seemed effective, Mills to the midfield was able to find some of the ball and be involved in creating some scoring opportunities, Hayward did look better when moved to half-back - unlike Rohan he at least seems a good enough read of the play to get to the right positions to compete.
Negatives
- Once again slow out of the blocks, looked like we didn't even want to be there and you could count on one hand the number of players putting in their full effort. Pretty embarrassing attitude in the first half as the Dogs were convincingly working harder than us and putting on more pressure.
- We have a continual issue with our entries into the forward 50 particularly at the SCG and not much seems to be changing to fix it.
- Selection; we went in tall - couldn't win a contested mark for half the game, at one point it was 9 to 0. That speaks for itself.
- The rest of the forward line appeared completely dysfunctional outside of Papley - it seemed like he was the only one making leads most of the game, no connection between delivery and forward position. Much like the Bombers game, too much long bombing and easy interceptions for defenders.
- Heeney continues to be inconsistent
- Opposition teams have figured out Aliir's weakness in one-on-one defending and aren't allowing him to cut across to other contests and intercept, it's always been a weakness but now no Grundy, no Brand, no Melican he's really getting exposed and that's something he'll need to adapt to because it's going to continue.
- Lewis Taylor, he's there to kick goals and if he ain't kicking goals he's got nothing else going for him.
- Blakey needs to be dropped, he's running around simply with no presence out there, not crashing packs, not making a contest, not sticking tackles, not playing with intent. In the last couple games he's popped up for an opportunistic goal here and there but its been a theme this entire year to date.
- Can't fault Robbie Fox's efforts but I think the AFL is a bit above him to be honest