Preview Round 5, 2020: GWS Giants v Hawthorn, 5 July 2020, 6.10pm @ Giants Stadium

[Bugs1977]

His disposals are down about 10% or 2 disposals per game when you consider reduced playing time.
BUT...his tackles are way up even with reduced playing time. Normalised to full quarters, his tackle count has almost doubled.
He is doing a lot of heavy duty work in the guts with his pressure work, but still finding the ball about the same all things considered.
It does look to me like he is making a point of applying as much pressure as possible. Perhaps this is his mandate at stoppages and then find the ball wherever thereafter.

This might give the impression that he is down on form bc he isn't catching the eye as much, but his output is still at a very high standard and I'm sure the coaches are very pleased with him so far.

This post is so true. It’s a classic case of someone not being lauded for doing the dirty work.

 

[Brishawk]

Exactly right. We need to cool our jets a little on expectations for a debutant.
Schneider, Hallahan, Lovell, Hartung, Garlett, ORourke, Howe, Cousins, Morrison, etc. Are all mids who came in with big wraps. Guys not getting a game always end up more highly rated than those who are on here (as if our club don't know anything). Being better than Worpel is a big ask- let's just hope he contributes and can cement his spot first. I'll be honest though - I'm excited - especially as it is said he 'accelerates from stoppages which is different for us.

Jones has more talent than most on that list (neither Howe or morrison were full time mids and neither was Garlett) begins only Garlett and o’rourke. A lot to like about his appetite for the contest and size. I think he will give us what we miss with Howe out. A physical presence at the stoppages. But jones has more upside than Howe so hopefully he can cement himself in the side. We are crying out for a player like him.

 

[Rookie Error]

Stoked for Jones!

Bit of an odd situation and question. I got a late minute call up for a work conference up in Sydney (leaving tomorrow) meaning I would be there for the next week and a bit. What's the procedure in obtaining/applying for tickets? Club website and emails are pretty quiet on that front.

About 5900 tickets available in a ballot I believe but ballot might have already been done 1-2 days ago

 

[Goldhawk]

Never realized that UTAS was the biggest ground in the AFL ,no wonder the Hawks do so well at that ground and the MCG.

 

[Dinsdale]

Stoked for Jones!

Bit of an odd situation and question. I got a late minute call up for a work conference up in Sydney (leaving tomorrow) meaning I would be there for the next week and a bit. What's the procedure in obtaining/applying for tickets? Club website and emails are pretty quiet on that front.

Phone the club. The ballot was for NSW and ACT interstate members.

Sent by shoephone via Tapatoe

 

[Bugs1977]

Never realized that UTAS was the biggest ground in the AFL ,no wonder the Hawks do so well at that ground and the MCG.

You can get lost out there at UTAS if your not careful

 

[Noel Gallagher]

Exactly right. We need to cool our jets a little on expectations for a debutant.
Schneider, Hallahan, Lovell, Hartung, Garlett, ORourke, Howe, Cousins, Morrison, etc. Are all mids who came in with big wraps. Guys not getting a game always end up more highly rated than those who are on here (as if our club don't know anything). Being better than Worpel is a big ask- let's just hope he contributes and can cement his spot first. I'll be honest though - I'm excited - especially as it is said he 'accelerates from stoppages which is different for us.

Out of all the players you have mentioned above, only Garlett came to us with big wraps and rightly so, he was an elite junior who was rated top five on talent alone in his draft year, we all know that his personal demons got the better of him. For some weird unexplainable reason, Schneider was rated highly by some but he was always a spud. Could get the ball but was pedestrian slow and couldn’t kick over a jam tin. Orourke will forever be one of life’s great mysteries I.e how the hell did he ever go pick 2?. Not one person on this forum was excited by his highlights package in his first two years at GWS. We got stiffed badly on that deal. Lovell was a massive reach at pick 22 and never ever excited anyone at Box Hill. Hurtungs big knock as junior was being soft and having little to no defensive pressure to his game - nothing changed as a senior player. Howe always came across as a good honest hard player with not enough leg speed and being slightly slow of mind re decision making. Nothing has changed there. Cousins was pick 46 in the rookie draft, came to us with zero hype and has performed well above what we expected. Hallahan was always slow, we kinda hoping for him develop into a Brad Sewell but it never happened.

I get what your saying it’s been disappointing but it’s not as if these guys bar JOR came as highly talented and high draft picks.

I understand your reservations with Jones but I personally have seen really nice qualities which could see him realistically develop into a Liam Shiels / James Worpel type midfielder. Fingers crossed

 

[savagelunchbox]

Stop putting words in my mouth FFS. I’m not making any excuses for the coaches or the players. I put the blame squarely at the feet of the coaches who decided to go with tactics that I feel were never going to work the same way they would on a bigger ground like the MCG. No I don’t think the familiarity of GHMBA should’ve been a 10 goal advantage but the ground familiarity is an advantage none the less. It’s very rarely that Clarko gets out coached but I won’t fault him due to the fact that he hasn’t coached there in over a decade. The ill equipped game plan the players were expected to execute made them look god awful and out of position most of the time. The disappointing part for me was to see little to no resistance once Geelong went on that huge run right after halftime. Was it the game plan or was it the effort? I kind of feel like it was a little of both but the players looked absolutely gassed and unable to stop the run.

Clarko commented in the presser that every time we tried to move the ball we ran out of space and if that hasn’t got anything to do with the ground dimensions being thinner then I’ll be f**ked. You were very critical of my post but you failed to mention my comment about the selection committee not replacing a like for like for JOM. Outside of the game plan not working I feel that we batted 1-2 midfielders too short which also contributed to us running out of legs. We brought in Dimma for JOM and that was a big mistake and I mentioned that in the preview thread.

If you want take what I said as making ‘excuses’ then I don’t really GAF but one thing I do know is that you sound like and epic douche the way you get your opinion across.

None of your reasons in this have anything to do with the slightly different shape of the ground. Now you're changing your argument. Replacing JOM with another mid doesn't make a 10 goal difference either.
Inability to execute an unsuitable gameplan doesn't account for bad kicking, bad ruck work and bad entry into the forward line. That's on the players and the coaches.
If Clarkson said that they ran out of space, that's the coach's fault and to a lesser extent the players for not being spatially aware.

The dimensions of the ground were no secret to the players and coaches. Believe it or not, but the club has cones in the equipment room to lay boundaries around Waverley Park to mimic the dimension of Kardinia Park.
These are professional players and professional coaches. They have access and the ability to train ad nauseam to prepare for the different dimension. The coaches would have had copious amounts of video footage to see how Geelong play the ground and how other teams have. There are also coaches in the box who have played down there and even coached down there in the VFL.

The ground's dimensions are not an excuse as much as you want to use them as one as a 'get-out clause' to pardon the players and coaches. As hawkman said, we were a goal behind at half time. How come it wasn't a factor then and only a factor in the 2nd half? (don't actually answer that; I don't care)

Just admit, you didn't think your original post through and were just looking for likes.
Show your admittance by not replying!

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

Never realized that UTAS was the biggest ground in the AFL ,no wonder the Hawks do so well at that ground and the MCG.

Still remember playing sport on the ground as a teen - multiple 5's in the one game. I wasn't the fastest runner - my batting partner hit a straight drive, called "Yes, FIVE!" and took off. He passed me on the 4th, and then had to sprint back for the 5th while I only finished my third. Confused the hell out of the umpires...

School footy finals were played there too - was ridiculous when most of us could only kick 30-35m.

 

[Bugs1977]

None of your reasons in this have anything to do with the slightly different shape of the ground. Now you're changing your argument. Replacing JOM with another mid doesn't make a 10 goal difference either.
Inability to execute an unsuitable gameplan doesn't account for bad kicking, bad ruck work and bad entry into the forward line. That's on the players and the coaches.
If Clarkson said that they ran out of space, that's the coach's fault and to a lesser extent the players for not being spatially aware.

The dimensions of the ground were no secret to the players and coaches. Believe it or not, but the club has cones in the equipment room to lay boundaries around Waverley Park to mimic the dimension of Kardinia Park.
These are professional players and professional coaches. They have access and the ability to train ad nauseam to prepare for the different dimension. The coaches would have had copious amounts of video footage to see how Geelong play the ground and how other teams have. There are also coaches in the box who have played down there and even coached down there in the VFL.

The ground's dimensions are not an excuse as much as you want to use them as one as a 'get-out clause' to pardon the players and coaches. As hawkman said, we were a goal behind at half time. How come it wasn't a factor then and only a factor in the 2nd half? (don't actually answer that; I don't care)

Just admit, you didn't think your original post through and were just looking for likes.
Show your admittance by not replying!

I’m not admitting a damn thing because there is nothing to admit. You like you do a lot with other posters assume what they are thinking or what they are trying to say. I by no means was making excuses for the coaches or the players. The blame for how we played starts at the top and that is Clarko to the line coaches to the players effort. I thought I made that crystal clear that is the way I felt. If you think that the ground dimensions didn’t play a factor in the loss then for all I care we can agree to disagree.

Oh and I’ve got no qualms in answering the part about us only being down a goal at half time at all. Yes we were only 6 points down but the way we were playing (game style / game plan) that margin was very flattering and if not for some individual brilliance from a few it could easily have been a 4-5 goal Cats lead.

We like to switch the play sideways and backwards to the side if we have to (by foot) but doing so on a ground that is only 118m wide was always going to pose us problems. They were content to scrap the ball forward to there huge scrum of players and then consistently pushed most of their midfielders around the ball whereas our game plan was to keep an even spread on a very thin yet long football ground if you can call it that. In the past we have tried the same thing against the Swans when they were playing out of the Stadium Australia that had similar width dimensions and most of the time we got beat. It’s absolutely no coincidence that the team that has had the most success against the Cats at GHMBA over the years has been the Swans because they have been bloody used to playing there.

Now you mention that we mapped out the dimensions of GHMBA in the lead up to that game but FFS man training with those dimensions and actually playing on them against opposition who consistently train and play on them is like apples and oranges. Also we only had a handful of players that had played there in the past with the most recent being Mitchell and Wingard. Burgoyne would’ve played there almost a decade ago and Worpel never at the AFL level. Frost might’ve played there but he had an okay game so that probably just proves the familiarity point.

Finally I’d like to think that we actually agree that we played crap so let’s just leave it at that.

 

[Easy Slips Catch]

Happy about the Jones selection. Been close for a while now. For mine, he plays more like Sheila than Worp. His hands are great, his kicking probably lacks a bit of hurt.

 

[WWSD]

WWSD you really are underselling Sicily & Smith, both been more than solid so far this year.

I didn’t say they were bad, but they’ve been below their best in my opinion. Which is a good thing in a way. It means there’s still upside!

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[Mojo]

Out of all the players you have mentioned above, only Garlett came to us with big wraps and rightly so, he was an elite junior who was rated top five on talent alone in his draft year, we all know that his personal demons got the better of him. For some weird unexplainable reason, Schneider was rated highly by some but he was always a spud. Could get the ball but was pedestrian slow and couldn’t kick over a jam tin. Orourke will forever be one of life’s great mysteries I.e how the hell did he ever go pick 2?. Not one person on this forum was excited by his highlights package in his first two years at GWS. We got stiffed badly on that deal. Lovell was a massive reach at pick 22 and never ever excited anyone at Box Hill. Hurtungs big knock as junior was being soft and having little to no defensive pressure to his game - nothing changed as a senior player. Howe always came across as a good honest hard player with not enough leg speed and being slightly slow of mind re decision making. Nothing has changed there. Cousins was pick 46 in the rookie draft, came to us with zero hype and has performed well above what we expected. Hallahan was always slow, we kinda hoping for him develop into a Brad Sewell but it never happened.

I get what your saying it’s been disappointing but it’s not as if these guys bar JOR came as highly talented and high draft picks.

I understand your reservations with Jones but I personally have seen really nice qualities which could see him realistically develop into a Liam Shiels / James Worpel type midfielder. Fingers crossed

We're short a midfielder with a high IQ, I reckon. We've replaced Sam Mitchell, Jordan Lewis, Luke Hodge, Cyril Rioli with substantially less nous and average foot skills.

 

[Mojo]

Real chance now.

 

[WWSD]

With Taylor and Williams already out, plus Davis under an injury cloud the Giants defence will be tested. Big games will be needed from O’Brien, Lewis and Gunston.

 

[Luv_our_club]

Real chance now.

Has it been confirmed that P. Davis is not playing also? He didn't look that fit at the end of last weeks game.

 

[Luv_our_club]

There have been a lot of AFL injuries in the first 5 rounds. A lot of teams weakened. Stringer just went down for as much as 3 months.

Keeping our team in tact is almost as important as winning right now, especially as we have wins on the board. The silver lining in a loss tomorrow would be a clean injury report.

 

[grumbleguts]

Callan Ward out. Being replaced by Tom Sheridan. (Anyone else thinking of bringing back Cyril?)

 

[Hawk Dork]

Callan Ward out. Being replaced by Tom Sheridan. (Anyone else thinking of bringing back Cyril?)

always

 

[Bugs1977]

I’ve still got my hat ready to eat if Davis plays by the way

 

[RoughysMullet]

Ward out, would be shocked if Davis wasn’t a late out. Tommy Sheridan in- still have great memories of him being Cyril’d in that prelim against Freo over there

 

[TylerDurden]

I’ve still got my hat ready to eat if Davis plays by the way

I'll say it again, no point risking Davis at this stage of the season. We certainly wouldn't.

 

[Burtman]

This is an amazing chance to get ahead of the pack, getting an undermanned gws then an out of form collingwood without Sidebottom and Howe, we can set up our year in the next two weeks. That’s pretty much every decent team from last year done and dusted

 

[bris tarangau]

We're short a midfielder with a high IQ, I reckon. We've replaced Sam Mitchell, Jordan Lewis, Luke Hodge, Cyril Rioli with substantially less nous and average foot skills.

THIS! Agree totally