Review Round 6, 2022 vs West Coast

[tribey]

The West Coast side on paper was not nearly as undermanned as people have been saying. The forward 6 are all AFL players, the midfield had genuine quality and the defence had some decent experience and quality, although it was thin.

They really missed Powerspud Petruccelle who likes to haunt us.

What I couldn't get over was how bad they were. Kennedy and Darling were there for decoration, Ryan just played for frees, Rioli was invisible. Shuey, Kelly et al found the ball but did nothing with it and the defence was under siege. Barrass took a couple of nice marks, Hurn looked like he wondered whether one more season was such a good idea.

But even so, their game plan suits Adelaide Oval and they have continually embarrassed us there.

End of the day it was almost a no win situation. fu** a corpse and everyone calls you a necrophiliac, but no one wants to be the US politician who lost to a dead guy.

They really haven’t coped with COVID footy at all.

I don’t think it was as blatantly bad as when we beat them in the Queensland hub, when premiership midfielders were literally strolling behind our guys at contests in “WE DON’T WANT TO BE HERE” fashion, but this year is a complete wash for them.

As I said on the gameday thread, if it wasn’t elite professional competition they’d pull out and reconvene in 2023.

 

[Garibaldi Red]

Watched the replay. Pick up some things you don't see live.

1st quarter as bad as the 1st half versus Carlton.
Kicked jus 4 goals from late 2nd quarter to midway into the last quarter
Kicked 6 gòals in 12 minutes in 2nd quarter and 6 in 13 minutes in the last.
Quite a roller coaster!

Even when kicking bags of sausage rolls, whilst the intent, tackle pressure and aggression at the contest to win the ball or force a turnover was fabulous, and the running in waves to present options was brilliant, the movement into the forward 50 still lacked fluency. Not as many goals were from coast to coast transition across the lines and crisp, efficient delivery to a lasing forward.

Many of our goals were the result of sporadic individual acts of brilliance ie. snaps from the boundary line, rather than link plays ending with an easy pass to a player on the lead in space straight in front of goal.

Fortunately, we did discover a few times how to get most of the forwards spreading all over the place to get defenders to follow them and open up alleyways to lead into. Bonner, Houston and Farrell delivered a taste of things to come with a few sublime passes to said leading forwards.

Need to build on that foundation and not regress into a defensive mindset again! That's whwt people want to see more of. None of this treacle slow movement from defence nor forwards standing hands on hips like witches hats.

Work hard (hi Ken ) and try to create opportunities, instead of being lazy ****s all the time, and just hoping things will "magically" happen.

Something to build on though. See if they can ramp it up a couple of notches versus St K.

Yes, your first 2 points are the reason I am feeling ok with the win but still very flat.

Happy to see Ollie out there, when it first happened, I wasn’t expecting to see him play again this season.
Sam Hayes was bloody good and I was happy for Todd and Jezza (wish he had taken that shot that he gave off the Boaky before getting it back though).

Good to see Connor get into some form over the last couple of weeks. Hope it continues.

Some decent play but the opposition was nothing to write home about.

I have this bloody awful chant in my head from a group that sits behind us “Power, Power, kick another goal”. Most of their other chants are ok but this one makes me cringe.

Maybe I am just a miserable old soul.

 

[Shaucob_Burjan]

Adam Simpson called us the best 0-5 in the history of the game lmao.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Yes, your first 2 points are the reason I am feeling ok with the win but still very flat.

Happy to see Ollie out there, when it first happened, I wasn’t expecting to see him play again this season.
Sam Hayes was bloody good and I was happy for Todd and Jezza (wish he had taken that shot that he gave off the Boaky before getting it back though).

Good to see Connor get into some form over the last couple of weeks. Hope it continues.

Some decent play but the opposition was nothing to write home about.

I have this bloody awful chant in my head from a group that sits behind us “Power, Power, kick another goal”. Most of their other chants are ok but this one makes me cringe.

Maybe I am just a miserable old soul.

I think one of their cheerleaders came down the aisle closest to me and tried to get the whole bay going.

I was worried he was going to start chanting Kenny Kenny another five years!

 

[Buget]

Only got the first half of the game, Hayes’ tap work was much better than Williams. And judging by playing 83% of the game, he ran it out better….

 

[Prison bar Pete]

I think one of their cheerleaders came down the aisle closest to me and tried to get the whole bay going.

I was worried he was going to start chanting Kenny Kenny another five years!

Can we have the green sick face as an emoji "Like" option please Ford?

 

[240volt]

Adam Simpson called us the best 0-5 in the history of the game lmao.

The natives are not happy in Perth Simpson might beat Kenny to the door.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

It irks me that our rucks should be Hayes and Ladhams with Lycett in the seconds as emergency (or traded).

shows you how s**t the whole ruck management has been for years thanks to Hartley/Cripps and Parker.

If we didn't have such thin ruck stocks and development of our rucks we wouldn't have offered a solid ruckman, a 5 year deal at $600k with minimal performance clauses. We are too scared to drop Lycett this year because he is still getting paid a base of about $500k. Next year is his final year and its bad luck if he isn't good enough to play 2nd ruck IMO.

2001 we had Primus ( did an ACL in 1999) Lade (broke his leg in 2000 and again in the same place in 2001 preseason game) French (rookied from rowing but had played for Sturt and had broken his arm in the preseason) Brogan (rookied after transferring from basketball) and a young 19 year old Cain Ackland was drafted in 2000 and forced to play the first 12 games of 2001 to support Primus. Brogan then got to play 6 or 7 games after Ackland had hit the wall in the winter months.

What did we do with our first pick #15 of 2001?? We drafted another ruckman - Barry Brooks - whom we traded in 2002 along with French.

After Carlton and Freo were stripped of picks Brooks helped us get a pick used to get Salopek (8 originally then down to 6), and Byron Pickett (35 down to 31, then used in the Picket trade) and French got us pick 18 which became 16 and we drafted a KPD Stephen Gilham who only played 1 game for us but Clarko rookie drafted him after we delisted him at end of 2004 and he is a premiership player in 2008.

We wont have another ruck management period like that under the current regime.

 

[Saltiga]

This season has become a conundrum for me. If we somehow manage to win 10 or 11 games and finish 9th, we'll still have achieved nothing but also lost the top 5 pick we need to get a quality big young KPF like Lemmy.

Butters was in hospital during the week with gastro. Amazing he even made the field. Explains his quiet game.

 

[Portology]

Might be up to watching the full replay of this one.

 

[GremioPower]

Nah, Connor West is a Kane Mitchell/Sam Gray tier state league spud. Too good for SANFL (or WAFL in his case), not good enough for AFL.

It’s called “depth”. A Replacement-Level player.

Usually, these players lack consistency, with a huge gap between their best and their worst. So, they are unreliable in the majors.

Coaches prefer reliable players: not as good, but almost never as bad. Still, having a couple of high risk/high reward card on your hand might be useful.

As frustrating as they may be, they are capable of playing in a high level. It doesn’t hurt having a couple of those in the list.

 

[GremioPower]

Hard to judge who’s good and who’s bad after playing the worst west coast side I’ve ever seen.
What we really got out of this game was confidence and that’s a big issue with our side.

A good side must crush bad sides. We did that. Period. Thus, we aren’t bad.

The question is whether we can be that good consistently; i.e. are we good enough?

The answer is “most probably not.” Still, it’s not a definitive statement yet.

 

[GremioPower]

Need to build on that foundation and not regress into a defensive mindset again! That's whwt people want to see more of.

I want to see wins. An entertaining style unable to beat anyone is bad. If the “defensive mindset” were working, I wouldn’t complain at all.

Just pick the style that fits our squad the best and give us the best chance of winning. Get smart players who are able to switch style depending on the situation. We should exploit our opponents’ weaknesses and protect ourselves against their strengths — regardless of what those are.

 

[rogerjames]

Really awesome to get the win, not for Hinkley, but for the young players who had a chance to stand up and show that they’re our future.

It’s amazing what a ruckman who can put the ball to somewhere our mids can extract it can do for our mids, and what a bit of space and not bombing it in does for our forward efficiency and the form of our forwards.

Yes it was a s**t opposition, but the core things that worked today will carry us against any team once you can do them repeatedly (and not lapse back to crap) and take care of a few holes.

Marshall - ripper game. Got the reward on the board but if he makes that effort I don’t care if he kicks bags or not. We’re a better team for having developed him. There’s gonna be weeks he kicks 1 goal and weeks he gets 5 but if we get the same effort from him the last two weeks I’m happy and so should everyone else with any sense. Competed in the air, tackled hard, kicked goals. High effort game. He was growing as a player last year and is growing this year. Amazing how if you put time into a kpf that it might pay off hey? Is still young as well, being another 2 or so years from being considered in his prime.

Houston - very strong game. Looking more like the Houston we loved before last years crap. Is elite when he’s on. The thing I enjoyed most was the intercepts, he really knows how to read the ball and float across and cut off kicks. He really protects our under fire defenders when he’s doing that.

Rozee - fu** yes. This is what I’ve wanted. Who lit a fire under his ass? He’s got the tools we need in the midfield and they are tools you can’t just pick up anywhere. They’re one of a kind. 31d but 15 contested! And 8 clearances is great. I’ve been saying for ages what we need is mids who can extract the ball from a stoppage (and take it out themselves rather than shovel it to the next under pressure player) and rozee brings that. Had a real intense vibe out there tonight, something must have been said to him by someone.

Wines - good to have him back. Workmanlike game by wines.

Boak - classic boak high workrate performance.

Finlayson- 5 goals is a great result. When is the last time we had 2 kfs kick 5 goals in the same game? Thought he was a bit slow to get going but really worked into it. Worked hard and got the results.

Spp - strong game from Spp who is having a good year and seems to be growing each game. Finally getting a hang of his role, though he’s kinda playing different to last year and coming higher up the ground to basically be an extra mid around half forward. I wouldn’t even really call him a forward anymore, he’s a half forward flanker playing as another mid in the forward half.

Drew - usual drew game but good to see him find much more footy. Much better balance of the defensive and offensive sides of his games.

Amon - better game from him, dropping didn’t make sense in relation to how much better he’s been than other players who haven’t been dropped (or dropped and come back) but can understand if they thought he needed a kick in the backside and this might motivate him? In any case 25d and a goal. Drove us forward time and again.

Georgiades- other kfs were the stars of the show but loved Georgiades appetite for the contest especially early. Hated that he didn’t want to kick the goal and passed it off, it’s not the mentality we should be trying to foster on our spearhead, but a strong competitive game from Mitch that helped our other forwards get free.

Bonner - I really have enjoyed bonners year, he’s stepped up and thought that started last season, but there was a couple of s**t efforts today. But still he’s growing into one of our key players.

Hayes - you ******* beauty. Yeah, I’ve been telling people for ages, yes he’s a dinosaur but he’s the dinosaur we ******* need. Check the afl stats, he’s elite for hitouts to advantage (3rd in the afl) as a kid who still has massive improvement in him.

Farrell - what a return from an acl. ******* miracle. There’s some ******* desire to make it there when you come back from an acl looking like you’ve been at some high altitude training camp instead of on crutches. We need him in the side as much as possible now.

Dbj - Dbj game. High effort, good when the ball is on the ground at winning it, ineffective when the ball is in the air and a worry when the ball is in his hands but nothing notably bad in that way from him tonight. good game but not a great game.

Burton - good game without being amazing. Generated run, protected our other defenders a bit.

Motlop - had a good end to the game but was largely invisible in the first half when the ball spent plenty of time in our half. Some good effort, a goal and 2 goal assists is a decent return. Having said that I’m not sure I want to tolerate a half of football from a senior 30yr old player who’s halfway retired when we could be getting games into younger players.

Jonas - thought he looked slow a few times tonight, his opponent at the contest got away from him like Tom was stuck in mud. 5 score involvements is a pretty damn good return from a defender though, buggered if I know how he accomplished that with his kicking.

Dumont - utterly invisible. Had 13d in a runaway game we dominated, and those 13d were nothing touches about as memorable as a blank page.

Clurey - meh game.

Butters - had some really good moments but wtf happened? Copped a high hit early, the. A player hit him hard in the ribs soon after and then he died away. Wasn’t in the centre as much after they or 100%. This isn’t the first time that teams have gone after him early and he’s been less than okay after it. I know the early head high was incidental but there’s a real history of going after him now, and I think it’s a real tactic by teams. We need to protect him. Both by players on our team going after the oppo who targets him, I don’t give a fu** if we get fined, hit any bastard that puts butters down for the next 5 weeks and it will stop. Also call out butters treatment non-stop for several weeks in the media.

Alir - still not right and we shouldn’t be risking him to save hinkleys skin. We’ve got a perfectly good key defender absolutely on fire in the sanfl in pasini that needs to be blooded.

Gray - the mind is willing but the body is cooked. Champion of the sport. Any game now could be his last. Ease him through it, don’t be afraid to rest him and for fu**s sake don’t ask him to perform miracles in order for us to score goals

Jones - comical fall over when Marshall delivered the ball to him wide open for miles. Could have run all the way to goal or handed it off to one of the other wide open players but fell over. Yes there is lots to like about jones. Yes he’s a 1st 22 player who will play more than 200 games for port. He’s defensively strong in the contest, but he’s a sloppy butter fingered hot mess and we need to consider him a work in progress. We need to do whatever is best to help him develop his ball handling, composure and ball skills. If that is playing him at afl level and working on those areas during the week, ok, but I do wonder if we could accelerate that by playing him in the midfield at sanfl level for a few weeks and telling him to work on those things there. Only because he gets to get his hands on it heaps more times in the midfield at sanfl than at afl in the backlines. It’s just a thought, whatever happens he needs to spend the next preseason spending all his time working with a ball.

Good read. Only thing I'd mention is that Dumont did a few elite hand passes out of packs to set up plays. But he needs to find more of it.

 

[rogerjames]

Disagree. Did some very nice things with the ball. Needs to find more of it.

Exactly what I thought

 

[Us against the rest]

They really haven’t coped with COVID footy at all.

I don’t think it was as blatantly bad as when we beat them in the Queensland hub, when premiership midfielders were literally strolling behind our guys at contests in “WE DON’T WANT TO BE HERE” fashion, but this year is a complete wash for them.

As I said on the gameday thread, if it wasn’t elite professional competition they’d pull out and reconvene in 2023.

We caught WC off guard in a similar fashion back in 2020, I'm convinced WC thought the season would be cancelled.

 

[Marmozet]

We caught WC off guard in a similar fashion back in 2020, I'm convinced WC thought the season would be cancelled.

That’s the exact game he’s talking about.

 

[Rexie J]

This season has become a conundrum for me. If we somehow manage to win 10 or 11 games and finish 9th, we'll still have achieved nothing but also lost the top 5 pick we need to get a quality big young KPF like Lemmy.

Butters was in hospital during the week with gastro. Amazing he even made the field. Explains his quiet game.

Agree he was lucky to be playing but then he copped a knee to the back of his head moments after the first bounce. The WC player (Hurn?) sort of hurdled him but 'accidently' kneed him with his left knee. Butters stayed down for a bit but the lad has guts to burn.

 

[Duckimus Prime]

Agree he was lucky to be playing but then he copped a knee to the back of his head moments after the first bounce. The WC player (Hurn?) sort of hurdled him but 'accidently' kneed him with his left knee. Butters stayed down for a bit but the lad has guts to burn.

Luke Schuey was the one who kneed Butters in the head.

 

[Rexie J]

Luke Schuey was the one who kneed Butters in the head.

Thanks..........who would have thought him again

 

[Janus]

shows you how s**t the whole ruck management has been for years thanks to Hartley/Cripps and Parker.

If we didn't have such thin ruck stocks and development of our rucks we wouldn't have offered a solid ruckman, a 5 year deal at $600k with minimal performance clauses. We are too scared to drop Lycett this year because he is still getting paid a base of about $500k. Next year is his final year and its bad luck if he isn't good enough to play 2nd ruck IMO.

2001 we had Primus ( did an ACL in 1999) Lade (broke his leg in 2000 and again in the same place in 2001 preseason game) French (rookied from rowing but had played for Sturt and had broken his arm in the preseason) Brogan (rookied after transferring from basketball) and a young 19 year old Cain Ackland was drafted in 2000 and forced to play the first 12 games of 2001 to support Primus. Brogan then got to play 6 or 7 games after Ackland had hit the wall in the winter months.

What did we do with our first pick #15 of 2001?? We drafted another ruckman - Barry Brooks - whom we traded in 2002 along with French.

After Carlton and Freo were stripped of picks Brooks helped us get a pick used to get Salopek (8 originally then down to 6), and Byron Pickett (35 down to 31, then used in the Picket trade) and French got us pick 18 which became 16 and we drafted a KPD Stephen Gilham who only played 1 game for us but Clarko rookie drafted him after we delisted him at end of 2004 and he is a premiership player in 2008.

We wont have another ruck management period like that under the current regime.

Of course we won't. You're comparing the style of football played in the early 2000s, where there was no interchange cap so you could afford to have a second ruck on the bench, to now, where there is an interchange cap and therefore a lot more running required of the midfield. No one is putting 5-6 rucks on a modern AFL list because of the restraints that the AFL have put on interchange.

The only time you're ever going to have two rucks in a team is if you have an elite one like Gawn and a ruck/forward like Jackson. that can swap on the field and both still produce for the team.

 

[Us against the rest]

That’s the exact game he’s talking about.

Sorry I thought he was talking about last week lol.

 

[Expat power]

Felt like 58k with how slow it is to get through the gates with the mobile tickets.

I don’t understand why it’s any different to swiping your card?

 

[malcheski]

Of course we won't. You're comparing the style of football played in the early 2000s, where there was no interchange cap so you could afford to have a second ruck on the bench, to now, where there is an interchange cap and therefore a lot more running required of the midfield. No one is putting 5-6 rucks on a modern AFL list because of the restraints that the AFL have put on interchange.

The only time you're ever going to have two rucks in a team is if you have an elite one like Gawn and a ruck/forward like Jackson. that can swap on the field and both still produce for the team.

The same early 2000's period where there was an average of 50 interchanges per side yet teams still had 2 rucks as opposed to now when they're permitted 25 more changes than that?

 

[Expat power]

Their team this year has been much worse than last night.

How tf did they manage to beat Collingwood?