Review Round 6, 2025 vs Sydney

[backtozero]

Georgiades should have been paid 2 of those marks. If you control the ball all the way to the ground, it's a mark.
Of course, we just play a different rule book to everyone else.

 

[PJ Power]

Georgiades should have been paid 2 of those marks. If you control the ball all the way to the ground, it's a mark.
Of course, we just play a different rule book to everyone else.

Feels that way. Every week the rub of the green goes against us. The umpiring stats must reflect that this year. Opposition gets so many soft frees all over the ground. We don’t have basic marks paid. Getting so frustrating.

 

[PJ Power]

After round 5, we had the second worst free kick differential after NM. -22 frees over five games. Averaging -4.5 per game. Would have been similar yesterday. We’ve won three of those.

 

[Pablo Escobar]

Too many players can't tackle well enough

The umps wanted a close game in the last

Rat was good but looked injured and was played off.

Sucked In For not kicking straight Sydney

Agree our tackling was atrocious. Too many players got brushed aside in the last quarter. Hard to watch.

 

[Peninsula Boy]

I kinda liked our gameplan for the first half. Ugly, dirty, effective. Looked to take our chances when we could.
Great pressure by Butters and Drew in the first half.
Then we played Plan B from Outer Space.
If they kicked straight, they would've killed us.

Butters is awesome and we probably lose the last two games if he's not playing.
The Hornet was also very good. Cream rises to the top.
I thought Drew's tagging game on Heeney was excellent.
Wines was amongst it in the first quarter and then he had the heart problems. I don't like him in the ruck either. Some concern for him.
Mead OK but vanilla.
Sweet was down today but competes. Still giving away free kicks. Doesn't look like he can take a contested mark. Grundy seems to have him matched for strength which negates one of his strengths. Grundy had 26 possies.

I thought the backline played well. Rozee and Farrell were very good with high possession counts and over 800 metres gained each. Having both of those guys kicking from the back is looking good.
Apart from the those two goals given up, I thought Jones was outstanding. 12 intercepts is a great game from a CHB let alone a medium defender.
Thought Ratugolea was really good. Got caught on the lead late but that happens.
Aliir good as usual but not great.
Sinn quietly keeping his man quiet. Don't tell anyone that he blankets his opponent and kicks well.
Bergman was a bit off today.

Burgoyne a bit down.
The young guys Moraes and Cochrane OK.
Byrne-Jones OK. Good offensively. Not the best defensively. That missed tackle on Rampe would've resulted in a holding the ball free kick in front of goals.
Boak and Atkins a bit off the play.

Georgiades looked and played well but could've had a coming out party.
Lord is good for structure but we need to be looking for a hard KPF.
Rioli good as always.
I thought Powell-Pepper looked a bit like he was back in town. Kicked a few goals, roams around, worked hard and I think he was put on Blakey to curb his influence and did very well. Took a courageous mark in the centre which resulted in a goal. Great work by the bald nut.

We got smashed in every statistical category but tackles.
We played intelligent football for the first half and then played to not lose which opens up a can of worms.
We need a forward apart from Georgiades who can take a contested mark.
In the last quarter, we were hanging on for dear life and working any counter attacks and not much else.
Wines going down did hurt our structure a lot and a guy like Mead when given an opportunity like that should take it up but he just doesn't have it. Someone in the midfield should be stepping up when Wines went down.
We are carrying a lot of old, young, average players this game.

 

[Long live PAFC]

I thought we set up defensively across the ground really well. We held up Sydney’s transition and forced them long down the line or to the wrong point inside fifty. Our transition the other way was very good, we didn’t over possess the ball and moved it quickly and got it to the right users.

However, we got smashed in out of contest ground ball gets and contested possession - which isn’t sustainable and allowed Sydney to get on top. Sydney also started beating us at stoppages and got their game going. Thankfully they didn’t kick straight.


Fade outs will happen. We are a young, inexperienced team, playing a highly demanding game plan. We’ve had a shorter pre season too. Not many teams get up by so much against the Hawks or Swans and maintain that across four quarters.

So guys like Lord, Sinn, Moraes, Cochrane - struggling in the last quarter is ok and expected to a degree. That said, I think they still threw themselves into it, Moraes had some great chases and Lord pushed himself to the drop of the ball.

What’s really disappointing:

• the shift that happened once we lost Ollie. Suddenly we couldn’t win it in the middle and our second rucks were terrible.
• our older, bigger bodies aren’t lifting in the last. SPP, DBJ, Boak, Drew - these guys should be reading and understanding the game and taking over.
• the long down the line out of defence in the last quarter wasn’t working as our talls couldn’t get near it.
• we had a number of passengers, several were senior playees
• some tackling efforts (DBJ) were absolutely atrocious

Players:

• Sweet is a solid ruck, who should get better. He’s a competitor but he gives away some sloppy frees and needs to provide more, particularly late. Grundy lifted and became quite dominant late in the game. I suspect a part of this is the hard, physical nature of his ruck style wears him down and we don’t have much secondary support.
• Wines. Probably being under appreciated on here. He’s lifting late in games, rucking, still one of our best for contested possessions and ground balls, taking some important marks. We seriously missed him when he went off.
• Boak. Still running and moving ok but time is perhaps catching up with him. I don’t mind him at centre bounces every now and then but needs to lift his round the ground stuff.
• DBJ. Doing some important defence jobs but my word, he needs to lift. His importance and role in this team is critical and he is as senior as they come for us. Needs to be better and can be.
• Lord. Can get to the right spots and fly for a mark. Is bringing it to ground for the smalls and is working hard. Fitness isn’t quite there yet but looks like he will tear a game apart soon.
• Sav and Aliir, great games. Positioned well. Intercepted well and used it well. Some late dropped marks spoiled Aliir’s game but was otherwise very good.

Coaches - you have to give them credit for how well we have started to defend and transition. Our set up between the arcs has been good. Next step will be late quarter and game play. Also need to find a way to win more contested and ground ball. Also our forward fifty entries have been great - lots of marks on a lead, lots of ball to the advantage of our players.

 

[TeeKray]

The Lizard ran amok, was really obvious that we missed Jed ...

 

[chiwigi]

Agree our tackling was atrocious. Too many players got brushed aside in the last quarter. Hard to watch.

I still wonder if our shit tackling is a direct result of the shit umpiring we get.
We can’t afford any margin of error whatsoever due to frees and bans.

 

[ibd77]

We beat Sydney in Sydney. This is a good thing.

Agreed and it shouldn't be undervalued either because we finished the game poorly. These type of games are worth 2 wins.

 

[Peninsula Boy]

The Lizard ran amok, was really obvious that we missed Jed ...

Fun aside, does anyone know who went to him in the 3rd quarter because his influence stopped abruptly.

I thought it was Powell-Pepper but it was hard to see on the telecast.

As Tredders said, you need a guy on his left leg. He's that damaging.

 

[GremioPower]

his grandfather said he isn't racist (as he has indigenous blood himself) he is just 13yrs and stupid

As it should be the primary assumption.

 

[Powertron]

The switch of Rozee to mid after Wines went out really upset the balance. Would have liked to see him stay at half back and utilise Rioli or SPP in the centre square setup.

Rozee will be all Australian half back if we just leave him there in the gap Houston left.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

After round 5, we had the second worst free kick differential after NM. -22 frees over five games. Averaging -4.5 per game. Would have been similar yesterday. We’ve won three of those.

We lost the free kick count to Richmond 14-20. That was the day the canary died in the coalmine.

 

[Handyandy]

Georgiades should have been paid 2 of those marks. If you control the ball all the way to the ground, it's a mark.
Of course, we just play a different rule book to everyone else.

I watched the first half with a neutral mate & we were discussing how terrible/ rigged the umps are.
As we were talking Georgi got both hands to a mark in the 50 & was chopped at the elbow & dropped it, I said that’s a clear/ obvious free. Spoil didn’t even get within a foot of the ball. Pretty easy to defend when you can just chop a blokes arms in a marking contest. Happened twice to georgi. 100% certain the blues ff gets those frees every time
10 seconds later the ball goes up to centre wing & a swans player is spoilt fairly, 80% ball & maybe brushed the hands & it’s instantly paid to the swans. The players had no idea who the free was for or what it was for.
We both laughed & the only question was are they incompetent or are they deliberately cheating? I favour the latter.

I have hardly watched any footy this season, the corrupt umpires are killing the game

 

[PJ Power]

The switch of Rozee to mid after Wines went out really upset the balance. Would have liked to see him stay at half back and utilise Rioli or SPP in the centre square setup.

Rozee will be all Australian half back if we just leave him there in the gap Houston left.

Reckon Farrell plays better with Rozee back there too.

 

[PJ Power]

Agreed and it shouldn't be undervalued either because we finished the game poorly. These type of games are worth 2 wins.

Agree. Unfortunately losing to Essendon and the Saints was worth two losses each.

 

[PortAdelFC1997]

Agree. Unfortunately losing to Essendon and the Saints was worth two losses each.

It could have been 5-1 with plenty of upside to come.

 

[Peninsula Boy]

Reckon Farrell plays better with Rozee back there too.

Farrell had the chance to secure first seagull but unfortunately, he couldn't get up for it.

So Rozee is first seagull and Farrell is a very good second seagull.

 

[JohnHinckleyJr]

They were actually trying to drown him

 

[Duck Farmer]

The 'way we found to win' was Sydney kicking 8 behinds in the last quarter and Hayden McLean dropping an uncontested mark in the goal square with a minute to go. Not exactly sustainable.

Like Koch said last year "If only Sydney played like that in the PF". Well they did this time.

The 'way we find to win' under Hinkley's expert tutelage is more about the oppo shitting the bed than due to any influence from the maestro.

 

[Duck Farmer]

I don't reckon there's a fitness issue in terms of running out games tbh I reckon it's the way they are playing that's taxing, there's bugger all tempo play going on just a few 2 or 3 minute periods of holding on to posssession in the second half the last two weeks would've made their lives easier. They are go go go all the time.

That's why we have Plan B.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

The press conference was good, not because of any valuable insights from Hinkley, but Sydney can apparently afford microphones for the journos and you could hear their questions.

Pity no one asked if we had a kick in strategy in the last quarter other than run as far as you can then kick as far as you can to the boundary and hope it doesn't come back.

 

[Willsy10]

It didn't look like we found a way to anything. Not to win, lose, or even hold on. Sydney found ways to blow it.

We set the win up in the first 3/4 by setting up a 34 point lead 22 seconds into the last. To be leading by that much despite so many players barely touching the ball was somewhat a positive. There is still a lot of room for improvement, and the first half against hawthorn last week shows the level we can get to when everyone is contributing.

Sydney were always pushing shit uphill from the moment it got out to 34 points early in the last. They’d needed a lot to go right to win from there. We definitely dropped off in the last, and our fitness is a concern as this is two weeks on a row we’ve lost the plot late. But we set the win up early, we take the 4 points home from Sydney which is always nice.

 

[Willsy10]

The 'way we found to win' was Sydney kicking 8 behinds in the last quarter and Hayden McLean dropping an uncontested mark in the goal square with a minute to go. Not exactly sustainable.

We found a way to win by getting it out to 34 points early in the last, setting the win up despite a lot of players barely touching the footy.

sydney kicked 8 behinds by blazing, something we are all familiar with. They may have been pressing but it still felt like we were always going hang on.

 

[Lighthouse End]

Georgiades should have been paid 2 of those marks. If you control the ball all the way to the ground, it's a mark.
Of course, we just play a different rule book to everyone else.

Not so much to everybody else, but to protected sides like Sydney, Hawthorn, the liquorice allsorts and in days of yore, Essendon. Contrast the adjudication applied to Georgiades as opposed to Heeney.