Preview Round 6 vs Port Adelaide

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https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/04...for-north-melbourne-according-to-kane-cornes/


THE BIGGEST ISSUE FOR NORTH MELBOURNE, ACCORDING TO KANE CORNES
BY SEN 4 HOURS AGO
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Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes says the biggest issue for North Melbourne is their “lack of defensive action”.
The Kangaroos are ranked 10th in the competition for rebound 50s and have the lowest percentage in the league.


Cornes says North Melbourne’s biggest problem stems from their defensive efforts.
“I’ve watched them live three times this year,” he said on SEN's The Captain’s Run.
“Their midfield runs only one way.
“You must watch them live to see that they expect to win the clearance, the hit-out, whatever you want to call it, every time.
“They’ve been smashed at centre bounce and that’s right through the pre-season.

“I’m not sure what North have been practising all summer but clearly it’s mainly offence and not defensive action.

“If you’re a North fan, you know what you’re going to get usually in terms of effort when you rock up, well that’s disappeared.”


Cornes also believes some of the Kangaroos recruits haven’t been as effective as they would’ve liked.

“I’ll name names; it’s (Shaun) Higgins. He looks like a star when he gets on the end of it as does (Jared) Polec, he’s the same.

“They look like superstars with ball in their hand but there’s no defensive accountability particularly in the midfield.

“You get (Aaron) Hall in, you get Polec in who don’t have a defensive bone in their body, there’s some issues there.”

The Kangaroos take on the in-form Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval as Round 6 continues tonight.
 
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/04...for-north-melbourne-according-to-kane-cornes/


THE BIGGEST ISSUE FOR NORTH MELBOURNE, ACCORDING TO KANE CORNES
BY SEN 4 HOURS AGO
03HaNM19QR630609657.JPG


Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes says the biggest issue for North Melbourne is their “lack of defensive action”.
The Kangaroos are ranked 10th in the competition for rebound 50s and have the lowest percentage in the league.


Cornes says North Melbourne’s biggest problem stems from their defensive efforts.
“I’ve watched them live three times this year,” he said on SEN's The Captain’s Run.
“Their midfield runs only one way.
“You must watch them live to see that they expect to win the clearance, the hit-out, whatever you want to call it, every time.
“They’ve been smashed at centre bounce and that’s right through the pre-season.

“I’m not sure what North have been practising all summer but clearly it’s mainly offence and not defensive action.

“If you’re a North fan, you know what you’re going to get usually in terms of effort when you rock up, well that’s disappeared.”


Cornes also believes some of the Kangaroos recruits haven’t been as effective as they would’ve liked.

“I’ll name names; it’s (Shaun) Higgins. He looks like a star when he gets on the end of it as does (Jared) Polec, he’s the same.

“They look like superstars with ball in their hand but there’s no defensive accountability particularly in the midfield.

“You get (Aaron) Hall in, you get Polec in who don’t have a defensive bone in their body, there’s some issues there.”

The Kangaroos take on the in-form Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval as Round 6 continues tonight.

Again, blaming the players. Kane surely played long enough to know that you can't complete a tackle if your role is to sit far off the contest, as is clear in our designation of inside and outside players.

I understand Brad's logic, not trying to turn our midfield like Melbourne's where everyone gets drawn to the ball, but it has killed our defensive ability.
 

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If the mids can't go 1v1 all day and come out victors, then we cannot make finals. Midfielders should be fit enough to run out 4 quarters running both ways whilst sustaining a reasonable skillset, if they cannot do it under the new 6-6-6 rules, we have some serious issues.
 
Might be a good game to watch with beer goggles on both literally and figuratively speaking

Honestly don’t think I can cope watching another loss. Still haven’t got over last week’s debacle.

Think I’ll be reading a book in bed with sneaky score updates on the AFL app. That’s about as much as I can take at the minute.

I will however spring out of bed to watch the replay if we win!
 
If I pick you on your comment that I'm all about language (I'm about other stuff too) does that mean I'm all about language?! :p

For the record, I didn't like the comment either. I just find it amusing that in the aftermath of it all, it was the only game we'd won, which it could be argued, undermines the angst.

Except that its probably indicative of a bigger problem. Similar sentiments were heard from more than one player in the following week - tho that could just be that they were repeating media coaching to emphasise the RCH and its work. None the less, two weeks in a row of that stuff from a side that is 1 and 4 and just lost a game that was our most important non finals game for the season (unless we play games/a game to make finals at the very end of the year.)

The simple answer, as OF mentioned, is simple:

"This game, like every game is a must win."
 
Kane has monstrous issues with Polec

Its a nothing article. Even tho I agree with most of it. Missed the point about the set up tho. Although Polec has averaged less than half his career ave tackles so far hasn't he?

Aaron Hall on the other hand is tackling at 1.5 more a game on average. He's definitely bought into the defensive mindset he needed to add to his game.
 
Again, blaming the players. Kane surely played long enough to know that you can't complete a tackle if your role is to sit far off the contest, as is clear in our designation of inside and outside players.

I understand Brad's logic, not trying to turn our midfield like Melbourne's where everyone gets drawn to the ball, but it has killed our defensive ability.

It used to drive mem mental that everyone would get drawn to the ball or the contest and opposition teams would park one or two players outside/off the contest then continually run away with the ball.

Now it seems we've gone too far the other way.

Altho that is at least trying to work on your problems (even if you don't do it right.) I spose.
 

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Again, blaming the players. Kane surely played long enough to know that you can't complete a tackle if your role is to sit far off the contest, as is clear in our designation of inside and outside players.

I understand Brad's logic, not trying to turn our midfield like Melbourne's where everyone gets drawn to the ball, but it has killed our defensive ability.
Hall is almost averaging four tackles as an outside mid and Polec averaged three rebounds a game as a defender last year for Port as a winger. He's so far off it with these guys. They haven't improved us defensively but it isn't inherent flaws in their game. Higgins front-running from stoppages has been for all to see though. Does seem like we're not asking Polec to run back into defense too.
 
Honestly don’t think I can cope watching another loss. Still haven’t got over last week’s debacle.

Think I’ll be reading a book in bed with sneaky score updates on the AFL app. That’s about as much as I can take at the minute.

I will however spring out of bed to watch the replay if we win!

I’ll be watching with morbid fascination...
 
Port by 38. Despite axing Ahern, Simpkin and Scott, Larkey and Thomas are still young/wildcards, and MacDonald is Macdonald, at least he has match experience.

FWD: Mason Wood has been a non-factor, if he doesn't light up, it's double teaming Ben Brown FTW. Ziebell needs a bounce back, hopefully running him as CHF will encourage him to get physicality back by adding more fwd/mid pressure.
MID/Backs are as good as they're going to get for us right now (with the exception of LTI's coming back like Jacobs or Daw). Unless Hall, Higgins and Polec get the room they need to move, and Cunners/Anderson win the contests, we will get rickrolled by Rocky, Wines and Westhoff.

This game's key matchups will be:
- Ziebell applying mid pressure at CHF to counteract Ebert & Boak, giving Polec/Hall/Higgins more opportunity to run.
- Wood needs to take pressure off Brown.
- Tarrant needs to win vs Paddy Ryder
- Jmac on Robbie Gray scares the **** out of me.

Looks grim, but let's see if they can dig deep and get it done.

Already kicked 3 goals, not even HT.
 

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