AFL Autopsy Round 8: Done by Carlton

[table tennis]

Someone needs to fill the role, so tell me who has been a better run and carry player for us over the last 6 or 7 years than Zaharakis?

And if we're dropping him, we better have a good replacement ready.

I'm all ears.

Im not saying there has been better, im saying he hasnt been good enough. We are in the depths of our greatest failures, yet our supporters overrate and want to hang on to players because there is none better amomgst our ranks?

I argue we havent taken any risks with our list and now in predicament of being happy wit players just because we have none better.

Well 2 questions, why do we have none better, and why has this player not been able to replicate form from 7- 8 years ago

 

[CBombers17]

Id like to see the biter play Zakas role for a few weeks.

Edit; i wouldn't necessarily drop Zaka but play him in front of the ball on a forward flank. Leave Green out of the side and Give Mcniece more of a job on the half back flank.

Ive seen enough of his midfield game. We need more aggression, 2 way running and general intent in the middle. He has nothing on the Irishman in these areas.

 

[table tennis]

That does not make him a ******* disease, cancer is no joke.

It does when he points fingers, has no lack of defensive pressure or no form of accountability.

Our fans still hanging hats on this bloke for one kick in 2009.....

This bloke has far too much to say in our group for so little impact and acts of selfishness its not funny.

Get someone else in to play his role and we will be better for it.

 

[essendon]

I like how we made no real changes on field in the last qtr and we still didnt play an attacking style we just kept plodding along with the same "gameplan".

What game plan?

 

[essendon]

I’m looking forward to some tough talk through the week.

There is no one tough to talk at our club........bunch of yes people from the outside...

 

[essendon]

Translation for woosha "we are not playing the way we would like to be. We would like to be a great team and we will continue to work hard to be a great team"

That was west coast in 2005....wrong decade and club

 

[essendon]

So.....Who's career are we going to ruin with the number 1 draft pick?

Don’t worry DODORO THE DUD will stuff up the number 1 pick too.....we haven’t picked up,a genuine midfielder in 15 years and he will still go for a flanker turn midfielder probably under 180cm too........get rid of him ffs.......what does he offer we don’t know...

 

[zahoorahkis]

Im not saying there has been better, im saying he hasnt been good enough. We are in the depths of our greatest failures, yet our supporters overrate and want to hang on to players because there is none better amomgst our ranks?

I argue we havent taken any risks with our list and now in predicament of being happy wit players just because we have none better.

Well 2 questions, why do we have none better, and why has this player not been able to replicate form from 7- 8 years ago

To answer question 1: primarily because we have recruited poorly.

To answer question 2: because he is easily tagged out of matches and gets shut down whenever he hits a bit of form. Furthermore, as an outside player, he is reliant on the ability of our in and unders to get him the ball. With the exception of Watson, we have not had even a B grade in and under player in that time.

Even with his weaknesses, Zaharakis would get a game in good side. He wouldn't be the 2nd/3rd best mid, as he's asked to be in our side, but he would comfortably do well as a 4th/5th string mid piece.

I think you're barking up the wrong tree in saying we should get rid of him. There are far worse players that need to be confined to history than him.

 

[essendon]

Can any of you honestly see us beat anyone at the moment?

still have 5 interstate games to play too....that’s 5 losses there to start with

 

[yodellinhank]

i really hope Worsfold swinging the axe doesn't mean mutch out for green.

Needs to fall on his axe

 

[the PILL]

Id like to see the biter play Zakas role for a few weeks.

Edit; i wouldn't necessarily drop Zaka but play him in front of the ball on a forward flank. Leave Green out of the side and Give Mcniece more of a job on the half back flank.

Ive seen enough of his midfield game. We need more aggression, 2 way running and general intent in the middle. He has nothing on the Irishman in these areas.

I'd be down for this experiment..

 

[Stoka]

well i am not sure about anything. i am only a cleaner but i sure as hell know that if i had the opportunity to play afl for nice money i would not take it for granted. i would give every ounce of everything i had every week and feel priveleged to out on the black and red. just me and what do i know

 

[Andronicus]

There is no one tough to talk at our club........bunch of yes people from the outside...

You've just Yaco'd the s**t out of this thread and pretty much missed the point of every post you quoted.

 

[daz17]

Feel sorry for Devon Smith. Always rated him and doesn't deserve to play in this poor side.

 

[Shanghaistu]

Round 21, Friday night - versus St Kilda - the battle for the spoon (and non-coach of the year award). don’t miss it!

 

[Bombermania]

I think we need to go back to basics, lets start by getting players to play in their natural positions, then select the side accordingly, on the game plan, if I am understanding it then it would look similar to what the Hawks and the Dogs are producing, both sides look to move the ball quickly from the back half but where they do things differently is how they look to go the long handball or long kick forward whereas we look to go for the short option.

In tonight's Footscray game there were two passages within a few minutes which showed the difference, on both occasions the Dogs looked to go forward, in the second case there was a short option as well as a longer option, the Dog's player went for the longer option, an Essendon player would most likely have gone for the short option.

 

[table tennis]

To answer question 1: primarily because we have recruited poorly.

To answer question 2: because he is easily tagged out of matches and gets shut down whenever he hits a bit of form. Furthermore, as an outside player, he is reliant on the ability of our in and unders to get him the ball. With the exception of Watson, we have not had even a B grade in and under player in that time.

Even with his weaknesses, Zaharakis would get a game in good side. He wouldn't be the 2nd/3rd best mid, as he's asked to be in our side, but he would comfortably do well as a 4th/5th string mid piece.

I think you're barking up the wrong tree in saying we should get rid of him. There are far worse players that need to be confined to history than him.

So without the 25 johnnie walkers in my system, it may have been a very harsh assement of him.

But i think Zaka typifies the issue we have. He picks and chooses when to get involved.

He used to be able to contribute after things not working out for him, and work his way into games and have effective games. In fairness that was 3-4 coaches ago.

I think the way Knights used to coach, and change things up occasionally suited zaka, but i think with game day, Worsfold and neeld need to get out of my football club.

 

[Mr_McBoogerBalls]

So without the 25 johnnie walkers in my system, it may have been a very harsh assement of him.

But i think Zaka typifies the issue we have. He picks and chooses when to get involved.

He used to be able to contribute after things not working out for him, and work his way into games and have effective games. In fairness that was 3-4 coaches ago.

I think the way Knights used to coach, and change things up occasionally suited zaka, but i think with game day, Worsfold and neeld need to get out of my football club.

You’re either up and looking after your young like me; or you’ve pulled an all nighter

 

[table tennis]

You’re either up and looking after your young like me; or you’ve pulled an all nighter

The first one.

 

[table tennis]

My face is about that colour too

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Some of the tackle stats are quite alarming:

Note: Goddard, Hurley, Heppell.

Hurley and Goddard playing as the general down back without applying any pressure hurts us; particularly when we have a midfield where only one player in Smith is applying defensive pressure.

View attachment 496430

Hurley has had nearly same number of tackles as Rance this year, both averaging just over 1 per game. Heppell has same average per game as Cotchin

 

[cAsEy_18]

Okay, let's just use the best from each of our 8 matches according to afl.com.au as an example:

Round 1: Heppell, Zaharakis, Hurley, Goddard, D.Smith, McDonald-Tipungwuti, McGrath
Round 2: Hurley, Smith, Merrett, Parish, Green, Heppell
Round 3: Hurley, Fantasia, Heppell, Zaharakis
Round 4: Hurley, Stringer, Merrett, Heppell, Zaharakis, Hartley, McDonald-Tipungwuti
Round 5: Hurley, Heppell, Z.Merrett, Zaharakis
Round 6: Z Merrett, Zaharakis, Ambrose, Hurley, McGrath, Smith
Round 7: Bellchambers, Hooker, Hurley, Stewart
Round 8: Zaharakis, Heppell, Smith, Hooker, Fantasia

What's your proof?

That also has Hurley in the best 7 out of 8 games.
Hurley has had a shocking year.

 

[MarkG]

Hurley has had nearly same number of tackles as Rance this year, both averaging just over 1 per game. Heppell has same average per game as Cotchin

Only difference is that Rance has 5 times the number of spoils.

 

[ant555]

The most basic thing first.

When we had the chance to put them out of the game we didn't. 2.7 in the second quarter where we had most of the play and held the ball in our half well enough. 2.5 in the third quarter. 3.4 in the last although the game was gone near the end when the game was over. At the end of the day 18.10 beats 11.7.
Should have been 4 goals up at half time.

Midfield- massive issues. 18th for clearances. Putting us under too much pressure as the footy gets into the back half too easily. Run and spread is also very poor. We can not get on the outside.

Coach has some questions to answer.

WTF are we doing with Hurley for *s sake ! How about going back to playing as a defender. Should have been playing on Curnow and not playing loose and trying to get 30 possessions. At his best he played on the KP players and backed himself to win the footy. Stop trying to make him a quarter back. He can not defend the small players when he has to.

When Carlton are playing one defender 20 meters behind our last player then IMO it makes sense we actually push a forward back and create a contest rather than leaving it be and kicking the ball to him.

The one move he did make was move Goddard to the wing as Jed Lamb had him on toast in the first quarter and a half. The bloke has no idea how to defend. He starts side by side and then he just lets them run off while he is watching the footy.

Then we have some skill issues. Merritt twice in the second quarter giving the footy to Carlton when we had players in the clear.
Not being able to hit players on the full when we did actually spread.
Not being able to hit a handball target 2 meters away.



Players.
The bad.
Laverde - useless. Not only can he not get into the game offensively. Could not find a man all day either. Ran around like a headless chook.
Walla - as above. Playing terrible footy right now.
Goddard - biggest offender for kicking backwards. Can not defend. Had players smacking him around all day and did not fire up at all. Can not be offered another contract.
Parish - getting his 20 or so possessions but has not gone forward in his game at all. Chases kicks and can not defend.
Myers - 1965 Massey Ferguson . Slower than a sloth in both action and mind.
McNiece - not sure he is at the elvel right now.
Hurly - fumbles , crap kicks , sagging back for cheap kicks.

The good.
McKernan . Did miss a goal he should have kicked but he gave a contest. Gave us more in the ruck when he was there as well.
Zaharakis . I have bashed him a bit but he was good. Made an effort to defend better and worked harder than most.
Smith - wish we had more players who play with his effort. 15 tackles
McKenna - took the game on.

 

[Doss]

ant555 I'd add Fanta to 'the good' as well.