Lester had a good game last night, but against faster teams, I am not sure we can play Lester and Rich in the same backline. I suppose in just over a five weeks or so, we can test that argument when we play Richmond at the GABBA.
No doubt Payne has improved because he and Andrews are starting to work well together, not because Lester has been included. Lester’s presence has meant that Payne can concentrate on working on intercept marking and spoiling, knowing that once the ball is on the deck, Lester, Starcevich and McKenna have the ability to compete, clear the ball or force a stoppage. Payne has been exposed when he has been competing for ground ball, but now we have that covered. For the first time in a while, our defence looks rock solid and very well balanced.
Is that because Rich is too slow? Lester certainly isn’t, based on the evidence of our eyes last night.
Oscar's problem is that he doesnt jump at centre bounces, he waits for the ball to come down, problem is when he faces opponents that do jump, they have a habit of jumping over him. I did think O was good last night, just not his rucking.
Not at all. We had kick to kick out on the ground after the game and my word the skills were on show. Hangers and brilliant snapped goals everywhere you looked.
The interpretation is that if a player comes from outside the 9 to stand the mark inside the 9, it's always 50. Always.
Rich, Lyons and Gunston all playing in a final/GF or H&A game against the top ranked clubs would be a disaster on turnover IMO... Lester quicker than those 3.
I think that last bit should say "they are given a little more latitude and time to run up to mark the spot, get reminded politely by the umpire of the rule that's existed for years, and then slowly retreat the required distance."
Oscar just doesn't have that sense where his players are, even when people are standing fairly still.
I am just glad the defensive unit is holding up at present. Not that it really matters, but I think Payne is pretty good below his knees eg the one handed pick up against the Pies and his agility allows him to mark small forwards like Elliot. No doubt Payne and Wilmot have improved, but for me McKenna has made a big difference. And yes Zorko gave Lester a hospital handball
Nope. I've refrained from raining on your parade so far because, to my utter shock and amazement, Ryan Lester put in a more-than serviceable game on Saturday; in fact, he played well. BUT:
I look silly naturally 3KZ.
Nah … you have an OVER 50’s CLIQUE LEAVE PASS.
1983 … I remember … I was at both of our finals that year. Serafini was a champion - Lester’s rebound game was ‘Serafini like’ - massive difference between those two.
Thanks for the detailed information. Watching on TV it is difficult to keep up with the match ups. It looked like the Dons had extras back for most of the game but if was difficult to work out where our extra was ie matching through a seven man forward line; extra at the contest or spare in defence. The commentators weren’t any help in clarifying, I guess because they are watching on TV as well. (Very disappointing given what we pay for Kayo, but this is not my main point).Pretty good performance I thought last night overall. Obviously there were the melts over our first half, but we only conceded 4 goals and won the inside 50 count comfortably even up to that point. So even in the first half I'm giving our (full ground) defence a tick and our midfield a tick. Where we fell down in the first half was (a) our method going inside 50 when Essendon persisted with playing a spare and (b) the obvious - set shot goal kicking!
After half time we tidied both of these up. Kicking 10 goals in a half is no mean feat when essentially your forward line is 7 on 7, ie really too crowded to score heavily.
And on the flipside, down the other end, they would have had 5 on 5 or 5 against our 6 at most, so a more open forward line than normal. So to only concede 2 goals after half time is equally noteworthy.
To me this comes back to the saying "the best form of defence is attack"... If we are scoring they cannot do so at the same time! It also brings into question our decision to slow the game down late in the third quarter... It only invited Essendon back in and they scored because of it
So, good coaching, eventually... I think even Fages himself touched on that in his presser to the effect of "why didn't we equalise the numbers earlier".
I'd still like to see us work on how we generate our scoring opportunities. I think against the top sides, simply going 7 on 7 inside 50 might become a bit of a slog... If we could find a way to still generate scores when it's 6 on 7 I think that would be better.
Maybe it's shallower entries inside 50 (look at Jeremy Cameron's kick on Friday night from between wing and half forward to the top of the 50). Usually their spare will be patrolling 25m out or deeper... There's only so much ground they can cover.
Maybe it's run and gun using our extra at the stoppage as an attacking option out the front. This would also allow us to handball forward when under pressure knowing we will have an option there, who can also form the first line of defence in the event of a turnover.
Maybe it's fighting fire with fire and using our spare at the other end, but having him overlap to receive handballs through the middle. Rich/Zorko style.
That is one of the things that I would love the commentators to talk about - rather then just saying the names of each successive player that touches the ball speaking about how the different teams are set up, what tactics they seem to be employing or even trying to employ and what the other side is countering with. Talk about the game not just ball watch as that part I can see for myself!
