Review Scratch match analysis of North V Saints

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No point having gun forwards if we can't get the ball into our fwd 50. If anything, today highlighted the importance of having a talented midfield that can run both ways (which is what we DID draft for).


5-6 of the starting midfield were missing.

There's not a side in the AFL that wouldn't get touched up under the same circumstances.
 
5-6 of the starting midfield were missing.

There's not a side in the AFL that wouldn't get touched up under the same circumstances.

Agreed, which is why I am glad we have recruited for our future mid rotations as we need as many players to have the capability to run through there as possible. No point having a Logan McDonald type if we get belted at stoppages any time we have a few injuries to our mids and can only get the ball to him once or twice a bloody game.
 

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Most people wondered why the hell we didn’t pick at tall forwards in the draft or trade. Today that was exposed once again. Our forward line wasn’t AFL standard. (Of course delivery was crap as usual but that’s a separate issue). Mason kicking 4 goals further highlighted the shitfulness of the situation.


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Can't agree with this EH.

Mason Wood looked like a star today because he had a quality midfield feeding him the ball.

We could plonk J.Cameron in our forward line today and the difference would be marginal.
 
Others have covered off the guts of it but I thought there were enough positives to take away.
yes there were plenty of skill errors and i thought we were in trouble when the ball hit the deck in our back 50, but i thought we got better as the game went on.
JZ started to fit in on the back flank. L Young seemed to settle, Powell looked good, B Scott looked good, TT was classy with the ball, and others showed glimpses (Including Stephenson).

I think we all know where we are overall from a rebuild perspective, and there was not much at stake today. No point getting carried away.
 
A few thoughts.
Zurhaar was good, but he needs to nail those set shots.
Stephenson had a pleasing debut with a couple of goals.
Lazzaro showed some pace, looks good.
Ziebell was generally good down back apart from a dreadful hack kick that went out on the full.
Appleby was put under pressure by a pass from Josh Walker but still should have taken the mark. Might have cost the kid his AFL dream.
 
Some comments about Hayden being good in the midfield.

And therein lies our problem. A plodder can look good in the midfield but at the end of the day he is a plodder.

God help us if he gets regular midfield time.


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Can't believe Daniel Andrew didn't move him.

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Watched the first half at the ground and last half online.

Powell very good footballer, but like some kids still wants to hand it off to a senior player asap.

Lazzaro doesn't have this issue.
First game against men for Powell and Lazarro, well done both of them.

Compared to saints we are poor in the air in the forward line, made me wonder if Young could be a swingman and help out?

Stevo is much needed class. Exactly the right size fish.

Ziebs seemed to have 2 speeds. Super panic mode, or very slow and deliberate mode, which was a bit nerve wracking but often ended in a great kick. One scary moment when a St Kilda forward got 5 metres seperation in about 2 seconds and marked too easily. Hope it doesn't happen too much.

Hayden pulls his shorts up very high. Not Warwick capper style, more like 1950s footy card style. I really like this guy, him and Polec walk to their own beat.

Didn't like the man on the mark rule, too much officiating, maybe they should make the man on the mark "take the knee", same result, less umpiring required.

McKay roamed around like a beast. Last time I was at Arden St he was playing ressies, out of favour, and there was a moment he just had to go... the crowd sucked in their breath, a millisecond seemed to take two minutes, and he went. Seeing him today playing with such confidence made me feel great.

I hope to get plenty more moments like that with our talented young players over the next three years.

Back online, Trent Dummont was very articulate and observant of required defensive behaviours of his teammates.

The St Kilda content on the Livestream was boring and even though I was watching for free I wanted to ask for a refund.












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Agreed, which is why I am glad we have recruited for our future mid rotations as we need as many players to have the capability to run through there as possible. No point having a Logan McDonald type if we get belted at stoppages any time we have a few injuries to our mids and can only get the ball to him once or twice a bloody game.
Sorry but I disagree to a point.

We have quality mids (obviously our best didn't play today). But even with all of our best mids in, our fwd structure still lacks any dominant forwards.

I think we will look back on not taking a key FWD in this draft (after delisting Brown) as a mistake.
 

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Hard to take much out of the game given who was out. I think too much of the midfield was out and it is where we broke down. We also gave away a lot of goals to frees/50s, it is something I think we should expect to see an improvement on, I think defensive skills tend to be rustier because there is a limit on the full contact simulation until late into the pre-season and historically speaking defensively oriented teams take longer to get going.

We do not plan to be ultra defensive, but still, when you are on the back foot and under the pump due to an undermanned midfield then your defensive vulnerabilities are going to be exposed.

I don't really care too much about individual performances, some played better than others. I think some who had average games will play better when we field a more functional midfield.

I still have this gnawing concern that TT doesn't position himself well/work hard enough to get more of the ball. He does some nice things at times but he hasn't really transitioned his junior footy into senior footy at this stage, he wasn't just a flashy low possession type of player as a junior, it is why Crows bid pick 8 on him. He turns 21 next month so is still quite young but I am starting to get the McDonald type of concerns. He was a top 10 pick, his flash is top 10-esque but the rest of his game isn't.

Perhaps I have nothing to worry about and it will click for him soon but I think it is different having a player taken later in the draft not live up to our hopes/desires, we can ill afford for some of our premium young talent to not reach their potential, not if we are going to make improvements on the standard we have reached in recent times.
 
Agreed, which is why I am glad we have recruited for our future mid rotations as we need as many players to have the capability to run through there as possible. No point having a Logan McDonald type if we get belted at stoppages any time we have a few injuries to our mids and can only get the ball to him once or twice a bloody game.
Yep - Carey in his prime only impacts today if they switch him to CHB to stop the bleeding.

Practice match with heaps missing - Port beat us by 10-12 goals in round 1 and it gets more serious.
 
I thought Mase Wood was really good today.

2021 could be his breakout season.

Wood was Wood, there was never a question of his ability to perform, it was his ability to do so at a consistent level. If you are near the bottom of the ladder and you win one week and lose the next because everyone goes missing it isn't the end of the world because you are probably near the bottom for those kind of reasons. If you hope to win a flag, secure a top 4 spot and you lose vital games because people go missing, you can't undo those terrible performances. At the top end, you are more or less one shocker away from top 4 spot or home final, etc and all of a sudden you are playing an away elimination final in Perth instead of a home game in Melbourne.

I would much rather a more consistent effort player. Mason, and players like him, are part of the reason we couldn't get to a higher standard.

I hope he can inspire himself to play at a more consistent standard for his own sake but it is not like he wasn't given the opportunity to here.
 
Sorry but I disagree to a point.

We have quality mids (obviously our best didn't play today). But even with all of our best mids in, our fwd structure still lacks any dominant forwards.

I think we will look back on not taking a key FWD in this draft (after delisting Brown) as a mistake.

We need another body up there sure, but we need mid class and depth more.

KPF next time
 
It was a half arsed practice match with blokes swung around and many with less that 60% game time.

5 of the starting midfield was missing.

The scoreline means nothing.
 
Jy, doing the post match wrap up.......ear marks him as the next Captain I think. 2022 ??
Maybe 2021? It is interesting. I wonder why there is the delay.

I got a feeling that if Ziebell is not captain, then there are big concerns that he is not in the best 22.
 
A regulation set shot at goal, 25-30m out, very slight angle, bread and butter for 99% of AFL small forwards, but Kayne Turner still hasn't mastered the art.
 
Maybe 2021? It is interesting. I wonder why there is the delay.

I got a feeling that if Ziebell is not captain, then there are big concerns that he is not in the best 22.

Jack will be best 22 this year. We haven’t got enough good players at the moment to kick him to the kerb.
 
Not worried about the score given the outs and saw glimpses of what can be. I do however think one of Taz or Bmac needs to move to full forward. IMO we seem too too heavy down back and too small in the front half. Let’s see if make any structural changes for the Hawks game. Xerri is going to be super important when fit.
 

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