AFL Autopsy Spanked by Sydney in elimination final

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Snake Charmer said:
you sure? When Franklin kicked the first point of the game I was directly behind him in the members, I remember Ambrose being there. As for the second quarter when Franklin did kick his first you might be right about Hartley. I have no idea who was on him
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His first goal I thought. It could've just been a rotation, but I remember Hartley letting him get out the back and he ran straight into open goal.
 
JayJ20 said:
We were 9th for contested possessions, 9th for clearances and 12th for tackles in 2013.
Watson (13th), Heppell(38th), Zaharakis (76th) and Goddard (83rd) were the only players to feature in the top 100 contested possession getters.
Howlett (17th), Hocking (24th) and Cory Dell'Olio (71st) were the only players to feature in the top 100 players for tackles.
Watson (24th) and Heppell (45th) were the only players in the top 60 for clearances.

We were definitely harder that year compared to other years, but it is no where near the standard required to compete in finals.

As for this year, I said all year that Richmond play the brand of footy that stands up in finals whilst we don't. Not surprisingly, they won a final and we didn't. We need to look at the changes they made and assess it.

I'll back Woosha to make the necessary changes needed to harden up our midfield.
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Your question was: Why has it taken so long to realise that contested footy is the way to win in September?

My answer was: We had realised and we were on our way there, and the saga did what it did. It's hard to get past the idea that had the saga not happened and we'd kept Ryder and Hibbo, and even Melk, we would have pushed deep into a finals campaign by now.

Granted the list of stats you've dug up shows we weren't ready to play finals, but your question doesn't address that. We were well on the way and without the drug thing could well have contested for a flag by now. This year we would have had five All Australians on the list.
 
Myers missed 2 years of football, so for that matter did Colyer (nearly). That's a shedload of footy to miss. Same as TBC, first season for a while. Think they all deserve another season (not TBC as he had a good year).
 

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Most disappointing thing for me, and it has been a repeat all year, is how poorly our mid group is at balancing chasing the footy and finding space/marking the opposition.

Almost every single contest yesterday Sydney had 1-2 in the contest and the rest making space around the contest. We had 1-2 in the contest and the rest running to join the contest and zero around it waiting for a disposal or marking the opposition.

The result was predictable. When Parker and Kennedy smashed their way and won the footy our guys were in no man's land and they had easy options to pass and then break free forward

Yet whenever we won it we were cramped and surrounded and either hand to bomb it high to no one and get rebounded, or turned it over trying to handpass through congestion.

This wasn't fixed after half time either, Sydney just dialed it back around 30 notches. We had absolutely no balance to this side of our game.

Now we might argue that this is because Jobe has only ever been a guy who chases the footy, and Zerrett was tagged and Heppell and Myers had a shocker and the other guys are kids...

But it's a long way to go to improve to Sydney's level. A long way.
 
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Regards to Saturday.

Our young blokes were too young. (12 players under 25?)
Our old blokes were too old.

They came up against a professional outfit of seasoned hard bodies. We are not there yet.

Also, we are building a team and game plan that wins at the MCG, and rightly so. Finish top 4 and all our finals and the granny will be there. Doesn't work on the postage stamp SCG. Sydney have a team and game plan that works at the SCG, but they have been found out in big games at the 'G. Witness last year against the Dogs.

Hep is 25
Hartley 24
Stewart 23
Gleeson - 23
Joe - 23
then Parish, McGrath, Zac M, Tippa, Fanta, Begley and McKenna, all in there first or second season.

Give these blokes three years together and we will have those seasoned hard bodies, experience and knowledge of each others game that Sydney have.

No shortcuts.
It takes time. You have to keep the group together.
 
db swannie said:
That's maybe a bridge too far, but it was one of his best games this year.

I've read through most of the comments, fairly realistic summary.

By the end of the first quarter my mate and I were discussing where we thought things might go from here. The most obvious thing at the ground was inside pressure. It felt like the dam was about to burst, and it did.

You guys should go hard for inside mids. You've got the outside part covered, and the speed. You looked dangerous in the first quarter on the wing.
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surely we go for josh Kelly.

our mids are ****ed
 
srobbo said:
Hooker going back will be a start. Don't give a s**t that he kicked 40, doesn't take away from the fact how vulnerable we were there today.
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mate when your midfield is getting absolutely toweled up it doesn't matter who you have in the backline.

With the amount of entries the swans had due to winning the midfield we were always going to get done.

We do not need Hooker in the backline. Our backline is very solid.
 
HirdsTheWord said:
mate when your midfield is getting absolutely toweled up it doesn't matter who you have in the backline.

With the amount of entries the swans had due to winning the midfield we were always going to get done.

We do not need Hooker in the backline. Our backline is very solid.
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I get that & im not making the hooker call based on the swans loss. I just think we can set & forget with Hooksy back there & release Hurley/Ambrose to play more attacking roles, without worrying about a shaky Hartley holding up his end of bargain.
 
srobbo said:
I get that & im not making the hooker call based on the swans loss. I just think we can set & forget with Hooksy back there & release Hurley/Ambrose to play more attacking roles, without worrying about a shaky Hartley holding up his end of bargain.
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The benefit hooker has on the fwd line is massive. He makes defenders accountable and lets daniher 1v1 or get on the loose.

Whilst Hooker back would strengthen our backline in will severally weaken our fwd line.
 
The finals experience differential was HUGE.

It was like 30 games (lol) to 400 or something.

Our boys were up against it, they'll come good.
 
SherbertLemon said:
The finals experience differential was HUGE.

It was like 30 games (lol) to 400 or something.

Our boys were up against it, they'll come good.
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It was 60 to 260 but okay
 
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