Review The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

[Mr_Moogle]

Lets kick this off for 2014. Looks like it's going to be another long year.

Good:
Johnston - kicked 3 crucial goals and kept us in the match.
Grigg - tracking well for a young player, competes well, kicks a long way too.
Talia - solid as usual, Hawkins had little impact.
Jacobs - a better standard than what he was producing last year. Competitive.
Dangerfield - tried his guts out but was tagged and sniped by an underhanded Geelong side.
McKernan - Thought he provided a good contest relative to his usual standard.
Kerridge - One of the few players with composure, skills we're excellent too.
Wright - 31 disposal game but barely deserves a mention. Turned the ball over constantly and missed easy shots. At least he gave it a crack though.

Bad:
Shaw - cost us goals, skills atrocious, bullshit selection.
Pods - just looks fumbly and his aerial work was underwhelming.
Martin - shouldn't be played in defence, wasn't useful up forward either though.
Mackay - does a few nice things but has little impact on the game.
Jaensch - actually thought he played okay but his job on Bartel was unforgivable.

Ugly:
Crows gameplan. Sando has ruined us with this handballing bullshit.
Crows constant fumbling of the ball. Just atrocious.
Crows conceding so much ground to the Cats and turning the ball over in the worst places.
The constant sniping on Dangerfield
Umpires letting Geelong players get away with blatant holding.

 

[Wright Away]

Good - Some of the b grade players having good games.
Defence ok, Forwards ok
Bad - Umpiring
Ugly - Patrick Dangerfield's support and his game, Rory Sloane, Scott Thompson, Brad Crouch.

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

Good:
Eddie - This is the crumbing forward we have solely lacked for so long
Kerridge - BOG for us IMO
Sauce - Around the ground work back to 2012 best
Truck - Toots on
Talia

Bad:
Hitting the front, free against Talia results in a goal and the onslaught begins - all too predictable and we need to fight games out to the end
Umpiring was horribly inconsistent
Porps
Martin
Danger's lack of support

 

[WAG]

Good
Jacobs
Kerridge
Sloane
Truck

Bad
Pods - I'll say it again. There's a reason he wasn't offered another contract.

Ugly
Dangerfield - getting mauled without support from Adelaide players or umps.
Selwood / umpire love in.
Thommo - not sure 2013 was an aberration.
Craig's Sando's game plan.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Despicable: Overreacting Crow fans.

 

[GROTTO]

LJ played a great game and will get better.

Smack showed more in this game then he has for the entire 2013.

 

[GROTTO]

I wont pass judgement on Pods until I find out if he was injured.

Lets give him a few games before talking about our decision to get him.

 

[mattymac]

2 things

A handballing game plan only works if you have composed players with plenty of poise and can shepherd and tackle hard. It doesn't work for us.

Secondly, I think we can put our pre-season fantasies to bed. We are back where we were in August. Porps and Thommo are still past it. Martin and Shaw still aren't good enough.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Good
Sauce getting back to his best
Grigg's leg
Matty J, credit where credit is due
Talia's job on Hawkins
LJ worked harder as the game went on

Bad
Martin
Porplyzia has to be running out of chances
Our midfield failed to fire a shot in the last qtr
Not spotting Eddie when he was best option
Pods needs to get his hands going

Ugly
Handball, fumble, handball, fumble, turnover
The lack of protection for Dangerfield by umpires and our players in terms of providing a block

 

[Ratto]

Posted in the other thread earlier but I'll try and bottle it down to the 3 points.

The Good:
- Shaw was fine until the last quarter. If Crouch wasn't underdone and required the sub I would have probably expected him to go off.
- Betts made things out of nothing. Was very impressed regardless of the delivery to him. Against other teams it may be much much better, and that's saying something.
- Johnston when kicking was great. If the midfield can hit him, he's first team material surely ahead of Jpod too.
- Kerridge was still very good. I'm very happy for him.
- Smack when given good delivery performed well. When confidence dropped in the midfield he continued to put in effort. It's a good sign for him.
- Kicking out of defence to a contest near the boundary was a bit poor. Knowing it likely won't get a mark there were no front and centre players really being match aware.
- Talia in the air had a great game. Looks to be #1 down there now. Rutten may look a bit lost now!
- Jacobs was fantastic around the ground as well as in the middle.
- The odd strategy of sometimes not getting a ruckman at all to a contest. Most of the time it actually turned in our favour where the ruckman was in 2 minds a lot of the time on whether to take posession or tap, resulting in a lot of unforced errors.

The Bad:
- Niggle against Dangerfield etc. Yes it's annoying, yes it may get looked at at numerous occasions, but it's footy. Next game I'd hope others would help him.
- The lack of backing themselves. Wright smothering in the middle of the ground, passing it off to someone I can't recall then instead of getting it forward they gave it back to the man on the ground, who was then given no option but to airball it almost.
- Ontop of backing themselves. They have all been talking about their fitness preparation. Instead of trusting their running strength, they hand it off. That overuse of handballs could've turned into running 30 metres, bouncing, running again and kicking the ball into the forward line, sometimes it never came to that.
- The shove in the back Selwood did on Danger in the 3rd quarter.
- Danger seeming like he was carrying injury early in the game. Of course he was targeted and taken out a LOT, but the first quarter he should've shown more.

The Ugly:
- The overuse of handballs near defensive 50 and the centre square.
- The attentiveness of players when exiting defensive 50. The marking contests were poorly setup and even if there was no mark they did not setup to crumb the ball to run it out.
- They were their biggest enemies earlier in the game. Mistakes turned against them the worst way possible.
- If this is how they wanted to perform under pressure against an away crowd, I'm not sure I want to see how they react next week. I hope to be wrong.
- Tackles stuck, BUT they were not effective enough to either a) bring them to ground or b) block accurate disposal by hand out of the tackle. Baby steps I guess for that.
- Yes, last quarter was poor. I believe it to be a mental thing. When you lack confidence, pride and aggression, everything else will fall with it eventually.

All-in-all it was alright, but that last quarter was shocking. It was representative of their mental swing in the game. They punched first, we punched back. Repeat for 3 quarters. But not once did we punch twice to get the upper hand. In the end they did, and it cost us.

 

[Redleg Crow]

GOOD
Sauce. Welcome back
LJ's kicking for goal
Dangerfield. Had a brutal tough game, still got 21 touches and 2 goals. If that is a poor game...
Kerridge. Really stood up
Eddie. Can't wait to see him crumbing below Tex.
SMACK. Took some nice grabs, needed more output, but encouraging

BAD
Last 20 minutes
Handballs to players standing still
No one with any real ability to tag Selwood or Bartel ala Guthrie on Danger

UGLY
Seeing Dangerfield ridden into the ground and no frees given.
Seeing Thompson do one of the most obvious throws and not get pinged. Sure throwing abway the whistle is good, but you still need to pay them when they're there.
LJ, shouldn't get done, but it was sloppy enough that he probably will be
Smack, what the hell with the hand in the face in the first quarter??

 

[NSWCROW]

GOOD
that we were SOMEHOW within 5 pts of them at the last change in spite of our selves

BAD
Kids shitting their pants the way kids do until they learn how NOT to shit their pants

UGLY
Patrick Dangerfields teammates

 

[Huntercrow]

Good kerridge

Bad dangerfield turnovers

Ugly Talias brainfade

 

[Schulzycrow]

Good:
Sauce...not good...awesome
Kerridge...is going to be a gun.
Jaensch...didn't stop trying.
Sloane
Eddie for parts
Smack for parts

Bad:
If you are going to play a run and handball game, 1st point is to handball to advantage, 2nd to not fumble and 3rd when in space to kick to advantage the players spreading laterally up the field. We had too many players not take the initiative to be the one to kick it laterally.

We fumbled and bumbled. Still can't handball under tackle pressure, yet every other side gets the ball away to players waiting on the outside. We still get killed on the spread and our tackling tonight was putrid, not helped by the good tackles going unrewarded.

Our forwards got run off all night long. Need another speedier player. Got to be daring and proactive. Safe bet is to go with Pets, but it needs to be Cameron.

Our backline was a shambles with no real leadership to even think of how to defend at boundary throw ins or getting sucked too far up the ground. Half a dozen times it happened, yet when we do the same there were two Geelong defenders back there. It just boggles the mind that this is still happening and either the coaching is inept or our defenders and mids are really slow learners. Truck looks slower every time I see him play. Hartigan should have played instead of Shaw.

We get sucked to the contest way too easily, its great if we could actually hold a tackle and not let it get out of the contest. Good teams know this and keep players out knowing that more often than not its going to come out, because we can't stick our tackles or we are clumsy in how we go about effecting them. Its not a new problem and Sando and his boys better start earning their pay, because it is so FRUSTRATING to watch the same mistakes being made over and over again.

Missing easy goals. Matty Wright looking at you sunshine.

Ugly.
Push in the back rule looks like its gone the same way as holding the ball. Umpiring was ordinary across the entire game. Unless you are Stevie J or Selwood who I just can't respect as a player and losing more each time I see him play.
No support for Danger who got smashed all night by the entire Geelong team. Mids should get an almighty spray.
Our final term throw in the towel. It burns even more that if we had been cleaner in the first three we would have been comfortably in front.
Having to watch a Powa ad during the coverage. Piss off!
Now having to listen to all the channel 7, 9 and Tiser Port lap dogs heap it on the club all week long.

 

[footy4ever]

the PIG UGLY

the shift in umpiring to let things go. - Holding is holding FFS, and driving someone into the ground from behind is in the back FFS. Go eat a dick AFL, those rules have never changed so pay them when they are there.

 

[Stiffy_18]

The Good
Young, less experienced / 2nd tier players

The Bad
Our experienced players / Stars

The Ugly
The whole 4th quarter and starts to the first 3 quarters

Yet to be determined: Are we fit enough to play out a high intensity game with capped interchange?!

 

[Modbury_Hawk_12]

Good - Contested footy, although I think we lost it there were no easy touches either way.

Bad - skills, way too fumbly, but this should improve the more games into the season.

Ugly - getting run over in the last quarter, ****ing shithouse

 

[Cleric]

The good
Talia on Hawkins. He plays his level every game he plays. A human blanket, will be the best CHB in the game.
Kerridge. He really stepped up today. His game was excellent. Happy for him to have number 17 on his back. BOG for the crows
Grigg. Man his left foot is lethal. That pass to LJ was like a dart. He has the best disposal by foot in our team.
Jacobs. Back to his 2012 form.
Smack. Took a good step forward today. Hopefully he gets some confidence and can kick on.
Betts. Well worth the money.

The bad
Wright. Dont think I have seen a less impressive 31 disposal game. I have never been sold on him but he had turned me around this preseason.
Pods. Terrible. I am on the record that he was a poor get. Lets see whos right.
Sloane, Thommo and Danger. Really poor game from our elite mids. Really shows me how valuable Douggy is.
Crouch was underdone, but cant blame Sando for picking him. I would have.

The ugly
Fumble footy. Butter fingers anyone?
Lack of team spirit. Maybe Dangers comments about him been one of the only players interested in whats going on in the club is more telling than we know. Geelong play for each other.

 

[sbenno]

I agree with most things that have been said, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned Smith.

He seemed to get enough of the ball, but tonight his disposal was absolutely atrocious. Almost everything he touched turned to shit.

Secondly we seemed to have 2 kinds of entries into the 50 - some of our guys were keen to lower their eyes and spot up a target, others were happy to bomb it long and played straight into the hands of Mackie and rivers. Didn't help that pods seems to have trampolines for hands. We did well when we showed a bit of composure and honoured a lead, but squandered some good opportunities by blindly kicking long.

 

[hurt]

good - think eddie and pods can only be truly judged when tex is back, yet thought both showed something tonight eddie is silky, pods gives something

bad - Cameron mooney has the iq of a house plant

ugly - scott Thompson - agin- what a walking breathing talking list clogger

 

[Wood_Duck]

LJ worked harder as the game went on

He looks bloody lazy and very soft. Jogs from one end to the other but applies zero defensive pressure.

 

[Ravenous Crow]

Good

Big Red - fantastic game. Up against 3 ruckmen and manage to hold his own in the hitouts. Hopefully his much improved game around the ground is a sign of things to come.
Eddie - Exactly what we were looking for.
Kerridge - Great first quarter, pretty solid game overall. I've never been too impressed with his ball use before but he showed off some pretty neat stab kicks tonight.
Danger's goal on the boundary
Sloane's tackling in the last quarter
Jaensch - Thought his first half was full of shitty defensive efforts and seagulling cheap touches. Really good defensive moments in the second half and was instrumental in setting up good btis of play.
Lyons - 58 SC points in 20% game time. Our equal highest clearance winner with Jacobs and Danger. Should be playing in place of Thompson. But knowing Sandlewood's relationship with Lyons, he'll probably end up making way for Petrenko or some shit next week.

Bad
Our supposed star studded midfield. Only Jacobs can really hold his head up. Wright found a lot of it but didn't use it too well.
Pods - I hope it was all due to the injury he copped. Otherwise it's a baffling decision to pick him over Jenkins. His pre season games against Port and Carlton were similar; a whole load of nothing.
Martin - mediocre game against Port, worse against Carlton. But one good quarter against GWS and all of a sudden he's a preseason hero. Clearly not up to it and we've wasted 6 years making a decision Hawthorn would make in 1 or 2.
Porplyzia - this one doesn't really matter. Hasn't played with any consistency in many years but I guess by now he's learnt that Sando's never going to drop him.

Ugly
Thompson - It wasn't injuries that slowed him down in 2013; game has just gone past him. Playing as one of our premier onballers and his team mate is the one copping the hard tags. Can only muster 20 touches without exerting any influence defensively or on the scoreboard. Not to mention his inability to provide leadership in the middle with vB and Douglas out. Just woeful all round.
Shaw's second half. Really strange defensive decision making that was tough to watch. Directly cost goals about 3 or 4 times by overcommitting and then leaving Geelong with an extra number out the back.

Worst of all

Dangerfield copping a tag from the Mayor of Whoville and no one did anything about it. Someone please get into Cam Guthrie. Crush him in a tackle, niggle him off the ball, give a shephard to let Dangerfield have a free run at a contest. Instead we had to watch Danger get worked over all night whilst the likes of Scotty T stood around flatfooted.

 

[Redleg Crow]

but I'm surprised no one has mentioned Smith.

I forget, was he the one in the 3rd quarter who kicked into the 50 to no one?

 

[BACCS]

Despicable: Overreacting Crow fans.

If the margin had not have ballooned out with a couple of junktime goals, this thread is a very different story.

It was always going to be a massive task trying to win in Geelong round 1 of the season, especially with a couple of slightly underdone players. For all the fumbling and shit handballs, we were right in the game until 10 minutes into the last quarter.

Bring on the Showdown!

 

[Dirty Bird]

Yet to be determined: Are we fit enough to play out a high intensity game with capped interchange?!

I know of one person who can fix fitness.