Disappointing night's footy but a few positives.
Careful posting anything too positive...
Garlett's pressure and willingness to run was fantastic and has been for a number of weeks! Yarran and Bett's also good at this but I get an impression the Garlett is really beginning to mature this season.
Garlett kicked two absolutely stunning goals and at important times too - all of them put in and were our top three tacklers. It's a really dangerous set-up - but with that said has the chance to get found out against tougher, flooding sides - Hawthorn, and I'm thinking maybe Sydney are worries.
Hendo did a great job and I hope a few of his critics begin to shut up. Must keep playing him this season. Great to see a few contested marks.
I think that's the argument about VFL v. AFL development and it's an interesting one, especially considering he has rarely played AFL or VFL standard footy as a forward - QAFL really doesn't count.
I suggest he'll develop far, far faster in the AFL - he is all class this kid, and with the confidence he got from grabbing a lot of those marks on the weekend, I think he'll continue to grow and grow.
Jacobs shouldered a huge burden. Though he got well and truely beaten by Sandilands, that was always going to happen. Thought he did a lot to compete and minimise Sandilands impact...we even won the clearances.
He was our in form ruckman going into this round, and despite coming up against huge challenges for a 10 gamer - the use of his brains are what sets him apart from being simply an average ruckman. Seems to have the knack of figuring out his opponent and consequently not getting completely found out against them. A more experienced Naitanui probably should've exposed him but Jacobs applied a tonne of physical pressure and wore him out early on.
Good to see Bower and Army return to the backline. Obviously the backline group need a bit more time to gel together.
I think that was really obvious - Bower didn't offer his usual run and Army looked a little out of sorts, the number of turnovers in and around our D50 was inexcusable - but the chopping and changing of having Army and Bower just back in, as well as Thornton being forced to pinch hit elsewhere might've caused some real tactical confusion.
One grumble: can someone please start delivering inside 50 to advantage? Is there such a stat (i50 seems to be very misleading, would love to see effective i50). If that is not possible, making sure it is not to "disadvantage". Wouldn't even care if it was deep to the pocket and over the boundary line rather than an uncontested mark to the opposition.
Disposal was back at 2006 standard on the weekend. Really missed composure heading into the F50 despite Gibbs playing in and around stoppages, in fact his disposal was poor at crucial times. That just goes to prove you need as many quality ball users as possible to cover for one another.
Hope Setanta gets back soon. Think he is really unappreciated as a true team player, who always tries to create a contest and works to the team benefit.
We missed a player who could really crash the packs. Henderson and Waite are not imposing enough on the contest to force the ball front and centre consistently. It resulted in a lot of easy clearances out of D50 and easy spoils - one of the many reasons our disposal saw us massacred on the rebound.