Autopsy vs Geelong

Remove this Banner Ad

Apr 24, 2013
81,024
153,170
Arden Street Hill
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Essendon Lawn Bowls Club
thats my point Snake... general turnovers kill us - not the fact we are handball happy (inverted commas)

Yeah, but the turnovers that easily kill us the most are the handball ones mate. We set up to overlap, the oppo players press up on the handball chain, get the turnover, then all run past us in a wave. Usually the backline have to fight tooth and nail just to stop them.
 
Screenshot_20190513-151442_Chrome.jpg
 

Log in to remove this ad.

CBSlogger

Club Legend
Aug 2, 2009
2,888
4,614
Melbourne
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Just had a look at God-bothering-exemplary-record-unimpeachable-human-being-media-darling Gary Ablett leap into the air and elbow a player in the head off the ball for the second week in a row. Should go for it, although the media sycophants are already lining up to defend him.
He's a loathsome, sniping sook who thinks he's a protected species, and their inbred bumpkin fans basically soil themselves with delight whenever he goes near it. Gets looked after like no-one else, and then whinges in genuine disbelief every time he doesn't get a free in a contest. Never puts his head over it if he can sneak out the back, bailed on the Suns after raking in the $$$$ and leading them precisely nowhere, now he's back in the inbred bosom to kick 4 freakish goals every week because unfortunately he is REALLY ******* GOOD.
I ******* HATE ABLETT. And, of course, he ices the game, just like he did last year.
I'd give a lot to see one of ours seriously line him up before he retires, a Byron Pickett style hit would be good. Or maybe watching him cry after losing a grand final or something. I know I sound bitter: that's because I am. **** you you God-bothering chrome dome. GOAT my arse.
You had me at loathsome sniping sook
 
Last edited:
Jul 6, 2006
1,969
1,146
Hong Kong
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Actually we played pretty well in patches. We were never going to be able to completely shut them down but we certainly matched it with them. It didn't feel like they beat us, more like we lost it with a few sloppy handpasses and some missed shots at goal. I can forgive the skill errors under pressure, but some of those handpasses to the feet or a kick under no pressure, that's why we are at the bottom of the ladder.
 
The method is working cos it was only **** kicking for goal that cost us the game against the ladder leaders.

That seems so obvious to me. The only reason we were behind is out of the coaches hands - at least in the immediate term. Long term, to me anyway, that's a big knock on Scott. He's had seasons to fix it. We have one of the best kicks in the league at FF and no one else can kick straight? WTF is going on there?

I think they were dejected at half time because they knew they'd they made the same mistakes again and cost themselves a game in all likelihood. The fact they came out and fought so hard to get back into the game, repeatedly, makes me think they are on board with "the gameplan" and want to make it work. That they felt responsible themselves for being behind at half time and wanted to make amends.

Not an unfair comment. Although, to play devil's advocate one could claim that with a better plan this team would have had even more chances on goal and have won either way. Shades of 2018 Essendon about this game and some of the goals kicked, none of that excuses the 2 months before hand though.

I was surprised the media votes liked Higgins’ game so much.

They honestly have no idea most of the time. It takes them 2 seasons longer to figure out our players have turned good / crap than most supporters. Higgins is working bloody hard but it would be a brave supporter that would have him in our best this year.
 
Jun 8, 2004
13,680
30,242
Melbourne
AFL Club
North Melbourne
We'd get a better look to see if the handball game worked if we learnt how to handball.
I lost count of how many of our handballs hit the ground, made our players stop and how many are to blokes under pressure.

To me if you can't handball don't have a game plan that is heavily focused on handball.

Problem is half our blokes can't kick either.
 
Didn’t see the game live but watched the replay last night. Thought the boys played very well. Up against any other defence and we probably win the game. Hell we could very well have won this game.

Durdin played well overall. Must be played every week now until the end of the season so we decide his future with as much info as possible. If that means managing Tazz and Thompson, so be it.

Taylor looked ok, but looked the most like a kid out there if the debutants this year. Turner down back should be explored further. Simpkin another good game. Thomas looking good. Garner and Zuhaar adding a lot up forward. And Larkey perhaps sneaking under the radar with very solid performances.

Plenty of blue sky ahead with our young guys. Play then as much as we can this year, look after the older blokes as much as we can, get a gun early pick, reset for next year.

Good reasoned post. I reckon the management argument is a good one. I expect us to look at our team for next year by the break and start planning around who needs gametime increased to prepare them and who needs game time managed to preserve them if we still expect them to play a big part. It doesn't mean we dump every senior player but players like Tarrant, Ziebell, Higgins for example might be better players next year for a bit more resting. Higgins is not getting younger, I'd like to see him play where we think he will be next year (HFF, HBF whatever that may be). Even Cunnington might be worth a rest or two to give a player like Ahern a bit more time in the middle in a role that suits him.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Honestly, I know supporters are disappointing. But that was a "perfect" loss.

Pushed the top team, played all over them in periods, didn't win because of mainly execution, some young players got tremendous exposure, like Larkey, Thomas etc. I thought Taylors first half was extremely encouraging. Maintained our draft position.

Despite the Turner bashing and I freely admit I'm one of his biggest ones, he actually showed a bit, playing on one of the toughest one on one players of all time. He will learn a lot from the tape. I actually saw a lot more that I liked from him back than forward.


If Cunnington wasn't the AA centerman at the moment, Atley would probabely be leading the B&F. He's finally clicked as a footballer. His disposal has improved an incredible amount since his first few years and he's just damaging in any position on the ground he plays now.

Garner and Zurhaar have made a huge difference in ball retention in our forward half since coming into the side. They are just hard matchups, defenders don't break their tackles and they hunt the man.

Thomas is just a machine, he's going to be an absolute star with 5-10kg's and a few pre-seasons to increase his endurance.


Larkey has had a terrific few weeks, he's showing a heap for a kid in his first few games. 13 score involvements and 17 disposals is a great return from a second key forward of any experience.

Lol. 22 “Likes” and rising! I wonder why...


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

Passmore

Brownlow Medallist
May 22, 2001
23,602
75,883
The Gasometer Wing
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Norf
We'd get a better look to see if the handball game worked if we learnt how to handball.
I lost count of how many of our handballs hit the ground, made our players stop and how many are to blokes under pressure.

To me if you can't handball don't have a game plan that is heavily focused on handball.

Problem is half our blokes can't kick either.

There’s 3 players in the whole team who handball properly the majority of the time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Dirty_11

Norm Smith Medallist
Jan 28, 2014
9,568
19,477
Beneath the Blue & White
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Shinboners
The other thing is this...

Scott clearly hasn't lost the players. They played their guts out for him while coaching against his brother's side on Mother's Day. Basically last playing first and we nearly beat them.

To me this was a test of their commitment to him and I think they showed they are.
One could argue Wood didn't play his 'guts' out. A few very questionable efforts.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 

Waussie

Premiership Player
Nov 26, 2017
3,375
5,294
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Can’t blame Brad for that one. Had our chances and didn’t kick the goals. Brown the exception. All good and fine to kick um against the blues. We blew that game.
People are absolutely kidding themselves if they thought Turner was just going to go toe to toe with Ablett. He was conceding 12 kegs against one of the best pound for pound body players in the league and one of the greatest gamecraft players ever.

I am a fan of Turner going back but this was always going to be a tough matchup, especially for a guy with limited exposure up that end. Like Snake said, this one is on the coach.
Totally agree, so why was he put on him?
 

Themanbun

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 19, 2019
10,048
30,812
AFL Club
North Melbourne
One other thing I have noticed watching the replay was that when a pack was formed North would have three or four players jumping and Geelong only one . A number of times they got the ground ball and away they went.

Yep, noticed at least a dozen times, just one Geelong player would jump to the bottom of the pack and just slap the ball to the outside, knowing they outnumbered us there. Smart stuff from their mids.
 

Waussie

Premiership Player
Nov 26, 2017
3,375
5,294
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Of course they aren't ready. NEarly every single kid isn't. Tarryn Thomas wasn't in the first few rounds and he has already adjusted to the pace and flow of the game....

Playing un-ready players has it's advantages at the end of the year as well.

Do you think Mitchell Lewis is ready? He was doing sweet **** all at VFL level for Box Hill, Roughead kicked 5 and Clarkson openly states he is more than likely not coming back in as Lewis needs extended game time to gain experience.

This is the former captain as well!


The same applies for LDU and Ahern who are a lot nearer to ready than Mitchell Lewis as a 20 year old key forward.....
It's how close to ready that counts.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back