Autopsy vs Richmond - Rd 7, 2020

SonofSamsquanch

Enjoy decent coffee but don't dunk yer biscuits
Mar 31, 2016
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Pulled down? It was momentary and I might be wrong but didn't he run on? He had possession again when free was paid?
That is an accurate eyewitness account. The jumper pull was there. It should have been a free, but Dusty wasn’t even slowed down and he DID get the ball back, having participated in the next play. And as noted, the free was paid late to boot.
 
May 8, 2003
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That is an accurate eyewitness account. The jumper pull was there. It should have been a free, but Dusty wasn’t even slowed down and he DID get the ball back, having participated in the next play. And as noted, the free was paid late to boot.
Just watched it on replay. You are spot on. Clearly a hold but it certainly didn't stop him being involved in chain of play. No different to any player being momentarily held after disposing of ball.
Free sure
50 don't reckon so.
 
Oct 16, 2004
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5 game+ losing streaks in the past 30 years

YearRoundWLForAg%
19904-90655274174.49
19929-130545868966.47
20067-110533148168.81
2006/0719-30752373171.55
200910-150639755172.05
201612-170537450773.77
2016/1720-501074199674.40
201711-180758776077.24
20203-70522836063.33

We've scored 30 goals in the past 5 weeks. You have to go back to 1964 to find a more barren 5 week stretch when between Round 12-16 we scored 28 (6, 6, 7, 5, 4 - we actually won one of those 5 games). The club record low for 5 weeks is 25 (Rounds 12-16, 1930 and Round 13-17, 1930).
 
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Colbys Boots

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Just watched it on replay. You are spot on. Clearly a hold but it certainly didn't stop him being involved in chain of play. No different to any player being momentarily held after disposing of ball.
Free sure
50 don't reckon so.

Rule brought in to protect Gary Ablett after the 2008 grand final. It's not so much that no-one has been dragged down like that in over 10 years but that they stopped paying it 10 years ago.
 

Colbys Boots

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Because the bomb it long down the line game plan is easy to defend against, and provides a good opportunity to score against. It’s an obsolete game plan as good coaches have worked out how to counter attack from it.

If you put guys back, it doesn’t matter if a contested mark is taken on the wing because they won’t have anyone to kick to. If the mark isn’t taken and the opposition win the ball, they have numbers behind the ball that can run and spread providing options.

Until we stop this god forsaken game plan we will continue to be out numbered.


I have to assume that you didn't watch the game last night if you are still talking about bomb it down the line game plan.
 

7577969923

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Okay. Just finished watching the replay after not being able to watch properly last night and my initial impression is not as bad as I was expecting and not as frustrating as the previous two weeks. It looked to me that they have made a conscious decision to adjust the game plan and try and be a lot more adventurous with ball use on transition. I see that as a good thing because we weren't going anywhere with the long kick down the line to a 6 man contest being our only pathway forward. Obviously it will take a little while to adapt and some of our cattle aren't really up to playing it well but still a move in the right direction. There were plenty of times when the last handball in a chain or a missed kick sold us into trouble.

I think we had far more players that gave an honest account of themselves this week. Some of the better ones in my mind were:
Higgins - I think the move to half-back is the right one for him at this stage of his career and I would make that a permanent one. I think he will more consistently rack up possessions and gives us at least one high-level ball user coming out of the backline.
Taylor - could turn out to be the steal of the 2018 draft. He is a really nice hybrid of forward and mid-fielder with great hands and better than decent skills. I suspect that he has worked as hard as anyone this season and now feels confident and comfortable at the level. Right now a better and more important player than both Thomas and Scott.
Hall - I thought he was pretty good in the on-ball role and added a dimension to the centre square set-up when he went in. His disposal and decision making was pretty good and he seems to have taken on board feedback that he needed to lower his eyes a bit and find a teammate. Guys calling for him to be dropped during the week were shown up as foolish.
Tarrant - Super reliable and did his absolute best on a number of opponents, often leaving his man to cover another. There is only so much he can do when the ball is coming in without pressure and we give away poor turnovers coming out.
Walker - looked the only North player likely to take a mark in the forward. Not a great kick and probably should have taken another three very gettable marks in the forward fifty but gives it a red hot go every week.
McKay - not a dominant game by any stretch but I thought he defended really well and his opponent never got away from him. Great size and definitely something to work on.
Simpkin - probably his worst game of the season and he was definitely hampered by injury for most of it. I suspect they jabbed him or restrapped his ankle at half-time and it took until about 3/4 time for it to feel right. He was possibly the best player on the ground in the 4th quarter.
Goldy - not his best game of the season but clearly the dominant ruckman on the ground.
Dumont - another solid contribution and possibly gets as much out of his potential as any player on our list.
LMac - clearly relishing the midfield defensive role and would now have confidence that he can take anyone down. Didn't play on Dusty the whole game but was effective on him when he did.

The Problems
At the moment I think our backline is poor apart from Tarrant. None of the mid to small defenders are that good at hard defensive roles and they are very poor at moving the ball out. Hayden, Williams, Bonar, Pittard, JMac all had too many truly awful kicks coming out of the backline, some under minimal pressure that missed targets by 5 metres. Williams seemed to have about 5 goals kicked on him. Attley and JMac are almost invisible even when they are getting touches. Pittard is flaky. These guys are all of an age group where they should be solid week in week out contributors. I doubt any of them would get a game in the Richmond backline.
The forward line is clearly not functioning. In a time when it is probably as hard as it has ever been for forwards, we have been crucifying ours with terrible delivery and they have lost confidence. BBB is the prime example. Kicking for goal was clearly terrible and was one of the main reasons we got beaten by such a large margin.
Lack of pressure on transition. It was too easy for Richmond to run it out of our backline and at least a couple of times a quarter they were able to stream forward without any pressure on the ball carrier. Due to a combination of our own poor execution and Richmond's pressure we didn't get those opportunities.
 

SonofSamsquanch

Enjoy decent coffee but don't dunk yer biscuits
Mar 31, 2016
19,246
44,935
Victoria
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North Melbourne
Okay. Just finished watching the replay after not being able to watch properly last night and my initial impression is not as bad as I was expecting and not as frustrating as the previous two weeks. It looked to me that they have made a conscious decision to adjust the game plan and try and be a lot more adventurous with ball use on transition. I see that as a good thing because we weren't going anywhere with the long kick down the line to a 6 man contest being our only pathway forward. Obviously it will take a little while to adapt and some of our cattle aren't really up to playing it well but still a move in the right direction. There were plenty of times when the last handball in a chain or a missed kick sold us into trouble.

I think we had far more players that gave an honest account of themselves this week. Some of the better ones in my mind were:
Higgins - I think the move to half-back is the right one for him at this stage of his career and I would make that a permanent one. I think he will more consistently rack up possessions and gives us at least one high-level ball user coming out of the backline.
Taylor - could turn out to be the steal of the 2018 draft. He is a really nice hybrid of forward and mid-fielder with great hands and better than decent skills. I suspect that he has worked as hard as anyone this season and now feels confident and comfortable at the level. Right now a better and more important player than both Thomas and Scott.
Hall - I thought he was pretty good in the on-ball role and added a dimension to the centre square set-up when he went in. His disposal and decision making was pretty good and he seems to have taken on board feedback that he needed to lower his eyes a bit and find a teammate. Guys calling for him to be dropped during the week were shown up as foolish.
Tarrant - Super reliable and did his absolute best on a number of opponents, often leaving his man to cover another. There is only so much he can do when the ball is coming in without pressure and we give away poor turnovers coming out.
Walker - looked the only North player likely to take a mark in the forward. Not a great kick and probably should have taken another three very gettable marks in the forward fifty but gives it a red hot go every week.
McKay - not a dominant game by any stretch but I thought he defended really well and his opponent never got away from him. Great size and definitely something to work on.
Simpkin - probably his worst game of the season and he was definitely hampered by injury for most of it. I suspect they jabbed him or restrapped his ankle at half-time and it took until about 3/4 time for it to feel right. He was possibly the best player on the ground in the 4th quarter.
Goldy - not his best game of the season but clearly the dominant ruckman on the ground.
Dumont - another solid contribution and possibly gets as much out of his potential as any player on our list.
LMac - clearly relishing the midfield defensive role and would now have confidence that he can take anyone down. Didn't play on Dusty the whole game but was effective on him when he did.

The Problems
At the moment I think our backline is poor apart from Tarrant. None of the mid to small defenders are that good at hard defensive roles and they are very poor at moving the ball out. Hayden, Williams, Bonar, Pittard, JMac all had too many truly awful kicks coming out of the backline, some under minimal pressure that missed targets by 5 metres. Williams seemed to have about 5 goals kicked on him. Attley and JMac are almost invisible even when they are getting touches. Pittard is flaky. These guys are all of an age group where they should be solid week in week out contributors. I doubt any of them would get a game in the Richmond backline.
The forward line is clearly not functioning. In a time when it is probably as hard as it has ever been for forwards, we have been crucifying ours with terrible delivery and they have lost confidence. BBB is the prime example. Kicking for goal was clearly terrible and was one of the main reasons we got beaten by such a large margin.
Lack of pressure on transition. It was too easy for Richmond to run it out of our backline and at least a couple of times a quarter they were able to stream forward without any pressure on the ball carrier. Due to a combination of our own poor execution and Richmond's pressure we didn't get those opportunities.
Everything you have written makes sense. A good account of the game from The north players point of view.

The non functioning forward line is a clear standout. There has to be a leader to guide and direct the forwards. Ideally, that should be Brown. But as he is not showing as the type then either JZ or Higgins have to take control. Larkey seems to understand how to avoid directly competing with Ben but not too many others seem to have his awareness.
 
Just watched it on replay. You are spot on. Clearly a hold but it certainly didn't stop him being involved in chain of play. No different to any player being momentarily held after disposing of ball.
Free sure
50 don't reckon so.
Scottywiper, the bastion of open minded analysis of umpiring decisions!
 
Come on. They have not paid it for over half a decade as a 50m penalty. I'm not arguing the free kick for holding & advantage should have been there. Umpires shouldn't be able to ignore the same infringement 1000's of times then randomly decide it's applicable because they have a man boner for Dustin Martin.
How was the fre to Martin in front of goal? Threw his arms out as someone farted and got a free.

What did he say, he was gonna cut off their meth if they didn't look after him?
 
How was the fre to Martin in front of goal? Threw his arms out as someone farted and got a free.

What did he say, he was gonna cut off their meth if they didn't look after him?

You mean the one where higgins had an entire fist full of jumper and was pulling him back as he was trying to get to the contest?

If you're going to sook at least make it about a 50/50 call, not a textbook free kick
 

hilly

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You mean the one where higgins had an entire fist full of jumper and was pulling him back as he was trying to get to the contest?

If you're going to sook at least make it about a 50/50 call, not a textbook free kick

It was Polec and no one said it wasn't a free.
 
Anyone from our board point out something like that on your board and we'd get banned you little fu**.
Good call Ferbs. The Tiges are the benchmark when it comes to "no opposition posters" tags on their threads. You will not find a bigger pack of emotionally soft, downhill skiing band waggoners (except maybe * and Carlton).

I'm tipping that they'll have reverted to their rightful place as the laughing stock of the AFL by the end of next year.
 
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