was there any positives to this game

[juddsentant517]

although i am bitterly dissapointed i can still see positives out of the game today.
For starters, we now know what it takes to be succesful in finals, adelaide were our benchmark, and we were starting to get ahead of ourselves, if we versed mmelbourne in orund 22 we wouldve been slaughtered come finals, we now know what it takes, what we have to put in, and have been put back in our place, hopefully ratts will instill accountability into the club through the week.

another point is we learnt who will stand up when a match is on the line, sadly, yesterday, not many, but fevola, stevens, gibbs, walker and to an extent yarran did, and with the help of juddy, murphy thornton, bower etc who had very average games, shall be a threat in finals

and 3, nobody seems to be focusing on it, but 8 long yeas, FINALLY

 

[baconb]

I didn't watch the game, wasn't on in Perth. Big positive

 

[peakie]

How on earth can you say that Walker was a positive -he had 30 possessions and probably made 15 errors -turned it over 3 times for Adelaide goals -his decision making under pressure is about as good as an under 13 player -always over rated -tries to do too much -runs plenty and stuffs up more!!

 

[ptrsks]

gibbs was brilliant, tried hard all day.

 

[kreuze_missile]

Yarran looked like he actually wanted to be there. First 20 minutes was the best football we have played all year.

Thats about all I can come up with...

 

[AlecDuncan]

Hampson was great. It wasn't his fault the on-ballers didn't get their hands on it.

 

[Dennis]

Walker got 30 touches

Walker had 8 clangers




The pack running in the 1st qtr creating scoring shots

The fact the pack never ran backwards when we didn't have the ball cost us goals



Yarran can chase and tackle

Yarran can't do much else




Wiggins is a great pack contester in the air

... but not when in the backline




Thornton plays above his weight and has a fair dinkum crack

We only have 1 Thornton




Aaron Joseph showed a new string to his bow playing forward

...meaning that Goodwin and Knights ran beserk as they weren't tagged



Hampson proves that white men can jump

.... no negative really. What a champ!



Cloke got banned for coming to training late and that sends the right message

Cloke missing from CHF really screws with our structure



We finished higher than essendon two years in a row


Finishing higher than Essendon last year meant we missed out on Hurley

 

[CUG81]

The only positive i can think of is that after a beating like that, the players would want to redeem themsleves and put in a ***** huge effort next week. And they'll need to do this because if they dont, brissy will flog us.

 

[mickelboy182]

Nice one Preservative, managed to fit TWO insults towards Yarran in a post that is not about him. On fire mate.

 

[AlecDuncan]

Cloke missing from CHF really screws with our structure

Cloke missing from CHF
Cloke missing from ruck

Otherwise agree (except for Yarran).

 

[coke_zero]

geez if you had Hurley and played him at CHF you would just about be set.

 

[mac25]

geez if you had Hurley and played him at CHF you would just about be set.

Agree totally, no disrespect for Yarran who will be a good player, but how difficulty is it to find what Hurley provides a quality key position player at both ends, anyone who denies this has their blinkers on.

 

[blues4flag]

Never had a shot at him.

 

[AlecDuncan]

geez if you had Hurley and played him at CHF you would just about be set.

If that's a dig at our draft selection, someone buy this man a copy of last year's ladder. We all wanted Hurley, but Essendon were never going to pass up on him.

CHF wasn't today's problem, but it didn't help. The certainty with which Adelaide swooped on any ball in dispute all over the ground made us look like schoolkids.

 

[Alpha1]

Positives are we didn't get done by a 100.

 

[Juddrockz]

Hampson was great. It wasn't his fault the on-ballers didn't get their hands on it.

Why cant he hold a mark though??????????????

 

[pumped]

Hampson was great. It wasn't his fault the on-ballers didn't get their hands on it.

Concur with Alec on this one. Felt Hampson showed as much yesterday as at any other time in his short career. His tap work or at least his ability to outreach his opponent was inspiring to see. Also felt Stevens showed as much grit as he has for a while. Also got some hope from the defensive pressure in the first half from Yarran. To me looks like a kid who could play with heart if he had more self belief.

 

[coke_zero]

If that's a dig at our draft selection, someone buy this man a copy of last year's ladder. We all wanted Hurley, but Essendon were never going to pass up on him.

CHF wasn't today's problem, but it didn't help. The certainty with which Adelaide swooped on any ball in dispute all over the ground made us look like schoolkids.

you do realize you look like a complete idiot now.

 

[Silvagnis]

geez if you had Hurley and played him at CHF you would just about be set.

We should have picked Gumbleton in the 2006 draft...

A shame Selwood is a better footballer than Thorp, Gumbleton and Hansen.

Who would kick it to Hurley after we struggled to win the ball and hit a target bringing it out of the backline?

Rich is a great kick, but Yarran is a brilliant kick with both feet and doesn't have to think before placing the ball on a postage stamp lace out. Yarran will break open games once he builds the motor to support his pace and run.

Agree totally, no disrespect for Yarran who will be a good player, but how difficulty is it to find what Hurley provides a quality key position player at both ends, anyone who denies this has their blinkers on.

Good game on Hawthorn's gun defenders, was it?

Anyone who thinks having a tall target to kick to is the answer and the reason we lost has their blinkers on.

And lives in the "Just kick it long!" era...

With so many senior players not running hard like Yarran who chased and tackled before running out of gas, why would a tall be the magic bullet?

We were run off our feet and beaten in the middle without Waite, Austin and Jamison who will be vital parts of our spine.

Jamison held Koschitzke to a goal in a game where the players worked hard both ways.

Add the defensive pressure of Robinson, Yarran, Betts and Garlett to our side and we will improve we're the game is won and lost

Hopefully Grigg can capture his 2008 form where he was accountable and hard at it.

Maintaining and controling possession is just as important as having a target to kick to.

If not more important.

 

[Blueboys11]

Positive was it means Essnedon have to go to AAMI, so they can get spanked in a final!!!

 

[Brenton Davy]

If we had Hurley

How about if we had a fit Waite and Jamison and Hadley and Robinson and Warnock and Austin.
If Betts and Garlett didn't do something stupid.
If Walker had had run behind him.
If Grigg had not lost form.

We are in the finals guys. There are eight teams behind us that would have loved the opportunity, including last years premier

You aren't that far away.

Too many injuries this time of year and as for Betts and co......

Get the right run next year and you will be very close

 

[DarkTint]

positive is 8 teams' seasons ended today.

and we're NOT one of them.


geez it was not long ago all we had to cheer for was the fact we had the #1 draft pick, and another one, and another one........ this is what we're building for. premierships. and part of the journey is getting some finals experience into our young players.

no matter what the outcome we can ONLY be a better team next year because we played finals this year.

i also love the fact we've sentenced essendon to death next week.
these cocky f@#$ers would've been hoping to play us.

 

[40yearBLUE]

positive is 8 teams' seasons ended today.

and we're NOT one of them.


geez it was not long ago all we had to cheer for was the fact we had the #1 draft pick, and another one, and another one........ this is what we're building for. premierships. and part of the journey is getting some finals experience into our young players.

no matter what the outcome we can ONLY be a better team next year because we played finals this year.

i also love the fact we've sentenced essendon to death next week.
these cocky f@#$ers would've been hoping to play us.

Totally agree.

There are some massive positives. But they wont become apparent for a couple of weeks.

Some people just refuse to accept that there are only 3 kinds of teams in any competition, whether it be AFL, car racing, Soccer, it doesn't matter, just 3 kinds. Great teams, good teams and struggling teams. Thats all. Just those 3. And the great teams are competitive on any track against any opposition. Good teams match up better against some but not others and the better they match up against the sides they are not so good against, in other words as they improve, they move from good to very good to great. The rest, the bottom 6 or so struggle against all sides. No team in a socialized sport (any comp with equalizing rules, salary caps, drafts, same tyres, homogenized engines etc) is locked into any category, that is the purpose of the equalizing rules so that teams are in a constant state of flux up and down the tables.

So after that pre amble, we are a good team on our way to great. Geelong are a great team, prolonged success allows them that claim but to be part of the all time great batch they need to win more flags. Essendon won just 1 in their dominant window but Brisbane won 3, therefore all time great status. Our 95 team was a great team, at the time we all thought they would go on to become all time greats but we didn't do it.

So back to us now, we dont match up well at the moment on either Adelaide or Essendon. (part of why we are only a good team, nowhere near great yet, but on the way). The massive positive now is that we probably wont play either of them again this year. We do match up well on Brisbane so we are a massive chance next week, even though I would have preferred to play them in Melbourne, we beat them at both venues this year and also beat them in Brissy last year. Then if we do beat the Lions, after them we could play either Bulldogs or Cats and again we have beaten both of them this year and match up especially well on the Bulldogs. So a prelim is still very much possible.

And if we lose next week, then so be it. We set out to make the finals this year and we have achieved that. Anything more than that is an absolute bonus. Our path up the ladder is pretty much where most teams on the up would expect to be. So I am very happy with our year.

I see most of the morons on this forum have been out in full force this week. Its a shame that you are so simple minded to see how uncomplicated the realities of life are. Enjoy the fact that we have achieved exactly what we set out and we have, by recent standards, had a great year and are on track for the ultimate prize.

 

[BlueSnake]

Hammer was definitely a positive.

Although he still drops some marks, he is certainly taking a lot more these days and is obviously improving in that area. In fact, I'd say he's improving in nearly every area all the time, even if it's only gradual. IMO though, his rate of improvement has been amazing.

One bit of play I can remember was when he was, I think, on the wing and he just flew in past one of Adelaide's players and took a good mark. May have even been an intercept, but I can't remember. He's so quick for his size it's ridiculous.

Then there's that leap and the improving tap work...I'm glad he's come back into the team and nice and fit after his back worry too.

 

[Bluebear]

gibbs was brilliant, tried hard all day.

I actually thought Gibbs struggled under pressure with clean disposal early........but I'll stick tot he positives:

1. We won't play the crows again this year unless we make a GF.
2. Setanta at CHF grew and grew. Will be our starting CHF next year, Waite maybe to a FP.
3. Yarran showed more........but fumbled and wasn't clean where he needed to be. Could have kicked 3 goals easily.
4. Not being a night game I wasn't getting home with a head full of anger, trying to get to sleep. Was able to work through it and then get a good night sleep.........baby bears 1 and 2 were kind.
5. It wasn't on FTA...........only Fox viewers got the full picture of how much we sucked.
6. I didn't get a parking ticket.

I can't think of any more.