bornadog
16-04-2013, 10:22 PM
16 April 2013
It was a tough day for our Club on Sunday – a tough day for the people there to watch us and we know that we didn’t have our best day. We got outplayed by a very good Richmond team from the opening minute to be honest, and they beat us in all areas of the game - apart from perhaps two or three positions. Full credit to them and a fair bit to work on for us.
On reflection from the game there were some similarities from the week before – we certainly have to get better at getting the ball back from the opposition earlier and we need everyone involved to get it done. We need to be able to show some more composure at times and be able to hang on. By that I mean having the ability to control the speed of the game and still go forward and not give it back. They know what to do – we’ve worked at it but it got lost in the moment a fair bit on Sunday. A good portion of it was due to our lack of composure and some of it was due to some very good work from Richmond, who played a great game.
Probably one observation out of the day was that I am becoming more and more confident that the big area of improvement for us has been that the player group recognising when they are not playing the right way. There were times last year where they couldn’t see it and we would have to deal with it during the week - but they are much more aware of when we move away from what makes us the team we are, when we play well. The next challenge or level of improvement for us, is to be able to deal with it earlier and get it done on the ground. The player group having greater awareness of the state of the game has been an improvement but there’s still a long way to go.
It’s tough on the injury front for Higgins, the fact that he was able to finish the game with such a significant injury speaks volumes about the person and character of Shaun. Tory unfortunately has undergone some surgery to correct ankle ligaments, and we are hell bent on finding the right mechanism to help a really good, young player and person have a good career in Easton Wood.
So three doors open as the result of the injuries and if you were watching our affiliate team on the weekend at Williamstown, you would have seen a high number of our young players play. We were able to get some good form into Tom Williams, we were able to see Jackson Macrae and Jake Stringer have significant impact at that level - and experience tells you when young players are able to dominate VFL games the way they did, they can generally adapt to football at the next level - that being AFL. We also had a good look at them playing football the right way, they were able to dictate the style of play to a Coburg team that was full of AFL listed players. So we do have ready-made replacements and we’ll need them to face the challenging trip to Adelaide to take on the Crows on Sunday, and that preparation is well down the road now.
We are reviewing the game today, we are reviewing the game as a group in areas and individuals and by the Wednesday we will be well and truly into planning and preparation for Adelaide.
Our mantra all year has been to hang into games for a little bit longer, we certainly didn’t do it on the weekend, but the focus this week is to get a good start and play the way we need to play and want to play and do it for longer.
Brendan McCartney
It was a tough day for our Club on Sunday – a tough day for the people there to watch us and we know that we didn’t have our best day. We got outplayed by a very good Richmond team from the opening minute to be honest, and they beat us in all areas of the game - apart from perhaps two or three positions. Full credit to them and a fair bit to work on for us.
On reflection from the game there were some similarities from the week before – we certainly have to get better at getting the ball back from the opposition earlier and we need everyone involved to get it done. We need to be able to show some more composure at times and be able to hang on. By that I mean having the ability to control the speed of the game and still go forward and not give it back. They know what to do – we’ve worked at it but it got lost in the moment a fair bit on Sunday. A good portion of it was due to our lack of composure and some of it was due to some very good work from Richmond, who played a great game.
Probably one observation out of the day was that I am becoming more and more confident that the big area of improvement for us has been that the player group recognising when they are not playing the right way. There were times last year where they couldn’t see it and we would have to deal with it during the week - but they are much more aware of when we move away from what makes us the team we are, when we play well. The next challenge or level of improvement for us, is to be able to deal with it earlier and get it done on the ground. The player group having greater awareness of the state of the game has been an improvement but there’s still a long way to go.
It’s tough on the injury front for Higgins, the fact that he was able to finish the game with such a significant injury speaks volumes about the person and character of Shaun. Tory unfortunately has undergone some surgery to correct ankle ligaments, and we are hell bent on finding the right mechanism to help a really good, young player and person have a good career in Easton Wood.
So three doors open as the result of the injuries and if you were watching our affiliate team on the weekend at Williamstown, you would have seen a high number of our young players play. We were able to get some good form into Tom Williams, we were able to see Jackson Macrae and Jake Stringer have significant impact at that level - and experience tells you when young players are able to dominate VFL games the way they did, they can generally adapt to football at the next level - that being AFL. We also had a good look at them playing football the right way, they were able to dictate the style of play to a Coburg team that was full of AFL listed players. So we do have ready-made replacements and we’ll need them to face the challenging trip to Adelaide to take on the Crows on Sunday, and that preparation is well down the road now.
We are reviewing the game today, we are reviewing the game as a group in areas and individuals and by the Wednesday we will be well and truly into planning and preparation for Adelaide.
Our mantra all year has been to hang into games for a little bit longer, we certainly didn’t do it on the weekend, but the focus this week is to get a good start and play the way we need to play and want to play and do it for longer.
Brendan McCartney