Bankers & Anchors: Rnd 11, 2021 vs Melbourne Demons

[boydogs]

Good point. No one else (including me) has given praise for the work JJ did. Salem was hardly sighted.

I gave him a vote

[Ozza]

Bankers:

So we were well down. It felt like a big loss.....BUT....we ended up with only 3 scoring shots less than the Dees - and the team we had in was the weakest we've had all year. Dunkley, Treloar, VDM, Martin, Wood to come in, plus Hannan & McLean as options.

Roarke - really like how he is playing at the moment.

Hunter - hasn't really missed a beat post injury.

Anchors:

Looking like deer in the headlights at stages where the pressure went right up. Bit like the 3rd quarter v Richmond. Thats the biggest worry out of the game for me.

Team balance - we just went 1-2 too many inexperienced players. When you already have so many out, I don't think its the time to have Garcia/Butler in the team when you already have Weightman, Sweet, McNeil as really inexperienced players.

Libba & Baz - kicking errors extremely costly. Unusual for Libba. Unfortunately all too common for Baz, who at his talent level should be a far more reliable kick than he is.

[Mantis]

Libba & Baz - kicking errors extremely costly. Unusual for Libba. Unfortunately all too common for Baz, who at his talent level should be a far more reliable kick than he is.

There's quite a few more to add to the list... Macrae, Caleb & the other 2 Bailey's also made crucial kicking errors which led to Melb goals... as did Alex Keath who when switching play kicked one of the side of his boot to Crozier which cost us time & territory and I'm reasonably certain Melb kicked a goal in the next bit of play.

As I mentioned in the Game Day thread we kicked the ball as bad as we ever have in the 1st qtr.. and Melb made us pay.

[comrade]

Team balance - we just went 1-2 too many inexperienced players. When you already have so many out, I don't think its the time to have Garcia/Butler in the team when you already have Weightman, Sweet, McNeil as really inexperienced players.

Yeah, this was a problem.

Melbourne had 8 players under 50 games to our 6, but all our guys had less than 10 games to Melbourne's 0.

We need to find a way to nurse Martin through so he's close to full fitness for the finals because we're not beating Melbourne with Sweet as our #1.

[Mantis]

Yeah, this was a problem.

Melbourne had 8 players under 50 games to our 6, but all our guys had less than 10 games to Melbourne's 0.

We need to find a way to nurse Martin through so he's close to full fitness for the finals because we're not beating Melbourne with Sweet as our #1.

But when we have 8-10 players in our top 30 out injured you're forced to play the young guys aren't you?

And whilst Melbourne had 0 under 10 games, they did have 6 in the 11-25 range so I'm not sure we can read a heap into that stat.

Agree on Martin, we need him performing as he did in the first month of the season so hopefully we can manage his workload and the achilles stays sound.

[comrade]

But when we have 8-10 players in our top 30 out injured you're forced to play the young guys aren't you?

And whilst Melbourne had 0 under 10 games, they did have 6 in the 11-25 range so I'm not sure we can read a heap into that stat.

Agree on Martin, we need him performing as he did in the first month of the season so hopefully we can manage his workload and the achilles stays sound.

Yeah, it's not a knock on us just that it was a problem that played into Melbourne's hands. We reached a tipping point of sub 10 game players, particularly when the ruck man is one of them up against an elite player in Gawn.

A fit Martin would have made a pretty big difference, maybe not enough to win but I doubt they jump us as easily in the first quarter.

[bornadog]

Yeah, it's not a knock on us just that it was a problem that played into Melbourne's hands. We reached a tipping point of sub 10 game players, particularly when the ruck man is one of them up against an elite player in Gawn.

A fit Martin would have made a pretty big difference, maybe not enough to win but I doubt they jump us as easily in the first quarter.

The disappointing thing to me was that first quarter. We hadn't lost one this year, and really stuffed up with poor disposal and gifting Melbourne goals.

[1eyedog]

Bankers:

So we were well down. It felt like a big loss.....BUT....we ended up with only 3 scoring shots less than the Dees - and the team we had in was the weakest we've had all year. Dunkley, Treloar, VDM, Martin, Wood to come in, plus Hannan & McLean as options.

Roarke - really like how he is playing at the moment.

Hunter - hasn't really missed a beat post injury.

Anchors:

Looking like deer in the headlights at stages where the pressure went right up. Bit like the 3rd quarter v Richmond. Thats the biggest worry out of the game for me.

Team balance - we just went 1-2 too many inexperienced players. When you already have so many out, I don't think its the time to have Garcia/Butler in the team when you already have Weightman, Sweet, McNeil as really inexperienced players.

Libba & Baz - kicking errors extremely costly. Unusual for Libba. Unfortunately all too common for Baz, who at his talent level should be a far more reliable kick than he is.

There is no-one else to bring in. Wallis hasn't played midfield in that sort of heat for 4 years.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

There is no-one else to bring in. Wallis hasn't played midfield in that sort of heat for 4 years.

Wouldn't have changed the outcome, but losing Garcia early hurt us. He was assigned to do some grunt work and once he went down, no-one picked up the slack and it affected our rotations. We really are missing Dunks.

[1eyedog]

Wouldn't have changed the outcome, but losing Garcia early hurt us. He was assigned to do some grunt work and once he went down, no-one picked up the slack and it affected our rotations. We really are missing Dunks.

Losing a first gamer hurt us? Agree we are missing Dunkley most of all.

[Mantis]

Losing a first gamer hurt us? Agree we are missing Dunkley most of all.

Why wouldn't it?

He is very much an inside player and with Lipinski failing in that role and then Butler coming on to play an outside role we lacked a bit of grunt & options in the middle.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Losing a first gamer hurt us? Agree we are missing Dunkley most of all.

Yes it's a sad indictment that we need to rely on a 1st gamer to do some heavy lifting at the coal face. Without Dunkley, we're expecting Libba to do it all by himself as Smith, Bont, Macrae, Lipinski etc just don't do it for long enough (nor should Bont have to).
Like I said, it wouldn't have changed the result but it would have helped us somewhat.

[comrade]

Yes it's a sad indictment that we need to rely on a 1st gamer to do some heavy lifting at the coal face. Without Dunkley, we're expecting Libba to do it all by himself as Smith, Bont, Macrae, Lipinski etc just don't do it for long enough (nor should Bont have to).
Like I said, it wouldn't have changed the result but it would have helped us somewhat.

Melbourne have lost Viney but had Harmes in waiting. We lost Dunkley but we also lost Jong who could fill the gap to an extent. You would also expect Baz to step up but he just hasn't.

It's flying under the radar a bit, but Bailey Smith has been incredibly underwhelming this year.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Melbourne have lost Viney but had Harmes in waiting. We lost Dunkley but we also lost Jong who could fill the gap to an extent. You would also expect Baz to step up but he just hasn't.

It's flying under the radar a bit, but Bailey Smith has been incredibly underwhelming this year.

Yeah he had a cracking first game but has been disappointing since except for a game or two. Considering he was poor last season too he needs to get going. I always though Walsh was the one with a low ceiling. Hope it’s not Bailey.

[Grantysghost]

Melbourne have lost Viney but had Harmes in waiting. We lost Dunkley but we also lost Jong who could fill the gap to an extent. You would also expect Baz to step up but he just hasn't.

It's flying under the radar a bit, but Bailey Smith has been incredibly underwhelming this year.

I'm worried. He has lost the fire in the belly. Where's the guy that was in Stringer's face in his first handful of games.

When he isn't playing with that edge he doesn't look half as effective. I'd tell him the Alan Border anecdote. If you're having a bad day start a fight with first slip to fire yourself up.
Dermott can jog on.