Quote Originally Posted by Ozza View Post
Much like some others, I'm not sure what to make of beating a Melbourne side that didn't have Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Brown and Salem. We probably did what I'd expect us to do.

My highlights were;

Buku's kick to English on the wing. Took the longer, riskier option and executed it perfectly and having 2 Melbourne defenders commit to English, it opened up the ground for us to score. Huge moment for him and grew in confidence for the rest of the game.

Bont and Macrae looked super.

Bailey Williams.

Concerns;

Defense. Still think our team defense and our one on one defending is not at the level of the top teams.
Overuse of the ball in the first half particularly.
I didn’t expect the Dogs to be held for 3 quarters by an undermanned Demons team. Just as I didn’t expect to see them beaten comfortably by an almost nonexistent Hawks. Monday’s win was the result of one good quarter.

For most of the game the forward line was dysfunctional, not helped by poor delivery (with a few notable exceptions), a return of the nightmares in 2020. The backline was hard to watch. Gardner simply throwing himself over the top of the pack, even if one of ours had everything covered. Crozier too. Spectacular 1%ers leading to injury don’t make up for everyone being in the wrong place. It took a player hoping to get his first game to give us something positive back there.

After the two practise matches I am still trying to figure out what we were practising. Plenty of talented individuals, l’d rather see a good team so I can face the season with some confidence.