The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

[Bornadog]

Murphy

His kicking at the moment is woeful, doesn't seem to be able to hit a target, or get a goal. Why did he try and pass the ball to Welsh in the last quarter, when a) Welsh was covered, b) He could have had a shot himself.

Must play in the forward line.

Eagleton

Out of form, needs a spell. Two weeks in a row, can't get near the ball.

Welsh,

Ditto, last few weeks, including Port Game (93 point thrashing, he hardly touched it), Hawks game (88 point thrashing hardly touched it), North game, in the forward line hardly touched it, but got some kicks in the backline), Colingwood game, (4 touches)

Clearance Work

Brilliant, but didn't make the best of our opportunities. How can we have 47 hit outs to 14, 62 inside 50's to 47 and lose by a point?

Any one else have disappointments and feel things need to improve, so we are challenging for a flag?

[The Pie Man]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

Murphy's an interesting one since his return from injury - he's been great down back, but he's going to be great at either end given the enviable versatility of the man. Another like Johnson that I prefer to have even with turnovers/misses when at least they can find it, and if Murph can stay injury free for the rest of the year his disposal shold e vastly improved (which also hurt us in the 08 prelim)

But where does he play for the rest of the year/finals? It's worth discussion

Was rapt Eagleton went backed under the flight of the ball last night, it drew one of my very few verbal responses during the game. I forgot about him after that, I was that happy to see him do that. I suspect he has enough credits to earn a few more cracks

Bit harsh on Welsh - Darwin and last night weren't great, completely agree, but North & Hawthorn games he was ok. You could argue if he had a better game last night we would be talking about a great win. Short of Grant demanding promotion with another (or another 2-3) impressive games at Willy, he won't get dropped.

That clearance result is a massive positive, and if we can maintain that, that's what will help us most in challenging deep in September.

[Happy Days]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

Welsh played as a loose man in defense in the North game (if you can't get kicks there, you can't get them anywhere), and had a good first quarter, and only a good first quarter, against the Hawks. Time for a spell.

[Mantis]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

Was rapt Eagleton went backed under the flight of the ball last night, it drew one of my very few verbal responses during the game. I forgot about him after that, I was that happy to see him do that. I suspect he has enough credits to earn a few more cracks

Why do you/we make a big deal of such an act when it is expected that all of our players do such a thing? Cross & Morris would do it 10 times a game and it hardly gets a murmur of appreciation.

[The Pie Man]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

Why do you/we make a big deal of such an act when it is expected that all of our players do such a thing? Cross & Morris would do it 10 times a game and it hardly gets a murmur of appreciation.

Yeah completely valid point - more as it was so out of character/perception of him that I felt the need to 'reward' him with my 'that was great Benji, couldn't say that 5 years ago' burst, in the hope that he keeps doing it.

And it's become common place for Morris & Cross to commit themselves as such - and bar Cross not making the distance from 50 which I half expected at the time, I think we all love both those guys.

But I what I take away from this is I/we need to show even more love for Morris & Cross (and Boyd, as hard as Kirk and with better skills)

[Twodogs]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

Why do you/we make a big deal of such an act when it is expected that all of our players do such a thing? Cross & Morris would do it 10 times a game and it hardly gets a murmur of appreciation.

Because we've been screaming for him to do it for years and finally he is. If the whole team does it we'll win most games we play, that's what we want and currently Nathan is doing it.

A younger player sees Cross, Boyd or Morris go back with the flight and he thinks "Yep, they do that every time", but when he sees Eagle do it he thinks to himself "Shit, Nathan's doing that, I'd better do it too" It's not fair, but it's how a player's mind operates.

[Mofra]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

I would have had Eagleton, Welsh & Hill as our three worst last night (Williams not far behind them, but did compete well in the air when he actually watched it and gets some credit as working his way into form).

Eagleton may have been groggy from the crunch, buts that's two poor performances in a row. He wont be dropped but his could be under pressure in the coming weeks.

Welsh was well covered, but much of that was the Pies' upfield pressure not allowing us clean entry into the F50. Hill gets caught out of position too often so combining that with pressured F50 entries, he was never going to be a factor.

Christ we missed Gia's disposal efficiency into the F50.

[Scorlibo]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

Murph needs to stay in the forwardline, last night the forwardline struggled immensely to create space, every time it went in there there was a Collingwood bloke dropping across from his direct opponent to make the spoil or mark.

I think that's a bit harsh on Welsh, he was close to BOG against North and kicked his few last week. It was definitely a disappointing night for him but he was on a full-back who doesn't have the slightest care for anything other than negating his opponent in Prestigiacomo.

One thing that must be rectified is the way all of our players fly for the mark, on countless occasions last night all of the players around the ball would fly for the ball, and no one would stay down. Sometimes they even spoiled each other.

I'd like to see Cooney run with the ball more, and gee Griffen's kicking was terrible.

[Bornadog]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

One thing that must be rectified is the way all of our players fly for the mark, on countless occasions last night all of the players around the ball would fly for the ball, and no one would stay down. Sometimes they even spoiled each other.

I'd like to see Cooney run with the ball more, and gee Griffen's kicking was terrible.

Yes we have seen the running bouncing of Cooney or even Griffen for awhile. Cooney seems to be getting all his posessions as an inside player.

[Rocco Jones]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

I think that's a bit harsh on Welsh, he was close to BOG against North and kicked his few last week. It was definitely a disappointing night for him but he was on a full-back who doesn't have the slightest care for anything other than negating his opponent in Prestigiacomo.

Spot on there. Being quiet against a defender who virtually does nothing other than negate is a lot different to doing it against one who also creates a lot of rebound. A key example was last night, Anthony was a lot more damaging to his side than Welsh.

I must say I am not a huge fan of Welsh but he deserves his spot in the side for the time being at least.

[BulldogBelle]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

Yes we have seen the running bouncing of Cooney or even Griffen for awhile. Cooney seems to be getting all his posessions as an inside player.

Which would say that Cooney isnt working as hard as he did last year

The guy didnt have a pre-season, so is still running into full fitness

Its a good sign that he is working hard in close to get contested posessions

[AndrewP6]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

P***** me off that we won so many clearances, and looked dangerous bringing it out, only to bomb it long to no one... or to 1 on 2 or 3 contests... We need Murphy forward... we need to work harder to block/shepherd teammates. On the replay, Murph's block was a massive factor in Griffen's late goal. I think our tackling needs work - the intensity is better than previous seasons, just don't think we're sticking them enough, or convincingly enough. Could be a long month without Gia, but there's talent there. Need people to step up (Coons, Griff, Murph, et al)

Oh, and they need to fix the coffee machines on Level 3...although last night was much improved....

[Missing Dog]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

I'd like to see Cooney run with the ball more, and gee Griffen's kicking was terrible.

Cooney's running yes, we need more of that, Griffen's running , no way. The difference is that Cooney knows when to run and when to give it off, he has that explosive pace in the first 10-15 meters and he can foot pass on the run with precision. Grifffen tries to break every tackle no matter what, he doesn't have that burst like Cooney, and his kicking is erratic: sometimes he kicks 50 up and 50 down, sometimes its a mongrel punt, sometimes its a low kick at goal. Murphs shepperding was the reason Griffen had enough time to get on his right to kick the goal at the end, there was no Griffen had the confidence to snap on the left.

[AndrewP6]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

Murphs shepperding was the reason Griffen had enough time to get on his right to kick the goal at the end, there was no Griffen had the confidence to snap on the left.

I actually thought it was a smart play...moved closer to the middle, a better angle... he had the time, and a good shepherd...why not use it? it's not like he got run down (like he did earlier in the game!)

[boydogs]

Re: The Disappointments from Last Night that must be rectified.

Murphy

His kicking at the moment is woeful, doesn't seem to be able to hit a target, or get a goal. Why did he try and pass the ball to Welsh in the last quarter, when a) Welsh was covered, b) He could have had a shot himself.

Must play in the forward line.

Tough for Murph being injured multiple times this year having to come back in defense and try to adjust to that role then go forward again and adjust to that. He is playing very well aside from this and should only improve from here

Eagleton

Out of form, needs a spell. Two weeks in a row, can't get near the ball.

I'm not sure that a spell will help him, he needs to work on his skills in traffic and finding space in big games. I would potentially drop him from lack of contribution but not to help him find form.

Its coming to the time of year where getting players ready and settling the side for the finals becomes a factor at the selection table, as evidenced by the inclusion of Tom Williams. If we are going to play him in finals leave him in for the rest of the year as there will be plenty of big games to prepare him. If not, the time is now to bring in Stack, Reid, Callan, Addison, Tiller or Everitt and give them an extended run

Welsh

Ditto, last few weeks, including Port Game (93 point thrashing, he hardly touched it), Hawks game (88 point thrashing hardly touched it), North game, in the forward line hardly touched it, but got some kicks in the backline), Colingwood game, (4 touches)

Should have put him in defense last night, was dominated by Presti. Thought he was good last two weeks.

Clearance Work

Brilliant, but didn't make the best of our opportunities. How can we have 47 hit outs to 14, 62 inside 50's to 47 and lose by a point?

Lack of defensive pressure and poor delivery of the ball by our midfield

Any one else have disappointments and feel things need to improve, so we are challenging for a flag?

We need some igniters, game breakers, match winners to turn the game in our favour when we are behind before it gets to 6 goals. Players like Cooney, Griffen, Gilbee and Aker need to step up and lay a tackle, go for a run, or kick a long goal to get us going before its too late

We need to stop playing players out of position - Hill, Everitt, Murphy - and improve our setups, matchups and workrate around the midfield and clearances to stop opponents getting into space and allow us to instead