This is the Mickey Mouse League people.

Stop reading so much - good and bad - from it.

Any mention of Frawley's injury? Fractured eye socket?

I liked Watts' game tonight. At one stage I thought he split second hesitated down back kicking across the back half, which led to his teammate to be closed down.

I think he will gain more confidence and urgency to iron out these split second hesitations. And his one on one work defensively needs a little more work and experience when caught deep, but I think it will improve.

His kicking is a major plus down back.

I have to admit I've had doubts about Jordie for a while and they have only deepened after tonight. He is a total liability with ball in hand, which you scan't afford in modern day football. It seems unlikely his game will change much now and it is damning if he is considered starting 22.

It's only pre-season but I think he has to be looked at going forward. Neeld's love of defensive players who go in hard needs to be tempered somewhat if the player cannot kick the ball.

Gee we butcher the ball! And it is the same culprits all the time, mentioned in pre season training and the same again in NAB cup. Still unable to nut out what our game plan is, North constantly transferred play to open up other side of ground. We try and turn it over.

If we lose round one you can start sooking. But c'mon, this was 2 glorified training runs and they looked ok anyway.

To put it in perspective, when Kent had the chance to dish off to someone and kick a super goal to win, I wanted him to just go back and kick it as that is what he needs to do in the real stuff. This is the one time where performance means far more than the result, and while there are obviously things to work on, they were decent.

Am i the only one who though tom couch was pretty impressive? Won some clearence and was alot quicker then magner

Nicho lacks footy smarts. Gets the ball and then struggles to make the most of his possessions.

Needs to turn this around within this season to stay on the list. We need endurance players but if they constantly turn the pill over it defeats their purpose.

I'm watching the replay now and am looking closely at stoppages to see how we set up and how the game flows.

The supergoal Jacobs kicked was a great play to North (amazing tap from Daw) but they should not have got so much space in front of 50. At the throw in we have 8 players each at the stoppage and then both Jetta and Nicholson are standing alone 10m apart to the back of the contest inside defensive 50. It seems a few times several players are manning the same space rather than spreading defensively and covering the open spaces. Fast forward the play and they both end up chasing the ball but get there too late, where if one pushed more centrally then they probably would have prevented the shot for goal and forced another handball/pass into the 50.

I hate nickpicking on little things because generally I though we did pretty good in the North game (which is much more like our best 22) and there is reason to be optimistic

We can't have any more than 1 of Jamar, McDonald, McKenzie, Sellar, and Spencer in the team. They all have their strengths, but none of them use the ball well and we can't afford to carry them when we don't have the top end talent to balance it out. Nothing against those guys, all of them try hard, but we need to start thinking about what we can do with the ball rather than just who trains well.

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:35, Forest Demon said:

If we lose round one you can start sooking. But c'mon, this was 2 glorified training runs and they looked ok anyway.

To put it in perspective, when Kent had the chance to dish off to someone and kick a super goal to win, I wanted him to just go back and kick it as that is what he needs to do in the real stuff. This is the one time where performance means far more than the result, and while there are obviously things to work on, they were decent.

The second game had a lot of B side players and we were playing two games back to back, but let's not pretend that second performance was decent. The ball was camped in our half and there was next to no fluidity through the midfield, just turnovers galore. The shining light was Toumpas.

A fair bit more to like about the first game from a team perspective, even if bombing it long to a congested pack inside 50 still looks to be a primary option.

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:33, P_Man said:

I have to admit I've had doubts about Jordie for a while and they have only deepened after tonight. He is a total liability with ball in hand, which you scan't afford in modern day football. It seems unlikely his game will change much now and it is damning if he is considered starting 22.

It's only pre-season but I think he has to be looked at going forward. Neeld's love of defensive players who go in hard needs to be tempered somewhat if the player cannot kick the ball.

Magner, Jordy, Joel and even Chip need to learn from Watts and Toumpas how to kick a drop punt.

I think most of us have had enough of the scragging type that fights like hell for the ball then gives it back immediately.

Remembering that our game plan is one that hugs the boundary and this form of the game generally penalises that style due to the last touch over the boundary line rule.

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:43, Moonshadow said:

Remembering that our game plan is one that hugs the boundary and this form of the game generally penalises that style due to the last touch over the boundary line rule.

Was surprised how much we didn't go around the boundary tonight actually Moonie. Do you think it was a NAB tactic or just how we will play in the season proper?

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:41, P_Man said:

The second game had a lot of B side players and we were playing two games back to back, but let's not pretend that second performance was decent. The ball was camped in our half and there was next to no fluidity through the midfield, just turnovers galore. The shining light was Toumpas.

A fair bit more to like about the first game from a team perspective, even if bombing it long to a congested pack inside 50 still looks to be a primary option.

Pretty much agree. I said in an earlier post we were smashed in the first half of that game, but we did keep them goalless in the second half (I think), and had our fair share of it.

Can start to read a little more into things from next week onwards when they start playing full games., but even then I don't care about wins and losses, as nice as a win would be. It's all about round one.

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:29, Webber said:

Any mention of Frawley's injury? Fractured eye socket?

Seemed to be his forehead.

  On 22/02/2013 at 10:24, old dee said:

But we did not win either match.

Lets remember one side scrapped into the eight last year and the other did not make it.

I am glad we were not playing Hawthorn or the WCE tonight

Would you rather we played GWS and the Bulldogs? Would that make you feel better about things?

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:40, stuie said:

We can't have any more than 1 of Jamar, McDonald, McKenzie, Sellar, and Spencer in the team. They all have their strengths, but none of them use the ball well and we can't afford to carry them when we don't have the top end talent to balance it out. Nothing against those guys, all of them try hard, but we need to start thinking about what we can do with the ball rather than just who trains well.

Geez they all looked slow and clumsy, didn't they. Like the opposition were happy for the ball to be put in their hands, knowing it was likely to become in-dispute very quickly

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:50, Moonshadow said:

Geez they all looked slow and clumsy, didn't they. Like the opposition were happy for the ball to be put in their hands, knowing it was likely to become in-dispute very quickly

I like all those blokes and they all give 100%, but we're just hoping for a breakeven playing 2 or more in the same team. Feel like it's too late for them to learn vision and ball use, but don't know who would replace them at this point.

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:49, diesel said:

Seemed to be his forehead.

Almost definitely eye socket. there was blood on his forehead but it was wiped there from his eye area.

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:47, stuie said:

Was surprised how much we didn't go around the boundary tonight actually Moonie. Do you think it was a NAB tactic or just how we will play in the season proper?

Not sure, we didn't look purposeful. There were a number of times that both Norf and Rich looked structured and smooth. Can't really same the same for us. But..... it is only NAB cup, so hard to tell if this sets the tone. A couple of more Nate Jones' would be handy.

  On 22/02/2013 at 10:12, DemonOX said:

There are more positive signs in these two matches than last NAB cup.

It's only Feb and we need to calm down. Don't forget we are coming from a loooooooooooong way back.

Will get better the more the guys play together. Any team with 14 changes is going to take time to gel.

Overall a positive night will be very interesting next week in SA.

Might take more than 12 months for 14 new players to gel...

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:55, Moonshadow said:

Not sure, we didn't look purposeful. There were a number of times that both Norf and Rich looked structured and smooth. Can't really same the same for us. But..... it is only NAB cup, so hard to tell if this sets the tone. A couple of more Nate Jones' would be handy.

There was some positive signs and definitely an improved effort overall, but at this VERY early stage it looks like we're still just "playing footy" rather than having knowledge of where to go and/or where the ball should be going next. Not in a panic as I recognize what time of year it is, but my hope this year is for us to look more like we know what we're doing.

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:54, stuie said:

Almost definitely eye socket. there was blood on his forehead but it was wiped there from his eye area.

Richmond trainers fussing over Jack Rs hair. I reckon it was all Chip's blood, eye and brain matter they were wiping off.

"It's just a flesh wound", as the black knight once said

  On 22/02/2013 at 11:59, Moonshadow said:

Richmond trainers fussing over Jack Rs hair. I reckon it was all Chip's blood, eye and brain matter they were wiping off.

"It's just a flesh wound", as the black knight once said

They did put a fair wack of the old hemroid cream on Jack's head, which I thought was quite appropriate...