POST MATCH DISCUSSION - Round 9

[Deestroy All 14,266]

2 minutes ago, Nasher said:

Thoughts on Watts in the ruck? I only saw the second half, but I think we were at least no worse off than when are when Pedersen is in there, and he definitely makes a better on baller than Pedersen. If Watts is able to do this regularly, it makes it much easier to find a place for a genuine forward like Dawes, Hulett or Weideman when they are ready.

It's a no from me. He shouldn't be anywhere near a ruck contest, especially not now the way he's been playing. 

Credit to him for getting in there and having a decent go but he didn't look too convincing. 

The first centre bounce he took couldn't have been worse for him though, shocking bounce that he had to sit under for an eternity it would seem. 

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

5 minutes ago, Nasher said:

Thoughts on Watts in the ruck?

Did very well, but I wouldn't want it every week.

[old dee 24,028]

4 minutes ago, DemonAndrew said:

watts worked well as the secondary ruckman i thought.

 

pedo won't come in - it'll be dawes in ahead of him as another tall forward option you'd expect.

DA have you been drinking a little following the win?

Dawes 

[whatwhat say what 23,628]

hey i'd have spencer in ahead of dawes or pedo at this stage, but i get the impression he'll be back in sooner rather than later. 

[Forest Demon 4,681]

Watts surprisingly held his own in the ruck. I wouldn't want to be relying on it against the better teams, but he was asked to do a job, and he did it well.

[whatwhat say what 23,628]

he could certain do it next week opposed to trengove - dixon - westhoff.

[Nasher 33,617]

5 minutes ago, old dee said:

Old iron hands!!

I doubt it Nasher.

You might be right OD, but it does diminish the importance of Pedersen to the side. I changes the role mix a bit - I don't think Pedersen is that far ahead of Dawes if competing on forward merit only.

I think it throws an interesting spanner in the works, though like DA I require some convincing that it's a good idea long term.

[leave it to deever 17,598]

6 minutes ago, Deestroy All said:

It's a no from me. He shouldn't be anywhere near a ruck contest, especially not now the way he's been playing. 

Credit to him for getting in there and having a decent go but he didn't look too convincing. 

The first centre bounce he took couldn't have been worse for him though, shocking bounce that he had to sit under for an eternity it would seem. 

Yep doesn't belong there. Get another ruckman if it comes to Watts doing it.

[titan_uranus 25,209]

There are two ways to view the win. You can either be pleased with the fact that we played pretty poorly and never got into top gear all day but won by 63 points, or you can consider that probably 14 other sides would have walked home against us, especially they way we played in the third.

Generally speaking though I'm pleased. Good teams find ways to win even when they're down. Geelong's win over Essendon earlier in the year is a case in point. You don't have to play your best football every week to win and we are now showing that despite injuries to key players (Tyson, Jetta, arguably Pedersen as the second ruck) we can grind out wins (indeed, by 10 goals).

Really, really impressed with Stretch today. I did not expect that at this point in the year he'd be performing as well as this. Good on him.

OMac reprised his role from Round 1 - completely lost out there. He's nowhere near ready.

Harmes was awful all day, save for the three late garbage time goals. So many turnovers across half forward that will kill us against better opponents.

Oliver was dominating clearances on one leg with that cork. What a player we have on our hands.

Finally, credit is due to be given to Garland. Awful last week, fantastic today. Unbeatable one-on-one, met the ball hard, created drive, and was a leader down there. We need this Garland every week. Thought TMac was also much better this week.

9 minutes ago, Nasher said:

Thoughts on Watts in the ruck? I only saw the second half, but I think we were at least no worse off than when are when Pedersen is in there, and he definitely makes a better on baller than Pedersen. If Watts is able to do this regularly, it makes it much easier to find a place for a genuine forward like Dawes, Hulett or Weideman when they are ready.

I thought he did wonderfully, especially given they had two genuine ruckmen in the team so he wasn't rucking against a nobody.

However, it was as low a risk game to do it as we're going to get. I don't want Watts rucking where the opposition's midfield is half-decent, such as Port's. Moreover, when he's in the ruck he's not in the forward line.

Pedersen is a better option to be thrown into the ruck than Watts and I don't think we can afford to have Watts in there long term, unfortunately.

[Bitter but optimistic 22,289]

39 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Just think how much we've improved that we are complaining about smashing a team. 

It wasn't a pretty win, but winning ugly is an important skill to learn. To win ugly by 10 goals is even better. 

Take the 4 points and move on I say. 

I'm with you Jaded. [censored] me it was a 10 goal win with lots of positives. Billy Stretch being one of them. I thought OMac showed improvement. Great game from The Bug and Petracca gave us a glimpse of what he will become. There plenty of other positives too but I need a shiraz.

Forget the negatives folks and celebrate when you can.

[P-man 13,367]

Brisbane's skills today were nothing short of heinous. Kicked themselves out of countless chances they created with their effort and contested work, Will take the four points and percentage boost though. At least it felt like a win this time as opposed to the same fixture last year.

Stretch on reflection was the biggest positive to come out of today. Bugg slightly edged him as the one who set the tone in the first half but it's splitting hairs. They both were excellent. Midfield is coming together nicely.

Agree on Garland. I didn't think it was quite a four quarter performance but his last quarter was Garlo at his best.

ANB is a very neat player. He'll become a mainstay.

[beelzebub 23,390]

Just had a chance to watch the Petracca goal at home ... emphasis on the word GOAL ... like hell that was touched you maggots.

Zorko is a lying  ( insert word of choice ) 

[Bitter but optimistic 22,289]

12 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Just had a chance to watch the Petracca goal at home ... emphasis on the word GOAL ... like hell that was touched you maggots.

Zorko is a lying  ( insert word of choice ) 

[censored]

[dees189227 12,455]

If that was any other team we were playing we would have been thrashed. That 3rd quarter was just terrible and we went back to over hanballing. 

However we did win by 10 goals and in the last quarter we played much better. The good thing was we had good players down and the young ones stood up. 

We got the 4 points still sitting 9th and got a bit more percentage. Look forward to port next week. 

[Deeoldfart 8,162]

It's hard to envisage a more frustrating 10 goal win, but we are Melbourne, and not in a position to complain!  We did what we needed to do against a 3rd. rate team, and it's an enormous improvement from the recent past when we were the 3rd. rate team.  We'll need to recover well, take the learnings from today into next week and get it 'right' at the selection table, to be in with a decent chance against Port.

[DSP 1,488]

A win is a win, but gee it was ugly at times. 3rd quarter in particular. If BrisVegas had of kicked straight it may of been a totally different story.

Some glaring issues down back, thought we missed Jets today. Should be out absolute priority over off season. On top of some really poor delivery (again, the handdballs under pressure kill us).

That being said, I thought Clarry and Billy Stretch took it up a notch. Bugg and BenKen have been great pickups. Once Tracca settles he is going to be a real player for us. The forward line is starting to gel..

Take it onto next week please. Clean up some of the mistakes and a win is on the cards.

Go dee's.

Edited May 22, 2016 by DSP

[Pates 9,686]

I'm around the other side of the world so to wake up to a 10 goal win is fantastic. The fact that it sounds like we never got into top gear is even better. It shows we have the ability to score with ease when given chances by lesser teams. 

Obviously given I haven't seen the game I can't analise anyone's performance but it's great to hear Stretch and Oliver put in good games. In fact I haven't heard a few of the usual names being called out so its good to see others stepping up at times. 

One thing I have been able to see is Petracca's (non) goal. Was it ruled touch or a goal in the first place? If it was ruled touched initially then I can understand but still not totally agree with it. If it was ruled a goal initially than the video umpire has gone against the mantra that there has to be clear 100% evidence of it being touched. Which there was none. 

Either way we were robbed of the goal of the game. 

[Born to Run 204]

A quick look of the ladder reveals that a win against Port next weekend (not a given!) and a Dogs win v Collingwood would have us two games and % above 10th. Implying that we would be in a battle where basically only 9 teams could make the 8 and we would be one ...

Can we dream of a win in Darwin or is that madness?

[beelzebub 23,390]

we must  have softened up the pups huh ! 

 

Good win the Giants , now 3rd on ladder and no one cares...

[What 18,810]

12 hours ago, Born to Run said:

A quick look of the ladder reveals that a win against Port next weekend (not a given!) and a Dogs win v Collingwood would have us two games and % above 10th. Implying that we would be in a battle where basically only 9 teams could make the 8 and we would be one ...

Can we dream of a win in Darwin or is that madness?

Adelaide play GWS next week.  If we beat Port and GWS beat Adelaide we will finally be in the 8 (percentage permitting)

[Pates 9,686]

12 hours ago, Born to Run said:

Can we dream of a win in Darwin or is that madness?

Bloody oath we can. Port have been yoyoing this year so it's hard to know which Port you will get but they hold no fears for us and it's about time we started getting wins at these sold games. 

[What 18,810]

Leading goalkickers for entire 2014 (Roos first season)

Rank	Name	Games	Total
1	Chris Dawes	18	20
2	Dom Tyson	22	16
3	James Frawley	21	15
4	Cameron Pedersen	19	14
5	Bernie Vince	22	13
5	Jack Watts	22	13

 

Leading goalkickers after Round 9, 2016

Rank	Name	Games	Total
1	Jesse Hogan	9	23
2	Jack Watts	9	18
3	Jeff Garlett	7	15
4	James Harmes	9	11
5	Ben Kennedy	9	10
5	Dean Kent	8	10

Edited May 22, 2016 by Petraccattack

[tappysquads 618]

You can only beat who is in front of you, and 63 points is a big win. Job done, Bring on next week and a spot in the 8

Edited May 22, 2016 by tappysquads

[Jaded No More 68,976]

57 minutes ago, Nasher said:

You might be right OD, but it does diminish the importance of Pedersen to the side. I changes the role mix a bit - I don't think Pedersen is that far ahead of Dawes if competing on forward merit only.

I think it throws an interesting spanner in the works, though like DA I require some convincing that it's a good idea long term.

The only thing is Pedersen can also go back and defend so he is very versatile. Good old brick hands can't do that nor can he really mark and his ruckwork is super average.

I don't think you could argue that we've missed him at all. 

[Forest Demon 4,681]

Petracca has been good, but I don't think I've seen a young player threaten to tear a game apart like him without actually doing it. Four games in and you just know some side in the next month is going to absolutely cop it from him.