I smell a fresh batch of home brewed disappointment about to be dished up in 2017. We're still a long way off. 

4 minutes ago, Forest Demon said:

Players are obviously instructed to leave their nearest opponent and push up to the ball carrier, which sometimes might pressure a turnover, but more often than not leads to a handball over them to the now free man up the field.

Feels like players are just doing it on auto-pilot sometimes, when it's clear they would be better off sticking with their opponent or hedging their bets a bit.

Yep. It's a coaching and smarts issue. I like the idea in theory but it can't be a rule the entire time and there has to be more communication from those up the ground to say stay back. 

Frost is sadly missed. Not a great player. But he is tall and really fast. Really need him for the St Kilda match.

A few things

- I know no one wants to hear this as an excuse as it's been the norm for the last decade, but the core of our list is still incredibly young and inexperienced. Guys like Brayshaw, Petracca, Salem, Stretch, Hunt, Hogan, OMac, Weideman and Oliver (who was absolutely brilliant) have barely played 150 games between them. I still expect them to fluctuate in form during the year. Saying that, it's clear that Weideman and OMac are still a bit out of their depth. A year or even a few months of development in the VFL would be great for their confidence and would let more experienced players such as Peterson and Frost have a good crack in the seniors.

- We are desperately missing Jetta (anyone know why he's not playing at the moment?) and a small forward (Kent/Garlett). That in itself cuts about 3-4 goals off the final margin.

- Watts and Spencer both showed a bit. Probably enough to justify a round 1 selection

- Willing to give Tyson the benefit if the doubt. Tonight was his first real run at it since coming back from injury. He started fairly slow in the first few matches last year and ended up placing fourth in our B&F. 

 

3 minutes ago, Mr. White said:

I smell a fresh batch of home brewed disappointment about to be dished up in 2017. We're still a long way off. 

You are the most negative poster I have ever seen.

You are the first poster to be added to my ban list.

Theres no nice way to say it.. they [censored] up a lot of opportunities tonight.

But they were good enough to create them and if it wasnt for poor execution we were a chanve to hit the fornt or at least be a kick in it with 5 mins lefr.

Composure with the ball  needs work. But until they get the skills and compaure right its going to be a roller-coaster again in 2017. We made wce look good from our turnovers.

Our backs got exposed and if they scored 15 goals at least 10 were from our basic f ups

O-Mac the weakest player on our list 

5 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Poor game.

Harmes and Oscar were horrible. Jones Vince Gawn and Viney were poor.

I actually thought Garland was our best defender tonight.

I thought Garland was very good tonight as well, it has been a few years between drinks that for sure. I hope he can get back to his old standard because unless I'm crazy he was an extremely good medium defender for awhile.

Garland was just ok and does deserve a game round one.

8 minutes ago, Night Crawler said:

BenKen is still coming back from injury isnt he?

I actually thought ANB was alright. Had one or two howlers but so did most players. He was in the thick of it and without looking at the stats I would have thought he had a high amount of tackles.

ANB is neither fast nor slow. Neither exceptional or lamentable. He is a very ordinary footballer who adds little to the side 

Turnovers and poor disposal at times hurt us with Hogan's miss in the last quarter hurting us badly.

We really missed a small crumbing forward who could kick a couple of goals and at least keep the ball inside our forward fifty. The WCE defenders mopped up and got the ball out of defence too easily and too often. 

A few things to work on but not a bad effort on the day/night. 

We had several passengers tonight who should not play round 1.

Weid is not ready. Harmes is not best 22. Not sold on Bugg, ANB may get lucky due to injuries, but was far from our worst tonight.

Petracca was quite poor, Viney and Jones both well below standard.

No wrist slashing from me though, considering how many poor players we had out there tonight we did OK. 

Oliver though, sheeeessshh!!

What is Oliver's odds for the brownlow? A star in the making.

1 minute ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Turnovers and poor disposal at times hurt us with Hogan's miss in the last quarter hurting us badly.

We really missed a small crumbing forward who could kick a couple of goals and at least keep the ball inside our forward fifty. The WCE defenders mopped up and got the ball out of defence too easily and too often. 

A few things to work on but not a bad effort on the day/night. 

That was what I was saying to my Dad, lacked a crumbing forward big time. I am also far from convinced with Harmes, I think he will be depth at best in the future.

1 minute ago, Hell Bent said:

We had several passengers tonight who should not play round 1.

Weid is not ready. Harmes is not best 22. Not sold on Bugg, ANB may get lucky due to injuries, but was far from our worst tonight.

Petracca was quite poor, Viney and Jones both well below standard.

No wrist slashing from me though, considering how many poor players we had out there tonight we did OK. 

Oliver though, sheeeessshh!!

Thoughts on Trengove?

1 minute ago, WERRIDEE said:

What is Oliver's odds for the brownlow? A star in the making.

3 years 

Few observations:

 

•pressure seemed to be patchy, when we were 'on' we created opportunities and forced them to turnover. When we eased up or pressed too far forward they exploited the gaps and cut us apart on the counter. Omac especially was horrendous, needs a spell at Casey. Garland offers more at the moment despite some brain fades.

• Hogan, Gawn and Spencil will be triple teamed by defences this year, we need crumbers to exploit spilled contests. 

• Umpiring was truly bizarre tonight, the deliberate OOB especially was applied inconsistently. 

5 minutes ago, olisik said:

Thoughts on Trengove?

Just didn't get enough of the ball tonight.....

Considering West Coast said they went full strength post match we did well over there not playing well for majority of the match without Garlett, Kent and I assume not our ideal backline with Frost, Hibberd and Jetta to return.

Vince must play forward and O-Mac must play in the VFL.

The umpiring really was diabolical. If that was a regular season game I'd still be mopping up the foam.

Forwardline felt too tall. Garlett would've mopped up a few of those chances. Fingers crossed he'll be good to go because he was missed.

I'd feel more at ease with Jetta in the backline.

Harmes isn't anywhere near the best side.

Bugg did his chances of Round 1 selection no harm.

ANB can make it if he's given opportunity.

Tyson comically bad. Hopefully cobwebs.

Stretch disapoonting. Looked out of sorts.

Viney will be filthy with himself. And rightly so.

Watts did enough.

If Oliver can run games out he could be our best mid by the end of the season. 

19 minutes ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

ANB is neither fast nor slow. Neither exceptional or lamentable. He is a very ordinary footballer who adds little to the side 

Yeah... i dont disagree with you much. Still thought he played alright tonight.

We need a more flexible game plan...running a basic zone when Hurn is kicking in is a recipe for disaster.

He shredded our defence every time he kicked in.

If it aint working...fix it.

 

There has been lots said about the team tonight but i thought the Eagles game plan hurt us. Chip kicks, hitting target, maintaining pressure and moving the ball quickly even if it was sideways put a lot of pressure on the backline. We won the hit outs but they won the clearances and Thought their midfield showed more poise and class. Many of our mid's just didn't fire. I would hate to be a backman defending with the way the ball was delivered to the eagles forwards. They broke our press with precision kicks and a few times got over the back to a loose man. This game was a bit more intense than the last and there was lots of fumbling. 

Areas to improve, maintaining possession, hitting targets, moving the ball quickly, making tackles stick

2 minutes ago, rjay said:

We need a more flexible game plan...running a basic zone when Hurn is kicking in is a recipe for disaster.

He shredded our defence every time he kicked in.

If it aint working...fix it.

 

Game plan wasn't the issue.

Poor skills from players that don't have the skills to execute.

So we didn't get any injuries? 

That's all I care about to be honest 

Bring on round 1