8 minutes ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Refer to my previous post - actual positives. 

All good, I can agree to disagree

Actually... I'm pretty positive.......we didn't score AT ALL in the last

Yes...well disagree. Cheers

16 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

Boy oh boy.

But, of all the things to be disappointed by, somehow I'm most disappointed in Frost and Oscar. When we brought in May, they knew that they'd be fighting for one spot (possibly no spots once Lever comes back, but anyway). They should have been motivated to work super hard on their weaknesses to ensure they were the one who got selected in Round 1. Instead, Frost's weaknesses remain the exact same (his push in the back on Ryder in the second quarter when the ball was clearly out on the full was bad, his decision to run into a wall of Port players then kick it after being blatantly caught holding the ball was worse), and so do Oscar's (he was being out-muscled by midfielders FFS). Can't decide which one I want to drop more for next week.

Excellent summary and your para on our defence was spot on.

Our tall defenders are next to useless. Some here won't accept that Frost and OMac aren't AAs and shoot down anyone that criticises them but how obvious is it when the club recruits May and Lever to fill the holes. They weren't the only reason we lost yesterday but they were terrible at one on one defending yet again. This has been our downfall for the past 4 seasons. May and Lever can't come back quick enough and even then they will be terribly underdone.

 

1 hour ago, sisso said:

Its obvious the team is well behind in conditioning prepared to some others, the boys couldn't get out of first gear after quarter time we looked absolutely gassed. Few more weeks of pain could be coming until we get match hardened...

Didn't affect Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn or Geelong. They all looked well fit enough.

Its a copout. I mean, we did look gassed but there is absolutely no excuse for it. The signs were there in the JLT games with our inability to hold the ball in our defence and how easily we let other teams score. The latter having been a major problem for a few years now.

18 hours ago, loges said:

As usual the lazy bathwater criticisms being trotted out , as though its only attitude that's the problem. I'm afraid its much more than that.

What about Jones and Viney too lazy to use conditioner?

I would rather us play fit players than Jones and Viney. If that means Stretch and Maynard play then so be it.

Yes fitness.    shocking hot day with horrible hot wind. (was awful just sitting at the ground)  Were cooked at half time. Port fitter.   worry about the next few weeks  as we seem along way behind  in fitness.  Disappointed no one helped max being targeted.     Hopefully May will fix that (without being reported)

Some  controlled toughness would be good       Forgive jones one barry crocker..   he had a few mates

 

 

Still don’t get why we didn’t use Preuss against 2 ruckman and let Max get ground into the turf, can a smarter footy head then me please explain?

13 minutes ago, sisso said:

Still don’t get why we didn’t use Preuss against 2 ruckman and let Max get ground into the turf, can a smarter footy head then me please explain?

Totally agree. 

A costly selection stuff up.

Further to this...it would have offered the opportunity for Gawn and Preuss to rest up forward providing valuable targets.

Edited March 24, 20196 yr by beelzebub

37 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Excellent summary and your para on our defence was spot on.

Our tall defenders are next to useless. Some here won't accept that Frost and OMac aren't AAs and shoot down anyone that criticises them but how obvious is it when the club recruits May and Lever to fill the holes. They weren't the only reason we lost yesterday but they were terrible at one on one defending yet again. This has been our downfall for the past 4 seasons. May and Lever can't come back quick enough and even then they will be terribly underdone.

 

Seriously any defender trying to defend when the ball comes down unchecked like it it did will look bad. I can’t believe they didn’t score at least 50 more points. It was an alround poor performance. The midfield and lack of forward pressure need to shoulder more responsibility for this debacle. It was the same during the JLT.

Edited March 24, 20196 yr by america de cali

1 hour ago, The Swimming Dee said:

It was a poor game and not the result we wanted but no need to over react with such a small sample size.

Positives - Sparrow and Wagner fit in well and looked like they could be good players, Salem was sensational (the best game I have ever seen him play), we didn’t get absolutely blown away even though after quarter time it looked as though we would.

I suggest everyone takes a deep breath and relaxes a bit. We clearly have some problems but so do West Coast and other contenders. West Coast lost their first game at home last year also. We played about as bad as we could and I think many will be better for the hit out.

Another positive - Frost to go back to Casey next week and run around like a headless chooks there for the rest of the year. Bring on May!

Agree entirely. Adelaide and West Coast - 2 flag favourites - got belted. Just saying.

Probably my last comment on the pre-season surgeries issue. This is a list of players who had interrupted or delayed pre-seasons due to surgery:

• Clayton Oliver (double shoulder surgery)
• Jack Viney (ankle surgery)
• Neville Jetta (shoulder/knee surgery)
• James Harmes (shoulder surgery)
• Aaron vandenBerg (shoulder surgery)
• Jayden Hunt (shoulder surgery)
• Christian Petracca (knee surgery)
• Mitch Hannan (dual knee surgery)
• Oscar McDonald (hip surgery)
• Marty Hore (ankle surgery)
• Jake Melksham (ankle surgery)
• Jake Lever (knee surgery)
• Guy Walker (shoulder surgery)

Jones didn't have surgery but had a hamstring issue and, as the linked article mentions, impacted on his ability to take part in a "critical training phase" during the pre-season.

Edit: and both KK and May had injuries as well. There may also have been other players with non-operated injuries, I'm not sure.

Edited March 24, 20196 yr by titan_uranus

2 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Probably my last comment on the pre-season surgeries issue. This is a list of players who had interrupted or delayed pre-seasons due to surgery:

• Clayton Oliver (double shoulder surgery)
• Jack Viney (ankle surgery)
• Neville Jetta (shoulder/knee surgery)
• James Harmes (shoulder surgery)
• Aaron vandenBerg (shoulder surgery)
• Jayden Hunt (shoulder surgery)
• Christian Petracca (knee surgery)
• Mitch Hannan (dual knee surgery)
• Oscar McDonald (hip surgery)
• Marty Hore (ankle surgery)
• Jake Melksham (ankle surgery)
• Jake Lever (knee surgery)
• Guy Walker (shoulder surgery)

Jones didn't have surgery but had a hamstring issue and, as the linked article mentions, impacted on his ability to take part in a "critical training phase" during the pre-season.

Edit: and both KK and May had injuries as well. There may also have been other players with non-operated injuries, I'm not sure.

I know some will blow it off, but this is crucial and is a big reason why our pre season was different to so many others. Yes, some of those other teams had the same summer in terms of time spent on the track, but none had the off season surgeries that we did. It's not all the reason why yesterday stank but it played a large role. 

1 hour ago, jnrmac said:

Didn't affect Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn or Geelong. They all looked well fit enough.

Its a copout. I mean, we did look gassed but there is absolutely no excuse for it. The signs were there in the JLT games with our inability to hold the ball in our defence and how easily we let other teams score. The latter having been a major problem for a few years now.

Read the posts below on our operations during the off season which was not the case at Pies  Eagles Crows or Swans or Tigers !

Thats the story or large reason for the gassed condition plus heat did not help.

4 hours ago, rjay said:

This got me...they had a tactic to run into Max at any time, any player around the ground & it worked. Max did nothing, didn't react and played poorly.

He can expect to cop it every game he plays unless he can reverse the trend.

He doesn't have to play the tough guy & react to every push, shove or bump there & then but it must drive him to perform better. Coaches know the easy targets, Max is one. There are some players you just don't do this kind of thing to as it drives their performance, Max needs to be one of these.

...and while we're on this. Where were Max's teammates? why didn't they start throwing a bit of weight around. Surely we should have been bumping & making life hard for Ryder, he had a broken cheekbone. This was the nice Melbourne playing yesterday & that doesn't win games.

Very well said. Ive never really seen Max get attacked like that before. At one stage he was holding his guts on the ground after an off the ball snipe from someone. He got the free but was clearly shaken. Where was Viney? Hes our go to guy in that circumstance surely. Max needs to be protected at all costs. Other teams have to know if they target Max he and the rest of the side will respond. Palpepper is a thug. Typical Port tactics. We must learn from this.

4 hours ago, bingers said:

Agree. Crucial misses. Momentum killers.

Those ANB missed were the turning point for me.

Port Adelaide would have still had the legs by the end but we could have killed their confidence then.

Now that the 3rd JLT game is out of the way, can we go and play proper football now please?

Geelong will be keen to make amens next week. Looks like this years going to be a battle early on.

But we’ll come good, once May settles and our leaders step it up, we’ll get back up the ladder - go Dees!

We also had something weird going on, with TMac on the bench for 11 minutes at one stage.  Thought he was injured, then he bobbed up in the ruck.  Strange?.?..?

Look I don't expect Jones to play as badly as that again. But him dropping that mark changed that game yesterday. Its good that this happened in r1 and not later down the track. 

Next week I would expect a different response. Im putting yesterday down to a bad day. The same thing cannot happen next week. 

3 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Those ANB missed were the turning point for me.

Port Adelaide would have still had the legs by the end but we could have killed their confidence then.

ANB's cameo was a typical insight.

Running for a while when we were alive then took 2 marks and cruelled both shots either side of the goals,

That is the reason he is not a long term proposition even though he allegedly tackles and maintains pressure.

He is not an elite converter in big games but rather a finisher vs lower sides and his kicking has no particular style or consistent trajectory to guarantee  accuracy.

We May be forced due to injury to play ANB fir a while but the moment Jeffy or Chandler or Bedford show their hand and earn promotion let's see the in the team.

That's of  course if ANB doesn't prove me wrong 

Our interrupted preseason was much discussed on DL the past few months.

Anyone who dismissed is clueless, it was on full display yesterday. So many of our important players looked totally underdone/cooked from early in the 3rd.

Yes it was damn hot but it didn't hurt Port.

There are too many players to single out but there has Not been much mention of TMac,  he was barely sighted yesterday which concerns me considering some of the ongoing reporting of his toe .

I knew we'd start slowly this year ,  but we will come good in 3-4 weeks.  Don't be surprised with an 0-3 start to the season.

 

Just saw the vision of Gawn being taken out by Jonas off the ball. If his name was May he would get 3 but I will expect a fine from the MRP chook lottery. 

But back to the real issue. I also saw vision of Port first gamers getting stuck into Max as the teams went off at half time. No response to the Max hit, or verbal, from his team mates. 

That tells a lot of the story. Port were up to win this game at all costs and every player contributed. Can’t say that about us. 

Of course poor disposal and decision making and a failure to dominate contested possession contributed to the loss and set up an enormous uncontested possession beating.

 

4 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Just saw the vision of Gawn being taken out by Jonas off the ball. If his name was May he would get 3 but I will expect a fine from the MRP chook lottery. 

But back to the real issue. I also saw vision of Port first gamers getting stuck into Max as the teams went off at half time. No response to the Max hit, or verbal, from his team mates. 

That tells a lot of the story. Port were up to win this game at all costs and every player contributed. Can’t say that about us. 

Of course poor disposal and decision making and a failure to dominate contested possession contributed to the loss and set up an enormous uncontested possession beating.

 

In another thread about players who needed/would be likely to improve this year I mentioned the coaching staff. Yesterday was not their finest hour. Preuss playing today at Casey was a major mistake. If not Preuss it should have been Keilty the moment Ryder was declared fit to play. The lack of scoring ability (almost 60 minutes of football with a couple of points scored) showed no plan B and one can go on.

Not despairing yet but if we end up 0-3 the chance of a top 4 spot is almost gone. Top 4 is likely to require 16 wins and top two 17-18 plus percentage.

I noticed Maxy was on afl gameday this morning. Did anyone see it? What did he have to say about Port targeting him yesterday and the overall match in total? 

That game was hard to watch - a really underwhelming performance.

Happy for Watts though - he’s a likeable bloke.

 

So thanks to the joys of junior sport, I didn’t see a second of this game and haven’t had a chance to jump on Demonland until now. How’d we go? ?