POST GAME: Rd 04 vs Sydney

[Flemo56 375]

I’m a bit confused at the centre bounces, why in particular Oliver feels the need to make contact with an opponent when he just needs to see ball get ball, just move too space and make them chase you, he clearly puts too much emphasis on contact with opponents at most stoppages, he’s also not the greatest pest either unless he’s just winning the ball, that’s when the oppo hate him and we love him!

[Deemania since 56 6,119]

3 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

It's called "telepathic concussion" and occurs when thousands of supporters all slam their forehead into their fist at the same time.

Surely, surely, surely, the writing is on the wall, for OMac. If it ain't, then we must all contribute to a fund that sends Goodwin and the FD to Specsavers/OPSM for immediate remediation.

[Deemania since 56 6,119]

7 minutes ago, Flemo56 said:

I’m a bit confused at the centre bounces, why in particular Oliver feels the need to make contact with an opponent when he just needs to see ball get ball, just move too space and make them chase you, he clearly puts too much emphasis on contact with opponents at most stoppages, he’s also not the greatest pest either unless he’s just winning the ball, that’s when the oppo hate him and we love him!

Good observation. He'd otherwise be 3-4 metres clear with the ball if this was stopped. 

[AllMyTeamsAreWank 563]

It's funny how a win completely changes people's perspective on here. If we had lost in a closer battle (which it could have been if Swans had taken earlier chances) some players on here getting praise would be under the blow torch. 

Oscar has to go in my opinion. I've been giving him the benefit of the doubt for a while as I have always thought people (particularly on the facebook groups) rate him lower than he actually is, but he has been downright awful this year. He is far too slow and has no physical presence. The commentators were creaming themselves when Heeney took that mark on a "2 on 1".  Let's not kid ourselves, that was 1.2 on 1 with me being generous. Oscar's heels barely left the turf.  

Jones was lucky he nailed those 3 goals because if we had lost and those were behinds, the pitchforks would be well and truly out again. He continuously butchers the pill from dangerous positions. I'm not saying Jones needs to be dropped, but if he really is going to lead from the front, he should start by not hoofing it 50m into a packed forward line every time he gets the ball. 

Fumbles....What the hell is with the fumbles? Numerous times we looked to be clean out of the middle or defence only for one of our mids (Harmes and Trac probably the biggest offenders) to fumble it and turn it over. I am putting this down to confidence issues as it was much more evident when we were getting towelled up in the first half.   

I thought Trac was pretty good tonight, but you still feel like he is stuck in 2nd gear. Just needs to find a way to get more involved. I firmly believe he can be our De Goey and possibly even better. Not sure if its a work rate issue or just learning the game. Would love to see him lead for the ball better.  He actually looked really good one out in forward line last week. 

The forward line suits Hunt, but he still needs to learn how to side-step. If he can somehow add some evasiveness to his game he could have kicked 4 or 5 last night. 

I know this sounds like I'm having a major dig at a good performance and win, but I still fear against some more efficient teams this game would have been all over by half time like it was against the cats. It was however nice to see us improve our efficiency inside 50. 

Something that had me baffled though was how we played in the last quarter when we were protecting our lead.  Inside of winning it out of the middle or defensive 50 and rushing it to the other end only to bomb it, we slowed it down and picked out players and leads. We looked composed and polished. When the ball rebounded, we won it back and didn't panic. Why can't we balance this style of play with our manic pressure? It just seems our gameplan is far too favoured towards playing the territory game at the sacrifice of possession. We have demonstrated so many times that winning i50s does not equal more scoring and in more cases causes more scores against. Our mids gets far too committed to pushing into the attack and when it goes over there heads, it leaves our backs exposed with forwards getting goal side. In my opinion, this has to change if we are to make any challenge this season. I honestly don't believe the addition of May or Lever would make a difference.  Most defenders don't do well running towards their defensive goal. 

We really need to [censored] the saints next week and make a statement. 

 

[beelzebub 22,225]

A hearty congratulations to the team and coaching.

I really didn't see that coming. Well done.

However one win does not a winter footy season make. Let's back it up.

Go Dees

[sue 8,409]

6 minutes ago, AllMyTeamsAreWank said:

It's funny how a win completely changes people's perspective on here. If we had lost in a closer battle (which it could have been if Swans had taken earlier chances) some players on here getting praise would be under the blow torch. ...

On the other hand, if we had won against Essendrug (which could have happened if a few things went our way), the degree of doom and gloom here about other poor aspects of that performance would have been far less.   

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,569]

I've thought that Jack Viney's impact on games this season to date had been pretty low by his standards, but thought that his game last night indicated he is starting to get back the sort of form that will make our midfeild dangerous.  He laid 9 tackles last night and many of them we big hard crunching ones that had a real impact.  He also started to win some good clearances and that goal he kicked in the second quarter was very timely.

Whilst Jack had a good impact on the two finals we won last year, I've felt that we haven't really seen him at his most damaging best since mid 2017 in that game against West Coast where he almost single handedly carried our midfeild to help deliver us an unlikely victory, to some extent to his detriment, because I think he was also playing injured at the time and has struggled to reach that level since.

[Watts the matter 1,235]

10 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Possibly on this? Doesn't really look like his head hit the ground but maybe it did?

I hope Oscar is ok but I think it showed we're a better team without him. 
 

 

I think it is later, when Oliver comes back on from his incident and goes back with the flight of the ball. BT made a mention that McDonald was slow to get up.

[Watts the matter 1,235]

53 minutes ago, sue said:

They beat carlton the ice-rink, not the SCG

Sue, you have misinterpreted the post. Jaded is correctly stating that Sydney have been poor at the SCG, nothing to do with the Carlton part of the sentence.

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,569]

3 minutes ago, sue said:

On the other hand, if we had won against Essendrug (which could have happened if a few things went our way), the degree of doom and gloom here about other poor aspects of that performance would have been far less.   

Really need to look at performance over the course of the season to make any sense of it.  I think it's entirely reasonable for teams and individuals to have confidence and form slumps at various points in time, they are humans we are talking about.

Personally I'm neither a lover or hater, of any of our players.  I'd rather see all of them individually and particularly the team succeed.  If that means players like Oscar McDonald are ultimately not in our theiritical best 22, then so be it, but I still think such players can play a role if they can be of sufficient quality to provide good depth when called upon.  Oscar is clearly down on confidence right at the moment and not playing anywhere near as well as he is capable of.  The question is will his confidence and/or the confidence of others like Petty best served by demoting/promoting them to the reserves right now?

[dazzledavey36 48,642]

Full match reply on Fox Footy now.

[Tough Kent 2,049]

Thoughts on the game last night:
- our team defence was good after 1/4 time. We didn’t leak goals out the back and we defended the ground much better
- Marty Hore was fantastic. Intercept marker who reads the play well. If he can use it well he can stay in the team
- Gawn was immense and did as he pleased. Preuss was a presence up forward, but looks to be in trouble with his shoulder.
- there’s a bit of life in the old boy yet. Jones willed himself to contests and showed he still has a role to play.
- we applied pressure inside 50 for the first time all year. It was great to see Sydney unable to clear their defensive 50 for large parts of the game. Spargo was important here. Unlike most he lowers his eyes.
- Salem had another good one.
- we showed more composure coming out of backline last night, but still hacked it out at times. Does Lewis come straight back in next week?
- credit to Frosty. Knew his role, played his role. For mine, he plays ahead of Oscar when May and Lever return. Just keep things simple for him.
- I thought Trac looked dangerous. Loved his battle with Rampe.
- I’d hate to have Jayden Hunt on my tail if the ball hit the ground in my back line. He adds a different dimension up there. 
- Florent, Zac Jones and Heeney were very good on the wings for Sydney. What I wouldn’t give for some class, outside run. Billy Stretch deserved his opportunity but was lead to the ball far too often at center bounces.
- I thought for the first time all year we were daring with the ball and took some risks by trying to move the ball through the corridor. 
- I’m not sure our opposition were much good, so I’m not getting carried away with the win.

- Cameron Ling, of all people, made a really good observation last night. He said, “Melbourne have rediscovered how hard you have to work to be a really good team”. Better late than never.

Bring on the Saints.

[Nasher 33,047]

8 minutes ago, Tough Kent said:

- Cameron Ling, of all people, made a really good observation last night. He said, “Melbourne have rediscovered how hard you have to work to be a really good team”. Better late than never.

Bring on the Saints.

I believe what he actually said was that Melbourne have discovered “how hard they have to re-work”. It’s probably a good point but gee, he really is a dribbling oaf.

[sue 8,409]

36 minutes ago, Watts the matter said:

Sue, you have misinterpreted the post. Jaded is correctly stating that Sydney have been poor at the SCG, nothing to do with the Carlton part of the sentence.

true, sorry.

[What 18,810]

Who do you guys think will be our leading goalkicker this season?

After 4 rounds Melk has 7,  Weideman and Hunt have 5.   T Mac has just 2 goals but should start firing up soon.

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,569]

41 minutes ago, Tough Kent said:

- Marty Hore was fantastic. Intercept marker who reads the play well. If he can use it well he can stay in the team
- Gawn was immense and did as he pleased. Preuss was a presence up forward, but looks to be in trouble with his shoulder.

- credit to Frosty. Knew his role, played his role. For mine, he plays ahead of Oscar when May and Lever return. Just keep things simple for him.

My thoughts to this point were that Hore had been underwhelming in preseason games and I didn't think he had done enough to warent his inclusion in the team - was glad for him to prove me wrong.  Based on what I have seen to date, his kicking is still the main question mark for me, but I think it's hard to make too many judgements right now.  With the low confidence levels generally evident throughout the whole team, I think many players are guilty of hesitant and error prone kicking, with exception of the classy ball users like Salem, Freitch and Melksham.

For me Sam Frost has been our best performed key back all year in a backline under siege.  Yes he has had his moments, but for the most part, I think he has played his role and when the rest of the team is defensively doing their part, I think he is well up to the standard required.  He had one clanger kick early in the game last night, but after that his ball use was pretty good.  I thought his defensive effort against Franklin was admirable without being brilliant.  My take was that he kept Franklin contained sufficiently that he didn't rip us a new one as he would have done playing on Oscar, but that Frost's effectiveness was somewhat flattered by Franklin's poor-average goal kicking.

I did really like Preuss's game, but it was somewhat tempered by the dominant defensive role that Aliir Aliir was able to provide playing off him.  I'm not solely blaming Preuss for that though.  Pruess is what he is - an immoble lumbering beast of a man.  If he is to be most effective in our forward line, we should be kicking it to him more directly and not bombing it randomly into our forward line i.e. bomb it long to Pruess as a semi stationary target, not into space away from where he is occupying - if we can achieve that I think he can definitely become a weapon.

[radar 1,848]

Up to HCMC for couple of days. 

Heard Mark McLure congratulating midfield for getting back into it after woeful first Q 

This morning caught 6 minutes of video;  Melbourne dominated the highlights,

Spargo set up two goals with forward passes,

Sydney don’t appear  the Swans of old. 

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,569]

12 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Possibly on this? Doesn't really look like his head hit the ground but maybe it did?

I hope Oscar is ok but I think it showed we're a better team without him. 
 

 

With the way Oscar is playing at the moment I agree, but I think Oscar is capable of playing much better than he is right now.  He could be quite capable if a third tall was needed to play along side Lever and May.

Incidentally, I thought it was very poor that no-one got over and got in the face and flew the flag against Franklin after he ironed out Oscar like that.  Whilst it wasn't particularly dirty, it was unnessacery and that we just tolerated it I think demonstrated weakness and that we prepared to stand back and let a team mate be physically doninated.

[titan_uranus 22,219]

1 hour ago, Nasher said:

I believe what he actually said was that Melbourne have discovered “how hard they have to re-work”. It’s probably a good point but gee, he really is a dribbling oaf.

Actually I think it was "how re-hard they have to work".

[What 18,810]

21 minutes ago, radar said:

Spargo set up two goals with forward passes,

 

Hes going to be a great player for us in time.   Great footy brain, doesnt waste a possession.

[Nasher 33,047]

8 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Actually I think it was "how re-hard they have to work".

? oh man. That was it.

[Watson11 1,881]

2 hours ago, beelzebub said:

A hearty congratulations to the team and coaching.

I really didn't see that coming. Well done.

However one win does not a winter footy season make. Let's back it up.

Go Dees

Nor does three losses a winter footy season make.  Despite our terrible form, I’m still having us up there in contention in Sep.  I’ll panic when we have 9 losses for the season.

Second half showed how important the forward 6 are to our defence.  I’d like to see Goody settle on Tracc, Weid, Preuss, Melk, Hunt, Tmac, and JSmith, AVB when fit as our forward 6 and rotations.  If we can settle our forward 6 and they click defensively then we will be very very hard to beat from July on. Love Spargo but he needs time to build strength so his tackles stick.

Preuss is really important.  He stopped the leakage from forward 50 stoppages last night.  

Edited April 12, 2019 by Watson11

[DeezNuts 624]

6 hours ago, Brownie said:

Thanks @DeezNuts I thought Frost did a great job on Franklin but a few times that buddy got away from Frost, Salem was there to cover.

Always hard to tell on TV but did the two of them seem to work together more effectively to cover him this week?

Still thought Omacs got a way to go.

Yeah, Frost did really well on franklin, every mark that buddy did get, he had to earn. You can’t ask more from anyone than that. 

[BrisbaneDemon 1,492]

2 hours ago, Nasher said:

I believe what he actually said was that Melbourne have discovered “how hard they have to re-work”. It’s probably a good point but gee, he really is a dribbling oaf.

Channel 7 are so frustrating to listen to, i lost count on how many times they swapped between Swans are just hanging on, Melbourne are just clinging to their lead.  There was 14 points in it at that stage.

[FireInTheBennelly 4,022]

12 hours ago, Males said:

I saw that, I assumed that you have to press a button on the side of the headphones to talk and McCarthy had left his turned on and was laughing with Jones while Goody was trying to talk with the coaches upstairs? Nothing malicious in it.

Sounds fair. I read too much into at the time perhaps.