1 hour ago, AllMyTeamsAreWank said:

The sooner the better! 

No idea really....Hibberd was one of the best tonight, you did watch the game?

18 minutes ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Just finished watching the replay but 100% disagree. Spargo played inside the system and with skill. Bedford’s goal assist was him going for goal that dropped short.

I thought Spargo was very good

I suppose Bedford's goal from the touchline was him trying to put it to the top of the square, I think drowning would be a more appropriate moniker

18 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

No idea really....Hibberd was one of the best tonight, you did watch the game?

9 intercept possessions is good. 7 clangers is bad.

Think he has to play to his limitations with the ball more now that he's lost a yard of pace. No longer can he attempt to out run every opponent and launch a 60m dart. He'll have to be smarter with the ball.

20 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

No idea really....Hibberd was one of the best tonight, you did watch the game?

Comments like this Saty makes me think you didn't watch the game.

Was very, very ordinary tonight. As was Jetta for that matter.

7 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

Comments like this Saty makes me think you didn't watch the game.

Was very, very ordinary tonight. As was Jetta for that matter.

Hibbos disposal was ordinary and he was pretty poor below his knees. He has a habit of kicking balloon balls to no one. 

1 minute ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

Hibbos disposal was ordinary and he was pretty poor below his knees. He has a habit of kicking balloon balls to no one. 

Agree. Helicopters.

Looks fitter but lost some penetration on his kicks.

27 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

I suppose Bedford's goal from the touchline was him trying to put it to the top of the square, I think drowning would be a more appropriate moniker

My point was I thought Spargo played a better game than Bedford. No worries though mate, you clearly have much more knowledge than anyone else on here and make a point of stating that at every opportunity...apologies for having an opinion on an opinion site.

Care to name the round 1 team for us? Or will you will go with the old line that you will keep it to yourself because you are trusted by the club with info that you can’t give to others?

I was very pleased with Spargo’s efforts tonight. I’ve been a big critic of his, but I think he really put on a lot of forward pressure and did a heap of smart things. I hope he gets selected round 1.

Lockhart was also very good, and definitely is worthy of a round 1 spot.

I’m a bit worried about Tmac’s form, but I suppose his second half against Adelaide was decent.

Much preferred Harmes when he was fwd of centre, back half does not work for him at all. I think ANB needs to make way for him

Omac did nothing bad so that’s always good

2 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

What game were you watching? Spargo's quick hands and  smart position were one of the highlights of the night.

Agreed, and that's without even talking about the excellent pressure game that he bought.  Harassed well all game and properly stuck some great tackles.  To me it was pretty close to the sort of form that saw him play the majority of the 2018 season.

Really don't understand why people are so quick to pot Spargo.  When he's up and about he makes an impact.

So the real positives for me were the return to good form of:

Viney

Spargo

Freitch 

Melksham 

May

Oscar - I actually thought he looked like he belonged again tonight

ANB in patches

Hibbard late in the game

Brayshaw was quite serviceable and did a few nice things

Bedford showed he's on the pace

 

Continued good form from:

Lochart

Tomlinson 

Langdon

 

Was a bit disappointed with:

Trac didn't dominate, but better to save that for Rd 1

Clarry was average, but has a few credits up his sheave and did a few nice things

Jones didn't play a full game.  I assume he is being managed for the season ahead, due to old age, but did some nice stuff when on the ground and suggested again he could make an important contribution this season.

Injuries to Weid and AVB

Commentators talked up Lever a fair bit, but I thought he was just ok, but conversely good to get through another game

T Mac's almost non existent presence was one of the more disappointing things of the night to me, but then I do also wounder if they had him playing a slightly different role, with Freitch and Melksham playing deep and being the main focal points.

 

 

Overall, I thought we lacked a bit of system and skills at times, but the wind did seem quite tricky and for a team in the Hawks that I think many commentators would have ahead of us, I thought we made them look pretty ordinary and were not really threatened by them for most of the game.  For the most part though, I thought we looked pretty well in control of the game, which had not often been the case against Hawthorn for the past few years.  The game did look a little like the intensity wasn't quite there at times, like both teams really did hold back a little more in reserve than if there was points on the line.

Edited March 6, 20205 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Crazy-busy emergency-what-not so only got a glancing look at the highlights - but it seemed like Hunt was in everything 

Elsewhere, May looked super-rusty and Frtitsch seems to be edging toward the super-star status I've been quietly expecting.

Jackwho is my new nickname for Bailey. I think he may be about to break the mould - can't think of a ready comparison. 

My questions for those who did watch - did Petracca follow-up or was he maybe taking it easy? Was May actually [censored]? 

Also - the TMac-Weid-Jackson-Brown nexus - do we have issues? Can these be overcome by our mid-fleet on a reg basis? 

 

 

32 minutes ago, Skuit said:

 

My questions for those who did watch - did Petracca follow-up or was he maybe taking it easy? Was May actually [censored]? 

Also - the TMac-Weid-Jackson-Brown nexus - do we have issues? Can these be overcome by our mid-fleet on a reg basis? 

 

 

Don't mind helping out a travelling man, Skuit!

Petracca was much quieter this week. Still did some dynamic things though.

With regard to the talls. Brown didn't play. TMac was unseen most of the night. Weed got his hands on a few balls but dropped most of them! Played a bit in the ruck as well and did OK. Jackson played in the second half and looked promising without being spectacular. Was pushed out of ruck contests on a few occasions but follows up on the ground. Looks like a young NicNat!

You'll be pleased to know the other tall OMac was very solid!

4 hours ago, The Swimming Dee said:

OMac is a defender and was excellent in the defensive system tonight

OK I'll change my team to suit you so it will almost be the team that played Hawthorn.

B: JETTA, MAY, LEVER

HB: LOCKHART, O.MCDONALD, HIBBERD

C : LANGDON, PETRACCA, TOMLINSON

HF: NEAL-BULLEN, T.MCDONALD, JONES

F: SPARGO, FRITSCH, MELKSHAM

FOLL: GAWN, OLIVER, VINEY

IC: BRAYSHAW, HARMES, SALEM, WEIDEMAN

EMERG: VANDENBERG

 

CASEY

B: J.WAGNER, HUTCHINS, WHITE

HB: RIVERS, SMITH, HORE

C : HUNT, SPARROW, BAKER

HF: HANNAN, PETTY, PICKETT

F: BEDFORD, BROWN, CHANDLER

FOLL: JACKSON, JORDON, MUNRO

IC: DUNKLEY, C.WAGNER, LEWIS, BRADTKE

EMERG: MCCAFFERY

Edited March 6, 20205 yr by WERRIDEE

6 hours ago, AshleyH30 said:

I thought once Gawn was subbed off that we failed to readjust quickly enough after half time. Took us 10-15 minutes to finally readjust which coincided with when hawks had control in the third. Once we'd adjusted we were all over them defensively and in the midfield.

My only negative is the foward line structure, which again was highlighted early in the third as without Max and Brown not playing, we consistently had one less player in the forward line to lead or kick to, resulting in constant kicks to out numbered situations.

An early succession of posters didn’t help. We should have been well ahead at quarter time (not level pegging)! 

20 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

Don't mind helping out a travelling man, Skuit!

Petracca was much quieter this week. Still did some dynamic things though.

With regard to the talls. Brown didn't play. TMac was unseen most of the night. Weed got his hands on a few balls but dropped most of them! Played a bit in the ruck as well and did OK. Jackson played in the second half and looked promising without being spectacular. Was pushed out of ruck contests on a few occasions but follows up on the ground. Looks like a young NicNat!

You'll be pleased to know the other tall OMac was very solid!

Cheers dee-tox. It's nice to get a response from a vetted source. If we didn't miss our season pre-brief I would have probably expressed confidence for the season ahead - and that we can kick winning scores - but with reservations re. our contested marking talls. The on-field to date hasn't done much to allay these concerns. Hopefully Jackson can come one quick-smart. 

We can only go by what we have seen so far and it’s pleasing to see the defensive structures working well. We have conceded 70, 49 in the two Marsh games and include the 33 against North if you like.

We wouldn’t know what other teams are trying and the season proper will go to another level but those are pretty low scores against us. There’s lots to like so far on how we are preparing.

lol he said Hibberd was one of the best. Glad nothing has changed. 
 

Anyway, horrible footy for a lot of the time. I felt it last year, across all games, and lost interest for the first time in my life. But this time last year we were visibly unfit and outrun in these practice matches, it’s been the opposite this preseason. 
 

Langdon and Tomlinson look to be perfect pickups. 
Fritsch having 2 years wasted out of position will annoy me every time he kicks a goal now. 
Viney was excellent, easy to forget how good he is when he hits a form slump. So important that he stays fit. 
Lockhart looked good early last year too, so I’m not sure he’ll keep this up but I’m hoping he does. 
Backline looks solid.
Overall; fitness and the wings are the biggest takeaway. 

Did anyone see what happened to Fritsch in the 3rd quarter (I think).  He was on the ground for a long time in the foetal position with a Hawthorn player hovering over him.  (Stratton?).  It was visible in the background as play went on?  Looked nasty.  To Fritsch's credit he was ready for play next time the ball went forward.

7 hours ago, Docs Demons said:

We still bomb the ball into forward line. 2 weeks to get our backs and mids to lower their eyes and forwards to lead at the ball carrier, thus allowing the smalls to come in and crumb.  Otherwise a good game with limited involvement from Gawn & Jones playing only a half and a fairly quiet game from Oliver. Looking forward to the Weagles.

If they aren’t doing this now the next two weeks won’t change things.

The issue wasn’t the bombing, the issue was the lack of forwards who are forward of the ball.

A clear change in our game style was to switch and chip the ball around our back half (Richardson influence?) - very much the Hawks and Eagles 'control' game plan of recent years.    Will be interesting to see if we have enough skill to carry it off when opps develop counter tactics. 

Hawks seemed awake to it quite early and let us chip the ball around while they flooded our fwd half making it hard to get thru traffic.  We inevitably had to bomb it long over the pack to outnumbered forwards.  Inevitably they marked and the ball came out again.

In the 3rd quarter we started to find ways to get thru the forward half congestion and it was good to see we reacted to what wasn't working in-game.  As a result we kicked 7.3 in the second half vs 5.6 in the first half.  Someone on the field or the coaches box responded well and the players implemented the changes well.

While we played attacking, aggressive football there was less of the manic 'chaos ball' game style which imv was good as it tires players, and draws too many around the ball with no one to receive.  Saw Langdon hovering outside a pack a few times which was great to see.

I like these game plan changes.  Some work to do on moving the ball more efficiently between the 50m arcs so we don't need to bomb it in and some work to do to make sure the opp don't force our 'switch and chip' in defence to become like the kicking in circles of 5 years ago.

As an aside, Hawks have changed their game plan from slow chip and control out of defence to moving the ball out quickly thru the corridor. 

Watching how game plans change across the league and how opps react will be an interesting side show this year.

Edited March 6, 20205 yr by Lucifer's Hero

1 hour ago, Deestroy All said:

lol he said Hibberd was one of the best. Glad nothing has changed. 
 

Anyway, horrible footy for a lot of the time. I felt it last year, across all games, and lost interest for the first time in my life. But this time last year we were visibly unfit and outrun in these practice matches, it’s been the opposite this preseason. 
 

Langdon and Tomlinson look to be perfect pickups. 
Fritsch having 2 years wasted out of position will annoy me every time he kicks a goal now. 
Viney was excellent, easy to forget how good he is when he hits a form slump. So important that he stays fit. 
Lockhart looked good early last year too, so I’m not sure he’ll keep this up but I’m hoping he does. 
Backline looks solid.
Overall; fitness and the wings are the biggest takeaway. 

Lochart came onto the list late last year and didn't have much pre season.

8 hours ago, daisycutter said:

yeah, too one dimensional

I know! He keeps getting the ball, striving to get the ball in contested situations or tackles opposition who have the ball!