27 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Undefeated when this bloke is in the team...

Very nice LN.  Isn't it great to see a classy ball gatherer and smart ball user on the outside wings and up around the arc.  Fingers crossed he can stay on the park and go from strength to strength.  The two connections between him and Kozzy tonight (that i can remember anyway) were a breath of fresh air.  What a difference this makes up forward.

The good news is .....78% game time tonight vs 50% in his first match.  That's significant.  And ranked in the top 10 best players (statistically) on both occasions (10th ranked player on both occassions!).  

17 minutes ago, Deeko2 said:

Great to see Hibberd back to his best lately. Not as big on rebounding tonight but destroyed Sexton.

The way he has fought back to his best recently, given the nightmare he's gone through.......................absolutely inspirational

4 minutes ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

It's also worth saying that OMac and the Weid made a big difference to the structure today.  Oscar frees up May and Lever to play a more attacking brand and having Sam up front means we have someone contesting in the packs which means that the blind kick in hope isn't quite as disastrous for us as it normally is.  Well worth persistingwith both of them. 

Is it just me or was Kozzie trying to set up Bennell all game? 

Did they change the structure? Tom only played the first quarter, so we really only had 1 tall for 3/4s of the game. Weid probably sat a little deeper than Tom was at times the last couple of weeks as Petracca played an undersized CHF but that's been happening the last two weeks as well. We didn't get much of a real look at 2 key forwards together and a couple of times in the first quarter Weid struggled to get off his man anyway.

Oscar was better than I expected, he certainly looks fitter and a touch quicker and more assertive, and yeah he's more interchangeable with May at least on the Suns big talls so May could come up a bit more, although he didn't play all that well. Lever has been freed up all season, tonight he took better advantage of it at times.

Was a tough slog against GC. Not sure if they are real deal or just came back after the break ready to go. 
was good to see a lot of our guys play like we know they can. Gawn was huge, Trac awesome, and some nice cameos by others. 
bit worried about melksham though. Has not looked right this year, is the game past him or does he need confidence? Silly mistakes which are costly. 

Good win. GC are much improved and will do some damage. 

It's a pity TMac went off and we didn’t get to see the return to traditional structure play out.

Everyone made a contribution at times.

7 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

all this talk about Rankine is [censored] me !

[censored] him !! 

We won the game - that is all that matters.

totally agree.  [censored] him.

That dweeb McLachlan had a typical smart [censored] comment to make when the players got round Harley at the end - 'you'd think they won the premiership'  What a [censored] silver spooned little [censored].  Garry put him straight back in his box beautifully.

18 minutes ago, dpositive said:

It is indeed a beautiful thing to see a win

I didn't see the game but from comments here there's still much that was not an improvement.

We must realise that Hawks play a completely different game. Different structures and personnel. We need to adjust to exploit their game.

Another test for Goodwin.

Maybe we'll be on the TV next game?

Protect that corridor at all costs and man up around the contested ball ups.  Don't allow them the outside position or a "Free" extra at any stage around the contested ball.  They love to overlap run off the fat side wherever possible (in waves once they win possession)  through the corridor.  Force them wide and make them use the skinny side, mostly down the line, using the above coverage IF at all possible.

2 minutes ago, pinkshark said:

totally agree.  [censored] him.

"Club Legend" Garry seemed to be urging him to kick a couple more in the tight last quarter .

27 minutes ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

He didn't run under it.  That was just BS from the commentators because they weren't game to say he was pushed in the back and not given the free.  There were three contests in a row where he was shoved out and they marked behind him.  Not a peep from the Umps. 

And the random one outside the boundary against Oliver that nobody knows what it was for... 

And the one Rankin kicked off the ground, didn’t he drop the ball in a tackle to get it on the ground for a kick at goal? 

4 minutes ago, pinkshark said:

That dweeb McLachlan had a typical smart [censored] comment to make when the players got round Harley at the end - 'you'd think they won the premiership'  What a [censored] silver spooned little [censored].  Garry put him straight back in his box beautifully.

McLachlan wasn't commentating tonight!

5 minutes ago, pinkshark said:

That dweeb McLachlan had a typical smart [censored] comment to make when the players got round Harley at the end - 'you'd think they won the premiership'  What a [censored] silver spooned little [censored].  Garry put him straight back in his box beautifully.

It was Anthony Hudson. Cool story though, so I’ll run with it.

2 minutes ago, dee-eee said:

"Club Legend" Garry seemed to be urging him to kick a couple more in the tight last quarter .

Dont go knocking Garry.  

People are going early about Rankine. How many great debuts have we seen over the years - some even in red and blue - that have NOT led to great careers? Granted, he looked good, but the gushing is a bit too much.

Anyway, back to the Dees...

Long term, not sure what to expect from Bennell, but having the ball in his hands makes me feel very, very calm. 

11 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Did they change the structure? Tom only played the first quarter, so we really only had 1 tall for 3/4s of the game. Weid probably sat a little deeper than Tom was at times the last couple of weeks as Petracca played an undersized CHF but that's been happening the last two weeks as well. We didn't get much of a real look at 2 key forwards together and a couple of times in the first quarter Weid struggled to get off his man anyway.

Oscar was better than I expected, he certainly looks fitter and a touch quicker and more assertive, and yeah he's more interchangeable with May at least on the Suns big talls so May could come up a bit more, although he didn't play all that well. Lever has been freed up all season, tonight he took better advantage of it at times.

My understanding in the first while T-Mac was on DS was T-Mac was playing a high HF role (in a similar vein to the way Hogan used to).  Yes Weid definitely played quite deep early on if i saw it correctly.

15 minutes ago, binman said:

G'day DD. Any interest in revisiting this post and the related discussion:

'O Mac is good kick. Mostly under not much pressure. His decision making is still not great though. 
petracca is a far superior kick. I’m amazed I have to even argue this point'

(just joking btw - sorry, not sorry, couldn't resit )  

I know you’ve been a supporter of OMacs for a while now binman. You must have been grinning like a Cheshire Cat after his game. 

Couldnt be more pleased for the kid. Looked like he belonged today.

I thought he played his role perfectly. Doesn’t need big possessions or bulk intercept marks, just needs to defend hard and well. Very happy for him.

1 minute ago, Beetle said:

It was Anthony Hudson. Cool story though, so I’ll run with it.

My bad.  Same horse, different jockey.  

So glad we got the win. At one stage in the last qtr I had the thought that a first gamer is single handedly ending Neville Jetta’s career.

For once I think I can say that we won it at selection. All 4 ins fired.

2 minutes ago, Rusty Nails said:

My understanding in the first while T-Mac was on DS was T-Mac was playing a high HF role (in a similar vein to the way Hogan used to).  Yes Weid definitely played quite deep early on if i saw it correctly.

And that was for all of a quarter and we were down at 1/4 time. When we went smaller in the 2nd and used Weid as the pack crasher around true CHF we looked our most dangerous. 

The suns goals were pretty rubbish early and we controlled the ball and tempo better with Tom hitting the wings, but it didn't lead to much on the scoreboard and the ball walked out of our forward line. In the second quarter Weid split some packs and we played on out of those contested situations to hit up inside 50 targets.

There's still plenty of work to do to get two talls up and firing, plus make sure Fritsch and Melk are finding the ball enough to contribute and getting the defensive pressure consistently sorted.

18 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

And the one Rankin kicked off the ground, didn’t he drop the ball in a tackle to get it on the ground for a kick at goal? 

Yes, I thought the same. He just put the ball on the ground. Clear free kick against him.

5 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

So glad we got the win. At one stage in the last qtr I had the thought that a first gamer is single handedly ending Neville Jetta’s career.

For once I think I can say that we won it at selection. All 4 ins fired.

The 2 big blokes did their job, Bennell showed promise but also was clearly lacking in areas. Jetta was ordinary, your first thought was correct.

1 minute ago, DeeSpencer said:

And that was for all of a quarter and we were down at 1/4 time. When we went smaller in the 2nd and used Weid as the pack crasher around true CHF we looked our most dangerous. 

...

Weid crashed packs in a way that TMac hasn't all year.

I thought Harley against the Blues look out of step and very cautious, which is understandable but tonight he seemed to be covering the ground a hell of a lot better.  I think getting his confidence up in the 2’s was the best thing for him

35 minutes ago, Deeko2 said:

I know you’ve been a supporter of OMacs for a while now binman. You must have been grinning like a Cheshire Cat after his game. 

Couldnt be more pleased for the kid. Looked like he belonged today.

I thought he played his role perfectly. Doesn’t need big possessions or bulk intercept marks, just needs to defend hard and well. Very happy for him.

Just a game for Oscar.

But in all seriousness agree with your comment about looking like he belonged about his game and playing his role.

On the former, i though this it was impressive he played with such confidence having come back from been dropped. Perhaps good coaching from Goody in terms of messaging, or perhaps he has been working on that aspect of his game. Mots likely both.

That confidence showed on that play that set up the Harley to Weed goal. Hard to see on TV (the tight shots really annoy me) but he must have come well off his man and ran hard to provide an attacking option (and it was great that he was used).

The other bit of play i thought showed his confidence was his mark on the line in the last. I was sure he was going to hit it through for point, but instead elected to mark it. Small thing but a good decision as it made it harder for the Suns to set up a zone.

On his Omac's kicking, in addition to his general efficiency and reliability what i really like is that he is accurate over distance and can kick it 50 plus metres and the ball travels quickly though the air.

He did that on that kick to Harley and combined with the fact it was kicked to  advantage it allowed to Harley to win the contest even though he dropped the mark. Compare him to Oliver (and a number of others) who can kick 50 but it floats and is easily defended. 

On a related note i would rather Omac take the kick outs than May.

 

Edited July 11, 20205 yr by binman

FIRE UP, YA BASTARDS. WE’RE STILL ALIVE!