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They had Max King but we had King Max !

Edited by Wadda We Sing

 

Pretty tough to not give Goody at least a big part of the credit for that win. Had a plan that worked. Luckily it wasn't really challenged and he didn't have to adjust during the game, but he showed his talent as a coach tonight.

These 'response wins' are our standard practice though, so it's hard to be convinced until we see the team bring a plan, effective changes to the plan when needed, effort and understanding consistently.

I was 100% one of the doomsayers before the game, so I'll take my whack for that.

The team selection copped a lot of stick, so just a quick revisit of the controversial selections:

Wagner - thought he was decent tbh

Brown - did well and was an improvement on his predecessor 

OMac - thought he was ordinary, but at least it moved Tomlinson up the ground who had a solid game

Edited by Forest Demon

 

There's been a fair bit of air time about whether Petracca's kick was touched before or after the line.

Why no talk about why he wasn't paid the mark? 

41 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

Did Goodwin make enough changes for everyone's liking? Or did he have nothing to do with the win? Just thought I'd check in with the 'sack Goodwin' mafia on here

Goodwin had everything to do with this win.

We overcame some poor foot skills and gifted turnovers to win a game through fantastic defensive structure and planning - a massive tick for Goody.


We won that game by turning around our huge deficiency against the dogs, which was our ability to block space and shut down their transition, so hats off to Goodwin for that.

TBH, my favourite thing about that win was that we won it on structure around the ground, rather than just relying on the same old faces in the middle battering it forward 30 more times than the opposition.

2 minutes ago, Forest Demon said:

The team selection copped a lot of stick, so just a quick revisit of the controversial selections:

Wagner - thought he was decent tbh

Brown - did well and was an improvement on his predecessor 

OMac - thought he was ordinary, but at least it moved Tomlinson up the ground who had a solid game

Brown and Tomlinson were both ordinary until the last 10 minutes or so. Tomlinson was better down back when Hibberd went off. Brown hit the wings for a few crucial impacts late in the game, and yeah was better than his predecessor.

Rivers and Wagner at half backs were both very solid.

7 minutes ago, KingDingAling said:

That is all we can ask. If he is doing something productive he isn't a liability, we have enough of those and they stand out. Spargo doesn't stand out, so he can't be doing much wrong. I got time for the kid.

We don't have the depth to leave guys like Spargo and Pickett out of the side - we need a couple more of them.

Spargo's tackling was a highlight, particularly early on.

 
1 hour ago, CYB said:

It was totally all Richo. Goodwin was trying to be seen doing something on the bench. But every shot on tv he was doing nothing. Compare that with Ratten. Miles apart. Miles..

Watch the Steven May interview mate,


6 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Brown and Tomlinson were both ordinary until the last 10 minutes or so. Tomlinson was better down back when Hibberd went off. Brown hit the wings for a few crucial impacts late in the game, and yeah was better than his predecessor.

Rivers and Wagner at half backs were both very solid.

Disagree on Tomlinson. He certainly didn’t set the game alight (don’t think he ever will), but he was an option and worked hard to shut down a lot of their ball movement. I sat at Metricon last week and watched the doggies go coast to coast with ease, and I’m sure that was the thinking behind getting Tomlinson back onto the wing.

Agree on Rivers, can’t belive he was ever dropped tbh.

Edited by Forest Demon

37 minutes ago, FireInTheBennelly said:

Yeah sure, but how does he go with chopsticks?

Christian is civilized. He politely asks for a fork and spoon. He's a good boy.

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

vandenBerg, Hannan, Jones and Pickett laid 3 tackles between them.

I love vandenBerg's intent but if he's not tackling, I'm just not sure why he's playing.

I'd like to see the pressure act stat (does anyone know if it's available anywhere), as I'm sure the FD look at it, and it might be what keeps Pickett in the side.

I look at the 1%ers here - https://afltables.com/afl/stats/2020s.html

Haven't updated them yet. Not sure about pressure acts though.

1 hour ago, Wiseblood said:

Someone mentioned it earlier, but how did the umpire justify calling play on for the Brown kick that clearly went at least 25 metres in those last 30 seconds?

I've seen kicks go 8 metres and get paid.

Called it off the boot, as did I. It's far easier for me to revise my opinion one second later though. He should have overturned his own initial call, but I've also officiated sport before and the second you realise you've made a bad mistake the mind goes to complete mush.

Thankfully for both him and us we prevailed - otherwise I think that one would weigh on his mind for some time. I still dwell on on-field errors from 25 years ago. Overall the quality of the umpiring was decent tonight and mostly consistent. It's not the first time I've said that about one of our Alice matches. 

1 minute ago, Moonshadow said:

Sure. Not getting too excited DOx, just getting tired of the kicking he gets. FFS, we are currently on the 8!!!

That bears repeating moonie - we are in the 8.

What ever we collectively think about how we are travelling, the fact remains we are in the 8.

And unlike (almost) all our competitors for that spot we don't have any more games against one of the current top 5 sides.

The pies have two and a bye, dogs one and a bye and saints one a bye.

GWS don't have a game against any top current 5 teams but their four games include the blues, us and the saints. So not an easy run. 

Our fate is in our hands.

Its crazy to think there is only four more games.

The next game is Thursday at 4:40 against the swans and the following Monday night against the the dockers (both fly in, fly out games in Cairns).

Then five days later we  play GWS on Saturday week before finishing the home and away season aprox a week later (date TBC) with our Bombers game.

What a football season

 

 


1 hour ago, Deecisive said:

Sorry but l see we just barely beat stkilda. Not a team that l would call a serious threat. Yes they are in the top eight but this is a year where when and who you play really matters. The saints still have to face some top teams, we don’t. The saints out scored us over the final three quarters, their poor shooting for goal was the difference. We need to do a lot better if we are going to play finals football. 

Rubbish absolute rubbish the Saints deserve to be top 6,  they beat port and Richmond, they never outplayed us at all, it was  50 second of madness, first with Jones stupid kick, then the centre clearance, yes they kicked 1 goal 3 in first QTR and we kick 4 straight same scoring shots. But we are a better side then them, but some teams just have your number, and it is never easy beating them. Kicking is the most important stat in football bad kicking for goal is bad football.

Gutsy win! It's the games like this that change the narrative slowly, I sat there at the start of the 4th quarter feeling like last week and just resigned to being trodded all over. Enter the missing pieces we never had before and one of them was that man May! This guy was the best player on the ground by the length of the Sturt Highway, Flemington Straight, Bass Straight (who cares I've had a few whiskys). Apart from Trac of course. He had his quiet moments but when he was called upon he delivered in style every single time. Even before the 'controversial' goal at the end it seemed like he could have easily had 1 or even 2 marks paid. There is nothing stopping this kid right now and if you want to get in his way make sure you're prepared for the nice view of the beautiful Alice night sky while lying on the ground with boot marks all over you. 

I thought Rivers played a massive part, when we needed to just hit targets out of the backline he did it, no questions asked. 

Salem was at his silkiest and I love seeing him running through the middle. Melksham had some nice kicks early but then stunk up the joint a little. Langdon has really come into his own and is almost like a wing sweeper just mopping it all up. Kicked very well tonight too!

Oliver was average for 3 quarters but my word did he step up in the last. 10 possessions and 6 contested in the last quarter. There will be times when players like Clarry will be well held, but that ability to break through and play the penultimate quarter like your life depends on it. Amazing stuff.

Some guys weren't at their best but cbf discussing that right now. I'll say it again, an important win for this footy club going forward. Go get em!

I'm too tired now, see you all later and much love, not even gonna make it to watching the Community Shield at 1:30, gonna be a replay job tomorrow morning. Bye!

21 minutes ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

2 blokes won us the game

The coaching saved us from a 10 goal loss and gave those 2 blokes the opportunity to win

This is pretty much it in a nutshell.

Our defensive plan was on the money. They generated zero run - it was a thing of beauty from a coaching perspective.

The selection issues were a non-event. Wagner was ok after a nervous start. Brown was a slight upgrade on TMac's recent form and OMac struggled a bit but provided the right size matchups for us.

I reckon we'll make more significant changes this week - will be very interesting.

23 minutes ago, pinkshark said:

Thanks for checking in.  I'd still sack him tomorrow.  Do not rate him.

That’s fine you don’t rate him, but how did you rate his coaching tonight out of interest. Or did we just win because May and Trac are guns, and the Saints stuffed it?

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

vandenBerg, Hannan, Jones and Pickett laid 3 tackles between them.

I love vandenBerg's intent but if he's not tackling, I'm just not sure why he's playing.

I'd like to see the pressure act stat (does anyone know if it's available anywhere), as I'm sure the FD look at it, and it might be what keeps Pickett in the side.

Despite missing 2 games Kossie is 11th in the entire league from small forwards.

https://www.afl.com.au/stats/stats-pro#/?state=NobwRA1glgdgJmAXGAgmANGADgQwC4AWSwYAZlADZ4CmATgEI60CSNAtgM5gC6msc1AB5IADH3ZJw0eEjAA5DGFoEuicAGMC1dRGpwA0tQCeqkgFkAogBFmAVTMB9AGIB5AEoB1FG6s9Muo1ksChwjOgAFAHsOKDwoSJgwAF8U9Cl%2BWQtFXEJiMA5qCm0aOABlPHwAGRwAI0K-MAoVWTd8WABzAAIo2DwuTGVVMHDaag4OAFdRzpR1PuS0yAzkLMwcokQSAqK5vXL8Q0DeRubkWjaYdp6YeYHT7FHxqepZ%2BaTF6QRkBTX8Da3CsU9gRIgB3ap1CgNQayAAqkQqUKS3CAA

 

Take away 9 guys who aren't regulars in their side he's 6th on average pressure acts per game.

He doesn't have to do much with the ball to have a huge impact on games.


1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

Agree, but they did have 16 more inside 50s than us. The defenders held up repeatedly when St Kilda were mindlessly bombing it in (which was happening in part because they couldn't get through the zone).

Well, not in part. They were bombing it in because they couldn't get through the zone. Whereas, we didn't have as many inside 50s because we kept turning it over at half forward. I'm not saying it was a flawless performance, but our team defence was outstanding.

Quote

The defence is what was missing from last week. We couldn't stop the Dogs' run, but we stopped the Saints' brilliantly.

Agreed.

1 hour ago, praha said:

Huge win. Did not see that. Goodwin coached well I thought.

And maybe the players implemented the plan this week too? Had we brought tonight's pressure last week, we win.

1 hour ago, Dame Gaga said:

Ratten does himself no favours pouting about it. I thought better of him than that. It was a clear goal. Yes it was touched, after it crossed the line. He should accept it. The goal umpire was right there. Ratten's team also got the benefit of some doubtful free kicks. Funny how no coach complains about that.

I reckon they got at least 2 of their 7 goals from free kicks or lucky decisions that went their way and then led to goals.

Edited by A F

14 minutes ago, Forest Demon said:

Disagree on Tomlinson. He certainly didn’t set the game alight (don’t think he ever will), but he was an option and worked hard to shut down a lot of their ball movement. I sat at Metricon last week and watched the doggies go coast to coast with ease, and I’m sure that was the thinking behind getting Tomlinson back onto the wing.

Agree on Rivers, can’t belive he was ever dropped tbh.

The wing defending was awful last week but overall Langdon and Vanders have been our best combination and the wing defending went up a level when Tomlison was out of there. He knows how to play the position so was rightfully moved back there when a spot opened up this week but I'm still very doubtful that he's quick enough mentally or physically to cover off well in that position. He seems to do a good job at half back but there's a question whether we need him there or if he's  a long term answer.

52 minutes ago, Vineytime said:

Bottom 6 holding us back, gritty win but need depth in the list to take next step. 

But the bottom 6 vary from match to match.Hannan is down in form but at his best is a good player. Spargo was great v Cwood. Kosi is in a flat spot . Every team, in every match has 6 out of 22 who do not rate well. The key is that your bottom 6 should not be hopeless . By and large this year our bottom group has paid its way. I think we have considerable depth. Look at  Wagner  and  Brown. Serviceable at least 

 
2 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

One of those things is working super hard to man the mark. And when he gets there jumps and moves so it has for the opposition to release quickly or kick on angle. May not look like much but is super important.

I have to say though i'd like to see him to start kicking some goals.

5 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

ANB is ranked 3rd. Just saying.

Also, why are you going by total instead of average?


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