This time last year the doggies were beating up on teams and racking up the percentage

They finished 5th

 

Just adding our game review from last night - expect a little blowback from the comments about Pickett ducking into the tackle, but you gotta call what you see... and it is more in relation to the plethora of players employing this tactic. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl-season-2022/2022/04/08/melbourne-v-port-adelaide-the-good-bad-and-the-ugly/

11 minutes ago, BDA said:

This time last year the doggies were beating up on teams and racking up the percentage

They finished 5th

 

Yep .... Before we met them in the 1st game last year a dogs supporting workmate was all [censored]-a-hoop telling me they were gonna kill us.
I replied " Dunno  .... The dogs are prettier but we're gettin' it done in the trenches."
He didn't listen 😅

 

Edited April 8, 20223 yr by Fork 'em

What’s all this - we could have won by 20 goals nonsense? They defended and put most behind the ball in the first half. We were rock solid with our defensive structure and they couldn’t get through. 

sure 60 point win would have been nicer but beating a two time prelim team away and at no point the game being in any danger is fine with me. Goody says we build from defence.

% don’t matter when you are 20-2 come the end of the season!

1 hour ago, adonski said:

Sparrow is a bit of a myth. Had his Weid-esque finals campaign where he was great but not really convinced he's very good.

He was good last night, what are you talking about? Sparrow, Jordon & ANB (Viney too) stood up when Oliver & Petracca were below their best. That's what makes us so hard to play against.

54 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Interesting run in the fixture coming up.

9 games to go before the bye. Of those, only two aren't at the MCG, and those are West Coast in Perth and North at Marvel.

The MCG games are GWS, Richmond, Hawthorn, St Kilda, Fremantle, Sydney and Collingwood.

IMO the only true premiership and top 4 contender in that slate is Sydney (the others IMO are Brisbane, Geelong, Carlton and the Dogs).

Doesn't mean we're going to win the rest, in fact on 2021 form you'd expect us to drop one of the games to the mid-table sides coming up.

Conversely we have a 5 week run later in the year with games away from the G - Crows in Adelaide, Cats in Geelong, Port in Alice, Dogs at Docklands, Freo in Perth in consecutive weeks.

3 hours ago, layzie said:

Quite like Riley Beveridge's stuff at the moment.

He's good value i reckon.

Knows his stuff, particularly drawing and trading related.

He and Kane corner do a 20 min show on afl.com called the round so far, which I really like. Both are good actually.

Will make for interesting viewing this week,  as cornes will mo doubt have strong views on the Port game.

 

13 minutes ago, The Mongrel Punt said:

Just adding our game review from last night - expect a little blowback from the comments about Pickett ducking into the tackle, but you gotta call what you see... and it is more in relation to the plethora of players employing this tactic. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl-season-2022/2022/04/08/melbourne-v-port-adelaide-the-good-bad-and-the-ugly/

Pickett and Spargo both did it last night and I don't like it. They're good enough to not have to do that. Spargos did result in a gal to Viney but the umpires will crack down on them if they become known for it (or maybe not if Selwood is anything to go by 🤷‍♂️)

I though a Kozzi had a good game despite his limited touches. 6 tackles, 31 pressure acts. He had Port scrambling at the back leading to many turnovers

his pressure and speed is so critical to our team I honestly worry how we’d go without him. 

*did give away too many frees though And needs to stop playing for frees also

9 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

He was good last night, what are you talking about? Sparrow, Jordon & ANB (Viney too) stood up when Oliver & Petracca were below their best. That's what makes us so hard to play against.

Also I love the notion that he’s done nothing “since the grand final”. Lol he stood up on the biggest stage of all in the heat of the game when we needed to win and delivered with 19 games under his belt. 
19 bloody games!!!!

10 minutes ago, DubDee said:

What’s all this - we could have won by 20 goals nonsense? They defended and put most behind the ball in the first half. We were rock solid with our defensive structure and they couldn’t get through. 

sure 60 point win would have been nicer but beating a two time prelim team away and at no point the game being in any danger is fine with me. Goody says we build from defence.

% don’t matter when you are 20-2 come the end of the season!

For the first time in a long time I thought the camera work was great last night giving us some zoomed out wide shots of the field to show the setups of each team. Port handballes far less than usual and tried to play a defensive possession game, they flooded back to stymie our opportunities to score. It worked for a quarter and a half but then the inevitable happened. Pretty tough without your two bookends and two of your better small forwards missing.

9 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

He was good last night, what are you talking about? Sparrow, Jordon & ANB (Viney too) stood up when Oliver & Petracca were below their best. That's what makes us so hard to play against.

Sure, made some mistakes, but I agree,  I thought he was terrific. 

Again, people should actually listen to what goody says in his pressers.

After the game he  emphasised we are happy to make mistakes, they are part and parcel of our game plan.

As goody says, we are not looking to play perfect football.

 

Without sounding like a Weid apologist (thought he very average last night), our entries last night were as bad as I've seen in a long time. It didn't help Sam, and I'm not convinced BB would've gone much better.

I'd still be dropping Sam for BB tho  

I basically see last night as a tale of two halves of the ground, back half elite, forward half missed a lot of chances.

33 minutes ago, binman said:

He's good value i reckon.

Knows his stuff, particularly drawing and trading related.

He and Kane corner do a 20 min show on afl.com called the round so far, which I really like. Both are good actually.

Will make for interesting viewing this week,  as cornes will mo doubt have strong views on the Port game.

 

I've said it before, but I think if Kane dropped the facade of needing to be controversial, he would be a good football commentator. Underlying the facade is solid insight.

As Goodwin said last night defence is the main priority as well as contest. I notice when going forward from defensive transition nearly always our long kicks go deep to contests in the pockets or wide flanks which lower scoring percentages but offset by weight of entries and pressuring opposition defences to scramble exits. More important to keep the ball bottled up deep forward than playing a high risk high reward attack game. Goodwin has enough confidence that our default game will score more than the opposition solely on defensive and contested output. 

Edited April 8, 20223 yr by John Crow Batty

These comments from the What they are saying Alburten thread sums up why it wasn’t a thrashing. Thanks WWSW. They had 50 more touches and 135 marks to our 73! I would be embarrassed to be a port supporter.   at least try to win FFS

 was a dishonest performance, playing keepings off and trying to control the ball with slow sideways kicks in defence.

It was purposely orchestrated to keep the margin close, and for the coaches to pat themselves on the back with a 5 goal loss to Melbourne.

23 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

For the first time in a long time I thought the camera work was great last night giving us some zoomed out wide shots of the field to show the setups of each team.  

Noticed that too.
Watching Port trying to spread us on the switch.
Watching the boys defensively run.
Showed what a disciplined hard working side we've got.

56 minutes ago, DubDee said:

What’s all this - we could have won by 20 goals nonsense? They defended and put most behind the ball in the first half. We were rock solid with our defensive structure and they couldn’t get through. 

sure 60 point win would have been nicer but beating a two time prelim team away and at no point the game being in any danger is fine with me. Goody says we build from defence.

% don’t matter when you are 20-2 come the end of the season!

Spot on DD. I'm happy to just do enough to win and to win by 5 goals in Adelaide will do me particularly with limited output from Clarry and Trac. Onwards and upwards I say.

8 minutes ago, DubDee said:

These comments from the What they are saying Alburten thread sums up why it wasn’t a thrashing. Thanks WWSW. They had 50 more touches and 135 marks to our 73! I would be embarrassed to be a port supporter.   at least try to win FFS

 was a dishonest performance, playing keepings off and trying to control the ball with slow sideways kicks in defence.

It was purposely orchestrated to keep the margin close, and for the coaches to pat themselves on the back with a 5 goal loss to Melbourne.

I think that is what people are missing from this game when they complain about us not thrashing them by 10+ goals. 

A bit like Essendon last week, we were forced to play on their terms. And unfortunately for those watching, those terms were based around playing a mind numbing unconstested possession game. 

That game style was an admission by Port that they knew they couldn't take us on in general play, and that their only path to victory was to make it a low scoring game where they might have been able to sneak a few goals and keep the score close.

That in of itself is a testament to us. So yes, while we could have (perhaps should have) had cleaner entry into our forward 50 and scored a few more goals, we were never going to score a tonne with Port playing that style of game.

And the fact is, we didn't need to.

59 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Pickett and Spargo both did it last night and I don't like it. They're good enough to not have to do that. Spargos did result in a gal to Viney but the umpires will crack down on them if they become known for it (or maybe not if Selwood is anything to go by 🤷‍♂️)

Hmmm.....Charlie was hunting the football and bent down to pick it up, saw his opponent was in a poor position and stayed low, got tackled high by Burton (who didn't even attempt to get lower with his tackle) 

Not sure that counts as ducking

It must be a great advantage to have the 4 points in the bank before the w/e; the players are able to relax and recover without expending nervous energy.

Essendon and Port had game plans to keep the ball and shift us as much as the can.  Worked for Essendon in patches due to the width of the MCG, never going to work at Adelaide Oval.  We just sat back and waited for them to eventually go forward.

I don't think Weideman or TMac did anything wrong the way Port defended and we moved the footy didn't help the tall forwards.  One will make way for B Brown but I don't think Benny would have been to upset missing last night.

1 hour ago, The Mongrel Punt said:

Just adding our game review from last night - expect a little blowback from the comments about Pickett ducking into the tackle, but you gotta call what you see... and it is more in relation to the plethora of players employing this tactic. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl-season-2022/2022/04/08/melbourne-v-port-adelaide-the-good-bad-and-the-ugly/

Didn’t know Andrew Brayshaw was playing for us- thought it was Angus!😊. Otherwise a very good write up

2 hours ago, adonski said:

Sparrow is a bit of a myth. Had his Weid-esque finals campaign where he was great but not really convinced he's very good.

The mongrelpunt on Sparrow:

There is a name that is not synonymous with the Melbourne midfield… yet, at least. That name is Tom Sparrow.

More of a nice option to have to throw into the mix than a certain starter in the middle, he is serving a fantastic apprenticeship under some of the league’s best on-ballers, and when you see him hit a contest or get down and dirty to extract the footy, you can tell that he is going to emerge from these seasons playing with Petracca, Oliver, and Viney as one of the players that slipped under the guard of the opposition.

At 21, Sparrow isn’t required to do too much in the grand scheme of things, but his clearance work, and strength when the ball was in dispute, was a bit of a highlight in this one.

He needs to tidy up his disposal a little, but the nature of his game and his clearance work probably impacts his disposal efficiency quite a bit. I’ve liked his work off half-back, but it is clear that he has been a midfielder masquerading as a defender at points over the last year, and with Port floundering, it was an excellent opportunity to give him some midfield minutes and allow him to work to his strengths.