Akum
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JLT Round 4, Thursday 9th March - West Coast at Subiaco
Akum replied to McQueen's topic in Melbourne Demons
They beat us because: * They know how to move the ball easily from contested to uncontested situations, and how to prevent us doing it. * They know how to stifle our attacks through the corridor. * Their mids know where their forwards are going to run, so they don't bomb it blindly. If we stop playing into their hands, we'll win. -
Bont has been left out of both Dogs' JLTs so far & there's no problem there. At this time of the year, nobody really cares why. There was no 'problem' with Watts until for some reason best known to themselves, the club leaked (for the first time since the advent of PJ) that he was being disciplined. Most clubs would have dealt with this internally.
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Certainly wasn't slow when he chased & brought down Mav Weller.
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Viney is certainly capable of kicking well - his goals in both JLT matches are a good example. He definitely doesn't lack the skill. But while he's capable of hitting a leading forward on the chest from 30-40 metres, he's also capable of missing them by 10 metres. To me, sometimes he just doesn't take enough care to get it right. When he's created some space for himself in congestion, he either hurries the kick or bombs it, without taking that fraction of a second to steady himself and kick it to advantage. So we often don't get value out of the clearances he wins. If he had Tyson's or Oliver's ability to find a teammate from a clearance, he'd be much more damaging. With all this talk about KPIs, he should have a KPI for "taking care with disposal". But that'll never happen, of course.
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Agree with the first four paras. We could have had a number of frees right in front of goals too. Disagree with the last para. The commentators just picked up in the first half of the first quarter what our coach didn't pick up until he looked at the stats after the match and thought "we may have overused the hands a bit". GWS just got numbers to the fall of the ball all over the ground, and were happy to just get a good purchase on a kick out of congestion instead of trying to finesse it through traffic all day. Underwood & Burke were annoying mainly because they could see what our brains trust couldn't.
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Perhaps their last two games will be on sunny days with no wind and a firm surface, and we'll have percentage-boosting wins against Crows & Freo.
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Yeah. The irony is that in the wet, teams that try to move it systematically won't do as well as teams that just hack it forward any old how.
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On the one hand, it's been a ridiculous Feb & March. Out of the 5 games so far, they've played one (Bris) in a thunderstorm, one (Carl) in a strong wind blowing straight down the ground, and one (GWS) on a wet slippery surface. The worst of midwinter conditions, but in the opposite part of the year. On the other hand, they play a great brand of dry-weather football, moving it quickly & accurately and hand passing their way out of tight spots ... ... which completely falls apart in adverse conditions. And suddenly it's all over. The pity is that their performance was great - they dominated every game - but don't have the results to show for it.
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Can't help but wonder whether Goody picked his starting 22 (or the 24 or 27 from which the starting 22) for R1 a long time ago, and it's those that he wants to see in JLT. No Frost, no Jetta, no Garland, no Trengove. And, more than likely, no Watts. That's assuming injury isn't a factor, of course.
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Don't know for sure, but I'd guess that all these have played in finals, except for Jack. I'd also guess that there wouldn't be too may No 1 picks whose team hasn't played in finals for 10 years. Jack would be one of the top half-dozen current players in the AFL for games played without playing in a final. And most teams that get No.1 picks are in the finals again with 3 or 4 years; Melbourne being the outstanding recent exception. Just about every other club has had a finals appearance during Jack's career. Jack is probably unique in that he walked into a crap team that has, by and large, stayed crap for 8 years. And mostly as a KPF, who depend on their teammates getting the ball to them. They're not like an in-and-under mid who gets first hands on the ball. In-and-under mids can do really well in a crap team. But very few KPFs who have played for 8 years in a crap non-finals team have done much. The best & most successful KPFs - and this goes back a long way (think Hudson, Wade, McKenna) - have had stellar midfields pumping the ball at them, often with precision. Jack for most of his career has played with one of the consistently worst midfields in AFL history (thankfully this now seems to be changing). So to the smart question: "Name me a year other than 2016 in which Watts has been any good" ... Name me a year other than 2016 in which MFC has been any good. (not surprisingly, there's a relationship). Conversely, in the last 8 years, how many KPFs have done well in teams that have been worse than ours? Oh, and 2 tackles per game is pretty good for a KPF. I looked this up a few years back, CBF looking it up again now. But I recall then that it was better than Buddy, better than Cloke (even after his one good year), pretty close to the Riewoldts. KPFs simply don't seem to tackle that much, for whatever reason. Or was Watts supposed to overcome all the other deficiencies of all the teams he's played in? No wonder 'some' are disappointed.
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Seriously cannot believe that Elise O'Dea was reported for that great tackle in the last quarter. It was a fair tackle and she should not have even been penalised. Fortunately the AFLW MRP saw sense: Melbourne’s Elise O’Dea, reported for rough conduct against Carlton’s Sarah Hosking in the last quarter at Casey Fields on Saturday, also escaped a charge. The MRP said her "actions to tackle were not unreasonable in the circumstances". IIRC this led directly to their first goal of the last term.
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Yep, we're obviously being softened up for Jack not playing for a few weeks. Sounds like Goodwin has upped the ante big time. Putting forward his version of Jack's side of the story is taking a huge but unnecessary risk.
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She's been great across the half-back line. I'm surprised that she's only played in defence in the last 3 games, because she just seems to have an instinct for it. She knows when to run, when to kick short & when to go long, and her disposal is great. She's also great at working her way through tight situations, especially for someone so young who hasn't played for all that long. We seem to have a great crop of young potential-10-year-plus players who have all taken it up several notches in just a few games. Grierson in defence, Mithen on the ball and Mifsud in attack have been the standouts, but I also liked the contributions from Berry & Kemp. We knew that our established players were likely to do well, and except for the Brisbane game, they have. But to me it's the vastly improved contribution from these young players that make the team really worth watching.
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Totally agree. To me it looks like she's got about 50% better with every game in the AFLW, although she's apparently played for a number of years. Maybe it's just a matter of confidence - she looks like at some stage a game or two back, she's just realised that she's capable of being not just a good solid contributor, but an "out & out star". In my book, anyone who can improve so much in mid-career is something special. Her disposal by hand or foot is very very good, she plays so direct, and her tackling is ferocious (I reckon she got a couple of harsh decisions in the last quarter for two very hard but fair tackles). If she keeps up to the standard of her performance against Carlton, she's in the Daisy league. And of course she "bleeds red & blue".
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But the club's narrative last week (in interviews with T-Mac, Gawn & Goody himself) was "in the past 2 or 3 weeks" he's heeded the lesson and trained much better. Which has been confirmed by observers of the training sessions. In other words, Watts's improvement in training intensity started a week or two before JLT1. So is leaving him out of 3 practice matches after he's remedied his mistakes the act of a strong club? Or is it the act of a club that's trying to act tough rather than be tough? To me, a strong club would have picked him last week, after he's been rebuked (very publicly) but he's shown that he's learned his lesson. I expect they'll leave him out of JLT4 and round 1.
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In England they have a thing about hearing "the first cuckoo" to show that spring's nearly here. On Demonland at about the same time of year we have a thing about hearing "the first Jack Watts poll" to show the footy season's nearly here. Thus the connection between "Jack Watts poll" and "cuckoo". And he should, but he won't.
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The options would be Joel Smith, Frost and the two Macs. Playing positionally as a wingman would be strange to all of them. It's a question of who would adapt relatively well, and who would struggle to adapt. Perhaps T.Mac being the more experienced would adapt best. Then again, he's played all his footy in defence; Frost, for one, has played other positions (KPF, ruck), though not wing. It's also that we'll lose the most by taking T.Mac out of defence, than any of the others. We'll need tall defenders to match up against Membrey, Bruce & McCartin, though Hibberd could probably help out here. On the other hand, T.Mac could probably hurt them more than the others going the other way, and make Roo have to play more defensively. T.Mac would probably also be best to match him in the air. Frost might be strong enough, but at this stage probably lacks the footy smarts. This is important, because Saints will use him as an outlet from defence every time, unless a better option presents itself. Another option could be Watts, who has played wing before, could go with him athletically and could hurt him (and badly!) the other way. Using him would also avoid disrupting our defence. But he will struggle to hold his ground in the air, and will need to be more disciplined than he's used to, and not go ball-chasing. But at this stage I don't think he'll be selected for Round 1. So I'm betting T.Mac. But the stakes are high. If we can hold Riewoldt, we take away a huge asset of theirs. And if it forces them to switch Riewoldt to attack
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One of the commentators, in a rare moment of insight, said that Goody as a coach likes to keep things simple. I totally agree with what you're saying here. To me Tom has more disposal problems when there's more than one option and he can't decide which one to take. The clanger against Bombers last year, there were two teammates standing about 30m apart and an opponent standing halfway between them. Tom seemed to change his mind about 4 times during the ball drop about which teammate he'd go for, and ended up passing it straight to the man standing between them.
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A bit surprised that no one's commented about Hogan's spells in the midfield. Thought he was really effective there on a few occasions.
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Totally agree. I think TMac plays exactly how the coaches want him to play. They want him to be attacking with his ball use, and that means taking risks. When you take risks, there will always be times when it hurts you badly, but on the whole, the credit column is far longer than the debit column. It's only fans who seem to expect no clangers.
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AF, I hope you're right and we're more flexible with selection this year. As you say, against some sides we'll need Jetta to lock down a dangerous small forward, but against other sides an all-out attacking defence will be an advantage. Against some sides we'll be better to go with 2 tall & 4 small forwards (e.g. West Coast, to apply more pressure to stop them attacking off the half back line), and against other sides with 3 & 3. Similarly with tall backs. Against some sides (e.g. Dogs) we could really stretch a defence by giving Gawn a lot of time forward, without losing too much by having Spencil in the ruck. Against other sides (e.g. Hawks), Gawn's ruck dominance gives such a huge advantage that picking Spencer would be a waste.
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Rocky!!!!!!!!!!!
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This is the whole season right here.
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Looks like our big 3 mids (Paxman, O'Dea & Daisy) dominating again. Would be great to see one of them be the first to rack up 30 possessions in the new comp.
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Alyssa Mifsud. Ex-basketballer apparently, I think she's not played much AFL so she'll only get better.
