Aftermatch thoughts

[ugg]

- Beaten at the clearances I'm pretty sure. I don't have any stats to back this up (if someone could find the stats and paste it in this thread). Can't win games if the opposition just keep getting the ball.

- Kicks to the forward line were at time poor. Either a misunderstanding or a poor execution led to the Eagles continually rebounding away, kinda how we played last year.

- I wonder if teams are going to copy what West Coast did today and play a defender on O'Loughlin that runs off him continually. Embley was critical to their rebound, and there wasn't much we could do here.

- How good is Chris Judd? Far out, if he was playing for a Melbourne based team, he would be lauded as a superstar. He'll easily rack up five or six clearances a game with ease. Felt sorry for poor Crouchy today, not much he could do.

- Please please please let Goodsey be okay.

[liz]

Re: Aftermatch thoughts

Originally posted by ugg
[B- How good is Chris Judd? Far out, if he was playing for a Melbourne based team, he would be lauded as a superstar. [/B]

err...I think he already is.

[DST]

According to the Fox Footy stats the clearances were pretty even, as was most of the others.

One area we struggled with today was getting the ball past the half forward line. The lack of fitness for O'Loughlin and Davis meant we found it hard to keep the ball in our 50 and it allowed the Wet Toast to run it out a little to easy.

While our midfield matched it for grunt, workrate and hard running it did show up the gap in class in terms of disposal between us and them.

They are very good at hitting their targets. Hopefully in a couple yearts time Willoughby, Schmidt and McVeigh will be in the same class.

DST

[liz]

Originally posted by DST
According to the Fox Footy stats the clearances were pretty even, as was most of the others.

One area we struggled with today was getting the ball past the half forward line. The lack of fitness for O'Loughlin and Davis meant we found it hard to keep the ball in our 50 and it allowed the Wet Toast to run it out a little to easy.

While our midfield matched it for grunt, workrate and hard running it did show up the gap in class in terms of disposal between us and them.

They are very good at hitting their targets. Hopefully in a couple yearts time Willoughby, Schmidt and McVeigh will be in the same class.

DST

I think that's a pretty fair assessment. The Weagles used the ball very very well indeed today. I can't recall an unforced turnover by them. Our's was patchy and we got killed badly on the rebound when we did turn the ball over. On a ground like Subi it is always going to be easy to find space when your opposition does turn the ball over softly and is running in the "wrong" direction.

For endeavour I didn't think this was such a bad effort. For skill we were a little bit down on where we need to be.

I think it's worth adding that last year we were hitting targets with far more regularity than we are so far this season. It was one of the reasons we did so well - we used the ball exceptionally well when we had it. And is probably the single biggest reason why we're not doing so well this year (recognising that we generally got beaten at clearances last year as well).

[Margie]

Still too many fiddly handballs. In the first quarter it looked like were going to kick it long a bit more this week. Alas, that fell away as the game progressed. Not enough crumbing - West Coast did that so much better than us. However, our clearance rate improved, it was good to see Stewie throwing his body in occasionally, and Kirk, Hall, Micky O (a bit underdone) all gave it their best shot.

[SWANSBEST]

Margie made a good point re crumbing . Matera scored a couple of goals by staying down and being left to his own devices.

[hardluck_harry]

Originally posted by Margie
Still too many fiddly handballs. In the first quarter it looked like were going to kick it long a bit more this week.

That's what I thought, they either go one handball too many or try the dink little short pass into the forward.

It's really annoying when the ball is moved in quickly our forwards are more than capable. Maybe our midfielders need to back the Hall's and O'Loughlin's, instead of trying to be to be too precise.

[Swansinger]

Duringmatch thought - mainly in the 2nd quarter - and with a few honorable exceptions :
we were soft.

[Dpw]

I have just got home and the first thing that comes to mind is we have no defenders James and Rogers were shocking at one point the commentators on 6pr were just speechless and I was shocked how far behind there men they were and the unwillingness of those two punch the footy or even knock the arms of the players away, for godshake Jacko was beating them for speed. We need Schaubs badly. I thought we prettly good in the midfield and up forward but down back was woeful.

In the words of Ken Judge Heath James and Aron Rogers are ordinary at best.

Oh yeah we did not use the ball as well as the Eagles.

[sharpie]

Williams - can that guy wearing the no. 10 jersey give it back to Paul Williams so he can kick it properly. That run along the wing and then the fluffed kick?

Leo Barry - that run along the wing, and then a handball?

The forward line - learn to defend. In soccer, they teach that the first line of defense is your forward line. We must learn forward defensive pressure to keep the ball in the forward 50 longer. In the last 2 games, when the ball has gone in our 50, if it isnt marked, it goes straight back out at alarming speed, generally to the other end of the ground, 12 point turnaround.

Jude Bolton - you are hopeless. Learn to kick the bloody thing, and kick it well. Unmarked around CHF, he could have kicked deep into attack. Instead he handballs to a contest. Sure we got a goal out of it by a clever Maxfield kick and good Magic mark, but that is just papering over Jude's problems.

Fosdike - whoopee, he kicked 2 goals from the goalsquare. Where was he the rest of the day?

Kirk - is cloning legal yet? Ditto Bevan. Why not give him a run on the ball. At least these guys go in hard at the ball, they dont shirk responsibility. Crouch at least kicks long more often than not.

[liz]

Originally posted by sharpie

The forward line - learn to defend. In soccer, they teach that the first line of defense is your forward line. We must learn forward defensive pressure to keep the ball in the forward 50 longer. In the last 2 games, when the ball has gone in our 50, if it isnt marked, it goes straight back out at alarming speed, generally to the other end of the ground, 12 point turnaround.

Agree with that part and we've been particularly ordinary in the last couple of weeks. In some ways it's the price the team pays for playing two semi-fit forwards. Davis may not be the best pressure player in the world but it's a skill he seemed to pick up towards the end of last year. This year he's been doing none of it but I suspect it's because he can't run at the moment.

And we were especially hurt by Embley's rebound yesterday. Not surprising really because it was obvious O'Loughlin wasn't going to be able to chase.

Having one player in this situation could possibly be covered, but two and the team is in a bit of strife.

[Nico]

Originally posted by hardluck_harry
That's what I thought, they either go one handball too many or try the dink little short pass into the forward.

It's really annoying when the ball is moved in quickly our forwards are more than capable. Maybe our midfielders need to back the Hall's and O'Loughlin's, instead of trying to be to be too precise.

This happens every week. I just think our midfielders are just plain dumb for it to keep continuing.

[Snowy]

Agree we were hurt by the rebound. Also I mentioned after the Essendon game that our midfielders rarely take the first option and that is frustrating.

[penga]

the lack of forward line pressure on the opposition's rebounding defence is also caused by schneider's absence

[monopoly19]

I actually thought that yesterday's effort wasn't too bad. The rebound out of our defensive half seemed to have improved a little, and what let us down most was our entries into the forward line (probably our biggest problem recently, IMHO) and the fact that we had no-one to keep it in there (a role that Schneider would usually play).

Thought Kirk was fantastic, Bevan was good (but his inexperience is sometimes pretty noticable), and Maxfield on the improve, but the one who impressed me the most was Buchanan. He just seems to be able to find the ball a lot, is hard at it and goes in for 2nd/3rd/etc. efforts when beaten the first time. His disposal is questionable at times (the floater coming out of defensive 50 that made James wait an eternity and eventually was punched away by West Coast), but hopefully that will improve with time. Thought Ball's ruckwork was very, very good (seemed to get first touch most times) it's just that we had trouble reading it. Micky O'Loughlin was good, even without a strong fitness base and I worry about what we would do without Hall.

Didn't notice O'Keefe, Davis, Mathews, Crouch or Nicks much (don't know whether that means they didn't do much, or that they didn't blatantly stuff anything up).

Rogers did look pretty out of place there yesterday, but I'm not ready to give up on him yet. Imagine playing on Jakovich in your 2nd senior game after his 200+ with the whole retirement thing...I realise he wasn't on him for that long, but still. Jamesy didn't have such a great game, and I am really looking forward to the return of Schauble. In a defensive set up that consisted of B2 (only one full season of footy), James (14 gamer), Rogers (2 gamer) and 2 rebounders in Barry and Kennelly, Schauble's importance is very high.