ok, who did good?

[redunderthebed]

bolton ,jude.....bloody courage
hall.....an athlete with power and footy sense
nicks....real effort for most of game
mathews...many possessions and tackles as usual (one major @@@@-up that cost a goal)
o'keefe ...strong and great kicking
bolton, craig...never has a bad one
and who was 'ordinary'?fossie , sneider.
just my thoughts. not disappointed over all considering the conditions and dubious umps....

[The Boot]

Re: ok, who did good?

Originally posted by redunderthebed
not disappointed over all considering the conditions and dubious umps....

Simply didn't convert when it counted. The memory of last year's great accuracy is now waning, sorry to say. Cats would also have few things to say about the umps I dare say. Gotta take your opportunities and make it work on the day. OK, whose next week and where?

Uh-oh

[Nico]

O'Keefe (star)Boltons, Nicks, Crouch and Kennelly were good. As a matter of opinion most players gave a genuine account of themselves.

Fosdike was a real passenger in that he made some appalling errors, that bad bounce in the last Q when we were running on was typical of all his games. Plus N0.28 was on him in the LastQ and kicked 2 goals. Was soft at the ball also. Yes, he has missed games but all the more reason to have him off in the lastQ. But lack of fitness is no excuse for poor skill errors.

Schneider - are we overrating this bloke. 3 games back now and not giving much. 50 metre line in 2ndQ Geelong end. Ball comes in, he is in position to take mark. Ducks his head, bends himself over - squibbed it for all to see. Small man in Chapman marks.
Missed a goal in the 3rdQ, dead in front.

Maxfield kicked to Geelong players at least 4 times when not under pressure. Why won't he kick to the top the square, particularly when O'Keefe was killing them one out? Dumb.

Matthews made more than one bad kick. 3Q, runs through centre to open forward line and kicks sideways to Buchanan, or was it just one of his **** kicks.

We lost it by very poor kicking into F50 under little pressure and 5 frees to Geelong in front of goal (poor umpiring in all cases) according to ABC Radio.

[Barry Schneider]

For a team that relies on handballing alot we are not particularly proficient at it.How many times do our handballs hit the ground?Fosdike seems incapable of hadballing to a man, he misses by metres.Enough of the negative.Jude was great.Nicks was useful.O'keefe killed them.
Leo was good again.Blanketed his man except for the dodgiest of dodgy free kicks and being outmuscled at the death.(not his go)
Forgot about Crouch who rally blanketed Ablett.I am wondering if he was a bit wasted doing that as we missed his running through the corridor however Ablett has been dangerous in previous games.

[Bron]

Thought that Monty had a good game too , when he was on.

[daniel f]

Buchanan was his hard at the ball self,J.Bolton was the only real ball winner in the middle with much effect and R.Okeefe was our clear b.o.g,Maxfield was terrible and dare i say it hasnt had a big game for some time,Cant believe someone said Hall was good,maybe for two or three little passages but overall was toweled imo by scarlett and his four or five mates who werent to far every time barry went up for a mark,makes you wonder where are all there swans opponents when 4or5 guys are playing on 1 man.

[liz]

Originally posted by Bron
Thought that Monty had a good game too , when he was on.

Yeah, I too thought Monty done good!

Ball was pretty solid.

I thought Maxfield was OK, apart from a few turnovers. But then Ling turned the ball over several times as well just still was judged to be one of their best.

O'Loughlin didn't have a great game but battled against the odds, with v ordinary delivery in his direction.

[Bear]

Re: ok, who did good?

Originally posted by redunderthebed
mathews...many possessions and tackles as usual (one major @@@@-up that cost a goal)

Make that many uncontested possessions.

Not many contesed possessions though - has very poor hands IMO when the more telling contested ball needs to be won, and often spills it. Could take a leaf out of Maxfield's book re how to focus on the ball when getting first hands on it in traffic.

[Nico]

Best summary of a very close fought game that I can come up with is:

3 out of 4 quarters Geelong finished off better.

When the game was to be won and we were in front, we made a couple of crucial mistakes. By the usual culprits. The best I can say about Fizzdike's inclusion in the side is that he added to the clanger count.

Question: why at the 20 minute mark were the whole 36 players in Geelong's forward half? Bit early to try to hang on. All it did was give Geelong a lot more players to get their hands on the footy and eventually a dubious free kick finished us off.

[Mike_B]

I agree with most of the comments about performance, but one of the things I did notice that won't end up anywhere on the stats sheets were a few of the 2nd and 3rd efforts Nicks gave to pressure and tackle when faced with a 2 or even 3 on 1 situation.

I had my doubts about his value to us in 2005 and beyond, but since he made his comeback in Rd 8, there's definitely a role for him to play next year and maybe even beyond.

Good on ya Nicksy - keep it up!!

[j0lly]

adam goodes

courage anyone?

[NMWBloods]

Re: ok, who did good?

In terms of better players, I would say Hall, O'Keefe, Ball, J Bolton, C Bolton. A number of players were okay, without being great. Only O'Keefe was really good though.

Originally posted by redunderthebed
not disappointed over all considering the conditions and dubious umps....

I fail to understand how anyone can not be disappointed with that. We seem to be happy with just getting any old win, even against some pretty ordinary opposition, and then with a close loss.

With the exception of a couple of games, we have had a pretty poor year and it is something to be disappointed about so far. Sure, injuries have hurt, but the players on the field have not stepped up when needed often enough, and today was a perfect example of that.

People dismissed the negativity after the close wins in recent weeks, however this loss was foreshadowed by the way we have played recently, and through much of the year. We've played 2 good games, 2 okay games, and the rest from ordinary to poor.

We had 7 games left before today - that was probably our 4th hardest one (ie: the one right in the middle) and we missed a great opportunity. Doesn't augur well for the three harder ones (Bris, Freo, Melb) or for where (or if) we are going to finish in the eight.

Besides O'Keefe finally showing what we all thought and hoped he could do, there is really nothing positive to draw from today's game.

EDIT - one other thing I forgot to add is that injuries aren't really much of an excuse today. They had a much younger side than we had out there - we had the experience but we couldn't benefit from it.

We had 12 players with > 100 games; they had 10.
We had 4 players with 50-100 games; they had 5
We had 6 players with < 50 games; they had 7.

[Thunder Shaker]

Re: Re: ok, who did good?

Originally posted by NMWBloods
With the exception of a couple of games, we have had a pretty poor year and it is something to be disappointed about so far. Sure, injuries have hurt, but the players on the field have not stepped up when needed often enough, and today was a perfect example of that.

Injuries do one thing to a side that's important - it means the side is not a settled side. Last season, about half our side played every game or missed only one game. This year, that's not the case and it shows.

[swansrule100]

Im very disapointed... we shoud not be happy really... WE had that game... it was ours and we lost to a team that was more desperate and simply played smarter football. They are the young inexperienced team, but it didnt look that way at the end.

I think bevan and Buchanan were both awesome.
Jude Bolton continues probably his best month and a bit ever, mathews, hall, cbolton, okeefe were good

hall had a bad run with the umps i thought...that holding the ball was a bit much.

I think one person who was pretty ordinary today that hasnt been mentioned so far(if he was sorrty i scrolled fast) and thats Michael Oloughlin. He is a great player but he was constantly beaten to the ball today and a shadow of his best . He is a senior player and i felt his performance was indicitive on the attack at the ball of the entire team at crucial moments.

Im glad we got close and i love the team... but im disapointed we chucked away another game that really we should of run away with if we are a premiership threat.

[NMWBloods]

Re: Re: Re: ok, who did good?

Originally posted by Thunder Shaker
Injuries do one thing to a side that's important - it means the side is not a settled side. Last season, about half our side played every game or missed only one game. This year, that's not the case and it shows.

Yep - this has definitely been a problem for us this year. But it also shows how enormously lucky we were last year.