A performance full of heart

[juliec]

Well done Sydney,,not great footy for 3 quarters, but at least you kept trying tonite,,, what a last quarter,,, am I getting my hopes up too much thinking we might have a chance against Collingwood next week,,,,,"Go Sydney"

[desredandwhite]

Not too bad at all, Julie. We saw a bit of the best and a bit of the worst tonight (as with every game so far this year)... Going to be one hell of a rollercoaster ride. Some of my random thoughts.

- Schneider. Remember that name. Doesn't lack for confidence, with good reason.

- Ball - Showed again how important he is when fit and firing.

- Hall. Barry, please hold those marks!! For a key forward, he's not doing a very good job with them.
Granted, the delivery has been rubbish, but the best forwards create opportunites. I still think he should play at CHF where he won't have as much attention, and can use his excellent delivery skills.

- We need to get back to basics. Do the BASICS right first. Too many dodgy handballs, and still get bogged down at HF - no options, so players choose bad ones.

- Meiklejohn is pronounced "Mickle-John".

- Nicky Davis is the next Dale Lewis!!! Amazingly lazy, won't chase at all. Trouble is, he kicked 3.1 from only about 4-5 touches (I think). The price we pay for his natural talent.

[robbieando]

On Barry, I think he is double teamed which for him doesn't help. He isn't the best of marks and to have 2 players hanging off him doesn't help. His kicking has let him down this year, but as we saw in the last quarter his size worries teams and the Dees focused on him too much while he was around the CHF area and as such left open players like Davis, Ball, Goodes and Magic.

[juliec]

Schneider. Remember that name. Doesn't lack for confidence, with good reason.

- Ball - Showed again how important he is when fit and firing.

Des,,, Yes I think Schneider is so exciting to watch, he is going to be so good for us,,,

What a game Jason Ball put in,,, great to see him back and in such goo d form early.

After being Jude Boltons worst critic the last couple of years I feel there has been a big improvement in his game this year,,, doing well Jude

[Donners]

It certainly was a great win, with the first real signs of fight from the players. However, there were also a few very disturbing signs.

Most notable was the very stupid and lazy football from people who should know better. For example, look at Hall in the first quarter playing for a free and in the second throwing his arms up in the air in frustration at not taking a mark - and not realising on both occasions that there was an opponent directly in front of him in possession who he should have been tackling. Then look at Kennelly kicking to a 2-on-1, Ball ignoring Hall's lead, the ridiculous handball stuff-up in the goal square and so forth.

Our side was also exposed at times. We crumbled when Ball went off in the third quarter, and only got things back together when he came back on. Meiklejohn showed some decent signs, but he is not a ready-made ruckman like Mott. Worse yet was the defence. Schauble was shoved around with ease, and neither Bolton nor Saddington looked capable of holding Neitz. How are we going to handle Rocca/Tarrant/Molloy and Lynch/Bradshaw/Brown in the coming weeks? Though Neitz had no effect in the final quarter, that was solely due to our midfield dominance. Had they been able to get some delivery of the quality of the first three quarters, he would have kicked 10.

Though there are some talented young defenders on our list, I don't think they have the strength or experience to handle a player like those I mentioned. The only one I would have any faith in is Heath James, and he's still on the rookie list and has a knee injury.

Forget Dunks, I was hoping Roos would go out there and help at one point.

[NMWBloods]

I'm not sure if you can take an awful lot away from that game. In terms of our prospects next week and the week after, the only difference to previous thoughts is perhaps a little more confidence.

However, as Donners says, I think there are still worrying signs. The first three quarters were pretty poor, with us barely staying in it, mainly thanks to a Q2 burst led by Ball.

I thought most of our guys tried through the course of the game, but Q1 and Q3 were pretty shocking. Many unforced errors, silly mistakes, lack of thinking, atrocious foot and hand skills. We were lucky we were only playing a side one above us on the ladder that didn't make us really pay.

The last qtr was fantastic to watch and the improved work rate, confidence and generals skills were good. We even kept going after Melbourne came back with a couple of goals. However, undoubtedly we were assisted by Melbourne's poor Q4 record this year.

It was good to get a win, but I wouldn't get too excited about it or read too much into it at this stage. The better test will be to see how they are feeling later in the season after further losses.

[Diego]

I am only happy with the last qrt.

The rest of the match was riddled with the same old mistakes and brain explosions of the past 3 weeks.

We are lucky it was only the dees and they havent won a last qrt all year.

[thommoone]

i think i would have prefered a loss. Maybe a win covers up the poor efforts or lack of skill from certain players. Instead of being chucked into the 2nds and getting delisted at the en of the year they may stay for another few years and as such we wont have gotten rid of any dead wood

[Louellyn]

Yeah right Thoommoone,

You'd have preferred a loss. Your sentiment is moderately admirable, but you're still a goose. HONK! HONK!

We know we have shortfalls, we a blooding new players, however a win, and a good 10 goal quarter (our second this year if I am not mistaken) means that we can play footy when Mars in in the 2nd trine to Venus! Lets hope it happens next week as well.

All the gnashing of teeth and football rationalism that is a by-product of this forum is enlightening. Pity I just like watching the footy...feel sad when we lose, jubilant when we win. Everything else is ephemeral, and merely a forum for some to show how clever and knowledgeable they are.

[NMWBloods]

Re: Yeah right Thoommoone,

Originally posted by Louellyn
All the gnashing of teeth and football rationalism that is a by-product of this forum is enlightening. Pity I just like watching the footy...feel sad when we lose, jubilant when we win. Everything else is ephemeral, and merely a forum for some to show how clever and knowledgeable they are.

What is ephemeral is success if it is results only from the occasional win with little substance behind it. That's what most of the discussions are about.

[chammond]

All the gnashing of teeth and football rationalism that is a by-product of this forum is enlightening. Pity I just like watching the footy...feel sad when we lose, jubilant when we win. Everything else is ephemeral, and merely a forum for some to show how clever and knowledgeable they are.

Just a euphemism for life really! I'm surprised you would expect it to be any different?

Only goes to show that it takes all sorts to make a world.