Doing the team thing...

[hammo]

Spot on Nico.

We need some creative / attacking midfielders. I have to say Jude has almost lost me - he was poor for the entire second half of the year and just doesn't do enough, often enough.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by Nico
I thought Dempster showed that he can play other roles than tagging. No one mentioned him playing his guts out and giving us a target in the last Q. He gave us some speed across half forward and by gee just missed on gathering a couple of half chances.

I've been saying for a while that Dempster needs to be freed up and away from tagging roles.

I thought Jude Bolton was poor. Even in the last Q which is normally his best, he just plodded. What, 7&7 on the stats is a horrible return for a centre bounce midfielder. He could not keep up.

Bolton was abysmal. One of the worst games I've seen him play.

Surely also Ben Mathews cannot be an automatic selection from hereon. He has no second efforts. At one point he got beaten in a one on one contest (not unusual), the Eagles player got clear and he just stood there and waited for someone else to chase.

His pathetic attack on the ball led to Armstrong kicking the Eagles' penultimate goal.

Just on Ted Richards. His last half was that of a man who finally said, I believe in myself, threw the self doubt out the window and went almost to the top of the mountain. He proved he can play at the absolute extreme level of the game.

You could just see how desperately he wanted to win.

On another matter - the magical 13 goal mark. If we had kicked 13 goals we would have won. Yet again, kicking goals in high-pressure games is a problem.

[Nolie]

I agree with all these comMents. I was annoyed three weeks ago when - right in front of us - in the last quarter of the qualifying final against WC , Kirk was so intent on trying to elbow Judd in the guts and hang on to him. Judd just ignored it all, concentrated on the footy and kicked a goal. Stop the tagging! Play your own game! They should trust in their own ability - they have spades of it.
I was hoping this year after having won the Grand Final they would have shrugged off the tagging/flooding/closing down style and adopt a straight down the ground style of game. They showed against St Kilda in the prelim last year and Fremantle prelim this year that - let loose- they can kick big scores. We have very talented forwards.

I would like to see Sydney put some work into Vogels and Grundy over the summer. Here's one from left field. Appoint Warwick Capper or Plugger or both as a specalised talents-persons to show them (including BBB) how to leap and take a grab, how not to get sucked into a holding on duel but take a step or two back and go for a fly.

All today in the garden I have been fantasising that Ted banged the kick straight to goal and Nick Davis (or Doyle) took a screamer 5m out!

[minkus]

I don't think there were too many selections we could have said - yes I don't know how this player deserved a place in the GF team.

In terms of the players that under performed:

Jude - I'm pretty sure he has been playing with a knee injury in the second half of the season (yet again). Played a blinder in the PF. After kicking those two behinds early, he just seemed to sink into a hole.

Mathews - he's done some great jobs in the past year, but again he got slaughted by a half fit Kerr, again playing on one leg.

Ablett - for mine he needs to get the ball more. He's great in stoppages with his quick kicks forward and he has been working on his pace off the mark to help in his tagging roles. but he can still gets blown apart by the really quick mids.

Jolly - coming off a hectic week and doing well considering 3 weeks ago he broke his finger.

Leo Barry - he has had a poor season by his usually high standards. Whether he's either getting too old to matchup on the bigger forwards or he hasn't had enough support from up the ground - this year has proven that we need an extra taller bigger body down back.

Apart from that, I thought everyone else contributed to the 'fight back'.

And there's plenty to look forward to next year!

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by Nolie
I agree with all these comMents. I was annoyed three weeks ago when - right in front of us - in the last quarter of the qualifying final against WC , Kirk was so intent on trying to elbow Judd in the guts and hang on to him. Judd just ignored it all, concentrated on the footy and kicked a goal. Stop the tagging! Play your own game! They should trust in their own ability - they have spades of it.

This is part of the reason why I think Ablett is not developing enough and why he's been worse than useless in 6 quarters of grand finals. Spends too much time looking at the opposition rather than the ball.

[Agent 86]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Spends too much time looking at the opposition rather than the ball.

And often does a good impression of a stunned mullet when he has the ball.