Round 1: Saints (match thread)

[satchmopugdog]

I found this game fascinating.

I was up on level 3 for the first time and it gave me a completely different perspective.

It made me realise how much the game has changed and it reminded me of top level hockey. The use of 1/2's in the midfield to get round players..moving the ball out wide to bring it in with a square pass (ala Jack) to the forwards. In place of a corner to break the deadlock is the long goal from outside the circle(a la Davis). The defensive area is crowded with defenders blocking up space and the forwrds have to run out of defence as the ball is being brought up by the half backs.

As I like watching hockey I enjoyed this game.

Thought Jack was great. His tackles stuck unlike Goodes. His square pass up the Lockett end was a pearler.

Mcveigh played the best gane I have seen him play.

Mattner gave The little ferret a bath.

Davis is the only one who has that touch of extra to break through the self perpatuating rythmn of this style of play.

Saw the Collingwood/Freo game...very different kettle of fish.


Had the worst weekend ever....except for seeing my daughter.
The 6.30 plane out of Devonport was cancelled after the pilot went out to try and fix the engine and came back in and said"Well that didn't work!"
Bussed to Launceston to catch a Jetstar flight and that was delayed an hour.
Felt really hot and sweaty during the Swans game and ended up vomiting all night. Tried to catch the plane home to Devonport. They said I was too sick and had to be put on a later flight. Flat lemonade has never looked so good.

PLUS WE LOST BY 2 BLOODY POINTS

[TheGrimReaper]

I found this game fascinating.

I was up on level 3 for the first time and it gave me a completely different perspective.

It made me realise how much the game has changed and it reminded me of top level hockey. The use of 1/2's in the midfield to get round players..moving the ball out wide to bring it in with a square pass (ala Jack) to the forwards. In place of a corner to break the deadlock is the long goal from outside the circle(a la Davis). The defensive area is crowded with defenders blocking up space and the forwrds have to run out of defence as the ball is being brought up by the half backs.

As I like watching hockey I enjoyed this game.

Thought Jack was great. His tackles stuck unlike Goodes. His square pass up the Lockett end was a pearler.

Mcveigh played the best gane I have seen him play.

Mattner gave The little ferret a bath.

Davis is the only one who has that touch of extra to break through the self perpatuating rythmn of this style of play.

Saw the Collingwood/Freo game...very different kettle of fish.


Had the worst weekend ever....except for seeing my daughter.
The 6.30 plane out of Devonport was cancelled after the pilot went out to try and fix the engine and came back in and said"Well that didn't work!"
Bussed to Launceston to catch a Jetstar flight and that was delayed an hour.
Felt really hot and sweaty during the Swans game and ended up vomiting all night. Tried to catch the plane home to Devonport. They said I was too sick and had to be put on a later flight. Flat lemonade has never looked so good.

PLUS WE LOST BY 2 BLOODY POINTS

So who was doing the majority of the flooding?

[swansrule100]

Have we all forgotten it's Round 1 and we are notorious slow starters?!

.

we are notoriously a poor team. Based on history we will miss the finals most years

[satchmopugdog]

So who was doing the majority of the flooding?

The Saints were getting more players back than us and more obviously so which made it very frustrating for our forwards. A long range strategy needs to be employed/devised/invented to drag people out of the defensive circle.

[NMWBloods]

One of the main reason they had so many back is that we took an eternity to move the ball forward.

[goswannie14]

One of the main reason they had so many back is that we took an eternity to move the ball forward.

But it still has to be a deliberate game plan to drop 18 men back into the defensive 50m arc.

[NMWBloods]

Yes, it's a deliberate game plan of Lyon's (as well as many other clubs including us), but as I say if you take so long to get the ball into your forward line they are going to flood heavily regardless of how important it is to their game plan.

[goswannie14]

Yes, it's a deliberate game plan of Lyon's (as well as many other clubs including us), but as I say if you take so long to get the ball into your forward line they are going to flood heavily regardless of how important it is to their game plan.

Yeah, it's a bit of a catch 22 isn't it?

[NMWBloods]

Not really - if we get the ball moving forward quickly they won't have time to flood - problem solved.

[desredandwhite]

I for one wasn't particularly shocked or horrified when we looked our best moving the ball quickly to the forward line.

Once you bugger around just outside the 50m arc looking for an option, the opposition has time to flood back. Our forwards are not marking well at the moment, so it's rather an efficient way of stopping us from scoring.

[swansrule100]

id like to see a lot faster movement into the forward 50. Id like to see hall stop leaving the forward line so much the ball kicked into him quickly to avoid double teams and allow him to get on a lead. Davis and Oloughlin etc crumb around hall.


How many times did we see cut aways to hall on a lead screaming for the ball and some idiot player holding the ball for forty minutes and then kick across or backwards

Its all good an well to start threads like the one here where its suggested hall is gone, but he can only be as good as the midfield delivery is

[ScottH]

id like to see a lot faster movement into the forward 50. Id like to see hall stop leaving the forward line so much the ball kicked into him quickly to avoid double teams and allow him to get on a lead. Davis and Oloughlin etc crumb around hall.


How many times did we see cut aways to hall on a lead screaming for the ball and some idiot player holding the ball for forty minutes and then kick across or backwards

Its all good an well to start threads like the one here where its suggested hall is gone, but he can only be as good as the midfield delivery is

The first time the bal came near him, he had to beat 3, and gave away a HITB free. You're right, the faster it is moved into the F50 the harder it is for the players to fill gaps. It's not rocket science, or is it?

You also need players who can hit a moving target on the chest. That didn't happen too often either.

[Nico]

Not really - if we get the ball moving forward quickly they won't have time to flood - problem solved.

And we might start getting the opposition coaches guessing having to change their game plan against us.

[Nico]

For what it's worth I reckon we are a good side. Get rid of a couple of passengers, get the ball into the forward line quicker and, BINGO.

[NMWBloods]

I tend to agree, but I don't think we'll see the benefit for another year or so, once the youngster develop a bit more. We need to replace players like J Bolton, Mathews, Bevan, and start seriously grooming replacements for Hall, Barry, Everitt and Kirk.

Opposition coaches find it relatively easy to stop our offence now. Just flood back while we slowly and methodically work our way forward and try to spot up a forward target. That no longer works though. Then they try to kill us on the rebound, which StKilda did in patches on Sat night, while we try to grind the game down into a morass of stoppages. It will be harder and harder to do that and everyone will benefit from an opening up in the game plan.