Match Thread. Round 9 v St Kilda.

[Melbourne_Blood]

By the way - how pathetic was Carlisle's effort in trying to hit Rampe's injured hand? I shouldn't be surprised though. This is the lamentable imbecile who posted pictures of himself snorting coke, so to say he suffers from impaired judgement would be an understatement. But I thought we'd seen the last of that sort of tripe when Kretiuk of the Bulldogs did it to Matthew Lloyd all those years ago. Mind you, there's (sort of) a pattern. A Kretiuk and a Kretin.

Yep . Real weak dog stuff from Carlisle.


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[MattW]

Despite the finish some good signs from us today. Bell had his best game for us. Mccartin too. Rowbottom in the third was huge. And we take a percentage hit and pick 2 looks more and more likely.

Hayward was busy too, like him around the ball


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Agree with all of that. One of McCartin's best games. Loved how he backed himself by leading to the pocket; he knew he could goal from the tight angle and did. The improvement to his set shot is outstanding.

I thought Bell showed good signs, too. Played on impressively at times and tackles hard. Plays with determination and grit.

Fox was good again, although is much better by foot than hand.

Sorry, but that was shocking from Blakey. Missed the gimme in front and then went missing. That miss was a real momentum shifter too. Disappointing.

Poor from Clarke and Gray, too. Clarke had 4 effective disposals and Gray is a good user but is just not impacting the play enough. Sinclair is as bad as he's been for us.

Another almost game from the ambitious Elijah
Taylor, but at least backed himself. My favourite moment of the game was when he steamed across to the wing with the ball in dispute up against three Saints, tapped it to himself a few times, smothered Hill's handball and took the ball over the line. All while Clarke watched on.

[mcs]

I would not say Elijah Taylor goes hard. Exactly the opposite. He shirked four or five hard ball gets, and missed as many tackles. He is a talent no doubt but needs to be out of the team to develop some ticker.

He is young, he is raw, and really isn't ready for AFL footy. But he will learn a lot, and I don't see what we are going to lose (beyond games that are meaningless) from giving young players with obvious potential a solid run, unless they are in horrendous form (which could be argued with Blakey). I didn't mean hard in terms of a hard ball get type of player (i.e. hard at it like a midfielder), more his willingess to try and hit the ball at speed, and he doesn't shirk about jumping in marking contests against much more mature bodies. His effectiveness is limited of course, but there is decent raw potential there.

And we need to see what he did in that multiple effort on the wing much more regularly - no doubt that is the element of his game where the focus will be on development.

[MattW]

He is young, he is raw, and really isn't ready for AFL footy. But he will learn a lot, and I don't see what we are going to lose (beyond games that are meaningless) from giving young players with obvious potential a solid run, unless they are in horrendous form (which could be argued with Blakey). I didn't mean hard in terms of a hard ball get type of player (i.e. hard at it like a midfielder), more his willingess to try and hit the ball at speed, and he doesn't shirk about jumping in marking contests against much more mature bodies. His effectiveness is limited of course, but there is decent raw potential there.

And we need to see what he did in that multiple effort on the wing much more regularly - no doubt that is the element of his game where the focus will be on development.

I agree.

[mcs]

Sorry, but that was shocking from Blakey. Missed the gimme in front and then went missing. That miss was a real momentum shifter too. Disappointing.

Poor from Clarke and Gray, too. Clarke had 4 effective disposals and Gray is a good user but is just not impacting the play enough. Sinclair is as bad as he's been for us.

I want to like Clarke, but I just can't see what his obvious role in the team is, because he can get it, but is next to useless using it. We aren't at a stage we could have a truly in and under midfielder whose only job literally is to extract and hand it off. Gray simply doesn't seem to get enough of the pill at all.

[giant]

I'm from the glass half full brigade - the stuff that went poorly - poor intensity at the start, laziness around the stoppages, missed opportunities - that can all be rectified. Continued to see great endeavour, some real effort at faster football and plenty of positives from the youngsters. Heck, even the umpiring was fine.

One (continued) bleat: Blakey was once again the worst player on the ground. I just don't understand what's achieved by playing him in his current form. Give the kid a break.

And who knows, maybe we pick up our own Max King this year? He is a heck of a talent.

[dimelb]

I don't know if I am reading into the play, but it struck me that when St Kilda ran with the ball they were spread out so the ball would travel 5 to 10 metres or more by handball. By contrast when we ran with the ball a lot of the time we were running in clumps and only sending the ball three or four metres at most, with opposition closed in around us so that we turned the ball over far too often. I assume this kind of thing ought to be a coach's job, so I wonder what is happening.

[MattW]

Seven clearances and six tackles by Rowbottom. Topped both stats for us. Dude is reliably hard every week. One of my favourites.

[The Big Cat]

Disbelievers will be left behind to suffer from their own ignorance.

When universities are dropping these courses because of lack of scientific rigour and basis it says it all.

With two medical doctor daughters, it annoys the hell out of me after their decade plus of training, when these quacks advertise themselves as doctors after doing some Mickey Mouse pseudo science course.

[dejavoodoo44]

I don't know if I am reading into the play, but it struck me that when St Kilda ran with the ball they were spread out so the ball would travel 5 to 10 metres or more by handball. By contrast when we ran with the ball a lot of the time we were running in clumps and only sending the ball three or four metres at most, with opposition closed in around us so that we turned the ball over far too often. I assume this kind of thing ought to be a coach's job, so I wonder what is happening.

Yes, when I watched us live against the Eagles a few weeks ago, I noticed that. And at times, again today. That is, we sometimes seem to get in too tight a group, for handball receives. And like you say, a defender can put pressure on our player doing the handball and then follow the ball, to immediately put pressure on whoever receives it, who is often also being pressured by their own opponent. Sometimes we manage to pull it off, and seeing the ball rapidly ping around, before an effective clearance, is pretty to watch. But more often than not, it's like watching the personification of chaos theory. A little inaccuracy at the start, becomes increasingly chaotic, until things break down with a costly turnover.

[dejavoodoo44]

When universities are dropping these courses because of lack of scientific rigour and basis it says it all.

With two medical doctor daughters, it annoys the hell out of me after their decade plus of training, when these quacks advertise themselves as doctors after doing some Mickey Mouse pseudo science course.

Yes, and I think the Crows might be suffering from a prime example of quackery in action. That is, their notorious preseason camp of a couple of years ago. When they seemed to think that they could give their squad a mental edge, by letting people with no psych qualifications, have a go at psychological conditioning.

- - - Updated - - -

Seven clearances and six tackles by Rowbottom. Topped both stats for us. Dude is reliably hard every week. One of my favourites.

Yes, had a very good third quarter and we often look more dangerous, when he has the ball.

[Ludwig]

I would not say Elijah Taylor goes hard. Exactly the opposite. He shirked four or five hard ball gets, and missed as many tackles. He is a talent no doubt but needs to be out of the team to develop some ticker.

I agree with you on this. I noticed so many instances where Taylor avoided physical contact, sometimes purposely running past the opposition player with the ball in order not to make contact. I don't know if it's a 'ticker' thing, but it's something he has to do better. I don't think we are the only ones to notice this. The coaches will review the tapes and take remedial action.

I like a lot of what Bell has done since returning to the side, but his disposal has been awful. I hope it's just a matter of getting more comfortable at AFL level and creating that fraction of a second needed to make better decisions and execution. The rest of his game looked worthy of AFL footy.

[Markwebbos]

One thing I noticed was how much they moved players around e.g. Hayward back in Q1 (which I really liked btw) then forward; Mills on ball then back then on-ball again; Aliir rucking and forward as well as back.
They also rotated players on Zak Jones Q by Q

Almost like they were treating the game as partly an opportunity to experiment.

[0918330512]

When universities are dropping these courses because of lack of scientific rigour and basis it says it all.

With two medical doctor daughters, it annoys the hell out of me after their decade plus of training, when these quacks advertise themselves as doctors after doing some Mickey Mouse pseudo science course.

And your stance on Dentists, Vets and PhD holders?

[bloodspirit]

I agree with you on this. I noticed so many instances where Taylor avoided physical contact, sometimes purposely running past the opposition player with the ball in order not to make contact. I don't know if it's a 'ticker' thing, but it's something he has to do better. I don't think we are the only ones to notice this. The coaches will review the tapes and take remedial action.

I like a lot of what Bell has done since returning to the side, but his disposal has been awful. I hope it's just a matter of getting more comfortable at AFL level and creating that fraction of a second needed to make better decisions and execution. The rest of his game looked worthy of AFL footy.

I agree with you on both counts.

With Bell, I liked his game last week but not so much last night. One of his worst disposals was when he was in the second half, he had the ball in the middle of the ground, had an age to dispose of it, didn't look like he had a clue, and then bunted it 25 metres directly to an opponent. That was depressing.

Conversely, Ling had a mediocre game, made numerous mistakes including being easily beaten in a one on one marking contest with a similarly sized opponent close to goal, but still left me with the impression that there's a fair bit to work with and that his mistakes are fixable. In particular he looked relatively composed when he had the ball, often under a lot of pressure.