Rd 4 vs Port Adelaide @ SCG - Match Thread

[Auntie.Gerald]

16 vs 14 pts

[giant]

I'm not going to make excuses for Buddy - had a poor night out against a very good opponent.

But. But. But. Here's what I've learnt from watching champion athletes over many decades - never write them off. He'll be back.

[Kafka's Ghost]

Could be wrong but reckon he has been more accurate with us than the Hawks. Lucky for us at the time he kicked 3.5 and one out of bounds in 2012 GF. One goal he kicked was an absolute monster on the rum.

Memories of that game were flashing through my brain as I wrote that comment. Another game he blew a couple of shots was the match in Launceston against us in 2012. One was a “banana” which curved the other way. Imagine how many goals he’d have kicked if he was as accurate as Plugger!


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[Kafka's Ghost]

The commentators were also mystified by the Rampe free.

It was a mistake by the umpire, who incorrectly judged there’d been a push in the back. A momentum shifting error. Having watched the one against Parker it looks more like he’s having his arm held down. Both bad calls, but the latter more 50/50 in the speed of the game.


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[Kafka's Ghost]

I spluttered in disbelief when I read that comment about Franklin not being a team player. But there's been a lot in this thread that has made me splutter.

Ditto.


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[KTigers]

Memories of that game were flashing through my brain as I wrote that comment. Another game he blew a couple of shots was the match in Launceston against us in 2012. One was a “banana” which curved the other way. Imagine how many goals he’d have kicked if he was as accurate as Plugger!


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Imagine how many goals he'd have kicked if he could hold a mark. Surely he is getting worse in this department.

[Roadrunner]

Imagine how many goals he'd have kicked if he could hold a mark. Surely he is getting worse in this department.

His overhead marking was never elite, though he could take some beauties every now and then. It is hard to understand why our guys kept sending the ball high to him repeatedly, instead of putting it out front. Maybe he doesn’t have the keg speed now for the lead- if that’s the case he needs to play 2nd ruck now as he shouldn’t be the focal point of our attacks- we have Isaac, Paps and Logan there.

[O'Reilly Boy]

Quite often on Saturday night we had no crumbers—it looked like everyone was drawn to the big packs that were forming, as the ball was dumped on their heads, contesting, and the ball was just pinging back out. It looked like everyone wanted to be a target. I had thought that the whole point of having Buddy draw the #1 defender was to open up options in other directions so that McDOnald, Amartey, and even Papley and Heaney could find some space to lead.
Or perhaps Buddy could play higher, across the top of the 50 metre arc, and we could look to decongest play closer to the goal line.
The two best attacking plays (aside from Chad's breakaways) were, first, some nice handball movement down the corridor (looked like the channel play we executed so well last year) and a nice shallow entry to a McDonald lead (I think that it was Florent's kick); McDonald took the mark in hole about 40 metres out.

[neilfws]

I was quite optimistic coming into this game, I thought the week before might be a wake-up call after two easy wins. But in a way it ended up quite similar to the week before in that they weren't terrible - they just kept executing the last step badly. When they got out to a 3 goal lead I thought that might do it in such a low scoring game, but they couldn't defend it.

A lot of the stats were quite similar but one really stands out for me: inside 50 efficiency. Swans 19 shots from 67 entries (28%), Port 21 shots from 45 entries (47%). Two less shots from 22 more entries. There's a problem there.

Apart from that:

- best wishes for Paddy: he looked in terrible shape at the ground from something so innocuous
- I don't know what's ailing Buddy (fitness, injury?) but surely something is when he can barely kick or chase and I hope it gets fixed soon
- Looked for all the world like umpire 21 wasn't going to award the blatant 50 to Blakey until another (Meredith?) overruled him, ridiculous!

[crackedactor 01]

I was quite optimistic coming into this game, I thought the week before might be a wake-up call after two easy wins. But in a way it ended up quite similar to the week before in that they weren't terrible - they just kept executing the last step badly. When they got out to a 3 goal lead I thought that might do it in such a low scoring game, but they couldn't defend it.

A lot of the stats were quite similar but one really stands out for me: inside 50 efficiency. Swans 19 shots from 67 entries (28%), Port 21 shots from 45 entries (47%). Two less shots from 22 more entries. There's a problem there.

Apart from that:

- best wishes for Paddy: he looked in terrible shape at the ground from something so innocuous
- I don't know what's ailing Buddy (fitness, injury?) but surely something is when he can barely kick or chase and I hope it gets fixed soon
- Looked for all the world like umpire 21 wasn't going to award the blatant 50 to Blakey until another (Meredith?) overruled him, ridiculous!

In the second half of the last season they were looking for targets when kicking forward. Now they have gone back to bombing the ball to the goal square. Why has it changed?

[Meg]

- Looked for all the world like umpire 21 wasn't going to award the blatant 50 to Blakey until another (Meredith?) overruled him, ridiculous!

I think the first umpire simply didn’t see that it was a Port player who kicked the ball over Blakey’s head.

[Nico]

Meredith is no.21.

[chalbilto]

Meredith was the umpire who did award the fifty meter penalty over ruling the other umpire.

[i'm-uninformed2]

I spent the second half of the game against Port dealing with the start of what turned into a long and ferocious battle with food poisoning, so won’t comment too much on the match itself. But, some meta observations on the season so far:

* Our contested ball still stinks. We managed to mask this somewhat in the second half of last season with smart game day tactics, ferocious defensive pressure on opponent ball carriers, and getting overs from one or two players like Rowbottom. Unfortunately it continues to dog us. Neither Mills or Parker are doing well yet this year on a count you’d expect them to lead our side on, Rowbottom has slipped back on clearance and contest numbers despite his tackling efforts, and our forward 50 ground ball work seems, at least to the eye, a bit off.

* We need a good small forward companion for Paps, and have for a couple of years. What we’re really missing is someone who plays the role of a Brad Close or Charlie Spargo or the trio of Richmond small forwards from the premiership years who link high up the ground, then work back to apply pressure. Wicks was never elite at the role in 2021, but at least did the job in a serviceable manner. We need an A grade version of that, and I love Harry, but he ain’t it either. Let’s hope our young draftee eventually fits the bill.

* Our ball use going inside 50. Aye Karumba. During the first quarter the other night we were all over Port but only kicked three! It’s easy to blame Bud or whatever, but some of our ball use is dumb. Even Errol has made the odd boo boo. I have total confidence in Blakey and Ollie, and usually in Errol or Chad, but the rest - for an elite kicking team, sort it out boys.

* the big Bud. Now, we love him, and I ain’t gonna call it yet. But if he’s not at peak fitness, take him off line for a week or two, and get him flying. I still think there’s a role for him, as I completely disagree that he’s selfish. But the way we’re playing him ain’t working.

Now, having said all that, I’m not pessimistic about the year, largely because I entered it realistically thinking - all things being equal on injuries, we are a 4-8 side. The likely extended absence one way or another of Paddy will test that, as it’s our weakest area of depth. But we could have pinched the other night, and went with Melbourne for three quarters. So it’s not all @@@@e, and some of it is fixable. But it’s a work in progress, and the smarts and resilience of the coaching and playing group will be tested in the coming month or so.

[Nico]

I spent the second half of the game against Port dealing with the start of what turned into a long and ferocious battle with food poisoning, so won’t comment too much on the match itself. But, some meta observations on the season so far:

* Our contested ball still stinks. We managed to mask this somewhat in the second half of last season with smart game day tactics, ferocious defensive pressure on opponent ball carriers, and getting overs from one or two players like Rowbottom. Unfortunately it continues to dog us. Neither Mills or Parker are doing well yet this year on a count you’d expect them to lead our side on, Rowbottom has slipped back on clearance and contest numbers despite his tackling efforts, and our forward 50 ground ball work seems, at least to the eye, a bit off.

* We need a good small forward companion for Paps, and have for a couple of years. What we’re really missing is someone who plays the role of a Brad Close or Charlie Spargo or the trio of Richmond small forwards from the premiership years who link high up the ground, then work back to apply pressure. Wicks was never elite at the role in 2021, but at least did the job in a serviceable manner. We need an A grade version of that, and I love Harry, but he ain’t it either. Let’s hope our young draftee eventually fits the bill.

* Our ball use going inside 50. Aye Karumba. During the first quarter the other night we were all over Port but only kicked three! It’s easy to blame Bud or whatever, but some of our ball use is dumb. Even Errol has made the odd boo boo. I have total confidence in Blakey and Ollie, and usually in Errol or Chad, but the rest - for an elite kicking team, sort it out boys.

* the big Bud. Now, we love him, and I ain’t gonna call it yet. But if he’s not at peak fitness, take him off line for a week or two, and get him flying. I still think there’s a role for him, as I completely disagree that he’s selfish. But the way we’re playing him ain’t working.

Now, having said all that, I’m not pessimistic about the year, largely because I entered it realistically thinking - all things being equal on injuries, we are a 4-8 side. The likely extended absence one way or another of Paddy will test that, as it’s our weakest area of depth. But we could have pinched the other night, and went with Melbourne for three quarters. So it’s not all @@@@e, and some of it is fixable. But it’s a work in progress, and the smarts and resilience of the coaching and playing group will be tested in the coming month or so.

Top post.

Contested ball: try these 4 who can't spell the word contested. McInerney, Stephens, Cunningham and Hayward.

Parker was ordinary and only threw his weight around late in the game, and that's all he did. His disposal and decision making was rubbish.

Where was the leadership in the last 10 minutes. We turned the ball over and it looked like we didn't want to keep possession.