Round 6 vs Geelong Cats @ GMHBA - Match Thread

[stevoswan]

Of course I've woken up to the obvious this morning. Blank spaces.

Ahh, we move on like naughty admonished children.

On a happier note, Wrexham have won the National League and been promoted.

[stevoswan]

Come on ladies and Gents

We no that alot of comments when being dismantled are a little extreme

Cooler kitchen usually surfaces 48hrs later ????????????

Fear not mate.....Liz has protected everyone from the 'extreme'. Phew, you're all 'saved'!

[waswan]

Why have we turned Gulden into an inside mid from an outside/wing HFF ?
Most skillful guy in the squad and we have him at the bottom of the pack

[barry]

Gulden is being targetted by opposition teams these days.

[Ludwig]

You folks realise The Smashing Pumpkins played in Melbourne last night. I know where I would have been. 93 points..... yikes.

The pumpkins really got smashed in Geelong last night.
Or was it the bumpkins that got smashed?
I just know that there was a lot of Bloods splattered all over the place.

[Roadrunner]

Fear not mate.....Liz has protected everyone from the 'extreme'. Phew, you're all 'saved'!

Couldn’t watch the game last night and I don’t think I can stomach watching it now- not only knowing the score line but reading comments on our forum. Deflating, to say the least. Is it just a sign of inexperience, coupled with a much depleted back line? I guess time will tell. Was expecting a loss when I saw the team sheets- it was pretty obvious and anything under 5-6 goals seemed reasonable under the circumstances.

Lud’s offering that it was down to self-preservation after the 1st quarter is a hollow and totally unsatisfactory explanation and I can’t buy it- unless it was tongue in cheek! Yes, we were grossly undermanned, but come on lads, show some fight! Have we learned nothing from the GF? This could create more scars, surely.

[troyjones2525]

Why have we turned Gulden into an inside mid from an outside/wing HFF ?
Most skillful guy in the squad and we have him at the bottom of the pack

I still think his best position going forward will be on ball as he was extremely good as a junior and a ball magnet. Hopefully be one of those excellent smaller midfielders like Neale and Mitchell, but with a more damaging kick. We just need to look for him more in open play going forward as he often demands the ball and gets ignored!

Sent from my SM-F936B using Tapatalk

[liz]

Why have we turned Gulden into an inside mid from an outside/wing HFF ?
Most skillful guy in the squad and we have him at the bottom of the pack

I've been wondering for a few weeks now whether we're getting the most out of our midfield group.

The best players want to play on-ball, so I understand why Gulden wants to play there. And he's shown enough contested ball-winning ability to show why the coaches are playing him there. But he seems to be doing a lot of what Rowbottom was doing last year - being the first to get hands on ball and dishing out to another (like Warner) or throwing it on the boot quickly. There's a place for both those things on a football field, and Rowbottom was reasonably effective at them. Gulden has been reasonably effective at them too - less so yesterday but that wasn't through lack of trying on his part. He was simply monstered (and targetted, as Barry points out).

The overall effect seems to be to make little use of Rowbottom, and to detract from the things that sets Gulden apart from most other players. Not just his kicking skills but his vision too.

Maybe in a few years time, when his body is more mature and he has more experience, he might become a very effective onballer. But I wonder if he might be gradually eased in for shorter periods of the game, to allow others to do more of the grunt work, and to allow him to play portions of the game more on the outside.

"Impressed" is too strong a word, but I was encouraged by Roberts up to the point where he was injured. He doesn't have silky skills or much in the way of pace, but he seems to have adjusted to the speed of the game reasonably well (compared to his forgettable debut last year) and he plays within his limitations. If it weren't for him now joining the injury list, I'd have liked to see him and Gulden switch within games, so that both play some time "inside" and some "outside".

[H2F]

Oh man Robert Harvey absolutely killed us in that game so did Zilla

[Hotpotato]

The many many times that a cat was in (unopposed) open space to accept the next kick and to kick it to the next unopposed cat baffled me to bits.

[Roadrunner]

I've been wondering for a few weeks now whether we're getting the most out of our midfield group.

The best players want to play on-ball, so I understand why Gulden wants to play there. And he's shown enough contested ball-winning ability to show why the coaches are playing him there. But he seems to be doing a lot of what Rowbottom was doing last year - being the first to get hands on ball and dishing out to another (like Warner) or throwing it on the boot quickly. There's a place for both those things on a football field, and Rowbottom was reasonably effective at them. Gulden has been reasonably effective at them too - less so yesterday but that wasn't through lack of trying on his part. He was simply monstered (and targetted, as Barry points out).

The overall effect seems to be to make little use of Rowbottom, and to detract from the things that sets Gulden apart from most other players. Not just his kicking skills but his vision too.
Maybe in a few years time, when his body is more mature and he has more experience, he might become a very effective onballer. But I wonder if he might be gradually eased in for shorter periods of the game, to allow others to do more of the grunt work, and to allow him to play portions of the game more on the outside.

"Impressed" is too strong a word, but I was encouraged by Roberts up to the point where he was injured. He doesn't have silky skills or much in the way of pace, but he seems to have adjusted to the speed of the game reasonably well (compared to his forgettable debut last year) and he plays within his limitations. If it weren't for him now joining the injury list, I'd have liked to see him and Gulden switch within games, so that both play some time "inside" and some "outside".

Agreed with the above Liz. Rowy should be doing most of the grunt work and he has been very good at it in the past. Plus his tackling is very elite. Gulden’s kicking has suffered this year so he needs that extra split second until he gains more experience. Didn’t see the game but Parker’s form lately has been a bit concerning- how was he last night? If he was missing, that would leave a huge hole, especially moving Mills down back on Hawkins, which makes no sense to me at all! The middle is where it all starts and pressure begins- moving Mills to the back so early sends a defeatist attitude to begin with.

Surely Francis or Gould on Hawkins? What were our coaches smoking!????

[barry]

My takeout from that game:
- Cameron ling should not commentate Geelong games. The hit on Fox is 2 week minimum. Does he not give a stuff about head injuries?
- the team we put out was never going to win. No key position defenders and a part time ruckman. And the game played out like that. We lost the middle and couldn't contain their forwards.
- what was disappointing was out efforts from our key forwards. All well beaten by rangilaria (?) Who is still on his L's as a defender.
- it was at kadinia park and back to back travel after gather round.

We are not going to be a challenger unless we can give a fit list together. And we have to hope we don't meet Geelong in the finals. They have worked is out.

[stevoswan]

Couldn’t watch the game last night and I don’t think I can stomach watching it now- not only knowing the score line but reading comments on our forum. Deflating, to say the least. Is it just a sign of inexperience, coupled with a much depleted back line? I guess time will tell. Was expecting a loss when I saw the team sheets- it was pretty obvious and anything under 5-6 goals seemed reasonable under the circumstances.

Lud’s offering that it was down to self-preservation after the 1st quarter is a hollow and totally unsatisfactory explanation and I can’t buy it- unless it was tongue in cheek! Yes, we were grossly undermanned, but come on lads, show some fight! Have we learned nothing from the GF? This could create more scars, surely.

After obviously overachieving last year our team is like a rock band who had a brilliant debut album and is feeling the pressure to back it up with their next album....and we're failing miserably, getting writer's block. Just get back to enjoying the game fella's....oh and a few less injuries would help. It's just not working out so far this season and I reckon we're still a couple of years off.

[stevoswan]

My takeout from that game:
- Cameron ling should not commentate Geelong games. The hit on Fox is 2 week minimum. Does he not give a stuff about head injuries?

.....and Jobe Watson on Seven said of Duncan after the Fox incident "A player has the right to protect himself". WTF? These Victorian hacks are pathetic.

[mcs]

Not sure why anyone is surprised by the Victorian commentary box hacks proving for the umpteenth time they are hacks. There was a very good article earlier in the week about the standard of the AFL media in the Guardian, well worth a read.

Be more likely Fox gets a fine for getting in the way of Duncan then Duncan actually being charged.