AFL Rd 6 2023 In Game Angst Carlton vs St. Kilda at Marvel

[Mav]

Gee, don’t talk about Stocker any more or some rando will accuse you of being obsessed with him …

[cookie2]

Way better than last week, against an unspectacular, but solid and very well drilled outfit.

2nd year blues for the Blues ?

I'll pay your optimism Paul and wish I could share it.

[WASurfer]

If I was Stocker, I'd take the 16 possessions and the 4 points against the team who told me they didn't want me and delisted me without even looking for a trade deal. The last of our problems really.

[PaulP]

I'll pay your optimism Paul and wish I could share it.

Lol yes. After last week I wasn't sure what to expect. At least the boys showed up this time and gave effort. Saints are currently first for a reason IMO.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Gee, don’t talk about Stocker any more or some rando will accuse you of being obsessed with him …

I only get obsessed when list managers feck up and give away players for nothing and then give BS reasoning, we were short of small defenders today and Stocker would have been handy. He beat Durdin and did his job and will get another senior game next week thats the reality. Our small forwards might not be so lucky.....

[Mav]

Wonder if the Pies should have kept Grundy because they had no rucks after Cox, Cameron and Kreuger went down with injuries? My answer would be no - you can’t stockpile players in any role. That’s not practical given caps on player numbers.

Saad, Newman, Docherty, Williams, Boyd, Cowan (who they obviously were eyeing off), Gov, and Plowman should have been enough but the injury gods weren’t with us. And in a parallel universe where we did keep Stocker and he played in the VFL because we didn’t have a problem with injuries, our supporters may well be complaining about keeping Stocker rather than adding another tall defender or tall forward or ruckman if injuries hit us in those areas.

[LP]

Saad, Docherty, Williams

The problem isn't that we let Stocker go, the problem is that Stocker is capable to shutting down our small forwards, when he played for Carlton he wasn't very effective in that very same roll.

So is that a statement about Carlton, our small forwards or Stocker?

[Mav]

I don’t think he was shutting down anybody today. He was a loose defender in a zone defence.

[Thryleon]

The problem isn't that we let Stocker go, the problem is that Stocker is capable to shutting down our small forwards, when he played for Carlton he wasn't very effective in that very same roll.

So is that a statement about Carlton, our small forwards or Stocker?

all of the above.

Only motivated players thrive at Carlton.

Stocker didn't have to shut anyone down.  He didn't tackle anyone all day.

[northernblue]

You can add Durdin and Motlop too......our small forwards gave us nothing and then you look at the opposition small forwards and they had us under pressure all game. We had a lot of the ball in the midfield but fecked around with it going sideways and gave our talls no hope and with impotent small forwards doing sweetFA that tells a story.

How deep to the Aints (and others) small forwards run though ?
I feel that we run deep, do we ?

I noticed that most forward entries by the Aints went to a target (Cordy ?) with a medium in a position to drift in front to mark and someone front and square.
I don’t see our small forwards front and square and I don’t see anyone in position to drift in front to take a protected mark, we just bomb it long and high.