04-07-2019, 06:35 AM
(04-07-2019, 04:34 AM)WASurfer link Wrote:Apologies if I repeat earlier comments (late to the forum) but just another one of those "what if" games and like most here, I'm about over these honourable losses and Bolton's post-game waffling. For mine, he'll be lucky to keep his job until the end of the season. You can spin it all you want but we've won one of our last 34 games....some ridiculous stat I heard mentioned.
For the multitude of high draft pick players we've got, is it just me or are youngsters just not developing quick enough? Would SPS or Zac Fisher be into their 3rd seasons at a Geelong or Hawthorn and still be drifting along? For all of our high end draft picks, I can't think of one player on our list with what you would call "elite" kicking skills...not one! We were positive last year with some of the games by Paddy Dow but how many times did he butcher it yesterday...ditto O'Brien. McKay's contested marking was a highlight but seriously, if you can't kick straight from 15m out directly in front it's a worry. We were damn lucky that Ed Curnow managed to kick a few freakish goals yesterday.
Walsh played another great game but unlikely to get the Rising Star nomination because of Rozee's 5 goal game. But even his kicking let him down at times.
Nothing personal but Polson and Gibbons are not up to AFL standard at the moment. If Polson was playing a defensive forward role, can someone tell me who it was on so I can check if they got over 30 possessions like most of their defenders. Gibbons excited us with 3 goals in that first JLT game but has barely touched it since then and needs to go back to the VFL for now.
If not for Patrick Cripps, the losing margin in the first 3 games would be even higher. I said it last week that if he didn't get support on the inside we'd have no chance and that's exactly how it panned out. He simply cannot do any more for the team and unless we get someone in there to help him, the season will be another nightmare.
Lobbe battled hard but once again the opposing ruckman was close to best on ground. We can't get Kreuzer in there quick enough. For mine, I'd persist with Levi...yes he missed a set shot when we were in with a sniff but his work around the ground was good and he smashed some packs and bowled a few of their blokes over. Once again McGovern did very little until going off injured.
So very frustrating again and it's hard to see where a win is going to come from.
Agree on an earlier comment re Marc Murphy....for an experienced player, he's just not in the games for long enough periods.
One of the few positives was Liam Jones who played a great game and thankfully the umpires aren't falling for some of Buddy's staging antics these days. Jones stayed focused on the job all day.
Walsh, Dow and Setterfield are not elite field kicks......SPS is the only real legitimate good deliverer of the football we have......even Cripps, Murphy are not great users of the ball by foot.
Fisher is a good kick but he is being tagged more these days and his disposals are often under real pressure..for all our midfield riches we dont have that real silky edge to the group
and we rely on quantity of disposals rather than quality.