(07-25-2021, 01:40 AM)RiverRat date Wrote:As good a player as he HASBEEN, I thought we were in big trouble when Murphy was listed as the medical sub.Yes, agree on these points.
Without Eddie to chase everything and everyone around the forward line, the lack of desire (or pace) to chase (Cripps, Kennedy, Martin, Owies, Dow) allowed the Kangas to run unmolested out of our forward line.
On the first point, if sMurph can't be selected outright then it suggests the MC had already given up on the season. Perhaps BigH is out for more than a week, we'll find out.
On the second, I thought Owies was OK, ran deep the full length of the field but was frequently left outnumbered as team-mates failed to get back to help. What may be even worse is that as a midfield Norp aren't fast, we were basically destroyed by one player running off the back of the square. Hall did it the whole game and nobody was willing to go with him or check his run. But this may be a sign that when Cripps is in the midfield the attitudes or tactics change for the worse. Last week we were much much better despite not always being first to the football, but yesterday there was hesitation, we were back watching Cripps hunt the footy instead of cracking in and tackling. To me this is a losing tactic we've developed and retained since the days of Judd.
But those missed set shots must be demoralising, too many of them diminished the return from generating so many valid opportunities, it has an impact. We should have been 3, 4 or 5 goals up, not 4 pts.
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"