04-25-2022, 02:42 AM
Went to the game and my first AFL game live for quite a while. Sitting up high and you get a distinct advantage that you don't get watching the games on TV....a view of the whole field and you get to see what's happening off the ball and how teams set up etc.
The most telling thing seeing it live was the comparison between their defence and ours. We have the "names"....Weitering, Saad, Williams, Docherty". Individually, those blokes all played well but as a team defence, we were poles apart. Their system was amazing, the way they set up, they seemed to always have a spare who could run off or make it impossible for Curnow or McKay to get a clear run at it...and nothing illegal off the ball stuff. Yet when we seemed to get it, there was no real system coming out of the backline.
I lost count of the number of times Williams got it and it was a just a panic/dump kick and usually straight to an opponent. In his first season I thought Newman was a very valuable pick up but now, he just seems to be a dumb footballer. He continually ran around the back to get a short kick or handball but ran himself into a pocket on his right foot....and he can't kick on his right. Lots of time he had to double back and by then we were completely manned up.
Parks has a crack but not a smart footballer either from what I saw.
On paper, the top 5 leading possession getters were Carlton players so we got plenty of it but just couldn't use it properly.
Their was a collective groan from Blues fans when Pittonet went down and it was impossible to see us winning from that point. To his credit TDK battled manfully and did a fair bit around the ground but Darcy monstered him in the one on one duels.
And seeing it live I got to see how completely useless Setterfield was. He did absolutely nothing and there were countless times that wouldn't have shown up on the TV where he was out on a wing and just stood there....completely flat footed...didn't lead, didn't try and drag his opponent up the ground...just did nothing. It's taken him ages to get to 50 games but on the back of what he's put up this year, he shouldn't be getting too many more chances.
Newnes is a depth player at best.
Cottrell had a crack and while his disposal lets him down, he wasn't our worst player.
Full credit to Cerra who I thought was one of our best and battled hard all night with the crowd and opposition into him every time he went near it. He got caught a couple of times trying to do too much but it wasn't his fault we lost.
Would love to see the stats on how many times we lose when Silvagni isn't out there. Not just missing the backup ruckman when he was needed but his second and third efforts up forward when the ball is in dispute are immeasurable and we had nothing up forward.
The most telling thing seeing it live was the comparison between their defence and ours. We have the "names"....Weitering, Saad, Williams, Docherty". Individually, those blokes all played well but as a team defence, we were poles apart. Their system was amazing, the way they set up, they seemed to always have a spare who could run off or make it impossible for Curnow or McKay to get a clear run at it...and nothing illegal off the ball stuff. Yet when we seemed to get it, there was no real system coming out of the backline.
I lost count of the number of times Williams got it and it was a just a panic/dump kick and usually straight to an opponent. In his first season I thought Newman was a very valuable pick up but now, he just seems to be a dumb footballer. He continually ran around the back to get a short kick or handball but ran himself into a pocket on his right foot....and he can't kick on his right. Lots of time he had to double back and by then we were completely manned up.
Parks has a crack but not a smart footballer either from what I saw.
On paper, the top 5 leading possession getters were Carlton players so we got plenty of it but just couldn't use it properly.
Their was a collective groan from Blues fans when Pittonet went down and it was impossible to see us winning from that point. To his credit TDK battled manfully and did a fair bit around the ground but Darcy monstered him in the one on one duels.
And seeing it live I got to see how completely useless Setterfield was. He did absolutely nothing and there were countless times that wouldn't have shown up on the TV where he was out on a wing and just stood there....completely flat footed...didn't lead, didn't try and drag his opponent up the ground...just did nothing. It's taken him ages to get to 50 games but on the back of what he's put up this year, he shouldn't be getting too many more chances.
Newnes is a depth player at best.
Cottrell had a crack and while his disposal lets him down, he wasn't our worst player.
Full credit to Cerra who I thought was one of our best and battled hard all night with the crowd and opposition into him every time he went near it. He got caught a couple of times trying to do too much but it wasn't his fault we lost.
Would love to see the stats on how many times we lose when Silvagni isn't out there. Not just missing the backup ruckman when he was needed but his second and third efforts up forward when the ball is in dispute are immeasurable and we had nothing up forward.