No VFL/AFL team has ever gone through the season undefeated.
Someday one will. It may even be a Carlton side.
That team will be a great team.
We’re not yet a great team, we’re not even our best team… not by a long shot, with quite a number of our players out, or injured during the game.
Our forward line was missing Fogarty, Motlop, Martin, Cunningham all of who are in the mix for our best side.
Our defence was missing Marchbank, then Saad and McGovern
Cerra goes out of the midfield, and we’re a bit depleted.
The first loss of the season always stings.
It stings even more when it’s a team we thought we would account for easily.
But Adelaide did a number on us last year and did their homework well. We were out coached on the day. There were elements of the Fremantle approach in some passages yesterday as we struggled to move the ball out of defence.
So naturally there is a bit of disappointment, even anger and we’re looking for reasons.
Had we snuck over the line that would have largely disappeared.
We’d be looking for heroes, not villains.
But we weren’t awful…except some of our finishing.
The effort seemed to be there.
So many moments…Owies had two that could have changed the game
Had Owies not tripped over his own feet (or the Adelaide players feet) near the end it may have been a different story.
Had the goal Owies kicked been counted (An umpire should never say "I believe it was touched". They either saw the touch or they didn’t. So the soft call when it’s inconclusive must always be a goal)…different story
Just on the two- ruck situation. It’s not as cut and dried as some believe. The replacement of a ruck/tall with a small mid-field running player has to be viewed in terms of plusses and minuses.
The gain of the running player must be seem in terms of the cost of what you lose by omitting the tall/ruck. There may be an advantage…but the gap may not be as huge as we may think. Pittonet gave us a bit especially early on…but yes, it may have cost us later in the game.
Playing two wasn’t the issue, as much as playing a ruck to replace Cerra was.
With Saad and McGovern going down a lot of our drive disappeared as rotations were affected. Williams also seemed to be struggling at stages and may have had to stay on because of the injuries.
In that situation a second ruck may have cost us and Cincotta would have been handy when Saad was injured.
But looking at the bigger picture…This was Pittonet’s first game of the year. and he wasn’t too bad considering. More than anything he needs a bit of game time. (He only got half a game yesterday) Does that affect TDK’s performance. You can look at it that way, based on this game, but making judgements based on one game is fraught with danger. You would have to believe that there is a bit of a plan regarding the ruck situation going forward, and managing that will be a bit tricky. The more Tom and Marc play together the better the understanding they’ll develop. Whether they’ll be given that opportunity is up to the coaches.
Someday one will. It may even be a Carlton side.
That team will be a great team.
We’re not yet a great team, we’re not even our best team… not by a long shot, with quite a number of our players out, or injured during the game.
Our forward line was missing Fogarty, Motlop, Martin, Cunningham all of who are in the mix for our best side.
Our defence was missing Marchbank, then Saad and McGovern
Cerra goes out of the midfield, and we’re a bit depleted.
The first loss of the season always stings.
It stings even more when it’s a team we thought we would account for easily.
But Adelaide did a number on us last year and did their homework well. We were out coached on the day. There were elements of the Fremantle approach in some passages yesterday as we struggled to move the ball out of defence.
So naturally there is a bit of disappointment, even anger and we’re looking for reasons.
Had we snuck over the line that would have largely disappeared.
We’d be looking for heroes, not villains.
But we weren’t awful…except some of our finishing.
The effort seemed to be there.
So many moments…Owies had two that could have changed the game
Had Owies not tripped over his own feet (or the Adelaide players feet) near the end it may have been a different story.
Had the goal Owies kicked been counted (An umpire should never say "I believe it was touched". They either saw the touch or they didn’t. So the soft call when it’s inconclusive must always be a goal)…different story
Just on the two- ruck situation. It’s not as cut and dried as some believe. The replacement of a ruck/tall with a small mid-field running player has to be viewed in terms of plusses and minuses.
The gain of the running player must be seem in terms of the cost of what you lose by omitting the tall/ruck. There may be an advantage…but the gap may not be as huge as we may think. Pittonet gave us a bit especially early on…but yes, it may have cost us later in the game.
Playing two wasn’t the issue, as much as playing a ruck to replace Cerra was.
With Saad and McGovern going down a lot of our drive disappeared as rotations were affected. Williams also seemed to be struggling at stages and may have had to stay on because of the injuries.
In that situation a second ruck may have cost us and Cincotta would have been handy when Saad was injured.
But looking at the bigger picture…This was Pittonet’s first game of the year. and he wasn’t too bad considering. More than anything he needs a bit of game time. (He only got half a game yesterday) Does that affect TDK’s performance. You can look at it that way, based on this game, but making judgements based on one game is fraught with danger. You would have to believe that there is a bit of a plan regarding the ruck situation going forward, and managing that will be a bit tricky. The more Tom and Marc play together the better the understanding they’ll develop. Whether they’ll be given that opportunity is up to the coaches.