AAMI Community Match vs Melbourne

[crashlander]

I arrived home far too late last night to make any comments. It was a long, hot night, but quite enjoyable.

[1] Our midfield work:
I was really pleased with our midfield work, not because our players played well, but because of the way they jelled together and moved the ball to each other. It was really nice to see and gave our forward a much better chance to do something constructive. Cerra and Hewett really fit in well, while Pitto was more than useful on the ground.

[2] Matt Kennedy:
For a guy who was struggling early last year, Kennedy has really turned things around. And not just in the middle, where he took some risks and got rewarded for them. It was his strong marking in the forward line that stood out. he had 9 marks and most of them were really strong. That goes well with 9 clearances. His kicking is much improved, but is still much better on the move than with set shots. His 37 possessions last night really showed how he has improved.

[3] Melbourne are morons:
I cannot believe Melbourne was just so undisciplined. They were lucky not to have more than 8 50 metre penalties paid against them. It might have incensed their fans, but they wouldn't shut up. Nor can they count: 3 times they were caught unable to get 6 players in the right zones and, again, they were lucky it wasn't more. I don't think I've ever seen a stupider display.

[4] Melbourne really wanted to win badly.
I am glad we won for a lot of reasons, not just because it does my mental health so good to win. But we took off our entire forward line at half time. We have parks, Williamson and Plowman as forward for nearly half a game.
Melbourne, on the other hand, clearly had intentions to play some of their lesser known players in the second half. However, they were so shocked at half time that they shelved those plans. At least 2 guys never even made it onto the field, as Melbourne tried desperately to get back into the game. Two others barely got onto the park.
We hurt them. It was wonderful! Even with a non-existent forward line we beat them.

[5] Ruck issues:
Marc Pittonet gave his all last night, but he isn't the sort of ruckman who wins premierships. We will be stronger if he can stay fit. However, we need to develop Tom de Koning's ruck skills and body until he's another NicNat. He has the athleticism. I also have hopes for Mirkov, but he is still very much a work in progress. Seriously, this is an area we really need to develop if we are to challenge.

[kruddler]

It's going to be tough to pick a round 1 side off the back of that..

Some players likely to miss that round 1 side include Williamson, cottrell, setterfield, Ed curnow, Newman, Dow, Newnes, plowman...and maybe some more. I reckon there was probably games last year when all of those players were in the same team, but I just can't see it happening.

A forward line of Charlie, Harry, Soj, durdin, owies, Fisher gives us a great mix of marking, crumbing, running, speed and pressure which will find the weakness if opposition defences.
Of course you have wildcards Kennedy, Kemp and De koning to add to the mix as well.

Midfield is clearly improved. The ball move.ent is something I haven't seen from our group in.....decades. The quickness and accuracy of the handballing is something that makes me think Diesel has had a big influence on the group. Lightning quick and devastating. Elite
Pittonet, cripps, Hewitt and cerra with Walsh and the very much improved LOB on the wings is everything we could ask for.


Backline held up remarkable well.
Weitering and gov will be locks, with one of McDonald/young joining them. The  it's a matter of trying to fill the other roles. Saad, Williams and Docherty would all be unlucky to be left out of the back 6.

As mentioned earlier, you'd have Kennedy, Kemp and dekoning on the bench and you have to choose 1 of Martin, plowman, Ed, setterfield, Dow and the other of McDonald/ young.....to join them....and that's while you stocker and Cunningham unavailable.

Competition for spots is as tight as its ever been.

[LP]

I sincerely doubt Newman will miss Rnd 1 unless he has a niggle.

Time doesn't stop for anyone, Ed might struggle this year except to cover the odd injury.

Not sure based on what we've seen form the two practise matches that Martin gets a start, Durdin getting injured may have saved him, calf strains don't fix themselves in 10 days.

I think the major influence is Voss, the trait of immediately selling some candy to buy some time the moment you take possession is typical of Voss. Just a little midfield trick that they are all doing right under the new coach, even Pitto! :o

[Mav]

Viney will be an interesting litmus test when it comes to ducking into tackles. When he's about to be tackled, he tilts his shoulders to 45 degrees and lowers his head. In 2 instances I can recall, he milked 1 free and the ump didn't fall for it in the other. It really needs more of a crackdown than the Selwood tactic of lifting his arms to force high contact. Selwood is merely exploiting the modern preference for tackling around the upper arms to prevent handballs rather than tackling around the waist as was more common in days gone by.

The other rule I'd like to see addressed is the shove-out in marking contests. Exhibit A was late in the 1st quarter on the far wing when Lever used 2 hands to the back to push SOS out of a marking contest as SOS jumped, propelling him a couple of metres in the process. At least Lever then returned to the ball drop and got 2 hands to it before spilling it. The more flagrant defensive tactic is to use hands or the shoulder to knock the guy with front position under the ball without even putting the arms up in an attempt to mark the ball themselves (and Eddie Betts did this often, running up and putting the shoulder in the back to push the opponent under the ball with the intent of getting the resulting ground  ball). If I were in charge of the umpires I'd tell them that making contact with someone trying to mark a ball without any attempt to spoil (excluding a "body spoil") or mark is automatically a free kick. 

[Gointocarlton]

Sooooo, GF tickets, how do we get em? ;D
#lidsoff

[kruddler]

I sincerely doubt Newman will miss Rnd 1 unless he has a niggle.

I basically named my 21, with 1 to come from the rest....which included Newman
If you think he is a lock do you agree with the rest and he is the 22nd man or would you leave others out?

I've got nothing against Newman, but I'd rather have Saad, Williams and docherty as our small/medium backs.

Keep in mind this also pushes po
Lowman out of the side who I stand up for regularly.

Point being, it's not about if a bloke can play....we finally have enough who can, it's simply we can't fit them all in. O0

[LP]

If I were in charge of the umpires I'd tell them that making contact with someone trying to mark a ball without any attempt to spoil (excluding a "body spoil") or mark is automatically a free kick.

If there is no attempt top mark then I agree, but using a shoulder of body to defend the space for the drop of the ball isn't illegal, but using hands is outright illegal in the rules and should be banned.

Coaches have forced a softening of the rules, as well as moron commentators like BT, who continually bleat about there being not enough force! The Scott's were beauties for this, but then again they were also beauties at "The Body Spoil" which is just code for tunnelling bigger opponents.

btw.' Franklin does the hands in the back all the time, Hall use to do it as well, as does Hawkins. They can use a upper arm or shoulder and that is legal in the rules if the ball is within the required distance. But use hands and I agree 100% it should be penalised.

Another thing I'd like to see ignored by umpires is small opponents running into big blokes and claiming high contact, it's become a deliberate tactic and they do it to Cripps al the time around the stoppages. Basically the midgets head straight towards him and face plant into his bicep then claim Cripps hit them high! Umpires should just ignore it, or even penalise these players for staging for free kicks. Whether it is legal of not I don't care about, it is not in the spirit of our sport, we don't want AFL players being carted off on a stretcher then bouncing up and running straight back on!

[DJC]

It's going to be tough to pick a round 1 side off the back of that..
...
Competition for spots is as tight as its ever been.

Another advantage Vossy has over his predecessors!

The only high profile player who hasn't really performed in the pre-season games is Martin but we don't know how he is going at training.

I've got 26 players who are "locks" for Round 1, 9 whose form/ability/experience isn't quite up to it yet, and 7 out of contention with injuries.  Not a bad situation at all, particularly when at least 5 of the injured group are definitely in, or close to, our best 22. 

[LP]

I've got nothing against Newman, but I'd rather have Saad, Williams and docherty as our small/medium backs.

I doubt McDonald or Young get a gig ahead of Doc or Newman, especially if we are running both Pitto and De Koning.

To me Weitering, McGovern, Newman, Saad and Williams are the D50 locks, the last spot is up for grabs and I suspect Doc gets it if they are confident in his fitness and ability to recover each week. Not sure who gets the bench gig, could be McDonald, Williamson or Plowman at this stage. I suspect one of the reasons we saw Williamson and Plowman getting a run forward is the coach testing their utility to fit into the game plan.

I suspect the F50 is BigH, Charlie, SoJ, Kennedy, Owies and one other small, it was probably Durdin until his calf issue, so now that might cause a reshuiffle. Maybe Martin, but more likely Fisher get the last F50 spot. btw., On form Charlie is not really a soda, and it may be that there is a toss up between De Koning and SoJ, given it could be about opposition as much as our own list balance.

Midfield is Pitto, Cripps, Cerra, Hewitt are locks, for the wings I can see LoB should be a lock, for the other wing we might opt for SoJ if he's not getting a F50 gig, he was playing there before our ruck crisis last season. But the same may apply to Kemp, Martin or Fisher they aren't in F50. One of them gets this gig until Walsh returns, I suspect Walsh will start on the wing much of the time this season with a commission to roam to stoppages at both ends of the ground.

It's quite possible Doc ends up interchange and not in the starting D50, he has the engine and agility to fill in anywhere from standing a bigger opponent in D50 to playing a small forward role. Again this may come down to opposition make up. I suspect Williamson is primarily starting on the bench this season simply because of his utility, he has the speed and endurance to play small and the size to play tall, it may be a toss up between him, Ed and Plowman. De Koning should start on the bench, for Rnd 1 I'm not sure who gets the last spot, perhaps Kennedy moves to the bench as the midfield rotation and we play another dedicated small forward type. But it's not impossible some weeks we'll go three talls in F50 or even three talls in D50 subject to opposition. So much depends on our midfield ability to win the footy at stoppages, they win enough footy and we get to set the terms, to the victor the spoils.

[DJC]

Exhibit A was late in the 1st quarter on the far wing when Lever used 2 hands to the back to push SOS out of a marking contest as SOS jumped, propelling him a couple of metres in the process. At least Lever then returned to the ball drop and got 2 hands to it before spilling it.

That was one of the most blatant free kicks never paid ... and there were a couple of others almost as bad.

I think that the 'hands in the back' rule went too far, but pushing a player under the ball in a marking contest has to be a free kick.