Rd 10 vs North Melbourne @ Marvel - Match Thread

[Blood Fever]

It was 7/7 at half time on centre clearances. I too was at the game and was aghast how easy Simpkin strolled out of the guts unattended in the second half. So what was happening in the guts? Rowbottom was intent on blocking and bumping his opponent and had no idea where the ball was going, Chad Warner had Wardlaw on Right Hand Side that caused him to run to the left and whoever was supposedly on Simpkin was asleep at the wheel. It didn't matter which ruck got the tap, he read it when no one else did. There is something very wrong in there. Even when at first instance the ball was in dispute they won the secondary clearance. In fact the stats were way more damning than it looks. By the way, Stephens is a very good reserves player.
In the last 10 minutes Chad dragged us over the line.

If we could fix the centre bounce debacle and clearances around the ground with ball ups, we wouldn't make it so hard on ourselves almost every week.

[MattW]

Great to have you back stevo!! Don't leave us!

For anyone who feels a bit strange about the way we won today, don't forget that it was Norf morons who booed Goodesy from start to finish in what ended up being his final game. i hope Roos fans have gone home feeling absolutely gutted - they deserve it!

GO YOU MIGHTY BLOODS!!!!

Will never forget. Great post.

[i'm-uninformed2]

It was 7/7 at half time on centre clearances. I too was at the game and was aghast how easy Simpkin strolled out of the guts unattended in the second half. So what was happening in the guts? Rowbottom was intent on blocking and bumping his opponent and had no idea where the ball was going, Chad Warner had Wardlaw on Right Hand Side that caused him to run to the left and whoever was supposedly on Simpkin was asleep at the wheel. It didn't matter which ruck got the tap, he read it when no one else did. There is something very wrong in there. Even when at first instance the ball was in dispute they won the secondary clearance. In fact the stats were way more damning than it looks. By the way, Stephens is a very good reserves player.
In the last 10 minutes Chad dragged us over the line.

Thanks for this. Coz I get to so few live games these days, I find it hard to work out precisely what is happening at the stoppages off the TV alone, as they tend to follow the ball, than give you full width as players shuffle around. I could see a bit of what you’re saying about Rowie, though from what I could see he was far worse at it at centre bounces, than stoppages around the ground where he was ok and nabbed some good clearances. Whereas Chad’s defensive lapses seemed to happen more at stoppages.

I’d love to hear more from anyone else at the ground who has a good eye from it, because all I know is a first game player in Wardlaw was better at it than our blokes.

[MattW]

We’ve had horrible luck this season, it was nice to have some come our way.

Exactly, Stella.

[joeykanga]

So he's here to kick fans of the club when they are down,?

That's a pretty imaginative bit of logic. Don't agree with you one iota.
I for one like that Stevoswan balances the negative comments with thoughtful positive responses instead of the way many of us on here like to throw the baby out with the bathwater and are always so critical and reactive.

[Ludwig]

Sad to see you turn sour Ludwig

I can't see how anyone can be happy about this game. We lost the game to an umbackable side, then lost whatever benefit there was to take from the game, a better draft hand, by being gifted 4 points on the ladder on a technicality.

I'm annoyed for fooling myself into thinking that we were building toward an extended period of success. But it now looks the national draft will be the highlight of the year for some time to come.

[Blood Fever]

It was really good to get a win especially for the players who gave it their all, and especially in the last quarter. However I am dismayed at the way we are playing. Despite our injury list we have some very good players still on the field.


The set up at centre clearances, how many times were the Roos players able to waltz away with the ball because of the positioning of our mids, throw up after throw up, and no adjustments were made. Its like the opposition take one term to work out our game plan/strategies but we make no adjustments, like as some have already noted, we always send extra players back and clog up the back line but have no one or one player up forward. By doing this we ensure the exhaustion of our mids by the last quarter, as has already been commented on, and down back we have players all looking at each other trying to work out who fills what space or takes which player, all while the opposition marks and kicks a goal? I think our game plan and the dogged adherence to it whether it is working for our players or not, is letting the players down, especially the relatively experienced ones.

My other gripe is players so often running to fill a space when they could keep their eye on the ball and sometimes stop an opposition player or mark the ball themselves. I think that is what Rowie was doing when the ball was kicked to him in the forward line. he was already turning to run back to the goals instead of trying to take a mark or make a spoil.

I was at the game. Another thing we did was over handball at times especially to someone else under pressure. At one stage Campbell handpassed to Clarke who often just runs around in circles and gets into trouble. I would instruct Campbell to kick the ball every time almost. Clarke is tenacious and good defensively but lacks a footy brain.

[MattW]

Something of a hollow win, but it was a win, nonetheless.

Parker was wonderful. But quieter in the third quarter but he picked up again in the final term.

Buddy was excellent too. I'm not talking about his goals, but more his chasing and tackling. He's not the Buddy of a decade ago, or even two years ago, but he showed today he still has value.

McAndrew showed he could adapt to the pace of the game, and seemed to run the game out ok. He was decent in the air, but I most liked the way he stayed in the contest and got stuck in when the ball was on the ground. With our other two rucks trading various maladies and injuries, he can stay for a while.

Blakey and Warner were a bit patchy, but both got going in the final quarter. Errol wasn't flawless but delivered magic at times.

Fox, McInerney, Florent all pretty solid.

The rest were all a bit meh - though Heeney did also stand up in the final quarter to provide some crucial moments.

Loved Buddy for today. Three tackles in the final quarter. Heard John's drawl in my head: 'he's just a massive competitor'.

I think you named the best players. Fox was great. Warner has had games where he has ebbed in the last but he was awesome today - 11 possessions in the fourth. Parker, Gulden and Blakey each had a stirring final quarter.

I thought Rowbottom was hard all day and Francis was ok.

[Blood Fever]

I can't see how anyone can be happy about this game. We lost the game to an umbackable side, then lost whatever benefit there was to take from the game, a better draft hand, by being gifted 4 points on the ladder on a technicality.

I'm annoyed for fooling myself into thinking that we were building toward an extended period of success. But it now looks the national draft will be the highlight of the year for some time to come.

Let's wait until we get a team on the park that contains most of our best 22, not one missing 8 or more players.

[waswan]

We have changed from a contested ball team to an outside run fwd, overlap run.

We can be good when we have it in hand but just terrible at getting it.

Kinda makes sense that we scored so heavily last year from defensive half, thats the main part of the ground we win it with Ramps and Mcs in the side

There isnt a person in the other thread talking about the midfielder we are missing for next year, all the talk is about the KPP depth we need to firm up, so again, our midfield/clearance coaches need a good look at themselves. Not just the centre bounce, not just the stoppages, when the ball is on the ground, we are terrible

[Mel_C]

We like to play teams into form. Port Adelaide, Fremantle and now North.

Credit to North their pressure was outstanding after the first half of the first quarter. And they made very few errors. Their confidence was way up.

[gloveski]

Got lucky today, our defensive work around stoppages is woeful . We simply don’t man up especially in defensive 50 . Very unswans like but it’s been a factor all year


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