One thing that impressed me about Sunday's game was the form of Jaxon Binns. In his previous senior games he has looked to me like a VFL player having a crack at AFL. On Sunday he looked like an AFL player who was confident and competent playing at that level. He disposal is generally good but he needs to tidy up some errant kicking ... he's not Robinson Crusoe there.
Sam Walsh was back to his best and is virtually impossible to replace with a like for like player. Binns and Lord together provided a reasonable replacement.
We were playing a VFL like team which probably made Binns a bit more comfortable, I gave him a vote and would persist with him as we look more mobile with him working around the midfield.
Sorry EB but West Coast would flog a combined VFL team. They were in front of Brisbane at three quarter time and lost by only 19 points, should have beaten Essendon, Richmond and North, and they smashed St Kilda.
Apart from the very small audience and Taco lying about there being no rain, the appearance of the troops was telling; they were wearing field or casual uniforms rather than service or formal uniforms, not marching in step, dragging their feet, slouching and, as my old drill sergeant was fond of saying, "looking like a shower of sh1t."
Then there's the choice of music; CCR's "Fortunate Son" - a classic Vietnam War protest song.
While there is a suggestion that this was an organised protest, it's not clear whether the troops were showing opposition to their commander in chief, unhappiness at having to take part in the parade, or just being generally d1cked around.
I guess the saving grace is that the "marching" doesn't allow the use of a Bee Gees' track:
One thing that impressed me about Sunday's game was the form of Jaxon Binns. In his previous senior games he has looked to me like a VFL player having a crack at AFL. On Sunday he looked like an AFL player who was confident and competent playing at that level. He disposal is generally good but he needs to tidy up some errant kicking ... he's not Robinson Crusoe there.
Sam Walsh was back to his best and is virtually impossible to replace with a like for like player. Binns and Lord together provided a reasonable replacement.
Shows how much we've missed Cincotta, just seems to be one of the types who finds himself in the right place at the right moment.
I think that it’s more about reading the play and knowing where the right places are.
The thing about Cincotta is that he can play multiple roles. In some ways, he’s a bit like Chugga but a better finisher and with the foot speed to defend more effectively.
Oscar Allen has hardly touched the ball all year, is leaving as a free agent, doesnt care anymore and was also injured in the game and should have been dropped weeks ago but WC being the abysmal team they are have nothing else and are forced to play him. Weitering has been doing ok for a player who looks sore and injured at times especially when he kicks the ball. Got a bad corky or two a while back and I wonder if he really should have been rested.
As I said, for a bloke allegedly carrying an injury, Weitering had an outstanding game. His ability to get to marking contests and spoil is amazing when you think that he is basically hopping to contests. Of course, his ten intercepts weren't that impressive because the ball just happened to land where he was standing ... ten times. His eight contested possessions probably shouldn't count because his opponents didn't really try.
Oscar Allen kicked four goals against the much vaunted and full strength Geelong defence a couple of weeks ago. He looked pretty competitive for a bloke who doesn't care
We are being told we changed a few things up due to injuries. But in fact the course of the match pretty much mirrored a lot of our performances this year.
I think you are putting a lot of stock into what Charlie said.
He is the one that said we changed things up due to injuries. He also said the small forwards did well after he went off kicking a couple goals. Pretty sure we only kicked 1 since he went off and that was Mitch McGovern.
So don't take his words as gospel.
Charlie basically repeated what Vossy said apart from his quip about giving the small forwards an opportunity to do their thing.
Durdin and McGovern kicked our last two goals after Charlie went off.
For a bloke that's allegedly playing under duress, Jacob Weitering played one hell of a game. I know our defence plays as a unit and the work of Haynes or Saad may contribute to Hollands winning a contest or clearing the ball out of defence, but Weitering's individual effort was outstanding. Oscar Allen hardly touched the ball while Weitering had 23 disposals at 74%. Of course, Weitering and his fellow defenders accumulate possessions through switches of play and kicks to the pocket after a behind, but Weiters managed 10 intercepts, eight contested possessions and he killed 10 marking contests while taking 14 marks himself ... and he spent the entire game on the ground.
Lazy... we deliberately changed mode to a different style.
Not sure where the idea comes from that this is an effort or desire based situation.
Its a tactical shift to a slower mode of playing.
Not sure where the idea comes from that it's lazy or based on a desire. They are clearly trying to play a different method that is not as contested and there is no practice like match practice. Occasionally our opposition are forcing this to happen but that wasn't what happened yesterday.
Yes, Vossy explained that the loss of our two key forwards necessitated a change in gamestyle as we jury-rigged a forward line and second ruck. Silvagni was also in the rooms for a while after a late, high hit. I suspect that he was undergoing a HIA. We had McGovern in defence and Williams as our “tall” forward.
Wilson is probably close to earning a game, and they seem to be working on him as a HBF I'd like to see him given a try. A word of caution though, while he has 25 possessions half way through the last (and Boyd has 28) a lot of those are passes between the two of them.
A lot of Boyd's are kick ins ... but he still played a pretty good game!
Saffies rolled us, lost a few wickets this morning(England time) but Markram with 136 did the bulk of the work required. Going to have to be changes and the Aus mates club losing a few members.
Smith has to miss and Inglis has to replace Marnus. Webster keeps the all rounder spot and another batsman replaces Green.
I admit that this would be a good time to blood Ben Camporeale, but our Match Committee generally don't see things the way I do. Some of their decisions are more than a little strange far too often. But then, as long as we win, I guess they've done their job. I just don't think they've always allowed us to win.
There decisions might seem strange but they have the benefit of knowing the ins and outs of a ducks ass. They watch and monitor the players every day know exactly what they are/arent capable of and where they are in there stage of development. We simply dont have this level of knowledge.
I agree!
Skull is a case in point. He wasn't ready for AFL, something clicked, and then he was. The coaches picked that up and he got his chance. Same with Harry O'Farrell; many supporters were dubious but he acquitted himself well.
Ben Camporeale will get his chance when he's ready.
Embarrassing performance from our blokes, Saffies are within reach of victory with opener Markram hammering our bowling, we could still win given SA are a rubbery batting line up who could collapse but we still need 8 wickets and they only need 80 odd runs.
Even more embarrassing for the selectors EB!
Khawaja can be hit or miss but he’s better with an opening partner who can take some pressure off him. Marnus hasn’t scored runs in any form of cricket for quite a while and expecting him to open the batting is a huge leap of faith.
Green’s not a number 3 and never will be and I really don’t think you can play him and Webster in the same 11.
Both teams have decent attacks but the wicket doesn’t hold any terrors. Inept batting is the key to us winning/losing 🙄
Fantasia only had five disposals but they all came from contested possessions and his disposal efficiency was 100%. He also kicked a goal, had two score involvements, one clearance and stuck four tackles. Then there’s the work Fantasia does getting up and down the ground and applying pressure. All in all, not brilliant but a reasonable return for a bloke playing the Matt Cottrell high half forward role.
White didn’t get much of a run but he was lively when he came on. One effective disposal and no tackles for a fresh player isn’t that flash though.
I suspect that White will be around for a bit longer than Fantasia but I think he needs to build some form in the magoos.
We played five of our “small” forwards last Sunday and were also rotating midfielders through the forward line … and “small” forwards through the midfield.
These days I'm not confident no matter who we play or where.
I think that, more so than ever before, no result can be taken for granted this season. Stan the Statistician might be able demonstrate why we should win, but his facts and figures don’t cover what’s going on above the shoulders 🙄