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[flash=200,200]http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/2IZ9feKpJkk[/flash]
Seeing as we're going down memory lane, I bought my first cassette player in Papua New Guinea in 1972 and one of the few decent cassettes I could buy was Chain's "Towards the Blues".
While I was out scrambling up and down the highlands, one of my comrades, who had been 'casevacced' with a 'sore ankle', was lazing in the Lae barracks and playing 'Black and Blue' over and over until he wore out my cassette. Every time I hear 'Black and Blue' I think about humping a 25 set radio through the New Guinea highlands
[flash=200,200]http://www.youtube.com/v/E40IFKrzDIg[/flash]
The great J J Cale has passed away at only 74 years of age.
We have some players in the best form of their careers- Simmo, Tuohy, Walker, Hendo. Yet we have a midfield that really has been an achilles heal against the good sides this year. Murphy, Judd, Carrazzo- our offensive midfilders have been ordinary. Gibbs was good early, but he is just 'another player' in our side. Gibbs has not even got close to his 3rd season in terms of SC points and is currently averaging 11% lower than his 2009 season. His SC points have slipped consistently and his output is no different to his output last year. His first game of the year has been his best, and has not even got close to those SC points since. ie. he showed us what he can do in that game, but like his whole career, he has not delivered it consistently in 2013.
At Etihad, without Pavlich, we are 4 goals closer, but we really cannot carry the passengers that we had against the Suns. Our bottom 3 players had less SuperCoach points than the Suns worst performer. That in a 7 goal win is pretty poor (The bottom 2, Rowe and Lucas, played all or a significant part of the game). Judd's decline is interesting. Last year, his average SC points dropped by 10% from the year before and this year it has dropped a further 5%. We all know that SC points are not an exact science, but I think this analysis reflects what we are all seeing from him. Three games ago, judd was superb- but in terms of SC points, it was an anomally, 15% higher than his previous best this year and 37% better than his average. To put that into persective, he had four higher scores than that game (saints) last year, 5 better games in 2011 and 7 better games in 2010. An indication that the best of Judd is far behind and we can only really expect one other 'vintage' Judd game this year.
Murphy is an interesting one. He is 20% down on his output last year, and surprisingly, he actually came back better after the Dangerfield bump (based on SC points). However, his last 2 games against GC and St Kilda last year were well down and that form (average SC) has continued into this year. Murphy has only scored SC points that matched his average last year against Essendon, Port Adelaide, Melbourne and Geelong. He has scored his lowest scores of his career this season against the Saints and and Collingwood. Even worse than his first year.
Robbo is another, 15% down on last year. Ed is up about 8%, but is a defensive midfielder. Brock is down almost 20% too. So all in all, our midfielders are down by an average of 10-15%.
What this all means is that we can not rely on Judd anymore and for some reason, our other gun midfielder is struggling. We need Judd to meet his average (100 SC is still a good output), but we clearly need Murphy to up his output by 20% this week. What it also shows, is that we probably need to start introducing more offensive midfielders who are going to rack up some possessions. Bell and Graham have not collected less than 30 possessions in the last 4 games that they have played in the VFL. These are the types of players that we require now. We need our hands on the pill in the middle, not simply limiting the opposition's midfielders.
Bell and/or Graham need to come in this week.
Good post...I'd like the bigger frame of Bell in the team, reckon Graham could wait for an easier game to debut in.
@RR
Interesting report RR, many thanks. Especially encouraged to read about O'Keefe who I'd pretty much discounted as gorn. Maybe he will turn it around and do a Brock McLean??
Blues won by 58. Casboult 3, Bell 2 + 33 possies. Graham had 32.
Would love to see Graham play next week against Freo. Rest Lucas maybe.
Northern Blues vs. CoburgWith Cachia playing today at Metricon instead of Bootsma, there will be at least 1 change. I don't know if Boots can play, if he is ready to play.
Sunday 28th July
Preston City Oval at 1:00 PM
Northern Blues
B Coulson* Dirago Joseph
HB A. Gianfagna Davies Duigan
C Dale Cachia O'Keeffe
HF Wilson Laidler Temay
F Buckley Casboult Menzel
R Warnock Graham Lambert
Int Posar Meese Bransgrove Thomas Lincoln Currie Mitchell T. Bell Marcon
Coburg
B: Batchelor Elton Astbury
HB: Ellis Dea Tuck
C: Conca Clifton Lonergan
HF: Carnell Griffiths Nahas
F: O'Hanlon A. Edwards McGuane
R: Stephenson Arnot Helbig
Int: Groves Thomas McDonough N. Maric Uysal A. Saad Venditti Darrou Brandt McBean Derickx Boyd* Verrier
Nice to see Tom Bell named. I wonder if he'll play?
Coburg have had the wood over us recently. Aaron Edwards has had leather poisoning and kicked heaps. I hope there are a few Tigers who are going to play senior footy, as their team looks much better than usual.
Stephenson also tends to play well against us.
I hope we can show some of the spirit and endeavour we displayed last week.
I hope Tom Bell is ready to play!
We all love Sam Rowe. He is not quite good enough, but more than useful.To be honest, I wasn't disappointed in Watson's effort. He did what he had to. His various opponents didn't do a lot: most of Gold Coast's attacks went through Charlie Dixon (who Jamo minded when he played forward). If they had used Day's agility against Watto, they might have got somewhere, but they didn't.
I think Sam needs games. We might need him in the backline too!
Tell me, how did Mat Watson go? Not many kicks, but good goal.
Is he paying his way, or is he a weak-link-awaiting-proof?
Would be good if he came through !!
Watson's goal was very nice and he really liked it.
I only saw the first quarter and a bit but Rowe got his hands to about 10 potential marks and didn't take one.
How does that happen with a guy who has sticky hands?
Rowe was very unconvincing today.
He has no second effort, and if not on his terms, sometimes even no first effort.
Can take a mark when he wants, but he is a bit too stand offish for mine.
Bottom line....
If Warnock's fit and available Rowe doesn't play.
Not for me...I'm still sticking with Rowe, we need a second ruckman but one who can take a mark and give us some options....Warnock is still a lampost who can only play ruck.
Rowe wasnt great today, didnt take enough marks or get involved enough but i think we have to get away from rotating our KP/rucks when they have a ordinary game or two.
You have to build confidence to build a structure and I think Rowe has to be educated and given a chance to settle.......if you did drop Rowe then I reckon it has to be Casboult who comes in...at least he can play more than one position. I dont see Warnock as an option unless Kruezer gets hurt.
re: Waite...happy to have him back in the team but he isnt a ruckman and you still need a backup for Kruezer wether it be Rowe or Casboult.
Watson certainly has to stake his claim today to his spot in the team. With a good performance he could begin to convince the powers that be that he is one serious solution to our key defender needs. Convincing people on here will be a lot harder for him of course.Go Watto!
