Interesting point from the interview with Power at one of the quarter time breaks. He touched on the backing-up of Young after being a sub the previous night and on other occasions where the needs of the senior team took precedence over the VFL side. Examples-resting O'Farrell last week and Cincotta last night to be ready for next week after a short break.
It's all part of the total process but VFL wins are clearly secondary to the needs of the AFL team (as it should be) and Power should be cut a bit of slack for any results given his side gets turned upside down on a weekly basis. Any injuries to any player on the senior list has an impact on the VFL side. Positional experiments decreed from above also limit his options. He's doing pretty well.
One thing that shouldn't be overlooked in that, is that he must have a system/game plan in place that doesn't matter about the cattle he has out there. Eg, he can't build around a certain player, because that play might be called up to the 1's. He needs a plug and play style that works regardless of who is in the team.
That sounds VERY attractive for our senior side given our overreliance on certain players....who are underperforming.
Lemmey seems to be playing a Harry McKay type role. A bit of rucking and playing up around the wing half-forward at times. Perhaps an audition. Made a really good chase early in the quarter...it probably stood out because you don't often see that from a tall Carlton forward
I think the up and comers in him and HOK are actually very agile for 2m+ blokes. Good to see. Both need to put on size which may hurt that agility somewhat, but its better than not having it to begin with.
Lemmey simply needs to be given a go. 46 VFL games in his career IIRC. He's done his apprenticeship. Get him up to the 1's
I saw a highlight of Keeley Skepper slotting a goal from the boundary just as the siren went to put us in front. Not sure if that was to win the game or if it was at one of the breaks. Can you confirm?
I think that was the game winner.
That was akin to the game winner from Fev in Adelaide back in the day.
At least the girls won, although it took a huge number of AFLW listed players to manage it: Carlton: 6 - 5 - 41 Collingwood: 5 - 7 - 37
Brooke Vickers; 27 possessions to lead all comers.
I saw a highlight of Keeley Skepper slotting a goal from the boundary just as the siren went to put us in front. Not sure if that was to win the game or if it was at one of the breaks. Can you confirm?
MBB was big on TDKs work in the in-game thread. I thought it to be a little over the top, but each their own. Very surprised to see his name floated as one of our best.
Looking at the numbers, Pittonet smashed him even in areas TDK should be dominant.
Pittonet is on about 25% (at most) of what TDK is being offered, but delivered basically twice the output last night.
I'm not saying this to pump up Pitto. Rather to point out that TDK leaving is probably going to be more beneficial to the team/club/list than us keeping him. Simply not good enough.
I reckon him rucking would let him focus on where the ball is going and give him more chance of getting to the drop zone first, without some parasite hanging off him.
100%
This is why i like using non-rucks in rucking roles. It frees them up of any tag/matchup they might have and allows them to influence the game directly. Whether that is Cripps or Silvagni or Harry or whoever. I've ran the numbers on hitouts to advantage and clearances and there is minimal difference from a dedicated 2nd ruck to a 'mr fix it' ruck. Might get an extra hitout to advantage or 2 at most. However, for the rest of the 115 minutes of football, the non-2nd ruck is more beneficial around the ground.
Harry played himself into form when he was allowed to stretch his legs in the ruck.
I know its only 2 games, but we've played 2 rucks twice all year and its been our 2 more unimpressive results, last night against the pies, and 2 weeks ago against the kangas.
There's this belief that Cripps is injured to account for his lower effectiveness. I'm wondering if we need to find a different role for him outside the square as he can't get away from contests or buy a kick right now. How's about playing him as a lead up forward and relief ruck? Or has his back too far gone? I'm just thinking that teams seems have come up with a way of completely nullifying him in the square and once the ball leaves the contested zone he's a witches hat.
I was thinking the same thing.
Play him forward in tandem with Charlie and bring in Lemmey as well. Cripps can act like a tall or a small in the forward line (good with the ball on the deck) and get throw his weight around and protect Lemmey should he require it.
Bring in Ben Campo and give him time in the guts. Continue to run Motlop and Williams (if fit) in the middle to get some more speed, agility and kicking ability out of there.
Having Cripps as the 2nd ruck instead of Pittonet (or TDK if you wanna cut ties with him now) gives us a lot more versatility.
Haven't looked at the Williams knee incident at length, but if it is anything more than some bruising, then i'd put my money on PCL. The old ruck 'knee-on-knee' injury. If so, could very well be season over....and who knows....might even be career over.
I touched on it last night, but scroll through to around the 5.15 mark and listen to Voss talk about supporting people and families and "pressure and messaging" being the least of his concerns right now. What do we make of that.
At the end he didn't shy away from the result. "We let our club down tonight"
There seems to be some reasons for a drop in form that are not known to us.
Maybe some of the battles from elijah and Harry are bigger or more common than we know. There were rumours about players with other players gfs and all sorts of off field distractions that could at least in part explain some of the nonsense we've seen on field. Maybe docherty got some more bad news about his cancer battle? Maybe some players got told they are not getting another contract? Maybe some assistants got they are not getting another contract (don't they need 3 months notice? That'd be now wouldn't it?)
.... or it could all be complete bollocks and we all just suck.
It was a strange thing to say and it's like him to expand on that in the future.
We talk about how 'it is not weak to speak' but then we gloss over stuff like this and pretend everything is fine and dandy. This is a big contradiction throughout the afl world and if you want to relieve some of the pressure on the players, coach and club, then perhaps be more open and honest. You'd get some sympathy and some breathing room at least.
You want to see why ruckman are dependent on their mids, you can look no further than our own rucks. No cripps, hewett and walsh dominating and our rucks are battlers again. A good midfield will make an average ruckman look good. A good ruck will not help an average midfield.
I'd take it a step further and say you want to see why rucks are overrated and why you are better off giving that backup ruck duty to someone who has another position he can play....
I've been banging on about it for years. Hitouts as a stat are useless. As long as you compete, and don't hit directly to the opposition, it doesn't matter who you have in there. Especially for our line-up.
