The review tomorrow needs to concentrate on sharing the ball in front of goal. We were extremely selfish about 4 different times and didn't look for the obvious option.
I don't think it's selfishness. I just don't think our boys have confidence in being able to hit the target in a better position. You can see the thought tick over in their head about 3 or 4 times and by then it's too late.
Say what you will about Murphy's Captaincy, but I'd take him over Cotchin any day of the week. He's finally spending more time in a role more suited to his skill set and I think he's been more damaging this year than he has for a long time.
Read we are 18th for overall clearances and similar for centre clearances.....thats not good when most of us rate our mids as one of our few positives, impossible to win games with those stats.....Cripps is being rotation tagged every game and its exposing the rest of our mids as nothing more than free wheelers who wont get the hard ball...
18th for clearances and 18th for tackles in the AFL.
Cripps is 1st for clearances and 4th for tackles in the AFL.
All over and we really crashed out in the last quarter.
Northern Blues 8 - 7 - 55 Western Bulldogs 15 - 14 - 104
GOALS: Jones 3, Gallucci 2, Viojo-Rainbow, Jaksch, Gorringe.
Jones got 2 of his 3 in a couple of moments in the 2nd quarter. Jaksch and Gorringe got 1 each. None of these performances shouts out 'play me in the seniors' to me.
DISPOSALS: Dick 30, Tutt 27, Strachan 25, Viojo-Rainbow 24, White 24, Cuningham 21.
Tutt may get a call up with 27 possessions. Dick continues to show he has this level covered, but the questions over his pace remain. White will be in line for a game after this sort of effort. DVR and Cunningham must have shown something.
I will be interested to read any reports. I am assuming that Plowman got 3 quarters, going from these statistics.
This surprises me because speed was one of his key attributes and why we recruited him. “He's a powerful right-footer with plenty of leg speed who makes good use of the football." - McKay
I'm not convinced our fitness base is the problem. Our players just don't play intelligent footy. They don't run to the right positions and they don't make it easy for their team mates. When was the last time you saw Hodge, Lewis and Mitchell gut-running to cover turnovers or fast ball movement from the opposition? It just puts too much pressure on our defenders and causes the midfield to run out of gas.
I'm not convinced it's poor disposal half of the time either. it's the players up field not working together to create space and to present a clear target for our players to hit up. How often do we kick to a player that has one or two defenders hanging off them? They need to be smarter, work together, and create space for themselves.
Smart teams conserve energy and win games by being efficient.
We have an extra two days rest so we should run out the game just as well as they do. I'm predicting that Franklin will cause too many problems in the forward line (not too worried about Tippett).
IN: Gorringe, Thomas OUT: Casboult, Buckley
Byrne unlucky. Casboult's kicking is a liability. It'd be different if he was getting 5 or 6 shots on goal and kicking 2 each game. But he's not kicking any as a permanent forward.
