Lost three of four since the decision was made to play two rucks and took away run. Just not happening. Needs to change - if we persist with it then Pitto needs to do alot more. Needs to either tackle more or take more marks... expecting both is abit much but if he is going to drop marks then he needs to tackle. TDK was tracking nicely in all three categories before moving him forward. He was tackling, marking and winning clearances not as many as Pitto but he has a more balanced A grade type game thats growing. Can't take run away from this team against the Dees. imo
I thought Pittonet played a decent game...he got away with a bit too pushing the Pies rucks away from the ball with two hands well before the ball arrived imho, he will need to do that to Gawn and hopefully slow him down so TDK can jump all over him later. While Im not a fan of two ruckman every game I think vs Melb with Gawn its sensible to try and wear him down and negate his influence. We will probably get slaughtered in the hitouts but if we can prevent him directing them and taking marks around the ground it will go a long way to winning the game and I think Pittonet getting his big frame in the packs might help our mids as the Dees have some strong bodies around the ball like we do and it will be a war of attrition given the short turn around with both teams having played tough games.
Yep he nailed it and I thought the midfield stuff was on the money too, they had a plan , worked us out and I thought Pendlebury was finished but he played some game on the bigger Cripps.
Go back and watch the replay, Walsh is basically in a bear hug every other stoppage with arms around his waist, nada, nothing, nought!
Fans want to whack Williams, but what he did players do all the time and do not get pinged. The willingness of fans to throw rocks at Williams goes back to when he signed on, fans bitched and moaned about the dollars, but that is not Williams fault, much like it wasn't the fault of Martin or McGovern before him. But the dollars put him in the sh1thouse with many fans forever more with the dollars equating to tall poppy syndrome!
Then you have the intentional out of bounds, our bloke gets pinged for a kick off the side of the boot, Pendlebury kicks it 50m almost directly sideways in the dying moments and gets away with it.
These are game changing moments caused by officials not good play by an opponent.
I get our club doesn't want to be seen as whinging, but if they are raising these issues in a very public way it's never going to go our way. The privacy does nothing, we need the AFL giving fans a public explanation. When the AFL officials get sick of making up excuses, the errors will diminish.
Frees were even overall and we cant mask the errors we made by blaming umpires....the Pendlebury kick was 50/50 imo and we wouldnt want that paid against us in the same situation.....if he had a man on him at the ball up we wouldnt have had an issue like when he kicked that important goal from an easy leadup mark inside 50 where some lazy Carlton opponent didnt pick him up and he was miles in the clear.
Its not panic stations yet but we need to beat the Colls, the Geels, etc. Right now with Freo beating Rich, we are sitting 8th.
Got a few big heads drinking their own bathwater and forgetting about doing the hard stuff hoping stalwarts Cripps, Weitering etc will save the day. We lost the clearances to a depleted Pies midfield ...that should never , never happen if we want to win the big games.
Not paying the ones to Harry doesnt make the Elliot ones not there. Point is he panicked everytime the ball csme to them
Agree....I think its obvious ZW isnt comfortable back on the last line and the selection of opponent is important and while Im not defending him giving away the free's I feel the coaching staff have to wear some of the blame. You have another nervous defender in Young plus two inexperienced players in Cowan and Cincotta and the pressure is a lot different to when you have regulars like Saad, McGovern and even Docherty down back. Elliott needs a taller player to control his marking ability and ZW isnt a strong overhead player or suited, I'll repeat that with McGovern out I would never have dropped Kemp and either used him on Elliott or at least used him to provide cover for Williams.
Right this very minute, I say we are the posers and better rectify it quickly if we want to contend.
Agree.....the Voss reaction with Cerra on the boundary shows he isnt happy and Id expect a few home truths and back to basics football vs Melbourne with defense ,manning up as a priority and sticking to the game plan.
When Daicos jr kicked that goal it reminded so much of his father in terms of how he runs, the balance and laying the ball across the boot. His old man is over the top and as GTC has said that when he gets on the drink he acts stupidly, carries on and you can really see him still living the dream through his kids and I wonder how he will react when things dont go their way which will happen one day.
He put his arms around him, once you do that youre gone.
That's how it's umpired, paying the Elliott frees is fair enough but Harry got nothing for the same holding treatment down the other end and I think that's what's irking a few fans .
Ok Ill call a spade a spade and shoot Bambi, Walsh either fell asleep or had the wrong mindset at that stoppage. With the scores level and close to their goal, a defensive mindset had to be first and foremost. We let that happen too many times on the night, the last one was costly.
Nick Daicos is quick and should have had a full time tagger or a rotating group of players on him . I don't expect my star mid to tag him..Neale, Petracca, etc Daicos himself don't tag or mind a man.
I disagree, people forget the Freo game where Williams and his dash and dare won us the game. Saad excels at his role, Williams is a poor man’s replacement but it’s temporary.
NT, We will agree to disagree on ZW...with players returning it will be interesting to see if the coach has faith in him and he keeps his place..
What people forget is that Saad can lock down and run and create, with him out Williams is asked to do his job. Williams copped heaps last week and was nervous on Friday as the two early frees showed. When 1st choice players are back and guys like Williams can return to their preferred run and gun position the whole team will look and perform better. And don’t get me started on the fb bananas who wanted to play Kemp on Cox without McGovern there to come over the top… 🤦🏼♂️
And those two early frees for scragging… didn’t seem to get paid at the other end of the ground, did they ?
1 goal loss with our cobbled together team, I’ll wear that.
Umpiring was fickled and Harry in particular was held without frees being paid. Young on Cox was the obvious move given the height factor. I would never have dropped Kemp though. As I said I can't see Williams being in the team with everyone fit, it's hard to carry him as just an offensive player.
Yep, Pitto does need to take those marks around the ground, but no blame for the loss could be put on the shoulders of our rucks. Likewise, with the exception of Williams, our defence did well until continued pressure and too many inside 50s from Rottingwood.
I also didn't see much wrong with our midfield, apart from being a little loose at times (Walsh) and going backwards too often (Cerra).
Rottingwood came well prepared to counter any and all of our strengths. They were mentally up for the challenge and hunted us really well. Whereas, we looked a little confused at times with a concerning lack of connection around the ground and especially between midfield and forwards. Insufficient confidence?
Williams is not a deep defender. Panics. Much better further up the ground. We were very, very lucky there weren't more free kicks against him as he did 'hang on' to opponents too much. Weiters, Boyd, Gov, Newey, Saad, Cincotta, Cow... are far more reliable in deep defence.
I've banged on before about a 'hunting' mentality. When we have this, we are much, much better. Finessing, is not our thing. We do better when the attitude/focus is simple. We seem to be thinking too much. Too complex trying to implement 'layers?'
They outworked us, contested better and our one wood which is our big mids dominating the clearances didnt dominate and with them losing DeGoey and Mitchell pregame as well as McCreery during the game who was being used in the middle thats where we lost it imho and failed to capitalize on our advantage. We need to dominate clearances to make up for our lack of pace, but we had spectators and players avoiding chasing and even contests on occasion. Williams was a terrible recruiting mistake but we are stuck with him and have to try and find him a position to make the best of his skillset, starting him deep on Elliott who is a strong mark for his inches when isolated one on one was a poor matchup and the coaching box need to take the blame as much as Williams who panicked and started holding.....the umpires of course paid those free's but totally ignored the same free's down the other end to Harry who was being grabbed by Frampton but thats swings and roundabouts in the game and hopefully Harry gets them next game..
