Re: AFLW 2019 GF: Carlton vs Adelaide
Reply #43 –
I was very surprised to see so many people give Downie votes in the GF. I thought she tried well, but it was from the ruck that the crows won the game.
Downie has given us 1st service all year and helped Prespakis and co get us moving forward, but we couldn't get the same service in the granny and as a result, couldn't get our hands on the ball enough.
Downie will be top 5 in the B+F, but was far from top 5 in the GF IMO.
As for Moody, i hope it was a lack of pre-season that hurt her this year, because if it wasn't, i wouldn't even offer her a spot on the list! Can't kick, too slow and rubbish when the ball is on the deck. Traditionally, she's a dinosaur ruck.
I don't think Downie was beaten around the ground at all, if the only measure is the tap then perhaps but that is a very narrow focus, on 2nd efforts and around the ground she probably came out on top!
I suppose stating Downie was beaten is no different to claiming Phillips did well despite his direct opponents twice being rated by many as BoG. There is a bigger picture.
I think the better measure of a ruck is often what they do when they aren't winning the tap. It's also a good measure of the midfield, what they do when their ruck isn't dominant, I think it showed our midfield inexperience, and I'm not sure the clearances would have been much different even if we had a dominant ruck.