Well you all know I've had my issues with Simpson, but whatever Mick has done or said to him has worked.. Playing him off the backline is a pure master stroke..
I gave him BOG last week (which may surprise a few) and I'll give it to him again this week.. Infact i'll go as far as saying that he was crucial in so many moments in the last half which saved us from getting scored against.. He was brilliant and saved our a55.. I have that much confidence in him now when he gets the ball, and I back him in to win the ball in every 50/50 contest he goes in.. There was one against Harvey which stood out and one in the last 1/4.. He is giving his all and busting his a55 and thats all we can ever ask.. Well done Simmo.. You are finally becoming a favourite, just dont fall back into old habbits..
I thought Hendo was brilliant... This guy is special..
Jamo... WTF? Worst game Ive seen you play.. Yes we all know Petrie always pulls your pants down, but thats no excuse to cough the ball up when you finally get it, over and over and over again.. Worst game of yours EVER..
Jeffy = Special.. Yazz = sensational Betts = Getting his form back to where it should be..
Kreuzer started off Horrid.. Fumbled, slipped and looked unco in the 1st half and then came out in the 2nd half a different man.. We want more of the 2nd half kreuzer.. He was great...
Thought Lucas was great in the 1st half..
2E is fantastic with ball in hand.. Anywhere within 50.. Put it in the book..
Wattos mark was great..
Rowe was invisible..
Walker looked to have had about 4 of Thomas's goals kicked on him.. Mick wasnt happy..
Army get your form back mate.. Please..
Curnow, very good game and slotted a couple of nice ones..
Scotto looks very slow these days, but in the 3rd 1/4 had it on a string..
Carrazzo did a few nice things but was quietish from what i saw..
Judd and Murph not really ever in it although Judd got bit more of it late, but missed the goal....
Gibbs nice job on Zieblel, but when are we going to see the likes of Ziebel have to tag Gibbs.. I wanted Gibbs sent forward and drag Ziebel with him..
We are forking very lucky to get away with that game..
Jamie..Agree on Scotland....coming to the end, doesnt have the zip to get away these days and is relying on his smarts, still handy but this should be his last season.
Jamo....couple of mistakes and I thought he got a good go of the umpires as well as he was hanging on most of the night, Petrie is a big unit though and the degree of difficulty is high matching him up.
Rowe...dont agree, rucked well in his secondary role and I thought hit the packs hard and didnt allow many marks to be taken by Nth defenders and this helped the amigos, commentators also acknowledged his work in this area.
Kruezer was great when the heat was on, and I like the pairing of him with Rowe...the latter ran out the game well and contested everything and while not big on the stat sheet did his part and I thought his ruck work was good and in tandem they broke Goldstein. This is the pairing we need to go forward with and its a no brainer IMO that they are better footballers than Hampson, Casboult and Warnock. An example was Rowe getting the ball and kicking long from the wing to Henderson running into goal....none of the other mentioned would have made that kick work for Henderson. Kruezer took some telling marks and the faith MM has shown in him is being repaid.
The other part of the structure equation is Watson and McInnes....its a no brainer as well that these two have to play down back and allow Henderson to go up forward. I also think its time to move on from Jarrod Waite and not build a forward line around one player anymore, Henderson is more team focussed IMO and when he gets the ball good things usually happen...
Credit to Yarran....was lousy in the 1st half and half ar$ed but got busy after half time and took a brave mark to kick an important goal...
Garlett also worked hard and earned his goals unlike Thomas who cherry picked half of his...
Lucas....showed some guts tonight and while not having huge stats put the body on the line in some contests and thats progress...he could be agood player if he can keep that level of intensity up...
Touhy...got to love those goals he kicks and the agro he provides.....
Curnow....did the job on his man and got some footy....couple of goals but needs to watch his kicking.
Armfield.......love his contesting and pace but his field kicking isnt great and that goal he missed that he should have kicked shows he might be a fringe player when MM builds a stronger squad.
Gibbs....some woeful disposals but i didnt think Zeibell was anything special either....
Judd...off night but in the last 15 minutes won some good ball and lifted like the good player he is...
Kade Simpson.....BOG for me.....brave and has become that small running defender we have tried to recruit... showing leadership and his 2nd and 3rd effort in contests is setting the bar high for his teammates to follow....
Enjoyable win and a turning point for the club IMO...MM coached well and got his matchups right.....Brad Scott will whinge because thats what he does best and I cant wait for his latest excuse...
Same old same old....Broad and Swann making valuable runs and England getting 50 runs more than they should....when you have teams 3-28 you dont let them off the hook and allow them to make 361. We need 500 to put the pressure on as we are batting last, one of our blokes needs to do a Bell and make a solid century and lead the way. Its time Watson delivered a big score and lived up to the hype...
Greenwood has been in good form, reckon he will play.......they also have three talls down back yet we only have two tall forwards reckon that will change also and they will go smaller....its a night game with what could be ordinary weather, my money is on Robbo coming in for Murphy.
Nth to start favourites.....I think Henderson will find himself with two opponents most of the night and it may be up to players like Garlett, Betts etc to kick a winning score..
Bring on Kawaja! I've lost a lot of interest in cricket over the years but this kid may make me start watching again.
Genuine No 3 which I like..only con I have on him is his fielding,he looks a bit porky and moves like it in the field. Hopefully can build an innings and provide some stability while the strokemakers do their thing...
Harris is a good choice and if he can stay fit should provide us with decent line and length and I like the way he keeps the ball up to the bat and think he will enjoy the conditions. Maybe some shorter spells can make him more durable.....and am hoping Anderson is worn out after Trent Bridge and Cook over bowls him at Lords and he could be done for the remaining tests...
Good luck to him, shown glimpses in his short time at the club and will only get better with more game time, as I said on the other thread I am a fan but he needs to improve his defensive work and not allow players to run off him so easily. Another pre season and he might have the fitness base to be better in this area and I think he has his nose in front of Casboult and Hampson because he is a better kick and MM wants better conversion.....Henderson, Waite and Rowe is decent firepower up forward providing Watson and McInnes keep performing down back.
I was hoping that his getting down and dirty with Geary last Fri might fire him up a bit - get the adrenalin flowing! I'm pretty sure though he's struggling with how/what role MM wants him to play - mind you I've always thought that he's a bit of a cruiser.
Cookie..I thought he did show some intent with mixiing it with Geary but seemed to forget about the football side of things...reckon CY can look after himself with blokes his own size. I feel CY needs a Michael Oloughlin type mentor who can motivate him to be more intense more often.....MickyO was a lazy cherry picker highlight reel type to begin with but gradually became a more complete player and its not a question CY not being able to contest and impact on the game he just picks and chooses when to do it and that is frustrating. As a coach you feel like yelling at him and shaking some sense into him but he isnt that type to respond to that type of treatment and a mentor like MickyO who he might respect and feel and obligation to perform for might do the trick....easier said than done though to entice MickyO or similar to the club.
I think what Rowe showed was that if you play a slightly undersized defender on him he will be able to take advantage. Not a world beater but can definitely have a significant impact.
Carrots....Rowes problems for me are when he doesnt have the ball, chasing, manning up his defender and his endurance for doing this part of the game etc.....he leads well, is very strong in the air one on one and can take the odd mark where he drifts in front of a pack and as you said being much taller than most defenders has a big advantage. He is also probably the best kick for goal out of our talls bar Henderson, he kicks the ones you expect him to kick and usually doesnt miss the harder ones by a long way either.
I think Malthouse will want greater effort from him though on not allowing his man freedom to run down the ground....I think I noticed Stanley, Roberton and Gwilt who all took turns on him run down the ground and he didnt make much effort to chase or pick them up. He is very much in the early version of Justin Westhoff mode....great on the offensive side but zero return on being accountable...Westhoff got slaughtered by Matthew Scarlett in a GF due to his lazy defensive work and it nearly finished his career. Port then played him on the ball and made him learn to be accountable, chase, smother and he has become a better player in this area and is now a decent AFL player. I think Rowe has to learn this side of the game and quickly to retain his place in the team and on the list...MM wont put up with players who are not accountable unless they are brilliant at what they do and Rowe is never going to be brilliant. The opportunity is there as he has another year to improve but needs to apply himself and work harder than he is... ..he has been ill of course and the extra year he has been given is to cut some slack his way IMO but is still a 50/50 long term player IMO. Saying all that I am a fan of his and hope the coach and MC give him plenty of opportunities...
Sam Mitchell was made captain but it didnt work, Mitchell did a fair job but Hodge was always the spiritual leader and the Hawks had the courage to make the swap.... I think Carrazzo is still the man for the job and has the respect...Henderson needs some more runs on the board and why burden him with another job when we are asking him to save and win games at both ends of the ground.
Fair comment from Jamo...Henderson is in our top group of players, couple of errors in defense during our tough run of games probably took the shine off him compared to Taylor etc. I rate him highly though and he must be well placed in our B&F voting along with Judd and Walker...
Dont disagree that our better players have been down on output this year but I dont buy the argument that the list is all fine either....the good clubs have about 30 decent players, we dont and need about 5-6 more good senior players that can impact at senior level.
We wouldnt need to poach Luke Williams from Geelong if the club were that happy with our recruiting or have Hughes and Rogers swap jobs......
England have stuck with a winning squad for the second Ashes Test at Lord's.
Alastair Cook's team hung on for a famous 14-run win in a titanic first Test at Trent Bridge and the selectors this morning confirmed the same 13 to pick from when the second starts on Thursday.
Cook and his coach Andy Flower will then have tougher decisions to make about whether to again give Steven Finn the nod as their third seamer ahead of either Tim Bresnan or Graham Onions.
A Cook (Essex, capt), J Anderson (Lancashire), J Bairstow (Yorkshire), I Bell (Warwickshire), T Bresnan (Yorkshire), S Broad (Nottinghamshire), S Finn (Middlesex), G (Durham), K Pietersen (Surrey), M Prior (Sussex), J Root (Yorkshire), G Swann, (Nottinghamshire), J Trott (Warwickshire).
I hope they keep Finn in the starting 11 because he bowls juicy pies that all of our batsmen bite into with ease.
As for the Aussie team, Cowan has to be dropped surely, getting out to that part-timer Joe Root was unforgiveable. I still think we need another bowling option because Watson is not a wicket-taker, he's just a stop-gap measure whilst the front-liners catch their breath.
Can we further strengthen the batting at all ??
I think Bresnan will play ahead of Finn....the latter was very ordinary with the ball and even less convincing in the field. Bresnan is handy with the willow which will make the Poms batting deeper and his bowling while nothing scary is that of your typical English pro who will work batsman out rather than blast them out.
Bairstow didnt impress me with the bat and while Root looked ok in the First Innings he is still a young kid learning the game.....
Harris or Bird in for Starc and I think Cowan will get another chance.....
Hope the wicket at Lords has some more life than Trent Bridge..the lack of bounce really took the edge of our quicks IMO..Pattinson and Starc couldnt get any real lift to trouble the batsman and none of our blokes move the ball like Anderson. I wonder if its a plan of the Poms to serve up these dead wickets with no bounce...
Not so sure its the system..we just cant use it and waste reviews on rubbish appeals that never look like being out or when batting review the plumb ones.... Get a wicketkeeper who knows whats going on would help...
Had all day..just had to milk the runs from the opposite end that Anderson was bowling but no ..Haddin has to chase/poke at one and gets caught behind. Pattinson had the right idea..play straight keep the good ones out and just score easy from Swan with the field offering singles everywhere..
I thought we could win, all the hard work for nothing.....following Australia is like following Carlton..teased to the end and then we lose the close ones....
Worst game Ive seen you play.. Yes we all know Petrie always pulls your pants down, but thats no excuse to cough the ball up when you finally get it, over and over and over again.. Worst game of yours EVER..