616
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: Elimination Final: Blues v Tigers (In Game Thread)
They dam will break if that much pressure is maintained.
Messages
This section allows you to view all Messages made by this member. Note that you can only see Messages made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - mateinone
They dam will break if that much pressure is maintained.
617
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: Elimination Final: Blues v Tigers (In Game Thread)
618
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: ELIMINATION FINAL : Blues V Tigers (Pre-Game Patter)
I assume you don't extend this attitude to other aspects of your life otherwise you would have killed yourself by now. So why view your football club like this?
Are you 13?
I haven't enjoyed football this season for a number of reasons, one of them is that imo my football club has gone backwards.
Making up numbers in the finals gives me no satisfaction, especially when we were not in the best 8 sides to play this year and if we wanted to be honest it would be very easy to mount an argument that we were not in the best 9 sides this year.
I am not trying to take away from others joy, I am saying I get no joy out of this season and this finals series and i will be doing something other than listening to or watching the football next Sunday, because at the moment I could not give a crap.
Now thank goodness I don't seek your permission to be quite flat about my team this year, I have followed them long enough to have a right to feel however I like about this season and I have stated how that is.
619
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: ELIMINATION FINAL : Blues V Tigers (Pre-Game Patter)
Could not put away Essendon who over the last 6 weeks have lost their other 5 games by an average of about 55 points.
We have beaten Port and Richmond since the GC game and lost to the Bulldogs and Essendon. Both the Port and the Richmond game they should have put us away and if it was finals, I don't think you come back in either of those games.
Port have been a better team than us all year and if I was Richmond I would rather play the soft as crap Carlton, who 'may' show their class, but probably won't, than the Power who you know will give it everything and play it like it is the end of the world. Every day give me the soft cocks, because there is a huge chance our crap side shows up and they do to us what we done to Essendon in the finals a couple of years back and belt the pants off us.
I am embarrassed that we are playing finals with our performances this year and hold no excitement going into this weeks game. We have 11 wins for the season and many times have looked completely inept. I would rather just have the off-season roll on and see how next year shapes.
620
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Karma
Btw... if something like that was in play, surely a system whereby you can receive only positive and not negative feedback would be better.
Or... just feedback directly on posts rather than posters
621
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Channel your anger
I am considering a trip to NZ in the next couple of months. Have not finalized anything yet, but have started looking around.
Have always wanted to go there and not really sure why I haven't it looks like it has some spectacular areas.
622
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Channel your anger
MM made it clear during the preseason, he said something along the lines of if a player is down because of what the senior coach and/or the assistant coaches have said, he does NOT expect others around the club will give the player a shoulder to cry on and tell them it will be okay. That when he or the assistants do criticize a player there is a method to it. There is a reason for the criticism and there is a path they want the players to follow to deal with that.
I would think that MM who usually composes quite well before a media conference and goes in there knowing exactly what he wants to say would have decided in advance that this needed to be said about the players. We as supporters have no real idea, we can only guess ourselves.
It may be that the players are too precious and he wanted to call that out. We generally have a well behaved football club, with a few exceptions, but we are also too well behaved on the field as well and we certainly don't have the mongrel about us.
I haven't heard MMs comment, but I did see something about him calling out 10 players and that is on the back of the significant cuts he mentioned. I believe this team had some sort of chance of a flag under Brett Ratten, but not under MM. To get one under MM we have to embrace change and that includes to the list because quite simply this team doesn't have the makeup to play a brand of football MM wants at a level consistently enough for a top 4 finish, let alone a flag.
He needs to rebuild this side, there is no way around that now.
623
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: Rd 19 - Carlton vs Fremantle (Pre Contest Conundrums)
Fremantle will not allow us many inside 50 marks, so I think the Rowe v Casboult argument should almost purely be around who will crash the packs and create chances for our smalls first. We basically want a Leigh Brown (Collingwood days) effort from whoever it is. It is tough, because I think Rowe gets his hands to more balls, but Casboult appears to take more marks (without checking stats anyway), the question has to be though 'does Rowe have any influence when he gets his hands to the ball or is it usually a pretty straight forward spoil for the defenders, I think it is the latter.
One thing I would take note though is that the smalls should be hitting that contest differently depending on who it is that does play. If for example Casboult plays... I would be wanting probably one small around the foot of the contest and one around the back. If it is Rowe I would want a small 5-10 m in front of the contest and another around the foot of it. This is particularly true for longer high balls, as when out on a lead there is far less time, but that is the 'zonal' situation I would want our smalls playing. That doesn't have to be one of the amigos and it could just as well be Army or Murphy doing that.
I would probably play Casboult for what it is worth, I think the situation is more controllable when the defenders don't get a clear smash away and I think they are more likely to with Rowe.
Fremantle will (like all their games) be trying to setup from defense and we can't commit all players forward because that is when they will hurt us badly. They cover their zones exceptionally well and will block our space better than most clubs, barring maybe Sydney. I think the boys will absolutely have to be at their best, but if they are I think we will take this by about 2-3 goals.
624
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: RD 18 : Blues Scorch Suns (Post-Siren Sunburn)
re: Waite.......when he comes back Henderson wont be as effective as Waite will draw more of the ball and probably wont convert as well...
I don't agree with this. Waite is almost as good a contested mark as Cloke, the difference being that Cloke uses a lot of body strength for his, Waite relies more on timing his leap and his ability to leap earlier and hang longer, but essentially Waite is capable of similar numbers (when he can stay on the park). Henderson is considerably better than Dawes. The magpies were able to play that two big tall marking forward on their way to a flag and Hawthorn have as well, I was giving some thought as to what to do with Henderson when Waite came back and came to the conclusion we were better off keeping him forward though it is a tough decision.
To me the problem becomes are we weaker with Watson in defense or Rowe/Casboult up forward. I think it is probably slightly (and I do mean slightly) better to have Watson in defense. This could easily change by the week though depending on our opponent. West Coast is a good example. Would be really want Watson or McInnes minding Jack Darling? That could be embarrassing... So that week I would play Hendo down back and wear the loss of him up forward. Against Richmond... I might be okay letting Watson have a go at Vickery, but it would be a tough call.
The key to Waite/Hendo up forward is that Hendo is turning out to be a really good contested marking option and I don't mind his kicking. If he starts getting not only the 2nd best defenders, but also the focus of the 3rd man up (loose defender) is on joining the Waite contest, rather than chopping Hendo out of the contest, then I think Hendo could actually Excel.
Waite back doesn't produce problems for Hendo I think it frees him up and creates a bit of a nightmare for the opposition, especially if our smalls stay in form.
625
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: RD 17 : Blues Defeat Kangaroos (After-Match Defibrillators)
Are people influenced too much by statistics?
Watson's man was Robbie Tarrant for anyone in doubt, I mentioned in my discussions prior to the game that it was always likely to be him, but that I thought North should have played Daw instead, I also think if they did... they would have won this game.
Watson was so far behind Tarrant on the lead tonight that it was embarrassing. I was sitting with a North mate and pointed out the contest before the game, but both agreed that it was unlikely Tarrant would be able to exploit it, because if he gets a free hit at a contested pack mark he is going to reach in to mark, or turn away, because he severely lacks the fortitude required to put a body into the contest, he also is only an average mark anyway and when he kicks a few goals it is often with great kicks, which he is.
I think Tarrant created plenty of chances to influence the game and very little that Watson done had any influence on Tarrant not taking those chances.
Now I have said negative things about Watson before, so perhaps this comes across as biased.... But I absolutely think he had a poor game, it would be akin to saying in the first half McInnes beat Black... nope Black's horrific kicking beat himself. I do think McInnes was better in the 2nd half and the same goes for Watson.
I wasn't at the game last night, but i was there last week. I made some comments about how Watson was used last week and although its tough to guage on TV it appears he was used in a similar role.
Essentially he is used as the spare man who fills the hole.
Last week he played in front of Riewoldt, this week Petrie.
So he may have let his opponent, Tarrant, run free out of the forward line and trailed behind him....but that was probably the plan. Ensure he doesn't get the ball inside 50. If he is outside 50, help out Jamo.
Smart play by Mick as it's worked 2 weeks in a role, using a guy that most people thought was destined for the scrap heap.
That paints a nice picture Kruddler, but that simply wasn't the case. He wasn't a floater, chopout, third man up. He had a direct man he spent a lot of time chasing and that man, despite not being overly quick himself, absolute put 10-15m on him in just about every lead. The worst example was when Tarrant lead to about 60 out, Watson chasing, then he double back into the pocket with Watson about 25 behind him, he should have been in prime position to be the 3rd man into the Petrie/Jamo contest, but funnily enough he again (surprised?) completely shirked it and turned away from the ball as Jamo and Petrie hit it.
Watson was smashed by Tarrant's running, just Tarrant failed to take a number of fairly easy grabs and also failed to use the fact he had been able to leave his opponent behind him to impact as the third man in the contest.
It wasn't great coaching and it wasn't great going by Watson, it was completely Tarrant playing another spud game for a spud player
Btw if Watto plays a good game, he deserves Kudos I don't by any means hate, but people can't rewrite a game to build it up to what it wasn't. It cannot be the bar that is set as a good game, or we will go nowhere.
The same with McInnes on Black early, Black was killing him early and looked unbelievable, he didn't covert so therefore McInnes had done his job??? Not a chance, McInnes had to (and did) lift
626
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: RD 17 : Blues Defeat Kangaroos (After-Match Defibrillators)
Watson's man was Robbie Tarrant for anyone in doubt, I mentioned in my discussions prior to the game that it was always likely to be him, but that I thought North should have played Daw instead, I also think if they did... they would have won this game.
Watson was so far behind Tarrant on the lead tonight that it was embarrassing. I was sitting with a North mate and pointed out the contest before the game, but both agreed that it was unlikely Tarrant would be able to exploit it, because if he gets a free hit at a contested pack mark he is going to reach in to mark, or turn away, because he severely lacks the fortitude required to put a body into the contest, he also is only an average mark anyway and when he kicks a few goals it is often with great kicks, which he is.
I think Tarrant created plenty of chances to influence the game and very little that Watson done had any influence on Tarrant not taking those chances.
Now I have said negative things about Watson before, so perhaps this comes across as biased.... But I absolutely think he had a poor game, it would be akin to saying in the first half McInnes beat Black... nope Black's horrific kicking beat himself. I do think McInnes was better in the 2nd half and the same goes for Watson.
Jamo did make some really stupid mistakes and that bothered me and I also think that Tuohy on Thomas was a bit of a silly mistake, though in fairness Walker did no better. It might have been better to bring back in an Armfield type to play that role...
To Tuohy's credit though, he did look good on multiple occasions with the ball in his hand, I wonder if he just might end up playing a tough midfield role at some stage.
Yarran was playing on a young kid still in Taylor Hine and didn't dominate him, but he certainly had a real impact on contests, there was an embarrassing moment I hope MM doesn't let slip though where he should have beaten Grima at ground level and was basically just swatted away. He did however go at the ball a lot harder and chased and tackled.
Garlett looked a threat all night without actually ripping it open, but it was a good game off footy by him also I though.
Betts... could have easily had 3-4 goals, but in the end was the equal least influential Carlton forward (with Sam Rowe).
Hendo.... Monster game again and seriously outpointed his opponent (Pretty sure that was Grima for a large part, but might have been Thommo), basically any time the ball was kicked to a 3-1 (which btw was bloody often) Hendo halved or won the contest, looks like he just might develop into a very very good footballer does Hendo.
Kreuzer - Comfortably beaten in the ruck for the majority, but Carlton come hard in that regards in the 2nd half and Kreuzer had exponentially more influence than Goldstein, despite any tap differential.
Curnow - Played well for a lot of the game and kicked a couple of important goals at a time we really needed them, only criticism is that his vision was terrible in the last (pretty sure it was Curnow) when he ran towards 50 and we had Garlett running in from the right and kick over to him was a goal, instead he crossed it to the other side of the park and we didn't score. North took the ball up with their next possession and began their run of goals. I think that would have sealed the game and put us maybe around 40 points up
627
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: I like the like (Karma) function !!
628
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: RD 17 : North Melbourne v Carlton (Pre-game Jibber-Jabber)
The Diving Cheat is back from suspension just in time for his annual Friday night birthday.
Zac Touhy will be waiting for him, did the job on Milne and can get the job done on Thomas IMO.
I think Touhy might have to be very wary of Thomas, he goes to ground so much that Touhy could find himself in that indecisive mindset of not knowing which way to go. Clubs should be taking tapes of Thomas to the AFL and asking them if they now get that they have made it near impossible to play on cheats. This game really is the season defining game. Brisbane knocked off North after they gave up yet another lead, but overall North have been competitive and in a position to win almost every game this year and have had terrible lapses that have thrown their season away (remind you of another club?). I think they have probably in fact (at their best) played pretty much like a top 4 team, but they simply cannot manage to sustain it and (like when clubs play us), every single club in the competition knows that it is not over until the final siren, because they give up huge leads.
I wrote something about Watson and who he plays on if he plays, I don't see there being any option other than Tarrant, but then again I would seriously consider dropping Tarrant and bringing in Majak and I would do that because you know that it would be Watson playing on him. Watson doesn't initiate body contact (something Daw has a really really bad time with) and he doesn't have quick acceleration.
If the forward line is Daw/Black/Petrie, then it leaves us with a huge conundrum. I imagine Hendo will be up forward, so that leaves McInnes, Jamo and Watson as the tall defenders.
Jamo on Petrie... I don't know why but he has had issues with Petrie before, which is strange, because while Petrie is very strong, he is not quick at all and is poor at ground level.
McInnes on Black... Probably the best match-up for Black if Hendo is up the other end.
Watson on Tarrant/Daw... I think Watson can beat Tarrant (who is as soft as butter), but I could imagine Daw producing a result like he did against the Dogs if Watson played on him.
Do we play Rowe plus (Casboult or another tall) up front and bring Henderson back, then drop Watson?
It will be interesting to see how a master like Mick goes about handling one of the genuine 3 tall forward lines in the competition.
The other thing is that they don't have exceptional runners, but they do have excellent clearance players and a brilliant ruck. I would be asking our ruck to not try and get to fancy against Goldstein, barrel into him all night and thump the ball. Try and blow him up by around 3/4 time.
If we can do that, they are going to need to consider pulling Petrie from the forward line to assist Goldy in the ruck and then we our talls should be able to take hold of Tarrant/Daw and Black. Neither Tarrant nor Daw is likely to be a great option with a major defender on them.
If we win this game we can genuinely consider ourselves back in the hunt, but if we lose then we should be sending the likes of Murphy (who has had a horrible season) off for some early operations in preparation for next season.
Footnote: Statistically Murphy has not been this poor since 2007 (his 2nd season), his disposals this year are on average between 79-80% the number of his disposals the previous 2 seasons, basically Murphy's full game output is similar to what he was doing in 3 quarters last season and it shows.
629
The Sports Desk / Re: The Ashes - First Test @ Trent Bridge
630