Harry has great potential but it's doubtful that he will achieve that potential if he is not challenged to deliver in all aspects of his game. Yes, he has kicked a few goals at AFL level but his overall contribution has been poor. A bloke with his size, athleticism and ability should be dominating in the VFL, regardless of how well or poorly the team is travelling. He managed to get in the best players last week, and that's a good sign, but he really needs to start taking games by the scruff of the neck. If he can do that, he will be ready to take the next step.
I reckon Jack had an ok game on the weekend playing back, and was mentioned as a small win after the game by Bolton. Unless that ankle doesnt come I'd expect him to play.
I thought Jack did OK as a defender and certainly wasn’t the non-contributor that some folk seem to think. He was favouring his ankle when he came back on though and may be in doubt.
Dropping him will do nada....he still gives a lot more than Polson, Mullet, SOJ etc e tc etc.
For sure, he often appears to cruise but those good enough always looks to have heaps of time. Is he working hard enough defensively? No, but he's not alone!!
He's the least of our worries really....
I think that the main problem with Samo is that supporters expect him to be playing like a bloke with 50-100 games experience. In most other teams he would be playing alongside more seasoned players who would take some of the heat off.
Samo’s best is brilliant, his worst is pretty typical of a second year player in the bottom team
He did well in that passage, but it’s bloody hard to carry anyone who isn’t making an active contribution. We have several guys who regularly make low contributions, it’s why we talk about the taggers of old, because they don’t exist anymore. today you need to be able to hurt going the other way, and with 3 misses he didn’t hurt them...
He did hurt Thomas though, and that was a good moment ?
Casboult had the play in front of him. He could see it all. Either he calls Kennedy out of it, or ensure Kennedy doesn't get cleaned up.
He doesn't have to 'block' so much as basically just stop running, which is effectively all the block that is required for Kennedy to mark safely.
What kind of message does it send when you put your body on the line and get cleaned up by your own teammate? Do you think Kennedy will be as willing to go next time? Is that the kind of message we want?
Funny how you brought Fev up as he was critical of the very same thing on multiple occasions....and i would've called him out for doing the same thing.
I had an excellent view of the incident and I stand by my assessment; Casboult was the intended target, he had eyes for the ball, Kennedy got in his way and spoiled a good pass.
I said I'd have to see it again.... but the shot I saw the ball was in front of (obscuring) Pickett's hand, definitely heading towards it, and he pulled it away. I couldn't say whether he touched it or not but maybe another angle was more definitive.
The vision on the big screen at the G suggested that Pickett got his hand out of the way ... hard to be sure though
Curiously, one reason good sides do well is the ability to give players defined roles. What are the defined roles of some of our players?
Yet Hawthorn at their best boasted that each of their players can fill three or four roles - as Sam Rowe did last week.
Players should have a defined role but must be adaptable enough to switch to another role as demanded by the state of the game, injuries, players down on form, etc.
Our problem is that we are expecting players with all of 20 games under their belt to do the heavy lifting.
Speaking of Casboult and Kennedy, pretty sure Casboult broke a team rule today when he didn't block for Kennedy when he was coming back with the flight of the ball on the boundary. Guy with eyes on the ball should be called in by his teammate, not plowed into by a teammate and then abused by him. I know Casboult was desperate for a touch, but you don't have to clean up your teammates to get one. Thank f**k there was no injury to come out of it.
Kennedy should have been called out of it by another player. The pass was intended for Casboult and he would have swallowed it if Kennedy hadn’t got in the way. I doubt whether Casboult saw Kennedy but he would have been free-kicked if he had been able to balk and block for him. Poor communication by our guys and a little over-ambitious on Kennedy’s part ... and very lucky for him that Casboult isn’t Fev.
It was disappointing that we couldn’t get the job done for Simmo but I think that we used most our gas in the third quarter.
Kennedy showed a bit today and I reckon he has good career ahead oh him. He looked dangerous when he went forward too.
Poison had a crack and he was very unlucky with the 50m penalties. I thought one wasn’t there and the other was borderline but a lot of the umpiring was hard to follow.
Simmo, Cripps and Ed worked their butts off and Rowe was very good; probably the best game I’ve seen him play since his injury.
It’s probably uncharitable to mention it, and good on them for travelling interstate to support their team, but so many Port supporters are very unattractive ?
I would say Silvagni is just as important, if not moreso to our backline than Rowe. Take into account that Our best backman, Docherty, our most experienced backman, Silvagni, on top of Rowe were out, and I'd say that's the best part of our best backline out. Pretty significant if you ask me.
Williamson had cemented a spot in the backline and was the most likely player to plug the gap left by Docherty’s injury. Our defence went from a settled, competent unit in 2017 to a makeshift, inexperienced group this season.
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