Bells kicking wasn't great at all but he found the ball when others couldn't and moved fast for a big kid in the second half. Needs work but is what we need.
It's why, for all the frustration at times, players like Bell and Robbo are so important in tough finals.
We learnt how important Waite and Betts are too and why I'd be happy to pay the latter good $$$$
Yes, his presence is good and i acknowledge as much, but if he is only a 50-50 chance of finding a teammate when he has the ball, what is the point?
If we remove him from the game today....every time he actually got the ball, we say it was a 50-50 contest instead...what have we lost? What we have lost is another player who is more capable of finding a teammate when they get it.
re Menzel...didn't get much of a chance to get into the game re Walker...6 R50's, 3 1%ers, 14 touches @ 78.6%. Not a great game, but better than bell. re McInness...at least he found a teammate 4 / 5 times he got the ball. =2nd in 1%ers (with 6) showed he was putting in in the backline too. re Tuohy...13 touches @ 69%. Did what was required without dominating.
Sorry, but next week swap Bell and McLean and lets go to Sydney.
Its not about Bell winning the ball every tim either its about Bell blocking or getting his body in the way and preventing an opposing player getting the footy.....Bell and Robbo did the dirty work today and deserve full credit regardless of clangars etc.....you ask Daniel Jackson, Trent Cotchin if they like having Bells big frame coming their way or in Jacksons case looking over your shoulder which he did a couple of times. Against Sydney both Murphy and Gibbs will be tagged heavily and will need some big bodies in the scrum to help them out......
He Realised it was a final didn't he? So many times, gave up on first option, to take on the player and got caught. 2 shots in the last, barely scored...
Think he is a long way off..potential..but a long way off.
Was my worst in navy blue today. Daylight second.
The kid has the size and attitude right. Needs to wrap his head around the subtleties of the game and learn how to kick though.
From where I was sitting Bell was a lot higher on the pecking order. His physicality was very important, he won his own ball and he created opportunities for team mates with his attack on the ball and his willingness to take the game on.
Yes, Bell made a few errors (who didn't) and was on the wrong end of some umpiring decisions but he was one of the prime movers in our resurgence.
I must admit thinking at half time that we can only afford one of Robbo and Bell in the side (and in the last quarter Robbo was definitely the one to go), but both more than proved their worth.
If I had to nominate players who didn't perform as well as Bell, I would say Tuohy (absolute shocker), McInnes (couldn't get into the game), Menzel (not much opportunity), Yarran (OK in flashes), Kreuzer (got a few hitouts but did little else), Warnock (won the hitouts and kicked a nice goal but did bugger all around the ground), Garlett (flashed in and out), Armfield (serviceable) . . .
If he can work out when to tackle and when to bump he will go a long way towards making it......96kg at 187cm is going to hurt when it hits or tackles you...and I like that.
Bell's decision to bump Crameri rather than tackle was an interesting one. Most players in that situation would have tackled but Bell's bump gave us clean possession and Crameri lost interest in the game for quite a while.
Bell executes his bumps very well and I guess that is partly because he is not that tall (although I reject the 'tall' excuse for Buddy; he just has poor technique and likes to use an elbow). I would like to see Bell given licence to bump as he sees fit. However, as you say EB, he needs to know when a tackle is the best option.
I don't think MM will want anyone taking the field who is not 100% - if there's one thing he isn't it would be sentimental, even towards Juddy!
Not too sure about that Cookie; Malthouse has a history of playing injured players in finals; Didak in 2010, Beams, Jolly and Reid in 2011. Hopefully, he's learned his lesson and our 22 will fit and ready to go.
re: the Thailand incident....its all wrong but when you have a country that runs on the sex trade and life is so cheap its hardly surprising. Seems you can buy your way out of anything there..been to Thailand but I wont be going back...
That's probably the key EB; life is cheap and $93K is an awful lot of money for someone with next to nothing and in a country that is largely a subsistence economy.
Different culture, different values, and different ways of doing things.
I'm sure they think a lot of our practices are weird ( FFS I think our political system is weird ).
The challenge is for both parties to recognise the differences, accept them and not be judgmental of each other. It should then be possible to deal appropriately with each other, but not necessarily on equal terms.
And if he came here on holiday and drove over your lover, child or mother?
You have to go by the values and laws of the country you're in. Break our laws and you're subject to our justice system. Break their laws in their country and you're subject to their justice system. That doesn't mean you have to agree with the death penalty for drug smuggling, just don't smuggle drugs.
I don't normally have a lot of time for Bob Katter and I can't stand animal cruelty. However, I recently heard Katter talking about the reaction to the killing of the Australian steer in Indonesia (that led to the suspension of live cattle exports) and he asked what right do we have to impose our values on Indonesian butchering practices? I think that is a fair question, after all, in the immortal words of the Backsliders "the facts are not only in English".
Different culture, different values, and different ways of doing things.
I'm sure they think a lot of our practices are weird ( FFS I think our political system is weird ).
The challenge is for both parties to recognise the differences, accept them and not be judgmental of each other. It should then be possible to deal appropriately with each other, but not necessarily on equal terms.
I am putting the acid on defence Coach Gavin Brown:
There were 2 snap shot forward pocket goals by the Port Forwards but no Carlton defender blocked the Half Forward / forward pocket space to prevent them running off the mark at right angles....
BASIC ERROR AND LAZY FOOTBALL.......
The Trengrove to Westhoff goal was a shocker....the bloke on the mark had his back to the play and was casually marking the turf when the Hoff strolled into kick the goal....the player on the mark and the player minding Westhoff should be doing a lot of pushups and running this week...
Walker's effort looked worse than it was; even if he had his eyes on the ball, he could never have got near enough to Westhoff to affect the kick. Westhoff's direct opponent probably should be in the gun.
Tuohy gets away with that play on an incredibly regular basis. Forwards must shut down defensively when the opposition is shooting for goal.
Kreuzer had 2 kicks and one handball. Nowhere near good enough for four quarters.
True PI2C, but Kreuzer did lay eight tackles and slotted a nice goal. He was also unlucky to miss out on a free for interference in a marking contest just outside the goalsquare.
I think Kreuzer is a player who needs to play himself into form. Hopefully, he'll be better for the run.
