In 8 weeks, he has developed an 'in your face, elbow in the guts as I go past, be the first in when one of ours is under siege' attitude. A developing Hogde / Lewis attitude.
No coincidence that we are more aggressive across the board. Towards the ball, the opponent, the game in general.
Team A- : Played good team footy and kicked almost 100 points, best game I've seen in a long time by us
4 Gibbs : Wowee! Tough and hard, used the ball well. Was one of the best games id seen him play. 3 goals in a row helped as well
4 Simmo : Actions speak louder than words, love this guy.
3 Cripps : Could end up being the best mid of the modern era. Freak.
2 Murph : O Captain, my Captain
1 Casboult Being around the ball more gave him more touches and thus more confidence, like a couple of us have been banging on, he's best when hes playing second fiddle to Kreuze.
1 Everitt : 3 goals, more of that please
Honourable mentions
Curnow, went head to head with Treloar for most of the day and broke even. Had 13 tackles
Doc, 24 touches @ 83% disp eff and 8 marks
Kerridge, 24 touches @ 83% disp eff, a goal and 5 score involvements
Wright, 23 touches, 8 score involvements and 6 I50s
Daisy, hurt early but came back on and had 21 touches, 7 score inv, 7 marks and a gimme goal whilst being booed all day.
Lamb, really loved his game today around the ball, wing and HF. Was clean on both sides and didnt look panicky.
Probably as strong as our Midfield group will get all year with Cripps back in. Murph, and Gibbs in reasonable form, Daisy and Ed Curnow playing well. Kerridge and Wright providing solid back up and Army giving us some pace. With Taylor Adams and Swan out our midfields are about even-ish
Gibbs head to head with Pendles (if he plays)
Crisp will go to Cripps to blanket him, Cripps will start peeling onions and boiling a pot of water to serve him as a main course
Sidebottom is an elite runner and probably one of their most damaging players, Curnow is a perfect match
Give Kerridge a job today i reckon. Keep Treloar accountable and make him work for every touch, run off him as much as possible
Forwards:
Wright Casboult Jones
White Walker Lamb with Sumner and Army providing Forward pressure
White, Walker, Jones and Casboult gives us a fair bit of marking power down forward, we have some decent smalls that try their guts out and its only a matter of time before they all click. (here's hoping)
Would love to see our forwards leading into space then doubling back to create space for our next forwards to lead and so on and so forth. Rinse and repeat. Hopefully our mids can lower their collective eyes and start hitting targets in our F50.
Defenders:
Plow Rowe 2E
Doc Byrne Simmo.
Geez we look small down back without the Weit. Given that this has been our focus and strong point so far this season i hope that we can help each other out and play an awesome team defence. I think Jamo may be in for a late call-up. Hope not because his form apparently hasnt warranted it but we look like there's not enough butter spread over too much bread down back. Here's hoping it doesn't get down there enough to worry us too much.
I think we'll either win by less than 2 goals or lose by 5+.
I've always found Kreuzer and Casboult to be our best ruck combo. Has been for a few years. Allows Kreuzer to ruck for longer, which suits him alot, and allows Casboult to run around the ground taking marks, which really suits him. Also means he's not close to goal to be kicking at them...lol.
Agreed, the further Cas is away from goal the better, i dont want him any closer than the 50m arc. I'd love to see he and Kreuze click as a ruck duo, and i'd also love to see them do what they should be doing, bashing oppo mids into the sir walter buffalo repeatedly and giving those pr1ck$ a thing or two to think about other than the ball
Murphy - Centre and Wing Jones - FF until he stops trying Gibbs - Third Defender/Sweeper Smith - Forward Pocket when in form Simpson - as Is Armfield - High HF Walker - As Above Casboult - Romaing CHF Buckley - Northern Everitt - Northern Blues Jaksch - Third Tall Forward.
I'd play Jones and Jaksch and use Casboult as the second ruckman around the ground....agree Freo on a dry track will probably require some more pace but I think we need to kick goals to win and I'd be using an extra tall down forward rather than just going with Casboult alone..
Please let this happen, we need them to have an extended stint in the 1's and see if they can get some confidence and actually feel like they belong.
If Jones, Jaksch, Everitt, Walker, Levi (2nd ruck), Sumner and Lamb can start to create some synergy and spark and gain confidence as an offensive unit and perform well together its a good start to working towards kicking a winning score. Throw in C Curnow, Wright and Kerridge as back-up plus McKay and SoSoS on slow roast then the future is starting to look a little brighter.
Unfortunately we are stuck in the life after Fev/Waite/Betts stage but if those blokes can click and start to work together as a team and look after each other then we are on the right track, it all takes time.
Sumner has a harder edge than I thought he had. And boy, didn't Plowman show some class towards the end there.
Agreed, but gee the fab 4 stunk it up. Murph ( yes i know he was injured) Gibbs (yes i know he has a man bun) Kreuze (Bereft of confidence) and Daisy (Wowsers he is sh1t, i cringe every time he gets the ball). We are better off dropping a couple of those blokes to the magoos and reward the good efforts of the others playing well in the NB's.
Sorry, i'll re-phrase what i said about watching us lose. What i meant was the previous years i would turn the game off late 3rd/early 4th quarter as it would enrage me so much that the wife would leave the room.
I couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel and i was beginning to hate footy.
Its a much different story thus far in 2016.
I'm actually watching all the way to the end without the neighbors thinking WW111 has erupted in our house.
So in saying that i'm happy to watch us lose is only that i can see light at the end of the long dark tunnel and i can actually take positives out of what im watching rather than throwing verbal abuse and beanies at the big screen and turning it off.
Hope that explanation clears anything up about losing
Here's hoping for some more "green shoots" tonight, namely Plowman and Sumner
He looks an entirely different player tonight. Like how well he's using his body and marking. On tonight so far you could play Jaksch and Jones with Casboult as a 2nd ruck.
57-50. Cats have 2 in a row.
Please let this happen, Phillips and Rowe out for these two and then persist for a month with Kreuze as numero uno ruck
Really happy with the ins, but they will be underdone so im not expecting much from them.
It's funny though, for the 2 and a half years we had Malthouse/Voldemort in charge it was excruciating for me to watch a game of ours, whether we won or lost.
Now, i'm more than happy to watch us lose, as its apart of our journey back to the top. And im really enjoying watching the newbies run around. This is easily the most interested I've been since the start of 2008 when the great man came along.
Well, we are now three weeks in and already White and Jamo are out, we are progressing. Next is that spudnik Rowe. Hope to see Buckley given a go off halfback or in the BP this week.
Said all along, Kreuzer is crap when he has to share duties. Means he goes forward too much where he's no good As our only ruckman, with help from Casboult, which works for both of them, Kreuzer then is a much better player. Kreuzer had no physical presence tonight. Compare that with Casboult, who either marked, contested or smashed up bodies. Sent a couple from ground not to return.
Hopefully Plowman, Jaksch and Sumner have good ones. Then we can drop Jammo and Rowe. Happy to go with Weitering and Plowman in the key positions, with Jaksch playing forward with Casboult.
Jones and Casboult gives us a fair bit of marking power down forward, we have some decent smalls that try their guts out and its only a matter of time before they all click. (here's hoping)
