Even by accident, if you had 50+ taps, eventually you have to find yourself in a position to lay one tackle. This is 50+ taps at VFL level. The kids was tapping the footy cleanly in front of himself and stopping like it was job done.
Can't beat the umpires, no matter how hard you work.
This is the pinnacle level of the sport, and a loose ball gets get paid a mark which creates a goal, no video review on that, but have some bloke stubs a toe on the footy as the ball crosses the boundary line and it's a review.
Moir seemed to be playing in defence. The question is are we doing that to add extra strings to his bow or is it an attempt to see what else he offers prior to putting him on the trade table.
Just thin on the ground.
That's not a problem, the problem as I see it is the way the defeat occurred not the why it happened.
It's only halfway through the season, and we look like we've finished up early, getting in the holiday plans before the end of season rush maybe!
btw., Whether this stat is accurate or not matters little but it confirms the vision and the style of the game. We had 64 hit outs to 5, but they had 8 tackles to 0, who do you think had more influence? They won about 50% of stoppages yet our dominating rucks had zero tackles, zero, I can't even fathom this!
I mean, you'd expect rucks being rucks that even by chance they would have tripped over their own feet and fell on a ball carrying opponent!
Riley's getting plenty of the taps but seriously...he's not rucking to Cripps, Walsh, Smith and Hewett . He's not even rucking to all our second string extractors with Ben C missing.
Will this be an indicator to the senior game. We'll know in a couple of hours, but making judgements on the AFL team who haven't even played and the VFL team missing quite a few is probably a bit harsh.
When you win the tap so often, even by dead chance you should be able to influence the next contest 50% of the time, he's not even going at chance!
He wins the tap, at least sometimes he taps where he planned to tap, and yet he is effectively zero in the follow up efforts. At least a few times he should have been first to the footy, or at least lay a tackle when GWS sharked it! 53 Hit Outs, we are smashed in clearances and Riley had 0 tackles, you can't even do that by accident. Was he coached not to touch anybody?
That's not a comment about him long term, but it's a clear statement about how far off he is and how foolish it is for fans to be calling for him to play seniors!
He declares victory and gives his enemy everything they ever wanted. What more can you say?
I read that in the wash up every American, be they man, woman, child or other, will gift Iran US$1000 each.
Something tells me that somehow companies connected to the likes of Trump, Putin, Xi and a host of Middle East others will be rolling in Iranian rebuild cash in 5 or 10 years!
Got one back, but at 59 points, it really is an ordinary showing.
To me it's not so much the scoreline, it's the manner of the defeat, to call it listless would be an understatement.
It reeks of players who have zero pride in performance, the well paid mercenary who quits in the face of the opponent they aren't certain to defeat.
All I want each week is a group that has a crack, I can accept not winning but I can't accept this, especially from some players that I know have the capability to be much better.
Fans worry about the AFL, but 1/3 of our list plays VFL each week and in the absence of one or two who make an effort we are almost toothless.
I don't get it, we got a bit of a rise for a few weeks when Voss was kyboshed, but now it's back to business as usual.
Does it say something about the mindset of our list?
Today's AFL game will be a real tell, I hope I am wrong but I fear the worst. If after this we are smashed today in the AFL, it almost certainly confirms that the tail wags the dog, ............... still!
Looking like a cricket score, against us, we look so small and light compared to GWS.
So far early in the 2nd Qtr we are seeing the worthless nature of winning taps without 2nd efforts, 23:1 in our favour, but clearances are roughly 50:50 and the scoreboard is all theirs! In this regard, Riley is miles off, and it highlights the difference between genuine worthwhile rucks stats and basic counting.
What Riley needs to do is follow up his tap work with clever positioning, to help prevent GWS pegging and forcing turnovers from his team-mates, and to also buy his fellow midfielders time and space to dispose effectively. But at the moment he's a worthless beanpole not unlike others we've had in the past, he's just a spectator after the tap, not positioning, no blocking, when he gets in the way half the time it's in the way of his own team. It's like we've never heard of the word shepherd, when we play like this we are roadkill!
Yes, details matter. The VSC came too early for him to suit his strategy.
The VSC came too late for Russell, Norris and Antonelli to suit their strategy, they had only just pitted.
If the VSC happened a few laps later Hamilton might have already pitted and would have lost the advantage, it was lucky and there is nothing else to say about it but it doesn't detract from Hamilton's good drive or Ferrari's better strategy.
Giants have exactly the type of game style that bothers us the most - slingshot footy with big run off halfback. We will need some significant plans for Whitfield and Ash, and hopefully Weiters is back to take care of Hogan.
I don't want to sound pessimistic, but this week is a big ask......
In the past Hogan has done well against us, but that might have been in the absence of Newman, and now we have Dean, Cowan and Newman all in reasonable form, it should make a difference if we stick with the team first ethic.
Our biggest problem this week might be Briggs, he pretty much bullied TDK and Marshall yesterday, made the pair of them irrelevant. We won't want Harry spending too much time as Briggs' opponent as he likes to hurt people.
He was catching at 1.5 seconds a lap for most of it.
Detail matters, the last few laps before Russell and Antonelli pitted, which they did just before the VSC, Hamilton had stopped gaining ground and was only able to hold station.
Some might argue that was a tactic, but I doubt Hamilton would voluntarily cease the chase for anyone!
I'd assert Mercedes had already decided the Ferrari strategy was going to win the day, because they were telling Russell and Antonelli to race Norris who had already pitted and was 25 second behind Hamilton. But make no mistake, the VSC made a huge difference because without it those laps that saw Hamilton build a lead would have been instead laps helping him close a gap to the leaders. He would have had Russell, Antonelli and Norris to pass as after the pit stops only 5 second separated all three.
Hamilton had the race in hand and the VSC helped, but wasn't needed.
The VSC let him pit and retain the lead, so of course it made a difference!
If there was no VSC he would have surrendered the lead returning a full 10 seconds behind Russell and Antonelli.
The Ferrari looks to be quite good in turbulence and when the track suits, most cars suffer when following but they are able to hold and close without too much trouble, as long as they don't crash or break.
I think it's no accident that the coached dropped some of the old school who probably wore too many battle scars to shake off the stigma of not being good enough, we had a unified team, and a team that was full of kids who did not know they were supposed to have an honourable loss.
I hope the tossers suggesting we tank to get high draft picks take notice!
Imagine if or when Nestory gets fit enough to play 90 minutes?
Good win for Ferrari and Hamilton, they identified an opportunity existed using an alternate strategy, and the safety car played into their hands with about a third of the race remaining. A strategic win, but Hamilton still had to drive well to put himself in that position and to get across the line.
Interestingly, I think the race hinted at some weakness in the Mercedes, and I have to wonder if opponents will be able to exploit this. They just could not stay with Hamilton lap after lap and were forced into management, even by the 1/2-way mark when they were still leading Mercedes told the drivers they were in a race with Norris not Hamilton, as Hamilton was slicing his way through the field.
Strategically, it was the best race I've seen all season, I hope it persists.
