I posted this in another thread, but probably should be here.
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Just as an aside, i don't know if anyone saw it but deep in the last quarter there was a stoppage on the far side forward flank/wing. May even have been in the last few minutes. Cripps was in there directing traffic like a captain should. His main focus was telling Harry to go back, essentially clog up space. He starts waddling back with very little urgency. Cripps yells at him again to clear out and go back. He hears him but barely makes it out of a walk.
Ball is brought back into play and someone gets the clearance, camera goes to a wide shot where you can see Harry still slowly wandering back, now about 30m off the contest, back to the ball in no mans land. Thankfully the ball went our way and he was not required but this REALLY bothered me because.....
1. The game was on the line, show some bloody urgency 2. The captain had to tell you, at least twice, and you still couldn't do it. 3. You had your back to the ball and it could've been kicked to you and the moment you realised was when it hits you in the back of the head. 4. Had we have lost the game, i guarantee you that would've been highlighted as to how we lost it.
Now i appreciate Harry had worked hard and is playing more ruck than he is used to over the past month, but from a senior player, that was very poor and i expect better and the rest of the playing group should demand better.
I just rewatched the last few minutes and the stoppage in question started with 19 seconds left on the clock. The stoppage started from Harry working hard pushing forward along the boundary line. So he was definitely tired.
However, you can clearly see he could not find it within himself to run out the final 19 seconds. It very much could've been the difference between winning and losing.
Ben C is exactly where he needs to be - doing an apprentice in the seconds and working on his game until the opportunity arises.
Walker coming in wont help him and Ben is purely an extractor so he probably needs a player like Hewett to be traded out as I cant see how he will be any higher in the pecking order next season. Im happy to persist with him as I like father/sons in the team but I dont know if the Campo clan are prepared to wait for him to get opportunities, ditto his brother.
Ben is about 10 years too late to the AFL party. His type are not really required in the modern game.
They had something like 20 more hit outs than us but we had one more than them to advantage. says a lot about our rucks and more so our contested ball set ups. we're still elite there.
Not really, thought it was Harry's best ruck heavy type game by some margin.
Ruck contests went about 2/3rds pitto 1/3 harry. Taps to advantage was 10 to 1 though. Harry did some work on the ground and i highlighted as much in game. But pure ruckwork he is a long way behind.
Scott spending most of his press conference talking about the goal that wasn't. "I don't want to comment.....but...." "What i think doesn't matter.....but...." "I'm not spending any time thinking about it....but....."
Ison is a smart footballer. Several times he had a quick tap rather than a gather and then be tackled.
I would really like to see him and Moir in the side together who plays with similar vision and flair. Those 2 working together could yield some magic similar to the krakour brothers from back in the day.
Listening to the ABC broadcast and they said that Carlton kept their shape and composer and did not allow Geelong the space that they like. I have not seen the game yet so would like a rundown of what they did well and how the game plan has changed or what is been executed better under Josh since he took over?
In a word.....pressure.
Players were running contest to contest. Didn't allow Geelong time to breathe.
Geelong were doing the normal 15m chip kicks to free players, the second they took the mark, there was a bloke there. Normally, they'd be trailing and casually coming to the mark. We didn't give them any time or space. As a result, they made more mistakes than they may have otherwise....some under very little pressure, but because we were constantly up in their face, they expected it and were rushed.
Cowan playing on Jezza Cameron all game was something nobody was expecting, while Jezza still kicked 3-4, Cowan won plenty of contests and allowed us to free up Weitering a bit more.
Pittonet - 26 hitouts - 10 to advantage. That is beyond elite.
I think he and Harry as a ruck duo is the best option for this team going forward. Frees up Harry and gets him into the game more. Harrys best 4 games have been the last 4 games where he has been backup ruck.
We have just leapfrogged Port on the ladder....who thanks to the bye will be a game behind and chance to catch up in a couple week when we have our bye.
