Spot on Conundrum
Quote:
We got creamed in the middle today. The game was lost predominantly in the middle. We lost it to a team missing its two best midfielders in Hassleby and Josh Carr. They did not miss the services of Longmuir such was their midfield dominance.
Plus the rest of what you said. My negatives were Stevens overhead marking. For a class player he is a dreadful mark, can't judge the flight, spills it when he gets his hands on it and is really easily pushed out of the contest by huge men like Peter Bell.
Fish has great hands but takes an age to dispose of the ball and then kicks 30 m hospital passes. Also he takes a long time to turn now.
Waite has tons of talent but is the most lackadaisical player I have seen. He takes a big pack mark with ease and then disappears. Also another shocking kick. Neither he nor Fish can kick more than 40 metres and then are only 50/50 to score a goal.
What do we do with them and Josh K? How do they all fit in? I think we need to play Waite near goals and hope he can be bothered to fly for plenty of marks. Use Fish up the ground and make sure every time he marks to have someone running past.
Scotland and Houla run with the ball but I'd love to see a stat on the metres they carry the ball, and what percentage of those are forward of where they have got it.
I don't agree that Setanta was flogged. Murphy had one kick in the first half. Setanta made one mistake when he over ran the ball running in at a million miles an hour. Lets face it few of our players would have been leading their man like that. Murphy got him on unstoppable leads three times. If you turn the ball over in the midfield and the Dockers are running free into an open forward line with a strong leading forward in front of them and they deliver a perfect pass then the full back has no chance. Setanta will make mistakes but he needs to be played.
Our game plan is rubbish. We just don't move the ball quickly at all. We have got to run with the ball and get it in fast. Our prop and cop style just lets the opposition flood back so easily.
We desperately need a good ruckman, several class midfielders, a new game plan and a few different faces in the coaches box. I know drafting is hard, but we need to be better at it than ever. If in the notorious 2000 draft if we had got one class player - say Daniel Kerr, it would make a huge difference. And how I wish we'd got a bull ruckman like Ben Hudson. None of the ruckmen on our list with the possible exception of Aisake in 3 years is up to it.