by Booney » Mon Apr 23, 2018 10:39 am
We’ve broken down forward of centre, or, we’ve been broken down by opposition coaches. It’s difficult to pin point the exact cause of our forward line form of the last few weeks, some of it is to do with the way the ball is being delivered, some of it is due to the space the forwards are being allowed to use by opposition defensive units and some of it is the form of our forwards. As such there's not much good news to report upon.
52 inside 50’s for 7 goals on a perfect night for footy, simply not good enough. If you have access to the AFL’s app, check out the heat maps for our main forwards in Dixon, Wingard, Sammy Gray, Motlop and Watts. All of them on Saturday night have their “hot spots” ( where they generated most of their possessions ) well outside the centre corridor, our runway as they like to call it.
Currently we’re being driven wider and wider with our entry forward. Go one step further and the hot spots of Robbie Gray, Wines and Polec, our main ball winners in recent weeks, are also wide out on the wings. We’re being forced wide early in our transition, our forwards are being drawn wide and opposition defences don’t get opened up. Instead they get time to slide across in numbers and foil the attack.
Whilst we sorely miss Ryder’s ruck work we’re not getting beaten up in stoppages, we won the clearances 49-43 on the weekend, we’re getting burnt by our second and third possessions either being faulty under pressure or we move the ball too far sideways out of the contest and we give our forwards no room to work with in the middle. It’s problematic that we’ve seen the opposition do this to use two of the last three weeks.
Not much good came out of Saturday night, especially when looking at our best players as it was the same few doing the same things. Robbie Gray has been sensational the last two weeks in losing sides, 20 clearances in two weeks to go with 70 possessions. Clearly our best. Wines with 29, 5 tackles, 6 clearances again leading the way. Ebert with 24 touches, 14 mighty tackles again in our best along with Westhoff and Polec who had moments where they got us going and Hartlett showed true fighting spirit to come back from his massive knock and continue his solid early season form. Sounds like our last two weeks.
Few blokes under some real pressure, Dan Houston looks a little lost not playing the sweeper role that Bonner has taken control of. I’ll be in touch with some Melbourne supporters to see how they deal with Watts’ lack of urgency and awareness, Amon had an opportunity in the absence of Pittard and Rockliff to cement a spot on the outside but has failed to do so and the inclusions of Neade and Thomas might be short lived. Probably won’t see Thomas for a while anyway. Nothing has changed with him and my views on his recruitment won’t be mentioned in this family forum.
Boons best – R.Gray, Wines, Westhoff, Ebert, Hartlett.
Last edited by
Booney on Mon Apr 23, 2018 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
PAFC. Forever.
LOOK OUT, WE'RE COMING!