Mr Fuller wrote:Good to get the win. I’ll take the points but this wind was certainly nothing to get excited about. A couple of my observations:
1. Our defence was absolutely terrific. The amount of pressure they withstood in the last half was terrific. Glad to see Rowland awarded the medal for his game. Too often the contribution of defenders is overlooked by neutral commentators in favour of midfielders who accumulate more of the ball. Rowland well deserved but thought Giuffreda and Thompson also played superb games.
2. We are not playing footy that will win us a premiership. Our movement forward has been diabolical all season to date with the way we are bombing it in. In previous seasons this hasn’t been so much an issue with Jack and Nick Hayes there who could clunk a big contested mark. But with Hayes spending so much more time in the ruck this season we have lacked a tall presence there so this style does not work. We have replaced them with the mid-sized Menzels who can’t do this and are more opportunists or mark-on-a-lead players. Our midfield and wingers need to adjust to this and start kicking to their advantage.
3. On the Menzels…..not sure whether it is their leading patterns or not but when they do get the ball they seem to be having shots from the pockets. Makes it much harder to kick goals.
4. Riley Knight – continued his terrific season and would be vying with Hayes as our B&F this year to date. He will also give the Magarey a genuine shake which is great to see as we haven’t really had any serious contenders in the last few years.
5. Von Bertouch – needs to have a blowtorch applied to him. Pretty much since mid-last year he has been coasting. Every so often he takes a great contested grab and has the capacity to do this regularly but his work-rate is well down. Watching him on Sunday when he was stationed at CHF he just seems to be jogging around at half pace or standing flat footed not presenting as a target. He needs to be busting a gut leading up and making more contests because he is one of the few we have up forward with height. He will stay in the team so long as Redden is finding fitness and form in the reserves because we need him to support Hayes in the ruck but when the time comes to consider Redden in the team then the Coach will have a big call to make because the risk is we might be too top heavy and slow playing both Von Bertouch and Redden.
6. North – a very good team and I feel they will definitely be around the mark come finals time. The move of Keenan Ramsay to defence looks to be a masterstroke. Both him and Tanner Smith absolutely monstered our forwards marking it every time we went forward.
Have to agree with the entry into the eagles forward line no Redden no Hayes to take the big high flying mark .
Next time hopefully a team floods the eagles forward line the eagles do some short passes and not bomb it to opposition players
