Not Good Enough (Or Was It????)

[oboe]

Left torn between the two - especially at half time. 28 points down, couldn't defend, or get anywhere near the ball.

After half time, I gave up listening to the game (I'm from Jamieson Victoria). I had beers on the balcony with my Housemate (Scottish, and barracks for no one in particular).

I plead with him to show scores on the iPad, and then I find out King kicks six, and we lose by eight points.

From my learned SS posters, how did he kick six? How did we get back into the game? Would we have won with Marshall and Highmore?

I know the Season is close to shot for us, but with a modicum of injury luck next year, will we improve?

[Banger9798]

Max was superb, clunked everything and kicked straight.

A horrible miss from the goal line by Long,.and some poor set shot work cost us the win.

All over them in the last quarter

[skeptic]

I didn’t watch the game live (caught a replay) but from reading this site, I was expecting a Stewart Loewe’esk clinic where he was busting packs and taking power mark after power mark…
This wasn’t that

In fact… I don’t even know that this was his best performance in terms contested marks that I’ve seen.

Instead, this was a case where King led, got a small degree of separation from his opponent… launched at the ball which was kicked into a favourable spot for him and used his body to get himself into prime position

His direct man was very well beaten and looked quite lacklustre… or at the worst, King made him look second rate.

He was a lot more like Riewoldt on the lead as opposed to Kosi hitting packs.
That being said… certainly don’t want to suggest his didn’t take contested grabs per’se. Nothing was laced out… he beat his man every time… it was just more position then strength/power/size

What was different today however was that his set shot kicks were next level. Never looked like missing… looked like a player that would have confidently kicked 100/100. No indecision, no looking to pass off… marked the ball, even at close to 50m out, told the mids to get back to the centre and asked for people 12 rows back directly behind the goals to watch out

Loved it

[Teflon]

His game is t a Loewe or Kosi and that’s what I’ve been saying
His frame is naturally slight his reach (which Simpson mentioned in his presser) is the hard thing so Kings go is to lead up
Odd thing about him.....he didn’t even really lead ....he launched off a few steps which is awesome cause that’s all the separation he needs to be dangerous as his marking is so good
It means he’ll be harder to body off the ball unlike Brown at Melb who needs a very clear run and jump path and looks crap in a contested situation
Buddy too - can’t do what King does and neither does Ben King (who leads up at it)
We got a good one

[Lennylegs]

This will probably get howled down, as their are a few on here that have been calling for Butler to be dropped - and rightly so, to a certain extent. But I'd love if we tried playing him on a wing in the final few rounds. We really need the ball in his hands more often, especially going inside forward 50. At the very least he should be told to stay between the arcs. We simply don't have enough good users going inside 50. That was the difference in the second half. We lowered our eyes and used the footy better.

[B.M]

When he gains some more strength and power

His confidence will elevate, as he will believe he can dominate

He will do this more constantly

Will be the next player to kick 100

[Yorkeys]

yes and yes

[Ghost Like]

I think it was good enough. We lost by 8 points to a very good club on their own ground with a parochial crowd in attendance.
King's game was special & a benchmark. The young bloke on him wasn't Barrass but you can only beat who they put on you. He still had McGovern cutting in front to contend with.
Oscar Clavarino showed he's worth persevering with, a big pre season and a heavy summer of weights means our tall defender may already be on our list.
Byrnes & Connolly will only get better.
Butler found some form.
We were beaten in the guts but got ourselves into a position to win the game regardless.
Arguably half a dozen best 22 players unavailable plus the likes of Membrey, Billings and Crouch below par.
Plenty to work on but it seems we have plenty to work with. Certainly more than what we had thought we had.

[spiral3]

King was excellent but their defence seemed to let him play to his strengths. That Edwards fella seemed a bit of a spud based on that performance.
Good sides double team King and get a lot of body on him to buffet and block his run at the ball and get him off balance. McGovern was better at this when moved on him late in game (pushed him under the ball).
Give King a run and jump and he's top shelf.
I didn't notice that the delivery was particularly great to him but he was generally one on one and/or with some space around to use his leap and judgement.
Butler was very good, very creative player, agree with earlier post it'd be good to get him involved a bit more around the ball. Has that knack, like Gresh, to make things happen with some lateral thinking. Suspect he'll always run hot and cold though. He was positioned at CHF in some of the play that I noticed, running into the square after the bounce, looking for the ball on the spill. Dunno if I like the smalls in these positions, lots of instances in games where a quick kick out of centre has a small in an aerial contest.
Jones gives us a lot and his kicking has really improved this year.
Steele not much impact this week, ditto Crouch.
Ross is a handbrake on this side. Poor decision maker. Kills our ball movement and wastes the energy of his team mates that lead for him. Much rather Bytel, he makes excellent decisions and puts the ball to the advantage of his team mates. Pity he lacks pace.
We were much better in second half, Kelly less impact but still lettheir mids get free too easily (Sheed) and letthem get too many uncontested marks

[Life Long Saint]

If Marshall had played yesterday instead of Hunter, then we would have won that game.
It would have given us two genuine tall forward targets instead of one.

[spiral3]

Yep Hunter was poor

[George27]

This will probably get howled down, as their are a few on here that have been calling for Butler to be dropped - and rightly so, to a certain extent. But I'd love if we tried playing him on a wing in the final few rounds. We really need the ball in his hands more often, especially going inside forward 50. At the very least he should be told to stay between the arcs. We simply don't have enough good users going inside 50. That was the difference in the second half. We lowered our eyes and used the footy better.

Good observation. Yesterday he clearly played further up the ground, thus got more opportunities, made good decisions and executed well. Looks like he has the tank to do it.

[shanegrambeau]

The pessimist in me says, If good enough = going up the ladder in 2022, I think it was not. Not with that team.

What Gresham, Paton, Clarke, Highmore, Wood, Higgins and co. might add next year is a big caveat on my pessimistic claim, And if Kingy explodes, then all bets are (happily) off. but based on the team yesterday, I don’t see a top team.

West Coast are and were not very good either. They should be worried too. They look like a team around the middle of the ladder at best.

And they’d lost their last two home games too,,,,and to poor ol North Melbourne!

But we are not terrible. Still look like a 9-10 on the ladder team.

Jones, Hill, Sinclair and Paddy Ryder are really giving it a hot go…but that won’t be sufficient.

A lot of our youngsters have a go, but let’s be honest, we didn’t see anything elite yesterday.

Crouch and Membrey not great.

Butler is buzzing around having a go, so keep, keep, go, go…

Initially I was dismayed but later, on second thoughts was really encouraged to see the backman fighting and accusing each other of this and that when we broke down down there.

The decline of Coffield makes me wonder about Paton…so I tell myself, they are young and be patient. Fair enough, but that patience suggests that we might hold our position at best. But if, Gresham comes back to the forward line, Clarke to the backline and we fashioned a third forward out of Clav, Highmore, Connolly even Joyce, Jones’s hammies hold up, and we somehow got a brilliant and silky mid from somewhere, who knows.

A bunch of other middling teams have to fail too…Carlton looks a good bet.

[bangaulegend]

If Marshall had played yesterday instead of Hunter, then we would have won that game.
It would have given us two genuine tall forward targets instead of one.

Yeah mate I agree if Marshall had of played we would have won but unfortunately that has been our luck this year

[Teflon]

The pessimist in me says, If good enough = going up the ladder in 2022, I think it was not. Not with that team.

What Gresham, Paton, Clarke, Highmore, Wood, Higgins and co. might add next year is a big caveat on my pessimistic claim, And if Kingy explodes, then all bets are (happily) off. but based on the team yesterday, I don’t see a top team.

West Coast are and were not very good either. They should be worried too. They look like a team around the middle of the ladder at best.

And they’d lost their last two home games too,,,,and to poor ol North Melbourne!

But we are not terrible. Still look like a 9-10 on the ladder team.

Jones, Hill, Sinclair and Paddy Ryder are really giving it a hot go…but that won’t be sufficient.

A lot of our youngsters have a go, but let’s be honest, we didn’t see anything elite yesterday.

Crouch and Membrey not great.

Butler is buzzing around having a go, so keep, keep, go, go…

Initially I was dismayed but later, on second thoughts was really encouraged to see the backman fighting and accusing each other of this and that when we broke down down there.

The decline of Coffield makes me wonder about Paton…so I tell myself, they are young and be patient. Fair enough, but that patience suggests that we might hold our position at best. But if, Gresham comes back to the forward line, Clarke to the backline and we fashioned a third forward out of Clav, Highmore, Connolly even Joyce, Jones’s hammies hold up, and we somehow got a brilliant and silky mid from somewhere, who knows.

A bunch of other middling teams have to fail too…Carlton looks a good bet.

This is a really good post - not pessimistic but realistic of where we are.
The question is where do we want to be and how might we get there
I agree this side right now is 8-11 depending on injuries and draws etc
Look at the blueprints of top sides who all have a couple of key forwards, high impact players through the midfield plus a midfield that bats deep and good mix of top shelf key defenders with intercept players and you start to see our deficiencies
Good news is - there’s a youthful core here to build around NOW.
Look at forward entries yesterday.....they were still poor (43% efficiencies compared to over 50% Eagles), point is King made us look better than we are....he needs help
We know we need:
1-2 top shelf mids
1 KPD (I actually think our mid sized intercept defenders are very capable)
1 KPF - to work in tandem with Max and allow Membrey to play mid sized forward role (his proper role)
We must not rest with this list now it means we have to make some tough choices to go forward and we need to do that now imo