After a scare in Adelaide, we turn our attention to the only remaining game of the year that matters. ...hang on, wait, this isn't our grand final any more.
Some questions:
West Coast's mix of high draft picks and experience at stoppage seems to be working, while our stoppage numbers have been on decline in the back half of the year. Who do we need at center bounce to make sure we win it out of the middle?
The perennial question for this season: which rucks are we picking?
Is it time for Johnno to try his hand at tagger once more?
If anyone remembers not too long ago, the lads on the Front Bar had Freo legend Matthew Pavlich on the show, and they unearth an old song from yesteryear which was a special song for our rivals across the river in West Coast.
Well now, Its now official, the "We Hate You Eagles' singer from 2007 was inducted into the Hall of Fans of The Front Bar. And as an extra layer to this deal here, the actual singer actually performed the song on television, and in front of West Coast Eagles legend Glen Jakovich who they had as the main guest.
Nice little way to add a little banter for the upcoming Derby.
Genuinely, Not a good game - we just found a way to win.
We were off early, again. We were missing kicks and handballs, our pressure was there at times but it ebbed and flowed way too much. One minute it was there, the next it wasn't.
Clearances
We have a real issue currently with our clearance game. It seems as though its a genuine struggle and watching live, I couldn't quite work out the clear issue.
On replay, we actually had first hands to the ball SO much more than Port did. We just weren't clean past that first touch.
I found some examples to show my point. When we are winning contests well, its because we are just clean from the start. Games like this one, where we are kind of a bit off it, we aren't clean, and that affects our clearances.
Like compare that to the ones where we were just clean instead, it just looks so much easier.
And like, the pressure is still there, we were just clean, more determined etc so the clearance actually came off. Like, the handballs are still the same handballs, the touches still the same touches.
Just the receiver takes it cleaner, and we are off.
So that then begs the question, is that all it is? Is it as simple as just take everything cleaner? Get it before you go?
Kinda, but also, Jacko and Cox were kinda monstered by ports rucks. Which.... isn't great.
Player
HTA
HTA % of Ruck Contests
Sweet
12
16%
Jackson
5
8%
Cox
4
13%
Visintini
1
6%
Sweet had more Hitouts to advantage than both our rucks combined, and then some.
And before we have people saying cox this cox that, he was mostly against Visintini... I'd hope he'd be beating visintini in the ruck.
I'd like to say this game is a bit of a once off? But like, its also concerning when Ports mids were mostly not their first picks in the midfield. Imagine if they had all of Rozee, Butters and JHF in there running rampant.
The stat that kinda? backs up my point that we weren't clean with it from a stoppage is the 'first possesion' stat which is who gets that first clean disposal from a stoppage.
We have sebba at the top, but then its just all Port Adelaide until we get to second for us... Neil Erasmus.
Concerning? Slightly. I wouldn't have thought we should be relying on Bolton so much in there right? Looking back on prior games, there's nothing to suggest we do. Sure he's up there most games, but we also have a bit more of an even higher spread for our mids. This was one game where it was just Serong.... then no one.
Inside 50's
Our inside 50's, for some reason in the first half there was just fuck all movement to create space for leads. Port DID flood back really well, so we had no option sometimes but to just bang it long....
However, its a bit reminiscent of the bulldogs game. For some reason our kryptonite is teams with a lack of defensive stars who flood their defence to basically outnumber our key forwards.
The amount of times we'd just kick to Allir, or Bergman who could just have a free run at it was infuriating. But, credit to Port Adelaide. Thats their defence working as intended. Hold us up, get back and flood the zone, intercept. So we needed to take that sooner kick, instead of the extra handball, look up, and hit the lead.
It mostly took until the second half for us to change that. There was an early example of Murp....sorry force of habit, Neil Erasmus lowering the eyes and hitting the lead. But it is a two way issue, the player with the ball needs a lead to hit. Early game we either weren't waiting for the lead, or we just weren't hitting it, and when we are not waiting for the lead but then also don't honour the lead, its a bit of a vicious cycle (Heres the collection of the good inside 50's the lowering the eyes inside 50s)
But below are the shocking ones that just go long to a pack annnnnnd we just lose it because they've flooded back.
It seems in our losses, there is a clear visible lack of intent, pressure or effort during our lapses.
We know what we are capable of now, so when you see that lack of pressure that lack of effort its really obvious to see, and thats how i know we just aren't switched on.
The following clips just show a few
Murphy Reid, quarter 1, just kind of meandering over to apply token pressure? Not like him, not like us.
Probably a slightly harsh one, but cox not putting in the effort for a spoil, going for what he thinks is going to be a regulation mark instead, and clearly no one really calling for it isn't a great look.
Evans just strolling out from a kick in like he's going for a casual jog on a sunday.... so unlike us its not funny. We didn't seem to setup correctly from the get go. Treacy looks as though he's signalling to Dudley that he's in the wrong spot.... Not good.
Pearce just.... Allows Zaddow an i50 mark? Like i get its low percentage, but its still a shot on goal. Just seemed a bit weird.
Another way we could tell that we were off. The amount of missed handballs, or over handballs or missed kicks.... Just a shocking watch at times.
We had a period in the 1st quarter of like, 3 minutes where we made 5 bad errors.
I feel he somehow goes under the radar because what he produced we just kind of expect from him these days? But he was the difference, in my eyes.
29 Disposals, 15 contested, Game high 8 Clearances, Game high 9 Tackles.
He starts the game off slow as well with everyone, but him lifting is what started to lift us.
This moment below is a good example of why Serong is so valuable to us. Yes, the handball wasn't perfect, but because he picked the ball up so clean it gave young the time unpressured to pick it up clean and we are away. We had so many fumbling but Serong was just super clean.
We'd all like it to be pretty from the first ball up, to the final siren, but thats just not possible.
The fact we can play as poorly as we did and still find a way to win is a testament to the progress in mental development this team has made.
We need to work out a way to wake up in these travel games a bit sooner. It didn't seem to affect us earlier in the season? So not sure what change we've made the last few to turn that a bit.
I'm not happy at all with the game we played, against the team we were playing against, who had none of their main midfield playing, their main rebounder out, and their only real key forward out... we should have been better.
Imagine if we couldn't play bolton, serong, brayshaw, Treacy and Clark. We'd be in strife. We should have been better, and i know we can be better.
So i have to give Port Adelaide a bit of a pump up here. The way their depth can slot into the defensive unit and do their part has to be in part due to the coach having all their players buy into the team plan. They're definitely better than 15th. We knew Josh Carr was a good coach.
We would love to hear your thoughts on the game, the players who impressed (or didn’t), favourite moments, underrated moves, coaching strategies, and anything else you’d like to talk about.
This is also where we’d love for you to give us your Best On Ground votes, 5 for BOG, then 4, 3, 2, 1.
We also have post match discussion happening in our discord server.
