Post Match. Pies down Dogs - All comments please.

[Troppo]

[MightyMagpie]

[swoop42]

On paper the forward line featuring two aging defenders, an American, a 2nd year player and a couple of work horses more suited to a wing or VFL didn't fill one with a lot of confidence but with Elliott, Wells, Fasolo and de Goey all unavailable using two of your very best endurance athletes in Phillips and Smith across half forward I guess should mean 2 players at least are providing consistent defensive efforts across 4 quarters and an ability to continually offer themselves as a hit up forward option.

Basically it's trying to construct a usable plan B when so much goal kicking power is unavailable.

I didn't see the game so did Phillips, Smith and C. Brown play predominantly across half forward?

Looking at the stats Smith lead the i50 count with 7, had 2 goal assists, 7 marks and gathered 17 disposals.

Phillips laid 5 tackles, 3 i50, 3 r50. kicked 1.2 and gathered 19 disposals.

C. Brown 4 tackles, 3 i50, 1 goal and gathered 18 disposals.

On paper at least it looks like they went alright.

[qldmagpie67]

Watched the game live on Foxtel then had a lovely bbq dinner with the war office and son with his mates. The free loaders ate the food drank my beer and then decided to go fishing thankfully leaving me some time to watch the game again off IQ
A few thoughts after watching it a second time
Sidey was very good today. When he went forward our forward line seemed far more functional and we looked dangerous.
I commented during the game in 2017 when we took more than 14 marks inside 50 we went 7-1 today we took 23 marks inside 50 and won easily even allowing for some ordinary passages of play
Cox is a huge target but when we decided to lower our eyes and kick to a lead giving him some time to wind up and jump for it he was much more dangerous than just bombing it on his head. If we can do that every week he's capable of kicking 3-5 a game
Trelaor was huge today if he can improve his disposal he will win a Brownlow
12 tackles 13 clearances and 22 contested possessions was mighty.
Murray is a player to watch. Got a feeling he will play round 1 just becaus the Hawks will go with a smaller forward line giving him a chance.
Moore has loads of courage and looks at home in defence.
Grundy is just going to be a beast. He's second third efforts are befitting a small man not someone of his size
Thomas played well and won loads of contested ball
Brown was doing loads of good things and has a huge heart like his dad. He's looking better with each game he plays.
Overall our effort was there all game but the skills improved markedly from the 1st term.
Crisp Adams and Langdon can't all be in the backline. Between them they kill us with terrible disposals or turnovers. Langdon @ 84% is a joke stat. He had 6 of his 8 kicks in the first term and we were under constant pressure. For the last 3/4 he had 2 kicks 9 handballs with no disposal going over 10m and the majority under 3m by hand so if he can't hit these he shouldn't be playing park footy let alone AFL. Crisp just has a horrible kicking style and nil composure. He tries hard but heck he's mistakes are costly. Adams is a ball winner not user. Needs to be in and under
Think our forward line will be a mix n match during each game with players interchanging through there to try to catch opposition players napping.
We must have Pendles Varcoe Sidey Wells WHE Stephenson sending the ball since 50.
The round 1 clash gives us the opportunity to get our season off to a good start. The Hawks best players are old and there young players inexperienced. They will rely heavily on our mistakes. Limit those and we are a very good chance to give them a whacking

[The Weed]

[Mugwump]

^ blimey, I thought Swoop’s post was pretty reasonable !

[think positive]

Hmm, yeah what’s wrong with it?

Ol swoop has really mellowed, i Read it twice more, what did I miss

[neil]

^Nothing it was reasonable

[thebaldfacts]

Only a practice match, but winning sure beats losing.

It seemed to me that we were playing the boundary more as in MM days.

Nowhere near as many turnovers going back into the corridor.

Might be that Bucks has decided a 50 metre kick down the line to a contest is better than a turnover in the corridor.

[Albert Parker]

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

We had a crack for 4 quarters and that was pleasing. Not sure if the doggies backed off or not but we seemed the fitter and hungrier team in pretty difficult conditions.

[Bay Pie]

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

From my view of the game, the main benefit wasn't so much that we won, but the flexibility of the team to be be totally switched around which confuses the opposition and makes it harder for us to be countered. Richmond did it last year. We did it in the last 7 games of last season. That's the way modern football goes and Nathan Buckley to his credit is prepared to listen to his main assistant coaches (Sanderson, Harvey and Buddha) to find ways of winning.

The first quarter was a disaster because Maynard was hopeless in the middle and only Thomas was doing anything (Pendles is obviously underdone and Treloar is just getting back into it) and Adams in the backline was under seige. The switches are made at quarter time. Adams is moved into the middle and half forward and Pendles is moved more half forward. Maynard is moved to half back to nullify the Bulldogs half forwards and Murray gains confidence. Milocek played a pivotal role in supporting Moore and Cox was moved up the ground to get him into the game. You needed to be a chess master to follow all the moves and it was interesting to show Buddha in the rooms at half time working through the details with our mids.

All I can see is that it's going to be a very interesting season depending on who we field on the ground. Personally I'd like to see both Callum Brown and Daicos start the season and I wouldn't even mind Milocek starting the season as well. It's a mystery to me why Murray didn't play JLT1. Stephenson I didn't mind seeing in both JLT games but I think he needs at least a couple of VFL games before he becomes a permanent fixture in the senior side.

Having watched most of the JLT games I think we sit about middle of the table with the other teams. The two Adelaide teams and the two Sydney teams are clearly superior to us at the moment, while let's say Richmond as the premier team are superior to us as well. Essendon and Geelong are about the same as us while most of the other teams I think we have good chances of beating this season. Hawthorn is important for us to beat because it's the first game and they were good for so long and now they're dropped off, we need to show that we are moving past them.

Bring it on this season.

[RudeBoy]

Some good observations BIFC.

Regarding Sam Murray, Bucks mentioned after the game that he hadn't been picked in the first JLT game because he hadn't achieved some targets set for him and they didn't want to reward him until he'd worked on those areas. not sure what he was referring too, but maybe he hasn't been training hard enough, or perhaps they are trying to get him to work on his right foot? Certainly, on yesterday's performance, he looks a certainty for round one.

I must say I've been a bit disappointed in Maynard during the pre-season, as I had him penciled in as real beast in the midfield, but it may be that he is best left in defence, as he was strong marking and rebounding from there after quarter time.

Stephenson will be a gun player, but I'm not sure he's quite ready yet. Maybe leave him in the VFL for the first 4-5 games before promoting him.

Smith is simply a depth player, while Mihocek continues to put himself in contention for a senior berth imo.

After his BOG performance in the VFL, I have a feeling that Sier may finally be close to getting a senior berth, and if he does, he may quickly secure a permanent spot.

Finally, I've been saying for some time that our 2018 fortunes depend crucially on one player, Mason Cox, and yesterday strengthened that belief. If he gets good delivery and is able to run and jump at the ball, and pull down a few marks, kicking 2-3 goals each week, then we will have a very successful year, because he gives our team structure and confidence going forward. If he flops up forward, then we will flop with him.

Overall, an encouraging workout and once we get Elliott, Wells, Fasolo and De Goey back, we should be a considerably better team. Go Pies!

[Culprit]

^^Mihocek is good at reading the play. I suggests he gets a bit star gazed at the moment. A few times yesterday he was an on ground spectator rather than a player. I can't see him in the Seniors just yet. Will come down to who isn't available.