Weekly Player Ratings

[inxs88]

Well wasn't that another bitter pill to swallow on Brunton avenue two times in a row. That aside, I'd like to put up some weekly player performance ratings to generate some discussion and feedback:

1. Stephenson: battled hard but had little impact, played up the ground and wasn't able to be that 100 metre player we hoped for. 5/10

2. Jordan DeGoey: outside the third quarter he struggled to have any material impact. The last quarter faux pas of failing to turn around and kick the goal vs handballing to Thomas shall haunt us all for the season. 4/10

4. Grundy: Commitment and effort were the usual pillars on display however his inability to take key overhead marks from kick ins hurt us. His missed goal from 25 metres out before half time stifled our momentum. Stanley seemed to take mark after mark in the last 10 minutes. 6/10

5. Elliott: meritorious comeback game. His mark in third quarter hitting up on a tough pass was 2014 esque and 3 goals was a good return. Base to build on. 7/10

7. Treloar: the most difficult evaluation to make. Highest possession getter on ground, vital third quarter goal and ran hard all night. However, his clanger count was an all time high and these were as costly as anything tonight. 6/10

8. Langdon: stood up all night and can held his head high. 7/10

10. Pendlebury: I am concerned. The back injury issue gave me some relief when released on Wednesday. However tonight he moved and played like a vanilla, meat and potatoes tagger. His inability to kick goals from set shots 35 metres out is now epidemic. 5/10

11. Beams: Seemed like the tempo challenged him at times however he seemed to get better as the night progressed. 6/10

14. Aish: serviceable, courageous but still not penetrative in his play with his dinky lateral kicks. 6/10

16. Mayne: a cliché Mayne game. Tackled and competed hard, committed his 2-3 mandatory clangers and like Aish failed to penetrate play. 5/10

17. C Brown: great late goal but hardly sighted throughout the night. Likely demotion for next week. 3/10

18. Varcoe: 9 possessions, no goals and little impact. 3/10

21. Phillips: When you're overlooked in your first draft and then get taken at pick 58 in your second, you have flaws that scare recruiters away. Tonight, they all came home to roost. No right side, a limited left side, poor accuracy at goal and physically bereft at the contest. 3/10

22. Sidebottom: Got cheap kicks in non threatening areas such as half back, zero goals and failed to provide any hurt with his possessions. 4/10

23. Roughead: outside being caught holding the ball, he had the better of Hawkins over the night. Combined well with Moore and looks a lock. 7/10

24. Thomas: failed to have any impact over the night. Can't afford complacency. 2/10

25. Crisp: was one of the chief culprits why down back we committed 32 backline turnovers over the night. His fumbling hands weer the source of many of these tonight. 4/10

30. Moore: destroyed Ratugolea and his closing speed to spoil or neutralise contests was exceptional. 8/10

37. Maynard: had the better of Ablett despite his 2 goals. His penetrative kicking and accuracy notable. Need to free him up and utilize that weapon similar to how Nick Newman was used last night for the Blues. 7/10

38. Howe: The blood clot in his leg vs the simple skill non-execution both in the Grand Final kick in's late and the same thing tonight are in Jack Nicholson terms: CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED. Fix it Jeremy or else. 3/10

41. Mihocek: lazy, failed to get to the right positions, allowed Stewart to destroy us and has to lift. 1/10

46. Cox: Steady but no growth. 1 goal a game isn't going to cut it and his still inability to out bustle and be out bustled by opponents is a concern. 4/10

Off-field: Coaching, team selection etc....

Not playing Greenwood against Selwood in hindsight was a massive faux pas. Little coaching moves to arrest momentum. Our turnover out of the backline present a massive issue especially given Bux comments post game at the presser.

Welcome your thoughts and opinions. Better to share the pain.

[DT]

Pretty accurate INXS88 but I would differ on Varcoe - he is our best defensive close down player and he was good at it again. I do see a lot of scope for improvement so I am not worried yet. I think a fit and firing Sier and Adams along with WHE will make a big difference. I wonder why Thomas was so bad? But he does put in the odd shocker.

[Pies4shaw]

Trade Sidebottom, De Goey, Crisp, Phillips and Pendlebury to Essendon, while we can still get something for them. That must be the plan.

Speaking seriously, there is no point bagging players for playing as instructed. The Coach has identified that we are struggling to bring the ball out of the back half so he has instructed our best ball-gatherer and most skilled player to play deeper to help out. Personally, I think that's the wrong idea and bound to fail, because it just detracts from our ability to get through traffic in the scoring areas of the ground. It's obvious that's the plan with Sidebottom, though. What that really exposes is how desperate we are to fix the problem with distribution from our backline.

[inxs88]

Some good points. We just lack pin point passing out of defence. Hello Quaynor perhaps?

[inxs88]

[Skids]

Some of our passages of play were missing just one thing.... The Benny Hill show music!

What did the robot in Lost In Space say... 'Babbling boobies'.

[inxs88]

[Stinger]

Great summary Inxs88. I thought Elliot played a great game first back. I agree with others, bit harsh of Varcoe. The stats aren’t everything with him, he stops the opposition so much more.
Looked like de Goey and Stevenson were underdone however they will be better for the run in the 1s than the twos. Definitely missed WHE.

[Pies4shaw]

Can we really persist with Varcoe, though, if he has just 2 kicks again in his next outing?

[Invigoration]

[RudeBoy]

While Roughead played quite well, I wonder if his inclusion unbalances our defence and deprives us of some run and carry. Given that both Howe and Langdon have demonstrated an ability to play on talls, perhaps Moore is the only real tall we need in defence. Obviously it's horses for courses, but maybe we'd be better most weeks with a back six comprising:

Maynard Moore Langdon
Crisp Howe Greenwood/Varcoe

[Big Dan]

If the result was a win, would the ratings be so harsh?

Simple skill errors across the board destroyed the game. Geelong weren't much better.

I'd actually liken this round #1 to be more like "JLT 3". Let's see what happens on Thursday.

[K]

Except that 4 pts are attached, whatever we'd like to call it.

[Jezza]

Sier and Greenwood need to be named for the Richmond game, rather than languishing as emergencies.

Without those two in addition to Adams, we really lacked hardness through the middle.

[inxs88]

You would think that:

* Callum Brown
* Brodie Mihocek
* J Thomas
* Tom Phillips
* Travis Varcoe

Were the bottom five players on Friday night. Unfortunately with no Reserves (outside the scratch match), we're unlikely to see many changes for Thursday. If so the pool of players likely to be selected from are:

* Tyler Brown
* L Greenwood
* Brayden Sier (match fitness pending)
* I Quaynor

Ultimately I reckon it shall be:

Out: C Brown and In: L Greenwood