3 decent quarters of footy and one lazy pathetic one which almost cost us the game. Dimma gave them an absolute spray at 3/4 time and deservedly so. Basically our classy top half-dozen or so got us home after half-time. We really struggled with Melbourne's pace and spread especially in the second half. They were playing us on the rebound and our midfield didn't push as hard back as they did forward which exposed our open backline if we didn't hold it in our forward 1/3 and enabled the Dees run it down and get easy shots on goal and kick something like 14.2 at one stage. I haven't checked the stats but for mine our midfield had the better at winning the footy (except for the 3rd qtr) but defensively we still don't work hard enough as a team. Also we really lack quality elite smalls/crumbers up forward. Being front and square to the fall of the ball seemed a foreign concept especially after half-time.
agree with all of that. Also noticed melbourne get front and square all over the ground, we got smashed on the rebound when countless times our defenders would spoil the ball at chb or the wing or the centre and there'd be melbourne players front and square every time. Its part of their game plan as they spread from defence with runners sprinting to get to the fall of the ball of the hitup forward just in case he doesnt mark it. Simple stupid football and its embarrassing we let them get away with it all game.
If I was dimma I would be ropeable that after total domination we only beat them by a kick - shouldve been 10 goals if we put more scorebaord pressure on them when we were supposed to.
Foley was bloody good today. Best game back.
Really liked the way Lids stood up when the game needed to be won. For some reason I was more impressed with Cotchin today than in any of his many better classier performances. He willed himself at the contest and threw himself at the ball with a ferocity Ive never seen from him - noticed this especially in the 3rd quarter when they were murdering us out of the centre square.
I liked our fwd press for large parts of the game, best structures Ive seen from us but still needs tweaking, once it gets broken down we give away the simplest of goals - counted about 6-7 goals through the back door. Some players were a split second too late in leaving their space for a man - but you can accept these things bc today for the first time I can honestly say I saw a well structured fwd press.
edit: forgot to add I get so stuffing angry when out of form cheats like Jurrah get brought in for games against us bc everyopne knows we'll play your duds back into form.
