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Dave Lloyd’s weekly contribution.
The good, the bad and the ugly they say. Only if there was some good to report on.
There’s a few things I want to cover off in this review, the game, the supporters response to the game and the crowd behaviour.
The game - We’ve broken down forward of centre, or, we’ve been broken down by opposition coaches. It’s difficult to pin point the exact cause of our forward line form of the last few weeks, some of it is to do with the way the ball is being delivered, some of it is due to the space the forwards are being allowed to use by opposition defensive units and some of it is the form of our forwards.
52 inside 50’s for 7 goals on a perfect night for footy, simply not good enough. If you have access to the AFL’s app, check out the heat maps for our main forwards in Dixon, Wingard, Sammy Gray, Motlop and Watts. All of them on Saturday night have their “hot spots” ( where they generated most of their possessions ) well outside the centre corridor, our runway as they like to call it.
Currently we’re being driven wider and wider with our entry forward. Go one step further and the hot spots of Robbie Gray, Wines and Polec, our main ball winners in recent weeks, are also wide out on the wings. We’re being forced wide early in our transition, our forwards are being drawn wide and opposition defences don’t get opened up. Instead they get time to slide across in numbers and foil the attack.
Whilst we sorely miss Ryder’s ruck work we’re not getting beaten up in stoppages, we won the clearances 49-43 on the weekend, we’re getting burnt by our second and third possessions either being faulty under pressure or we move the ball too far sideways out of the contest and we give our forwards no room to work with in the middle. It’s problematic that we’ve seen the opposition do this to use two of the last three weeks.
Not much good came out of Saturday night, especially when looking at our best players as it was the same few doing the same things. Robbie Gray has been sensational the last two weeks in losing sides, 20 clearances in two weeks to go with 70 possessions. Clearly our best. Wines with 29, 5 tackles, 6 clearances again leading the way. Ebert with 24 touches, 14 mighty tackles again in our best along with Westhoff and Polec who had moments where they got us going and Hartlett showed true fighting spirit to come back from his massive knock and continue his solid early season form. Sounds like our last two weeks.
Few blokes under some real pressure, Dan Houston looks a little lost not playing the sweeper role that Bonner has taken control of. I’ll be in touch with some Melbourne supporters to see how they deal with Watts’ lack of urgency and awareness, Amon had an opportunity in the absence of Pittard and Rockliff to cement a spot on the outside but has failed to do so and the inclusions of Neade and Thomas might be short lived. Probably won’t see Thomas for a while anyway. Nothing has changed with him and my views on his recruitment won’t be mentioned in this family forum.
Dave’s best – R.Gray, Wines, Westhoff, Ebert, Hartlett.
The supporters response to the game – It’s a fickle industry this football we follow. Ask a Geelong fan what they think of Chris Scott most weeks, ask a Richmond fan what they thought of Damien Hardwick 2 years ago, ask a Melbourne fan what they think of Simon Goodwin. They’ll be just as fickle as the folks who are calling for Hinkley’s head.
I’ll take on board that we’ve been out coached the last couple of weeks, it happens (I’ve explained as much in my review above) just ask John Longmire who was out coached on Friday night by Don Pyke.
I’ll listen to the people calling for Hinkleys head when they explain to me who they would like to see coaching, what that person brings to the role and how that will improve our sides ability to play football. I’m ready to question our recruiting strategy soon, I’ll give it more than 5 weeks before I get hysterical but I’m not liking the early signs.
However, I will question the development of our skills though, we identified this in 2016 when we were the turnover kings, it’s creeping back into our game at the moment and it’s a by product of being under pressure from the ball movement. Preseason 2017 was meant to all be about fixing our ball use, it didn’t improve much last year and it’s the root of our problems this year.
Not one move Hinkley or anyone could pull at the moment will fix our current woes. Either way Hinkley is our man this year and for the next 3. We can knife him or back him. I’m keeping my knives in the kitchen for now.
Crowd behaviour – If you’re a goon who thinks punching on anywhere, let alone at a family environment like the football, is for you then we’re not interested in you or your “support”. If you’re keen on getting your kit off and running onto the oval for a laugh that’ll cost you at least $3000 then we’re not interested in your support. Find something else to do.
If you’re at the game and people are pushing the boundaries I urge you to call them out before they act in a manner that tarnishes the image of all of us. Weed them out, let them know their behaviour is unacceptable and alert security. It’s what they’re there for and we should make use of them.
Port Adelaide has always been Port Adelaide, we’ve been the wharfies forever and we should be proud of our rich working class history. We’ve been labelled as rough and tough on and off field for generations, we’re not alone there, every club has some drongo looking for a blue in the outer, but enough is enough.
We want to be the loudest and most passionate fans in the competition and we get labelled as feral without incidents like Saturday night giving people more reason to tell us we are.
I’m sick and tired of the vast majority being tarnished by the actions of a brainless few and it’s time we as a supporter group took ownership of this and made it clear to those who cross the line they are not welcome to stand by our side.
Show schedule change. The Monday night review show will be Tuesday night 8pm.
The pain won’t be as bad by then. See you Tuesday at 8!