Well, the new clash jumper certainly didn't prevent our players from kicking it to Coburg's defenders instead of our forwards. Poor forward 50 entries were definitely a problem again, as was poor forward craft, with our forwards getting caught behind the Coburg defenders too often. In general players were out of position all around the ground, with Coburg taking far too many uncontested marks. Not sure about contested vs uncontested numbers, but Coburg took 99 marks to our 65 and dominated the disposal count as well. Their mids were able to win the ball and get into space, and then they were able to drive the ball forward without much pressure from us. I'd say this one was lost in the midfield, though there were problems all round the ground.
Hobbs continues to be brilliant, Van Es continues to be solid in defence, Alessio played his best game yet, and Farrant and Sparkman were good as well. Hobbs is likely leading the best and fairest by now despite the two games missed, and Van Es has been our best key defender this season. It may be only a matter of time before Hobbs gets another chance at AFL level, but unless/until that happens, it's crucial that we keep him.
After the first quarter we were not able to stand up to Coburg's pressure, although our players were also putting unnecessary pressure on themselves by fumbling what should have been basic handball receives. There was a tendency to handball to players who were under immediate pressure, but there were fumbles without much pressure as well. I'd say overall it was less a question of overusing handball than of using it poorly, though there was some overuse as well.
We were also beaten in the midfield. Hobbs was great and Green's performance was respectable enough; otherwise we didn't get much from the mids. Of Hobbs' 13 clearances, 8 came in the first quarter. [ETA: I see he's now credited with 14 clearances; not sure which quarter the additional one came in, but it doesn't change my basic point.] He did play well all game and deserves coaches' votes, but after the first quarter Coburg were putting more work into him at stoppages, and unlike last week, none of the other mids stood up. Hird and Tovey having their worst games of the season in the same week was definitely a problem (the worst overall team performance was against Box Hill, but against Box Hill Tovey was good and Hird had a respectable second half). Hird had 5 touches in the second half (1 in the third quarter), and also in the second half his defensive impact was significantly down as well.
We've lost the clearances against Box Hill, Brisbane, North Melbourne, Southport, Williamstown, and Coburg. The biggest clearance deficits were against Southport (-8) and Coburg (-10), which fits with my recollection that, Box Hill debacle aside, the Southport and Coburg games were the ones in which we were the least able to stop the opposition mids. The team will want to look closely at what went wrong in those games - fixing those problems will be especially important if we make finals. I am still optimistic about our chance to make finals but am not sure how far this midfield group can take us in finals this year, as we have had difficulty against teams with multiple first-rate midfielders. We were a bit lucky to get Williamstown after they'd lost 2 of their top mids to the midseason draft. I'm treating the Box Hill game as an outlier and focusing more on Southport and Coburg, but I'm not actually sure how much better we'd do in the midfield if we faced Box Hill again - having Hobbs (who missed that game with suspension) would help as long as he wasn't left with too much to do alone. Then again our midfield performance against Werribee suggests that we do have what we need and it's a question of everything coming together at the same time. The rematch against Werribee in round 17 will be telling.
All that said, I don't expect Hird or Tovey to have two down games in a row, and as long as we can keep all our key players I expect to see continued improvement in the midfield next year. When Polkinghorne becomes more consistent that will help (I know he wasn't playing midfield today - might have been a good idea to give him more time there in the second half to see what he could do - but the move back to half forward came after some quiet midfield games).
We definitely did miss George today and of course didn't have him against Southport either. Today we missed Rankin as well; he'd have given us more run and carry out of defensive 50 and could potentially have been moved into the midfield as well.
Clarke good in the first half, quiet in the second. Should be better for the run.
Poor goalkicking was also a problem, though this week I think number of scoring shots is a bit of a misleading stat; once Coburg took the lead we were playing catch-up, and not well. In theory we had our chances in the fourth quarter, but we were rushing things and taking shots from wide angles, in part because of pressure from Coburg.
Umpire interference didn't help but there was enough wrong with our performance that it doesn't matter to the result.
Against teams currently above us on the ladder, we're 3-4. That could certainly be worse. Today's performance shows some clear weaknesses that we'll need to improve on to be real contenders, but we're certainly still in the finals race and on paper don't have a terribly difficult fixture for the rest of the season. It is important not to overrate performances against weaker teams, but the team can play better than they did today.
Haven't had time to watch the women's game yet, but very happy to see that they won. Will watch their game in the next day or two.
The club posted some pictures of the new clash jumper in this facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/pmfcborough/posts/pfbid0sZy9x5AVhU2un8pnA7VmEWnuaq94Eq4SXNwoTLwBpt48iu6ZinvVNSsxpm7WEjrFl
Not impressed
Well, the new clash jumper certainly didn't prevent our players from kicking it to Coburg's defenders instead of our forwards. Poor forward 50 entries were definitely a problem again, as was poor forward craft, with our forwards getting caught behind the Coburg defenders too often. In general players were out of position all around the ground, with Coburg taking far too many uncontested marks. Not sure about contested vs uncontested numbers, but Coburg took 99 marks to our 65 and dominated the disposal count as well. Their mids were able to win the ball and get into space, and then they were able to drive the ball forward without much pressure from us. I'd say this one was lost in the midfield, though there were problems all round the ground.
Hobbs continues to be brilliant, Van Es continues to be solid in defence, Alessio played his best game yet, and Farrant and Sparkman were good as well. Hobbs is likely leading the best and fairest by now despite the two games missed, and Van Es has been our best key defender this season. It may be only a matter of time before Hobbs gets another chance at AFL level, but unless/until that happens, it's crucial that we keep him.
After the first quarter we were not able to stand up to Coburg's pressure, although our players were also putting unnecessary pressure on themselves by fumbling what should have been basic handball receives. There was a tendency to handball to players who were under immediate pressure, but there were fumbles without much pressure as well. I'd say overall it was less a question of overusing handball than of using it poorly, though there was some overuse as well.
We were also beaten in the midfield. Hobbs was great and Green's performance was respectable enough; otherwise we didn't get much from the mids. Of Hobbs' 13 clearances, 8 came in the first quarter. [ETA: I see he's now credited with 14 clearances; not sure which quarter the additional one came in, but it doesn't change my basic point.] He did play well all game and deserves coaches' votes, but after the first quarter Coburg were putting more work into him at stoppages, and unlike last week, none of the other mids stood up. Hird and Tovey having their worst games of the season in the same week was definitely a problem (the worst overall team performance was against Box Hill, but against Box Hill Tovey was good and Hird had a respectable second half). Hird had 5 touches in the second half (1 in the third quarter), and also in the second half his defensive impact was significantly down as well.
We've lost the clearances against Box Hill, Brisbane, North Melbourne, Southport, Williamstown, and Coburg. The biggest clearance deficits were against Southport (-8) and Coburg (-10), which fits with my recollection that, Box Hill debacle aside, the Southport and Coburg games were the ones in which we were the least able to stop the opposition mids. The team will want to look closely at what went wrong in those games - fixing those problems will be especially important if we make finals. I am still optimistic about our chance to make finals but am not sure how far this midfield group can take us in finals this year, as we have had difficulty against teams with multiple first-rate midfielders. We were a bit lucky to get Williamstown after they'd lost 2 of their top mids to the midseason draft. I'm treating the Box Hill game as an outlier and focusing more on Southport and Coburg, but I'm not actually sure how much better we'd do in the midfield if we faced Box Hill again - having Hobbs (who missed that game with suspension) would help as long as he wasn't left with too much to do alone. Then again our midfield performance against Werribee suggests that we do have what we need and it's a question of everything coming together at the same time. The rematch against Werribee in round 17 will be telling.
All that said, I don't expect Hird or Tovey to have two down games in a row, and as long as we can keep all our key players I expect to see continued improvement in the midfield next year. When Polkinghorne becomes more consistent that will help (I know he wasn't playing midfield today - might have been a good idea to give him more time there in the second half to see what he could do - but the move back to half forward came after some quiet midfield games).
We definitely did miss George today and of course didn't have him against Southport either. Today we missed Rankin as well; he'd have given us more run and carry out of defensive 50 and could potentially have been moved into the midfield as well.
Clarke good in the first half, quiet in the second. Should be better for the run.
Poor goalkicking was also a problem, though this week I think number of scoring shots is a bit of a misleading stat; once Coburg took the lead we were playing catch-up, and not well. In theory we had our chances in the fourth quarter, but we were rushing things and taking shots from wide angles, in part because of pressure from Coburg.
Umpire interference didn't help but there was enough wrong with our performance that it doesn't matter to the result.
Against teams currently above us on the ladder, we're 3-4. That could certainly be worse. Today's performance shows some clear weaknesses that we'll need to improve on to be real contenders, but we're certainly still in the finals race and on paper don't have a terribly difficult fixture for the rest of the season. It is important not to overrate performances against weaker teams, but the team can play better than they did today.
Haven't had time to watch the women's game yet, but very happy to see that they won. Will watch their game in the next day or two.
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