Don't get me started on the farcical jumper clash!
Werribee too good for us on their home deck. It was always going to be a tough game. They are second on the ladder for a reason. Their skill level is strong and applied pressure well for the parts I was able to see.
Rosman along with Lloyd and Tovey are significant outs. I think we can still take plenty of of the game. I didn't think we played well, and were still able to match Werribee in patches. That 4 quarter effort still not quite there. Every week I think I may get a chance to analyse the game by re watching during the week.. And it hasn't happened yet.
The week off comes at a good time and I still think we will finish the home and away season in good form. I'd hate to see us do back in to that 6th to 10th double elimination finals position.
What, are you saying you can tell the difference between red and blue vertical stripes and black with a yellow W? Astonishing!
Anyway, yeah, it being a tough game is not surprising at all - Grant another key player who would have made a difference if not injured. Hope you're right that it's good timing for the bye - I have a theory that having a bye after a big loss is bad timing since it gives the players more time to think about the loss, but I don’t know whether the stats bear that out. But if the bye means we're able to get Rosman and Tovey back that would be great. The commentators said Lloyd is out for 5 weeks, which is unfortunate.
Definitely, we can’t get away with not playing all four quarters against the top sides. The Williamstown game was probably our strongest effort across four quarters this season despite the inaccurate goalkicking.
It was a pretty good first quarter. Then in the second quarter it was over 13 minutes before any of Hobbs, Hird, or Rankin got a touch despite starting in the midfield for all that time. In the second quarter Hobbs had 2 touches, Hird had 3, and Rankin had 1. (Numbers based on checking the VFL app at quarter time and halftime so could be slightly off but they look right based on what I recalled seeing.) Directly at stoppages, Hird was decent defensively, but Brew did then get away from him several times to be the receive player. No one’s previously been able to hold Hobbs nearly as well as Werribee did in the second quarter.
After 14 hitouts in the first quarter (to Kuol Mun’s 18), Penry had 2 hitouts in the second and 4 across the third and fourth quarters. No surprise that Kuol Mun would dominate there.
Another key stat is that we were -1 in tackles at the half. Werribee simply outworked us in the second quarter. Werribee’s dominance in the hitouts was important, and we seemed to be lacking some speed in the midfield that we might have had if Tovey had been fit, but we also seemed unprepared for the intensity with which they came at us after quarter time. Werribee's pressure was definitely good. We also gave away way too many free kicks. Discipline has been a bit of a problem in some previous games, and that second quarter was pretty well disastrous all round. Not sure any of our players can be said to have played well in the second quarter - maybe Baldwin and Gahan.
Werribee’s dominance in the hitouts and clearances largely continued in the third, but we matched them for scoring in spite of that. Then in the fourth we had some very poor kicks going inside 50 and players perhaps rushing too much in an attempt to make something happen. Still better than the second quarter. There were moments in the second half when it looked like we could maybe come back, but Werribee were just too good. We still gave away too many free kicks in the second half as well. Not saying the umpiring was perfect and the livestream didn’t show the off the ball stuff, but it sounds there was some really poor discipline on our part at times.
Our midfield, as it stands, doesn't seem able to match it with the top sides. It looks like right now Hobbs is our only first-rate midfielder. The others are good when in form but have all been inconsistent. Green worked his way into the game and Hird and Rankin were good in the first quarter and had some decent moments late. Overall Hird was in better form than he’s been in lately. But the midfield is where we lost this game. I do retract my idea of moving Hird back to halfback; he's still not in top form - though he did tackle well and also made three of those kicks off the ground that he’s so good at - but we don’t have any better options to bring into the midfield instead. Would like to see Rankin stay in the midfield as well. A midfield rotation of Hobbs/Green/Hird/Tovey/Rankin looks like our best option right now.
Not sure to what extent we need recruitment vs development in the midfield. This is Tovey’s first full season at VFL level, and Rankin of course has mostly played halfback/wing, so both of them can reasonably be expected to improve further as mids. I’ve mentioned that I think Hird’s best is a step above what one would expect given that his acceleration isn’t great - the level he played at last season and for the first 10 games or so of this season comes from work rate plus reading the game well more than athleticism. Not sure what that means for his ceiling. He’s generally good defensively. Unsure of Green’s ceiling also but all our mids are relatively young with Hird the oldest at 25 - all of them could develop further. Polkinghorne still a good chance to develop further and be a consistent midfield option in the future. George and, as Mega recently mentioned, Clarke are additional options for the midfield who should improve there with more experience.
Baldwin was our best player. Hobbs and Gahan were fairly good overall. Hobbs did lead all comers for tackles and all Port players for clearances, and he was having a lot of work put into him by Werribee; the rest of the midfield needed to step up more than they did, which seems to be a bit of a theme over the past few weeks even though we won three in a row before this loss. Green perhaps should have been one of the three starting in the midfield since he has been in form, although no one move would have been likely to change things.
Evaluating the defence is harder watching the stream than in person. Was Van Es on Wright for most of the game? If so Van Es was good. Graham had some goals kicked on him, but I thought for the amount of pressure the defence was under he played a good game. He did lead all comers for intercept possessions. McCartney’s listed him in the best players, so I’ll take that as evidence that Graham was in fact good.
Tonelli did look to be working hard to try to have an impact.
A bit of a reminder this week about the gap between us and the top sides. Hopefully the playing group learns from this and takes those lessons into finals.
Wonder if some of the decline in goalkicking accuracy is due to fatigue as the season goes on. I’ve read it takes 3 preseasons for fitness gains to become sustainable over a full season.
Tasmania and Williamstown also have the bye next week, but if Coburg and Essendon both win, that would see us drop to 9th. I agree that we'll finish the season in better form than we showed this week, but I have no idea what to expect from our game against Frankston after the bye. Frankston have been inconsistent but can never be written off at home, and of course they just had an impressive and rather unexpected win over the Giants.
Don't get me started on the farcical jumper clash!
Werribee too good for us on their home deck. It was always going to be a tough game. They are second on the ladder for a reason. Their skill level is strong and applied pressure well for the parts I was able to see.
Rosman along with Lloyd and Tovey are significant outs. I think we can still take plenty of of the game. I didn't think we played well, and were still able to match Werribee in patches. That 4 quarter effort still not quite there. Every week I think I may get a chance to analyse the game by re watching during the week.. And it hasn't happened yet.
The week off comes at a good time and I still think we will finish the home and away season in good form. I'd hate to see us do back in to that 6th to 10th double elimination finals position.
But our percentage does us no favours!
* It's time to restore the VFA name.
What, are you saying you can tell the difference between red and blue vertical stripes and black with a yellow W? Astonishing!
Anyway, yeah, it being a tough game is not surprising at all - Grant another key player who would have made a difference if not injured. Hope you're right that it's good timing for the bye - I have a theory that having a bye after a big loss is bad timing since it gives the players more time to think about the loss, but I don’t know whether the stats bear that out. But if the bye means we're able to get Rosman and Tovey back that would be great. The commentators said Lloyd is out for 5 weeks, which is unfortunate.
Definitely, we can’t get away with not playing all four quarters against the top sides. The Williamstown game was probably our strongest effort across four quarters this season despite the inaccurate goalkicking.
It was a pretty good first quarter. Then in the second quarter it was over 13 minutes before any of Hobbs, Hird, or Rankin got a touch despite starting in the midfield for all that time. In the second quarter Hobbs had 2 touches, Hird had 3, and Rankin had 1. (Numbers based on checking the VFL app at quarter time and halftime so could be slightly off but they look right based on what I recalled seeing.) Directly at stoppages, Hird was decent defensively, but Brew did then get away from him several times to be the receive player. No one’s previously been able to hold Hobbs nearly as well as Werribee did in the second quarter.
After 14 hitouts in the first quarter (to Kuol Mun’s 18), Penry had 2 hitouts in the second and 4 across the third and fourth quarters. No surprise that Kuol Mun would dominate there.
Another key stat is that we were -1 in tackles at the half. Werribee simply outworked us in the second quarter. Werribee’s dominance in the hitouts was important, and we seemed to be lacking some speed in the midfield that we might have had if Tovey had been fit, but we also seemed unprepared for the intensity with which they came at us after quarter time. Werribee's pressure was definitely good. We also gave away way too many free kicks. Discipline has been a bit of a problem in some previous games, and that second quarter was pretty well disastrous all round. Not sure any of our players can be said to have played well in the second quarter - maybe Baldwin and Gahan.
Werribee’s dominance in the hitouts and clearances largely continued in the third, but we matched them for scoring in spite of that. Then in the fourth we had some very poor kicks going inside 50 and players perhaps rushing too much in an attempt to make something happen. Still better than the second quarter. There were moments in the second half when it looked like we could maybe come back, but Werribee were just too good. We still gave away too many free kicks in the second half as well. Not saying the umpiring was perfect and the livestream didn’t show the off the ball stuff, but it sounds there was some really poor discipline on our part at times.
Our midfield, as it stands, doesn't seem able to match it with the top sides. It looks like right now Hobbs is our only first-rate midfielder. The others are good when in form but have all been inconsistent. Green worked his way into the game and Hird and Rankin were good in the first quarter and had some decent moments late. Overall Hird was in better form than he’s been in lately. But the midfield is where we lost this game. I do retract my idea of moving Hird back to halfback; he's still not in top form - though he did tackle well and also made three of those kicks off the ground that he’s so good at - but we don’t have any better options to bring into the midfield instead. Would like to see Rankin stay in the midfield as well. A midfield rotation of Hobbs/Green/Hird/Tovey/Rankin looks like our best option right now.
Not sure to what extent we need recruitment vs development in the midfield. This is Tovey’s first full season at VFL level, and Rankin of course has mostly played halfback/wing, so both of them can reasonably be expected to improve further as mids. I’ve mentioned that I think Hird’s best is a step above what one would expect given that his acceleration isn’t great - the level he played at last season and for the first 10 games or so of this season comes from work rate plus reading the game well more than athleticism. Not sure what that means for his ceiling. He’s generally good defensively. Unsure of Green’s ceiling also but all our mids are relatively young with Hird the oldest at 25 - all of them could develop further. Polkinghorne still a good chance to develop further and be a consistent midfield option in the future. George and, as Mega recently mentioned, Clarke are additional options for the midfield who should improve there with more experience.
Baldwin was our best player. Hobbs and Gahan were fairly good overall. Hobbs did lead all comers for tackles and all Port players for clearances, and he was having a lot of work put into him by Werribee; the rest of the midfield needed to step up more than they did, which seems to be a bit of a theme over the past few weeks even though we won three in a row before this loss. Green perhaps should have been one of the three starting in the midfield since he has been in form, although no one move would have been likely to change things.
Evaluating the defence is harder watching the stream than in person. Was Van Es on Wright for most of the game? If so Van Es was good. Graham had some goals kicked on him, but I thought for the amount of pressure the defence was under he played a good game. He did lead all comers for intercept possessions. McCartney’s listed him in the best players, so I’ll take that as evidence that Graham was in fact good.
Tonelli did look to be working hard to try to have an impact.
A bit of a reminder this week about the gap between us and the top sides. Hopefully the playing group learns from this and takes those lessons into finals.
Wonder if some of the decline in goalkicking accuracy is due to fatigue as the season goes on. I’ve read it takes 3 preseasons for fitness gains to become sustainable over a full season.
Tasmania and Williamstown also have the bye next week, but if Coburg and Essendon both win, that would see us drop to 9th. I agree that we'll finish the season in better form than we showed this week, but I have no idea what to expect from our game against Frankston after the bye. Frankston have been inconsistent but can never be written off at home, and of course they just had an impressive and rather unexpected win over the Giants.
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