AFawfuL Weekend, Round 5, 2010 Part 1
Adelaide Crows: X-Factor. Many teams have it while others don’t. I think we can safely lump the Adelaide Crows into the “don’t” category. After bursting out of the blocks early with the first few goals they withered and died right before our eyes, allowing the Dogs to do as they pleased for the rest of the night. Don’t let the scores fool you when you see that the Crows hung around for a while – they were never in it and they lack someone with X-Factor to not only turn a game but steer them in the right direction. The stats for the game can be decieving as well. The Crows only had 9 less possessions, had more inside 50′s (47-42) and laid more tackles (65-60) than the Dogs, yet they continually lacked a forward target and they continually turned the ball over.
Said Brett Burton: “I thought we started the game really well and were really positive then we burnt the ball. We were getting opportunities but just weren’t using the ball well.”
And there in lies the problem. You can have all the ball you want, but if you can’t use it, you’ll inevitably lose games of footy. The Dogs had a big target up forward in Barry Hall and their midfielders ran harder all night long. But surely Finals are out of the question now… aren’t they? Not according to Burton:
“Mathematically we are [in the finals race], but for us it’s about getting back to good form. We’re losing by large amounts so finals are the last thing we’re thinking about at the moment.”
Riiiiiiiight. You have about us much mathematical chance of making the finals as Albert Einstein does of coming back to life and working out whether or not Caster Semenya is a man or not. In fact, I don’t think even Einstein could do that, which shows you how much chance the Crows have of making the finals. None. Their cause is not helped by
Kurt Tippett: He is either injured or playing like a guy who just signed a big, long term contract. I’m going with the latter. He might have kicked 3 goals but he only had 7 touches for the night and little influence on the game for the fifth time this year. And, you know, they have only played five games. Get it? If they are to win any games this year Tippett needs to do SOMETHING. Just do anything Kurt! Belt someone, celebrate a goal Harbhajan Singh style complete with a roll on the wing. It’s certainly better than what he’s doing now which isn’t much.
West Coast Eagles: This was probably the easiest game to predict this weekend. Apart from the game above. After rolling Essendon, getting their first win on the board and having Nic Nat selected as the Rising Star for the round (more on him later), they got smashed by a rampant Swans side that is taking all before them (more on that later too!). The Eagles had just the 290 disposals compared to the Swans’ 414, yet this alone doesn’t tell the whole story. The pressure and size of the ground didn’t allow the Eagles to get any sort of run going, as they had only the 90 handballs to the Swans 207. It gave them more inside 50′s but, what it didn’t give them, was the time to hit a target up forward.
You could say alot of it was down to the forward line. Well, John Worsfold thinks it is anyway and he laid the blame soley at the feet of… Mitch Brown?
“A big part of that is personnel and Mitch Brown wasn’t up to it today compared to what (Quinten) Lynch and (Ash) Hansen have brought this year. We have looked at him as a player who should be starting to play a role.”
Being compared to Lynch is one thing, but being compared to Ashley “Hamstring” Hansen and his efforts in the Eagles forward line could almost be one of the biggest slaps in the face you could give a guy. But apart from Josh Kennedy (3 goals), no-one gave them an option up forward. Mark Lecras didn’t register a goal, so why doesn’t he get compared to, say, Ronnie Burns? Be consistent John, please!
Nic Naitanui: Am I the only one who is sick to death of hearing about this guy? Honestly the buzz around him has reached ridiculous levels and it’s fair giving me the shits. So it’s without an evil grin that I make mention of the “game” Nic Nat put in at the SCG yesterday – to offset his 7 tackles he had just 5 touches and only had the 14 hitouts. Now, for a guy that has a leap that can “clear tall buildings”, shouldn’t he be getting his hand of the footy just a little more than that?
Mark Seaby: Way to show the Eagles they should never had let you go – Dean Cox had 15 touches, 6 marks and a lazy 27 hitouts (not to mention a goal) while Seaby had 11 touches, just 1o hitouts and, um, 5 clangers. I spoke to Worsfold last night and he had this to say:
“I’m not losing any sleep about the Seaby trade, let me give you the tip!!” (editors not – Worsfold may not have actually said this, but we know he’s thinking it!) and
Sydney Swans: The new ladder leaders are the talk to the town because they have beaten… Adelaide, North Melbourne, West Coast and Richmond. Do you see a common theme here? Two of these sides are winless and the other two have just the 1 win for the season. Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just pointing out the facts. The Swans have Brisbane at the SCG next week – no doubt this will show us if the Swans are the real deal. Speaking of Brisbane…
Fitzroy Brisbane Lions Paddlepop Lions: Don’t lie and tell me you saw this coming. Melbourne had been handy over the last few weeks but the Lions were coming off a rather good victory over the Doggies and were undefeated, not to mention the fact that Brown and Fevola show was rolling along sensational. And then it crumbled all around them. The Dees hammered the Lions in so many areas on Saturday night that it was almost comical – Melbourne had 9 more inside 50′s, 30 more touches and used the corridor like it was a training drill at the junction oval minus the goal posts. And just for the record I HATE the tackle stat – if you saw the game on Satuday night would you have believed the Lions laid 94 tackles to Melbourne’s 66? No, I didn’t think so. Sometimes people rant and rave about this stat but if you are laying that many more tackles than the opposition then it simply means you are continually second to the ball. Which the Lions were all night. And Vossy wasn’t happy!
Said Voss: “It was a largely inept performance, really, when you look at it. It was embarrassing … it was the way we played that was the embarrassing part. I thought they (Melbourne) put their head over the footy more, they wanted the footy more, they ran harder, they had the courage to run [and] they spread quicker.”
Indeed. Am I the only one who can imagine Vossy going completely ape shit at his players after a game? Like he misses sledging people on the footy field so he takes it out on his players? One man who he can point the finger at is….
Jonathan Brown: You could take Browny’s game two ways – Lion fans would cry foul and say that he was clearly injured and that hurt his performance. That’s true. But if you are clearly injured then why bloody play? He hurt them WAY more by playing than sitting it out, but after his comments during the week he had no choice. Forgotten what he said about a groin complaint and possibly surgery? Well, here it is again:
“Absolute bullshit. And you can quote me on that!”
After saying that the big fella had no choice but to put himself out on the park. He had just 8 disposals and one goal, and James Frawley gave him an absolute bath, the likes of which Travis Johnstone could use. But Vossy was adamant that the champ was right to go:
“He’s fit enough; he’s right to go,” Voss said. “It (the reason for the loss) wasn’t Jonathan Brown’s fitness, it was certainly the way we moved the ball.”
Fit enough? He moved slower than my 104 year old grandma getting out of bed in the morning. It was such a load of bullshit that you could see something brown dribbling down Vossy’s lip!
St. Kilda: Doesn’t the Riewoldt injury hurt now lads? The Saints could only muster 6 goals in an embarrasing loss to a team that lost by 95 points the week before. Read that again if you need to. But the previously undefeated Saints couldn’t find anyone to kick their goals and they got rolled. And I can guarantee you that this won’t be the last time it happens to the Saints this year. How can you cover the loss of Roo? Simple: You can’t.
I want to point at the stats here but they don’t tell you too much – Power had a few more possessions, a few more inside 50′s and, in the end, a few more scores to get them over the line. Hell, even their disposal efficiencies were almost identical. But Port simply had a few more avenues to goal when it counted.
Ross Lyon had this to say: “We just couldn’t find an avenue to goal … and struggled to take marks inside 50.”
Never a truer word spoken Ross.
Justin Koschitzke: He is close to being the most useless big man in the competition. Big Kosi had 11 touches, 4 marks and no goals, not to mention dropping a sitter in the square with the game on the line. Seriously, who would want him in their side? Richmond? The Melbourne Storm maybe? That’s about it. No-one was more important to their side than Kosi on Saturday night and he flopped like he normally does. Or faints. Take your pick.
Stephen Milne: I hate the little rat but bloody hell is this a ripper:
Jason Akermanis: I’ll finish Part 1 by taking a look at the biggest mouth in the AFL, rivalled only by Newman and Fevola. Yep, it’s Aker. Apparently we have some serious divers in the AFL. Please, tell us more Jason!
“Unfortunately for Kane he’s been doing it for many years and he’s not the only one … and the players know [who they are],” Akermanis said. “Didak, I mean these kind of guys, you’ve got Leon Davis. And the umpires know it and they detest it.”
Had the umpired over for dinner to find out how much they detest it have we Aker? Hmmmm. You don’t do it though do you?
“I’m a player who doesn’t like [staging]. I mean, I earn every bloody free kick anyway [but] what are these blokes doing when they’re staging to get one?” he said. “Oh man, it looks bad on them and it looks bad on the game. It is a tough, hard game.”
Earn every free kick? Don’t like staging? Bull and Shit. Do us all a favour and stick to playing rather than telling us what’s on your mind every 5 minutes. And anyway, why does Aker have to weigh in on these issues all the time?
Stick around for Part 2 over the next few days!
