Port v GWS & Essendon v Adelaide

Seems the Ginge is still in holiday mode and has completely dropped the ball. Or, he's back at the grind stone and wondering "Why did I take that time off if I'm just going to come back to this?".

Disgust. I mean, discuss.

Port v GWS

It was “look away now” after the midpoint of the first quarter for Port last week, the Bulldogs made a mess of them from that point as the Giants used the ball much better than the Bombers on the way to a 5 goal win to keep them knocking on the door of a maiden finals berth.

*sigh* It was days of old for Port fans on Saturday. Since the arrival of Ken Hinkley and his “Never give up” mantra Port have pretty much done that, never given up. While he was scathing after the match saying his team looked like one waiting for the knockout blow his disappointment might have been balanced up a little after the post match review on Monday when he would have seen up close the destructive run of the Bulldogs team. Having said that though Port had several passengers who had no influence on the game and some of them have been this way for a while now. Lobbe was subbed out in the third quarter with just two touches and very little impact, despite kicking two goals the pressure seems to be mounting on Jay Schulz as his contract negotiations become the talk of the footy public in SA, Hartlett popped in and out to no great effect, White and Neade created no run and Hombsch was soundly beaten by Stringer early then got mauled by Redpath late.

On the very small positive note Sam Gray had his best game at AFL level with 21 touches, 5 tackles, 4 clearances at 80% D/E and Tom Clurey under extreme duress held Crameri quiet for a while until moved onto Stringer to slow him down. Unfortunately the Power defence was so overwhelmed Clurey’s little one-on-one wins may go unnoticed. Wingard bagged another 2 goals to keep his run going and Brad Ebert had his best game for weeks with 20 touches and more importantly 75% D/E. He’s had a dose of the fumbles for a long period and he got back to some clean hands with his limited opportunities. I’ll expect some changes at Alberton this week and I think the big ruckman might be a big name casualty. With no chance of finals football it might also mean some players head off for season ending surgery or back to the SANFL to give some fringe players some game time. 129 less touches, 129!!! 14 less I50’s and a 64 point mauling the low light of Hinkleys time at Alberton to date.

Again the Giants were led by Coniglio in the mids, Shaw and Haynes in the back half and had McCarthy, Cameron, Kelly and Smith kick a couple of majors each. They welcomed back big unit Jono Patton after his second ACL reconstruction in 3 years. He’s a massive unit and with Tom Boyd trotting off to the Bulldogs the Giants will be hopeful Patton’s body can stand up to AFL footy and create a very dangerous due with both of them capable of leading up, marking and kicking multiple goals. Among many things I noted in the GWS game was the appalling colour selections of the Giants when shopping for footy boots, some of them were that luminous on the screen they became blurry and made my eyes hurt. That might have been a left over from the Port game the day before though. Another was the young ruckman for GWS, Andrew Phillips and Rory Lobb. Lobb stands 205cm and 95 keggs while Phillips tips ‘em at 98 keggs and 202cm. That’s a whole lot of lad and they both move like 6 footers. Some more talent on the GWS list.

GWS one of the top 4 for ball use, Port bottom 4 being the most glaring statistical difference between the two. Port will front up early on Saturday, keen to bounce back after last weeks debacle but the amount of turnovers Port constantly create will give the sharp GWS ball users enough opportunities to create plenty of scoring for the Giants. Port a chance, don’t believe the betting ( Port $1.33 GWS $3.35 ) the game will be much closer than that suggests. GWS by 14 points but I go there hopeful of a Port win.

Essendon v Adelaide

Saturday lunch time under the roof and the helpless Bombers are now just 3 weeks away from kissing another season good bye and get to sit and wait for W.A.D.A to maybe make a move in November while Adelaide hit Melbourne full of confidence after running all over the hot Tigers last Friday night in Adelaide.

The Bombers kept their season of ruin going last weekend by having 55 more touches than the Giants, 5 more clearances, 13 more I50’s and still got rolled by 5 goals. What the bloody hell do they do with it? Big Gob Brendan Goddard led them with 32 touches, 3 sprays to his team mates and 2 unsightly gestures to the crowd, Joe “The Mo” Daniher had 2 goals at half time and didn’t come back out to finish the match off, well, he might have, but I didn’t see him and some of the “H” crew bagged two goals each, Hooker and Howlett with Hocking making a welcome return to add some muscle in the midfield. The stand out for them though was ex-Giant/Power ruckman Jon Giles who might have had his most complete AFL game to date. 17 touches, 22 hitouts, 11 clearances, 2 tackles, 4 I50’s and a goal. The big bloke had a good day out.

What can be said about Adelaide over Richmond? They smashed them and for some accuracy in front of goal it would have been downright ugly. 11 22 to 8 4 and with 74 I50’s to 39 the Tigers almost can think themselves lucky to just get done by an even 6 goals. Again it was big Sauce Jacobs who got Dangerfield and Thompson going in the guts while the skipper was all over the place with 10 marks, his 2.5 should have been 5.2 and it would have got him B.O.G honours. Instead Patty had 29 touches (16 contested) along with 5 tackles and 7 I50’s. It’s fair to say if he is leaving come the end of the season he can go down as one of the most professional players in the game as he has been outstanding on and off field for Adelaide since the passing of Walsh.

The biggest gap here, clearances. Adelaide rank #1 with 42.6 avg while the Bombers are stone motherless 18th with just 35. Adelaide do this on the back of Jacobs’ ruck work, Dangerfield and Thompsons attack on the ball and it will be the reason Adelaide get more I50’s this week and I think give the Bombers a touch up en route to getting back into the top 8. Adelaide big, 60+ I think.

Booney wrote:Seems the Ginge is still in holiday mode and has completely dropped the ball. Or, he's back at the grind stone and wondering "Why did I take that time off if I'm just going to come back to this?".

Disgust. I mean, discuss.

A little from column A, A little from column B.

I too think Adelaide will give the Bombers a right royal touch up this week.

The key to Adelaide really is the midfield, and as you pointed out Booney it's 1st vs 18th in terms of clearance work.

Adelaide surely will get the job done this week. Unlike last season, they have beaten the teams below them when required this year and will continue to do so on the weekend.

Looking at the draw this weekend, there are 3 certainties and they are the 3 teams above Adelaide. Richmond, North and Bulldogs will win so an Adelaide win is a must. Have a horrible feeling though. Our record against Essendon is crap to say the least. Would have been more confident had they beaten Port a few weeks ago, not sure they'll lose to both SA teams in Melbourne inside a month.

Essendon by 18 points
GWS by 45

Nice work, Booney, good read.

I'll change my Port tip, Port by 14 points. Some big outs for the Giants, Coniglio and Treloar the keys to their midfield missing.

Paul wrote:Looking at the draw this weekend, there are 3 certainties and they are the 3 teams above Adelaide. Richmond, North and Bulldogs will win so an Adelaide win is a must. Have a horrible feeling though. Our record against Essendon is crap to say the least. Would have been more confident had they beaten Port a few weeks ago, not sure they'll lose to both SA teams in Melbourne inside a month.

Essendon by 18 points
GWS by 45

I cannot see Essendon winning tomorrow. They are cooked mentally and have a huge injury list. Have a look at the team sheets. Line by line we have the wood over them all over the ground.

Booney wrote:I'll change my Port tip, Port by 14 points. Some big outs for the Giants, Coniglio and Treloar the keys to their midfield missing.

Kenny has swung the axe at selection this week....

Gingernuts wrote:

Booney wrote:I'll change my Port tip, Port by 14 points. Some big outs for the Giants, Coniglio and Treloar the keys to their midfield missing.

Kenny has swung the axe at selection this week....

Same old baffling ins/outs.

Moore and Young need time to settle, Mitchell is no chop at that level....oh well.

Booney wrote:

Gingernuts wrote:

Booney wrote:I'll change my Port tip, Port by 14 points. Some big outs for the Giants, Coniglio and Treloar the keys to their midfield missing.

Kenny has swung the axe at selection this week....

Same old baffling ins/outs.

Moore and Young need time to settle, Mitchell is no chop at that level....oh well.

Yep. Shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Heard Ken on the radio this morning though and he's a quality operator, definitely no need for any questions to be asked of him yet despite this year's performance. I think the Port boys better enjoy the last few weeks of the season and their few weeks off - because when preseason starts I reckon Kenny will be dishing out some tough love.

Thought Clurey was stiff to be dropped. Not his fault the ball kept coming into the defensive 50 with no pressure on the entries.

Adelaide should smash Essendon. Port to win by 2 goals in an ugly affair.

Well, Adelaide duly delivered on Saturday by absolutely belting the hapless Bombers. Surely Hird has to be in the gun now.

You can't really read too much into that game I suppose, but it was very pleasing to see some of the football played by Adelaide. On many occasions this year they have kept teams in the game by poor finishing or poor disposal, but on the weekend they really put Essendon to the sword.

They seem to be really starting to gel as a team now. The line up has been relatively settled for the last few weeks and I think they are all starting to get a real feel for each others games. They seem to playing more instinctively now - they know where to run when they don't have the footy, and where their team mates will be when they do have it.

It's great to see fringe/young players coming in and contributing immediately also. Knight, Lyons, Crouch are all contributing. They have to, as Adelaide also finally have some depth about them. Kerridge, Grigg, Cam Ellis-Yolmen amongst other all smashing down the door in the SANFL.

All in all I think we're well placed to make finals from here, and potentially do reasonably well in them if we make it.

If there's a God, we'll make it. North are looking very vulnerable. 3 tough ones left for them.

Adelaide were very impressive and have been for several weeks. The forwards are finally rewarding the mids for their work, Walker and Jenkins are starting to clunk some marks, mind you, the F50 entries are now much better than they were 6-8 weeks ago.

Shallow ( just I50 ) entries are easy to thwart if the opposition mids are rolling back into the space, deep ( 20m from goal ) are easy for key backs to kill, delivery to space 30-40 out when moved in quickly to avoid the press rolling back are money for jam for key forwards.

Adelaide's next test is against West Coast and the "system" they play. Fair to say West Coast, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs play a similar system.

The Bulldogs, 65 points, Hawthorn, 29 points and we'll give the circumstances around the 56 point loss the the Eagles due credit and ignore it in this discussion.

It seems Adelaide may struggle against the "system" more than the sides mentioned personnel and it will be very interesting to see how they go against it when playing West Coast who probably won as under dogs yesterday.

Adelaide will encounter Richmond and or the Bulldogs early in September, I'd not see Richmond as easy to beat as when you met them last and the Bulldogs are flying. If, if you finish 8th you might get Sydney in Sydney.

Booney wrote: Adelaide's next test is against West Coast and the "system" they play. Fair to say West Coast, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs play a similar system.

The Bulldogs, 65 points, Hawthorn, 29 points and we'll give the circumstances around the 56 point loss the the Eagles due credit and ignore it in this discussion.

It seems Adelaide may struggle against the "system" more than the sides mentioned personnel and it will be very interesting to see how they go against it when playing West Coast who probably won as under dogs yesterday.

Yep, well said.

I think the West Coast game next week will be a great test for them. I'm really looking forward to that game.