Well that was tense.
In the first half we were getting beaten too badly in the middle. The defence is not at its best, but defence can't be effective if you are getting beaten up in the middle. I thought our defence was letting them pass off to a better option too easily and not tight enough to prevent GWS players from leading into space and getting an uncontested mark. But really we were losing it in the middle. You can lose clearances but you have to put enough pressure on to make them hurried clearances, allowing enough time and space for the opposition to clear accurately gives your defence no chance.
Thought the pressure was ramped up in the second half, probably from mid way in the third really. This made a huge difference. Their delivery into the forward line was not as good with our increased pressure. We stopped getting beaten in contested possessions and the GWS scoring percentage for inside 50 entries dropped.
We don't seem to be so good at spreading and currently very bad at defending the spread. It is certainly something we have to fix as in our losses that is where we have been exposed and it has led to heavy scoring by the opposition.
Still have messy forward 50 entries. This is quite an issue, something needs to change. Some of the runs down the ground are suffering from bad handpasses not going cleanly to team mates too, that has to improve.
The youngsters were doing well tonight. Bakes is simply amazing. Thought RCD got involved and contributed well. Mansell, like Vlastuin, apparently has no head so is seemingly ineligible for high tackle free kicks. Ralphsmith did not look out of place. Solid first game for him and some good signs. I think Ralphsmith can adjust to AFL level and can be a good player.
Lynch is a worry. Not sure what his role is supposed to be but whatever it is I don't like it. Seems to be lacking confidence at the moment, needs to be freed up. Look at some of his play when he is on the lead, early 3rd quarter in the 2019 PF springs to mind. He needs a different role, should be creating space, presenting and getting a few uncontested marks. More confidence would improve goal kicking too IMO as we know he can kick, so there must be some other issue.
The umpiring was simply weird. For about 2.5 quarters holding the ball was not a rule any more. Then it occurred to them that apparently it still is a rule and they started to pay some, but by no means all or even a majority, of holding the ball frees. How the players are supposed to work this out part way through a game is a mystery. You could see players from both sides just assuming that they wouldn't get pinged for holding the ball for around 2.5 quarters. Then the maggots switched. Frees even for about half the game, then they start paying plenty to GWS, which is a bit weird too because GWS generally get reamed by the umpires too.
Crowd was pathetic. What was it, about 18.5k? There is more to this than Docklands and COVID. When was the last time Richmond had a crowd that small at a home game in Melbourne? People aren't going to the football. Crowd numbers are down across games compared to 2019. So much for the new rules supposedly making the game more entertaining. The media can ignore this all they like, us fans know what we see, and we see people staying away in droves. But I suppose the AFL doesn't care, they make money out of TV rights and sponsorship, I presume it is more the clubs that make money out of crowds. So why would the AFL care?
Bloody great to get the win though.
Still no idea why CCJ is not being given a go, we were clearly in need of a second ruck tonight and a third tall forward would have been damned useful.
DS