Re 5 West v Central

Huge game for both clubs even this early in the season.
Winning hides a multitude of sins and we still have several underperforming players. Pressure on them would be coming from Meline, Chamberlain and possibly Waite if he's recovered.

I hope our assistant coaches word Gotchy up that Hoskin usually kills us. Grace is another one we have to watch. What changes do we make?

We tried to recruit Grace and were advised not to.

Pity.

Let’s hope we can back up with the same tackling pressure and effort this week.
Not much between both sides. Will be a tight contest.
Waite if fit for Joel Stevens who didn’t get a lot of the footy against Norwood.
Central lost both their key defenders to injury against Adelaide.
Might be a chance for Ellem to make an impact this week. He would be on the cusp of being dropped. 4 kicks 1 mark and 0 goals was a poor return against Norwood. He has 1 goal in 4 games.

Will be some changes this week.
Meline to debut!!

WEST

West Adelaide will unveil a midfield recruit against Central at Hisense Stadium.

Canberra Demons signing Lucas Meline (23, 191cm and 83kg) has been named to start in the centre square.

Meline is one of three inclusions into the Bloods’ 25-man squad, along with wingman Nathan Batley and crumbing forward Josh Koster.

League

F: Gore, Keough, Ellem

HF: C. Fairlie, Beech, Johnson

C: Boyle, E. Allan, Haysman

HB: Murphy, Levicki, Dunkin

B: Hill, Ryan, Duval



R: Taverner, Meline, K. Stevens

INT: Sinderberry, Anderson, P. Fairlie, J. Stevens, Batley, Koster, Schiller

IN: Batley, Koster, Meline

NEW: Lucas Meline (Canberra Demons)



Reserves
C. Allan, Babic, Bock, Chamberlain, Cleeland, Elliot, Fejo, Gilbert, Karpany, Kelly, Kirk, Laudato, Martin, Morrish, Proude, Redfern, Rundle, Sherlock, Squire, Steele, R. Stevens and Taylor

Under-18
F: Hahn, Watts, Scully
HF: Baker, Young, D. White
C: Desira, Kennedy, Whitbourne
HB: Pridham, Midwinter, Singleton
B: Martin, Satanek, Higham

R: Steene, Thackeray, McCormick
INT: J. Roberts, Burbridge, Baltagie, Westdijk

Taverner out, replaced by Cleeland. Oh dear.

Big Out!
Probably tips the game in favour of Central!

Great second half by the boys. Thank God Centrals Goal kicking wasn't that good

Our inability to beat Centrals in 2020 meant we finished bottom so this was a very significant win. Quite apart from winning 2 games in a row. A rare feat.
It was a strange contest. For 2 and a half Qs we struggled with the pace and movement of Centrals but managed to stay in the game by taking advantage of limited opportunities. Then at the 15 minute mark of 3Q we kicked 3 goals in 5 minutes, followed by 2 in 2 minutes at the start of the last Q and we had the game won. Keeping Centrals goal less in the last half was useful but their poor kicking meant they struggled. After Q time they kicked 3.13.
It was a more open game than last week and our intensity was not up to standard in the first half and we made plenty of mistakes. Centrals had plenty of the ball throughout but our backline was superb. They soaked up the pressure in the last Q. Logan Hill best on ground. Duval and Josh Ryan took some telling marks. Murphy provided plenty of run. Dunkin’s disposal a feature.
Our marking ability up forward was crucial with Keough and Beech presenting as important targets. Gore, also, a key around goal. Allan was again influential in forward entries. Hard to believe he couldn’t make the team early on. Well done to everyone for this impressive performance.
The 13 goals we kicked today is the highest number in the past 33 games. Back in round 4 of 2019 we kicked 18 goals against the Eagles! Snelling had 43 possessions that day!!

To be honest, Central had plenty of chances to finish the game off in the third quarter but they couldn’t take their chances.
We were ordinary for 2 and a half quarters but our experienced players lifted when it mattered.
Beech and Keough were good up forward and Ryan was very good down back. Gore has been a good pick up for us.
We would have to improve by a huge margin to give North a contest next week.

Wolf Pack wrote:To be honest, Central had plenty of chances to finish the game off in the third quarter but they couldn’t take their chances.
We were ordinary for 2 and a half quarters but our experienced players lifted when it mattered.
Beech and Keough were good up forward and Ryan was very good down back. Gore has been a good pick up for us.
We would have to improve by a huge margin to give North a contest next week.

11 consecutive points must be close to a record. (and no goals in the 2nd half) I kept thinking that Centrals couldn't keep missing, but they did. Centrals scored 6 consecutive points immediately after half time to take their lead to 17 points. After this we got on top and had control for the rest of the game.

This was a very important win (and how satisfying to win consecutive games, particularly at home) for the club building momentum ahead of next week's game at Prospect. Our forward set up is functioning much better. (13 goals will generate more wins than losses) We are now getting a greater number of players making significant contributions. Our second half yesterday was as clean as we've been across the 5 games, however our first half was poor and we were probably lucky to only be 11 points down at the long break. The only upside in the first half was our ability to make the most of limited opportunities.

North will be a much tougher test next week. They have lost several close matches and will be desperate for a win at home. As Wolf Pack suggests, we will have to improve by a huge margin to win and we will certainly have to begin much better than we did yesterday as North will put us away if given the chance. Let's hope we can step up.

Go Bloods

Was good to get to the game yesterday but by HT was very concerned at the lack of intensity across the field and said to my mate that if we had been playing a good team like South, the game would have been over by HT due to the lack of intensity. That contnued into teh 3rd qtr but luckily the dogs were missing everything an begiining to tire.
From there it was all West and it was Beech and keough that really stood up as we more or less cruised to the win.
Good to see Back to back wins for the first time in ages, but will need to play 4 qtrs against North and others if we want to really improve.

Just on another issue, does the scorebaord ever work correctly? It was difficult to know what the score was with it showing Centrals on 67000 pts more than once. Seeing we are now HiSense arena, not the best of looks.

A good recovery as others have said after a very ordinary first 2 1/2 quarters. Again we lacked intensity which seems to spread through the group. The body language doesn't look good. We need to rethink our preparation I think because other than the Norwood game we have started flat each week. Are we overdoing it at training on Friday night?

Centrals should have been 7 or more goals up early in the third but after their string of misses, we took control particularly in the air. Ryan, Duvall, Beech and Keough killed them overhead and we capitalised.

Hill is in great form and was probably our best, next to Duvall. Ryan completely blanketed Grace, Murphy was again very valuable and Gore was very useful. Cleeland played probably his best game for the club, rucking very effectively (better than I thought he could) and this was crucial to the outcome. He won't come up against many weaker rucks though. Beech and Keough, when we used them, were dominant.

For the first half of the match I thought they looked much quicker than us. And some of our mids are not quick enough to chase effectively, often trailing behind their opponents and/or the ball. Meline did several very impressive things, he has quick hands, but our on ball department lacks the class of other teams. Lovell and a fit and firing Maguire would help.

Great to have 2 wins already but let's not slip back and get monstered by North this week.

Clearly I look at things differently to most on here.

We absorbed all that Central could throw at us in the first half to be only 11 points down. We slowly got on top to win by 25 points.

I’d suggest any supporter pregame would take a 25 points victory. I don’t care what the halftime score is if we are in front at full time

Three weeks ago people carried on like it was the end of the world, we are improving and will continue to do so. Gotch is the right man for the job, not just for 5 games but for many seasons to come. Get positive and leave any negativity behind.

brodlach wrote: Get positive and leave any negativity behind.

How can we have an honest discussion about our performances if we only ever talk about positive things? If the coach took that view we'd never improve.

Aldo we have had a decade at least of negativity, deservingly so, but I think we are on the right path so let’s look forward

I too think we're on the right path Brodlach but I don't think critical appraisal of our progress is necessarily 'negativity'.

Gotch is certainly going to make us a better team.
We have a long way to go to compete with the better teams in the competition. Whilst it was great to win on Saturday, Central had their chances to win and they will probably finish in the bottom 2 or 3 on the ladder.
We will find out on Saturday against North. Our record at Prospect is awful, so a big test coming up.

aldo russian wrote:I too think we're on the right path Brodlach but I don't think critical appraisal of our progress is necessarily 'negativity'.

I guess it depends on how you read the posts, I found that instead of “what a good win’ and “we are improving” there was too much “ we were no good in the first half” and “thank goodness the dogs didn’t kick straight”.

As I said I would have taken a 25 point victory if offered before the game

Three in a row, that’ll sound great!

brodlach wrote:

I guess it depends on how you read the posts, I found that instead of “what a good win’ and “we are improving” there was too much “ we were no good in the first half” and “thank goodness the dogs didn’t kick straight”.

Well between the two of us we should end up with some sort of balanced view.

brodlach wrote:I found that instead of “what a good win’ and “we are improving” there was too much “ we were no good in the first half” and “thank goodness the dogs didn’t kick straight”.

You'll be disappointed to hear Gotch, in his coach's report, talk about our slow starts, Central's bad kicking keeping us in the game and Keough getting some structural things wrong.

Haven’t seen it yet but I’d rather hear that we fought adversity in the first half, withstood pressure but our game plan saw us through to a good victory.