Round 19 West d Port post game review

[Thiele]

U/18s

West 14.9.93
Port 9.7.61

[Thiele]

Reserves

West 14.11.95
Port 11.14.80

[bloods08]

Tremendous effort today. It must be almost time to give Jimmy Ezard the magarey. Hard to pick our other best players. Great team effort. Burgoyne was clearly ports best. Harder and Stanley tried hard most of the day.

Were you watching the same game as I was today? Burgoyne collects cheap handballs around the back and kicks short chip passes. He makes too many errors, as evident by his turnovers today, of which gave the Bloods 2 goals.

I agree however with you call on Ezard, maybe Port shouldnt have delisted him when he was still only a boy. No more deserving winner if it were to unfold.

I agree with you re Burgoyne but sheer weight of possessions would have him as best. It probably typifies how bad port are at the moment.

[wycbloods]

U/18s

West 14.9.93
Port 9.7.61

Good work by the kids to knock of Port in the 18's.

Great win by the boys. Whilst i still don't think we are ready for the finals, we are making sure there is plenty of pressure on North and the Eagles for the remainder of the season. If either of them slip up we may take that 5th spot a year before i think we are ready for it.

[redandblack]

I thought Burgoyne was nowhere near Port's best player. He had 24 possessions and I doubt if many of them hurt West at all. They were mostly cheap kicks in defence, chipping to another player in a similar position.

I'm not an expert on Port's players, but I thought Stanley was good and tried hard all day, Thurgood similar, Summerton and Elstone at times and Lokan perhaps.

The disturbing thing from Port's point of view is that some of their players seemed uninterested after West got on top. Scott Bricknell's run from defence, with his opponent Brett Ebert not chasing at all, wasn't a good look.

For the Team of the Year selectors who bombed out last year by not picking Ryan Ferguson, he destroyed Perry today. He's the best key defender in the league by a long, long way.

[fuzz]

Well done westies. I am an Eagles supporter and really hate all other teams other than my own. But, it is great to see you guys having some success this year and am very nervous about meeting you guys in a couple of weeks!

[NO-MERCY]

I thought Burgoyne was nowhere near Port's best player. He had 24 possessions and I doubt if many of them hurt West at all. They were mostly cheap kicks in defence, chipping to another player in a similar position.

I'm not an expert on Port's players, but I thought Stanley was good and tried hard all day, Thurgood similar, Summerton and Elstone at times and Lokan perhaps.

The disturbing thing from Port's point of view is that some of their players seemed uninterested after West got on top. Scott Bricknell's run from defence, with his opponent Brett Ebert not chasing at all, wasn't a good look.

For the Team of the Year selectors who bombed out last year by not picking Ryan Ferguson, he destroyed Perry today. He's the best key defender in the league by a long, long way.

A bad part of Eberts game.

[Mate]

Matt Lobbe told really showed the Magpies what they missed out on ...played out of his skin and his second efforts were fantastic. Constantly ran into space to offer a target to his team mates. Has been a huge reason that Westies are a better team.

Wheres Booney....calling Booney...

Being a Power supporter, I am sure Booney will be quietly chuffed with Lobbe’s exceptional development / form since switching clubs. The more I see of him the more I am convinced he will be a very good AFL ruckman.

[redandblack]

West v Port review from a Blood’s supporter’s point of view:

Times are changing for a West supporter. It’s a strange feeling turning up for a game against Port, thinking we should win unless we play badly. In recent years we’ve turned up thinking that if we played well, we might be vaguely competitive, but it’s 2009 and there’s a different feeling around City Mazda Stadium now.

I looked at Port’s side and thought it had plenty of quality. The reliability and honesty of Corey AhChee, AFL quality with Burgoyne and Ebert, the return of a flawed, but brilliant Jeremy Clayton, a quality mid-field with Murray (surely one of the best midfielders going around this year), the consistently good Daniel Elstone, together bwith Summerton and Dolling gave Port a good foundation. Add very good key forward Perry and honest defenders Lokan and Thurgood and there was plenty to worry about.

What transpired though was a mixture of good coaching from Andy Collins, perhaps a problem or two showing through at Port and an inspired and new West Adelaide showing its improvement is no false dawn.

The first half was generally a stalemate. It seemed apparent early that West looked quicker and more organized than Port, but the scoreboard was fairly even by the big break. Ebert took a couple of strong grabs up forward, but missed. Each side had employed taggers, with Port giving Bronik Davies a big, but deserved compliment by assigning top tagger Young to him. West started with the tough David Piasente on Murray and the nvastly improved Ben Fisher on Clayton. All three tags were effective, although Davies still played well and kicked two important goals. The West tags were more effective, with Murray unsighted and Jeremy Clayton not only looking as if he needed the run, but being totally cut out of the game by Fisher. Rowe took over from Piasente effectively after half-time, with Murray finishing with his worst game perhaps for the season.

West started the third quarter with Webb in ruck and he jump-started a game-breaking run of goals for the Bloods, who were playing some great run and carry footy. Their hardness at the contest was also becoming too much for Port, who were relying on fewer and fewer contributors. Much of Port’s possessions for the rest of the game consisted of short chip passes in defence and midfield which broke down under pressure.

By the last quarter, to the joy of the past players and the over 3,000 crowd (a rarity at City Mazda), West led by 10 goals, before Port finished with 3 junk-time majors.

For West, it was a very even effort, with a lot of contributors. Fisher and Piasente won’t figure in many best player lists, but they certainly did at West. Jimmy Ezard, after a slow start, was brilliant and has become one of the quality midfielders in the league. Matt Lobbe was a revelation in ruck. Batson battled hard in ruck all day, but Port must have rued its early season selection decisions with Lobbe. On the other hand, with such a good ruckman as Meiklejohn available for most of the season, it’s hard to be too tough on them with the benefit of hindsight.
Steve Bailey continued his hard-running to be an important factor, especially in the first half and young Jonno Beech continues to give notice he’ll be a very good player for a long time to come. Ryan Bennett bagged another 3, making it 15 goals in his last 4 games after being plucked from Renmark. He’s got great hands, is a good kick and is a strong, tough customer. Bricknell and Caire gave plenty of run from defence, Wade Champion was courageous and tight, the tough Steve Morris collected 24 quality possessions, Ryan Willits was dangerous and the effort was underpinned by the usual disciplined game of the captain, Ryan Ferguson, who hardly gave Perry a sniff all day.

The interesting thing from Port’s viewpoint was that some of their better players were not the big names. I was impressed by Stanley, who knew where the ball was and worked hard all day. Thurgood and Lokan battled hard under great pressure in defence, while Summerton was always busy, but didn’t hurt the opposition enough. Burgoyne racked up touches, but was ineffective, although to his credit he had 5 tackles. I like the way Elstone plays and he tried hard all day, while young Trengove showed plenty of promise. I also thought Harder might develop into a handy player. Like Summerton, Dolling picked up touches, especially later in the game, I think, but wasn’t very dangerous.

Good times ahead for West, but a wasted season for Port. Given my team’s recent woes, I’d be reluctant to comment on Port’s problems, but there seemed to be a distinct lack of passion from some of its team at times.

[UK Fan]

Gee Port Adelaide fans surprisingly quiet after a defeat .

[Adelaide Hawk]

I thought Burgoyne was nowhere near Port's best player. He had 24 possessions and I doubt if many of them hurt West at all. They were mostly cheap kicks in defence, chipping to another player in a similar position.

I'm not an expert on Port's players, but I thought Stanley was good and tried hard all day, Thurgood similar, Summerton and Elstone at times and Lokan perhaps.

The disturbing thing from Port's point of view is that some of their players seemed uninterested after West got on top. Scott Bricknell's run from defence, with his opponent Brett Ebert not chasing at all, wasn't a good look.

For the Team of the Year selectors who bombed out last year by not picking Ryan Ferguson, he destroyed Perry today. He's the best key defender in the league by a long, long way.

A bad part of Eberts game.

Ebert was a better player when he was in the SANFL and won the Magarey Medal than he is now. The AFL really knows how to stuff up players.

[Booney]

Matt Lobbe told really showed the Magpies what they missed out on ...played out of his skin and his second efforts were fantastic. Constantly ran into space to offer a target to his team mates. Has been a huge reason that Westies are a better team.

Wheres Booney....calling Booney...

Being a Power supporter, I am sure Booney will be quietly chuffed with Lobbe’s exceptional development / form since switching clubs. The more I see of him the more I am convinced he will be a very good AFL ruckman.

Very good move by Lobbe and the Power, has really helped his development and might earn him an AFL debut before the seaso nis out. Well done to all involved.

[bosvit]

Great report as usual r&b.

It is always interesting to go back to presentations and listen to Collins comments, especially his best players. A coach always looks at the game differently to a spectator. One of the things that the general spectators like myself are not privvy to is the jobs that the players are given.

Fisher got best back at the club but few at the ground would have had him in their best three. He obviously got best because he did the job he was given (tagging) but still was very effective with his touches, even if there were a few less than normal.

Champion received second best for his commitment to the ball, hardness and the fact he is pushing through a lot of pain at the moment. If you work for Leukoplast this guy needs a sponsorship, every week he seems to have his head bandaged up after using it as a battering ram going in for hard ball get after hard ball get.

Ezard took 3rd. What a game he had, we have a lot of very tough brave players at the club at the moment and they are inspiring the whole team and lifting everyones desperation.

To be fair on Ebert he was double teamed alot and when the ball was delivered in to him reasonably well he looked very dangerous against Bricknell in the air. As soon as the ball hit the ground it was a different story though, as mentioned before little to no chase from Ebert.

Burgoyne looked lost with the team structure and just didn't seem to know where to stand to get his usual back door hand pass deliveries. He looked just as lost when he was in possession as to what targets he should be looking for. You would think that he will be spending a bit more time with the prison bars on in the future, maybe with better coaching/structure he will improve and be a very handy player at this level.

[bosvit]

Some of the other players to get a mention were 'The Ferg' for his excellent job in defence. Andy noted he was a bit wasted at Full Back but he was doing a job the team needed.

Piasente for his hard work and tough play.

Morris for responding well to 1/4 time criticism.

And others but I have only got a small brain and the rest of it fell out....

[pipers]

Absolutely woeful and insipid performance from Port.

First half (from both sides) was some of the worst football I have ever seen. Then West turned on some good stuff - particularly up the right flank.

Harder, Thurgood, Summerton and Ah Chee all tried their best. The same can not be said for their team mates.

Oh, and the umpiring was terrible too...