SA Footy

Biggest test of 2012 coming up. Saw a few bad old habits creeping back in against the Bulldogs (probably as a result of the Dogs negative game plan). Hoping for a four quarter effort this week and that the boys really take it up to the premiership favourites.

Who gets Dougies spot? I'm thinking it will probably have to be an inside player like a Matty Wright.

Not going to be easy and Clarko will have them firing after the loss to the Cats.

Our midfield will need to play well! If they get on top in the midfield and get quick delivery into Franklin then we are cooked. Tahlia's biggest assignment he will have all year this week.

Knights is apparently the favourite to come in but wouldnt be suprised if Brodie Martin or Kerridge debuted.

Not many comments here??

Frustrating game sometimes and yesterday was no different on several levels.

1) Taylor Walker's non-competitive efforts. Gibson cut us up thanks to him.

2) Kurt Tippett could not finish his great work.

3) Too many missed tackles and handling errors at ground level.

With all that said, we made Hawthorn look good. While Gibson is brilliant, Birchall good, the rest of their backline I consider to be fairly pedestrian. Suckling, while his disposal is excellent, he is unaccountable, Guerra is in a similar boat.

Cheney, Stratton and Shoenmakers all dead-set average at best. Poor kicking put us out of the game in the end.

Thought Sloane's job on Mitchell was outstanding and Doughty on Rioli, superb. Franklin bobbed in and out of the game too, thanks to Rutten and Talia.

Reilly was dreadful, not in the same league as Walker but still dreadful.

Most frustrating because I felt if we took the five opportunities which should have been taken, we're right in the game and Hawthorn made plenty of skill errors in their defensive half.

Perhaps I'm one-eyed but I thought the Hawks had a pretty amazing run with the umps too.

Agree with all of that.

I found the fumbles the most frustrating. There was actually many many times when we were first to the ball, but the lack of a clean take meant that Hawthorn's second to the contest whipped it away while the Adelaide player was still on their hands and knees looking for it.

Despite the scoreline I'm not devestated about this game. I think the endeavour was there and they looked like they knew what they wanted to do, they just didn't have the skills to finish the job. The team looks well balanced to me too, I don't see any obvious deficiencies besides a couple of middies (Vince, I'm looking at you) that lack consistency.

Unlike last year when they looked all at sea, this year the theory actually looks good, it's just the execution that is lacking. I'm confident we'll see improvement as the year progresses.

That said, we've got a very tough run coming up - after GWS its:

Port
Sydney away
Geelong home
Carlton away
Collingwood home
Freo away

Enjoy this week Adelaide fans, because after that we are going to have a few weeks of pain methinks.

Yeah, fair points Ginge.

I never felt like the lads threw the towel in...we were able to string goals together and play good footy, just not consistently enough to stay competitive but gee whiz, I thought the Hawks were pretty average. We made them look good.

Callinan is a nice little foil in the forward line, allowing the Porpoise to go into the midfield too.

Would like to see how they go against the Pies and Cats. Disappointed with the result, not the endeavour.

I agree with Sanderson's remarks on Tippett as well, needs to go back a lot further on the set shot and get some momentum up before kicking.

He starts too close to the man and then just walks in and tries to squeeze it out. Very frustrating because his contested marking has been bloody impressive so far this year. Come on Tippo, start finishing your great work!!!

Couldnt agree more with you guys.

Endevour was great for the 4 quarters just the finishing off in front of goals was most dissapointing and not rewarding some great work up the field. Tippett, Walker, Vince slot those 5 'easy' goals during the 2nd quarter we go in even and the result could have been a lot different.

We got sucked into the contest to much i thought, they get a quick handball out and there runners took off. Our forwards didnt work hard enough on the turn over either letting Gibson, Suckling etc run off half back way to easily.

Should have manned Gibson up from the 1st quarter, even if that means playing a 7 man forward line!

hawks21 wrote:Couldnt agree more with you guys.

Endevour was great for the 4 quarters just the finishing off in front of goals was most dissapointing and not rewarding some great work up the field. Tippett, Walker, Vince slot those 5 'easy' goals during the 2nd quarter we go in even and the result could have been a lot different.

We got sucked into the contest to much i thought, they get a quick handball out and there runners took off. Our forwards didnt work hard enough on the turn over either letting Gibson, Suckling etc run off half back way to easily.

Should have manned Gibson up from the 1st quarter, even if that means playing a 7 man forward line!

It was that obvious, wasn't it? I wonder what Tex was thinking all day?

Nice call on getting sucked to the contest. Not sure if that is a demand from Sando or not though. Seemed intent on pressuring the ball carrier at every opportunity, leaving the next kick over the top open too often.

OnSong wrote:

hawks21 wrote:Couldnt agree more with you guys.

Endevour was great for the 4 quarters just the finishing off in front of goals was most dissapointing and not rewarding some great work up the field. Tippett, Walker, Vince slot those 5 'easy' goals during the 2nd quarter we go in even and the result could have been a lot different.

We got sucked into the contest to much i thought, they get a quick handball out and there runners took off. Our forwards didnt work hard enough on the turn over either letting Gibson, Suckling etc run off half back way to easily.

Should have manned Gibson up from the 1st quarter, even if that means playing a 7 man forward line!

It was that obvious, wasn't it? I wonder what Tex was thinking all day?

Nice call on getting sucked to the contest. Not sure if that is a demand from Sando or not though. Seemed intent on pressuring the ball carrier at every opportunity, leaving the next kick over the top open too often.

Yeah, the intent and pressure was great on the ball carrier but when our tackles didnt stick or the amount of times they got there arms free and handballed it over 3 or 4 of our blokes straight to runners was fustrating.

Andy Otten looks to slow for me atm and Stiffy had an off game i thought.

OnSong wrote:

hawks21 wrote:Couldnt agree more with you guys.

Endevour was great for the 4 quarters just the finishing off in front of goals was most dissapointing and not rewarding some great work up the field. Tippett, Walker, Vince slot those 5 'easy' goals during the 2nd quarter we go in even and the result could have been a lot different.

We got sucked into the contest to much i thought, they get a quick handball out and there runners took off. Our forwards didnt work hard enough on the turn over either letting Gibson, Suckling etc run off half back way to easily.

Should have manned Gibson up from the 1st quarter, even if that means playing a 7 man forward line!

It was that obvious, wasn't it? I wonder what Tex was thinking all day?

Nice call on getting sucked to the contest. Not sure if that is a demand from Sando or not though. Seemed intent on pressuring the ball carrier at every opportunity, leaving the next kick over the top open too often.

Gibson peels off very well and a reasonably under rated defender. Tex was off, we are going to get that from him. We bombed the ball in alot which doesnt suit him.... no excuse for some of the efforts though!

The plan is to ideally stop the ball getting out to the runners, unfortunately we couldnt stop the ball flicking out.

Talia was very impressive for me. Best game i have seen him play i think.

We got killed by the 11 point turn around. We miss they go down and score.

as has been said, intensity good, execusion of skills and game plan poor, goal kicking poor = result we copped!

Can't disagree with anything posted here at the moment. NFC to thread!

Gingernuts wrote:I agree with Sanderson's remarks on Tippett as well, needs to go back a lot further on the set shot and get some momentum up before kicking.
He starts too close to the man and then just walks in and tries to squeeze it out. Very frustrating because his contested marking has been bloody impressive so far this year. Come on Tippo, start finishing your great work!!!

Agreed.
The TV commentators have it right too - he drops it from too high, and in close ups he seems to let go with one hand then the other so it wobbles as it drops.