by DOC » Tue Mar 07, 2023 5:21 pm
He's just had this released, observations from the weekend. Shows some good insight I feel.
Kane Cornes has wrapped the weekend’s AFL action with his 10 takeaways from the official pre-season games.
Nine games were played over the weekend, with Cornes running an eye over the action on SEN’s Sportsday.
Here’s his biggest obervsations from the weekend just gone.
Put us out of our misery and bring in last possession out of bounds
“I mean what are we doing?” Cornes began.
“Eradicate all the confusion. I’m seeing ones where players have no intentions for the ball to go out, and because the ball is shaped in an odd way it bounces out of bounds and they get penalized for insufficient intent.
“What a joke, they are so hot on this rule.”
Be very careful of Sydney off a loss
“I reckon John Longmire is the best coach at winding his players up off a loss. If you go back and watch the first five minutes of that practice game after the disappointment of the previous week, keep an eye on Luke Parker, he is an absolute terrier.
“For a player of his ability and his accolades in the game to do that in a practice game says to me that John wound them up (to) something furious.
“Last year they only lost back-to-back games twice, this year I think it will be something similar.
“Don’t bet against Sydney if they’re coming off a loss.”
Don’t waste those on practice games, Errol
“These stats for Errol Gulden are off the charts. He had 188 Champion Data points, 45 disposals, 30 kicks, three goals, five tackles, 17 contested possessions, nine clearances and nine score involvements.
“But you don’t want to waste them in a practice game, do you?”
Concerns that Adam Cerra will never be an A-grade midfielder
“He doesn’t hurt you. This is his stock standard game (from the weekend)… he gets low to mid 20 (disposals) every week, low score involvements… the eye would tell you his kick is poor and he doesn’t have an impact.
“He can run around and get his 25 and at the end of the game you go, ‘did Cerra play today’?
“For what they gave up to get him and the contract they’ve given him, which I’m led to believe isn’t off the charts… I just think the idea to get him was to take some load off (Patrick) Cripps and (Sam) Walsh. I think (George) Hewett and (Matthew) Kennedy have done that very well, the one missing piece in that midfield is Adam Cerra to put together a month of good footy.”
The Crows are much better than people think
“I watched this game a couple of times over the weekend and I’m struck by their ferocity.”
Darcy Fogarty can win the Coleman
“From Round 11 onwards last year he kicked 31 goals, that’s playing in a team that finished 14th.
“(Charlie) Curnow won it with 64. If you take the second half of his (Fogartys's) season and put it into the first half and you factor in the Crows are going to be better and he’s going to be playing in a better forward line with a better midfield, it's realistic to think he could kick 60 goals.
“I look at him now, he’s match hardened, he hurts people, and he kicks goals from 60 (metres) and he doesn’t miss. He needs eight kicks a game, it’s frightening.
Sam Darcy is the most unique player in AFL history
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen a player that can play at both ends that stands at 208 centimetres and is 19 years of age (and is that good).
“I put my hand up, I’ve probably got a 40-year window of remembering players… (but he’s the best I’ve seen).”
Trent Cotchin isn’t in Richmond’s best 22
“Firstly, how does he fit into the midfield? If I’m talking about the best 22, he’s not in it. Of course, he’s going to play on, he’s 13 games from 300 and he deserves every bit to get to 300 games, but from what we saw over the weekend… I said the forward line experiment wouldn’t last two weeks, (now) I’m not sure it will last half a week.
The Clarko victory lap came to a screeching halt
“Mauled, they were, by the Western Bulldogs midfield. I thought if there’s one area North could stand up it would be the midfield, in the centre bounce.
“They lost centre bounce by seven, they lost contested possession by 26. (Tom) Liberatore had 33, (Jack) Macrae had 33, (Bailey) Smith had 30, (Adam) Treloar had 29, (Marcus) Bontempelli had 27, all their midfielders had a field day and not many, maybe other than (Jy) Simpkin and (Tom) Powell, could hold their heads up (from North Mebourne).”
“It’s going to be a tough year as we know for North Melbourne.”
Don’t let Melbourne mark the ball
“We’ve known this for two years, don’t let Melbourne mark the ball in your back 50.
“You would have thought Richmond and Damien Hardwick would have come up with a plan, perhaps they’re saving that for the real stuff.
“But (Harrison) Petty, (Max) Gawn, (Jake) Lever, (Steven) May, (Angus) Brayshaw, they had 28 intercept possessions between them and six goals from defensive transition.”