I generally agree with your analysis (you've saved me - or saved others from me - posting something similar) and offer the following further observations about the first half, for what they might be worth:Neil Appleby wrote:Lucky we were playing such a mentally weak group as the Kangaroos. Honestly, that first half was hopeless.
1st Q: Missing in action: Pendles Elliott White Blair Langdon Varcoe
2nd Q: Missing in action: Blair, White, Elliott, Langdon, Seedsman
Thank goodness Steele Sidebottom & Crisp were out there. I could also add Frost, Cloke and Swan.
Elliott was the game breaker and delivered the goals when it counted, but Sidey did it for four quarters. Hard to believe this man has missed 6 weeks; he just walked back into the team and played at top level again.
Crisp is tough inside, tough outside and has a great tank. This boy just went hard at it all day and never stopped throwing his body into the fray.
Final observation: Jordan DeGoey. Was thrown straight into the action and didn't take a backward step. Stands up in tackles, strong in the hips, never flustered or panicked. Still getting the hang of the pace of AFL footy, but what a smoothie we've picked up here.
Terrific second half and a replay we'll be watching for years to come.
1. Despite the whining in the game-thread, the defence held up very well in the first quarter. Drew Petrie has played 278 games in 15 seasons for North (he would be a 300-gamer this year if it weren't for his injury-riddled 2010) and kicked 372 goals (even though he often played as a ruckman before Goldstein came good). Jarrad Waite has played 192 games and kicked 268 goals. They are both very good footballers, even if one of them, in particular, is quite erratic.
Good forwards will occasionally outmark good backs, despite best efforts. When their midfield is dominating they will also get the occasional easy one on the lead. This does not require us to delist everyone over 180cm who plays in the back-half and start again.
North had 17 inside 50s in the first quarter and the defenders stopped most of those. The 4th goal (on the quarter-time siren) to Higgins resulted, imo, from a tacking error by Seedsman (he had both hands on Higgins but let Higgins break free when he might have been wrapped up). Otherwise, given that Collingwood needed 1 more tall in defence (Goldsack simply wasn't up to the task, try as he might), it was to be expected they'd get shots on goal when their team was going well.
2. Goldstein slaughtered Grundy in the last part of the first quarter. He is a good ruckman. This will happen occasionally as our two boys learn. They are well ahead of Goldstein when he was their respective ages (and it is worth recounting that when Goldstein was first on the scene, I used to call him "Stumblebum" because he looked quite useless and un-coordinated). Although Witts, imo, did a better job on him for most of the game, Goldstein did sneak away from a pack and get an easy mark inside 50 in the second quarter. Witts stayed to help a losing midfield; Petrie assumed his midfield would get the ball, so he ran forward into the space. He was right.
3. In the first half of the second quarter, Collingwood was thrashed on the spread. Perhaps the most dramatic example of that was the Nahas goal - Thomas wasn't kicking to him but missed the target and it went over the contest to a completely unmarked Nahas but it was happening between half-forward and half-back going both ways. It may be a symptom of general tiredness or that some of the boys are playing with injuries but Oxley, Langdon and Seedsman all failed to get out into space - or to cover space - in the first half when the chances came.
4. Collingwood's forward structure failed in the first half. Cloke played well up the ground and was one of our best 3 to 5 players in that half but some of the others need to be able to take advantage of the space he creates when he takes his man away from the deep defence. Some of them also need to do a bit more when the ball doesn't come in precisely the way they like it. Fasolo was very good at the contest (and even better in the second half) and that is a good sign. White seemed to be trying hard to influence the aerial-contest physically (and perhaps he is developing at that) but, once again, he did that thing where he gets one kick in a half of football. Happily it was a good one from a difficult angle. Witts and Grundy were competitive when they were around the goals - if they hadn't kicked a goal each before half-time, Collingwood may have been too far behind to come good. Elliott and Blair weren't good enough early. Both were good (and Elliott was almost unstoppable) in the second half. A special mention to Blair for contesting a mark with Ben Brown one-on-one in the second half and single-handedly stopping what looked to be a certain North goal.
5. The game was stabilised less than half-way into the second-quarter. It was then more or less goal for goal until half-time.
6. Around the packs, I thought Adams was excellent in the first half, along with Sidebottom, Crisp and Swan. Those four each played the four quarters out. Like all players do, they looked better in the second half when they had plenty of help.
7. Pendles copped a hard tag and it worked on him for about half a game. He's not quite right at the moment but it probably wouldn't matter if there were one more top-notch midfielder to spread the load. Greenwood, De Goey, Kennedy, Broomhead and Freeman, this is your life.
