Choppers Round 3 - Match Thread

[clarence]

keep in mind we did not have Doig who was MOM against Melbourne imho.

With Doig being out for a total of at least 3 weeks, he may have to come on as a sub in his first match back. He may not have the match fit condition after a bit of time off.

So don't be surprised if Lawrie doesn't rush him straight back in.

 

[Jerem]

the other great positive was the accurate switching of play from wing to wing, many by mcglinchey but wasnt the only one, yes had traits of hoofing, but it was darn accurate and if continued opens up the option of goals i.e. archie vs fury last night.
progress, my thoughts about a long season ahead are slowly fading.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Re our clean sheet - I agree. And I am a very strong believer in that premierships are more often won from the back than the front. Obviously goal are required, but what I'm getting at is that usually in a game like say the one against MV - especially considering how much pressure we had in the second half - our defense would never have held and we'd have been lucky to pick up even point. And then you have the games like those against Jest and Bling, games that where we are not connecting the dots up front and we probably would have seen all three points slip away, yet at the moment our very solid defense is keeping us in the game regardless.

Most teams (GCU may be a god awful exception this year) will have periods where their strikers are struggling to get on the sheet - throw in a bit of a leaky back line, and those games are losses. But if your defensively very strong, those games turn into draws with even the odd win as yesterdays could well have been. Sounds exactly like us at the moment to me. We just need to find our form up front to notch up and we will as I have maintained be serious contenders this season.
verhead:

 

[Forum Phoenix]

keep in mind we did not have Doig who was MOM against Melbourne imho.

With Doig being out for a total of at least 3 weeks, he may have to come on as a sub in his first match back. He may not have the match fit condition after a bit of time off.

So don't be surprised if Lawrie doesn't rush him straight back in.

Missed two matches but trained an re strained, and will be training if lightly this week from what I've heard. So for mine pretty sure he will come straight back in as he is already being treated with a careful approach from what i understand...

the other great positive was the accurate switching of play from wing to wing, many by mcglinchey but wasnt the only one, yes had traits of hoofing, but it was darn accurate and if continued opens up the option of goals i.e. archie vs fury last night.
progress, my thoughts about a long season ahead are slowly fading.

AH! We haven't always seen eye to eye Jerome, but that post made me ;D

 

[Dr Nick]

what was up with the pitch too? i saw our players fall over at crucial times on at least eight occasions (at least half were from porter, not his best outing)

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Yeah... the section right in front of bay 23 I believe is where it seems to be worst...
Hmmmmmmmm...

 

[northernspirit]

what was up with the pitch too? i saw our players fall over at crucial times on at least eight occasions (at least half were from porter, not his best outing)

that thin air is a major trip hazard, i hope work cover has been advised

 

[goingtoadisco]

Great to see all the positive feedback about the game. I thought we played well, we were rock solid at the back. Both teams had chances and i thought it was a great game to watch. The sydney support was great. I only dream about the marinators being that good sorry guys. Lucky sydney brought up 2000 people other wise it would have been a very poor crowd.

The Marinators will have that kind of support when the Central Coast has a population of 5 million. Until then, we should just build on what we have. I thought in the last 20 minutes or so, Bay 23 was great.

The marinators were a bunch of bogan rable yesterday! If is wasn't... "we all follow a yellow football team" (wearing predominately blue now), it was "you are a wanker" or "shitting south of Mt White"...BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get some class! What wit!!! And people wonder why your a laughing stock amonsgt the other teams fanatics.

Hate to say it but guys you were way out sung by sydney, first game i have ever watched on fox at bluetonegue ( due to shit KO time) and the marinators were barely audible. While the camera panned over to the coveites partaking in some great tifo, whenever it panned to the marinators it was two guys clapping and not many singing Same story after i watched the replay against Newcastle. I think we need to pick up our act and reaaly participate in the bay, Im going to sing alot harder come next home game.

 

[clarence]

what was up with the pitch too? i saw our players fall over at crucial times on at least eight occasions (at least half were from porter, not his best outing)

Was the pitch watered before the game? Lavicka ordered that for the Sydney home game, maybe that was done before the start at Bluetongue? Was out the back with missus having her usual halftime smoko, so don't know if they watered the pitch at half time.

 

[ballantyne]

Re the penalty, yep wasn't the best effort but he chose a corner and made the keeper work, it was a good save, IMO it's always best to go high, there's always a risk when you strike it low.

Who remembers Jedi's last penalty after 90 mins against Sydney last December?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb3cjVpPol4
That's how you do it.

 

[marinermick]

what was up with the pitch too? i saw our players fall over at crucial times on at least eight occasions (at least half were from porter, not his best outing)

Was the pitch watered before the game? Lavicka ordered that for the Sydney home game, maybe that was done before the start at Bluetongue? Was out the back with missus having her usual halftime smoko, so don't know if they watered the pitch at half time.

Pitch was not watered.

Most of the slipping occurred late in the game when the pitch was starting to get a little bit of dew on it.

 

[clarence]

what was up with the pitch too? i saw our players fall over at crucial times on at least eight occasions (at least half were from porter, not his best outing)

Was the pitch watered before the game? Lavicka ordered that for the Sydney home game, maybe that was done before the start at Bluetongue? Was out the back with missus having her usual halftime smoko, so don't know if they watered the pitch at half time.

Pitch was not watered.

Most of the slipping occurred late in the game when the pitch was starting to get a little bit of dew on it.

Thanx for the info. 

 

[dibo]

my comments from last week were:

One thing that really concerned me was that essentially every time Heff received the ball, a scum player would simply bolt at him, and press him for a mistake. They were often rewarded. We try to play out, find midfielders, build the play out etc., but it can all be undone simply by running at Heff waving your arms going 'BOO!' when he's got the ball at his feet...

On the formation - are we playing a 4-3-3, a 4-2-3-1, a 4-5-1, a 4-4-1-1... ???

It looked the other night more like a 4-2-3-1 and defensively it was reasonably effective, but we kept getting pinned back on the flanks. Matty was left high and lonely too often.

Heff was *much* calmer and more efficient with his use of the ball last night. great game. we looked to be playing a pretty orthodox 4-2-3-1, and i think we did alright. *they* think they should have had the game wrapped up, but they didn't actually trouble danny too often, while we had a penalty reasonably well saved and D-Mac should have scored at least a pair.

Kwasnik pushed on much better than last week, and while Elrich didn't have a stunner (looked lazy, too many passes over/underhit and far too many pissy little flicks that didn't come off) Porter came around well and some nice crosses were hit. Hutch's corners were good but lacked a little variety - a ball pinned on the head of a man on the near post would've been a treat I suspect.

Hutchinson- Defensively alright, got stuck in which was good to see. In attack in the first half fell into those bad habits of passing backwards on numerous occasions. 2nd half provided a little more drive forward. (was it him that won the penalty? All I really saw was bodies everywhere)

You're not the only one who's said this in recent weeks but I've got to have a go at this idea that's seemingly ever-present. He's a holding midfielder, he and Pedj are both trying to maintain possession and drive the rhythm of the side. They're not in any 'bad habit' of passing backwards, they're doing the job of maintaining possession. That's what he's meant to do.

If he was passing forward into contested areas constantly, handing over the ball and putting us under pressure (Adrian Caceres, come on down...) wouldn't that be a far worse outcome than preserving possession and building pressure until the right ball presents itself?

 

[clarence]

If he was passing forward into contested areas constantly, handing over the ball and putting us under pressure (Adrian Caceres, come on down...) wouldn't that be a far worse outcome than preserving possession and building pressure until the right ball presents itself?

Feel obliged to take you to task for comparing Caceres' game vs. Hutchinson's game.

As you say, Hutchinson is a defensive midfielder.... Caceres is an attacking midfielder.

Caceres' stats will, of course, show him handing over possession and losing the ball more so than Hutch. He is, of course, in the opponents' defense line's face most times he has the ball. It is more catastrophic if Hutch has similar handing over possession stats to Caceres as Hutch plays closer to our goal - if he's losing the ball then straight away our defense is under pressure.

I reckon that Caceres is also paid to take risks, and by that very assumption, will lose the ball more taking the 1/100 pass or manoeuvre. If he was a conservative player with an eye for maintaining possession more, he'd be a more centre midfielder cum defensive centre midfielder (if his defending technique was up to scratch).

It would be fairer comparing Hutch's game against Pedj or Huke.

 

[odball]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdMPYOd4Po

 

[clarence]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdMPYOd4Po

Sorry the tifo display failed. It's supposed to have some sort of image or solid block of colour. The little coloured panels are supposed to be closer together, not held up individually. FAIL.

 

[bjw]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdMPYOd4Po

Sorry the tifo display failed. It's supposed to have some sort of image or solid block of colour. The little coloured panels are supposed to be closer together, not held up individually. FAIL.

it was better than ours...
the 'on tour' banner looks awesome btw.

 

[Ted]

lol the strike force was lacking strike and force hth.

 

[cruiser]

People are kidding themselves if they think that wasnt a boring, mistake riddled game of football by both teams. I've seen better football played in park lands. It had me seriously questioning why I'd bother to part again with good money to watch that type of rubish.

 

[tuftman]

People are kidding themselves if they think that wasnt a boring, mistake riddled game of football by both teams. I've seen better football played in park lands. It had me seriously questioning why I'd bother to part again with good money to watch that type of rubish.

Hahahaha, what?  You wouldn't pay to watch the team you support regardless?