The Smurfs are in Town aka Round 18 vs SFC

[Big Al]

This 1000% I think you've nailed Staj's nature as a coach. He's hyper organised, incredibly disciplined, intelligent, straight shooter and I'd guess no one works harder... but he has looked like he leans to being risk adverse, which is great until it's not. At times any and all things are necessary.

In the games where there was latitude and people wanted to see some minutes for Hall, you have to assume Staj didn't wasn't willing to accept any level of risk however minimal and just wanted to keep Ruon and Kye on to close out the matches.

Also Kye and Roun have been a dominant pairing and you don’t mess with your CB’s at all if you can. Especially with an untested rookie as back up. Take the points on offer while they are there and don’t jeopardize them. Alot of the calls for Hall have been through excitement at an excellent prospect which is great but he is clearly behind that pairing (His time will come) and shouldn’t be in there just for minutes. It’s not what we are playing for (That is nothing against Hall he looks very good and his time will come

Also i am not sure if it is Staj instructions or the teams confidence but when you compare the earlier season grind it wins against SFC and Bulls to some other games we have been going for the kill right to the end which has cost us points (As early as Nix and WSW really but we did have the right to be pushing in those games). Last night we seemed stuck between do we compress the field which is very dangerous against SFC but may have been a better option vs trying to kill them off and being exposed at the back.

This was evident with the Bouhman sub. He has not hesitated with the double sub and i saw them warming up together with no one else early in the 2nd half so Staj was definitely considering it but he went with Simon’s defense because offensively Urena was showing more with his breaking the line.

Staj clearly favours Simon’s defending in the box and rightly so he wins alot of vall there.

I am also thinking he’s working out who is capable and who is not. He now has his set players.

Janota and Casella have dropped out of the rotation and anybody else is getting minutes because of injuries.

The one weakness in the squad is a fast winger so i am surprised Hatch hasn’t gotten more minutes there.

He obviously is wanting the guys to learn to hold on under fatigue as well. You have heard him in a few press conferences talk about the other team having more possession but he wasn’t fazed because he felt they weren’t threatening. As fans we consider every attack threatening but we can see the tiredness creeping in. I’d love to know what he thinks with that. He is obviously in the keep going or can you buy me another 5 mins so i can move to the next plan. He certainly is not one to jump to early.

Who’d be a coach hey.

 

[Rising Sun]

I personally prefer the Ruon/Kye partnership, as it gives a natural left foot/right foot balance in the centre.

It was notable that Kye’s errant pass was off his right foot.

You could play any two from the three of them and we would go all right. Ruon and Kye have been tremendous and don't deserve to be dropped but Dan is quality and will only get better with game time. I honestly don't think Miller would let us down there either, it's his natural position

For a position that was probably our weakest at the start of the season, it is now possibly our strongest.

 

[Big Al]

Also for all the talk about Staj we conceded in injury time and last 10mins of the game from a horrible error.

These are coach killers.

Had we won we’d be loving everything and saying it was all part of the plan for the Roar

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Would’ve been 30000ft in the air on his way back from Launceston with the rest of the squad on the Sunday.

I'm pretty sure I saw him at Pluim watching the APL.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I like FP's suggestion that he could have subbed Ollie who was getting tired with Casella and Had Nizzy drop back got DM. But then we would have lost Nizzy attacking in the final 10 mins.

As Big Al said. Who'd be a coach?

 

[JackMariner]

Great evening and it’s so goAod to feel a vide around the ground like the good old days.

Hall did well for a real baptism of fire and they did try and pressure him as well. Nizzy showed again why he should start every game if his fit and not injured. DDS was great but boy he had three good opportunities in the second half and went straight down Redmayne’s throat every time. It’s the only part of his game he needs significant improvement in.

Everyone played well and SFC really struggled at times. I feel Staj didn’t want to upset the team dynamic so he held off the subs and if DDS had hit one of his shots we wouldn’t be so critical. That’s football.

Feel for Kye, he will take that hard I feel and when you play out the back like we did in the second half you invite that kind of pressure. I’m ok with the draw as we could have easily lost the game in the last 10.

Bring on the Roar!!!

Don't you mean the Purrr! At least we will not have their fans co mingling with us, but I tell you what I am really looking forward to Old Hovel Biplanes(Newcastle Jets) coming to Central Coast Stadium. Can someone please find that banner, " I would rather be dead than" you know the rest!

 

[priorpeter]

I'm pretty sure I saw him at Pluim watching the APL.

Yup right you are - straight to Pluim from the airport after getting back from Tas.

 

[true believer]

This 1000% I think you've nailed Staj's nature as a coach. He's hyper organised, incredibly disciplined, intelligent, straight shooter and I'd guess no one works harder... but he has looked like he leans to being risk adverse, which is great until it's not. At times any and all things are necessary.

In the games where there was latitude and people wanted to see some minutes for Hall, you have to assume Staj didn't wasn't willing to accept any level of risk however minimal and just wanted to keep Ruon and Kye on to close out the matches.

yeah i think the opposite of this .
i think once we started flagging with a 2-1 lead .we should have brought on koul and janota .
replaced el pistola and simon .
then played 451 and jammed the midfield . we still have bouman on the bench if we need to chase a goal

but this , i believe is a solution to our current problem,of closing down games . while squandering a plethora of chances that we fail to take


edit

 

[Ancient Mariner]

How wonderfully different from the last 5 years.
I am living the dream. (and drinking Genfarclas 17year old).
What a wonderful world.

 

[Big Al]

Watching the game and 1st half

Matt scores and doesn’t celebrate because it’s SFC yet had no problem celebrating when scored for them against us. Ok we didn’t give him a warm welcome and the departures from both clubs was different but still interesting.

In the 42nd minute after Bozza finds out about the disallowed Bobo goal he can be clearly seen telling Corica about it and Corica is spewing with the news. I saw they got called out for being SFC TV on Twitter and didn’t like it and that is why

 

[Wombat]

How wonderfully different from the last 5 years.
I am living the dream. (and drinking Genfarclas 17year old).
What a wonderful world.

Genfarclas sounds like a Scots swear word! But i'm sure if you are sipping it Rod its well worth a wee dram or two.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

yeah i think the opposite of this .
i think once we started flagging with a 2-1 lead .we should have brought on koul and janota .
replaced el pistola and simon .
then played 451 and jammed the midfield . we still have bouman on the bench if we need to chase a goal

but this , i believe is a solution to our current problem,of closing down games . while squandering a plethora of chances that we fail to take


edit

I actually love this and would have loved to see it. But I'm a risk taker.

 

[Big Al]

2nd half we actually weren’t under the pump as much as it felt at the ground. They had half opportunities but nothing more until the Rowles blunder which was caused by barborosus putting pressure on Kye ans the ball was on his weak foot and he panicked and we know the rest.

Pretty dam good game and very exciting and the atmosphere was amazing.

Well worth a watch for those who went to game. Felt very different watching from the otherside of the ground to

 

[true believer]

2nd half we actually weren’t under the pump as much as it felt at the ground. They had half opportunities but nothing more until the Rowles blunder which was caused by barborosus putting pressure on Kye ans the ball was on his weak foot and he panicked and we know the rest.

Pretty dam good game and very exciting and the atmosphere was amazing.

Well worth a watch for those who went to game. Felt very different watching from the otherside of the ground to

yes but we were up and as one punter said and "playing basket ball"
we do not take our chances well . our defenders shouldn't be scrambling constantly for the last 30
minutes . which we were with rookie dm's .
if oppositions need to commit extra guys to get in our back 3rd .
thats great , then kuol will be loose .

 

[pjennings]

My problem was the Ninkovic goal. At the end of the first half we just dropped deep and stayed there just playing out the half. They have some quality players and we were just asking for problems. That said those first 3 goals were all quality. Great night, wrong result. Poor game management just before half-time and then we should have killed them off any number of times instead of giving Redmayne catching practice.

 

[Big Al]

Oh and the major thing was Urena 2nd half miss.
1st half he got Redmayne to bite first. This time Redmayne held and Urena went same way
BUT BUT BUT he had Nizzy wide open for what should have been his first goal. I can see why he didn’t make the pass and he should have scored but Nizzy had an open goal

 

[Big Al]

yes but we were up and as one punter said and "playing basket ball"
we do not take our chances well . our defenders shouldn't be scrambling constantly for the last 30
minutes . which we were with rookie dm's .
if oppositions need to commit extra guys to get in our back 3rd .
thats great , then kuol will be loose .

Yeah it was helta skelta. Exciting to watch for everyone but probably not how we should have been playing. The mids weren’t close enough to the backline on the Rowles error (was very bad by Rowles) but he didn’t have any options possibly because of the mids were tired from running up and back frantically

 

[Tevor]

Oh and the major thing was Urena 2nd half miss.
1st half he got Redmayne to bite first. This time Redmayne held and Urena went same way
BUT BUT BUT he had Nizzy wide open for what should have been his first goal. I can see why he didn’t make the pass and he should have scored but Nizzy had an open goal

Yes but when Redmayne blocked the shot and spilled it Simon as too far back to take advantage, Kuol would have been closer than Simon IMO. Simon was jogging and then tried to get there when he seen the opportunity but was too late. Agree it could have gone to Nizzy as well however Urena's touch before the shot was too heavy and that put pressure on him to rush the shot unlike his first goal.

 

[Huddo]

Urena did have options, I would have preferred the backheel to Simon who was running through, but to be fair very hard to see what coming behind you.

 

[turbo]

and the departures from both clubs was different but still interesting.

bit of an understatement.