Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final Sydney 3.4 5.6 8.9 13.9 87 Collingwood 2.3 4.7 8.14 10.16 76
It's not like Collingwood was never in this game. On the contrary, we held a small lead at the last break. In the end, we just weren't good enough. There were three main reasons.
Team sports
Wikipedia disagrees with me, but I find it difficult to see how cricket is a team sport, except in name only. We talk about the Australian cricket team. But calling it a team doesn't make the game a team sport.
Actually, Wikipedia is all over the shop, offering several inconsistent factors as constituents of team sports.
As far as I can see, the only time that cricketers actually work together is in running between wickets. If the batsmen do not have - in Australia's case, when the batsmen do not have - a good understanding, the likelihood of runouts increases. Arguably, the setting of the field for a bowler involves a degree of team cooperation.
But nothing in cricket (or baseball or softball) comes close to the various "footballs" (eg AFL, soccer) or other field sports (hockey) or basketball or even water polo.
What makes a sport a team sport is synergy, that magical property which causes 1 + 1 to have a result > 2.
So, clearly, I think the team in team sports is pretty important. I've talked about it before. That understanding that Swan and Pendlebury have did not surface overnight; it takes time. It's what most of our players had with each other in 2010 and 2011. We seemed to have it a bit earlier in the year when we were winning and even when we lost a couple of close ones to top teams.
But we flirted with our form and now it's gone away. At this moment, I can't think of a single passage of good team play by the Pies in Friday night's game. I'm on the Gold Coast and not in a position to watch a replay.
Accuracy
This one is an oldie but a goodie. We miss far too many gettable shots. Good team play results in opportunities, but you need look no further than the first grand final of 2010 to see that opportunities do not always produce goals. In fact, with accuracy we would have won the first grand final and not required a second. In the end, we can put down to the vagaries of the bounce the fact that we did not suffer a humiliating defeat in 2010. It should never have come to that.
On Friday, our best quarter was also, by this measure, our worst. In the other quarters, we kicked 2.3, 2.4, 2.2 for a total of 6.9. In Q3, we kicked 4.7.
Q1 Ben Reid, Q2 Alex Fasolo, Jamie Elliott, Q3 Steele Sidebottom (maybe twice), Jarryd Blair, Jack Crisp, Q4 Scott Pendlebury, Jamie Elliott - I think I have these right - all missed gettable goals.
Pendlebury
Pendlebury may not always be our best player, or the one who accumulates the most possessions, but he is usually our most reliable. I guess all players are entitled to an occasional off night, and this one happened to be Pendlebury's. His usual control over time seems to have deserted him. We can only hope his performance was an isolated occurrence.
The good news
When one's team loses on a Friday night, there is usually a bleak weekend in the offing; little to look forward to. But this year, once again, joy comes from an unexpected quarter. Carlton lost - again - to Brisbane and sank to the bottom of the ladder. So the year may not be a total write-off.
And Essendon got thrashed - again!
The wrap
Team understanding can develop. It may have deserted us over the last month or two, but it can come back. It's what teams train for. So we can hope that next year, the same personnel can work together better and deliver better synergy, resulting in more wins.
After all, we played better against the Swans than we did against Carlton last week. However, Sydney has been through a rough patch of its own. So let's not get carried away.
Unfortunately, our accuracy problems have been around for a while. Had we kicked 100 points, we would have won. We certainly had the opportunities. I can't see an optimistic view for the future here.
If I were a gambling man, I'd bet that Pendlebury won't have too many more bad ones.
So there's something to look forward to for next year.
Sources, Notes, Footnotes, References
http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=6126http://www.liveladders.com/AFL/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_sports
http://www.theage.com.au/match-centre/afl/match-20150142001.html
Dear Mr TFB
ReplyDeleteI have only a few points to make about the game
1) There was an outrageous scandal towards the end of the game – and it hasn’t caused any ruckus that I have seen. It goes like this: there is a small pack near the 50 meter arc in the Sydney attacking area. The ball is rapidly picked up by a Swans player and kicked towards goal. Both field umpires yell out ‘touched’. The ball bounces in the goal square where Langton is guarding a forward. He makes a feint at stopping the ball which rolls through the big sticks. Why should he try to stop a ball that has been called touched? The central umpire runs in to the goal umpire and says it will be a video goal review – it seems he was so instructed by the reviewer – that can’t be so, surely. The video is examined and no hand can be seen touching the ball on the video angle. The score is now called a goal. A five point turnaround. After the game, McVeigh says the ball was touched. (I think he was the player who kicked the ball, but I am not certain). So now the Pies players are under pressure to kick two goals and so when Elliott has a set shot at goals, he feels hurried and the ball slews sideways for a behind. We lose by 11 points. My point is that due to the scandalous mistake, Elliott doesn’t take a measured and focused kick for goal.
2) Our structure throughout the game was, to say the least, reckless. Again, once the ball is bounced, everyone is an on-baller. All the Swans have to do – and every team does it to us costing us multiple goals each game – is to kick the ball into the clear in the forward half of the ground, where a forward has already streamed down on the very good chance exactly this will occur. A gentle run into an open unguarded goal results. Every week. Multiple goals. Even if the Pies pick up the best midfielders in the comp at the draft, it will still happen. Every week.
3) The above problem is endemic – I watched the VFL team playing on TV – just the same on-ball rubbish with more aimless running by team mates parallel to the ball movement
4) Moore rucked at the centre bounce a few times – he was impressive. Something to look forward to.
Floreat Pica
M
I'd forgotten about the incident you described as "an outrageous scandal". You are, as usual, absolutely right. An umpire cannot change his call in mid-play. Well, not in any rational world. And that is certainly not what the video review system is about.
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