Giants vs Crows
General - One of the very worst games of football I've ever watched. The first half had less intensity than an Auskick game, the second half looked like a bad preseason game. Honestly, there was some bad football this weekend but this game was on a different tier. Somehow it was possibly even worst from a fantasy perspective. Honestly, watch the 5 highlights and save yourself the misery of this game.
Giants - They got 4 points. That's about all they can take out of this. Their first half was as bad as you could play, their 2nd half was about 5% better, the old saying of dragging someone down to your level and then beating them with experience. Honestly, if you're the coach you just say we're throwing this one out and starting again.
Green - Amazing ratio for him and can't fault his workrate or effort, he kept bobbing up all over the ground. It felt like all his touches went to opponents early but he had the CD scorer on his side obviously! Seriously, was really solid and looks a must have after backing up the preseason in the real stuff.
Greene - Was phenomenal, sometimes I just don't understand how SC works, honestly, it's like they mixed up the two T. Green(e) when scoring, he was the best on the ground and should have had a huge ratio, he dominated and was the only reason they were in this game and then the primary reason why they won. Role was **** though.
Coniglio - Role was great, he was the other player who really kept them in it and dragged them home, I'd have said his ratio was spot on and Greene should have had similar. He managed to match Gulden for a week as that was the head to head for most.
Ward - Ended up in a pure midfield role thanks to the Perryman injury.
Kelly - Concussed by a nasty (clumsy not intentional) headbutt from ROB early in Q4, it's a shame because he was lifting and starting to scrape back his ratio. His game felt almost identical to Green and his ratio is what I'd have expected, it's actually funny that basically the same statline and eye test can produce such varying results in SC! Will miss a week and becomes a complete disaster as a result with midfield depth looking awful.
Callaghan - He was great, kept working all game and used the ball well as expected, his missed set shot aside. Now in a fantastic position as a cash cow option.
Cumming - He was actually pretty good, just not enough quantity and so little pressure up field meant most of the Crows forward forays weren't going to be intercepted or turned over. Whitfield took a lot of his kickins early as well and Ash also stole some. Standard too many chefs playing out.
Daniels - Was really solid, looked good and scored very well.
Buckley - Late in but Haynes injured among with the carnage can't hurt his cause. Played well and beat Walker on the day pretty convincingly.
Ash - The defensive small primarily as expected, did have a few nice runs but with the Crows group of small forwards was always going to be defensive today.
Himmel - Forward until the injuries forced them to put an injured Haynes on the field where he basically sat in the goal square. If he didn't take mark of the year/decade today then I eagerly await whatever can get remotely near it, one of the best marks I've ever seen. He's a trash forward still.
Whitfield - Terrible in the first half, was actually starting to get into it when he got concussed. With his history of concussions you have to ask some serious questions at this point, definitely misses one but probably should miss more. No one should have picked him anyway.
Perryman - Did his hamstring in basically his first contest on the field.
Crows - What a disaster for them. They were bad but not as bad as the Giants in the first half but their awful finishing made it a chance instead of ending it and then they just switched off entirely in the 2nd half and let the Giants win. The fact they brought zero intensity or effort is the real concern, they let the Giants remove that from the game in the first half and then couldn't turn it back on when ROB started to get destroyed in the middle and the field changed.
Rachele - He was really solid, role decent and finished well when forward. Would want to see another week of it before going for him but could be some cash to be made here.
Dawson - Role as expected, never really got into this game, pretty solid score considering that.
ROB - A big reason they lost, he tried hard but his ruckwork basically resulted in Giants clearances in the 2nd half, when he won it he put it down their throat and when he lost it was non-competitive meaning Flynn put it down their throats. Coniglio, Kelly, Ward and Green must have all had 2 clean CB clearances each, probably more, Coniglio felt like about 5.
Keays - Forward role primarily, worked hard.
Rankine - Forward primarily, was solid but so wasteful, he really should have kicked all 7 shots.
Pedlar - Forward but roaming role, better than his preseason role. Looked good. Not sure he's worth it in SC but he played very well and was one of the few on the field who seemed to realise what team he played for when kicking it.
Laird - It's not so much the score as the way he played. That was absolutely pathetic. No workrate, no effort, no trying. He basically set the tone for their collapse. He wasn't good in Q1 but at least he was scoring when it was easy but the second it got remotely hard he gave up. He wasn't tagged, he didn't even get any attention outside the one stoppage that Perryman was at for the entire game. He missed a bunch of tackles, he missed two goals he should kick. This was an everything that could, did kind of game but the effort is the takeaway. Resisting a rage trade here is going to take some serious self control, especially with how many bargains went bang, will do very well to not lose 70k by round 5. That he ended my RDT, AFLF and SC seasons all at once was just an extra bonus. On a positive, I can stop caring about it for another year and can start to work on my golf game on the weekends again...
Milera - Played really well off half back, was calm and actually good defensively as well.
Michalanney - He was also really solid, held his own against both bigs and smalls which is a strong effort. Injury to Murray and potentially Butts as well would only sure him up, albeit probably better to have those two so he's not in the KP role.
McAdam - Laid an absolute ripper of a bump, shame it's not 2005 anymore because he's going to have a nice little holiday for it. For those who admire and remember the physical side of the sport though, do watch
Was definitely one of about 3 moments from this entire game that I'd actually want to watch again (Himmelberg and Haynes marks the other two).
