Well, that's the end of any realistic finals chance for Frankston. An absolutely miserable day where the Dolphins failed to play to the conditions with far too many handballs and attempts at precision passes. Despite that we were only a goal down at 3qt but allowed Gold Coast to kick 5 unanswered goals.
Also concerning to see such a low crowd at Frankston yesterday. Between the awful timeslot and weather conditions, the club drew one of the smallest attendances in a long time. Maybe a few hundred. I'll be surprised if the club managed to break even on yesterday's game.
Beating Collingwood next week is non-negotiable. Their VFL side is garbage this year and we need to show signs of improvement before the season is done. Frankston needs to look like a team that might play finals next year in order to retain our best players and get some gun recruits in the off-season.
Dolphins should beat Collingwood this week -hopefully they will kick straight this week
Still plenty of winable games this year,
Collingwood (H)
Preston (A)
Casey (H)
Coburg (A)
The other game is against Footscray which will be a loss, but we are a realistic chance of winning 4 of the last 5 (bye in final round) which would make 9 wins for the season - albiet with a favourable fixture - but a good return and a very good foundation for next year. Kornberg has done a fantastic job and with decent recruiting Frankston should be in the mix for Finals next year.
Theres a fair bit of drift wood in this team, hopefully they will move them on, both the Rileys, Gown, Lloyd, Nayna, and Moran have all had poor seasons and probably should be playing elsewhere next year.
UTD “….Their VFL side is garbage “. Is a brave statement; both teams have lost their last 5 games.
If the Dolphins don’t win on Sunday what will be your rating of them?
Collingwood are also 2-10, gave Coburg and the Bullants their first wins of the year, got thoroughly beaten by other poor sides such as Casey and Essendon, were demolished by Werribee, and barely beaten Carlton who seem to be the VFL's whipping boys this year. Yes, they're a garbage side.
If we lose to them then that's all credibility lost. This was a team that was starting to be talked about as a genuine chance to make finals. If we lose to them we can't expect anyone to take us seriously, especially if we lose in the same bad fashion as last year.
Frankston need to bank some wins and finish the season strongly whether that gets us to finals or not. If we can't even beat the third-bottom team, then we can't expect anyone to take us seriously.
Noah Gown is an interesting one, played 22 games and kicked 26 goals in 2021 & 2022 for Williamstown and looked like a really good player at times but moved on to Sandy last year and then Frankston this year. He was on Essendon's AFL list before Willi which makes four clubs in five years, bit of a pattern there.
Gown really hasn't set the world on fire this year. It's not entirely his fault as he's been in and out of the side with injuries, but even when he's in the team he hasn't been a massive scoring threat. I can't help but think back to the Port Melbourne game where it felt like half the team was lining up for goals and Butland kicked five.
It'll be interesting to see if he stays or not. We do need height in the forward line and Gown's tall enough for it, but we need more from him in terms of goals.
These are his stats for the year. Played 8 matches, 13 goals/ 5 behinds / 24 marks. Its not great unless he is carrying an on-going injury, but he appears to move well each week and his effort is always 100%.
Maybe the 3 prong attack is not working that well. They tend to go to Johnson more often than the others, so maybe its time for a change in the setup to give Noah a better chance - no point having a player of his ability stagnate in the square if the supply is not there for him. I remember a few years back we had the same problem with Todd Elton, so Danny played him on a wing and the difference in his game was remarkable. BOG a couple of times after the move.
I don't have a problem with Gown's efforts.....his output has been maybe underwhelming but he does present, takes the best tall defender and does bring it to ground for the crumbers. Sadly we don't have any genuine crumber other than maybe Nick Burke on our forward line. Yes, Johnson is the go-to generally, because he is a bloody clever footballer and knows how to create space for himself to lead into. I think where our forward line cohesion is concerned the real problem has been Josh Butland, who has been a debacle aside from the Port game early in the year. On the plus side, Lachie Sharp looks raw but very talented and should provide an extra tall target moving forward to take some heat off Gown if he stays.
Joe Lloyd.....most over-rated footballer at the club by a mile. Yes, move him on......Nayna and the Rileys just too many clangers among them. Ollie Moran though, that's a bit rough - don't think he's been in the side enough to establish himself as yet. And Trent Marotta, I have no idea how he was still there this year. Add William Kennedy to the list too - way too many fundamental tactical mistakes - won't ever make a decent defender.
We have some good up and comers though - Nelson looks good, as does Burke. Tall defenders are our big want in the off season. Max Williams is definitely at the end.
Moran gives decent run from defence but his skills are not great. He has been trying to get on Frankstons list for a while but hasnt been able to make the cut, until finally making it this year, and for mine he hasnt done enough when hes been in the team. Been an emergency a number of times but has struggled to get a game. I would be amazed if he's there next year.
Good call re the crumbers in the forward line. We havent had one since Jack Mentha, and a small guy in there who could kick a few goals would be invaluable.
Blake O'Leary is the ideal crumber up forward, but he's become too valuable to us around the wings to be up there right now.
I long for the days when we had Justin Berry and Ricky Morris up there feeding off Aaron Edwards.....haven't had too many great crumbing forwards since.