Demon2's Rant

OK...I left it for a few days to give my summary. Being there at the game, made me sick to my stomach, just watching us capitulate like we did. So I thought I had to wait and calm down before I wrote down my thoughts.

A lot of things went wrong on the day, we started off well for about 5 minutes, and then it all went downhill.

We all know and have written about what was wrong, but the scariest thing for me was the way we lost confidence so quickly, as a result, our pressure and attack at the ball went with the confidence.

We all have read how the Hawks were younger and less experienced than we were, but when you break it down, those stats mean nothing. We were smaller, weaker, boys playing against as men. We couldn’t hold a tackle; we didn’t pressure the Hawks at all.

The game plan has been talked about a lot too, unlike many others I see a game plan I just don’t think it’s the right one. I can understand going with the zones, etc..., but our players need to learn to play on a man, they need to test themselves by going one on one. This zone shizen, is rubbish. We let the Hawks play the game they wanted, free men to run and set up from defence. We were going down and we kept trying to flood the midfield to make it harder for them, but what happened was that we made it harder for ourselves. We aren’t as skilled as many of the other teams out there; the Hawks were able to go through the zone we employed like we were witches hats.

When we went more man on man in the 2nd half we did a lot better, I know that the Hawks slowed down and had the game won, but we saw more of our players have more of an impact on the game.

Scull, JT, Frankie Grimes, were able to run and set up play a lot better, due to the fact we weren’t running around like headless chooks, in a zone.

The other thing we did was have a forward line, a structure our players could actually kick too, have confidence in. The main reason for this was Greeny. I know we might need him in other parts of the ground, but I would much prefer to see Green in the forward line, and let the kids learn in the midfield. Scull and JT will only improve like they did as the game went on, the more they play, so let them learn, add Frankie Grimes to the midfield mix, and we will be fine, but without a recognised forward we need Greeny in there. We also need a Maric in there or someone who can provide some forward line pressure, we lacked that something savage.

We also need a hell of a lot more from our senior brigade, Flash, Bater, Frosty, Beamer, Bruce, had shocking games, they might have got possessions, but they did not lead the way for our kids, and they need to do that for the kids to have a chance of showing what they can do. Bater will get better with more game time; we know he hasn’t had a great pre season, same with Bruce hopefully. But Flash, Beamer, Frosty, Riv have no excuses, they apparently had the best preseason of their lives.

McKenzie, Strauss Scull, JT, Frankie, Jamar, can hold their heads up. I know Straussy made some mistakes and cost us some goals, but for a first gamer he also did a lot of good things, and with the ball being in the defensive area so much, you can’t blame him or the rest of the defence.

So what do we need to do?

1. Pressure, tackle and harass. All over the ground and this has to start with our senior players.

2. Greeny in the forward line to give us some structure.

3. Scull, McKenzie, JT, Frankie need to play in the midfield as much as possible.

4. Forget about zoning and play more man on man.

5. Forward line pressure, not missing easy shots, making the most of the limited opportunities we get.

6. Be competitive, we know we aren’t gonna set the world on fire, but let’s see some competitiveness.

7. Show us something to hang our hats on, something for the future.