POST MATCH DISCUSSION

[rjay 25,302]

I thought Michie showed some promise in what was effectively his first full senior game of AFL footy.

Tyson as I've said before will be a gun, still only a 14 game player and needs to work harder off the ball and tidy up disposal by foot. Reminds me a bit of Sam Mitchell early in his career where he would always back himself on his wrong foot and came unstuck many times, Tyson backed his right in a few times came unstuck on one in particular but had a go later in the game for a good result. All class, will be good to watch him develop.

[sue 9,191]

Demons 'much better' than they believe: Roos

And better than many posters believe too I hope.

[Lil_red_fire_engine 11,288]

I thought Michie showed some promise in what was effectively his first full senior game of AFL footy.

Tyson as I've said before will be a gun, still only a 14 game player and needs to work harder off the ball and tidy up disposal by foot. Reminds me a bit of Sam Mitchell early in his career where he would always back himself on his wrong foot and came unstuck many times, Tyson backed his right in a few times came unstuck on one in particular but had a go later in the game for a good result. All class, will be good to watch him develop.

I thought Michie aside from a couple of flashes in last quarter was poor. He did not get it enough and when did turned it back and was very unaccountable with out the ball.

[Demon17 5,227]

I can smell a meltdown brewing.

Melbourne with no talls .

We are in the shyte.

Champagne for the biggest over reaction and a six pack for the best calm down post.

I'm going for the 6 pack.

From the stand I saw a very differnt approach to the game and felt the patient and possession game was handled well, with way better disposal than in the past. Many fans still screamed kick it long - but to whom?

I saw composure and the team thinking through threats in defence calmly. The 1st 1/4 was a great example of control, albeit without the reward, and hitting the post twice.

Once McDonald was down, and Fitzpatrck gone, Riewoldt was always goin go be the differnerce.

Watts best game Iv'e seen.

Roos says we should see the plans after Round 5. After last night I am a believer.

[Norm Smith's Curse 2,602]

My hangover hasnt budged yet.

I think we should have won the game. If we had had Dawes out there we would have won

[rjay 25,302]

I thought Michie aside from a couple of flashes in last quarter was poor. He did not get it enough and when did turned it back and was very unaccountable with out the ball.

I think he was ok and gives us something to work with.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

We really needed Blease, Blease over frickin byrnes anyday of the week

Blease needs to develop some consistency and get a bit more of the ball; he has pace and some skill but he needs to get his hands on the pill far more than he does. We can't replace one player with a similar one and expect to get better results; Byrnes however does need to go.

[Macca 17,113]

Until we get our tall players back, and in particular, our tall forwards, we'll struggle to kick winning scores. No good blaming their replacements - certain players clearly aren't up to holding down key forward positions so we'll need our forward line to function in other ways. Easier said than done though - an injection of pace might help but we're light on for those types as well.

We need to somehow find a way to win without Clark, Dawes, Hogan, Garland, Jamar, Gawn, Fitzpatrick and McDonald. A few of those might be available next week but probably not any of the first 5 listed.

In the meantime, we need the midfield to contribute at least 6-8 goals per game. We got 3 goals from our midfield last night and that area of our game just has to get a lot better.

The midfield also lost the clearances 30-40 last night and that's largely why we lost the game IMO (the forward line was always likely to struggle so we needed to be strong in other areas) First use of the ball is even more important in today's footy and we lost that battle. Reverse that number and we probably win last night.

The positives from last night were that we played more like a team and fought the game out well. Not having targets in the forward line is a difficult thing to overcome but our work out of the centre was a disappointment.

Edited March 23, 2014 by Macca

[Norm Smith's Curse 2,602]

Yeah id have to agree we didnt dominate in the midfield like I would haev expected.

[Samael 560]

I thought Michie showed some promise in what was effectively his first full senior game of AFL footy.

Mitchie looked like he was being played on the HBF in the second half, probably because of necessity, but I think that is out of position for him. I would like to see him under the ruckmen's feet. Still need to be versatile.

[Steve13 457]

I'm disappointed with missing an opportunity to grab a win, however I look at it differently to many others. We have a game plan for the first time in 5 years. With a bit of cleaning up (turnovers & goal kicking) we will be competitive and we will sneak a few wins. With the enclusion of key players throughout the early part of the season and the confidence that will grow from playing together we will see significant improvement as the season progresses. I understand and share the disappointment but hold your judgment , we will the small things right that we didn't last night and we will steadily improve. There is light.

[Ted Lasso 19,549]

Yeah id have to agree we didnt dominate in the midfield like I would haev expected.

I reckon that's because of Spencer, don't remember one really good piece of ruckwork, thought he was pretty average.

[Deecisive 1,709]

Roos has often said that most of his work is done before players run out onto the ground. yes he can makes some moves but a lot of it is in the hands of the players. It is sad that some of our players just could not rise up to meet the challenge. given last nights performance even with a few extra talls would not have made such a great difference if our disposal both under pressure and not under pressure does not improve. Turnovers killed us last year and they have already shown to be a major problem with our skill level. No point putting some of our valued players like Toumpas and Grimes, Trengrove back to casey the level of pressure there is far less, they need to step up there maybe a couple of players who really are not going to make it, if so dont play them give Salem and others a go instead give them AFL pressure and experience other 2013 draftees showed they can walk into an ALF side and play. Gawn or King will probably need to be bought in to play full forward and at least provide some height. players need to think seriously about their possession game, too often players up field found themselves free but our boys with the ball were too busy looking over to the side and backward to notice, not taking those forward options quickly just resulted in us kicking back, etc.. playing with the ball until we could turn it over. there were some positives but progress was not as much as I and many other had hoped for. our supporter and possibly team over confidence has bitten us on the butt and made us look like fools.

[reynolds46 1,297]

Although disappointed with the result (we desperately need a win), in reality the improvement was noticeable and we have been so bad for the last 2 years (close to the worse team in the leagues history) we were never going to have a miraculous Port Adelaide type turn around. Jackson and Roos are slowly putting things together and at least we were still in the game towards the end of the match unlike the last 2 years when the games were over by 1/4 or 1/2 time.

[Brayshaw Self 847]

Grimes used to be a very good contested mark when he first came to the club but you just don't see him do that anymore.

I think he is one of the players that Roos refers to when he says they are scarred, he has been through some pretty bad seasons with us and I reckon there a tremendous upside with him.

Grimes has also laid 0 tackles against Richmond and Geelong in the NAB Challenge and 0 tackles against the Saints.

[rpfc 28,906]

If Bernie Vince kicks those goals instead of posts we would have won that game. If we had a forward line, we would have won that game.

Some of you are over reacting to a loss that you 'think' we should have won.

Look at how many touches we had and inside 50s.

We couldn't close the deal but I see the progress.

Can those of you who want to sack a third of the team see it?

[Dr. Gonzo 24,443]

I had a reaction that I haven't had for a while. At the end I thought "Damn, we should have won that game".

And we should have. Over the majority of the game we were the best team. We controlled the ball and gave ourselves opportunities. We were, unfortunately, unable to convert this ascendency into a score. The good thing is that the issues are not long term ones:

1- We had nobody to kick to. This meant that we either had to bomb to midgets, or find a short target. Unfortunately we did neither successfully. Of our goals, only Byrnes' was a result of a pass inside 50, while the rest we running from outside 50 (or a turnover for Toumpas' goal). There's no coincidence that our most productive periods were when Fitzy was playing.

2- We missed a lot of shots for goal. A lot!

These can both be fixed in the short/medium term. Kicking 6.15 is an aberration for any AFL team and will be better next week (especially when Vince kicks 1.4!). And we have a promising list of tall forwards, who are unfortunately injured. If you have one of those forwards play then we'd probably be talking about a win.

I wasn't sure how to feel last night. I was shitty about losing the game, but I at least know that we are a much better team now. Unfortunately the footy gods conspired to make us lose. But we were the better team.

I agree but the other side of the ledger is we were playing the worst team in the comp of the other 17 sides who were without their 3 best mids and a key defender. How will we fare against the rest?

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

after 5 minutes we had 2 goals. Four more were kicked for the entire night, which is a disgrace.

When you go into a match with no possible way of kicking a winning score, you really have to shed a tear for poor old Mitch Clark - he must be feeling really sad as he watches it on his big screen TV with his leather sofa from the luxury property that he owns. Hope he has his feet up and is nice and comfy so he doesn't feel so sad. Maybe Roos can find the time to give him a call and ask him very nicely if he can play full-forward, I don't know if those type of phone calls are part of the scope of services for a master coach who makes $70k a week though. Clearly we are reaping the benefits of paying the big bucks for the best people available.

sorry for that super sarcastic rant, I am furious.

[DemonOX 8,837]

If we kicked straight we would have won.

If we kicked straight rd1 2013 we still would have lost by 60.

As disappointing as it was to lose we have improved.

[rpfc 28,906]

after 5 minutes we had 2 goals. Four more were kicked for the entire night, which is a disgrace.

When you go into a match with no possible way of kicking a winning score, you really have to shed a tear for poor old Mitch Clark - he must be feeling really sad as he watches it on his big screen TV with his leather sofa from the luxury property that he owns. Hope he has his feet up and is nice and comfy so he doesn't feel so sad. Maybe Roos can find the time to give him a call and ask him very nicely if he can play full-forward, I don't know if those type of phone calls are part of the scope of services for a master coach who makes $70k a week though. Clearly we are reaping the benefits of paying the big bucks for the best people available.

sorry for that super sarcastic rant, I am furious.

Apology not accepted.

Get some perspective.

[dee-luded 2,959]

Yeah id have to agree we didnt dominate in the midfield like I would haev expected.

it'll take a month of games to get them (mids) understanding one another under pressure.

[dee-luded 2,959]

I reckon that's because of Spencer, don't remember one really good piece of ruckwork, thought he was pretty average.

He's not played many AFL games as the No 1 Ruck yet.

he got plenty of hands to the ball but to ask him to be palming the ball into our laps, is too much yet.

[DeeZee 7,445]

If we were up against a decent team, i would accept improvement, but the Saints suck and we are worse.

[DemonOX 8,837]

* Very tough hand we were dealt, a better team manufactures goals...I reckon if the mids, as good as they were, had 10 games together then they may have been able to do it.

We did manufacture goals pitchfork the only problem was we kick BLOODY POINTS.

That was very frustrating.

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

Apology not accepted.

Get some perspective.

what perspective? There is no reason to suggest we will getter any better than what we saw last night which should mean going winless for the year. Even GWS has already beaten Sydney, leaving us exposed for the wooden spoon. Can you imagine if we were playing the Hawks last night, we would have lost by 110 just like we did 2 weeks ago. Dawes and Clark are going to kick about 3 goals between them for year so where are the rest going to come from? We have Pederson named at FF that is where we are at.

Here's the scary thing: Jones, Watts, Tyson, Vince and Grimes got an average of 30.4 touches each. Together they helped us to 47 inside-50s, which is nearly an average amount. If that's all you knew about the game you would assume we kicked 13-14 goals and probably won, but we kicked SIX.

So go ahead and give me some 'perspective' and convince me how we are going to improve. I'm guessing that come round 22 you'll be talking about how we might have won a game for the year if only poor old Mitch had cheered up and played a game.