Post match discussion

[Seraph 1,762]

Bunch of idiots here spewing the same old rhetoric about Watts and his lack of 'hardness'.

It shows your ignorance more than anything else. For some reason you think he's capable of attacking the footy like Jones/Viney, yet still want him to have the skills of a player like Pendlebury.

You get one or the other in the majority of players. There aren't many out there with both skillsets except for players like Ablett. He's an outside player.

Pull your heads in. He had one bad game and you're calling for him to be delisted. Pathetic.

[titan_uranus 24,583]

Grimes, Viney, Spencer, Jetta, Terlich - none of these players laid a tackle.

Last week, Spencer and Viney had 5, Terlich had 4 and Grimes 2. That's 16 down to 0, with the addition of a player. Major reason why we dropped off (especially given Spencer and Viney are in most stoppages and Grimes and Terlich are in most defensive 50 contests).

[Forest Demon 4,681]

Surely Jack Watts must be embarrassed when they gather around on Mondays to go through the review. Never has a single player provided me with so much frustration.

Trengove was dropped and surely Watts must be dropped now aswell. Played well in round one and has been living off it since.

[Demoneyes 562]

Spencer - dominated the ruck and put our midfielders in with a chance to win clearances

Bail - Kept Harbrow to 14 touches

Whilst they didn't have great games they largely did their job. Injuries mean we don't have the classy players (say Gawn and Kent) in to replace them right now. You're blaming the wrong guys.

Gawn and Kent classy? We won't improve much if that is the case! My mate who was at Casey game today said Salem "all class". Don't want to rush him in too quick though. Another game or 2 in the "ressies" and see if he can duplicate todays effort.

In regards to players today:

Spenser - not good enough

Bail - mediocre

McDonald - just a bad day

Watts - did some good things. Our expectations are too high

Jetta - thought he was okay?

Midfield - where were they in 2nd quarter?

Umpires - had red and gold socks on!

[DeeSpencer 24,701]

Very poor by Roos to tag Ablett with Jones,put us a clearance mid down and that's when the pressure around the contest dropped markedly and they kicked 3 quick goals.

If Jordie isn't in the team to tag,what's he doing in the team???

Liking Dawes,playing better than he can

Prefer Howe up forward but his kicking clearly isn't AFL standard

Chip can't take a chest mark!!!

Tagged O'Meara who I think didn't do much at all. Can't blame Roos for trying a successful strategy from last week again.

I think Howe will come good. He'd be a star in a good team. We need a medium sizer like him at half forward. He gets a shocking run with the umpires getting holds.

Chip gets a lot of balls landing on his chest by forcing out an opponent and having the ball clear the pack. It's not that he can't mark it but he's just not use to it.

[Demon_JB 1,359]

Seriously what's with all the dropped marks that seemed like absolute sodas?

[Undeeterred 3,043]

Take a 3rd rounder

We can get a better player than Watts anywhere in the draft

Like this, for example. Although a bit dangerous given I haven't seen the game, this has to be pure hyperbole.

[RickyJ45 399]

Great to finally see them fight out a game with seemingly all hope gone. Good spirit builder. Can't remember how many under 10 pt losses we have had but its good to start to be able to talk about them again.

While its bad to lose there are some positives-

[titan_uranus 24,583]

Bunch of idiots here spewing the same old rhetoric about Watts and his lack of 'hardness'.

It shows your ignorance more than anything else. For some reason you think he's capable of attacking the footy like Jones/Viney, yet still want him to have the skills of a player like Pendlebury.

You get one or the other in the majority of players. There aren't many out there with both skillsets except for players like Ablett. He's an outside player.

Pull your heads in. He had one bad game and you're calling for him to be delisted. Pathetic.

I generally agree that people are far too harsh on Watts and often see what they want to see with him. Many fail to recognise his good work, his running and positioning, his frequent leads that are not honoured, and his clean disposal.

However, today there were a number of incidents in which Watts just didn't go hard enough. You do not need to be Nathan Jones or Daniel Cross to be able to go hard for a tackle or throw your body on the ball, and too many times today Watts didn't appear to want the ball enough. It's a consistent problem with him, one that I believe he's moving away from. Today was a regression in that regard.

[praha 11,117]

Watts could very well be close to the edge. His inability to shrug a tackle, break through a pack, or take a contested mark is becoming increasingly worrying. I've always been willing to stand by the bloke but he is the epitome of the downhill skier.

Anyway, I thought the Dees controlled the game for most of the 2nd half but to the Suns' credit they held strong. Our backline was awful today. No run or confidence, and very little rebound. McDonald in arguably his worst game of his career.

[DeeSpencer 24,701]

Didn't get to see the game, as overseas. What exactly was it about Watts' game which makes about half the posts on here about how he should be taken out the back and shot?

Did he do something spectacularly awful?

Yes. Marking contests where he gets hands to the ball but isn't committing to the mark. Awful tackles (twice at least he had guys run down from behind but through lack of skill or effort he can't or wont nail the guy). Doesn't body line the ball. Doesn't attack the game, just lets it come to him.

Pretty much he's the anti Nathan Jones.

Was a truly poor effort and I wonder what Roos can do with him. He's showing the talent just not the willingness to take a hit.

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

Didn't get to see the game, as overseas. What exactly was it about Watts' game which makes about half the posts on here about how he should be taken out the back and shot?

Did he do something spectacularly awful?

All day he simply didn't try. That's it.

[Lil_red_fire_engine 10,836]

That's the thing, he doesn't try! That's what we're saying and you are completely blind if you think otherwise.

Watts does not understand the non negotiables of football. Prime example when he wandered across half forward between three players in the third quarter when Dawes worked his butt off from 40m behind him to then run 20m passed him to put on pressure. He has beautiful skills but its not even close enough to make up for his defensive deficiencies.

On the positive today an acceptance that Jones is an A grade player and Viney is two preseasons from joining him.

We didn't run hard enough with them in the first half into space. We came back into the game once Jones was freed off Ablett and once they tired and we could go with them in the second half.

Edited April 20, 2014 by big_red_fire_engine

[Barney Rubble 1,576]

After 5 rounds only 1 team has kicked more than 100pts against us.

Yeah they were the bottom 4 sides.

The only one worth mentioning rag dolled us.

We didn't deserve to win. If it wasn't for the suns bad kicking and our 2 late goals.

it could quite easily have been an 8 goal loss.

Watts must go to the Magoos, I reckon Tyson, Grimes aint far behind. Apart from a goal Terlich and Georgiou were embarrassing.

Garland, Clisby, Salem, Toumpas, Strauss to come in. Possibly Jamar for Spencer. Something must be done.

[titan_uranus 24,583]

Anyway, I thought the Dees controlled the game for most of the 2nd half but to the Suns' credit they held strong. Our backline was awful today. No run or confidence, and very little rebound. McDonald in arguably his worst game of his career.

Agreed - it's not usually the backline that's the problem, but it was today. Haven't seen TMac get soundly beaten in a long time, but that happened today. Georgiou played his worst game for the year, whilst Dunn and Terlich continued to turn it over coming out.

[waynewussell 4,869]

Agree with most of what has been said about players in first half. After half time I saw a marked improvement from Vince, Jetta, Howe, Kennedy-Harris, and Matt Jones. It was frustrating because we know it was winnable. Jones was great, Dawes continued first, second & third efforts and was very creative in providing scoring opportunities. Dunn was too predictable with kick outs (takes too long, inevitably kicks to himself and then bombs it long to the boundary line). McDonald was monstered in the air. We lacked total commitment.

[lucifer 119]

Surely it is time to bring in Clisby, Salem, Jamar and Garland (depending on how he pulled up). That would allow Jetta, Spencer, Terlich and pick a midfielder to be dropped and to get some form. Clisby in the best again, Salem obviously playing well. Bringing Garland in would surely take some pressure of TMc.

[DeeSpencer 24,701]

Watts could very well be close to the edge. His inability to shrug a tackle, break through a pack, or take a contested mark is becoming increasingly worrying. I've always been willing to stand by the bloke but he is the epitome of the downhill skier.

Anyway, I thought the Dees controlled the game for most of the 2nd half but to the Suns' credit they held strong. Our backline was awful today. No run or confidence, and very little rebound. McDonald in arguably his worst game of his career.

Backline:

McDonald was victim of some smart forward play but also of little help.Beaten but not destroyed

Georgiou - just a limited athlete and so the bigger, stronger, faster Sam Day caused him trouble

Grimes - pretty solid besides the occasional Grimes moment

Terlich - way down on confidence kicking and it's effecting his game, defending was ok

Dunn - only ok, maybe had a niggle as was late out in the second half

Jetta - good one on one, ok with the ball, but he just doesn't run to present and help his team mates. A really poor effort and I question his fitness. I was hoping for good things and around the ball he was ok but too many times I said to myself oh there's Jetta not moving. I can't help but think Clisby, Strauss or Toumpas are better options.

[Forest Demon 4,681]

Watts just does everything at half intensity...running, marking, tackling, and I think it is finally time to call him out on it. Drop him and he doesn't come back until he does it consistently, if that is round 10, 20 or never, I don't care, because he is no good to us like this.

[Pipefitter 2,133]

Nathan Jones is getting better every week. He is unbelievable! Surely AA this year.

[titan_uranus 24,583]

Nathan Jones is getting better every week. He is unbelievable! Surely AA this year.

I freaking hope so. Deserves so much more respect in the AFL community than he gets.

[Adam The God 29,336]

Our intensity wasn't high enough for at least 90% of the match. We failed to stick effective tackles and were hesitant with ball in hand. It was like we hadn't won at all last week. We looked really low on confidence, yet won many of the centre clearances.

Viney was terrific. N Jones was very good. Frawley is growing tremendously into his forward role - he and Dawes just need to ensure they leave space for each other. Too often they would lead to the same place. We let ourselves down when kicking for goal.

Almost every time (save one beautiful kick in the first quarter) Terlich touched the ball, he turned it over or made a horrible decision. He's a liability. Jack Grimes - I can't remember him having an effective spoil, I'm sure he did at one point, but how many times was he out-marked? He too continues to butcher the ball, with below ordinary decision making.

We didn't get enough from Vince, Tyson (who looked incredibly slow again) or Howe.

And the Melbourne crowd was atrocious in the first quarter. Absolutely no atmosphere and it really reflected the team spirit (or lack there of). They picked up a little bit once we scored our first, but gee, it was embarrassingly quiet.

We took a step back today. It was time to put together four consistent quarters. Had we done that, we would have won. The umpiring was rubbish, but it shouldn't have mattered. In the first half, they dominated. In the second half, we did. We didn't make it pay.

[Undeeterred 3,043]

Agreed - it's not usually the backline that's the problem, but it was today. Haven't seen TMac get soundly beaten in a long time, but that happened today. Georgiou played his worst game for the year, whilst Dunn and Terlich continued to turn it over coming out.

Interesting - shame that they all had bad days at once. Georgiou has been exceedingly consistent so probably can spare him and TMac is usually pretty reliable. Did they think about throwing Frawley back down there and would it have helped?

[Axis of Bob 11,161]

In the first half we didn't move the ball quickly enough. Our scoring opportunities came from clearances, but we didn't really take the game on enough.

In the second half we moved Howe forward and he was able to use his athleticism to give us an option coming out of defence. His pace is something we have really lacked. I dare say that this was (in part) some of the reason behind Tyson's substitution.

We are a slow team. At least we started drafting some pace last year, which should help. But Gold Coast is quick and they showed us up at times. We won three of the four quarters today, but the scars of our recent past we evident in the second quarter where we were under siege and stopped taking the game on, instead camping in defence.

But we improved and looked the better team in the second half. We had chances but didn't take enough of them. At least we now have the nucleus of a decent team.

[Knifey Spoony 3]

My 2 Cents:

• Lacked drive out of the back half.
• We really struggled to keep the ball inside 50 and Gold Coast killed us of the half back flank with their run
• Someone else mentioned it before, but McKenzie gave up some costly frees with his tackling.
• Disposal killed us - Terlich on the members wing was an absolute howler.
• Umpires killed any momentum and I can't remember the last time it was this bad. The lack of consistency is the most frustrating part.
• McAfferGate gave Gary alot of soft frees today, but he is all class.
• Tackling left a lot to be desired, lots of broken tackles.
• We kept at it though, whereas in the past alot of teams would have given up.
• I think once we get a few more players back we may surprise a few teams this year.