I was at the game, and it was a frustrating day. Although the Suns missed goals kept us in it during the first half, we were the better side for most of the 2nd half. Those 4 behinds in a row during the last half of the 3rd quarter were demoralising. This was the patch where we should have won the game.

Positive.

We lost by 8 points. That would have been 80 last year. Defended inside the Suns attacking 50m OK for most of the game.
Dawes, Frawley continue to improve together.

Viney and Jones were great.

Howe's 2nd half.

JKH sontinues to show he is a great draft choice, even with his limited chances today.

Negatives.

Movement at stoppages. This was horrible today. The Suns kept moving every time there was a stoppage. We stood still and reacted to the play. They annihilated us at ground level every time there was a ball-up or boundary throw-in. Only changed in the last 10 minutes.
Our half back line, or whatever it is called in today's game. Terlich, Grimes, McDonald had no run, no oopmh, and missed good leads 25m away in space all day. Instead they chose to wait until that side of the ground filled up and kick long to a boundary contest.

Watts was embarrassing today. Tackles, contested marking, body pressure, stoppages he was lifeless, physically weak, and mentally absent. The amount of times he was the right man in the right place (good on him for getting there) and he chose...chose... not to go.
Pace. The Suns sprinted past us all day.

  On 20/04/2014 at 08:47, Seraph said:

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.

You're an a grade [censored].... Seriously. Watts is a grown man who Shirk's the contest consistently and its pathetic. He is a passenger who is saved by a few good pieces of play per week.

Pendles is 200% the player watts is in both skill and courage. He always does the hard things to win or keep the footy... You seriously are deluded.

Roosies little black book on players that just don't do the non negotiables, must be getting pretty full, just 1/4 into the season.

I wonder how many he will have come the halfway mark.

  On 20/04/2014 at 09:48, gOLLy said:

Howe could do with a run in the Ressies.

Howe could do with a lesson or two in the very basics of the game, such as putting your hands up when you're on the mark or in a position to smother.

Watched Nick Reiwoldt last night; every time he was on the mark he was jumping up and down and waving his arms around like a madman, something he was no doubt taught in the Under 10's, like everyone else who plays football.

I hate seeing players not do the little things.

  On 20/04/2014 at 09:38, titan_uranus said:

Actually, Watts laid 3 tackles. That was 3 more than Jetta, Viney, Spencer, Grimes and Terlich. Combined.

Another example of how people just see what they want to see with Watts, whilst there are plenty of other underperformers in the side who don't come under the same scrutiny.

Your delusional....

  On 20/04/2014 at 08:12, jumbo returns said:

We'll be okay.

Dawes is a beast.

Nate Jones is an A GRADE MIDFIELDER!!

Dawes missed some easy shots on goal which was disappointing. How much Jones has improved his disposal is mind blowing. He used to get caught a lot with the ball, now he manages to find space or just simply slices one through between two would be tacklers.

  On 20/04/2014 at 09:46, Nasher said:

Because it's a risky play. By doing that, you're putting the ball in contest again; their players are just as likely to mark it as ours. In comparison to controlling the ball out of the back half, it's fraught with danger. Going coast to coast in three kicks looked sweet and the situation called for it (I'm assuming the players did not know how long there was to go), but if we'd been ahead - or there'd been more time on the clock - and Dunn did a kick like that from full back, I'd have throttled him.

It's a strategy that has its place, but only in real "roll of the dice" scenarios.

Nasher agreed there is risk associated with the play but there is also opportunity as well. Give the difficulty the mfc has had in trying to kick the ball clear of the backline over the last 3 years they need to do something different. How many times did we kick it in and kick it directly to a suns player, or to a melbourne player where the suns spoiled across the line. We are too predictable in what we do and the opposition just sits and waits for us to do the same old thing time and time again. You can mitigate risks by planning, practice and good execution. There is no reason you cannot set up a central huddle and have everyone then spread to the two flanks then have a few double back once the area is clear for the kickin.

Our tall backs were smashed today. McDonald was average at best and Georgiou had an absolute shocker. The sooner Garland returns for him the better as it will give us more leadership, confidence and ability down there.

Will echo the sentiments of most, although I'm disappointed to see a few people getting stuck into Jetta today. Thought he had a real dip and used the footy quite well. There were far worse out there than him today.

  On 20/04/2014 at 08:23, Deecisive said:

of Jodies 10 disposals he had 5 clangers and also gave away 4 frees so nett positive output was not so great.

The equivalent of playing a man down.

  On 20/04/2014 at 09:38, Deecisive said:

Interesting that Tyson was subbed off he had about 13 possessions for 51% of time on ground, not the worst out there.

Why was he only on for 51%? Sounds like something funny was going on.

  On 20/04/2014 at 10:00, Wiseblood said:

Our tall backs were smashed today. McDonald was average at best and Georgiou had an absolute shocker. The sooner Garland returns for him the better as it will give us more leadership, confidence and ability down there.

Will echo the sentiments of most, although I'm disappointed to see a few people getting stuck into Jetta today. Thought he had a real dip and used the footy quite well. There were far worse out there than him today.

Jettas best footy at Casey is fwd/mid so we play him off half back... Makes sense

  On 20/04/2014 at 10:04, Deemotivated said:

Jettas best footy at Casey is fwd/mid so we play him off half back... Makes sense

He has been playing at both ends at Casey over the past month. Deserved his chance and certainly didn't lower his colors to his opponent.

Hard to find positives in relation to Watts but I will say he makes space and provides leads which are very rarely honored, and when they are the ball is never kicked to a position which favors him. Just a passing observation.

The scoreline was flattering - GC could have put us away early.

Our skills were a joke and today's disposal was as bad as anything I've seen over the last few dismal years.

Nathan Jones was fantastic.

Chris Dawes was fantastic and deserved greater reward - He covers unbelievable ground for a big guy.

I thought Spencer did alright in the ruck but not enough around the ground.

Watts was a disgrace. He seemed totally lost and shirked the issue.

Overall I would describe the game as A PIECE OF [censored].

We lost by 13 points last time we played GC Nasher and had 27 scoring shots to Gold Coasts 25, i dont see much of an improvement regarding todays game, we were very poor

  On 20/04/2014 at 09:51, Nasher said:

lol. We lost by 8 points. Given where we've come from, the improvement has already come from somewhere. Perhaps it'll keep coming from the same place.

Garland and Kent were sadly missed. I think we are slowly getting there though. Apart from some issues particularly in the first half, that have been spoken about, I don't think our blokes turned it up.

Suns are a quality side, we did alright!

Too much negativity on here, if you can't see we are improving I suggest you find a new hobby.

Whats with our second quarters!?? All last year and so far all of this year, our second quarters just go missing.

  On 20/04/2014 at 08:47, Seraph said:

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.

Pendles quite often racks up a high tackle count as well as lead the possessions count. How could that be?

  On 20/04/2014 at 10:15, Bailin Out said:

Suns are a quality side, we did alright!

Too much negativity on here, if you can't see we are improving I suggest you find a new hobby.

"Suns are a quality side" - yet to be proven.

"Too much negativity" - more like realism

"we are improving" - I'll believe that when the majority of our players can hit the side of a barn from 15 metres

Get real, they lost by 100 points at home last week

  On 20/04/2014 at 10:15, Bailin Out said:

Suns are a quality side, we did alright!

Too much negativity on here, if you can't see we are improving I suggest you find a new hobby.

Round 2 Pies v Swans. Pendles 1 goal 1. 33 touches, 4 marks and 10 tackles.

What really frustrated me was our continue inability to kick the ball in well & quickly. We are the worst side in the comp at it, every other side grabs the footy and goes straight away before the opposition can set up any zone, mostly the balls kicked outside 50 and out of the danger zone. We wait for someone (usually Dunn) to slowly jog over pick the footy up n by the time he goes to kick the whole front half of the ground is zoned up.. I'd love to see our opposition scores for direct kick ins. Another thing that really [censored] me off was when N. Jones kicked the goal to kick back within 13 points he came off and for some stupid, idiotic reason, pedersen & spencer both ended up inside the centre bounce. Pedersen started as a rover and gave away the free whichever resulted in Omeras kick at goal, albeit on the full but that is in excusable at the 15-20 minute mark of the last qrt, 2 goals down and we can't figure out the right structure in the middle. Was also interesting to note when N.Jones went off after that goal he didn't come back on for another 3-4 minutes, in that time ablett & swallow both goaled and when he came back on we kicked 2 goals in quick succession.

  On 20/04/2014 at 08:47, Seraph said:

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 think most on here understand the difference between an outside and inside player. Do you have to be inside to tackle? Do you have to be inside so as not to get pushed off the ball?

This is not a drill, it's a paid gig.

Watts runs hard and has very good speed, have seen it at training, sadly, rarely against opponents.

He has a big heart, have seen how good he is with kids, sadly, rarely against opponents.

He is great with his time, gives a heap of it to supporters when he has the chance, sadly, does the same against opponents.