Frost has gone ice cold. Every time he went near the ball I kept thinking of Benny Hill music. 

14 minutes ago, Third Man Up said:

Roos is really a very non reactive match day coach. out of stubborness or just lack of ability, i dont know , but his refusal to adapt to the game unfolding in front of him has cost us many times now. 

im not sure the players were to blame today. the game plan got carved up and without leadership from the box it left them unable to adapt and the carnage which ensued made it hard for the side to stay in the game. 

an opposition side picking apart a game plan will make players look slow and reactionary. im not so keen to put all of this on the players to be honest. of course ill agree some more on field leadership will help but in a nutshell our game plan has been picked apart and no answers were provided to the players. hence so many lefft in "no mans land" on turnovers

I agree. The look on Simon Goodwin's face was one of frustration at not being the man making the moves.

Saints have been playing this similar game style for at least a year longer than ours and it showed. Also they had bigger bodies. Today was a learning day. Our  least experienced players were shown up hence opportunities for Casey players. I can understand not including Oliver but he provides an xfactor to the midfield especially his 360degree awareness.

 

Where is Matt Jones? seems to be suffering from terminal soreness ( a made up injury to baffle demon supporters )

7 minutes ago, Samael said:

 

The deliberate out of bounds rule has gone way to far, they're umpiring it as though it's the last touch rule, several examples of balls coming off the side of the boot and getting calls of deliberate. 

the AFL seriously needs to look at this, it's an absolute joke at the minute.

What a farcical game. If the AFL want to make us play a "home game" at Etihad Stadium, at least let us play somebody like Freo where it's not their "home ground "!

21 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Sarcasm IS truly the lowest form of wit

no that is just a convenient comment for people to make when they say stupid [censored]

2 minutes ago, Lord Ivanhoe said:

I agree. The look on Simon Goodwin's face was one of frustration at not being the man making the moves.

Saints have been playing this similar game style for at least a year longer than ours and it showed. Also they had bigger bodies. Today was a learning day. Our  least experienced players were shown up hence opportunities for Casey players. I can understand not including Oliver but he provides an xfactor to the midfield especially his 360degree awareness.

 

we can only hope that is the case. i would imagine its very much Roosy's show in the box. wont take anything away from Roos's efforts with the club but game day he is left wanting. i dont think many on here will dispute that. 

anyway plenty of film to look at and hopefully tweak a few things and bring in a couple from casey. i

if trenners makes it then he is going to provide a nice injection of leadership that others at casey dont have. 

 

Depressing reality check. Saints were fitter, faster, more determined and polished, better coached. Sorry Jack Viney, they will play finals before our lot. Tell your mates they are dreamin.....as are we, permanently. 

And Roos looked like he was talking to his mum or travel agent on the phone....

11 minutes ago, Lord Ivanhoe said:

I agree. The look on Simon Goodwin's face was one of frustration at not being the man making the moves.

Saints have been playing this similar game style for at least a year longer than ours and it showed. Also they had bigger bodies. Today was a learning day. Our  least experienced players were shown up hence opportunities for Casey players. I can understand not including Oliver but he provides an xfactor to the midfield especially his 360degree awareness.

 

In Roos' defense, the team was flat today. Anyone sitting with 10 rows of the pitch on the wing would have seen that within the first 5 minutes. Major communication issues on the bench with rotations because players were coming off on their own accords because they were spent. I saw it. I saw maybe 10, 11 times when players were screaming out to the bench to come off for a spell. 

When you're flat, you play lazy football. You give hospital handpasses. You give away dumb free kicks. You give your opponents space. You run off your opponent to chase another opponent to make up space that you've *already* lost. 

I know it's a shithouse excuse, but a 5.5-day break, at Etihad, against St.Kilda...well, it was the worst possible match to play after a quick turnaround. 

Roos was outcoached in the Essendon match. Not today. The Saints played Etihad to perfection. Melbourne was flat, and combined with how [censored] we play that ground, nothing the coaches could have done would have won that game.

We also played with an attack flair that has Goodwin all over it. I think Goodwin was heavily influential today. I think the frustration you saw today was him not having any answers, not him not being able to do anything.

I world like to apply for the position of media strategist at the mfc. Here is my strategy:

1. Lock ask the players in a room

2.Wire them up to the mains

3. Ask them: "do you think you will play finals" 

4. If any player says anything but : "yeah, no, we're just trying to play as well as we can every week and get a few wins" then put 240 through 'em until they get it right.

Where do I apply?

Well, I called it I guess. Never going back to Etihad stadium again. 

I'm sure it has been mentioned but WHO THE [censored] WAS ON RIEWOLDT IN THE FIRST HALF?

Absolute amateur hour that was. 

The number of goals the saints got from floods of uncontested possessions without a Melbourne player within a handball's distance  of any of them was beyond belief. Passages of the most uncompetitive football I can remember seeing. Even when we are running well in attack (last 2 weeks) we are woefully easy to score against. It's a massive and frankly fatal flaw in our game plan, and opposition teams know it. Much too unnacountable and much too predictable. 

Just now, Django said:

I'm sure it has been mentioned but WHO THE [censored] WAS ON RIEWOLDT IN THE FIRST HALF?

Absolute amateur hour that was. 

Not McDonald.

Very disappointing game. For the last three quarters we broke down in the midfield. We did not stick tackles and there was not pressure which allowed the Saints to move the ball too quickly for our defence to properly set up. This resulted in key defenders in MacDonald and Dunn being our of position. Added to that TMac and Dunn both looked to be having off days. TMac was hesitant and chose the wrong option 80% of the time and Dunn was just un aware of his opponent's position most of the time.

Our transition  in reaction to a turnover was very slow and we looked lazy. Was this a reaction to the shorter turn around? If so then the coaching staff need to take some responsibility for not seeing this during the week. 

The way the game is played this season means that you just have to apply pressure all over the ground. If you don't you get beaten. Today there were too many instances where players stood off and expected a team mate to do it. Not good enough.

in response to the game I would be looking at dropping a number of players to ensure that all understand the consequences of a bad game like this one. Frost would be the first I would drop. He needs to concentrate on keeping his feet, sticking tackles and making sure he kicks the easy goals. Second I would drop would be Wagner. It is time for us to see what Trengove has to offer at this level after his recovery and rehab. Hames to drop back and work out his disposals at Casey. 

ANB, Oliver and Trengove in for those three as the bare minimum of changes. Roos has said he will pick a team of inform players that are competitive. There were a lot of players that had no form today and only about 20% of the team were competitive. 

Over to you Roos.

one last comment; whoever is responsible for making sure the team is going into the game with the right mindset needs to get a rocket.

today's performance was unacceptable..

17 hours ago, dees-picable said:

Depressing reality check. Saints were fitter, faster, more determined and polished, better coached. Sorry Jack Viney, they will play finals before our lot. Tell your mates they are dreamin.....as are we, permanently. 

 

Viney is right. We will play finals before St Kilda, and once they lose Riewoldt and Montagna, they will be lucky to even make the finals.

1 minute ago, Webber said:

The number of goals the saints got from floods of uncontested possessions without a Melbourne player within a handball's distance  of any of them was beyond belief. Passages of the most uncompetitive football I can remember seeing. Even when we are running well in attack (last 2 weeks) we are woefully easy to score against. It's a massive and frankly fatal flaw in our game plan, and opposition teams know it. Much too unnacountable and much too predictable. 

The game plan has swung far too offensive. will not stand up

20 minutes ago, Redleg said:

And plenty of us in the stands, but not in the Coaches' box. We appear to lack a plan B. 

When you see something happening, that if you let it continue you will lose, surely you at least try something else.

I am fearful we have an arrogant Coaching box, that will just blame the players, if they don't win under the same plan.

We could have thrown in a sweeper, tagged Riewoldt, or played  man on man, even for a while, just to change things up, but not one change.

It was the same in the Bombers' game.

Yes we played poorly and yes the Saints worked harder and played better and yes our skills were once again deplorable, but the Coaching was pathetic.

I hope for our future that this is not the way Goodwin will coach, not the plan, but the refusal to adapt to a game, where the plan isn't working.

This. And it'a currently the main thing holding us back.

I thought we got in Craig Jennings to help us with this situation. Is he not up to it? Or not being listened to?

2 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Not McDonald.

2 minutes ago, CHF said:

Very disappointing game. For the last three quarters we broke down in the midfield. We did not stick tackles and there was not pressure which allowed the Saints to move the ball too quickly for our defence to properly set up. This resulted in key defenders in MacDonald and Dunn being our of position. Added to that TMac and Dunn both looked to be having off days. TMac was hesitant and chose the wrong option 80% of the time and Dunn was just un aware of his opponent's position most of the time.

Our transition  in reaction to a turnover was very slow and we looked lazy. Was this a reaction to the shorter turn around? If so then the coaching staff need to take some responsibility for not seeing this during the week. 

The way the game is played this season means that you just have to apply pressure all over the ground. If you don't you get beaten. Today there were too many instances where players stood off and expected a team mate to do it. Not good enough.

in response to the game I would be looking at dropping a number of players to ensure that all understand the consequences of a bad game like this one. Frost would be the first I would drop. He needs to concentrate on keeping his feet, sticking tackles and making sure he kicks the easy goals. Second I would drop would be Wagner. It is time for us to see what Trengove has to offer at this level after his recovery and rehab. Hames to drop back and work out his disposals at Casey. 

ANB, Oliver and Trengove in for those three as the bare minimum of changes. Roos has said he will pick a team of inform players that are competitive. There were a lot of players that had no form today and only about 20% of the team were competitive. 

Over to you Roos.

one last comment; whoever is responsible for making sure the team is going into the game with the right mindset needs to get a rocket.

today's performance was unacceptable..

Generally agree, except we won the first quarter - started with the right mindset?

13 minutes ago, pinkshark said:

no that is just a convenient comment for people to make when they say stupid [censored]

I believe Oscar Wilde to be correct and you wrong.

 

Membery wins the Kent Kingsley Award for 2016

 

Our defence and midfield were lazy today. That's why we lost: laziness. 

So I'll get one of the uncontrollable frustrations out of the way. Playing a home game at the other teams home ground, totally makes the idea of home and away games farcical. 

That said, we need to be able to win anywhere, anytime. 

Now on our performance, one of the major issues lay with the lack of pressure on their run out of defence and the subsequent ability for our defenders to zone back quick enough. There were to many times that they streamed forward and had 4 forwards to 2-3 defenders. That is effort, and it wasn't there. 

Early in the first quarter we were on top in the middle at centre bounces, Hickey started to nullify Max and we they started winning out of the middle. Max didn't have a bad game, but he was down on previous weeks. That is a major component to our game so will be looked to be exploited by future teams. Maxy has put his hand up to be a premier ruckman, this is great but it will also putting him in the firing line of future teams. 

I feel like a few of our younger players were overwhelmed at times, and Salem and Tyson were also down from previous weeks. 

The test is now how we respond, definitely a few things to comb through for the match committee, there are people banging down the doors at VFL. If ANB, Trenners, and Brayshaw all put in good games we could be looking at a few changes.