On 30/04/2016 at 07:49, picket fence said:

Or at least Oliver but according to you "Experts" out there not many agreed with me!

Outside run minimal and beaten with quality clearances!!

Which Oliver wouldn't have helped with.  That selection made no difference today.

  On 30/04/2016 at 07:50, demon9 said:

But surely the poor defensive structure has to take part of the blame. The no. Of times they got out the back was ludicrous.

Absoluteley agree I witnessed on may occasions players looking at each other gesticulating about who was on Reiwoldt????

So Roosy the onus is on you how could players not know who was meant tio be on him?? Farrrk me a champion like Rooey must have thought, Don't they know I can play a bit ??? Happppyyyyy Birthday! also What an absolute Friggen champion he is! Bitter about Loss by marvelled at his still Ominous prowess!!

So Roosy who takes ownership of that one??

  On 30/04/2016 at 06:37, Lord Travis said:

Petracca was fine for a first gamer. Some of his disposal was poor, but he also showed some good clean pickups at speed and help set a few up. Most importantly he laid tackles, which is more than can be said for most of his teammates.

Also thought Petracca was ok. 3 goal assists and had a couple of nice touches. Will improve once he gets the speed of the game.

  On 30/04/2016 at 07:50, DeeZee said:

We came out all guns blazing and looked good the first ten minutes.

I reckon the playing group got massively ahead of themselves at quarter time and went in to cruise control, thinking the match was in their hands and they'd coast to victory.

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:09, Demon Disciple said:

I reckon the playing group got massively ahead of themselves at quarter time and went in to cruise control, thinking the match was in their hands and they'd coast to victory.

Agree Head cases most of them, far too farkin easily satisfied!! 

  On 30/04/2016 at 06:08, Mac7 said:

Aside from Jones, Viney and Hogan, not a single other player has won his position.

Our work rate was ordinary and our intensity was even worse. The amount of tackles that didn't stick properly and allowed them to get handballs out to uncontested players just killed us. We were also Fumble McFumbles off half back, continually turned the wrong direction when we should have given the handball to a team mate on the opposite side. There was clearly little talk and what was so telling is that at half time you could tell our players were completely sapped of confidence and couldn't win it. That shows you how mentally weak this group still is. The heads were down, there was little talk and worryingly, it only took 30 minutes to completely batter our confidence.

I'm strangely not that angry. I am, but I've already told myself that this is what I predicted at the start of the season and even before the game today. We will win 10-12 games this year. We will win games we are expected not to win and we will lose games we are expected to win. I put St Kilda (1-4 coming into today) heavily in the latter category. We should have won today. We made their C graders look A grade. Riewoldt was the best man on the ground in the first half, but was almost unsighted in the second half, because the game was already over and their hard running average players got on top. I reckon Acres had 10 uncontested disposals in the third quarter alone. We let their mediocre players run all over us. A disappointing day and a nail in the coffin of the 40,000 members target.

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:09, Demon Disciple said:

I reckon the playing group got massively ahead of themselves at quarter time and went in to cruise control, thinking the match was in their hands and they'd coast to victory.

Agree Head cases most of them, far too farkin easily satisfied!! 

Just got home from the game. Can. Otherwise believe the hate for petracca on here.  If you're bagging him on here go and flush yourself down a toilet with your stink opinion. Yes he was caught but he was clearly playing afl footy- trying to create and take game on. 

macca- well you were horrible and this far this year you are well down . Stop trying to do to much with and without the ball, and play your role. Getting beaten far too often son.

Jetta- worst you've played today, but you have been so reliable for so long. Not our worst but for you, far down on what's expected. To be beaten so often on the spread but also one on one... bounce back.

Salem- today was a game you probably shouldn't ever look at again. You were destroyed defensively, but you gave us very little offensively. First give, smart give. Use your right, handball.. today was a bad day but you'll bounce back.

Dunn- might be time to go mate. I've always admired you, but today and this season, free kicks against are killing us. You're instrumental in free kicks behind centre, and if you're up there standing the mark, you're irrelevant in terms of defending inside 30 of goal. You're playing a style that isn't going to take us forward.

Viney- don't let the stats fool you, you were shown up today but that is a sign of respect- st kilda worried about you and tried to take you out of the game. That you were able to get so much footy highlights your ability. With experience will come composure and I await the day, because you will be a top midfielder in the league. However today was a learning curve.

Gawn- the sooner the 3rd man up is illegal, you will be the best ruckman in the game. It's unfair how a hack like hickey can hold you whilst a st kilda player jumps over you. The one rule that needs chamging- ruckman vs ruckman go head to toe, that's their domain. 3rd up and shepherds need to be a free. 

Kent/harmes/ watts/Kennedy- you've all been pretty solid so far this year, but you need to learn how to scrap amd fight for possession or at least halve it. So often you guys let it get out on the spread from our forward half. That may or may not be st kilda but surely we allowed them that luxury.

Coaching group- 22 goals. So many over the top "cheap" goals and nothing changed. Dunn went forward and pederson back. All that did was rob us of a forward target. They killed us on the spread, dragged our zone out wide and then sliced us through the the centre. They played terrific, don't get me wrong. But surely there comes a stage where goals are scored so similarly that you change something... 22 goals is unacceptable.

Quite frankly, this shows how reactive our coaching group is, but also highlights that we need more consistency still. Part of me thinks the players read way too much publicity this week, no one seemed keen to get their hands on the ball, but on that- WTF WAS THIS AT ETIHAD????

I think offensively we were okay, but defensively we were really shown up. 

Imo the biggest reason for that is work rate, our game style holds up but only if the work ethic is there, today we just sat there and watched the ball and didn't man up or show respect. 

Kicking 96 points again is a plus but we can't neglect the defense to do it.

our lack of speed on the outside is a serious concern.

  On 30/04/2016 at 07:26, KingDingAling said:

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.

I don't think we'll beat the Saints until Riewoldt retires.

How did Petracca go? I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with little reception and no tv. Literally climbed a tree to get reception for a few seconds. Thanks in advance. 

Our defense was as soulless as Etihad itself today.I wish I stayed home,I won a free pie and even that tasted like [censored].

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:22, Ethan Tremblay said:

How did Petracca go? I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with little reception and no tv. Literally climbed a tree to get reception for a few seconds. Thanks in advance. 

You didn't miss much, unfortunately.

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:19, Peter Griffen said:

I think offensively we were okay, but defensively we were really shown up. 

Imo the biggest reason for that is work rate, our game style holds up but only if the work ethic is there, today we just sat there and watched the ball and didn't man up or show respect. 

Kicking 96 points again is a plus but we can't neglect the defense to do it.

our lack of speed on the outside is a serious concern.

I think this sums up the game.  Considering our small forwards got nowhere near it, to kick 15 goals is still a good effort and shows how far we've come in terms of our offensive game.

Our defence though was an absolute shambles and I'm sure they will make an effort in the coming weeks to seriously rectify that.

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:22, Ethan Tremblay said:

How did Petracca go? I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with little reception and no tv. Literally climbed a tree to get reception for a few seconds. Thanks in advance. 

Did a few very nice things but got caught a lot, was a very decent first game.

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:19, Peter Griffen said:

Kicking 96 points again is a plus but we can't neglect the defense to do it.

Agreed. North only scored 61 points last night, yet they are still undefeated.

It's a juggling act, and we're dropping too many balls at the moment.

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:22, Ethan Tremblay said:

How did Petracca go? I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with little reception and no tv. Literally climbed a tree to get reception for a few seconds. Thanks in advance. 

He had a good, solid game mate.  Nothing more, nothing less.  You can see the potential there and he'll be better for the run.

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:19, Peter Griffen said:

I think offensively we were okay, but defensively we were really shown up. 

Imo the biggest reason for that is work rate, our game style holds up but only if the work ethic is there, today we just sat there and watched the ball and didn't man up or show respect. 

Kicking 96 points again is a plus but we can't neglect the defense to do it.

our lack of speed on the outside is a serious concern.

I reckon our forwardline let our backline down in a big way though. Harmes, Kent and Frost's tackling pressure was pathetic. This game plan will leak goals like a sieve if we don't bring the right intensity. 

  On 30/04/2016 at 05:45, JackoTheMuss said:

YES.

People on here talking about winning 5 in a row, players talking about finals, the over-hyping of Truck's debut. Spelled trouble from the start. Excuses will include a short turnaround, inexperience, Etihad, blah, blah, blah, but again its COMPLACENCY. It's time to grow up and pull the proverbial head out of the backside. So, so disappointing but all too familiar. 

 

Yep, totally. How good are we at getting ahead of ourselves. Both fans and players. It sh1ts me so bad.

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:22, Ethan Tremblay said:

How did Petracca go? I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with little reception and no tv. Literally climbed a tree to get reception for a few seconds. Thanks in advance. 

Sorry that you're stuck in a tree ET. Well, we won by 83 points with CP snagging 4 and dishing off a further 2. Frosty was a little down.

  On 30/04/2016 at 08:08, picket fence said:

So Roosy who takes ownership of that one??

Surely he shouldn't have to. He's in Waikiki FFS, not his fault

Defensively they were running their zoning principles. Players were switching opponents all afternoon. It took 6 goals in the third quarter for the message to come out to man up. As soon as they did, a long bomb came in, nobody stayed down and the saints scored again. 

Their forwards just kept shuffling themselves between defenders until they got a mismatch and then they utilised it. They played the spaces between defenders very well too. 

Petracca tried to play like he does against lesser players. He took them on and thought he could just burst away. Hopefully he will learn. 

It was a bad performance that is not in doubt but I am very confident that we have the makings of a very good team. (I watched it on TV) A lot of our younger blokes were quiet today but it was our older players that gave us absolutely nothing. Dunn was awful, Tmac was allergic to Roo, Lumumba was never sighted, Pedersen couldnt get into the game and Vince was just OK. Jones was our only older player that played well.

I'm upset we lost but I knew a few shocker games were going to happen.

Thank for the replies, back to work I go.