1 hour ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Another Cryptic note from Satyr

"We lacked effort" but that is always brushed off by Satyr

even an inexperienced side can give commitment and effort. 

The Aints forward line had no pressure all day

no excuse for that and nowhere to hide....

Not cryptic SWYL, just another lame attempt from Saty to pot a poster, typical

50 minutes ago, Itsabouttohappen said:

Agree with most BUT "Petracca was over awed " ??? 16 possessions, 5 tackles and a bullet to Jessie with a resulting goal, Ill take that from a debutant any day of the week.  Sheeesh...

 

Not to mention 6 inside 50's (3rd most for Demons) and 3 goal assists (most of any Demon)

29 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

 

Not to mention 6 inside 50's (3rd most for Demons) and 3 goal assists (most of any Demon)

That's a fairly good debut, not that i felt that impression arond here..

9 hours ago, ProDee said:

I hate being told to "keep calm".

 

And after 52 friggen years in the wilderness people are calling for Calm?? FMD

Edited May 1, 20169 yr by picket fence

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

And after 52 friggen years in the wilderness people are calling for Calm?? FMD

Yes, because running round like headless chickens and lurching from one extreme to the other like you do on a regular basis, are not the solution to anything.

Edited May 1, 20169 yr by bing181

hey we went up a spot, now sitting 9th !

2 hours ago, Demon17 said:

Good post fr_ap.  From the go  the younger players, including Jack V looked slow and weren't hard chasing even in the 2nd quarter.  We felt they were recovering from last 2 weeks.

Tyson continued to show his class, but Pedersens indecisiveness killed us on some opportunities.

Looking forward to a few sensible ins  fro next week such as Oliver and Brayshaw both back.  Petracca showed he has a football brain and will be better.  Gawn can't do it all every week and yesterday was one of those games.

Jack had 10 possessions in the 1st quarter didn't he? What were you expecting if you call that slow.....

10 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

It was our first 6 day break for the year (the Saints' second), I wonder if some of our players didn't prepare properly or know how to prepare properly (compared to our standard 7 or 8 day breaks). 

I'm a little disappointed in selection. We went in very young an inexperienced (20 fewer games per player and a whole year younger per player) and, relatively unsurprisingly, St Kilda seemed to deal with the short turnaround better than us.

Surely it is up to the coaching and conditioning staff to prepare the players, physically and mentally, and the selection panel to pick the right side considering all factors including age, experience, opposition strengths and weaknesses, match ups etc

9 hours ago, rpfc said:

JnrMac - Plan B is a misnomer.

The only thing a coach can change from one week to the next are tactics around the edges - gameplans don't change within seasons.

The only thing that changes week to week is our ability to execute the gameplan.

rpfc - I beg to differ. There must surely always be a contingency plan for if the basic game plan isn't working?  

 

Edited May 1, 20169 yr by monoccular
Bloody autocorrect once again

Anyone who thinks the loss was because of a lack of effort needs to watch the replay. 

The players were playing to instruction and trying their guts out.

The game was won and lost in the coaches box. Clearly changes were needed early in the second quarter. The amount of easy goals the Saints got throughout the whole game was ludicrous.

Watch the footage of the coaches box. They didn't know if they were punched, drilled or bored.

 

Lack of communication was a problem at times. Watts was a bit hesitant again. Lumumba running into trouble twice was really disappointing, Vince made some poor decisions. We were spacing way too close together. Our defence definitely looked like they'd given up a bit and our midfield was easily outplayed.

I don't think we're gonna have a top-4 type consistency any time soon, but I think we're as talented as ever and will be able to bounce back from poor losses

9 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Spare me your new age drivel

if coming second gives you a stiffy then it is you i feel sorry for

i was 1 year old in 1964 so yes i want to see some cups

The Aints kicked 20 goals on us yesterday 7 in a row at one stage. 

Not acceptable. 

Toughen Up Sunshine

You let the outcome of football matches and seasons control your happiness in life far too much, in my book. It must be hard being miserable the whole time based on something you have absolutely no control over.

19 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Surely it is up to the coaching and conditioning staff to prepare the players, physically and mentally, and the selection panel to pick the right side considering all factors including age, experience, opposition strengths and weaknesses, match ups etc

rpfc - I beg to differ. There must surely always be a contingency plan for if the basic game plan isn't working?  

 

You can tinker around the edges but you never go away from your core gameplan - it takes long enough to get boys to learn one without trying to teach multiple ways of playing.

Gameplan (as far as I see it)

From the Centre: This is simple - Gawn dominates the taps and we use that to our benefit - teams will work us out and rove to his taps but as long as we are selfless and willing to work for each other (read Viney) we will get the ball out of the middle consistently. A must these days.

From Stoppages around the ground: Again, heavily reliant on Gawn but also reliant on quick hands in the contest to release players on the defensive side and and the top of the stoppage. Reliant on quick, unconscious hands. Utter trust in your team-mates. From there we move to...

In Free play through the middle: when we have the footy here, the idea is to not blaze away, but to continue to run with it until a penetrating kick can be made (this balance we have not got yet). All this is heavily reliant on skills and decision making and we have consistently made mistakes this year 

When we have it in the backline: we don't want to go long down the line (last resort), we will look to hit up short kicks to open up the ground and we will use a 'forced switch' strategy that means when the ball comes in to defence and we get the ball back, we will immediately look to go across to the other flank and 'out the other side.' This can be very dangerous if you are prone to clangers (ahem, Tom Mac) or if your mids and fwd flanks don't push across to the other side of the ground hard enough to provide options. 

When we don't have it in the forwardline/midfield: we are playing what looks like a box press but I cannot talk with much authority through the TV screen. But all player look like they are off their man in segmented, regular lines with only the last two defenders to handle any forwards in the defenisve side of the ground. When we screw this up - be it a full press or more of a soft 'zoning off to guard space' - we are butter, Lurpak butter... Torn asunder. Easy Goal Town. It has been good though at getting us easy goals. I hope the players stick at it, it is becoming a requisite that teams get easy goals through forward pressure.

 

Now all that, even if it isn't all correct, is not fundamentally changeable in game, nor game to game even.

Fremantle are having so many issues because they are not suited to what most teams are asking of them and they cannot reverse course quick enough - the ball is in free play more and reliant on hands in tight rather than stoppages and 'kicks down the line.'

You can make tactical changes like an extra player here, tempo moving of the footy, but at some point you have to release the shackles and let the players play the style you have told them is the one that will win them games of footy.

Abandoning in game is not pretty and it shows a lack of trust in the team and the coach himself. There are Plan Bs. If you go from Plan A, you move to Plan F. Fail.

10 hours ago, bing181 said:

Yes, because running round like headless chickens and lurching from one extreme to the other like you do on a regular basis, are not the solution to anything.

No I'm not running around like a headless Chook but after 52 Years I want success not excuses.

Fact we should never have been beaten by a rag tag Essendrug

Could have beaten Norf with some luck 

and coming of two very good wins should easily have accounted for Saints , particularly when our full forward kicks 7.

Oh yeah Patience?? I have been patient for 52 years! 

How long do you think we shoud wait another 1 year 5?? 10?? how about another 52 eh? by then I will have been dead! as will many who post on this site!

Give me a break! Call for calm!?? Indeed!

Edited May 1, 20169 yr by picket fence

5 minutes ago, picket fence said:

No I'm not running around like a headless Chook but after 52 Years I want success not excuses.

Fact we should never have been beaten by a rag tag Essendrug

Could have beaten Norf with some luck 

and coming of two very good wins should easily have accounted for Saints , particularly when our full forward kicks 7.

Oh yeah Patience?? I have been patient for 52 years! 

How long do you think we shoud wait another 1 year 5?? 10?? how about another 52 eh? by then I will have been dead! as will many who post on this site!

Give me a break! Call for calm!?? Indeed!

So are you under the illusion that at some point we were just going to flick a switch and not lose another game for the year or have any bad performances?

2 minutes ago, Undeeterred said:

So are you under the illusion that at some point we were just going to flick a switch and not lose another game for the year or have any bad performances?

Hawthorn make an art form of it! But I forgot 5 year plans 10 year development etc etc! Let me ask you this.. what progression would you regard as acceptable this year next the one after?

I don't think we need to call for calm, I would rather call for resolve.

forteenthmond and fickedmantle will be calling for calm.  We need to stick to our guns, hold ourselves accountable, and do better than this.  If we believe we are on the right path, then we need resolve.  We will get fluctuations with our young group (etc etc) and the short term pain of a loss sucks ( and I hope it sucks for the players, too, to give up a game they could have won), but there is FINALLY a bigger picture.

i call for resolve to stick to that and see where it gets us.  We are no longer a complete rabble.  I don't want calm, I want resolve to win, to play the way we are supposed to, with the effort that makes it work.

My frustration wasn't with the young players but lack of effort and leadership from our experienced players such as MacDonald, Lamumba. Dunn and Garlett. Also the coaching staff had a shocker in their selection, tactics and game day performance.

I think it is a good thing for fans to maintain some reasonable rage. We want to improve and it must be clear to the club we won't accept chronic mediocrity. This game was mostly lost again in the head of the players and coaches.  The game was yet another ripe opportunity missed.

"A Call for Calm" is also one of the most pathetic responses for a situation that causes anger. Hearing it is enough to make me angrier if I have a beef.  Most often trotted out by politicians in response to outrages  caused by their rotten policies.  Doesn't address or offer a solution to the problem at all. Just a tactic to get people to bury their heads in the sand again.

Edited May 1, 20169 yr by america de cali

24 minutes ago, america de cali said:

I think it is a good thing for fans to maintain some reasonable rage. We want to improve and it must be clear to the club we won't accept chronic mediocrity. This game was mostly lost again in the head of the players and coaches.  The game was yet another ripe opportunity missed.

"A Call for Calm" is also one of the most pathetic responses for a situation that causes anger. Hearing it is enough to make me angrier if I have a beef.  Most often trotted out by politicians in response to outrages  caused by their rotten policies.  Doesn't address or offer a solution to the problem at all. Just a tactic to get people to bury their heads in the sand again.

Whoever set the defensive structures for this weeks game should put their hand up, come out and explain why it went horribly wrong

I'm actually fairly calm and philosophical about our loss on the weekend. While obviously I'm frustrated by the loss and annoyed by the lack of the defence I also recognise that we are a very young team and will be prone to these lapses. There were positives from the game but ultimately we lost almost every match up on he ground. 

He important thing is how we respond, GC were given a total bath by Geelong and will also be hoping to respond so we will need to return to our A game next week to show that this is not the norm for us but another abbaration. 

All the same people losing their sh*t over the game on the weekend are no doubt the same ones who say they'd consider a 10-12 win season to be progress.

Wonder if they realise that actually means losing 10+ games??  

 

11 minutes ago, JTR said:

All the same people losing their sh*t over the game on the weekend are no doubt the same ones who say they'd consider a 10-12 win season to be progress.

Wonder if they realise that actually means losing 10+ games??  

 

Progress mean taking opportunities.  We have lost two already.  Good teams don't progress in a linear fashion. They just arrive because they took their opportunities.

Edited May 2, 20169 yr by america de cali

39 minutes ago, JTR said:

All the same people losing their sh*t over the game on the weekend are no doubt the same ones who say they'd consider a 10-12 win season to be progress.

Wonder if they realise that actually means losing 10+ games??  

 

At this stage we have 7 more games against teams currently below us on the ladder. Winning 10+ games already requires us winning all of those games and getting an upset. We've missed two golden chances to get ahead of the comp for the rest of the season. 

Id consider improvement 8+ wins, but at this stage we'll need some incredible performances to get that, especially given that teams like Freo, Port and Saints won't roll over for us, and we've already shown how we perform with expectation and favourites status.

We may have blown a legitimate chance at improvement and even finals with deplorable showings against the saints and drug cheats and we have every right to be frustrated. I hope the players are...

Edited May 2, 20169 yr by deejammin'

Meh, they played better than we did. They were faster and more accurate with their disposals.

I'm not panicking. We've seen what we're capable of.

This loss isn't a set-back. It just feels that way because the bookies had us as favourites for some stupid reason.

I'm not nearly as shattered after this loss as I was after Essendon.

Confident we will beat GC next week.

12 hours ago, rpfc said:

Gameplan (as far as I see it)

Not bad look at it. Couple of things about it worry me. The forced switch for one. I dont understand why they choose to make a switch when its not on, if there isnt an extra man on the far side then we are just asking for a turnover, especially when TMac has the ball I love him but he his inability to understand his own skill level (or lack there of) is so frustrating.

The press you are spot on, looks fantastic when it's working but when its not calling it soft as butter is a complement. I wish the coaching staff were brave enough to say "ok we have given up 2/3 quick goals lets play man on man for 5/10 min and lock the game down and then reset once we wrestle back some control." Its not a complete change of the game plan just a nice fail safe when things arnt going right. If we were only 3/4 goals down at 3qtr time then go back to the brave footy when we have a chance, rather than being 7/8 goals down and the game is over