1 minute ago, Wiseblood said:

It's because we are still learning to spread within that congestion.  We end up getting too close together and that means the handballs don't create the right amount of space to get that free man and the kick forward.  Thus, we can stuff it up or we end up bombing it forward.  When it works we look terrific.

It's the overthinking for mine. Too many first options ignored because the players have to think too much about what they're meant to do.

 

3 minutes ago, Return to Glory said:

It is time to blood Hulett. I understand the 'Dawes provides structure' argument but now is the time to put Hulett in. I don't think it's enough.

And I may well be in the minority but I'm not as enamoured with Dom Tyson as others are.

Dawes provides structure only as a pillar of salt. Useless.

18 minutes ago, stuie said:

51 more handballs than the Crows, and we lost the clearances.

From a broader perspective, we have not beaten anyone this year that we didn't beat last year. For all the talk of improvement, that is damning.

 

I reckon we'll snag a couple of wins against sides we didn't beat last year in the next two weeks.

I don't mind the handballs to get out of trouble, the problem is half of them go to ground and/or miss the target. If it takes us four to get out of trouble that's two potential turnovers at every contest. Skills need serious attention, and have for the last 5 or 6 years.

We made too many errors but did it being attacking, I can live that. We can't sustain run both ways like that for full quarters but I look forward to the day we do. Anyone that thinks we have not improved look at our age and then watch us dismantle quality mature side in the second. The more we mature and the more they play together the more of that you will see. 

Hunt and Watts immense. Great to have Jeffy back. N jones needs to simplify his game and Tyson needs Trac to teach him how to give and get with one motion. 

We're getting just frustrated that we can't take a top 4 scalp to prove it. 

1 minute ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Exactly and good players will leave...putting us in the same cycle over and over

we must nail trade week and Free Agency...

You may be so depressingly correct but I live in hope

Lost it in the first quarter. Gave up those three easy goals and that was basically the margin in the end. 

Nathan Jones got a lot of it, but was so sloppy by hand and foot. Either putting team mates under pressure or often missing targets.

Gawn was terrific in patches, but lapsed at a few crucial moments.Kennedy attacked it hard a couple of times, but made some poor errors and missed some easy shots.

Hunt, Jetta, Frost, Jeffy and Watts were our best. Special mention to Matt Jones, who was pretty good, except for his comical turnover that resulted in the final goal. It'll be interesting to see if he's done enough to get another contract.

Harmes and Bugg will be fringers in a year's time. Reckon Trac was stuffed by the second half. Hogan needs to play in front more often, because almost every time he does, he gets rewarded with a free kick.

Edit. And Dawes. He kills us. He never takes pressure off his team mates by taking contested marks and rarely hits the scoreboard. They may well delist at the end of the year, but more likely he'll be given a reduced contract for a year or two and will rarely play once Hulett and Weideman come into the team.

First ten minutes of the third quarter, they kicked four unanswered goals. Crucial. Should have been us.

1 minute ago, Ricky P said:

I reckon we'll snag a couple of wins against sides we didn't beat last year in the next two weeks.

Prediction and guesses don't mean much to me.

 

4 minutes ago, GCDee said:

And literally bring anyone in for omac he is hopeless. 

I wouldn't say hopeless, but he has no hunger in his game. He's just not desperate..........at all. Send him to Casey for the rest of the year, maybe that will light a fire.

Forward Line - With the likes of Kennedy, Harmes and Kent all being unbelievably inconsistent, with oceans between their best and worst, Dawes continuing to imitate a witches hat, with no genuine second tall forward, we will continue to struggle.

Bring in Hulett, he can't do any worse than Dawes. Give Weideman a look-in towards the end of the year as well. The more talls we give experience to, the quicker our kids will start to back and go long to them. Hit ups to other targets only works, when your smalls are willing to give 4 quarter effort (ours don't).

 

Midfield - We need more smarts in there, and better users. Our preference is to handball, and if we can't, try to create another opportunity to handball. An idea is to maybe kick it long to the forwards (better chance of being one-on-one and it also places more pressure on the defence). Jones whilst gaining 32 disposals went at 47% efficiency, fix it.

 

Back Line -  It looks great when we successfully run it out with flair, but christ, our turnovers leave us extremely vulnerable. One player doesn't make a team, but if we could bring in Hibberd, his disposal and toughness would do wonders for our back line.

 

All in all, we still need to find decent back-up for Gawn, another good KPD, a good user out of the back line (we need more than just Salem) and some mids with some brains. KPF's we have. And if Max King finally decides he wants to be an AFL footballer, that would help too.

1 minute ago, Diamond_Jim said:

You may be so depressingly correct but I live in hope

It won't be depressing if the club is proactive like last year. 

But this year we need players in the 23-28 Bracket. The young kids must stick around

4 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Exactly and good players will leave...putting us in the same cycle over and over

we must nail trade week and Free Agency...

Yes I agree. We have improved now and we are competitive compared with the regular 100+ point losses of a couple of years ago. However we now need to move to the next level with some more elite level players. 

14 minutes ago, Deestroy All said:

Where the [censored] is Pedo? Dawes is useless

It seems that Pedo v Dawes is settled

 

 

Super furious about this loss because it was a game we lost as opposed to Adelaide winning. 

I know that young teams make mistakes but half a season in and we are still overusing the footy and we are still p!ss poor defensively when we lose possession.

I thought our small forwards and Watts were good but Dawes is a liability and Hogan is a primadonna. Both were woeful defensively and both suffered a strong case of butter hands. On the other side Adelaide marked everything coming in, often uncontested as every defender in our team seems to be more interested in attacking than defending. 

I know this is all part of a learning game plan, but we just pulled curtains on our season because we just have not learnt from previous mistakes. 

Also can we please play Petracca on the ball more often? 

Our back line is the problem - the turnovers originate from there. At this stage we can't have OMac and Frost both down there.

Just now, Skin D said:

Yes I agree. We have improved now and we are competitive compared with the regular 100+ point losses of a couple of years ago. However we now need to move to the next level with some more elite level players. 

That's it. The Club has not turned the corner yet

the internal bleeding has been stopped  long way to go

Lack of real pace causes excessive hand-balling. We need players quick enough to get clear of the contests; players who can both beat an opponent for pace away from the contest and players with the pace to get out into space to receive.

32 minutes ago, olisik said:

Does anyone know how many games we have lost in the 4th?

Since Roos started?

I'd say it'd be close to 20. It was 9 in 2014 where we led in the 4th and lost. 5-6 in 2015. We have to be thereabouts this year. Essendon, North. 

As far as games where it's within 3 goals in the last and we can't win...too many.

On a positive note- Jayden Hunt!

7 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Super furious about this loss because it was a game we lost as opposed to Adelaide winning. 

I know that young teams make mistakes but half a season in and we are still overusing the footy and we are still p!ss poor defensively when we lose possession.

I thought our small forwards and Watts were good but Dawes is a liability and Hogan is a primadonna. Both were woeful defensively and both suffered a strong case of butter hands. On the other side Adelaide marked everything coming in, often uncontested as every defender in our team seems to be more interested in attacking than defending. 

I know this is all part of a learning game plan, but we just pulled curtains on our season because we just have not learnt from previous mistakes. 

Also can we please play Petracca on the ball more often? 

Correct on all counts.

14 minutes ago, stuie said:

It's the overthinking for mine. Too many first options ignored because the players have to think too much about what they're meant to do.

 

As opposed to T mac who doesnt think enough at times. He was good today and usaully is but I believe if he was more composed and didnt play on so much he could go to another level

9 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Super furious about this loss because it was a game we lost as opposed to Adelaide winning. 

I know that young teams make mistakes but half a season in and we are still overusing the footy and we are still p!ss poor defensively when we lose possession.

I thought our small forwards and Watts were good but Dawes is a liability and Hogan is a primadonna. Both were woeful defensively and both suffered a strong case of butter hands. On the other side Adelaide marked everything coming in, often uncontested as every defender in our team seems to be more interested in attacking than defending. 

I know this is all part of a learning game plan, but we just pulled curtains on our season because we just have not learnt from previous mistakes. 

Also can we please play Petracca on the ball more often? 

I was hoping we'd take a punt and play him in the middle at the start of the fourth.

7 minutes ago, praha said:

Since Roos started?

I'd say it'd be close to 20. It was 9 in 2014 where we led in the 4th and lost. 5-6 in 2015. We have to be thereabouts this year. Essendon, North. 

As far as games where it's within 3 goals in the last and we can't win...too many.

its up there with the ethiad saga

14 minutes ago, stuie said:

Prediction and guesses don't mean much to me.

 

Cool, well you're in the right place, because if there's one thing you won't find on an internet forum, it's predictions, guesses and opinions.

10 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

That's it. The Club has not turned the corner yet

the internal bleeding has been stopped  long way to go

Perhaps we have finally realised now how bad were the the years prior to Roos