If we play with the same effort and intensity more often than not we will go places.  Not often seen but I hope this game is the benchmark standard for the rest of the season and the next.

2 hours ago, beelzebub said:

What is it then, if not spirit. There was a win for the taking today. Real teams find that way to do it. They grind until the cogs line up ( eventually) andyou can change up and get over the libelibe by sheer force of will. 

We didn't. Never seem to. We do indeed have a problem with spiri, or call it whatever you like. 

It was inexperience, lack of polish and footy smarts. It wasn't a lack of spirit. Are you seriously suggesting our players didn't have a fair dinkum crack at the footy. It was a tough game.

2 hours ago, beelzebub said:

What is it then, if not spirit. There was a win for the taking today. Real teams find that way to do it. They grind until the cogs line up ( eventually) andyou can change up and get over the libelibe by sheer force of will. 

We didn't. Never seem to. We do indeed have a problem with spiri, or call it whatever you like. 

There are plenty of ways to express disappointment with today's loss.

Having a go at the spirit of the players is not one of them.

If you truly believe we lacked endeavour, effort, spirit or anything like that, you either genuinely have no idea what those things mean, or you are just blindly posting negative comments for the sake of it.

10 minutes ago, Roger Mellie said:

All Gawn

Just Gawn

Gawny Pops

Gawn Loops

Uncle Max,s

Umps should have seeing eye dogs as sponsor instead of opsm

25 minutes ago, Redleg said:

IMO we lost this game because of poor skill and bad decisions, ours and the umpires.

The umpires bad decisions were obvious for all to see.

Ours, were an overuse of handball in wet conditions and electing to kick to players who were covered. For example, Vince who has marked 30 out and can kick the distance easily, passes to Kent, who not only has an opponent right next to him, but a much taller one in addition, just behind him. Of course WC get the ball and head downfield for a goal. I counted at least 5 passes to Kent in similar circumstances and each one was taken by a WC player. It was some of the dumbest football I have ever seen.

Our shocking kicking for goal was not only heart breaking, it was match losing.

We dominated the game having twice as many forward 50's and 100 more possessions. That is usually a very comfortable win.

To those on here, who think we have no spirit, I would say, take up watching another sport, because you clearly know very little about football.

The definition of spirit is not just winning a contest, it is the effort put in to try and win. We put in the effort today and beat that mob on their dunghill, everywhere but on the scoreboard, with the youngest and least experienced team in the AFL.

If you didn't see that, you weren't watching, or you just don't understand.

Now for the whingers, bring on your sh-t and attack me for those comments and in advance, I couldn't care less.

Go Dees, we are on the way to becoming a good side.

This.

1 minute ago, titan_uranus said:

There are plenty of ways to express disappointment with today's loss.

Having a go at the spirit of the players is not one of them.

If you truly believe we lacked endeavour, effort, spirit or anything like that, you either genuinely have no idea what those things mean, or you are just blindly posting negative comments for the sake of it.

You are fooled my friend . 

It WAS there for winning. We had no idea how to. You are the one lacking idea, just blindly posting the typical argument. Good teams find ways to win. Despite half a dozen paths we still found a way to lose. Yet I'm the naysayer. Hilarious.

I don't want us to LOSE . 

I just feel sorry for the boys after such a massive effort over there .

In the end though, this will make us stronger , we are getting closer patience is needed ,and one more pre season .

11 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

You are fooled my friend . 

It WAS there for winning. We had no idea how to. You are the one lacking idea, just blindly posting the typical argument. Good teams find ways to win. Despite half a dozen paths we still found a way to lose. Yet I'm the naysayer. Hilarious.

I don't want us to LOSE . 

None of that has anything to do with the players spirit or endeavour.

7 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

You are fooled my friend . 

It WAS there for winning. We had no idea how to. You are the one lacking idea, just blindly posting the typical argument. Good teams find ways to win. Despite half a dozen paths we still found a way to lose. Yet I'm the naysayer. Hilarious.

I don't want us to LOSE . 

And that's the nub of it, we are not yet a good team, (at least not consistently). And the reasons are all those which have been put forward so often, - youth, inexperience, belief, etc. Nobody who is giving those reasons is arguing that we are now a good team, just that there are indicators that we are on the path to becoming one.

7 hours ago, xarronn said:

And that's the nub of it, we are not yet a good team, (at least not consistently). And the reasons are all those which have been put forward so often, - youth, inexperience, belief, etc. Nobody who is giving those reasons is arguing that we are now a good team, just that there are indicators that we are on the path to becoming one.

Im arguing even a numbskull should understand how to win. Surely its inherent in the dna of any player ( worth his Salt ) but so many readily find the excuse.

[censored] we're good at excuses.

It's like we as a team are always waiting on how to do thing's Are we really that thick ?

4 hours ago, Roger Mellie said:

All Gawn

Just Gawn

Gawny Pops

Gawn Loops

Come on, it's obvious!

 

 

Gawn Flakes.

Why did o Mac not stop that Kennedy kick? That was lazy play, I know he hasn't played much but you can tell from that moment that he does not have it. 

Yesterday genuinely hurt.
I think the review process for losses like this needs to change.
I won't make too many assumptions as I'm not in the inner sanctum but my feeling is that losses like the one vs. St. Kilda and Essendon have been the trigger for some fairly brutal 'honesty' sessions. These were very much required.
Losses like the ones vs. North in Hobart and today seem to be reviewed as more positive as the aforementioned losses and a lot of the good points that come from them gets focused on. 
The review this week, while not going overboard on finger pointing or scapegoating, needs to bluntly ask how we can be a goal up, dominate play in the last quarter, get opportunity after opportunity in the forward line and not kick one goal (that at least would have gotten us a draw). 
I think the boys did need a lot more positivity in the early days of the Roos era. A lot of that was driven by PR himself. Now they are leading the review process and if they are going to go anywhere as a team, they need to start asking hard questions of each other.

12 hours ago, olisik said:

Not unless we learn to score in tight games. Which we always fail to do in final quarters. 

It's not the first time this year that we have scored 1 or less goals in the final quarter. 

We need to be able to run out games better 

 

Pretty good effort I thought. It's true we are not yet a good side, but I think the evidence would suggest we are surely getting there. Seems when Jonesy and Gawn play well then so do we and they did yesterday. When we finally get there I hope many old scores are settled.

 

Whilst yesterday is frustrating we have to take the positives. We DOMINATED last year's runners up (albeit not as good this year) on their home deck where they have an average winning margain of 63 points. Yes 4 points and a win is what you play for but you dont always have to win to be winners. 

Coming off the back of Darwin 2 weeks ago & traveling again yesterday was a massive effort from a young side late in the year. Yes I am as annoyed, angry & frustrated like the rest of you but we have to look at the bright side.

Theres a saying that goes:

"There are winners, there are losers and there are people who have not yet learned how to win yet." 

That is us right now 

It was disappointing to loose, but then we have in the past won ones that we should not have. This team is very much a work in progress, if this result was against a bottom side I would have been gutted but it was against the Westcoast in the west, so while disappointed, I'm pretty proud of the effort. Yes we kicked badly, but a lot of other days we kicked damn accurately, the conditions were obviously not conducisve to clean handling. our forward line was crowded while theirs was open a lot of the time. all in all i think it was a great effort.

 

One thing I must say about the deliberate out of bounds, I wonder why players who get tackled 5 or 10 meters inside the boundary can drive for the boundary line with their tacklers and it not be considered deliberat out of bounds, the weagles backmen did this time after time,

10 hours ago, leucopogon said:

Brayshaw has become the turnover king, why has he gone so far backwards from last year? 

High ball drop.

9 hours ago, beelzebub said:

You are fooled my friend . 

It WAS there for winning. We had no idea how to. You are the one lacking idea, just blindly posting the typical argument. Good teams find ways to win. Despite half a dozen paths we still found a way to lose. Yet I'm the naysayer. Hilarious.

I don't want us to LOSE . 

West Coast, the team 3 games and percentage clear from us, and at the opposite end of the experience spectrum, and at home, also were required to dig deep and find a way to win. Working out how to win is great, but in this instance the opposition were doing the same, in a situation where they have a clear advantage (age, experience, location).  You seem to ignore the fact that there is also opposition out there.

And I tell you what, nothing makes my blood boil more than the implication that because some of us see reasons for things, it's because we want to win less than others do. Seeing things through this lens doesn't stop me (personally) from feeling filthy about these type of results, I assure you.

8 hours ago, beelzebub said:

I don't want us to LOSE . 

And those who recognise the obvious effort put in by our team yesterday do?

We put in a genuine four quarter effort yesterday. You can question our decision making, our ball movement, our forward structure, you can even question the talent of the bottom 4 - 6 players out there but you can't question the effort of the 22 who played yesterday.

7 minutes ago, Goodvibes said:

And those who recognise the obvious effort put in by our team yesterday do?

We put in a genuine four quarter effort yesterday. You can question our decision making, our ball movement, our forward structure, you can even question the talent of the bottom 4 - 6 players out there but you can't question the effort of the 22 who played yesterday.

Yes posters will question, because as I put in a post yesterday, they are only interested in winning, if we lose they regard the team as a failure

They think posters who disagree are not interested in winning, we are, but we also recognise why we couldn't yesterday

And so can Roos

Didn't see the game at all. Was at our Football ball last night and saw the results.. So i drank harder to ease the pain.

Now i have a nasty hangover..Thanks Dees.

I thought it might hurt less the morning after, not so. The utter frustration is subsiding though. This was like a classic game of soccer, with one side absolutely dominating possession, tackles, hard balls and yet still being beaten on the break, a quick long ball in hope that the opposition score from. Fark. They did it time and again.

Outside of the obvious turnovers by foot, started by Wagners in the first quarter, we paid a very very big price for Watts, Hogan, Stretch, Viney and more being unable to kick reasonably simple goals from 35m out in front. Full credit to the players who simply went again and again. Gee I'd have liked Salem instead of Wagner or Omac in defence yesterday, just for his kicking alone.

We are clearly making progress, slower than I'd like, but no doubt on a true foundation of talent, not aging B and C grade players. The saddest thing about yesterday is it had the potential to be the difining win for this young group, something they look back on and refer to for years to come about how they achieved it. It bloody hurts, it would have been worth 4 points PLUS a truckload of self belief, even for us fans.

bugger......

At the MCG that's a 4-5 goal win. Disappointing we don't win but it'll all be for nothing if we don't pound GC next Sunday. They have no centerline. Should be an easy win.