3 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Jack Watts was absolutely sensational.

He has grown to have the heart of a lion and is going into the ruck and competing hard against much bigger opdifferentnts. Who could have seen that coming a few seasons ago?

One of greatest games he has played but should never be put in that position (in terms of rucking for so long) again Trac. We need to find a back up to Big M, and quickly.

No other team would play their best ball user in the ruck for such extensive stints (someone of watts size i mean). He could also incur a serious injury doing so given the size/weight discrepancy

Just now, dazzledavey36 said:

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Guthrie‏ @BenGuthrie_

For those interested, Jake Spencer had around 30 hit-outs, 12 disposals and kicked a goal for Casey today.

That's good to hear.  I've got no problem with Jake filling in for Max over the next 3-4 weeks - he will have a dip, especially around the stoppages and he has the tank to run all day.  He just doesn't work with Max in the same side.  Hopefully he can carry that form across for the next month or so.

To be honest I hoped we would win but had doubts against a serious contender at Etihad. So on reflection, we've had a lot worse defeats than this. What did they beat us by last year? The impact of Max going off was  significant? We were nowhere near full strength ( No Brayshaw at his best, No Lewis, No Hogan, No Hibberd ). Something seems amiss with Viney, could he be carrying a niggler? We kicked very poorly and can play way better.

Sorry for all the excuses, but even with the above, we arguably could/should have won this.

The conclusion I draw is that when we really get our sh.t  together, with a strong side in, I think things are going to be very good indeed

7 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Guthrie‏ @BenGuthrie_

For those interested, Jake Spencer had around 30 hit-outs, 12 disposals and kicked a goal for Casey today.

Excellent, I am Spencer fan and hes a ready made replacement.   Sure hes no Maxy, but he will give 100% effort, throw his weight around and his tacking and second efforts are elite for a ruckman.

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by Petraccattack

41 minutes ago, Tony Tea said:

I'm 55 years old, old enough to know better, but the explosive levels of frustration and anger cannot be good for me.

Thanks for the comment mate. I laughed. 

Good to share our anger. God knows the mrs doesn't get it

ANB 26 touches, 10 tackles, 6 clearances, 6 inside 50s 9 score involvements, 1 goal

has played 19 games!! Obviously his disposal let him down at times but he had a great game considering his experience. Tried his guts out and created many scoring opportunities. 

Just now, DubDee said:

ANB 26 touches, 10 tackles, 6 clearances, 6 inside 50s 9 score involvements, 1 goal

has played 19 games!! Obviously his disposal let him down at times but he had a great game considering his experience. Tried his guts out and created many scoring opportunities. 

He made one error though, so he needs to be dropped. #justpicketthings

55 minutes ago, A F said:

It's a strange feeling. I almost feel like we won. We dominated the majority of the game. I don't think I've been so positive about a 5 goal loss ever. I'll back us to learn from this. We'll have these sorts of losses this year and we knew we would, but now we know our game style holds up.

More to the point Geelong didnt win, it was a case of WE LOST. Not sure I have seen a poorer effort of players kicking for goal. Goodwin needs to call a special day of training where some  players kick at goal all day and nothing else.

Hogans absence was glaring today with Watts rucking but it was his first offence. Lewis has form in suspensions, so hes a worry. Despite shocking kicking if watts wasnt moved to ruck I think we could have won. Geelong are a very good side and last year they smashed us. We can hold our heads up somewhat. The umpiring was poor today. It was inconsistent on both sides but I felt that quite a few tackles layed by us went unrewarded.

 

 

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by leave it to deever

I have sat through thrashings and that geelong game years ago but today I was so annoyed, frustrated and angry at the footy today. 

Our basic misses at set shots was horrible. It was so frustrating watching geelong go down the other end and just see them not miss. 

Unfortunately hawkins got us again. There were times when it appeared Oscar was on him. Then Jetta was on him because he was the only one down back. We missed Hogan up forward  just as another target especially after Watts had to go into the ruck. 

Selwood and Danger just took over in that final quarter. We couldn't stop them. 

But it was bad kicking when you look at the misses. And most of them were set shots almost in front. 

Jones 3 behinds

Kent 2-3

Garlett and Petracca 1-2 each

Viney missed one that you would expect him to get. 

But well done too Watts. Did the 2nd half in the ruck on his own. Battled hard. 

We had 12 more inside 50's than them. We just couldn't get the goals on the board early. 

Next week we better bounce back. 

41 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

It has all the hallmarks of a tough game to watch - we will be the better side but Freo will look to choke the game and go defensive, much like Carlton did, and it will make things difficult for us.  Not looking forward to that at all.

Freo looking odds on to roll the Dogs at the moment. Lucky us to play them when they get back into some form

36 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Tony, take a word of advice from Dr. Fence......

...

2 Snuggle up to the wife for a bit of .............. ah TLC

Sounds like good advice but maybe you'd better give Tony your address.

Taller, faster, more skilled. Geelong won. Surprise, surprise. Let's hope Gawn hasn't done his reconstructed knee.

Didn't have the chance to follow the game but obviously a bitterly frustrating result. Reminds me a bit of the West Coast loss last year. 

Really want to see us back it up with a strong performance against Fremantle next week.

23 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Nup 10 tackles means he is second to the ball Jordy mrk2 ! Not AFL Standard IMV!

What impact did he have o the game?? 

In a long, long line of contenders for your most stupid post, this one sits near the top.

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by titan_uranus

19 minutes ago, Nasher said:

Don't think I said anything of the sort, did I? 

Pretty sure you did bro. Anyway you look at it it was individually the most deemorilising piece of indiividual play on the day. I had nightmarish flashbacks of the Jack Fitpatrick tunnel ball as soon as he turned 180 and kicked it over Omac's head

4 hours ago, Deeoldfart said:

Effort was top shelf.  Kicking for goal was under the counter (but occasionally those days just happen).  A win in the circumstances would have been unbelievable.  A loss is hard to take, but I'm just so proud of our boys. In a strange, perverted sort of way, Melbourne might have arrived today.

Yeah, it's my feeling a bit too. Ironic, isn't it?

4 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

What?  Outside of Jones he was BOG for me.  28 touches and 8 tackles, easily his best game for the club to date.  What more can we ask of him?

His decision-making is still a real worry. What I like about him now is that at least he's shown he can find the ball at this level. But just about every time he gets it, you can see him [censored] himself. He has no idea what to do with it. So he's not a great natural decision-maker. I hope this improves, but there's still certainly a question mark over him IMO.

4 hours ago, Pottsydee said:

Can not believe we had them on the ropes and let it slide!!! For god sake we smelt blood at 3/4. Thats the difference between top 4 and the the rest, when the foots on the throat!

Yep. Indeed. We don't have that killer edge that top 4 sides have.

4 hours ago, waynewussell said:

Yes we are young and we can continue to develop, but no one should be in any doubt that we allowed ourselves to have our pants pulled down (again!) by a couple of old stagers! As far as I am concerned, only Jones out of our leaders, stood tall in trying to pull us out of the ShXX that we got ourselves in! On today's showing we are still 9 - 12 and not an obvious top 8 team. WE were anxious in front of goal. Almost to a man we were signalling that we didn't want to be the one that nailed the gettable goal. Weak as PiXX in my humble opinion!

Way off, IMO. We absolutely dominated them and simply didn't convert. That's inexperience and sometimes you have those days.

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by A F

Terrific to see the dogs playing the Dockers back into some form before next week as well.

 

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by Beetle

I suppose if there's one thing we can take away from today it's that the gameplan clearly works.  It's able to survive the loss of Hogan and Lewis to suspension, and even the lack of a ruck for over half the game.  With all that against us, we went toe to toe with one of the best sides of the last decade and by any reasonable measure we dominated for at least half of the match. 

That being said, I don't think I have ever had a worse experience watching a game.  The screaming frustration as I watched us throw chance after chance away only to have Geelong's rare passages of play ALL result in goals was horrible.  The Umpire's' apparent blindness to thrown balls while at the same time being overly harsh on incorrect disposal when being tackled and their unwillingness to pay HTB against Geelong players while pinging our s seemingly every second tackle.  The natural hatred of Joel Selwood.  Nasty stuff. 

Oh, and don't get me started on the insane high contact free to Selwood on Max.. 

Absolutely shattered, we had a chance to pull off one of the great wins with possibly our weakest side for the year.  

First game for Smith who won't be a regular, third game for Hannan who will be replaced when other options are available, first game back for Kent who will be better for the run, second game back for Tyson who is still blowing out the cobwebs.  

Max going down weakened the structure of the side and yet we were the better side and should have won. We did all the hard stuff but stuffed up the easiest part of the game, kicking unmissable goals. 

Coupled with that we allowed them to score some of the easiest goals imaginable. I'm sure that Goodwin will be filthy but there's no point in giving the boys goal kicking practice, they know how to do it they just didn't do it today. 

6 minutes ago, Rusty Nails said:

Pretty sure you did bro. Anyway you look at it it was individually the most deemorilising piece of indiividual play on the day. I had nightmarish flashbacks of the Jack Fitpatrick tunnel ball as soon as he turned 180 and kicked it over Omac's head

No "bro", you drew the irrelevant and inequivalent soccer analogy, not me. I shall take you up on your offer to agree to disagree.

Feels so good to be filthy at the things I am filthy about.

This is what footy should be. We are finally there.

 

Anyway, we had a VFL level forward line aside from Watts, Garlett and Kent. I didn't want to say anything when Smith was picked but he, Hannan, ANB, and Weideman was a question mark and it was married with an exclamation point when Watts had to ruck the game out.

Monday mornings will suck for the right reasons again.

On to Freo!

9 minutes ago, A F said:

Yeah, it's my feeling a bit too. Ironic, isn't it?

His decision-making is still a real worry. What I like about him now is that at least he's shown he can find the ball at this level. But just about every time he gets it, you can seem him [censored] himself. He has no idea what to do with it. So he's not a great natural decision-maker. I hope this improves, but there's still certainly a question mark over him IMO.

Yep. Indeed. We don't have that killer edge that top 4 sides have.

Way off, IMO. We absolutely dominated them and simply didn't convert. That's inexperience and sometimes you have those days.

Amongst the most lucid thinking here

2 hours ago, praha said:

I just don't get the hate for Oscar. He made some shocking blues but everyone does. Their efficiency forward, the speed, our backs were under pressure so quickly, within seconds of having the ball of our forward line. He was stuffed at the end of the match. So was everyone else.

I think it's fair to say our defenders struggled today. Geelong looked like marking or scoring every time they went inside 50. Our defence was superb last week. It was pretty ordinary this week. Fancy letting Hawkins mark uncontested on the goal line and that wasn't the only defensive oversight.

3 hours ago, waynewussell said:

Yes we are young and we can continue to develop, but no one should be in any doubt that we allowed ourselves to have our pants pulled down (again!) by a couple of old stagers! As far as I am concerned, only Jones out of our leaders, stood tall in trying to pull us out of the ShXX that we got ourselves in! On today's showing we are still 9 - 12 and not an obvious top 8 team. WE were anxious in front of goal. Almost to a man we were signalling that we didn't want to be the one that nailed the gettable goal. Weak as PiXX in my humble opinion!

 

Your opinion is far from humble. Get over yourself. It was a game played by a very young team and yes it was marred by errors but there was a lot of fight out there.

3 hours ago, martin said:

IN:Frost,Spencer,Bugg,Pederson               OUT: Gawn,Harmes,Hannan,Weideman.

Yuck. Spencer in for Gawn. The rest to prove that today was an aberration. 

39 minutes ago, rpfc said:

Feels so good to be filthy at the things I am filthy about.

This is what footy should be. We are finally there.

 

Anyway, we had a VFL level forward line aside from Watts, Garlett and Kent. I didn't want to say anything when Smith was picked but he, Hannan, ANB, and Weideman was a question mark and it was married with an exclamation point when Watts had to ruck the game out.

Monday mornings will suck for the right reasons again.

On to Freo!

Depends on what you mean by "finally there" RP? We were unable to stem coast to coast joe the goose goals on a number of occasions and looked pretty shakey down back. The way we delivered inside 50 was also pretty ordinary most of the time IMO. Other teams will be licking their lips at the prospect of playing our backline, Tmac, Hunt and Nev the exceptions.