9 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

Agree with the others, but not Oliver.  The kid, in just his second season, is almost carrying our midfield.  Look at his stats again today:

32 touches, 9 tackles, 19 contested possessions and 7 clearances.  

Oliver is turning into an absolute superstar right before our eyes.  What more can he do?  

Use his feet more often.

Still panic hand balls - like the rest of his teammates.

13 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

Agree with the others, but not Oliver.  The kid, in just his second season, is almost carrying our midfield.  Look at his stats again today:

32 touches, 9 tackles, 19 contested possessions and 7 clearances.  

Oliver is turning into an absolute superstar right before our eyes.  What more can he do?  

What more can he do?  Well get the ball forward for a start.  32 touches but only one i50.  Poor return.  Goodwin needs to find a way to convert his great stats to Oliver having a real impact on the game. 

Don't get me wrong, I love Oliver as much as you and others do.  But we aren't getting the value from his efforts that we should.

Edited August 5, 20178 yr by Lucifer's Hero

3 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Use his feet more often.

Still panic hand balls - like the rest of his teammates.

 

Just now, Lucifer's Hero said:

What more can he do?  Get the ball forward.  For 32 touches but only one i50.  Goodwin needs to find a way to convert his great stats to Oliver having a real impact on the game. 

Don't get me wrong, I love Oliver as much as you and others do.  But we aren't getting the value from his efforts that we should.

I still think calling him 'predictable' is grossly unfair.  He needs to kick more, sure, but for a guy in his second season, he is doing everything asked of him and more.

2 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Use his feet more often.

Still panic hand balls - like the rest of his teammates.

GWS played a run and carry game and trusted their skills to make the cross across field to free up space. Oliver being the first handball in a chain isn't the problem, it's his teammates who try short 15 meter chips down the line, or miss handball targets from 10 meters away. Take Oliver out of the equation and I reckon we are a 3-4 less win side. Your greatly understated his influence.

Positives : you have 3 very winnable games at the MCG to finish with, whereas Essendon and WCE for example have Adelaide. Eagles could well lose tomorrow as well.

Despite the loss of Hogan, you are starting to get a few soldiers back. Jones will be better for the run, Gawn is regaining form, and hopefully Watts gets some form soon.

Today wasn't great, you probably won't get GWS again without Greene, Cameron and Patton, but I honestly think the Dees still have a bit in them this year. Goes without saying, next week is vital. Beat the Saints, and I reckon you are as good a chance as any to play finals.

 

37 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

At 1/2 time the camera cut to our rooms.  Jones, Lewis and Viney sat looking despondently and blankly into space.  No talk between them or with other players. 

In that moment I knew we had no chance.

I expect our leaders to show some energy, get around the players, especially the young ones, give them some encouragement.  Show they care. Nope. Nothing. 

Lead and they will follow.  Don't lead and we become like Brown's cows.

We supporters deserve better than that from our so called leaders. 

Strangely tho....after quarter time we beat them. 7.2 to 6.7

1 minute ago, Ash35 said:

Positives : you have 3 very winnable games at the MCG to finish with, whereas Essendon and WCE for example have Adelaide. Eagles could well lose tomorrow as well.

Despite the loss of Hogan, you are starting to get a few soldiers back. Jones will be better for the run, Gawn is regaining form, and hopefully Watts gets some form soon.

Today wasn't great, you probably won't get GWS again without Greene, Cameron and Patton, but I honestly think the Dees still have a bit in them this year. Goes without saying, next week is vital. Beat the Saints, and I reckon you are as good a chance as any to play finals.

 

I like your support mate but the North game was winnable last week too.

9 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

Agree with the others, but not Oliver.  The kid, in just his second season, is almost carrying our midfield.  Look at his stats again today:

32 touches, 9 tackles, 19 contested possessions and 7 clearances.  

Oliver is turning into an absolute superstar right before our eyes.  What more can he do?  

Kick the bloody ball!

He's my favourite player and is blossoming into a star at a rapid rate, but [censored] me dead he needs to learn to take ownership and kick the ball sometimes. On one occasion today the ball came out of a stoppage and he wound up with it on the outside of the pack heading into our 50. He could've either run with it all the way inside 50 and had a shot at goal, or kick the ball into the paddock infant of Jeffy. He instead turned around, handball the ball 5 metres backwards to Viney who literally had an opponent hanging off him and was getting up off the ground from stoppage. Obviously it got turned over and they went straight down the other end to score. It was one of the worst decisions I've ever seen a footy player make. His immediate instinct when he gets it is to handball to someone else, which is fine when you're in a pack and looking to clear it etc. But he still needs to learn he is allowed to kick it when he has 50 metres of free space with a forward leading at him! He'll get there with time... just frustrating to watch at times as he's actually a really good kick and needs to have more confidence in his own abilities.

Today was a train wreck. The fact we only lost by 35 is a miracle. After the first 10 minutes we were absolutely belted and deserved to lose by 70-80 points. We've now got 3 weeks to get our mojo back and start being competitive around the ball and on the scoreboard. We've been mostly poor for nearly two months now, and other than the Port Adelaide win we have limped over the line or lost.

40 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

At 1/2 time the camera cut to our rooms.  Jones, Lewis and Viney sat looking despondently and blankly into space.  No talk between them or with other players. 

In that moment I knew we had no chance.

I expect our leaders to show some energy, get around the players, especially the young ones, give them some encouragement.  Show they care. Nope. Nothing. 

Lead and they will follow.  Don't lead and we become like Brown's cows.

We supporters deserve better than that from our so called leaders. 

This is just petty.

8 minutes ago, McQueen said:

I'm a absolutely gobsmacked as to how the statisticians gave Watts 2 tackles.

 

They got mis-autocorrected for "terrible" Steve

19 minutes ago, Hogan2014 said:

Can you believe the scum may play finals before us after missing for 12mths?

HTF does this happen??

 

I can well believe it.  They got to sit out half their list while they trialed a team of potential rookies, then kept the pick of their trial players when their missing stars returned and got the top draft pick to go with it.  In terms of list-tuning, I think most clubs would be happy to sacrifice one season for that sort of benefit. 

42 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

At 1/2 time the camera cut to our rooms.  Jones, Lewis and Viney sat looking despondently and blankly into space.  No talk between them or with other players. 

In that moment I knew we had no chance.

I expect our leaders to show some energy, get around the players, especially the young ones, give them some encouragement.  Show they care. Nope. Nothing. 

Lead and they will follow.  Don't lead and we become like Brown's cows.

We supporters deserve better than that from our so called leaders. 

That's a fair observation. I stormed off to get booze during the half time break, but this doesn't surprise me. There is still a clear lack of leadership and comradery for the most part. Even with Hawthorn down now you still see Hodge patrolling the rooms and boundary line clapping his teammates and barking orders. We still miss that an it doesn't look like changing any time soon.

53 minutes ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

We also have too many players who don't maximise their disposals.

Nails it for me. Time and time again, the ball would come into the forward half or the centre, but fail to reach a target. Hunt, Harmes and ANB stand-outs in this aspect, but it also includes players like Tyson, Petracca Jones & Viney.

It creates opportunities for the opposition, robs us of momentum, and most importantly, limits our scoring ability, which when all's said and done, is why we're losing matches. We're not scoring enough, and we're not scoring enough because our delivery into the forward line (and around the ground in general) is often poor. Only 10 goals in each of the last two matches says it all.

Getting the ball is only half the battle. I'm afraid that until we either improve our disposal, or bring in players who are skilled with the ball in hand, we'll continue to be not-quite-there.

5 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

That's a fair observation. I stormed off to get booze during the half time break, but this doesn't surprise me. There is still a clear lack of leadership and comradery for the most part. Even with Hawthorn down now you still see Hodge patrolling the rooms and boundary line clapping his teammates and barking orders. We still miss that an it doesn't look like changing any time soon.

10 seconds of a half time break is a fair observation?  Spare me.

16 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Strangely tho....after quarter time we beat them. 7.2 to 6.7

Remember we had a strong wind for two of those quarters. 

1 hour ago, praha said:

And just like that, we're out of the 8.

How depressing.

And predictable. 

Loved Max's game. He is one tough son of a gun!

Well finals is now out of our hands. If the teams above and around us win we can't make it regardless of what we do

i could have handled a loss today but that first half was horrible. They doubled our tackles FFS! All I ask is effort

Bloody soft melbourne

3 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Well finals is now out of our hands. If the teams above and around us win we can't make it regardless of what we do

i could have handled a loss today but that first half was horrible. They doubled our tackles FFS! All I ask is effort

Bloody soft melbourne

Today wouldn't have matter if we dealt with North like we were supposed to. Ultimately if we miss it'll be losses like that we look back on, like losing to Carlton last year, Saints twice, and so on and so on. We have found ourselves in touch with the 8 for most of the past 2 seasons yet have faltered badly when it matters. If anyone tries to find "improvement" in a team that finishes mid table two years in a row, I'll neck myself.

23 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Strangely tho....after quarter time we beat them. 7.2 to 6.7

I know. 

But in the last they rested some good players and went into 'injury minimisation' mode.

6 minutes ago, america de cali said:

Remember we had a strong wind for two of those quarters. 

Yeah good point there. Guess what i alluding to, is that we played that shocking 15mins again, which has happened so many times this year. Still learning I guess.

8 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

And predictable. 

Damn you good for nothin Boos.

28 minutes ago, praha said:

GWS played a run and carry game and trusted their skills to make the cross across field to free up space. Oliver being the first handball in a chain isn't the problem, it's his teammates who try short 15 meter chips down the line, or miss handball targets from 10 meters away. Take Oliver out of the equation and I reckon we are a 3-4 less win side. Your greatly understated his influence.

I said FA about his influence.

He needs to kick the ball more. Whether that's an adjustment in game plan or what I don't know.

He needs to kick more.

5 minutes ago, McQueen said:

I said FA about his influence.

He needs to kick the ball more. Whether that's an adjustment in game plan or what I don't know.

He needs to kick more.

What's calling for him to kick more if it's not a critique on his influence? 

It was a costly mistake (again) not starting TMac as a loose man into the wind IMO.