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2017 Post Mortem

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What a disappointment.

We got completely [censored] by injuries this year. GWS had the depth to deal with it. We did not

The two rucks, Viney, Jones, Brayshaw, Hogan. You just can't afford to have any of your best players out for longer periods in such an even competition.

Having depth guys like Garland, AVB, both Smith's and more out for practically the whole season meant we relied to much on our fringe players like Harmes and Stretch.

Hoping next year we can add to our list and guys like Smith and Maynard can step up to the next level.

 

 
  On 27/08/2017 at 10:58, DSP said:

Is Omac really getting better? Well 'better' at a rate that is acceptable. That dinky kick from him in the 3rd directly to the opposition was the exact moment my wife and I left yesterday. It was inexcusable. I dont want to single out individual players, but he exemplifies the standard we set. Its not good enough.

Hibbo had a shocker yesterday, but he should be the bech mark for our defense. Him and Jetta are really the only ones that can say they had a consistent year.

 

 

 

Spud. Wont make it no intensity or physical presence at all.

We will never win a flag with the two McDonalds in the team.


  On 27/08/2017 at 10:17, Dockett 32 said:

Playing group have caused destruction for the future in final round in so many ways.

Feel so sorry for those running the club and developing the brand.

Next year has just  been made so much more difficult.

Absolutely no sympathy with the playing group. It was a truly shameful effort from all of them.

 

 

 

Not just the players, the coaches who failed to get them up for the fight.  Do we need a sports psychologist?

Think that Goodwin should have embraced finals rather than round 23 being just another match.  So much a stake we should have come out breathing fire!

Im so annoyed, just saw the finals fixture and we would have been playing on the saturday night. I just wanted a crack at port. 

Dont go on twiiter. We are the laughing stock and some moron has decided to start this put out your cheese platter picture for sympathy for us. 

Can we bring on the ashes now? 

We weren't good enough this season and when you lose to Freo, Hawthorn and for whatever reason North Melbourne twice we really don't deserve it. 

I wish Goodwin would speak with a bit more emotion like Clarko does, Goodwin looks like he's reading off a teleprompter in his press conferences everything so scripted. Clarko's passion (anger) had Hawthorn soar to a premiership in 2008. I'm sure Goodwin will have success but you can't win a premiership by using a manual

Collingwood supporters booing Jack Watts...well I'm glad there going nowhere fast they only good thing to come out of yesterday is that Buckley will get another 2 years 

 

Our defence is very limited. Average size, kicking, pretty average marking, Hibberd stands out as a star. Our defence is so limited we have to put back aging midfielders to make up the numbers. 

  On 27/08/2017 at 11:09, Jerry Lundergard said:

I am with you on OMac, there is no way anyone can convince me he is any good.  If we do get Lever next year, he should be at Casey for the majority of the season and only come in as depth player.

600 feet under water


  On 27/08/2017 at 11:08, Clint Bizkit said:

Fair summary.

I would just add the overall complacency of our players.

I was going to do another post on this specifically.

Who didn't stand up in the first quarter?

And who didn't show up against Freo, Haw and NM?

That is the root of this violent drama - the arrogance of young men who can't be convinced to apply themselves consistently in their privilege.

  On 27/08/2017 at 10:06, Chook said:

This has been a very difficult year for many of our players. We had a first-year coach who did a lot right but failed on several key occasions. Others will talk about the players, so I want to talk about Goodwin. I never talked about Neeld because his flaws were many and obvious. Goodwin has only a few things wrong with the way he does things. I'm going to name 2 in particular.

  1. The way he treated the Bugg social media stuff
  2. The self-professed approach of not talking about finals in the lead up to the game that would decide whether we were in or not.

On the first point, I don't have much issue with his response; that we want to be respectful and professional. My problem is that he distanced himself from his players by saying "That's foreign to me." If it's foreign, fine; but as a senior coach its Goodwin's job to understand his players and what interests them. That's the only way to motivate people — by understanding what gets them going.
   By chastising our players after one of our best performances of the year against the Bulldogs while simultaneously saying he didn't understand social media, Goodwin undermined his credibility and badly damaged our players' confidence. On that note, Tomas Bugg is a very important player to the fabric of our football club. I hope he is given the credit he deserves for our strongest month of footy this year.

On the lack of talk about finals, I think this was a terrible mistake to make with a team so young. Almost every player on our list has never played in a final before; we had to talk about it because they were all thinking about it. That we didn't talk about it meant that they all had to work it out for themselves what they were feeling and how they would approach Round 23. It wasn't until our match against Collingwood was almost over that we seemed to finally get on the same page and approach the game in a unified way. Failure to communicate is just not acceptable as a senior coach.

You do realize that what a Coach says publicly and privately may be completely different.

For example: he may privately absolutely give it to them, but publicly only say it was disappointing.

Although it stings, limping into 8th isn't the big picture. It's about winning our elusive 13th premiership. We have the nucleus of a good side however the last third of the season was a brutal reality check. Its not really a question of do we need either lever or kelly. Truth is we probably need at least 6 more quality players.

It's likely we are 2-3 years away from going deep into September. Until then we need to keep developing these young kids (another 15-25% improvement) and make some strategic acquisitions. And hopefully learn that although there are some things you cant control in footy - you can always control your endeavor. Never can we repeat that tripe they served up in the 1st quarter yesterday!

Failed season.

This is far more damaging than what it seems.

A finals team would have boosted 2018 memberships and should have helped in recruiting players from other clubs.

Not good enough. We let too many easy games slip this year.

  On 27/08/2017 at 11:09, Jerry Lundergard said:

I am with you on OMac, there is no way anyone can convince me he is any good.  If we do get Lever next year, he should be at Casey for the majority of the season and only come in as depth player.

Omac I actually believed did improve this year but he was coming from such a low base that putting his boots on the right feet each week got him a pat on the back. 

My biggest issue with him is his complete lack of awareness. So many times he sets himself for a marking contest and doesn't end up impacting it at all. Doesn't even get close to the ball or when he does get a fist on it he punches it to where our players aren't or spoils one of our players. 

Unfortunately I don't believe awareness can be improved to a great extent. You have either got it or you don't. He doesn't. 


  On 27/08/2017 at 11:14, Je Roos Salem said:

Our defence is very limited. Average size, kicking, pretty average marking, Hibberd stands out as a star. Our defence is so limited we have to put back aging midfielders to make up the numbers. 

Remove one O.Mcdonald and B.Vince, add the other Mcdonald brother up forward, explain to Hunt that he has options and add a Jake Lever and we are looking a hell of a lot better.

An average of less than 1/2 a point per game! That was the difference between playing and not playing finals.

But what bothers me is that when teams just miss out like we did this year, they can sometimes go backwards for a year afterwards (see Saints this year after just missing out last year).

So what do I think needs to happen - Well I agree with an earlier post that said that we tired during the last few weeks of the year. A few weeks back I said that the injuries to experienced players during the middle of the year meant that our younger players weren't getting the opportunity to be rested for general soreness at critical times. Another pre-season into our still young list will help overcome this if we happen to have a similar run of injuries next year (hell forbid).  For those lamenting our disposal efficiency, we were almost smack on the AFL average for this, and look we finished mid-table. So some improvement to this will mean a big difference to how we go next year too.

Overall - not all sweetness and light, but not all gloom and doom either.

  On 27/08/2017 at 11:14, sc93 said:

We weren't good enough this season and when you lose to Freo, Hawthorn and for whatever reason North Melbourne twice we really don't deserve it. 

I wish Goodwin would speak with a bit more emotion like Clarko does, Goodwin looks like he's reading off a teleprompter in his press conferences everything so scripted. Clarko's passion (anger) had Hawthorn soar to a premiership in 2008. I'm sure Goodwin will have success but you can't win a premiership by using a manual

Collingwood supporters booing Jack Watts...well I'm glad there going nowhere fast they only good thing to come out of yesterday is that Buckley will get another 2 years 

Goodwin will probably not win a premiership with MFC, He has no idea how to motivate a team to perform against opposition it SHOULD put to the sword. So far he has been a huge mistake.

Give me Northey or Danners any day of the week.

 

 

We need players who have a point to prove. A chip on the shoulder and an absolute burning desire to overcome this stupid stigma that is associated with this club. Unfortunately it still feels like we have too many yes men smiley smiley numpties running around who are making their bucks anyway.

I nearly fell over when I heard on here that the players were in good spirits after yesterday's loss. My god if there is ever a time I want to hear that they were NOT in good spirits that was it. Pathetic 


  On 27/08/2017 at 11:11, Zoiikgarden said:

Not just the players, the coaches who failed to get them up for the fight.  Do we need a sports psychologist?

Think that Goodwin should have embraced finals rather than round 23 being just another match.  So much a stake we should have come out breathing fire!

Right now, this sums it up for me and that's my only concern. 

The talk of which players should be axed or traded will come in October and we will have plenty of time to discuss all summer.

Some of the players people want out are the reason we won 12 games this year and some of them very exciting but I want answers on what happened between 1.45pm and 2.15pm yesterday.

 

  On 27/08/2017 at 11:11, Clint Bizkit said:

I'm calling it now, we will win less games in 2018 than this year. 

Some would then say we over achieved this season and everything is where we should be at if that is the case.

  On 27/08/2017 at 11:07, rpfc said:

Post Mortem:

How about we do a bit a 'compliment sandwich'...

Amazing wins against Crows, Bombers, WBs, and WCE all away from home.

Unforgivable losses against Freo, Haw, and NM (x2)

Goodwins exciting gameplan

Goodwins baffling blunders in windy conditions (NM and GWS)

Aggression all year at the ball and man

Suspensions to key players that cost us wins (and percentage? Ooooh, too soon?)

 

The greatness of Oliver, Jetta, and Hibberd

The development of ANB and Oscar McD 

The patchiness of Tyson, Harmes, Pedersen, Hannan, Petracca, Melksham, Lewis, Bugg, Garlett, Tom McD, and Hunt

The stalling of Salem, Watts, Gawn, Brayshaw, Stretch, Kent, Frost, Weideman and JKH

The decline of Vince

The injuries to Garland, VDB, Jones, Hogan, Viney

The existence on the list of Wagner, White, Kennedy, Spencer, King, Hulett

 

These are the things that come to mind to explain why we have failed once again; failed when we shouldn't have.

 

What about the injuries to Gawn , Watts and Brayshaw (that was nearly a full season injury) as well as Hogan,Jones& Viney .

Frost's strength was running, his weakness was getting rid of it. He is still a young footballer.

Stretch , Weiderman and JKH are still development players

Brayshaw, ANB and Hannan are also development players, but have moved ahead of a few.

Tyson (Delivery), Petracca ( where does he fit ?) and Hunt (defence and disposal)

TMac (as a Fwd) or settle him into defence where he rates pretty highly in AFL ranking.

In our haste to crucify any player on the list we have forgotten the efforts of Watts and Peddersen & TMac who shouldered our ruckwork for over half the season. Jack Watts is not exactly built like a ruckman and must have placed enormopus stress on his body in that time. 

As our Coach says, we are a developing side and has consistently said it where we finish AFTER round 23 that gives us our ranking. There are still 8 sides who would like to be in our position.

Already I can see next year as being better  because we will learn from this experience. Let's be fair

 
  On 27/08/2017 at 11:16, bringbackthebiff said:

Although it stings, limping into 8th isn't the big picture. It's about winning our elusive 13th premiership. We have the nucleus of a good side however the last third of the season was a brutal reality check. Its not really a question of do we need either lever or kelly. Truth is we probably need at least 6 more quality players.

It's likely we are 2-3 years away from going deep into September. Until then we need to keep developing these young kids (another 15-25% improvement) and make some strategic acquisitions. And hopefully learn that although there are some things you cant control in footy - you can always control your endeavor. Never can we repeat that tripe they served up in the 1st quarter yesterday!

I want to make the finals more than I want a premiership

Never been this pizzed as a Dees fan.

It's hard to single out one moment in a season of incredible highs and inexplicable lows,  but that first quarter yesterday was a dagger in the heart. 

I cannot fathom we were not ready to tear that game apart, and our coach and leaders are to blame. 

Gutted 


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