4 hours ago, rjay said:

I question some of his judgement calls but that goes with the territory, he's still an immature coach.

The problem with those 23 more inside 50's was the positioning of forwards and the bombing of the ball.

The game plan fell well short when we moved forward, we need to provide and look for targets.

Some times we need to finesse the ball movement a bit more and not just go full tilt.

The Cats where waiting for it and it's what we gave them.

It became easy for them to repel our forward thrusts...

Do you really think the game plan is to just hoof it on top of a pack where the Cats defenders have a +1 or 2?

3 hours ago, the rolling fog said:

We were out on our feet and cramping in the 4th qtr. We should be able to run out the first game of the year

The first game of the year is the hardest to run out due to lack of match conditioning

2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

 

OMac and Wagner were terrible. Lever in the first half was terrible.

 

Sorry but Omac was not terrible got outmuscled by Hawkins once but he's not Robinson Crusoe there.

Wagner was good in the second half. 

Jetta who I love was by far our worst defender today and Hunt was poor

2 hours ago, Axis of Bob said:

I'm not going to read the last 14 pages because ..... well I'm sure you know!

It was an interesting game of completely contrasting styles. We played a hard nosed contested style of footy, while Geelong played very uncontested footy. It shows that there is more than one way to skin a cat (not pun intended). They held possession and then counterattacked through the corridor, often successfully. This meant that they had a lot of easy goals and one on one opportunities, while we often scrambled the ball forward and held it in with pressure.

Our game plan requires us to put pressure on and make the opposition's possessions messy. When that drops off we don't give our defenders much of a chance. I think our game style will be successful against good teams.

I think we were clearly the better team today. But in the times where Geelong had the ascendancy, we allowed them to score too heavily. 

I'm still bullish about the season, even though we lost a winnable game.

Um, when? We barely laid a tackle inside 50 and this was one of the sole reasons we lost the game.

4 hours ago, olisik said:

Goodwin’s Game day coaching is questionable. Always is being out coached 

I am of the belief that Goodwin is actually our weakest link. Shows zero passion, and is absolutely hopeless as a game day motivator.

Anyone who ignores things like our atrocious record against Norf is not a leader of men. He might be loved by the players, but they need someone to inspire them, not someone to give them cuddles. 

Not a fan.

 

12 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Sorry but Omac was not terrible got outmuscled by Hawkins once but he's not Robinson Crusoe there.

Wagner was good in the second half. 

Jetta who I love was by far our worst defender today and Hunt was poor

I just remembered the last time Nev played as poorly as he did today and it was against the same opposition in our 100 point spanking at the end of 2016. He was terrible that day too. I can't remember if he was playing on Menzel that day though, but that dill loves playing us.

5 hours ago, ding said:

lol take your meds Chris. I have looked after more disabled people than you and Hardtack combined during my nursing career. You are lashing out after a loss like other "tards do.

Get over yourself nuffer.

If that’s how you refer to your patients you chose the wrong profession 

1 minute ago, Goffer said:

If that’s how you refer to your patients you chose the wrong profession 

lol my residents love me. You show you know nothing about the caper when you assume they are patients

 

Jog on Nuffer.

Nothing has changed on this website!

That was one of the best games I've seen us play in years and everyone on here is acting like we lost by 20 goals. 

We almost beat Geelong who placed 3rd last season.

1 minute ago, ILLDieADemon said:

Nothing has changed on this website!

That was one of the best games I've seen us play in years and everyone on here is acting like we lost by 20 goals. 

We almost beat Geelong who placed 3rd last season.

The passions run hot in here and fair enough.  Perspective usually starts setting in from about Tuesday morning.

Gutted. 

That's all.

1 minute ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

The passions run hot in here and fair enough.  Perspective usually starts setting in from about Tuesday morning.

We were down by 26 points at half time, we found a way to get back into the game and put our selves into a position to win the game against a really good team. I think that shows this team is starting mature as a group, I'm look forward to the season ahead.

12 minutes ago, ILLDieADemon said:

Nothing has changed on this website!

That was one of the best games I've seen us play in years and everyone on here is acting like we lost by 20 goals. 

We almost beat Geelong who placed 3rd last season.

Minus Dangerfield and a man down from the 1st quarter.

Was a weak effort.

 

1 hour ago, ding said:

I am of the belief that Goodwin is actually our weakest link. Shows zero passion, and is absolutely hopeless as a game day motivator.

Anyone who ignores things like our atrocious record against Norf is not a leader of men. He might be loved by the players, but they need someone to inspire them, not someone to give them cuddles. 

Not a fan.

 

his rhetoric about the north record I found puzzling. As a club we should be looking to put an end to an embarrassing record. they have pushed us around for a decade and you just know that internally at north they treat it as a badge of honour.

imo, dismissing the fact they have dominated us is disrespectful to them. 

own it, and put the challenge to north to maintain it. don't ignore it and act like it doesn't matter.

Geelong dominated the hawks for, what, 7 years after the 2008 GF? You just know that ate at Al Clarkson. There's no way he didn't rev the players up about it.

just another lesson for goodwin. i think it's time he stops treating this job as a teaching gig and a "journey". we're at a stage now where we shouldn't be allowing teams like geelong to constantly push us around. it's been 11 years ffs and we've only beaten them once. and as a club, there's been no direct effort to beat into them the way they did on the dreadful day in 2011.

4 hours ago, ILLDieADemon said:

We were down by 26 points at half time, we found a way to get back into the game and put our selves into a position to win the game against a really good team. I think that shows this team is starting mature as a group, I'm look forward to the season ahead.

True maturity would've had us finding a way to win today. We had some golden chances at the end (none better than Gawn) and we failed on all of them, we also had so many repeat inside 50s but kept fumbling it. 

We lack composure when it counts, today was a missed opportunity.

Imagine holding a team to 17 points in a half and still losing.

The MFC never ceases to amaze.

7 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

He never would've had the ball in the first place

Not many would have taken that pack mark Dr i agree.  More likely on the lead in a bit of space under a completely different circumstance.  Then again not many in our team who cld hit up a genuine leading forward on a regular basis....Watts being one of who cld do that as well.

9 hours ago, DemonAndrew said:

most disappointing aspect was the unwillingness to chase from f50

champion data have a stat that the teams that win provide incredible r50 defensive pressure

cats were allowed to waltz the ball out of our backline without any pressure applied to them whatsover

as senior players, garlett and melksham were particularly poor, while anb, hannan and fritsch weren't much better

hogan and pedo at least continued to try to apply defensive pressure

our small forwards were non-existent in doing so, with the exception of trac and oliver when they played their third tall role

That's why I was surprised Bugg wasn't given a game.

8 hours ago, Axis of Bob said:

We lost 10 times last year.

We won the inside 50 count in 6 of those. Of those, 4 times it was very close and twice we won by 11 (against Geelong and North).

But 23 times is a smashing and clearly a statistical outlier. We lost today because we let them score too easily when they went forward (especially early) and we struggled to carry the ball from the midfield to give our forwards clean looks. But I also think our game style will see us win a lot of inside 50 counts.

This is a damning stat and tells me we should be a regular finals team (already) if we could fix our forward line set up (personel / method of entry and organisation inside) and apply a high level of forward pressure once its in there.  The current personel and methods havent seen us win enough games when we should have.

Expect more of the same while it remains as is (in the main).  Substantial tweaking is required before we make finals.  It needs addressing....and fast.

7 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Do you really think the game plan is to just hoof it on top of a pack where the Cats defenders have a +1 or 2?

Now 'Gonzo', you're better than that. That's not what I said.

To expand.

Our game plan is to move the ball quickly into the forward line and often it seems we do this at all cost hence bombing the ball.

Toohey said in a post match interview that they know we try to move the ball quickly into the forward  and they set up for it.

Our game plan seems to be limited and doesn't cope well against a team that sets up as Geelong did yesterday.

I'm not big in the "we don't have plan B" line of thinking but I do believe we need contingencies. We're a bit too one dimensional.

32 minutes ago, rjay said:

Now 'Gonzo', you're better than that. That's not what I said.

To expand.

Our game plan is to move the ball quickly into the forward line and often it seems we do this at all cost hence bombing the ball.

Toohey said in a post match interview that they know we try to move the ball quickly into the forward  and they set up for it.

Our game plan seems to be limited and doesn't cope well against a team that sets up as Geelong did yesterday.

I'm not big in the "we don't have plan B" line of thinking but I do believe we need contingencies. We're a bit too one dimensional.

Same problem we had last year

We have learned nothing and the coaching staff dont seem able to make an appropriate plan, very dissapointing.

11 hours ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

Away from melbourne. Day less recovwry.  Heartbreaking loss. Mentally fragile group. Blokes that can't hit a target. Lost to a Cats side with 3 down and a bunch of debutantes

Yep, How typically Melbourne!

after finally getting to watch the game on reply, a few observations:

-i am shocked by the criticism the team got. they tried their guts out (bar that second qtr). so much learnt from a game like that (annoying to say, but true). cats were better than i expected, they have some good young players now and will be top four again.  

-not a huge fan of wagner, but he made the opposition earn it today. also got involved up the ground. no way he goes out

-too much up & under inside 50.. was that the strategy?! at times it felt as though it was?? were the coaching staff expecting fritsch, garlett and hannan to pick up the crumbs better than they did? if this was the plan, it should've been adjusted. LOWER YOUR EYES FFS

-loved out physicality. the cats players will be very sore after their win (small consolation)

 

12 hours ago, Bay Riffin said:

Well those weakened players just didn’t miss targets in the first half. We hit a team on song and almost snatched it. 

Yes 1 year in and I think Goodwin is still learning. One straight kick and we would be back slapping late into the night. 

You must be kidding. 

Geelong were undermanned and beat us at nearly full strength. 

We could even leave out some of our better players. Goody said we had 30 to choose from. 

No back slapping if we had of won, because we would only have pinched it from the side who deserved to win and showed us how to play with their team of unknown kids. 

10 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

They were missing Dangerfield and Henderson, both of whom play equally big roles. They also lost Taylor early.

If we don't have the list depth to cover for a midfielder or a second tall forward, why are we being spoken of as a flag contender?

Obviously not having Viney or TMac hurts and makes us worse, but if we want to play finals this year, we can't use their absences as excuses.

I absolutely agree that we can’t use absesnces as an excuse, what I don’t get is people that use absences for Geelong as a reason we are worse than we looked. People can’t have it both ways. 

I am not saying you have done that by the way but some in here have.