Post Match Discussion - Round 5

[Sigil 1,001]

I'm usually pretty rosy... But I have some serious doubts at the moment.

[jumbo returns 6,741]

Tige's forward pressure is immense....scary good

[Webber 10,465]

We are playing head-shakingly dumb football, and seem incapable (coaching?) of doing things differently when it hasn't worked the previous 6 times. This makes us predictable, and horribly horribly horribly easy to play against. Add to this that half the team seems to have had their confidence shot, with a sudden disappearance of the apparent depth and competition for spots that was being touted pre-season, and we've regressed 3 years. There's something badly wrong in and around this team, because they give off no sense of wanting to dig in. Very worrying, and finals are absolutely out of the question, unless Jack Viney and Tom McDonald inspire some kind of revolution.

[Demon Dynasty 17,109]

41 minutes ago, leucopogon said:

For a start, Fritsch is a lock for the rest of the season, the only one who can regularly hit targets by foot. Drop Harmes and Stretch and Tyson. So many passengers this week, Hannan will be in for sure, who else? JKH? Spargo? Maynard? Baker? It's good old deck chairs on the Titanic yet again.

To me these are all either NQRs or a work in progress leaco. 

For me the only option on offer at Casey, outside of the emergencies this week (Fritsch....who should have played ahead of stretch tonight) who can step straight back in next week and should ....is Pedders.  Fritsch one of the few clean ball users and clever decision makers should never have been dropped tonight either and technically wont be coming back from Casey.  But you can be assured he will be straight back in.

Hannan and Spargo the only other two maybes at this point further down the track.  Mind you Hannan couldn't be any worse than ANB and Stretch so might be a show for next week, along with Pedders.  Spargo a rough outsider also but would rather see him in for the Saints, Suns & Blues as a safer play.  Spargo could end up being a real goer given enough time and work.

Maynard is a work in progress.  Another inside player (we really need clean outsiders with a turn of speed and footy smarts, not more insiders though).  Although he might be a back up inside for Viney IF Viney has trouble getting back.  The biggest issue with Maynard is his disposal.  And we have plenty with those issues running around already.

Baker does show glimpses but IMO isn't anywhere near AFL level at this stage.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Rusty Nails

[Axis of Bob 11,804]

We ran out of legs. You could see it at the game that they just outran us and got easy goals.

[praha 11,240]

I don't even care anymore. It's really not worth it.

[davo 209]

1 hour ago, SaberFang said:

Christ, why couldn't we have gotten Dew? Has the Suns playing like superstars and he's been there a few months. Goodwin's "game plan" (that's being generous) has been found out and he clearly has no answers.

Speaking of, I've never seen such an inept "game plan". It seems more focused on exhausting our players than SCORING GOALS. You can only handball around in circles so many times before you turn the ball over, and when your players are too exhausted to defend, it results in easy goals against. So what the [censored] is this [censored], Goodwin? IT. CLEARLY. ISN'T. WORKING.

Just so glad we have this year's draft to look forwar... oh, that's right, we gave up our (probably) top 5 pick to Adelaide in this year's draft. Joy!

Goodwin is not the man, he was trying to put a good spin on a 46 point loss, he’s fricking pathetic, so bloody angry, Harmes, ANB, Stretch not up to it, Garlett needs a couple at Casey. We need to get Roos back or anyone who knows how to coach 

Edited April 24, 2018 by davo

[Webber 10,465]

3 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

It's very Melbourne-like. Happens repeatedly every week. Often resulting in a cheap goal out the back

Yep. It's almost comical how fundamentally dumb this is, but it just keeps happening, again and again and again. 

[SaberFang 7,151]

What the hell happened to the high-scoring Demons? Last year we were sacrificing Roos' defensive structures but the outcome was higher scoring.

Now we're leaking goals to the opposition all over the ground and sruggling to score at all. Essentially, we've sacrificed both offence AND defence.

I've concluded that something is seriously wrong with our coaching. So many of our players have gone backwards at lightspeed.

[Deemented Are Go! 3,677]

39 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

I think the structure of our side is almost right.  We miss Viney and T Mac, and our some of our fringe players are well down on confidence, but I like how we set up tonight.  Weideman straightened us up, did some good things and wasn't disgraced when he pinch hitted in the ruck either.  Lever played his best game for the club and linked up well with O Mac, while Jetta and Hibberd looked much better as well.

Add in two of our leaders and get our confidence back up and we're back in the season.  However, that's going to take some tweaking of the game plan and some hard work over the next few rounds for that to happen.

Wise, you’ve got some serious zen going on dude, hats off. 

Nashers OP sums it up for me. Right now I’m on the [censored] edge. 

Good - 

Levers game, Wagner’s 1st q, Omac 1 on 1 , Melksham finding the goals, clarry carries on, Gawns dominance, Weeds endeavour, Hibberd and Jetta finding some form, Jones as usual, (flashes of) hunts pace off half back 

 

Bad- 

Gawns bloody hitouts to nowhere, stretch and nibbler playing like U12s, Hogan’s marking/decision making/post hitting (but involved) , Garletts (lack of) game, Harmes playing tough guy/hero, Trac nowhere, Kent hammy, Tyson critical turnovers, the good old every bloke up for the pack mark trick, Bernie cooked, long periods of ball inside forward half with no reward 

Ugly -

ANOTHER PATHETIC ROLLOVER, predictable long down the line ball movement, skills, seemingly broken game plan, having the horribly catchy ‘Tigerland’ song stuck in my head for 48 [censored] hours 

 

Im going to bed now. 

Edited April 24, 2018 by Deemented Are Go!

[Monty Kaufman 44]

Can't believe I got up at 5am to watch that tripe.  Probably a good thing I'm in the States, where nobody cares about "footee". Although I will probably see a Richmond guernsey today.. I wish we showed more fight than that last quarter. That was horrible. The next 4 weeks will decide our fate for 2018. We need to (and should) win all four, but if we can't kick goals we can't win games. I think if we end up 4 and 5, we are toast. Our run home is tough. 

 

That said, we are one win behind where I thought we would be after 5 games.. But the way we've lost the last two can't be tolerated, and shouldn't be tolerated by supporters who have been through a lot of carp in the last decade..

[Jaded No More 68,915]

3 minutes ago, Axis of Bob said:

We ran out of legs. You could see it at the game that they just outran us and got easy goals.

They were scoring easy shots out the back all game. Yes the last was the worst, but they kept scoring so easily while we wasted 20 inside 50s for 1 goal. Again.

Also got slaughtered in clearances. 

[The Swimming Dee 1,904]

9 minutes ago, Elegt said:

harmes missed a large amount of tackles tonight.. Higgins isn't fast, he's just  good old fashioned small forward nothing too fancy, with no glaring  deficiencies

Harmes deficiencies are he is very fumbly. Not Robinson Crusoe there

[pinkshark 950]

15 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Bonus points for squeezing [censored], dumb arse and twit into a single line.

Unfortunately, all that excellent work is undone by the tautology. Still, a commendable effort.

Thank you.  I'm a good judge of character.  Saying it twice, and all in one line.  Keeping it simple for you.

[Age 485]

We actually look like a team that doesn’t have a coach. There is no structure, no gameplay, no anything. 

Does gawn actually do any work with our midfielders? He doesn’t seem to know who is on our team, especially when it is in the forward line. 

The backline all fly for a ball like it is kick to kick in the schoolyard. 

The forward line? Well on paper we have one but I am yet to actually one out on the field. 

Either the players all hate the coach and refuse to do what he says or he isn’t telling them anytihing. I actually believe it is both. 

[dl4e 5,851]

We are just not good enough. And I have been saying that for over 50 years. I am disgusted.

[Adam The God 30,243]

1 hour ago, Wiseblood said:

Put aside the last 15 minutes.  We ran out of juice, the Tigers are reigning premiers and they got some cheap goals.  It wasn't similar at all to last weekend.

But, there were some key moments tonight that contributed to the loss, and they were moments we are having too often to be a consistent side.

The first one is our forward line and not taking our chances.  In the third term especially we dominated for a large period and, while we did kick a few, it should have been more.  We fluffed some chances, Hogan hits the post... we just couldn't put our domination on the scoreboard.  They go down, get a cheap goal and it really hurts.  The goal at the end of the third term was the one that hurt us the most - Lloyd getting a cheap goal out the back took their lead above 3 goals and we had nothing to show for our efforts.

The second is the little things - too many people up in the contest, two players going for the same ground ball, fumbling in key areas, missing simple targets and so on.  We do them too often.  To be a top class side you need to pick the damn thing up, then spread and support.  We CAN do it, we just don't do it often enough.  It's our 'bottom six' that do it the most - ANB, Harmes, Wagner etc.  They just don't do things first time.

I don't think the scoreline reflects the effort we put in and the pressure we were able to apply.  It's a shame, but switch off against a good side and that's what happens.

On the positive side, I thought Gawn was immense, Hogan had another great night, Weideman showed some promising signs before fading (he did well in the ruck, too), Melksham kicked 4 and did a great defensive job on Rance, while guys like Salem, Oliver and Trac tried hard but didn't get enough support.  I also thought O Mac and Lever played their best game together.

I think Goodwin tried a few different things but, in the end, it wasn't enough and we fell back into the bad habits that are costing us games of footy.  Until we eradicate those then we can't move forward.

I think we can beat the Bombers at Etihad and I think we'll enjoy playing in conditions that aren't condusive to fumbling.  We've played the Lions, Hawks and now Tigers in slippery conditions and struggled with it in two of them.  I'll be interested to see how we go without it next week.

Keep your chin up if you can, everyone.  I think we can still improve from here and become the side we all want it to be.  There is just lots of work ahead for the club to do.

You know I like your posts mate. They're usually measured, thoughtful etc but this post offers no solutions. To me it seems a bit like blind faith, unless there are things about our game style that you think will start to win us games.

I know we were playing the Premiers tonight, but our system is broken and our team is completely bereft of confidence. We need to try something new.

I'd also love to know what Goodwin tried tonight that was anything more than an extremely aggressive press (the most aggressive for the year) and not playing our wingman as spares up forward and back.

[Docs Demons 1,791]

21 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Maybe we are just an average side

You have nailed it DB. No A Graders and plenty of good VFL players that are not up to AFL standard . 60 plus 40 odd point losses means we are not good enough and need to bring in players that can run, spread and more importantly kick the friggin thing to our players and not the other side. Our skills are terrible.

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

7 minutes ago, Axis of Bob said:

We ran out of legs. You could see it at the game that they just outran us and got easy goals.

I’ve said this many times before but our style of play requires so much effort, often for very lttle reward. No surprise we are tired.

[layzie 33,796]

We were never gonna win that game it doesn’t matter which way you slice it. Don’t tell me the weather played a massive part because while we were way too fumbly and not clean with our skills while Richmond seemed slick and composed whenever they had it. The Tigers are playing such smart footy right now and always find runners when they need them.

The night was summed up here: we had 2 goals to half time, kicked by our pinch hitting half forward, who kicked one from a dodgy free. Seriously, we never looked like kicking a goal in that first half. Run and carry was non existent, partially because Richmond don’t let you. They defend the G better than anyone. 

Some of our general skills were just appalling at times tonight. Good to see since Jayden Hunt’s stay in the VFL he’s totally forgotten how to kick. ANB, Harmes, Stretch were all useless. The only player on our list who has improved is Omac. 

We are not good enough, simple as that. And when the game is not on our terms we stink. I’ve had enough of this for now.

Get stuffed 

[SPC 3,549]

Coach is no good.. Roos is better at delivery of effort and results 

[Demon Dynasty 17,109]

42 minutes ago, Wrecker45 said:

There are a lot of buzz words in football. About 10 years ago it was switching play. For some reason we kick down the line every time and never switch. 

I watched Casey last Sunday and they do the same.

it is not difficult to switch occasionally and keep them guessing.

it’s not a cutting edge new game plan to switch it but neither is kicking down the line every fucken time

I couldn't agree more Wrecker and if you watch the last quarter the Toiges showed us how you do this both across half back and then another switch across the park just outside the 50 arc, then delivered inside to the flanks hitting up a number of free targets that had already lead across to the other side, prior the switch.  The amount of leading work and forward 50 pressure brought by the Toiges tonight made us look amateur at times.

The Tigers worked their butts off and, their delivery to each other while doing so, was first class.

What the Demons don't get is, you have to work your butt off to keep possession....then still FINISH to stay in possession!  If you don't ...then you are doomed to work it off even more when you are chasing your opponent's butt all over the park because they are doing what you should but aren't willing and/or capable of doing so.  Switching, hitting targets, stretching your opponent and finishing off inside 50.  Will we ever learn some of these ball movement basic 101s??

Edited April 24, 2018 by Rusty Nails

[Docs Demons 1,791]

Also it would be nice if Gawn could actually tap the ball to our players instead of opposition. How many times did he hit to Tiges players. Dusty got a few freebies from him. Love Gawn to bits but he and his mates in the middle need to fix this shite up real quick.

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

1 minute ago, layzie said:

We were never gonna win that game it doesn’t matter which way you slice it. Don’t tell me the weather played a massive part because while we were way too fumbly and not clean with our skills while Richmond seemed slick and composed whenever they had it. The Tigers are playing such smart footy right now and always find runners when they need them.

The night was summed up here: we had 2 goals to half time, kicked by our pinch hitting half forward, who kicked one from a dodgy free. Seriously, we never looked like kicking a goal in that first half. Run and carry was non existent, partially because Richmond don’t let you. They defend the G better than anyone. 

Some of our general skills were just appalling at times tonight. Good to see since Jayden Hunt’s stay in the VFL he’s totally forgotten how to kick. ANB, Harmes, Stretch were all useless. The only player on our list who has improved is Omac. 

We are not good enough, simple as that. And when the game is not on our terms we stink. I’ve had enough of this for now.

Get stuffed 

Fair summary.

[Go the Biff 3,420]

1 minute ago, Clint Bizkit said:

I’ve said this many times before but our style of play requires so much effort, often for very lttle reward. No surprise we are tired.

Especially when you are chasing opposition backsides most of the night. I put the last quarter less down to white flagging it than just being knackered