Post Match Discussion - Round 5

[DeeSpencer 23,061]

1 minute ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

It is embarrassing but he literally does that every single match; the guys a freak.

Had a very quiet night tonight though.

Didn't get the return for it up the field but Gawn, Oliver and Jones in particular did enough in the guts to keep Martin playing there and not able to go forward for large chunks. We kept them honest that way. And we kept Martin under pressure and bouncing from one fend to the other largely without sprinting away from contests and being dangerous with the ball.

Many of his possessions went:
A) Fend, fend, fend, uncalled throw
Or
B) Fend, fend, fend, shanked kick to no one.

[Surfer Dee 210]

Of all the over the top melt downs on here tonight, I have no idea why Weideman is in the firing line. Great game from a young key forward. Crashed packs, took a few grabs, showed some aggression. What's he played? 10-15 games? sheesh. He'll kick a bag if we stick with him this year. Some seem to make a decision on players and then ignore what they see in front of their eyes. 

Gutted with the loss. But the pressure we applied with some improved skills and efficiency inside 50 will be good enough to take care of most teams in the comp. The blowout was completely understandable for me. It wasn't that we couldn't keep up anymore, it was how much effort we'd put into getting back into the game for no reward. It's completely demoralising. My brain was ready to melt and I was exerting no physical energy. A few cleaner chains of possessions, Hogan kicks that goal and we're in front midway through the last. That makes all the difference to the mindset of our players when it comes to the effort at the end of the game. 

Our defence was very good. Oscar, Lever, Hibberd, Jetta finally clicked and you can see what the plan is here. More of this please.

It's also worth noting that Richmond are very, very good. In particular their finishing around goal. They have about 5 players who barely touch the ball except for when they get a crumb in the forward 50. One step and they goal. So clean. They make half chances into goals. So many of their goals were from contests that we did well to even up only for a wet and slippery ball to somehow pop out to their advantage. The score at the end flattered them. The game was closer than that. In terms of the closeness of the game, it felt like a 20 point loss. Which I think is about right. 

The game plan has merit and issues. We dominate the ground balls so we play chaos footy. When the ball is on the deck we look intense and control the game. It's a strength of ours so we're wise to play this way. But the result is that our disposals are constantly rushed and we're completely stuffed by the end. We just need to grab say 20% of North Melbourne's game plan where they move the ball with a bit more control and take their time. There were moments in the game where we tried to do this, but Richmond just doesn't allow uncontested marks and we fumbled too much to execute it. The backline finally worked, but Richmond shut down our ball movement. The game plan will be OK I think. 

Our biggest issue is our players. We have  some seriously out of form players who are failing to execute the game plan, or even footy fundamentals. We don't have obvious replacements for them in the twos either. Our small forwards were horrible. Players we expected to step up have gone backwards. ANB, Harmes, Jeff, Hunt, Stretch, Tyson, Vince, Wagner are all not performing to the level we expect. 

Positives are Hogan, Clarry, Gawn, Hibberd (huge tonight), Lever, Omac, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca. I think Salem, who has only played maybe 8 games as a mid, is really growing into the role. 

Add in Viney & Tmac. Maybe Balic comes in for one of Harmes and ANB. Play a few games in dry conditions. We have winnable games the next 4 rounds. Let's see where we are then. I think a few wins and a bit of confidence will make a difference. 

2018 is not going as well as we'd hoped, but it's not as bad as it feels yet. 

 

[Dockett 32 1,213]

8 goals and Melksham kicked 4 of those.

How many games of footy do you win with 8 goals?

Second tier mids have no tricks are slow and can’t score. What do they contribute ?

 

[puntkick 325]

3 hours ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

 

Is Gil paying me enough ?

[KingDingAling 3,589]

4 hours ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

 

If you lip read the missus it looks like shes says "Oh F*#k".

[praha 10,267]

4 hours ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

 

"Hello darkness my old friend..."

[Rocknroll 912]

Questionfor those at the game. Hard to see from overseas but the afl tracker has ANB and strech whith hugh kms and high kms at speed. 

 

Are they runnng around in circles? What is all this running for? Defensive positions? It is not to go get the ball. 

 

Though both were very poor, are they running around like a headless chooks? 

[samcantstandya 913]

5 hours ago, Surfer Dee said:

Of all the over the top melt downs on here tonight, I have no idea why Weideman is in the firing line. Great game from a young key forward. Crashed packs, took a few grabs, showed some aggression. What's he played? 10-15 games? sheesh. He'll kick a bag if we stick with him this year. Some seem to make a decision on players and then ignore what they see in front of their eyes. 

Gutted with the loss. But the pressure we applied with some improved skills and efficiency inside 50 will be good enough to take care of most teams in the comp. The blowout was completely understandable for me. It wasn't that we couldn't keep up anymore, it was how much effort we'd put into getting back into the game for no reward. It's completely demoralising. My brain was ready to melt and I was exerting no physical energy. A few cleaner chains of possessions, Hogan kicks that goal and we're in front midway through the last. That makes all the difference to the mindset of our players when it comes to the effort at the end of the game. 

Our defence was very good. Oscar, Lever, Hibberd, Jetta finally clicked and you can see what the plan is here. More of this please.

It's also worth noting that Richmond are very, very good. In particular their finishing around goal. They have about 5 players who barely touch the ball except for when they get a crumb in the forward 50. One step and they goal. So clean. They make half chances into goals. So many of their goals were from contests that we did well to even up only for a wet and slippery ball to somehow pop out to their advantage. The score at the end flattered them. The game was closer than that. In terms of the closeness of the game, it felt like a 20 point loss. Which I think is about right. 

The game plan has merit and issues. We dominate the ground balls so we play chaos footy. When the ball is on the deck we look intense and control the game. It's a strength of ours so we're wise to play this way. But the result is that our disposals are constantly rushed and we're completely stuffed by the end. We just need to grab say 20% of North Melbourne's game plan where they move the ball with a bit more control and take their time. There were moments in the game where we tried to do this, but Richmond just doesn't allow uncontested marks and we fumbled too much to execute it. The backline finally worked, but Richmond shut down our ball movement. The game plan will be OK I think. 

Our biggest issue is our players. We have  some seriously out of form players who are failing to execute the game plan, or even footy fundamentals. We don't have obvious replacements for them in the twos either. Our small forwards were horrible. Players we expected to step up have gone backwards. ANB, Harmes, Jeff, Hunt, Stretch, Tyson, Vince, Wagner are all not performing to the level we expect. 

Positives are Hogan, Clarry, Gawn, Hibberd (huge tonight), Lever, Omac, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca. I think Salem, who has only played maybe 8 games as a mid, is really growing into the role. 

Add in Viney & Tmac. Maybe Balic comes in for one of Harmes and ANB. Play a few games in dry conditions. We have winnable games the next 4 rounds. Let's see where we are then. I think a few wins and a bit of confidence will make a difference. 

2018 is not going as well as we'd hoped, but it's not as bad as it feels yet. 

 

I agree with everything you've said

[Wiseblood 24,636]

5 hours ago, Surfer Dee said:

Of all the over the top melt downs on here tonight, I have no idea why Weideman is in the firing line. Great game from a young key forward. Crashed packs, took a few grabs, showed some aggression. What's he played? 10-15 games? sheesh. He'll kick a bag if we stick with him this year. Some seem to make a decision on players and then ignore what they see in front of their eyes. 

Gutted with the loss. But the pressure we applied with some improved skills and efficiency inside 50 will be good enough to take care of most teams in the comp. The blowout was completely understandable for me. It wasn't that we couldn't keep up anymore, it was how much effort we'd put into getting back into the game for no reward. It's completely demoralising. My brain was ready to melt and I was exerting no physical energy. A few cleaner chains of possessions, Hogan kicks that goal and we're in front midway through the last. That makes all the difference to the mindset of our players when it comes to the effort at the end of the game. 

Our defence was very good. Oscar, Lever, Hibberd, Jetta finally clicked and you can see what the plan is here. More of this please.

It's also worth noting that Richmond are very, very good. In particular their finishing around goal. They have about 5 players who barely touch the ball except for when they get a crumb in the forward 50. One step and they goal. So clean. They make half chances into goals. So many of their goals were from contests that we did well to even up only for a wet and slippery ball to somehow pop out to their advantage. The score at the end flattered them. The game was closer than that. In terms of the closeness of the game, it felt like a 20 point loss. Which I think is about right. 

The game plan has merit and issues. We dominate the ground balls so we play chaos footy. When the ball is on the deck we look intense and control the game. It's a strength of ours so we're wise to play this way. But the result is that our disposals are constantly rushed and we're completely stuffed by the end. We just need to grab say 20% of North Melbourne's game plan where they move the ball with a bit more control and take their time. There were moments in the game where we tried to do this, but Richmond just doesn't allow uncontested marks and we fumbled too much to execute it. The backline finally worked, but Richmond shut down our ball movement. The game plan will be OK I think. 

Our biggest issue is our players. We have  some seriously out of form players who are failing to execute the game plan, or even footy fundamentals. We don't have obvious replacements for them in the twos either. Our small forwards were horrible. Players we expected to step up have gone backwards. ANB, Harmes, Jeff, Hunt, Stretch, Tyson, Vince, Wagner are all not performing to the level we expect. 

Positives are Hogan, Clarry, Gawn, Hibberd (huge tonight), Lever, Omac, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca. I think Salem, who has only played maybe 8 games as a mid, is really growing into the role. 

Add in Viney & Tmac. Maybe Balic comes in for one of Harmes and ANB. Play a few games in dry conditions. We have winnable games the next 4 rounds. Let's see where we are then. I think a few wins and a bit of confidence will make a difference. 

2018 is not going as well as we'd hoped, but it's not as bad as it feels yet. 

 

You need to post more often my friend. Well said. 

[Hot as Hell 465]

6 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I was at the Qualifying Final last year and what you describe is almost an exact replica of that game. Seeing them live tonight drilled home for me actually how good the Tigers are.

They aren't a team of champions but they are definitely well drilled. We kept going down the line because they had players set up perfectly to defend the switch into the middle. They read our centre work well. They had players in support so had the confidence to flick the ball around. They gang tackled us while our guys waited for the release but we couldn't get it to them.

We have issues with the game plan at the moment, our inability to score is baffling considering this was a strength last year. Either Goodwin has been figured out and needs to go back to the drawing board or there are some things that aren't working that can be fixed with tweaking.

Some of our players seem devoid of confidence at the moment and those "bottom 6" players who stepped last year are ALL struggling. ANB, Harmes, Stretch, Bugg etc all have gone backwards. Salem and Petracca need to find more of the footy in positions where they can use it and not just dish it out.

I thought out pressure tonight was very good. We need to take our opportunities when they present, Hogan's miss in the 3rd was unforgiveable. 3 men up and letting them get easy uncontested goals in the goal square is unacceptable. They ran away at the end but for the most part we matched their pressure and stayed with them until the last 10 or 15 minutes. I don't think things are as bad as they seem but the last 2 games have been a step backwards.

The crowd was also disappointing, 77k so 5-10k below expectation. Not sure how much that extra 5-10k cost us probably a couple hundred thousand

Spot on Dr. G. 

Last week's dismal effort against Hawthorn showed Dees fans we were the same old Melbourne. 

Why on earth would they pay to queue up for what was predictably going to be a loss against a far superior side? 

I sensed on the MFC podcast early last week PJ knew that game would cost us 10,000 bums on seats. He pretty much dismissed a huge 1 night attendance by diverting the discussion to 180,000 over 24 hours. 

Success breeds success and money just flows as a by product. An vice versa of course. PJ will be seething as much as all of us. 

[beelzebub 22,225]

8 hours ago, Redleg said:

That's a Bullsh-t comment.

I suppose you think we would have developed football skills and learned a decent gameplan at the 2 day camp.

Actually Red i totally agree with ADC

You're missing the point entirely. Camps arent about skills or gameplans... they're about mindsets, building resilience, building a relationship between themselves . The comradery, the trust , the belief is borne out of these experiences. 

Here we have a group aloof from such ideals and they play like it.

We're a rabble and we'll never be any good...well..not quite but almost.

Not quite but almost ??? Sums up our Brand absolutely. NQR should sponsor us as that's us to a T

We're an absolutely embarassing shambles.

Skills ? Plan ? Cohesion ? Nous ?

We can't win a Premiership to save ourselves, hell we couldn't take a trick at a Bingo night  playing like that. Think we're favourite to win the Laughingstock of the League trophy though.

We just pretend we play footy. We go and get supposed Coaches. We get all these 'talented' players and put on colourful garb and dance around like the Easter Bunny at a kindergarten. Can we be more inept with a ball ? 

How many fresh-air kicks does it take to make a team ? How many Too-many up for a mark does it take to make a circus ?

We must be the best team at Spotting up opposition...i mean fair dinkum we excel at it. About the only thing we do.

We're Pretenders. We have Coaches pretending they have the slightest idea of what they're doing coupled with players who pretend they have ability. 

Had Richmond been on target earlier we'd have been annihilated instead of simply dismissed.

I don't mind losing. That is if you've applied yourself to the task 100% .

We just turn up....to turn it up.

Houston, we have a problem.

[Cards13 9,117]

8 hours ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

 

Haha that is my boss walking past Bartlett, I’d already headed inside to drink free red wine.

[DeleteUser 638]

Same dross as the last 30 years.

Rubbish club - rubbish culture - rubbish acceptance of such results. Goodwin's acceptance of this is instructive.

My 3yo is "go dees" but I might steer him elsewhere. Child number 2 will be handed the keys to Victoria Park with his mother. At least they appear to have some pride.

this club is dead to me

 

[Hot as Hell 465]

One of the many problems with our game plan is we crowd our forward line leaving no space for any precision delivery to any forwards. 

Hence the long bombs and torps. 

When the inevitable skill error results in a turnover, the opposition simply need one kick or quick run and carry to clear our press and they have a totally open forward line under little pressure. 

AFL skills today are such that most players know how to spread and how to deliver the ball forward when little pressure is applied so a goal is often the result of every opposition forward 50 entry. 

In all our games this year we statistically have lots of entries into 50 without hitting the scoreboard, and our opponents have fewer entries but with higher goal success. 

No defence can be effective against a flawed game plan, so it looks like a rabble. 

Goody insists this press is part of our brand. I would call it part of our demise. Every other club knows what we will do.

We need to introduce change, and quickly or this season is over. 

Please let players play to their strengths. Hogan is a forward not a mid. It is unfair on him to expect him to switch or move the ball on quickly. He should be finding space taking marks and kicking goals all inside 50.

One pleasing thing l saw last night is the Weide seemed better able to contest the ball and ruck effectively. I would still prefer Pedo in that role, but the young bloke hasvdeveloped a bit. 

As for Harmes ANB and Billy (not an AFL level player) the less said the better. 

We did ourselves no favours with the selections this week retaining too many one paced one sized mids. Shame we have so many of them. 

Oh well. Let's see what awaits us on Sunday. Maybe Joe can be injured just enough to miss the fame against us and keep the margin down to an "honourable loss". I hate that phrase and how it has become our perennial crutch. 

[John Crow Batty 8,226]

32 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Actually Red i totally agree with ADC

You're missing the point entirely. Camps arent about skills or gameplans... they're about mindsets, building resilience, building a relationship between themselves . The comradery, the trust , the belief is borne out of these experiences. 

Here we have a group aloof from such ideals and they play like it.

We're a rabble and we'll never be any good...well..not quite but almost.

Not quite but almost ??? Sums up our Brand absolutely. NQR should sponsor us as that's us to a T

We're an absolutely embarassing shambles.

Skills ? Plan ? Cohesion ? Nous ?

We can't win a Premiership to save ourselves, hell we couldn't take a trick at a Bingo night  playing like that. Think we're favourite to win the Laughingstock of the League trophy though.

We just pretend we play footy. We go and get supposed Coaches. We get all these 'talented' players and put on colourful garb and dance around like the Easter Bunny at a kindergarten. Can we be more inept with a ball ? 

How many fresh-air kicks does it take to make a team ? How many Too-many up for a mark does it take to make a circus ?

We must be the best team at Spotting up opposition...i mean fair dinkum we excel at it. About the only thing we do.

We're Pretenders. We have Coaches pretending they have the slightest idea of what they're doing coupled with players who pretend they have ability. 

Had Richmond been on target earlier we'd have been annihilated instead of simply dismissed.

I don't mind losing. That is if you've applied yourself to the task 100% .

We just turn up....to turn it up.

Houston, we have a problem.

Conceding 14 goals in the past two final quarters with both games already  slipping away but still some hope for redemption at three quarter time shows it’s just too much hard work for this mob. They could not fight it out. A sign of a bottom 8 club.

Edited April 24, 2018 by america de cali

[Big Carl 333]

9 hours ago, rufus said:

Players embarrassed the club in the last round last year.

Players embarrassed the club in the pre-season.

There were a few different ways they could respond to those incidents and we have seen the all too familiar response. Forget about the coach. Nobody has been able to get the required level of effort from our playing group on a consistent basis over the last 30 years. There is something rotten about what is expected of these guys by the wider club. There is just no pride.

You nailed it.

I don't have time or the patience for another rebuild.

[dpositive 1,547]

9 hours 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.

Think I agree with most of this but some dumb and lazy footy really affected the result, and mainly at critical times.

still some concerns with structure, we appear static around stoppages.How do we not benefit from ruck dominance.

Liked Weeds work, he is the future but he should be played against younger sides. Pederson older harder body better in the role.

Hope Stretch gets another run to adjust to the pace of this level. Needs support from those around him.

Leadership and total team commitment lacking. Intensity and focus need to be addressed. Perhaps training needs more intensity and team building.

Hope  there is some honest and hard analysis of this.

[dazzledavey36 48,647]

7 hours ago, Elegt said:

and the club thought salem and Tyson was a good trade for kelly? what a genius move from the dees recruiting team!! then 3 years later they trade away our future in 2 first round picks for Jake lever! 

Club caves in as usual and sold the farm.. and now it's going to cost us come draft time. The need for a outside player with speed has been glaring and we've just potentially bullen thst chance by off loading our 1st round draft pick.

[GCDee 3,004]

It's frustrating as hell supporting this club.. but let's be honest our first 5 rounds have been against some strong competition.

 

Geelong top 4 last year

Norf actually looking decent this year, and a bogey team for us

Brissy the easiest game of the lot and that was a way from home. 

Hawks- still has plenty of class however we just didn't show up. 

Tigers- last year's premier's, did well to fight back but just couldn't keep it going. 

Not to mention we have a new star in lever we are trying to arrange our back 6 around and we have been with out viney and tmac two top 10 players on our list.

Looking at the next 4 rounds I antipate we will win all of them leaving us 6-3 heading into round 10 against the crows in NT. 

If you told us at the start of the year we were losing tmac and viney for the first 6-8 weeks and we got to 6-3 I would have taken that any day. 

The test is now winning the games we are expected to win. 

I am not giving up on this season yet and talking about getting rid of the coach and who to delist.

I think it's also important to note just like a game of footy the season always runs with momentum. I would prefer us to be hitting our straps toward the end of the season and having that momentum in finals than just limping over the line and getting thrashed in our first final (Essendon last year) 

 

 

[beelzebub 22,225]

Its not who we played

Its how we played.

 

[qwerty7 315]

9 hours 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.

Great post. Hope you’re right and we can still make finals from here - would be heartbreaking if we didn’t. 

 

Also terrible umpiring in 3rd quarter - I think the game could have had a different result if they weren’t on the field. The deliberate out of bounds that should have been paid to us and gave us a shot on goal ended up being a goal to the tigers, give them their 12 point lead back. Not saying it’s what cost us the game, but it cost us not going into the last quarter with more even scores.

[pinkshark 935]

38 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Actually Red i totally agree with ADC

You're missing the point entirely. Camps arent about skills or gameplans... they're about mindsets, building resilience, building a relationship between themselves . The comradery, the trust , the belief is borne out of these experiences. 

Here we have a group aloof from such ideals and they play like it.

We're a rabble and we'll never be any good...well..not quite but almost.

Not quite but almost ??? Sums up our Brand absolutely. NQR should sponsor us as that's us to a T

We're an absolutely embarassing shambles.

Skills ? Plan ? Cohesion ? Nous ?

We can't win a Premiership to save ourselves, hell we couldn't take a trick at a Bingo night  playing like that. Think we're favourite to win the Laughingstock of the League trophy though.

We just pretend we play footy. We go and get supposed Coaches. We get all these 'talented' players and put on colourful garb and dance around like the Easter Bunny at a kindergarten. Can we be more inept with a ball ? 

How many fresh-air kicks does it take to make a team ? How many Too-many up for a mark does it take to make a circus ?

We must be the best team at Spotting up opposition...i mean fair dinkum we excel at it. About the only thing we do.

We're Pretenders. We have Coaches pretending they have the slightest idea of what they're doing coupled with players who pretend they have ability. 

Had Richmond been on target earlier we'd have been annihilated instead of simply dismissed.

I don't mind losing. That is if you've applied yourself to the task 100% .

We just turn up....to turn it up.

Houston, we have a problem.

Tend to agree. 

Our coaching staff are letting us down.  We are in a bad way.  Many of the glass half full types on here are admirably saying the right things, staying positive, finding the positives in our losses, remaining level headed with sophisticated, thoughtful, level-headed posts.  They are in denial.  Terrified beyond belief that the half-glass empty types might have it right.  Terrified to admit what they know to be true. 

We seriously have a flawed game plan for our personnel.  Our 'elite' coaching team are getting this wrong.  Not the players.   

[GCDee 3,004]

4 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Its not who we played

Its how we played.

 

Hawthorn I agree... 

We dominated Geelong for 3 quarters

Fell asleep for a quarter against brissy but responded well at the end 

North was a good battle

Ran out of steam against the tiges also just lacked a little composure with ball in hand. 

 

It just feels our players are slightly unsure exactly what their roles are which is causing a bit of hesitation. I think this will be rectified by the end of May 

[rjay 23,867]

8 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Club caves in as usual and sold the farm.. and now it's going to cost us come draft time. The need for a outside player with speed has been glaring and we've just potentially bullen thst chance by off loading our 1st round draft pick.

...but it's not going to be a kid in the draft that will help us 'dazzle'...

I think we will be in the market for Gaff who is a free agent then look to trade for a bit more run & class.

[Stretch Johnson 2,568]

8 hours ago, Clint Bizkit said:

On a night when there was a lot of fumbling (even moreso than usual) we leave out or cleanest player in Fritsch.

Not saying we would have won but he would have helped.

Selection each week baffles me.

Fritsch is clean, chooses attacking options and more often than not hits them. 

Someone like Stretch is the opposite in every way.