Even after a night's alcohol induced slumber, I still am having difficulties getting my head around yesterday's debacle.

I'm not quite with @picket fence who compared it to the Neeld nightmare but it was an absolute shocker anyway you dice it or slice it.

We were passive. Max got knocked around and nobody appeared to do anything about it. FMD even Jack watts handed out a couple of clips!

Frost and Omac played shockers and Hibberd lacked his usual class. May is good but whether he can walk straight in and immediately sort out our defensive rabble is questionable.

Our kicking was poor - I was staggered by the number of mongrel punts that came of the boot.

What is our plan for going forward and scoring goals? On some occasions our forward line was vacant with no targets, on others we kicked to unwinnable contests. We lacked a Garlett type for crumbing and pace. I can only remember a couple of controlled forward entries.

We have given up four points that should have been in the bank. And remember …. as well as fielding debutantes, Port were missing a couple of their guns. 

It's going to take a masterstroke to turns things around at the Cattery.

8 hours ago, A F said:

Wowzee, indeed. Pretty weak effort from you this week, Steve. First everyone else is weak for suggesting our JLT and pre season could actually mean something for the season proper, and when you're made to look like a goose, you can't even bothered to analyse the game.

 

I suggested that the scaredy-cat view taken by many supporters on here was a weak and pathetic one, there's no need to take it as a personal attack.

And strangely enough, I don't feel anything close to a goose. Our loss in my eyes had nothing to do with our JLT 'form'. Our loss had nothing to do with you or me.

Our loss came from a number of problem areas, the selection table and a bunch of individuals not playing to a consistently high level for long enough. 

 

Edited March 23, 20196 yr by stevethemanjordan

Would love to hear from a certain someone regarding interrupted pre-seasons.

Viney and Jones clearly looked like they were prepared....

 

Perspective: ever fancied team this year has underperformed in round 1.

Richmond was uninspiring.

Collingwood was disappointing.

Melbourne was lethargic.

Adelaide was poor.

West Coast were comfortably beaten.

7 hours ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

Jones is Richie Vandenbeg.  He's a leader, he's spent years setting the example for the kids in how to train and put in effort and he's fought a losing battle while trying to single-handedly carry the midflield.  Now, though, those young kids he set an example for have moved past him.  He's no longer the first choice in the guts and he lacks the weapons to really impact a game in any other position.  Vandenberg stepped aside as captain because he was no longer providing real value to the team.  I think Jones can still give value, but he needs to play smarter and recognise his limits.  It's also probably time he let go of the captaincy and focused on his own game to get the most out his last few years. 

As for the game today, I fully accept that the teams that do well in finals are often a bit slower starting the season and then peak in the second half.  I do wonder if we're not seeing another shift in the dominant tactics though.  For a long time it's been the hard contested ball winning sides that dominated.  Even before the AFL made their latest raft of unnecessary rule changes we were seeing a bit of a [censored] towards more pace and outside run again.  The sides that have done really well this round have all embraced that style and worked really had to outrun their opponents (kind of like the side Dean Bailey was trying to put together). 

The two big questions are firstly whether this style will continue to pay off as the teams full of hard-nuts get their act together, and secondly whether Goodwin has the tactical versatility to come up with an effective counter to this style of play. 

Hawthorn were the standout team who dominated recent times. Clarkson was against contested possession as the prime means to win. Accurate passing, outside run and switching from one side of the ground to the other marked their style.

On 3/20/2019 at 11:40 AM, stevethemanjordan said:

 

 

It's a bit of both sometimes but generally I'd say it's more to do with the quality of ball coming in to our key forwards.

It's a concern I have for this season and have always had. Game-style wise, we're fairly one dimensional.

We rely on grunt and contested ball winning and have recruited players who fit that mould. Unfortunately it has resulted in players who are not so strong with their ball-use.

Brayshaw is the perfect example, if you go back and watch the Brisbane game you'll see that most of his forward entries were actually more advantageous to the opposition backmen and the same went for the Richmond game. A prolific ball winner, but generally he kicks to bad spots or misjudges his kick when going long which made it very difficult for Tom and Sam to play to their strengths in the JLT.

I'll have no concerns with the amount of ball we'll win in the midfield against Port on the weekend, but it's going to get quite annoying if we see no improvement in connection from mid to forward from players like Petracca, Brayshaw, ANB etc.

As great as it is that Gus is back playing his natural position and winning ball, he is not hurting opposition with his ball movement on most occasions and I'd like to see that change.

 

 

Call me the Oracle.

Edited March 23, 20196 yr by stevethemanjordan

9 minutes ago, praha said:

Perspective: ever fancied team this year has underperformed in round 1.

Richmond was uninspiring.

Collingwood was disappointing.

Melbourne was lethargic.

Adelaide was poor.

West Coast were comfortably beaten.

Sydney?

All the teams that won and the Blues who lost added pace. The losers were slower and that shows up.

Our game is built on contested possession and if we don’t win that other sides take the ball away with their outside players and then you have what happened yesterday, a loss where we look extremely slow. 100 more uncontested possessions is the cream for a drawn or winning contested possession game against us. The opposition have worked us out. Look at the way Max was targeted to affect our winning contested possession.

Our game plan B is to do better at A as we have no other plan to fall back on. 

Therefore we need to recruit skilful runners as I have said for a number of years and in the meantime we have to get back to winning contested possession to stop other teams from spreading and destroying us.

2 minutes ago, praha said:

Perspective: ever fancied team this year has underperformed in round 1.

Richmond was uninspiring.

Collingwood was disappointing.

Melbourne was lethargic.

Adelaide was poor.

West Coast were comfortably beaten.

Totally agree. There has to be some common themes as to why each of last years top 4 struggled. It a long season I would not be cashing in the chips yet. I was at the game yesterday down from the Gold Coast and could not believe how hot it was. In the first quarter it passed my mind that Port were doing an Ali rope a dope. The Dees attacked furiously for a quarter for a small lead but clearly spent all petrol ticket doing it. They were spent after that and it showed up in the last when we did not score. I think there were one off factors relating to this game such as heat and fitness that won’t be so big in future games. The nucleus of this side is very good and performance should be judged over a season not one game. I am confident this will turn around but probably in for a rough few weeks.

13 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

Gawn was belted in the ruck and around the ground.

This got me...they had a tactic to run into Max at any time, any player around the ground & it worked. Max did nothing, didn't react and played poorly.

He can expect to cop it every game he plays unless he can reverse the trend.

He doesn't have to play the tough guy & react to every push, shove or bump there & then but it must drive him to perform better. Coaches know the easy targets, Max is one. There are some players you just don't do this kind of thing to as it drives their performance, Max needs to be one of these.

...and while we're on this. Where were Max's teammates? why didn't they start throwing a bit of weight around. Surely we should have been bumping & making life hard for Ryder, he had a broken cheekbone. This was the nice Melbourne playing yesterday & that doesn't win games.

I’m still peed off.

This is what happens when the Demons lose.

Stuffs up your weekend.

Let’s hope KK can add some much needed speed and class. 

 

16 minutes ago, praha said:

Perspective: ever fancied team this year has underperformed in round 1.

Richmond was uninspiring.

Collingwood was disappointing.

Melbourne was lethargic.

Adelaide was poor.

West Coast were comfortably beaten.

Yes, we know. 

Richmond still managed to win. Geelong beat Collingwood.

Comparisons are silly at this point. 

The reason we lost to Port was simply down to skill level and decision making when moving the ball forward. They punished us time and time again on the counter which resulted in us doing so much unnecessary two-way running, it ultimately took its toll.

It's a problem area.

So are Oscar and Frost when they're the only two key defenders playing for us.

1 hour ago, Demonised said:

The two set shots that ANB missed in the first quarter made a difference, making it a four goal opener instead of a six goal flyer.

I thought the ball gathering skills were particularly cringeworthy. He'd be running to gather the ball and it would bounce off him.

We were also poor in the JLT, and very poor in our last game of the year, so that’s four ordinary performances in a row.

I hope they prove me wrong but we look really slow out there.

14 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Let’s hope KK can add some much needed speed and class. 

 

Yes, Oscar Baker might get a gig too, when he's fit 

19 minutes ago, stevethemanjordan said:

Yes, we know. 

Richmond still managed to win. Geelong beat Collingwood.

Comparisons are silly at this point. 

The reason we lost to Port was simply down to skill level and decision making when moving the ball forward. They punished us time and time again on the counter which resulted in us doing so much unnecessary two-way running, it ultimately took its toll.

It's a problem area.

So are Oscar and Frost when they're the only two key defenders playing for us.

I would add, we got smashed on the spread.

We got drawn into the contest and they had numbers outside waiting for the ball.

As an aside, I coming around to your thinking on Oscar. Not sure he's going to make it now. Frost is a definite no for me, May steps in and I think I would look at putting the development time into Petty over Oscar.

20 passengers.  Very disappointing.  How can you be under prepared after 5 months.  

We were not ready.  We were not hungry. 

5-6 changes coming  

 

Some on here have said we need time to get used to the new 6/6/6 system and our adjusted game plan.  My view is we've had many months to do that. 

But more importantly how much time do we have?  I would say precious little.  Games up to the bye:  Cats, Ess, Syd, Saints, Tigers, Hawks, Suns, Eagles, Giants, Crows, Pies.

With the exception of Saints and Suns each game is effectively an 8-point game as they are the teams we are competing with for top 4 and maybe even top 8 spots. 

I can't see how we can play as bad as yesterday but if we don't get our act together asap our season could crumble fast as the fixture does not allow us the luxury of more 'practice' games or getting used to 6/6/6 and the game plan.  We need to hit the ground running as of next Saturday.

Distinct lack of venom after the first quarter. No energy, no support of team mates just passive acceptance of defeat especially in the last quarter exemplified by Jones dropped mark - a leader just doesn’t do that. Worrying signs for what’s ahead 

This round so far is proof that preseason and JLT form matter. The result doesn’t matter, but the form does. Our game yesterday - and all favorite teams this round for that matter - was a mirror of our JLT form.

The season has started. There are no excuses for not being ready or adjusting to rules. They’ve had nearly half a year to get ready and adapt to the new rules. 

There was a serious lack of effort and mongrel yesterday. Win or lose at the Cattery next week, I want to see the return of that hard working hard team that was running around in red and blue late last year.

Well...well.well

Thought I'd get a good night's sleep before venturing here.

We went in under done. Picked at least two with NO match fitness...guess who. Went in against two legitimate rucks.. with one...
Still pick idiots who can't kick !!
Recipe for success eh

We played with all the verve of treacle !! Watts had a good game eh lol

That was a football lesson

Well done Port.

We're very over-rated

I am still peezed off at yesterdays game. At the end of the day we lacked any hunger for the contest. We rolled over.

Gawn looked spent or even like he was ill from 1/4 time onwards. He needs a back up and at this stage whether it is Kielty or Pruess I don't know. Put max down the forward line more often. This doesn't however solve our lack of pace. We can only work with what we have so I can only think of Baker when ready and maybe KK.

Oh and on our forwards can TMAC pull his finger out. The weed tried but if he has to relief ruck all the time it ain't going to help. We had both TMAC and the weed on the bench in the last quarter.

1 hour ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

What is our plan for going forward and scoring goals? On some occasions our forward line was vacant with no targets, on others we kicked to unwinnable contests. We lacked a Garlett type for crumbing and pace. I can only remember a couple of controlled forward entries.

That’s what stood out to me numerous times. Our two tall forwards would push up the ground and even when they marked the ball it was  someone like a Harmes sprinting into our forward 50 to create an option in between 3 Port defenders.  

Our defensive transition yesterday was nonexistent, it was no fluke we looked really good last year during our six game winning streak when Lever was hitting his straps playing alongside Lewis as generals. We lacked that yesterday. Wagner was ok on debut but at times he looked confused at to where he should set up when Port where attacking from the back. No fault of his own, first game and all that in a new system.

Just putting it down to a really bad day as evidenced by one of our 666 set ups in the last quarter  when it looked like we started with 5 in the back to allow Gray to have a coffee, read the paper and mark the ball inside 50 straight from a Port center clearance with our nearest defender in the next post code.

Massive task next week but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we pull it off, hoping anyway.

Are we really not going to mention Goodwin letting Rockliff do as he pleased for 44 touches. Surely time should've gone in to him.