32 minutes ago, RedButMostlyBlue said:

I'm actually happy we'll lose the #1 spot this week. We're not a true #1 (ladder leaders have losses, but they don't lose to THREE bottom eight sides in just over a month. GWS struggled against the bottom two sides in the league.

Plus, being #1 doesn't suit us, the boys have clearly gotten ahead of themselves. Hopefully they rediscover the hunger they had at the beginning of the season. Quick. Because time is running out. As is the ever enduring forward problem. Bring in either Brown. Anyone really, just not another midget.

Not a bad time to be out of form, gives us a chance to build momentum. But that depends on the boys recognising where they're actually at (except most of our defenders), and working their backsides off to get to where we need to be.

We need top 4, top 2 is going to be hard. It goes without saying that we need to turn 180 to beat Port.

Agree, I’m done with top spot. We stink at being front runners and need to take a seat for a bit. 

24 minutes ago, RedButMostlyBlue said:

I love your optimism, I really do.

But the reality is some of these posts (not all), really are trying to address some of the things that have not been working for quite a while. There has been a steady decline but there's this tendency to rest on our ladder position. That can't last forever. 

I played with the ladder predictor...

With the games played this round, and the likely wins next round, if we lose to Port, depending on percentage , we could actually be 5th!!

Then all of a sudden we're out of the 4 and having to scrap to get back in, against very tough opposition, with a bunch of players who still think they're number one!

... And we're dreadfully out of form/confidence.

Yea it might happen, but it might not. We smashed Brisbane and the Dogs. Reality is, that is the same team that has lost to two bottom of the table teams and one other team in the eight. Gotta love it, anything can happen and I’d rather be here than in the position of any of those other teams, who are all chasing us.

Edited July 3, 20213 yr by AmDamDemon

Still feel we're a couple of years away from being a serious premiership contender, and today showed why. Inexperience gets you in the end.

Bad day in the office

GWS were excellent. Tackled like tigers

I wish Toby Greene played in the red and blue. What a player.

Can’t win games kicking 7.13. If only we had a 60 goal a season KPF!

No fluency or rhythm, no energy, no zip

Defence did their thing

Clearances are becoming a real worry

Goody and the brains trust have some work to do.

8 minutes ago, Ethan Trembley said:

GWS aren’t a bad team, it’s a ridiculously close competition and we lost by nine points. Calm down. 

Their last 2 weeks they lost to 17th and drew with current wooden spooners. On exposed form, they most certainly are a bad team. We are worse. That’s the current reality. Our earlier wins earned us top spot, which we’ll lose this week, but our current form is somewhere bottom 6. We need to own it. 

3 hours ago, Nasher said:

I don't normally get above resting heart rate when it comes to umpiring because I think it's just part of the game, but how about Toby Greene ducking in to a tackle and getting a free for high, then Spargo doing exactly the same thing and getting called HTB? I may have lost my cool a bit on that one.

How about Mumford pretending he got hit high in the middle? he is a fat piece of [censored]. 
I am drunk. I’ll see myself out. 

We were horrible in clearance today, but where it was lost was the ease of clearance against. In other words, our post clearance pressure was disastrous. 

No one wants to lose clearance by 15, but despite what some say, that doesn't have to be a big issue if our mids can immediately force the game onto our terms by pressuring the clearance and ensuring there isn't a clean takeaway. 

However, the number of times we let them get clean clearance was not good enough and it completely exposes your defence. GWS mids were very clean by hand today and we fumbled everything.

Post clearance is the stat that really matters.

An absolutely atrocious performance by the so-called ladder leaders. Hang your heads in shame. Lack of effort, lack of skills, stupid play galore. Get real Dees. 

32 minutes ago, A F said:

We were horrible in clearance today, but where it was lost was the ease of clearance against. In other words, our post clearance pressure was disastrous. 

No one wants to lose clearance by 15, but despite what some say, that doesn't have to be a big issue if our mids can immediately force the game onto our terms by pressuring the clearance and ensuring there isn't a clean takeaway. 

However, the number of times we let them get clean clearance was not good enough and it completely exposes your defence. GWS mids were very clean by hand today and we fumbled everything.

Post clearance is the stat that really matters.

Conversely every time we did get the clearance our guys were under immense pressure, handballing backwards, handballing into pressure etc

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

They are a good side who couldn't beat North or the Hawks in the last couple of weeks.

It seemed as though our players weren't up for it today, either turned up expecting the win or just didn't want to work hard enough. Smashed around the clearances, lazy on forward half pressure, shanked some easy opportunities for goal and panicked in the last quarter when we had momentum but just continually blazed away. Hunt was frustrating getting caught three times but at least he was trying to create something - I was far more frustrated with Max trying to snap it around the corner from 50 out on the boundary and having another wayward blaze away at goal. You are our captain FFS show some composure when the rest are losing their heads. Settle down and spot up a target or chip it around til one presents.

We just played lazy all day and I could forgive it if its a one off but we've played this way since the Lions game - we were lucky to get away with it last week.

If it weren't for May and Lever we would be losing comfortably each week. It would frustrate me no end seeing the players up the field continue to stuff up the good .

A flogging at the hands of Port might give us a reality check. Any top side worth their salt would have beaten us by five goals at least today. 

1 hour ago, Better days ahead said:

Bad day in the office

GWS were excellent. Tackled like tigers

I wish Toby Greene played in the red and blue. What a player.

Can’t win games kicking 7.13. If only we had a 60 goal a season KPF!

No fluency or rhythm, no energy, no zip

Defence did their thing

Clearances are becoming a real worry

Goody and the brains trust have some work to do.

Post of the day. 

41 minutes ago, A F said:

However, the number of times we let them get clean clearance was not good enough and it completely exposes your defence. GWS mids were very clean by hand today and we fumbled everything.

Yes it was the Dees of 2019. Oliver and Harmes and Trac and Viney had handling difficulties and fumbles in the centre clearances and contest. Green and Ward and Taranto and Kelly were more one touch and clean. If they had a key forward, the giants would have won by 5-6 goals in reality. 

4 hours ago, Pates said:

I only caught the second half but wasn’t impressed by much. We have relied on our defence to win us games by the opposition giving us easy exits out and steamrolling it forward on the slingshot. Opponents have worked this out and are now either lowering their eyes or at least putting it to dangerous spots that make it hard for Lever and May to mark it. 

On the flip side we had SOOOOOOO many good opportunities to pinch this game but absolutely disgusting and inexcusable misses cost us. I liked Hunts run and endeavour but he needed to learn from his previous mistakes and pull the trigger at the right moment. So many balls into targets that we either outsized or outmatched in numbers. We had good forward connection early in the year, that has seemed to completely fail us now. 

TMac played a very good game as a CHF/FF but if he’s playing as high up the ground as he was today then we need a proper tall forward for him to hit up. 

Was this the first game we lost at selection? If BBB plays a solid game this weekend then get him in the team. 

We don’t have to finish top of the pops, but we have to get top 4 to really give ourselves a shot at the premiership. 

Totally agree with this. Was there. Wasn’t pretty. We still have good bones though. Just need to rediscover our mojo and belief. 

If you're not winning clearances you're gonna be on the back foot. Had plenty of chances to get back but our bread and butter let us down. 

Really don't have a heck of a lot else to say after today, at 12-3 If you complain you're ungrateful and negative because we've got a good win-loss ratio, if you stay positive then you get accused of having the attitude that has held us back all these years. Don't really feel like being accused of anything tonight so I think we'll leave it at that. 

I will say that what was happening in the middle was the most concerning part, although forward structure needs a new edge.

Full credit to GWS.

Can you remember them giving us any easy uncontested possession?

The 3 holding the ball calls against Hunt in the last qtr were a clear reflection of their defensive appetite throughout the game.

Unlike the Pies and Adelaide games, we were flat out beaten by a better side on the day that brought defensive intent and superb skills, as per Kelly and Whitfield goals.

Edited July 3, 20213 yr by Bring-Back-Powell

Have a sneaky feeling we’ll be playing GWS in week 1 finals at the G - 5th v 8th.

And I’d expect we’d win that game.

My American friend asks after each match whether the Demons or the Fuchsias turned up.

Hmm, sadly it was the latter yesterday. Very poor performance. Flat from the start. It would be a massive turn around to beat Port. Can't see it happening.

3 hours ago, Boots and all said:

A flogging at the hands of Port might give us a reality check. Any top side worth their salt would have beaten us by five goals at least today. 

I can see us beating them. When we want to play, we can outrun any team.

It is a shame we don't bring the grunt for the four quarters. 

I expect us to do that on Thursday. With a 5 day break the players won't have to dwell on our performance against GWS.

1 hour ago, bingers said:

It would be a massive turn around to beat Port. Can't see it happening.

Fire them up coaches. 

Show us we are improving and not going backwards as the season develops. 

5 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

interested in thoughts about how to reset the midfield, especially at centre bounces

We seem to want a wrestle before the ball goes. This keeps us close to the opponent, usually infront but with heat or the opposition read where we are trying to run to and shark it.

Would like to see us run from them, so they can't get a touch on us, and when the ball goes, we push through/around the rucks and hope Max has the skill to feed us without preconceived plays. This may allow us to hit the ball with pace and also make it difficult for the opponents to read.

 

Our form might not be as bad as it looks. Teams that sack their coach normally win the following week and we copped that against Collingwood and teams coming off a bye seem to lose more often than not which happened against GWS.

 

I'm prepared to give our boys the benefit of the doubt today. Contest was off for the first half and were wasteful by foot failing to convert in the second half against a disciplined team that was strong around the ball, and pressured us well around the middle of the ground blunting our forward 50 forays.  In our defence it was bloody cold at the ground, I was there, and am proud of our boys for playing out the game in such withering conditions.

4 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Full credit to GWS.

Can you remember them giving us any easy uncontested possession?

The 3 holding the ball calls against Hunt in the last qtr were a clear reflection of their defensive appetite throughout the game.

Unlike the Pies and Adelaide games, we were flat out beaten by a better side on the day that brought defensive intent and superb skills, as per Kelly and Whitfield goals.

Agree on this BBP, they beat us around the ball early and defensively were very disciplined to not allow us to get any overlap run.  Hunt was doing the right thing in trying to generate some run in the 4th and him being caught is more a reflection of the pressure than what he did. Players such as Spargo and ANB were also caught a couple of times early in the match as well which I'd say is pretty uncharacteristic.

Similar to how we denied Richmond and Doggies there ability to play the game on their terms, GWS did the same to us. Where we failed is that despite evening up the contest in the second half we didn't matches their pressure defensively right across the ground. How many times were they able to run the ball out of our forward 50 without enough pressure.

11 hours ago, roy11 said:

The last holding the ball for Hunt, you could tell he wanted options. We were too static for large periods today 

Hunt's charges into the forward line in the last quarter explified his enthusiasm for a target - solely carrying the weight (and subsequent consequences) of a static forward structure, and he must be congratulated (at least) on the territory that he singularly gained in at least three of these forays. It is as if our forwards (other than Fritta) have limited desire to complete the plays or to make ground to receive with evasion, space and innovation. These are the consequences of playing forwards who are too comfortable with their responsibilities thus affecting their effectiveness and impact. Whilst our midfielders do take far too many wayward long bombs or unsighted clearances ahead, it is not entirely their fault. The forwards initiate zero plays with movement and clever positioning, thus providing zero targets for effective midfield clearances. 

26 minutes ago, Wrecker46 said:

Our form might not be as bad as it looks. Teams that sack their coach normally win the following week and we copped that against Collingwood and teams coming off a bye seem to lose more often than not which happened against GWS.

 

We are not coming off a BYE  Wrecker get your facts straight! 
stupid comments both of them about byes and sacking coaches. 
no relevance at all. 

5 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Full credit to GWS.

Can you remember them giving us any easy uncontested possession?

The 3 holding the ball calls against Hunt in the last qtr were a clear reflection of their defensive appetite throughout the game.

Unlike the Pies and Adelaide games, we were flat out beaten by a better side on the day that brought defensive intent and superb skills, as per Kelly and Whitfield goals.

Pies were far the better side mate do font be so over analytical Both games we deserved to lose.