It was nice while it lasted.

They took some chances, we missed some sitters

Not much between the two sides

Umps gave them an armchair ride

I'm looking forward to playing them in September

Its not like we played badly, we just couldn't convert

That’s the kind of loss you can have during the season against top opposition. Dropping games against the bottom teams could yet cost us Top 4

They took their chances. We didn’t. Our kicking just not good enough. Has to improve before finals if we’re to give it a proper shake

BB took marks. Missed 2 very gettable ones early but steadied to kick 2. I’m hopeful he can find form for finals

I won't mention the umpires. They’re out of our control

Clarry, Trac, Max, Kozzie and Lever best for us

Hibbo, Spargo had their worst games for a while

We need to re-group and take care of the suns next week. It'll be a tough game with some many of the team out of form

Go Dees

How disappointing!! 

The great thing about the loss is that we can stop the BS that our losses against spuds were OK because we bring it against the big teams. 

No, we don't - not for a while anyway.

It's important to note that they were short Dunkley, Treloar and Keath. We were at full strength.

We have some serious issues that need to be resolved NOW. No more looking back.

Skills, forward entries, manning up, taking chances. Now's the time to fix it otherwise we'll just be a stat in finals.

We need a reliable goal kicking player. So frustrating to watch.

We’re tired. We’re not chasing, tackling, and gut running like we were. 
not sure what the answer is at this late stage of the season. Can only hope that drive from the off season, driven by “why are we so [censored]?”, can once again fire them up to do something extraordinary.

We got murdered in the back half stoppages. They always looked like scoring from throw ins or ball ups near goal. Soft frees to them didn’t help either. 

We have won 1 game in the last month which isn’t promising.

BUT tonight, there wasn’t a lot in it despite some of the commentary about the doggies. 

they took their chances, we went into the sheds at half time 2.7 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still not sure Trac is an out and out midfielder. Maybe 30/70. He just cannot be defensive, let’s players out the back. 
We have some serious work to do.. cannot lose more than 1 game with the run home or we are on the outer. Given they were 2 down we should have won. Midfield is the greatest concern, then forward pressure is next. Then defensive stoppages, where we leak goals 

seriousl we need a forward to strike fear into the opposition. Otherwise it aint gunna happen

 

Outside the obvious discrepancy via the officials.

We once again miss gettable shots and put ourselves behind the eight ball. 
How often did we have minutes if domination yet couldn’t kick a goal, they then race it up and score. 
 

We also don’t know how to read the game. At times we have them on the back foot and instead of getting the ball forward try and break tackles or do short handballs and either turn it over or the f50 is now full. 
We don’t make smart decisions.

Finally players like hunt butcher the simple pass that moves us forward and instead turn it over and they score.

We’re tired. We’re not chasing, tackling, and gut running like we were. 
not sure what the answer is at this late stage of the season. Can only hope that drive from the off season, driven by “why are we so [censored]?”, can once again fire them up to do something extraordinary.

Beaten by a better team, which is fine. Even with all their injuries their players are just better than ours. We've benefited from a great run with the health of our list, especially compared to other teams, so finishing 5th is probably getting closer to a true reflection of where we stand.

At least the overall effort was better than that diabolical joke last week. With our health this was a season where we could have stolen a top 2 or 4 berth but the bizarre and unwarranted arrogance of our players when coming up against the likes of Hawthorn (twice), North Melbourne, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Adelaide, GWS is going to cost us big time.

Who knows what the hell this lot will serve up next week. They'll probably be thinking they'll win it easy and let the Suns players just walk out of stoppages like we did in that North game.

Outclassed by the better team. 

As is usual, we made the least of our terrible inside 50s. 

Doggies overlap and clean hands were a lesson for us to take note of 

Had a poor month, no doubt. We can do better.

Thought we were pretty good tonight.  They were just a little better and they had Bontempelli who made our mids look silly in the last quarter.  The umpiring - meh . Our inability to convert pretty straightforward opportunities was more of an issue.  Well done to Oliver and Gawn who had good connection tonight.  Lever was really solid.  If we can make top 4 we are still a real shot.  Our challenge is to win three out of the last four to make sure of it.

The question is whether they persist with the lineup, freshen up a couple with a rest or try some new options up forward eg Smalls 

Not having any Harmes defending tonight. Who was he tagging tonight? because it didn't seem like he was close to anyone. Watch Bont's two plays in the last quarter and look who is standing next to him when the game got restarted.

Now Harmes isn't the sole reason we lost, fair few passengers tonight. Also [censored] poor infront of goal again. Exact same scoring shots and yet it felt like we were only in it for about 10 whole minutes tonight.

Hitouts
Dees 68 Dogs 18

Clearances
Dees 41 Dogs 49

Feels like smothers might have been a telling stat too as weird as that sounds. We were just so slow to react with the ball in hand, made bad decisions and it's the 2nd week in a row we were disgraceful when the ball was below our knees (even allowing for conditions).

 

misses in the first quarter really hurt in the end. 

Edited July 24, 20213 yr by Tom Dyson

1 minute ago, Demon_spurs said:

seriousl we need a forward to strike fear into the opposition. Otherwise it aint gunna happen

 

We need to deliver well to our forwards and give up the blazing long bombs

Any chance the AFL can afford to buy their Umpiring Dept some measuring tapes?

It's a really funny one, because i come away thinking we shouldn't feel like the Dogs are a better side than us. i think they got a lot of help from the umpires, but also our goal kicking. 

we can't win the flag if we can't finish our work. 

I think we did more than enough to win the game, we just missed a few to many chances, and lapsed into old habits a few to many times. 

the two things i think we need to fix heading into finals are 

1. We need more reward for Gawns dominance, if you're winning hitouts like that. we need to be scoring off them. 

2. our goal kicking. we are shooting ourselves in the face 

Deep down i thought we might lose but we had our chances. We have hit a slump at tge wrong time.The umps really loved the dogs and the more than double frees was game over.

Sadly it makes the losses and draw to the poor teams a real issye and may cost us the flag now.