6 minutes ago, Forest Demon said:

Petracca needs some serious work on his disposal, which has been atrocious for most of the season.

What happened to the bull last year that would use his strength to break tackles and give himself the time to compose before kicking? This year he is rushing it straight onto the boot and the results are not good.

He got front row tickets to Bontempelli.

Here's an out and out superstar where as Petracca isn't. 

 

We’re very lucky we haven’t wasted the season and set ourselves for a top 2 by not losing to any of the bottom teams and having a draw yet. 

We may beat gold coast but one more win will see us tumble to five.

Interstate final...game over.

The flag was within our grasp five weeks ago but is slipping away befor our eyes.

I think the hawks draw was the start of the end.

Also there was a long time experimenting with our fwd line which i think goody was too stubborn about.

Im sorry if this sounds too negative but i think its very much the hurtful truth.

A horrible sgame given all the great games we played earlier.

Langdon...anb...spargo...viney...jackson...hunt have been very inconsistent. So has tmac recently.

So close we were but excluding a miracle turn around we are doomed.

Been going in the wrong direction for six weeks four weeks before finals.

Oh dees you really know how to stuff up at the right times.

Really thought this was our year. 

 

North 2016 anyone?

We got within 4 points and looked like rolling over them but then gave up cheap goals.

Yes we were butchered by the Umpires but that was always going to happen with a side who has such a positive free kick differential. 

Next game against presumably Suns is massive. Must win to make top 4. As it stands Geelong and Dogs the better chance for top 2.

Think we need to re-set our expectations. We had a blinding start to the season. Everyone playing well, sticking to their roles. Defensive shape and system working perfectly. We won games despite our poor skills and goal kicking

Goal kicking is a perennial problem. We can’t win games consistently kicking more points than goals. BB showed some promising signs so maybe he will find form and make a difference for the rest of the season but the rest of team its just more of the same. TMac has gone off. Kozzie hit and miss. I don’t know what the coaches can do at this stage to make a difference for the rest of the year.

Below the knees we fumble too much. Field kicking not up to the standard required

Nibbler would sweat blood for the cause but ball in hand is a liability.  Harmes has done some great things for us but is a poorly skilled footballer. I acknowledge their contribution, don’t want to bash them unfairly, but they are not good enough for a flag chasing side. Let’s put time into Sparrow and Bedford and see what they can do.

Gotta freshen up the team. We’ve been stale for a few weeks now. Give Dogga a breather and bring in the Weid. Bedford for Nibbler and Sparrow for Harmes.

We’re still good enough to make top 4 and secure the double chance. We are always in the game as we proved again last night so I’m hopeful. We have to keep grinding and hope our form turns. Gotta beat the Suns. It’s a non-negotiable and a critical test of our bottle. A loss next week will confirm all our worst fears

Going forward we have a great crop of young players. Recruitment has been very good but we need to bring more skill onto the list to compliment the grunt. And we’re going to have to find a reliable goal kicker from somewhere.

Really disappointed with last night on two levels:

1. Same issues as previous weeks. Poor goal kicking, leaving the corridor empty for dogs players to run into at ball ups inside forward 50, repeated high bombs out of contests, not kicking to our forwards advantage, poor forward 50 structure of our talls (always in the same area)

2. For what was actually a pretty cracking game, the enjoyment was completely taken away by one of the worst umpiring displays I can recall. Even my wife who follows the dogs, could see it was poor (she never admits anything).

For what was turned out to be a 20 point win to them, I don’t think we were a 30% (20 divided by 65) worse side than them. Felt like it should have been less than a goal win to me. To be honest, if we played then in finals I would be pretty confident of winning the game provided the umpiring was fair and even and we could convert a reasonable percentage of easy set shots.

Our biggest issue I think is that they have so many players that can easily and effectively  swap in and out of the side to suit the conditions and opposition while our next best players are a significant step down. We are one dimensional is a number of aspects of the game, which makes it easy for opposition coaches to work out a way to beat us. Examples include the long bomb inside forward 50 to all our talls standing within 5m of each other and the kick out from behinds to exactly the same spot on the ground over and over again.

Anyway, while these lockdowns drag on and on and foolish people march for “freedom” (only to potentially risk freedom by spreading virus), hopefully our boys go back to the same farm they visited early in the year which lead to a new found sense of team and the great start to the season and our coaches watch a few episodes of Ted Lasso for some tips on how to cure Dani Rojas (aka Ben Brown) goal kicking “yips” (we don’t say that word here. See latest episode of Ted Lasso).

Have a great week good people.

49 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

He got front row tickets to Bontempelli.

Here's an out and out superstar where as Petracca isn't. 

 

Great game Bontempelli agreed.

But disagree totally re Petracca, he is in the top 10 players in the league. If you can’t see it, that’s your loss!

Edited July 24, 20213 yr by D4Life
Initial cranky response.

19 minutes ago, D4Life said:

Great game Bontempelli agreed.

But disagree totally re Petracca, he is in the top 10 players in the league. If you can’t see it, that’s your loss!

Did I actually say he isn't in the top 10 did I?

Please point out where I said Petracca isn't in the top 10 best players in the comp.

Was there no Goody presser?  Can’t find it anywhere…

Can’t wait till we are out in straight sets and people are still talking about our training loads.

8 hours ago, Webber said:

Not sure what you mean by dominate, but the way I saw it, we had a few minutes (at best) of possession and attack dominance each quarter, which they quickly snuffed out, then added to. The Dogs never looked like they’d lost control or would succumb, not even when we got within 4 points. The truth is they’re beginning to peak beautifully, where we’ve retreated to bottom 6 form. Funny old game, and we all so hoped it wouldn’t be the case, but the ‘April-May premiers’ jibe is sadly proving true for this team. 

So they're peaking beautifully and we're bottom 6 but we got within 4 points against that umpiring???????

7 hours ago, Deestar9 said:

We are building a team to play finals for hopefully the next 10years. A whole host of 19yr olds may not win us a flag this year (although I believe we are right in the mix )however all we lacked tonight was a little polish & finishing. Don’t care who the Bulldogs or any other team had missing …you play who you play.  Appalling umpiring but again we can only blame ourselves for losing. I believe Brown had one of his better games even though conditions didn’t suit ..I’ll change my opinion if he doesn’t incrementally improve against the Suns. I’m actually happy we will slip from top 2..remove supporter expectations & let them roll on through the next few games. We’re ok…

Good point on who they had missing , it's irrelevant , wish people would stop quoting it.

1 hour ago, BDA said:

Below the knees we fumble too much.

Aint that the truth!  Whenever the ball is bobbing around on the ground amongst a heap of players, you can be sure to see our guys fumble after fumble, only to see an oppo player grab the thing and get it out to one of their players.  Not just last night.  Pretty much all season!  SO frustrating!!

1 hour ago, leave it to deever said:

The flag was within our grasp five weeks ago

Don't kid yourself.

Our game the last few weeks has become : See ball, Get ball: Miss goals: Turnover ball.

We just had players miss goals and targets when we really needed them to hit them.

Our foot skills are bad.

Forward pressure was really bad.

 

In the words of Bananarama: ‘Nathan Jones you’ve been gone too long’.

9 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

We didn't get overrun in the fourth though.

We just didn't take our chances. We kicked two goals to one point by the 18-minute mark when the margin was 4 points. I'd love to know how many inside 50s we'd had to that point and the time in forward half stat. I'd reckon both were heavily in our favour.

If we'd managed another goal or two, taken the lead from our hard work, who knows how the rest of the quarter plays out.

But instead Bont gets a goal from a stoppage because Harmes and Viney are ball chasing not defending, instead of being in front we're 10 points down, and our belief sags.

All I'm saying here is that this wasn't a situation of us being outrun in the fourth. it was very close and had a couple of things gone our way, we could and I think would have seen a very different result.

There's been too many instances of too many mids going to the ball in the last month.

After the win vs the Dogs in Round 11 Petracca did an interview talking about trusting the tackler and not having two go to the ball carrier.

It's frustrating that this is creeping back into our game. I think it is in part because when we fall behind too many of our mids try to be the hero. It also doesn't help that Viney and Harmes are players who seem to be incapable of standing off at stoppages.

I wonder whether we simply cannot play both Harmes and Viney in the same midfield.

I agree with a lot of this. Our midfield is way too one dimensional again. 

34 minutes ago, buck_nekkid said:

Was there no Goody presser?  Can’t find it anywhere…

Same - there obviously was one as he’s been quoted, but can’t find it. Maybe he said something about the umps and the AFL’s censored it ?

https://www.afl.com.au/news/652025/-not-worried-one-bit-goodwin-upbeat-on-dees-scoring-woes

Oh well Goodys not worrying so why should we? 

Since Viney has come back in has felt like see ball get ball has been happening again in the middle and around the ground.

Just need to re adjust this factor.

Personally I’d split Vineys time between mid & forward 50/50, as 4-5 tackles from him in the forward line would lift pressure in the forward half.

He is improving each week and will be valuable in the finals. 

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Did I actually say he isn't in the top 10 did I?

Please point out where I said Petracca isn't in the top 10 best players in the comp.

My opinion would be suggest anyone in the top 10 of 700 odd players league wide is an out and out superstar. Particularly when they are backing up consecutive years of it. No need to denigrate Trac by admitting Bont has had a better season (which I would agree with at this time). 

2 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

We may beat gold coast but one more win will see us tumble to five.

Interstate final...game over.

The flag was within our grasp five weeks ago but is slipping away befor our eyes.

I think the hawks draw was the start of the end.

Also there was a long time experimenting with our fwd line which i think goody was too stubborn about.

Im sorry if this sounds too negative but i think its very much the hurtful truth.

A horrible sgame given all the great games we played earlier.

Langdon...anb...spargo...viney...jackson...hunt have been very inconsistent. So has tmac recently.

So close we were but excluding a miracle turn around we are doomed.

Been going in the wrong direction for six weeks four weeks before finals.

Oh dees you really know how to stuff up at the right times.

Really thought this was our year. 

 

Now we are grasping ourselves.

People saying poor form now is the worst time are wrong. There are 4 rounds to right it with the luxury of knowing we cant miss finals but with the pressure that it could cost top 4. It’s actually a good position to be in if Goody has the courage to tweak the 22 and system over that period and get them back to selfless team footy. Dogs were hot last night and we were ok as shown by being within 4 points with 10 minutes to go. We lack run (1 of top 7 metres gained last night) and polish with ball from half, into 50 and converting. We need to fix our second possession at stoppage and defending their second possession at stoppage. We need to get our aggressive turnover game back in check and some run and bounce off half back that is non existent Hunt aside. 

Well played number 13, number 29 and number 8.

 

Bont’s two goals came from the same set play (he sat of the pack got the handball receive ran a few steps and snapped on his left) which hurt not only scoreboard but the fact we didn’t learn. I didn’t think his goals were that dissimilar to Petracca’s goal.

Edited July 25, 20213 yr by Bombay Airconditioning