This definitely feels like I'm watching the 2020 demons rather than reigning premiers. Inconsistent, dysfunctional at times and easy to coach and score against. 

Twice tonight Spargo had a chance to kick for goal but chose to pass when he probably could have backed himself.

People will write us off but teams are now working out how to play us. 

Hate to sound like our old mate Satyricon but the amount of people potting some of the lads after 2 losses is a bit on the nose. 

If you go back to last year, forward connection was one of our main problems during our mid season slump. One of things Goody preached was lowering the eyes, yet this year we continue to just bomb it in forward and try and win a ground ball. Our forwards just aren’t competing enough and we’re not winning clear ground balls.

Secondly, our pressure is just way off which I think is hurting our intercept game down back. I’m not sure if it’s because teams are playing keeping offs against us and that’s why our pressure is down but I just can’t understand why we’re not bringing the heat.

3 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Yeah look we aren't winning a flag this year. There is so many concerns on all lines and that's not even counting that our pressure is ranked 17th in the league.

Forget the umpires, our style of play from start to finish was horrible to watch. Why we continue to just rush all night by playing on or having one too many handballs to a teammate to then put them under enormous pressure is bizarre. 

Backline has turned to [censored]. Steven May is now our most influential and important player. When he doesn't play the rest turn to water. That's an apology to Petty who battled manfully tonight.

Jayden Hunt has over 100 games of experience and he is still one of the dumbest footballers going around. Not forgetting he touched the ball 3 times tonight as a [censored] half back flank.

Jake Lever is horribly out of form and it's costing us. When we need some form of leadership while May is out Lever has failed to stand up 2 weeks in a row. Simply not good enough.

Our midfield is seriously all over the shop. Rushed handballs and dump kicks into either no one in particular or straight to the opposition. Petracca, Viney and Sparrow are huge butchers of the footy. Our efficiency going inside 50 is just horrific and these guys are main culprits alongside a few others like ANB who's not much chop either going forward.

Really think our midfield needs a huge shake up and I'd be getting Brayshaw in there personally just to add something different. 

Don't get me started on the forward line.. I think this is a significant concern moving forward and beyond as the likes of Tom McDonald, Ben Brown and Mitch Brown are all 30 years of age or over, plus a former first rounder who is only a VFL standard player. Our only hope is an 18 year old kid who is still unknown.

All of these guys are either badly out of form or injured and I can't see this forward structure holding up this year.

Besides Pickett, our smalls are barely impacting the scoreboard. Spargo has only kicked 4 this year and ANB just the 2 goals. It's just simply not good enough.

All in all a very disappointing display. Our current game style won't hold up and we could easily be out of top 4 very soon if there isn't significant changes to it.

 

 When May comes back I'd drop Mitch Brown he's not a KPF. I'd leave Tomlinson in Petty's defensive position and try Petty in Tom McD's position up forward position if as rumoured he's out for an extended period. I'd also either play Hunt as a wing or not at all. That one on one that cost us a goal was unforgiveable. So he either plays as a wing rotating HHF or he doesn't play. I don't want him as a back ever again he doesn't play the percentages and costs us. I'd also like to try Gus as an onballer sometimes. So I'd play Lever, May, Salem,  Bowey,  Tomlinson???, Daniel Turner, Gus & Hibberd as our 7 with Gus rotating onball.

Up forward Petty CHF, Weed FF, Kossie, Fritter Jacko/Max & Spargo/Laurie to debut. We can't keep the team as is it needs another dimension other teams have worked us out. BBB needs to earn his spot with zero goals in 3 games  means  back to Casey

 

 

Forward line's struggling.
The midfield's struggling.
And the backline's struggling.

Certainly not ideal.
 

Telling that for the last 5 mins when the game was there to be won, BBB was on the bench 

Just now, DemonWA said:

Hate to sound like our old mate Satyricon but the amount of people potting some of the lads after 2 losses is a bit on the nose. 

I don't Think it's just the last two to be completely honest.

Most of the year we have played just above average, not good enough when we know what this team is capable of.

I for one am concerned, the team either swallows a humble pie and works their [censored] off for the rest of the season or we may drop from top 4 and with few chances to repeat.

Just now, cantstandyasam said:

 When May comes back I'd drop Mitch Brown he's not a KPF. I'd leave Tomlinson in Petty's defensive position and try Petty in Tom McD's position up forward position if as rumoured he's out for an extended period. I'd also either play Hunt as a wing or not at all. That one on one that cost us a goal was unforgiveable. So he either plays as a wing rotating HHF or he doesn't play. I don't want him as a back ever again he doesn't play the percentages and costs us. I'd also like to try Gus as an onballer sometimes. So I'd play Lever, May, Salem,  Bowey,  Tomlinson???, Daniel Turner, Gus & Hibberd as our 7 with Gus rotating onball.

Up forward Petty CHF, Weed FF, Kossie, Fritter Jacko/Max & Spargo/Laurie to debut. We can't keep the team as is it needs another dimension other teams have worked us out. BBB needs to earn his spot with zero goals in 3 games  means  back to Casey

 

 

Why play Hunt on a wing when we have 2 genuine wingers who are doing a really good job in their position.

Forget moving him around. Just simply drop him.

2 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Twice tonight Spargo had a chance to kick for goal but chose to pass when he probably could have backed himself.

People will write us off but teams are now working out how to play us. 

Petracca let him know on one of them too. The selflessness sometimes is detrimental to the team.

25 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Jayden Hunt has over 100 games of experience and he is still one of the dumbest footballers going around.

You seem to make a hobby out of slagging off on our own. Last week Melksham, tonight it’s Hunt. Who’s the lucky player next week??!!

Constructive criticism’s not your forte, is it. 

 

Calmed a little slightly, sorry about before. 

We are a great side but the gap is not as big as people thought. We will get scrambled if we play like that again. This defence can simply not cover for May when he's missing, he brings way too much more than just his play, I'm confident they would have had 2 or 3 less goals if he was there. When he's out and Petty gets banged up then Lever has to play one on one which to put it bluntly, he's [censored] at. The whole thing goes to water, with May back in you will see the intercepts rise again. But then there is using the footy which is another story. Don't underestimate the off the ball work Tom McDonald does. Without him we can't any God damn separation up forward and we just bomb over Baghdad constantly. It was awful to watch. We need space to operate.

2 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Petracca let him know on one of them too. The selflessness sometimes is detrimental to the team.

Petracca only let him know because he wanted the handball for the goal.

Petracca having a shot from 60m out was just as worse as Spargo's. Even Nathan Jones was quiet surprised he was having a ping when he should have just centred the footy.

50 minutes ago, BDA said:

Our form is horrible

No fluency or rhythm at all. So stodgy

Nothing happening up forward other than the odd spark from Fritta. Whats happened to BB?

Maxy immense. Oliver, Petty, Viney not bad. Gud did well last quarter. The rest passengers

Big test for the coaching group now to right this ship. Not panic stations but we need to fix this. Queens birthday game is huge now

BBB looks like he’s double/tripled teamed constantly but to be fair, he also looks way off rhythm at the moment. Can’t get near it 

The team fought hard in the 3rd to keep us in the game, Max was enormous and Jack & Gus were pretty good but our fumbles by some of our better players let them back in. The umpires were quite putrid and determined to keep them in the game. We had the chance to win the game in the last but turned it over and they took their opportunities. Now we are looking down the barrel, who else will step up and make a difference.???

1 minute ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

You seem to make a hobby out of slagging off on our own. Last week Melksham, tonight it’s Hunt. Who’s the lucky player next week??!!

Constructive criticism’s not your forte, is it. 

 

If this [censored] gets your gripe then sound advice would be to shut your account down and don't bother writing on here. Because there is currently for worse comments written on here and the changes thread compared to what I just wrote.

I'll tell you was worse on and it was your Demon Army for barely making any noise once again tonight.

We had no bookends. In fact we don't have a forward line.

1 minute ago, dazzledavey36 said:

If this [censored] gets your gripe then sound advice would be to shut your account down and don't bother writing on here. Because there is currently for worse comments written on here and the changes thread compared to what I just wrote.

I'll tell you was worse on and it was your Demon Army for barely making any noise once again tonight.

Said from the comfort of your warm chair.

Poor form.

5 minutes ago, layzie said:

Calmed a little slightly, sorry about before. 

We are a great side but the gap is not as big as people thought. We will get scrambled if we play like that again. This defence can simply not cover for May when he's missing, he brings way too much more than just his play, I'm confident they would have had 2 or 3 less goals if he was there. When he's out and Petty gets banged up then Lever has to play one on one which to put it bluntly, he's [censored] at. The whole thing goes to water, with May back in you will see the intercepts rise again. But then there is using the footy which is another story. Don't underestimate the off the ball work Tom McDonald does. Without him we can't any God damn separation up forward and we just bomb over Baghdad constantly. It was awful to watch. We need space to operate.

There is a perceived gap based on our best VS the rest. That is where we should be. Our best isn’t achieved often enough. Our average leaves us a game clear. We are the best side on our best day.

10 minutes ago, KingDingAling said:

There is a perceived gap based on our best VS the rest. That is where we should be. Our best isn’t achieved often enough. Our average leaves us a game clear. We are the best side on our best day.

I think that is a revisionist version of the truth. Aside form the prelim and the GF where we flicked some sort of switch that I hadn't seen before or since, I think even last year we were a beatable side -  twe managed to win the close games but I don't think we were dominant like people seem to believe we were

Hard game to pick apart. 
sydney looked about a 6 goal better side most of the night.

Our midfield showed up for a quarter and then went to bed.

I think they got the better of the umpiring over the night but that might be my in game bias. Those last two goals were as soft as you’ll find.

the way they and freo have been first to the ball all game once it hits the ground says to me we are either playing with heavy legs or we are being lazy or at times it looks like we are looking at our positioning within our structure instead of getting our hands on it.

we have lost our aerial superiority. Freo are big and strong but I don’t see why Sydney beat us so comprehensively in the air.

we looked terrible tonight and almost won it. It’s hard to piece it all together to tell a story yet. there are similarities to last year and I lean toward us starting to load our players on the track combined with losing some key players and some in game losses having huge impact. We started out and did what we need to and now we enter the real grind of the season. A lot of top four sides will lose games they should win in the next two months.

Our offensive issues seem to stem from where we win the ball back. The closer to their goal we get it back the harder it is to employ our forward system. When we win it back at half back and the wing our forwards know what to do. When we win it back at full back the opposition can set up and our talls can’t lead and get out numbered at contest. Fritta loves those leads sideways across the 50 that work when you win it back high enough but they don’t work in a flooded backline. 
 

i didn’t notice where Sydney employed their spare but it looked like we were comprehensively out worked across the ground.

I still think we are at worst a prelim team, provided we come out of this slump.

 

14 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Why play Hunt on a wing when we have 2 genuine wingers who are doing a really good job in their position.

Forget moving him around. Just simply drop him.

fair call

I think I’m just going to let Binman work out what happened tonight when I listen to the podcast on my Monday night run.  

I’m pretty disappointed that we haven’t been able to score for large periods of games for 2 weeks in a row.

Im pretty disappointed that we don’t look clean around the stoppages, and that Jackson, Petracca, Sparrow and ANB aren’t clean when it counts.

I’m pretty disappointed that we don’t make enough noise as a supporter group to put the umpires under the heat they cop at other games. No way are those 2 free kicks being paid in front of goal in Geelong, Adelaide, or at a Carlton game.

Im genuinely pretty disappointed.

The uncomfortable truth is that this year, that’s yet to be established. Freo, Swans done, Brisbane, Geelong, Carlton to come. Not looking good from where I’m standing.