POSTGAME: SF vs Brisbane

[Antioch 180]

How did we lose to a team that we absolutely thrashed twice this year? Backwards kicks, dumb decision-making, hand passing to players about to be tackled, kicking long before looking who we they were kicking to. Stupid 50m penalties X2.
Last year our final quarters were unbeatable. The past several weeks our final quarters have been absolutely disastrous. Is the loss of the fitness coach a factor?

Some retirement announcements expected in the off season. 

Reset for a new year. 
 

Don’t expect any more premierships in the near future.

[YesitwasaWin4theAges 5,786]

The coaching panel needs a freshen up, Greg you have been great but if he is still fwd line coach in 2023 well we might as well pack it up.

Petty should have been put at CHF at the start of the 4th Joel Smith should have been activated and put down back take off whoever.

No friggen imagination what so ever not wait until the last 5 minutes FFS.

Goody Its going to be a long summer.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,390]

39 minutes ago, 1964_2 said:

Mate, I recall you scolding some people warning you about tonight’s outcome. Some accountability any chance? 

I mocked those who lost their minds when the sides were named and I stick by it. Bringing in Chandler, Bowey or Bedford wouldn't have changed anything tonight or last week.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,390]

40 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

Any chance someone could have manned up on Rich?

Why wasn't Kozzie pressuring him like he did in our two wins against them this year?

[Willmoy1947 3,758]

Let's hope we get some early games into quite a few new players next April

[1964_2 2,357]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I mocked those who lost their minds when the sides were named and I stick by it. Bringing in Chandler, Bowey or Bedford wouldn't have changed anything tonight or last week.

Ah, so how did goody’s “no changes”, “we will back in our system” go??

 

[Dr. Gonzo 22,390]

31 minutes ago, Jerry Lundergard said:

Has anyone thought that maybe we actually aren't a better side with Gus in the middle?  

Should've been shifted back to the wing as soon as Jordon was out. Dumb mistake.

[DemonWA 3,424]

We limped to the end of the season in more ways than one. Still out best will be good enough for a few more seasons yet. 🤞 for a better run with injury and form next year. Go dees

[Dr. Gonzo 22,390]

1 minute ago, 1964_2 said:

Ah, so how did goody’s “no changes”, “we will back in our system” go??

 

It's irrelevant - when you're getting nothing out of your stars shuffling the deckchairs with the bottom 6 isn't going to change anything.

[1964_2 2,357]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I mocked those who lost their minds when the sides were named and I stick by it. Bringing in Chandler, Bowey or Bedford wouldn't have changed anything tonight or last week.

Petty taking a contested mark and kicking a goal late in the 4th, is such a big kick in the guts to the lack of experimentation/ willingness to address weaknesses for most of the season

 

[mo64 5,208]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Why wasn't Kozzie pressuring him like he did in our two wins against them this year?

ANB played on Rich last time.

[YesitwasaWin4theAges 5,786]

Our Fwd pressure had completely evaporated in the 2nd half of the year.

Team had stopped our front clearance game, we've had no run out of our backline, our forward connection and Structure went out in R10.

A combination of many things has brought us to this point and its a horrible feeling.

Players with no bounce in there step really a hard watch going fwd.

[YesitwasaWin4theAges 5,786]

6 minutes ago, 1964_2 said:

Petty taking a contested mark and kicking a goal late in the 4th, is such a big kick in the guts to the lack of experimentation/ willingness to address weaknesses for most of the season

 

Made me sick.

The thing is though he played 5-6 game in 2019 and played well and still didn't have a contingency plan after Tmac went down in Round f'n 10.

That's the hardest thing to digest.

[Macca 16,173]

22 minutes ago, 1964_2 said:

For mine, clearly the q4 fade outs are a fitness / desire issue. 

Maybe that is injury related or a number of other potential excuses (short pre-season etc).

The one thing that gets me more, is the mental fragility of suddenly stopping a winning formula when 15-20-25-30 points up in the first half. If this didn’t happen, we would have won at least half our losses this year.

How the same thing can happen, on repeat for a full season, with no signs of improvement is beyond me. 

When 20 points up, why not keep going, and get to 40 and kill the game?? 

We won our first 10 games but in nearly every one of those wins, we went into cruise mode in the last quarter or ... we went onto lock down mode to stifle the opposition

As the season went on that method was more so fade outs (as you've pointed out)

The difference?  Better opposition

So we were exposed but the 10 & 0 start made matters a tad confusing.  Winning has that effect

The key is where to now?  What do we do to be great again? 

6 - 8 new players.  Draftees or experienced talent.  Might be closer to 6 players but the last 6 or so picked in the finals team were exposed tonight as rather ordinary

If you want to be good, you've got to get better.  And it's nothing personal

It's a ruthless game

Edited September 9, 2022 by Macca

[John Demonic 4,781]

I did not call it. I did however, not pick up some beers pre-game, as I had a feeling that I just wanted to watch this as casually and emotionally detached as I could possibly get and not be hit with the heavy emotional + bodily depression if it went south, opting to save beers for a big enough game, like a prelim vs Geelong, as a treat. 

It worked a little, while I do feel a little saddened and numb - it's some consolation being clear headed enough to understand that we simply  weren't good enough this year, without anyone or any thing to blame. I doubt an easier fixture would've given us the legs to overtake Geelong & Sydney/Coll in two more successive games, and I doubt the game-plan would've stuck up if we did have the legs.

Edited September 9, 2022 by John Demonic

[Demon Dynasty 15,162]

1 hour ago, Thehardtackler said:

Coaching was appalling in the second half Goodwin made no moves. Should have thrown Petty or Petracca forward and someone else into the middle. I can’t believe he is a Premiershio Coach. Fagin had him on toast.

What a nightmare tonight was from so many aspects.  Somebody shoot me.

Tracc started up forward in the last quarter with small % of time in the middle bounces.  Unfortunately with little to no effect.  Possibly due to being hampered but he has a fair chunk of work ahead if he's to have a regular impact when playing there.  Still tends to panic his kicks a little too often.

Petty shouldve been trialled forward for a decent block of games, ideally against Norf & the Eagles as a minimum, way before finals.  Team needs to be 99% settled weeks out.  Throwing Petty forward AFTER the game looks to be lost in the last 5 mins of a semi-final smacks of too little too late and a lack of foresight/planning/vision.

As great as 2021 was for the coach,  players and the club... we really messed up a very good chance of at least making a PF this season.  Big fail for mine.

[Macca 16,173]

55 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Hmmm he wasn't great but I thought he almost singlehandedly willed the momentum back our way during patches in the 2nd half.

Good player but lacks A grade vision

A+ grade intensity with B grade disposal and decision making skills.  Great courage, great desperation.

But doesn't see the game unfold ahead.  Only the best see it that way

We lack real class disposing the ball forward from our midfield

We get the cod a million times but we are wasteful.  Tonight, even Oliver was handpassing to stationary targets (surrounded by opposition players)

Jackson did it to May 30 metres out from the Lions goal.  May got pinged

So frustrating to watch

 

[bandicoot 1,395]

3 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. 
For all of our “learnings”, we’ve learnt nothing. 
 

The most disappointing part for me about this season is that we walk away without having unearthed a single young player who I think can really help us improve next year. 
Casey lost one game all year, yet we debuted one player all year despite wavering form and injuries. Our big move was bringing Melksham back in and throwing Petty forward with 3 minutes left in the season. 
 

It was clear that things haven’t been working well since the halfway mark of the year. Yes we finished second and that was a good result, but our form was very up and down, particularly against good sides. And yet week after week nothing changed. 
The same predicable ball movement.  The same dysfunctional forwardline. Hell even our defense has been leaking goals left right and centre. 
 

To start 10-0 and go out in straight sets is an unacceptable result. 

Do you think a young inexperienced player from Casey would have fixed our issues??? 
no player in the world can fox the games style and ball movement 

[Kick_It_To_Pickett 2,921]

I’m too [censored] off to sleep. The only cold comfort I take is that in both both finals were were in it until the end. Yes, we could have won both and were in dominant positions in both, but did not execute well enough. The nucleus of this team is very strong, but we need to improve the fringe. 

[Supreme_Demon 3,009]

What a pathetic and disappointing way to end the season.

It's going to take me a long time to get over being this [censored] angry! 😡

[Boots and all 894]

2 hours ago, frankie_d said:

why did it take half a year and 2 lost finals to make a forward change? 

 

I would love to know who’s ides it was to move Petty forward. 

 

If it was not Godwin’s (say it was Yze) that would worry me. 
 

The teams we have lost to this year have also set up much better at the fall of the ball in the front half. . they typically don’t try and out mark Max/BBBJackson.  They out number in the air ( we had 2 spares behind the ball for much of tonight, so there were 2 extra lions in our forward line), and play strong contested footy at the predictable spoil. 

 

We also referred to bees to the j honey pot. all in at the ball, and no one on the outside ( except Lingers, who was consistently in the right place and i thought played well)

So often the long kick to two tall players in the forward pocket attracts a flotilla of opposition defenders and mids. Our forward entries are so predictable and we rarely mark the ball like this. Then when the ball is inevitably spoiled (or not marked), the forward line is so bloody crowded that our small forwards have nowhere to go due to the congestion. 

Unfortunately we get locked into the long bombs into the pocket because we play contest to contest football along the boundary centred around the tall targets of Gawn, LJ and sometimes BBB. 

Whether it's the gameplan or poor discipline, so many of our players are drawn to these contests and it seems to limit our inboard  targets in transition. So what do we do? Kick to the next tall target along the wing...rinse, repeat until the last kick into the forward pocket.

So bloody frustrating as a supporter seeing a side with so much quality going to waste as a result.

It's interesting that we tend to be more expansive in our approach early in games (using the corridor, changing angles etc.) and it's no coincidence that we often take a decent lead into quarter time. It would be nice to continue using this approach but it tends to peter out midway through the second quarter. I can't see any good reasons why this occurs other than we resort to bombing it long when players tire and/or opposition pressure ramps up.

[Hatchman 485]

Many of us underestimate how much of a beating the players took against the Swans.

That was a brutal game of football, and to be blunt, we did not recover enough. It was a good plan by Longmire; a winner takes all approach to get the prized week off so players can recuperate. We were never going to come back from that, especially given the mounting niggles and our last quarter fade-outs which are symptomatic of a team worn down from two very long seasons. We just had to win that game. 

Fagan was smart enough to let us run around in the first half, get tired, and switch to the Sydney plan in the second half. It was a good gamble and just enough to get over the line because we were spent. 

I don’t see the season as a waste or a failure; we still finished top 2 with a woeful forward line and limping home with tired and injured players. And have a few of you forgotten we won a flag last year? Ten years ago, that was an impossible dream, and many of us just wanted to see one in our lifetimes, which we got. 

I believe we need to cut old legs now like Melksham and Ben Brown, draft in under Bowey, JVR, Bedford and Chandler (to push them into the firsts) - get a ready-made top-shelf ruck replacement for Jackson (assuming he’s gone) and then we should be good enough for a finals push again next year

[Boots and all 894]

Like others, I'm devastated by this result but I didn't hold high hopes of progressing. We looked like world beaters after the first 10 games but either didn't play top sides or played decent sides that were out of form (Dogs, Suns, Bombers, Port, Giants, Tigers, Hawks, Saints, Eagles, North). After this we really struggled and it's no coincidence that we started playing the better sides. 

[Deenooos_ 647]

1 hour ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

I’m too [censored] off to sleep. The only cold comfort I take is that in both both finals were were in it until the end. Yes, we could have won both and were in dominant positions in both, but did not execute well enough. The nucleus of this team is very strong, but we need to improve the fringe. 

Yes I agree. We are a very strong team with a good spine, the fact that we were sometimes so fumbly, wasteful and predictable, it was still not easy to beat us in many games including both finals and the opposition had to be at their best. 

[Boots and all 894]

5 minutes ago, Hatchman said:

Many of us underestimate how much of a beating the players took against the Swans.

That was a brutal game of football, and to be blunt, we did not recover enough. It was a good plan by Longmire; a winner takes all approach to get the prized week off so players can recuperate. We were never going to come back from that, especially given the mounting niggles and our last quarter fade-outs which are symptomatic of a team worn down from two very long seasons. We just had to win that game. 

Fagan was smart enough to let us run around in the first half, get tired, and switch to the Sydney plan in the second half. It was a good gamble and just enough to get over the line because we were spent. 

I don’t see the season as a waste or a failure; we still finished top 2 with a woeful forward line and limping home with tired and injured players. And have a few of you forgotten we won a flag last year? Ten years ago, that was an impossible dream, and many of us just wanted to see one in our lifetimes, which we got. 

I believe we need to cut old legs now like Melksham and Ben Brown, draft in under Bowey, JVR, Bedford and Chandler (to push them into the firsts) - get a ready-made top-shelf ruck replacement for Jackson (assuming he’s gone) and then we should be good enough for a finals push again next year

I would prefer a top-shelf kpf than a ruck, but they seem to be in short supply.