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Great defensive effort again and winning clearance easily even without Oliver.  Petracca has 12 goals 19 behinds and 15 complete misses for the season.  That, unfortunately is our season in summary.  When arguably our best and most talented player can't finish the great work that the defence, and often himself in the midfield, starts we need look no further.  Goal kicking is fundamental to success in footy.  I remember the great North team of the late 90's coughing up the 1998 flag due to horrible kicking in the GF that year.

It's such a waste of talent.  Unlike most here, I don't lay the blame at Goodwin's feet.  These guys are professional footballers, mostly paid big money to kick goals. Up until 5 or 6 weeks ago they were doing it.  What has changed?

 

I saw someone else say it here, but why on earth did both Petracca and Lever run off the mark along Kelly the kick at goal. It’s just nonsensical. Might be time for Petracca to get his head back into footy. I know he cares greatly, but there are many areas of his game that need work

What's the definition of madness? Melbourne kicking it into their forward line and hoping for something different.

 

Play the kids, this season is over

I have taken my time post this, just walked back from the ground. And so p%%%sed off is an understatement.

To play a game and dominate as much as we did and then lose means some changes need to be made.

I wa s watching at the ground, all the endeavour is there but the connection is not, little dinky up in the air passes need to be banned.

Players to be dropped:

Langford, Chandler, Kossie, Harmes, Brayshaw. 

It seems the talls (forward) i.e Smith, Brown etc needs to be given some dry game time


16 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

So, apart from our forward play (which I ma exhausted by, and need to focus elsewhere for my own sanity), there were 2 late cases in point  that suggest our woes have to do with intelligence and confidence.

Gawn (our skipper) is unsure, waits too long, handballs off to someone who has to immediately handball back.
Outcome - hurried, long, high kick to F50 which is a defence's delight.

Less than 1 minute to go - Hunter gets the ball at half back and kicks sideways.

 

Gawn is Gone this year I reckon Looks injured or cooked

It doesn’t matter how much ball you win or how many stats you win, if you butcher the ball up forward you’re going nowhere fast.

Fritsch will be a huge loss as he is our only natural forward.

Well, I cannot add anything to what has already been said about that unwatchable performance. The forward line is as dysfunctional as it has ever been and I don't see a solution. 

I applaud Viney as his form in the last month has made me appreciate just how good he is. I hate to say it but Toby manages to create goals out of nothing and the sheer class and poise of Kelly and the footy smarts to bomb that winning goal in from 60 knowing it would slide in just embarrasses our lame efforts to try and kick a goal. Surely you cannot coach a team to have such a dysfunctional forward system. Football is no longer fun to watch.

 
31 minutes ago, —coach— said:

It’s a very rare day I stop watching a game part way through but the writing was on the wall at the start of the third. Said to my family this is the same script I’ve seen before, and went off for a walk.

I’m actually embarrassed by our team at the moment and how we manage to loose the same way over and over again. It’s not like teams are doing different things to beat us each time, it’s the same thing!

The writing was on the wall when they broke from the huddle before the start, all laughing! WTF is going on with this team! It is embarrassing, as you say coach. Painfully embarrassing. Time for a good hard look in the mirror by most out there today. I am starting to think that 2021 was a fluke, an aberration. We got lucky, Covid hubs, lack of a serious challenger, etc. Have said it before, but this list is seriously overrated. And I am fast losing a bit of respect for Petracca, come on mate, you are getting paid truckloads and you can’t hit the side of a barn. Not good enough.


I’m in Reykjavik and have just woken up to this result. What a bunch of [censored]. 
 

They’ve gone back to pre2021 where you can’t trust them to execute the basics. 

34 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Why because all you believers are getting found out once again??

Denial is a sour taste.

My history of posts would tell you I’m neither believer nor denier. I simply care very little for withdrawn battles of conjecture. 

I don’t like seeing this site descend to personal grudges/snipes against other posters.

Feel vindicated as much as you need to, but are the many “told you so” posts really that necessary? 

Edited by Mel Bourne

Just now, DeeZee said:

It doesn’t matter how much ball you win or how many stats you win, if you butcher the ball up forward you’re going nowhere fast.

Fritsch will be a huge loss as he is our only natural forward.

And unfortunately he did not need to be in that pack at that time, all the forwards flew for the same pill 

10 minutes ago, Sydney_Demon said:

Give us all a break. We finished 2nd on the ladder after H&A in 2022.  We went out in straight sets because we had a number of players banged up and couldn't run finals games out. Today's result was incredibly disappointing because it was entirely due to skills errors. We're still every chance of making Top 4.

Writing on the wall at the start of the 3rd? We lost after a GWS goal with 3 minutes left. If you're embarrassed by Melbourne I suggest you start suppoerting another team. No loss to me at least. 

I agree about the disadvantage of us needing to play in NT for financial reasons. I've posted on this before but I'm so tired of us losing home ground advantage by playing an interstate team every year in Alice Springs. These opponents should be playing us on the MCG. Similarly, if we play Geelong once it's always at Kardinia Park whilst bigger teams never play there. It's all about money, at the expense of fixture fairness.

Clearly you've never watched Casey play because if you did you'd know Jefferson is nowhere near ready. I agree there needs to be some changes. Clearly Clarry would be in if fit but we didn't lose because of our midfield. We lost because of poor skills execution. It wasn't a putrid performance, Incredibly disapointing when you lose games that all the stats show you should be winning, but putrid is unfair. The effort was there, but not the execution.

Yes it WAS PUTRID IMV! Our season hangs by a thread, but continue your fantasy , by all means

Edited by picket fence

3 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

To be clear, they won’t end our season. 

We will. 

We are beating ourselves. We are losing games to sides who don’t play well, who don’t play better for longer, but who take advantage of our mistakes. 

We are ending our own season by failing to fix fundamental problems. 

Just wait for Goodwins learning diatribe  Its a joke!  He clearly cant fix the basics with this group

SACK THE COACH  Thats what i feel like saying


Collingwood find ways to win, unfortunately we find ways to lose.

Simplistic view but that's the reality and reality wins premierships.

1 minute ago, bobby1554 said:

The writing was on the wall when they broke from the huddle before the start, all laughing! WTF is going on with this team! It is embarrassing, as you say coach. Painfully embarrassing. Time for a good hard look in the mirror by most out there today. I am starting to think that 2021 was a fluke, an aberration. We got lucky, Covid hubs, lack of a serious challenger, etc. Have said it before, but this list is seriously overrated. And I am fast losing a bit of respect for Petracca, come on mate, you are getting paid truckloads and you can’t hit the side of a barn. Not good enough.

Hollywood stars mate that the problem and Goodwin has encouraged it

25 minutes ago, OhMyDees said:

Seriously if Petracca gets one of his 4 misses we win. 

Why can’t people with aptitude be taught to kick straight?

He's a very good player and a Norm Smith medalist but his lack of goal scoring stops him from being a great of the game. It's always been an issue for him unfortunately. Seems to rush sometimes.

17 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Goodwin unfortunately looks like a coach that needs everything to go his way, because he is stiff and has only one METHOD. 

2021 everything went our way and we were sublime.

Our list is the same or perhaps better, on paper.

However, we are a shell of our premiership year. what is worse is that Goodwin won't do jack**** to try something new (be it personnel or strategy).

something new like promoting 3 new blokes from the VFL with success

Or trying Gus in the middle?

or expanding Rivers role?

or trying Petty fwd?

or trying Grundy/Gawn together?

Y

9 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Gawn is bordering on as a liability. If he keeps this up … 

Agreed, it really has been a rapid decline.


3 minutes ago, Older demon said:

Well, I cannot add anything to what has already been said about that unwatchable performance. The forward line is as dysfunctional as it has ever been and I don't see a solution. 

I applaud Viney as his form in the last month has made me appreciate just how good he is. I hate to say it but Toby manages to create goals out of nothing and the sheer class and poise of Kelly and the footy smarts to bomb that winning goal in from 60 knowing it would slide in just embarrasses our lame efforts to try and kick a goal. Surely you cannot coach a team to have such a dysfunctional forward system. Football is no longer fun to watch.

Compare Kelly and ANBs last gasp effort. That’s footy IQ and pure dumbarsery! He basically kicked it backwards off balance on an instep. It’s moronic 

8 minutes ago, Older demon said:

Well, I cannot add anything to what has already been said about that unwatchable performance. The forward line is as dysfunctional as it has ever been and I don't see a solution. 

I applaud Viney as his form in the last month has made me appreciate just how good he is. I hate to say it but Toby manages to create goals out of nothing and the sheer class and poise of Kelly and the footy smarts to bomb that winning goal in from 60 knowing it would slide in just embarrasses our lame efforts to try and kick a goal. Surely you cannot coach a team to have such a dysfunctional forward system. Football is no longer fun to watch.

I’m not sure if I’d label it “class and poise” as much as I would “opportunistic”. 
 

The “opportunity” being that Trac and Lever decided - for god knows what reason - not to stand the mark and allow him to play on. 

Edited by Mel Bourne

1 minute ago, leave it to deever said:

He's a very good player and a Norm Smith medalist but his lack of goal scoring stops him from being a great of the game. It's always been an issue for him unfortunately. Seems to rush sometimes.

Rush that is not even the word for it, and you are right that will keep him from being up their with flower, the same goes for Oliver.

 
1 minute ago, DubDee said:

something new like promoting 3 new blokes from the VFL with success

Or trying Gus in the middle?

or expanding Rivers role?

or trying Petty fwd?

or trying Grundy/Gawn together?

Grundy Gawn has been a failure so far.

JVR was a necessity. TMac and BBB had injury issues.

McVee, I'll give you that.

My point is that we don't look like a team improving. It feels like 2022/2020 all over again.


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