I have a question…

How many of you criticising that game went to the ground?

21 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

How bad is Petty?

 

I've lost faith and would be playing Tomlinson or Schache instead of him.

4 minutes ago, Jjrogan said:

Just close your eyes and imagine for a moment that for instead of some of ANBs possessions, that it's McVee having the ball instead. Reckon you can put another 2 to 4 goals on the scoreboard?  He's made around 600 decisions this year and I reckon 598 have been the right ones.  Weekly post, wasted playing a full game in the back line.  See you next week. 

Welcome to the open eyes club, the kid is a natural footballer.

3 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

Each game you're looking for signs where you think we can compete come the pointy end of the season.

To me, the backline is doing very well, and that's it. May, Lever, Petty, Salem and McVee all did well again. The rest is a huge concern. We lost contested and uncontested possessions, the inside 50 count, the centre clearances, contested marks, marks inside, etc.

Last week we won all of that. 

Oh, but we lost the game. 

If you're only ever happy with complete dominance and victories, you're not going to be happy very often. Why follow sport at all? 

1 minute ago, DeeSpencer said:

Not sure how your second half of your post is relevant to the first.

Chandler was average to bad for a few weeks. Found himself dropped tonight. Spargo - who was dropped before that - came back in.

Kossie has to be on just about his last chance, and for his own good. Go back to the VFL and have 20 and 3 and get his touch back.

Kozzie could be dropped but my point is that dropping him does not fix the defiencies elsewhere

So the 2nd half of my post is totally related to the first part

It's about the team overall, not potting certain individuals.

It's a team game, not tennis or golf. So the issue is the team's overall output

Does that make sense to you now? 

Or do you prefer the sacrificial lamb?

Actually, after the GWS loss, you wanted to dump 7 players.  Haha!!

Words get recorded on the net, DS

2 minutes ago, WERRIDEE said:

What a woeful performance if they kicked straight like we did the Saints would have won. What a game by May hate to see how bad we would be without him. 21 is a distant memory. Not good enough to win the flag this year. Kossie must be dropped.

Not a lot in that game....probably should have been.

Lucky we were better by a bit tonight and they were off ...otherwise. 

Posters....meh...strange.

Oh well thanks for the 4pts

The only pleasing thing about tonite was the ability to absorb pressure coz the saints did have a real go. On the other hand skill wise pretty poor and our forward line is still shizen. 

1 minute ago, The heart beats true said:

I have a question…

How many of you criticising that game went to the ground?

I reckon there was 2k melbourne supporters there. It was a shocking turnout.

11 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

We won

There is nothing more to add..

Plenty to subtract...... but we won.

Funny thing is....im not sure how.

Because we have the best defence in the game, and the most dominant forward on the ground.

You are allowed to enjoy the game you know? There’s no law against it.

6 minutes ago, Jjrogan said:

Just close your eyes and imagine for a moment that for some of ANBs possessions, instead it's McVee having the ball instead. Reckon you can put another 2 to 4 goals on the scoreboard?  He's made around 600 decisions this year and I reckon 598 have been the right ones.  Weekly post, wasted playing a full game in the back line.  See you next week. 

You do realise that the best place for a player like that - who rarely makes mistakes - is defence right? 

It's a turnover sport and over 75% of them are committed by defenders. He does more for our ability to win in defense than he would up the ground

Good to get the win out Fw50 at times a struggle, Pickett not sure what they can do as just not having any impact on the game, this continue going to him with high balls to mark. 

To the Saints credit they threw the kitchen sink at us, we absorbed alot of pressure and inside 50's.

No rain affected conditions and what do you know our marking game was back to its best under the roof and away from the elements.

Just now, fr_ap said:

Last week we won all of that. 

Oh, but we lost the game. 

If you're only ever happy with complete dominance and victories, you're not going to be happy very often. Why follow sport at all? 

I want us to win the flag. Use the potential we have. Our game is not in good shape. Most of us here will not accept another straight sets exit. 

7 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

I have a question…

How many of you criticising that game went to the ground?

Exactly. This place has totally lost the plot, more so than the dark years and that’s saying something. I thought we were good from where we sat especially after they jumped us early.
A disgusting win?  FMD!

Edited July 8, 20231 yr by Dee Zephyr

7 minutes ago, Deestar9 said:

To say a win is disgusting is quite frankly a disgusting thing to say. Sometimes you have to wonder why you bother supporting this team . 

This is called a forum, people are allowed to express their opinion whether you like their views or not, but if you cannot see the deficiencies of this team since 21 well just keep following the rainbow then..

Goodys presser 
 

- Saints well coached and good defensive side 

- Efficiency was the difference in the game 

- Trac Brown and Melksham experience and worked well but not perfect 

- Trac plays key role in finding avenues to goal . Getting inside 50 in past weeks was ok but needed to hit scoreboard and Trac provided that 

- Importantly more midfield time for sparrow and jordon 

- Challenging conditions last few weeks and Choco will be happy with goalkicking tonight 

fairly ho hum presser 

 

Positives 

We banked the 4 points

We kicked straight

Petracca found his kicking boots

Taj uses the ball well and can keep his spot

Melksham led well and kicked well

May dominated

Viney is our unofficial leader 

40 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Disgusting win.

Backline did some excellent defending but geez they have no idea how they want to move the ball. Credit to them for actually switching it a few times but no cohesive plan. And the panicking on contested loose balls is just embarrassing from all involved. 

With Tracc playing forward it was pretty much Viney and a VFL midfield and that includes both rucks. All our mids had a go but they just aren’t very good. Gus and JJ had some moments at least.

Forward line showed signs of life but Melksham still looks long odds to actually do anything more than a little cameo. Brown completely cooked after a half. Grundy’s a waste of a body down there and Gawn not much better.

Did you go?

3 minutes ago, demon3165 said:

people are allowed to express their opinion

Isn't that what he just did?

 

19 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

Love the positivity after a win, what have u been like the last 2 weeks after our losses!

We did win, a bad win is still a win with some things to work on. 

Better to have a bad win than another loss imo. 

The aim of the game is to win a flag can you honestly say we have that game plan, the same game plan as last year that we are playing?

19 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Overall Gus was good but jeepers those early handballs were frightening and for an experienced player they don’t make sense. Same goes for Riv’s early kicks.

Same goes for Gawn and Grundy’s entire night.

Really it’s probably indicative of just how little confidence we have in our ball movement due to lack of talent through the midfield (we don’t have good handball receive players aside from the wings peeling wide) and lack of confidence in the forwards.

 

 

Yep I agree with this.

16 minutes ago, layzie said:

Thought Gus played a good game. Was in all the right positions and influenced the contest. Turned it over a little as did everyone but did his job.

You can also spare me the talk about DE efficiency and if a certain someone wants to drop a link to an article on this subject for the umpteeth time then maybe they can better spend their freedom looking up the difference between effective and efficient in the dictionary. 

The DE rating is flawed but sometimes quite relevant.  Other times irrelevant

If the disposer of the ball wasn't punished for the error made by the receiving player then it would make more sense

So, I use the DE rating but do the mental correction (eyes) to get to the true number

For instance, the 2 or 3 errant Brayshaw handballs early in the game did not hurt the team at all.  But other times (like every other player) the errors can be costly

Also, if the coach is instructing the players to take risks, then errors will eventuate

It's like umpiring errors, they are going to happen whether one likes it or not

But we've got bigger fish to fry.  We are not playing like a premiership contender.  We did against the Pies but in the other wins?  And the 6 losses tell a story too

I'm still holding out hope that we can bring our best consistently but we need to see it

Ross the Boss has that team committed… what a great pressure performance from them.

I think that we only won because of our efficient forward line and our desire to lower our eyes (on occasion). 
 

Ahhhh.

Let’s just take the contested possession loss as an aberration. 

Move on.

Sigh

33 minutes ago, JimmyGadson said:

Doesn't give an accurate read on where we're at? 

We've played consistently bad football for over a month now!

Tonight was absolutely an accurate representation of where we're at! 

Well it doesn't give an accurate read of what we can do or how far we can go. 

Next week however..

Our important numbers have been decent over the last few weeks but we haven't been winning much (i50s, contest pos, tackles, tackles i50, scoring shots for and against).

Today we got pretty well beaten in a lot of numbers but found a way to win, which is great. Badly needed win and keeps us in a decent position to make finals.

Reality is though, if you only play 1 or maybe 2 games a season where you bring a level of heat that matches or exceeds your opponent's level over the full 4 quarters then you just aren't a contender. We just drop the pressure off way too often within games. Not sure if it is a fitness thing or maybe the coaching messages just aren't hitting the mark, but we are rapidly wasting a window of opportunity here.