1 minute ago, DeeZee said:

We still have the same forward line coach in Stafford, surprise surprise!

Of all our pre-season drama, this flew right under the radar. Our forward line output has been garbage for years now but Stafford remains. We don’t have a great forward line but [censored] it’s not awful either, Fritta walks into any team in the comp, JvR is a rising star, Pickett is Pickett, Nibbler works harder than anyone at the club, and Chandler/Spargo have shown they can hit the scoreboard. All the while we also have Trac as a mid/forward who’s one of the best players in the comp. 

I’m sorry if you can’t make something of that you’re not a good line coach.

Petty will make a difference but he’s returning from a serious foot injury, we can’t rely on him being the answer. 

Sydney should’ve put us away by 50 points, and I don’t think they will be a top 4 side. 

7 minutes ago, Garbo said:

Can’t believe so many ppl put stock is last weeks performance. We aren’t playing finals this year. Our window for a flag is over 

Yeah I got fooled by how good we looked against a Carlton team missing 1/3 of their best 22 in February praccy game. We're not damaging enough, same issues persist, can't adjust when things aren't going our way etc

8 minutes ago, pitmaster said:

Another AFL genius balls up. Send us up to play in sub-tropical conditions in the height of summer heat.

This is no time to panic. The fixture set us up. We were spent from midway through the third quarter.

Let's see next round. If we mishandle the ball the same way then I'll panic.

No mate no way.. we were thrashed tonight and dont complain about the conditions!

Bit of a poor loss 

14 minutes ago, adonski said:

Glad we locked up Sparrow for another 2 years. Don't know where we would have been tonight without those 13 touches.

Just another Sparrow game. Never really delivers. Sometimes threatens to look like a player but then you remember.

5 minutes ago, dl4e said:

Played like fummbly school girls. Sydney much cleaner. Again our forward line was a problem. If schache plays seniors for us again I think I will sit in a corner and cry for 6 hours. 

Why school girls? Rubbish analogy

5 minutes ago, Dee-monic said:

Very harsh on Max. Grundy was outstanding and on the night Max did his best but couldn't match him. There is no shame in that.

One blip on a magnificent career is no reason to use words like "pathetic".

 

Not judging his career. Just his performance tonight. 

New Coach please. Seen enough 

15 minutes ago, Bingo said:

Like Heeney said, they play and train all preseason in this heat and humidity. We couldn't handle the ball.

Not an excuse but it was very hot and humid up here tonight and one rotation down when Bowser went off. They were clearly running harder from the start of the last quarter 

Don’t worry everyone. Goodwin and the team will take their learnings from this game. The team surely has so much learnings that they should all be brain surgeons by now!!

Edited March 7, 20241 yr by Age

Agree with a lot of you.

Chandler just too small and no X factor whatsoever.

Laurie always looks rushed.

Langdon hasn’t been good since 21 either, shell of a player to what he was.

A real let down.

A deplorable effort Goodwin 

1 minute ago, Pates said:

Of all our pre-season drama, this flew right under the radar. Our forward line output has been garbage for years now but Stafford remains. We don’t have a great forward line but [censored] it’s not awful either, Fritta walks into any team in the comp, JvR is a rising star, Pickett is Pickett, Nibbler works harder than anyone at the club, and Chandler/Spargo have shown they can hit the scoreboard. All the while we also have Trac as a mid/forward who’s one of the best players in the comp. 

I’m sorry if you can’t make something of that you’re not a good line coach.

Petty will make a difference but he’s returning from a serious foot injury, we can’t rely on him being the answer. 

Just when you thought Salem's foot skills into the forward line would solve the issue you realise that it's not actually the skill of the delivery into the F50, rather the structure which looks exactly it has in 22 and 23.

Then you realise we got lucky our light and elusive forward line that won us the 21 GF has been found out. 

The best coaches are ahead of the game and goody never saw a change was required before time.

Suddenly, you are an also run.

Goodwin picked Schache over Grundy in a do-or-die semi final, but then never played him, instead stuck with Tom McDonald, who is still on the MCG right now completing a 180 degree turn some 6 months after the game ended. 

AND THEN he traded Grundy, before picking Schache to play *against* Grundy as the backup to Gawn, the role Grundy was originally recruited to Melbourne for. Only for Grundy to smack them both.

You couldn't come up with a more Melbourne storyline if you tried. 2021 is such a pipedream. Only Melbourne could [censored] up having two AA ruckman 

24 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

I'll wait and see the next month or so unfold, but that was as bad as that Essendon game last year, which was probably our worst game since that Port game in 2020. It's hard to say we're in strife after one game, but if we have any more games like that any time soon, we are. Really insipid. It started with poor goal kicking, then fumbles, and then getting bashed up around the contest. So that's losing at our 1 wood.

Laurie, Sparrow, Chandler, Rivers all horrible tonight. Schache, well, we know what we're getting there. 

Ball movement and forward craft completely absent. That has to be forward and senior coaching. You can't kick 25m out to the hot spot and think that's going to work, when we've had that precise strategy not work for us for 3-4 years now. We don't have a gifted pack marker like Curnow, JVR is okay, but he's better 1v1.

I thought Max's second half was dreadful though and when he has a tactic work against him, he's so slow to react. Grundy gave him a bath, even McLean beat him up when he went in there.

No idea what to take from this. Not much good, that's for sure.

Hit the nail on the head worse than the Ess game in the rain.

We are so shy te in greasy conditions?

weak as water.

 

Edited March 7, 20241 yr by YesitwasaWin4theAges

We were poor but far too early to write the season off yet…very hard to win in that sauna ridiculous conditions to play footy….forward line certainly needs some troops back asap to compete though 

Give me BBB on crutches instead of Schache please.

I said it last Year. Goodwin Out 

Yze Senior Coach

And what are left with?

12 minutes ago, Sigil said:

When I don't understand something, I find it useful to to do some dot points and diagrams to better my understanding.

I think I've cracked it!

Did you steal that from Simon or Greg's desk?

Wrong conditions for the new game plan.

But the devastating thing is Bowey goes down and we lose our best kicker. Salem has to fold back so we lose our best midfield kick. There goes the new game plan.

We seem so light on for the required athletes up forward both tall and small. You got to have guys who if they are tall they compete as talls. If they are small they have speed. 

ANB and Sparrow at least bring the size, speed and endurance to compete across half forward.

Not all is lost. We were great for 3/4s defensively and the awful conditions cost us so many potential scores.

But the bad habits with guys trying to do too much is just a killer. Handball, handball, baulk if you can, get a free runner and kick. Simple link play. Not desperation kicks off one step or trying to take on 7 tacklers

And where is the footy smarts for blocking, being spot on with our standing the mark all those little things that don’t show up on stats sheets? 

5 minutes ago, KingDingAling said:

Sydney should’ve put us away by 50 points, and I don’t think they will be a top 4 side. 

If they don’t finish top 4 they’ll go close.

Unlike our club, they have a team full of elite kicks.

11 minutes ago, Demon4ever said:

Exactly! They know the ground inside out. They didn't even look like they were sweating at all! Whereas you only had to look at Clarry and he was dripping. If only we played our first game at the MCG in front of 60k+... might have been a different story!

Garbage, we were putrid!

Disappointing second half. I am always disappointed when blokes who haven't quite made it are given a golden opportunity and don't contribute. I'll name names... Chandler, Spargo and Laurie gave me no reason to want to see them in round 1. I call it every time... May and Lever panic when the ball hits the ground. It hurts to see Grundy take the points. Sparrow was ordinary... no step up there. Windsor had his moments. Howes was safer than a few of our established backs. JVR needs to get clear on the lead. Great to see Oliver have a positive effect, We bow our heads to an opposition that were missing key players but played like winners when we played like a bunch of fumbling novices. Rivers, like Sparrow did not stand up in post Brayshaw football. 

10 minutes ago, seventyfour said:

At least Jordon was bad. Very average player. Lost nothing when we let him go.

At least he got to sing the song after the game tonight.