The mental game

So I've been thinking about this for a while now, and I'd like to say first of all that @binman is right.. Goodwin is a wonderful coach.. what he's done for the Dees during his time here is incredible.. we've gone from being absolutely terrible, to consistently at the pointy end all season long and in September.. however, there's one part that I think he's falling down on in his goals for our club and that's its identity.. you hear it a lot in his post games that they're showing now after a while, and "being a successful club".. 

I think that binman again is right, our high performance and development is almost second to none.. we're constantly improving and getting better, fitter, faster.. the systems he develops may not be flashing, but god they're effective.. but we're losing in the mind games.. 

Here's a few examples,

2023 

Geelong at Geelong - loss

Collingwood QF - loss

Carlton SF - loss

2024

Carlton Rd8 - loss

Collingwood KB - spanked

Freo R17 - spanked

In all of the above games I would argue that we've had bloody good reasons to want to destroy the opposition and dominated large periods (except Freo) of the games but have come up with losses.. the Geelong in Geelong one is I think one of the big examples.. it was right in the middle of the mid-season loading period and I recall on the podcast binman saying "I have no doubt if we'd wanted to, we could've won that match".. it's very true, we probably could've.. but we didn't, we lost.. we had a chance to finish the season of the reigning premier on their home ground where they'd served us up plenty of beltings over the years, and we didn't because of high performance.. I would argue that this is where we're still trying to find our balance.. sometimes the high performance might need to take a back seat to the mental game.. say for example we win that game.. everyone's on a high.. we've beaten the reigning premier at home.. our season is looking good.. maybe then the mental fragility when it comes to those missed chances in the finals because lessened, because we know we're good.. we've proven it when it mattered.. instead, the next chance we get to have shape up against contenders we miss all our opportunities and we're gone.. it can't be measured in fitness, or numbers, or stats.. but knowing that you're a winner is different from knowing that you're fit.. how many people just before half time against Collingwood at KB this year thought they'd kick a goal?.. I reckon Collingwood believed they would, and I think we believed they would too.. so they did.. even though we plenty of chances to kill it off.. 

in too many games we don't take our chances, but the question needs to be asked, why do we keep not taking our chances? Billings had a shot after the siren at 3/4 time last week.. didn't even score.. Kozzie has a chance against West Coast to kick a goal after the siren and put us above Collingwood on the ladder (not that he'd know that), and doesn't score! Unfortunately it seems that 2021 aside, when the chances are there, we don't take them.. 

I don't want us to end up in a St Kilda / Ross Lyon situation.. they had a good era, but didn't quite make it to the top and promptly fell back into what we expect of St Kilda.. there's gotta be a reason why Collingwood has played in nearly 50 grand finals, yet St Kilda has player fewer finals than Joel Selwood.. and I believe that it's the acceptance of mediocrity at the club.. Collingwood don't accept it, Hawthorn don't accept it.. if you're a player thinking about moving right now, are you going to Melbourne or an up and coming Hawthorn?.. there'd be plenty of players out there thinking to themselves, they're Hawthorn.. they win flags.. we however, have 1 one in 60 years.. 

Building a successful club culture is going to take a long time considering where we started and I sincerely hope we actually afford Goodwin the opportunity to keep us up there.. win a couple more flags.. and cement that culture.. football is fickle, a [censored] start to next year and he could be gone by seasons end..