19 minutes ago, DeeZone said:

The coach or are our players not looking inboard and making an easy pass to a player making space to open up the game, selfish, dumb football. Not rewarding a teammate’s efforts or not trusting their ability to make the kick.

We haven’t gut run and made space for a number of years

Results don’t lie

We are going to need to make some very hard decisions in the interest of the club very soon.

That Carlton game was horrible. Horrible. Viney alone didn’t cost us that. Maynard and bad kicking did.

43 minutes ago, demon3165 said:

See Fev even shows how easy it is.

Still moves pretty bloody well for an old big fella. Marks it right at the apex of his jump too!

3 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

He’s dead right. We have all been saying it for 3 years

But sadly the Coach has other ideas

We've been playing in straight lines for years under Simon.

I can't recall how many times i've seen our players running off HB and their first look is up the line.

Often missing an inside handball or 45 kick option. Effectively burning the player coming from behind to support or running forward of ball early predicting and looking to take advantage on the counter.

Of course sometimes you don't have time or space. You're pressured into the down the line. Or no one presents inside and/or they're well covered or even double teamed.

But if they're there and you're still burning them often enough, guess what, some players aren't going to repeat these efforts.

Coming off a wing into HF we so often look for that forward pocket target spot.

Teams have known this from early 2022 or so and just load up into that zone for the spoil.

They know we don't switch up or look for 45s (or can't hit targets to well when we do) coming towards the 50.

We would have to be one of the easiest, if not the easiest teams to defend in the AFL. Now going into our third season playing this way.

If Simon can't train / drill this out of the bulk of the playing group by now i can't see it ever happening under his watch.

I had alot of faith up until about half way through last season. The way we lost to the Dockers was the final straw for me.

I can only hope this all clicks for Simon and the playing crew in the next 4 to 6 (if he's seeing and recognising this...maybe he does and wants us to play this way??) and we miraculously begin to see some light and turn the corner.

Not holding out much hope though. It feels like we're pretty much a lost cause.

Edited April 8Apr 8 by Demon Dynasty

28 minutes ago, DeeZone said:

The coach or are our players not looking inboard and making an easy pass to a player making space to open up the game, selfish, dumb football. Not rewarding a teammate’s efforts or not trusting their ability to make the kick.

And that's the thing right?

Players gut running to make position and constantly not being rewarded.

It must be grinding the whole team down morale wise.

Viney is quite puzzling as he seemed to have improved his decision making and kicking into 50 last year. But this year it's just been horrible again.

All of those examples shown were poor to do with poor decision making not lack of skill.

23 minutes ago, Demon Dynasty said:

We've been playing in straight lines for years under Simon.

I can't recall how many times i've seen our players running off HB and their first look is up the line.

Often missing an inside handball or 45 kick option. Effectively burning the player coming from behind to support or running forward of ball early predicting and looking to take advantage on the counter.

Of course sometimes you don't have time or space. You're pressured into the down the line. Or no one presents inside and/or they're well covered or even double teamed.

But if they're there and you're still burning them often enough, guess what, some players aren't going to repeat these efforts.

Coming off a wing into HF we so often look for that forward pocket target spot.

Teams have known this from early 2022 or so and just load up into that zone for the spoil.

They know we don't switch up or look for 45s (or can't hit targets to well when we do) coming towards the 50.

We would have to be one of the easiest, if not the easiest teams to defend in the AFL. Now going into our third season playing this way.

If Simon can't train / drill this out of the bulk of the playing group by now i can't see it ever happening under his watch.

I had alot of faith up until about half way through last season. The way we lost to the Dockers was the final straw for me.

I can only hope this all clicks for Simon and the playing crew in the next 4 to 6 (if he's seeing and recognising this...maybe he does and wants us to play this way??) and we miraculously begin to see some light and turn the corner.

Not holding out much hope though. It feels like we're pretty much a lost cause.

We didn’t have to look for better options because Maxy was there so often to mark it, or we’d count on it being a ball up/throw in. Didn’t develop our decision making skills in our senior players as a result.

58 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

We haven’t gut run and made space for a number of years

Results don’t lie

Don’t disagree totally SWYL but we missed a number of opportunities and burned a few players due to poor decisions by their teammates.

As bad as the decisions were, the ease that we just allowed a stoppage in all 3 is terrible. Keep the ball alive and put the defenders under pressure.

32 minutes ago, DeeZone said:

Don’t disagree totally SWYL but we missed a number of opportunities and burned a few players due to poor decisions by their teammates.

It’s never going to be 100%

But this team over the last 3 years has not gut run and spread nearly enough, look at that Photo that has been on here of Clarry Round 1 2021, a different player, Standards have dropped, Maybe 1%, but in this game that is enough to be knackered in the last Quarter….

In ‘21 we had Lingers and Gus working both wings for 4 Quarters

1 hour ago, Earl Hood said:
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I think Viney has to go as a mainstay of the midfield. He has been a great warrior for us, but the game has evolved and he hasn’t, either because he can’t or he won’t. I find it difficult to understand how a footballer at the elite level hasn’t got the peripheral vision and poise to pick out targets around them. I know not every mid can have the vision of a Pendlebury but surely you can try. And that’s the worry for me, that Viney doesn’t even try and fail but continues to just blindly throw it on his left boot to nobody in particular. It’s been an issue for some time. I still have flashbacks of that last dumped kick against Carlton with 30 seconds to go, straight to Walsh? while Tracc was running loose on his inside calling for the handball and us going out in straight sets in 2023.
Can he play the defensive small forward role with brief stints on the ball? I believe he deserves the chance.

I agree with you, except for his playing as a small forward. He simply does not have the smarts, and Backman would simply run off him. He has been a great player for the club, but sometimes you have to make hard decisions for the team.

6 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

He’s dead right. We have all been saying it for 3 years

But sadly the Coach has other ideas

Sadly, the Coach himself has also been saying it for 3 years. The fact that nothing has changed in that time (in fact it’s got worse) is astounding.

8 minutes ago, 3183 Dee said:

Sadly, the Coach himself has also been saying it for 3 years. The fact that nothing has changed in that time (in fact it’s got worse) is astounding.

Don’t think i have ever heard Simon specifically talk about structural issues apart from “Contest & Defence”

Connection forward of Centre is a very wide statement

I think Simon will be a brilliant Defence Coach, but i honestly don’t think he understands the Forward line roles, which is quite astounding considering he is a 2 time back to Back Midfielder who kicked quite a lot of goals.

Our forward setups have been awful for a long time, problems that other Clubs can master and refine in a matter of weeks

3 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

I think Viney has to go as a mainstay of the midfield. He has been a great warrior for us but the game has evolved and he hasn’t, either because he can’t or he won’t. I find it difficult to understand how a footballer at the elite level hasn’t got the peripheral vision and poise to pick out targets around them. I know not every mid can have the vision of a Pendlebury but surely you can try. And that’s the worry for me, that Viney doesn’t even try and fail but continues to just blindly throw it on his left boot to nobody in particular. It’s been an issue for some time. I still have flashbacks of that last dumped kick against Carlton with 30 seconds to go, straight to Walsh? while Tracc was running loose on his inside calling for the handball and us going out in straight sets in 2023.

Can he play the defensive small forward role with brief stints on the ball? I believe he deserves the chance.

He's got to go into the forward line and no more than 20-30 percent in the guts.

JV7 has showed he can play this role and is a decent set shot on goal.

Simon Goodwin once kicked 7 goals in a match (against the Eagles)

In that same year he bagged 3 goals, 6 times!

Mid season draft?

23 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Don’t think i have ever heard Simon specifically talk about structural issues apart from “Contest & Defence”

Connection forward of Centre is a very wide statement

I think Simon will be a brilliant Defence Coach, but i honestly don’t think he understands the Forward line roles, which is quite astounding considering he is a 2 time back to Back Midfielder who kicked quite a lot of goals.

Our forward setups have been awful for a long time, problems that other Clubs can master and refine in a matter of weeks

Nailed it. Goody talks about learnings and connection into forward 50. He’s been talking about focusing on an improvement needed for 3+ years. So what’s been done ? Nil. Poor strategy. Poorer coaching.

Other clubs rarely mention it. Hardly surprising. The Dees are the masters of finding ways to turnover the footy. That last kick or that last poor handball or that fumbles and slip over. We astonish ourselves with ways to give up the footy and then have to defend as the opposition rebounds.

Forward pressure is seemingly now also non existent. Forward tackles are now at an all time low. That is a definite disappointment.