Surfer Dee

One thing I'll add is that I want to see some of our players with X factor back themselves a bit more. I loved Clarry's shot from the boundary line from outside 50. Nearly nailed it. Trac needs to take some shots from 50 when he gets even a bit of space. Hunt tried to bring his speed but was well shut down. Salem can hit a dime at 50 metres so should be looking to hit the goals more often. And Bernie used to to kick a 50m bomb goal every game. I'd rather these guys were backing themselves and missing than hesitating. When someone does something like what these guys are capable of, it lifts the whole team.

Of all the over the top melt downs on here tonight, I have no idea why Weideman is in the firing line. Great game from a young key forward. Crashed packs, took a few grabs, showed some aggression. What's he played? 10-15 games? sheesh. He'll kick a bag if we stick with him this year. Some seem to make a decision on players and then ignore what they see in front of their eyes. Gutted with the loss. But the pressure we applied with some improved skills and efficiency inside 50 will be good enough to take care of most teams in the comp. The blowout was completely understandable for me. It wasn't that we couldn't keep up anymore, it was how much effort we'd put into getting back into the game for no reward. It's completely demoralising. My brain was ready to melt and I was exerting no physical energy. A few cleaner chains of possessions, Hogan kicks that goal and we're in front midway through the last. That makes all the difference to the mindset of our players when it comes to the effort at the end of the game. Our defence was very good. Oscar, Lever, Hibberd, Jetta finally clicked and you can see what the plan is here. More of this please. It's also worth noting that Richmond are very, very good. In particular their finishing around goal. They have about 5 players who barely touch the ball except for when they get a crumb in the forward 50. One step and they goal. So clean. They make half chances into goals. So many of their goals were from contests that we did well to even up only for a wet and slippery ball to somehow pop out to their advantage. The score at the end flattered them. The game was closer than that. In terms of the closeness of the game, it felt like a 20 point loss. Which I think is about right. The game plan has merit and issues. We dominate the ground balls so we play chaos footy. When the ball is on the deck we look intense and control the game. It's a strength of ours so we're wise to play this way. But the result is that our disposals are constantly rushed and we're completely stuffed by the end. We just need to grab say 20% of North Melbourne's game plan where they move the ball with a bit more control and take their time. There were moments in the game where we tried to do this, but Richmond just doesn't allow uncontested marks and we fumbled too much to execute it. The backline finally worked, but Richmond shut down our ball movement. The game plan will be OK I think. Our biggest issue is our players. We have some seriously out of form players who are failing to execute the game plan, or even footy fundamentals. We don't have obvious replacements for them in the twos either. Our small forwards were horrible. Players we expected to step up have gone backwards. ANB, Harmes, Jeff, Hunt, Stretch, Tyson, Vince, Wagner are all not performing to the level we expect. Positives are Hogan, Clarry, Gawn, Hibberd (huge tonight), Lever, Omac, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca. I think Salem, who has only played maybe 8 games as a mid, is really growing into the role. Add in Viney & Tmac. Maybe Balic comes in for one of Harmes and ANB. Play a few games in dry conditions. We have winnable games the next 4 rounds. Let's see where we are then. I think a few wins and a bit of confidence will make a difference. 2018 is not going as well as we'd hoped, but it's not as bad as it feels yet.

To get young talent like Lever you have to pay overs. We'll get rinsed but he's probably worth it.

His game against the dogs was really good. Not so good against the bombers. I'm not phased, he's hardly played 20 games. Given time I hope for more of the good games. Not worth slitting our wrists over just yet I wouldn't have thought.