Wiseblood

Great? I fail to see the point of this thread when it's Round 2.

What does that prove? We beat four of them in a row when the pressure of the season was at it's peak. Or is that down to the sun getting in the opposition's eyes, or their shorts being a touch tight, thus not allowing them to run hard and chase us?

That's it, entirely strip away the hard work and effort the players put in to get themselves into a Prelim. It wasn't them, it was completely down to everything else going our way, from getting teams already in the eight to somehow luckily getting a free kick or have a team miss a few shots. What a joke of a post.

Steve - I agree that our forward half needs a re-jig. I don't think anyone can argue that. But, right now, what do we do? With the injuries we have, what changes can we theoretically make? Garlett is still a few weeks away, Hannan, AVB and J Smith are out for a while, Bedford and Chandler aren't ready, Spargo is horribly out of form. So we have guys like ANB and Sparrow because we have little else. We need changes, but for now, we can't do a whole lot about the personnel.

I wonder how many of you had the same reactions after the Hawks beat us by a similar margin in Round 4 last year? We already had a couple of wins on the board by then too, so that result was even less expected. Things are never as bad as they seem. We had roughly 55 inside 50s in that Hawks game for just six goals, yet we quickly righted the ship and the rest was history. We might have some injuries and fitness issues to deal with at the minute, but we have the talent and the competitiveness to turn things around.

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Would watching it again have helped? Give me a spell. We are in a deep rut gameplan wise right now, but re-watching the Prelim isn't the cause, no matter how you want to spin it.

The bloke sat there, in real time, and watched the Prelim happen. I think he took plenty from it.

I think picket has been going hard on the raspberry cordial tonight.

The KK one is super harsh. He has had one VFL game and not a whole lot of time to fit in with the side yet. At least give him a little time before we throw a word like 'reject' around. Gameplan: Needs fine tuning.

I wouldn't sign if I were him. Why play at a club where the ball is constantly kicked on your head and supporters blame you for it?

It fell apart twice last year. I would have expected minor changes in response to the new rules, but we got run over in the Prelim by the eventual premiers. It was many things that day, not just the gameplan. Denial isn't it.

True. I also think it is how we react to the situation. When they win the footy, we don't seem to be quick enough to cover all the spaces and set up a 'wall' as it were. It was Dean Bailey style stuff - you always knew, when the ball hit the deck, that they would run it around the opposite side and score. Their ability to kick 6 goals from 8 inside 50s in the third term is proof positive of that. They handball, handball, handball and run. We have no answer to it at the minute.

Yep. The changes will be meaningless, really. For example, what difference would it do to drop someone like Weideman for Keilty? It's not a knock on what Dec is doing, but our structure forward of the ball is so poor that it doesn't matter who is down there right now. Only minimal changes for me. Big changes to the structure and gameplan will be welcome.

To be fair though, outside of a few poor games last year (Prelim, Pies on QB), the gameplan worked well. Very well in fact. So why would we make wholesale changes? We added May to stiffen up the backline, KK for the outside run and looked to draft younger players in areas of need, like Bedford and Chandler to play as potential small forwards. You can't do a whole lot more than that. A poor pre-season and players down on form have been factors, but teams are now working us out. It's up to Goody now to show what he's made of.

Well said, Sigil, even though it doesn't make for great reading. It seems that our main intention is for Gawn to tap it to a mid who just belts it forward. How often do we get it and handball it to a runner, or get it to someone with time, so we can hit a leading target? It's not often. I get that we want to play a contested footy, territory style game, but we've been beaten at our own game for two weeks in a row now. How Goodwin now responds to this will be telling.

Our response, if you look at individuals, was good in some areas. Oliver, Gus, Viney and Gawn, for example, all played much better than last week, which is quite hard to believe when you look at the result. But the gameplan, coupled with some seriously out of form players, an injury to May and bringing in someone like KK who will need time to get match fitness up and assimilate whatever the gameplan is at the moment, means that we have copped an absolute hiding tonight even with that improvement. It's such a strange outcome.

You're probably right, although getting rolled by 80 points in Geelong wouldn't have been on the agenda. We need to change some things in a big way, and I'm already keen to see that response on Friday night.

I agree re: the game style, LT. It's a mess at the minute. The stats suggest we are still doing some of the things that make us a good side, but our use going forward and the pressure in there is non-existent. Not to mention the ease with which they run it out of there and the acres and acres of space they have.

Rubbish. It's marathon, not a sprint. We'll be there in September.

Again, right now, it really isn't the problem. The game plan is. We bomb it, they get it and then run it down in space to score. Rinse and repeat.

BEST 22 TEAMS WERRIDEE CAN SUPPORT INSTEAD: B: RICHMOND, FREMANTLE, COLLINGWOOD HB: NORTH BALLARAT, FRANKSTON, RINGWOOD C CARLTON, FOOTSCRAY, UNIVERSITY HF: NORF, MARYBOROUGH, BELL PARK FF: CORIO, SHEPPARTON, BRISBAND RUCK: GEELONG, GEELONG, GEELONG BENCH: CASEY, SANDRINGHAM, WILLIAMSTOWN, OLD COLLEGIANS

Bingo. Trac aint the problem. He is out of form for sure, as evidence by some of his errors tonight, but the issue is so much more around how we are playing at the moment in terms of our game style. Chris Scott out coached us big time tonight.

It's two things. You can pin it on specific players all you like, but individuals aren't really the problem for us right now. It's how quickly we move the ball, and the poor use of the ball going forward. Both are related. We get it, we bomb it and we generally turn it over at the moment. Our gameplan is to kick it in there, keep it in there and get a goal. Every now and then we might hit a lead, or get someone out the back, but it's a rarity. Teams have pretty much worked us out when we go forward. A prime example for me was the first foray forward in the last term. Melksham marks, turns and kicks... to basically a three on one, as the Cats all went straight to the hot spot. When the ball hits the deck they have the numbers, because we usually don't move it quick enough, and then they run it down the other end as they've set up to do so, while we have sent numbers forward to lock the ball in. They have acres of space to hit targets and we can't defend it. I'm an optimist, but this isn't working. We need to look closely at it. What's the fix? Weideman and Tom McDonald can't get near it, so we get stuck into them, but what chance to they have when the ball is kicked long to a contest all the time? What are they supposed to do? I know we have players down on form, but the way we go about things doesn't help. Shifting a few out for others won't change a whole lot at this stage. I thought our efforts around the ball were much, much better. We had a dip pretty much all night and worked hard to match them in all areas. Our ball use was poor, though, while they took every chance they got. Think about the third term. We kicked a few points - one of them being a goal might have changed our mindset, changed our outlook. But we missed them all, they scored one from one entry and it was pretty much all over. I mean, getting it forward isn't the problem for us. Using it properly and/or keeping it in there, is. Positives? Our mids worked hard all night. I like the look of young Sparrow and what he can bring to the side. KK will be better for the run. Outside of that, there isn't a whole lot else. Individuals aren't the problem, here. As I said, we have players down on form, but they aren't the core issues right now. The game plan is the major issue. We need to fix it and quick. It's not panic stations for me yet. We can easily still make finals. But we need to change it up to do it. Chin up, people. Let's do our best to stick by the club and hope we bring the same intent, and better usage forward of the ball, on Friday night. If we do then we win and get our season back on track.

You make no sense far too often, 'bub.