Wiseblood

I know some will blow it off, but this is crucial and is a big reason why our pre season was different to so many others. Yes, some of those other teams had the same summer in terms of time spent on the track, but none had the off season surgeries that we did. It's not all the reason why yesterday stank but it played a large role.

That's not flash re: AVB. He looked in ripping nick during both JLT games. To potentially lose him for the season is a massive blow.

So what is the excuse? If the game plan hasn't changed much, why are we struggling? We made minimal changes player wise so it's not as if we had massive turnover there. I don't buy the lack of pace train of thought either, as it wasn't a massive issue for most of 2018. So what was it? Fitness? A totally off day? A little bit of arrogance? Or all of the above? While I acknowledge there is lots at play here, I do thing the 6-6-6 rule has had a small, negative impact on the side as a whole. But of course, it's only a small part.

True, we've had time, but have we had the players on the park over the summer to learn it as much as we'd like? It's one thing to look at it on a whiteboard. It's another thing to actually put it in practice. Many of our most important players have spent time on the sidelines and we haven't had the continuity we would like. It's not the only reason we struggled today. I get that just as much as the next person. But I think, with the side we've built and the game plan we had, coupled with the rubbish pre-season, means that we might take more time to settle into the year than we would like.

Just goes to show that we've had so many players have off season surgery, that it's easy to forget who actually got it. I stand corrected.

Joel Smith is out for the next 4-6 weeks.

Especially as many believe we're a little slow as a side in general, although I think it's more down to work rate than anything else. Preuss would ease the burden on Max, but would he exacerbate it elsewhere?

Out for at least another month.

A little bit over the top. They had a bit of a stinker, but they certainly didn't look VFL standard in our elimination and semi finals. Granted, I'd much rather May and Lever in there, but those two weren't helped by the lack of run and effort from our midfield today either.

It's a good point, titan, but one I think that will be overlooked today based on the overall performance. I get that, but we need to understand all the factors involved today. Experience, poor pre-season, adaptation to the new rules and probably some arrogance and drinking of bathwater was our downfall today in a big way. It's not the end of the world, though, and your previous post put it succinctly and perfectly to the point.

All.the favourites struggled this weekend. Tigers just held the Blues at bay, while us, the Pies and Adelaide all lost very winnable games.

Jones and Viney, with interrupted pre-seasons, shouldn't be the focus of our ire today. Not yet, anyway. It should be on those that we expect to be fitter and ready to go. Those that didn't have the interrupted pre-seasons that others had. Petracca is the one that comes to mind. If ever there was a match winner then it's him, yet he couldn't get anywhere near it. It just shouldn't be happening, not at this stage of his career. We need more consistency from him and we need him to take some games by the scruff of the neck. It's just not happening enough.

I agree, AF. I also think Hibberd's lack of run is down to him being asked to play as a third tall, rather than a flanker, which gives him more opportunity to run off the backline. He isn't given that license when he's playing deep inside defensive 50.

Spot on across the board, praha.

Six year old then. It's more than just the midfield. There were certain nuances and set ups that we can't do anymore, such as the two off the back of the square, that were extremely important to the way we played our brand of footy. Taking a few of those things away will take time to adjust to. Hopefully that's not too long.

Going by how Viney ran out the game, they might give him a few more weeks at Casey to build his fitness base before we rush him back in. But I'm looking forward to having him in the side. Obviously May comes in for either Frost or Oscar. Take your pick of them really. Do we have anyone else to come in? Do we go with Preuss at GMHBA when we know Gawn only has Stanley to contend with? Does someone like Stretch potentially get a gig? Who knows.

Possibly, but I'll wait for a larger sample size before I act like a five year old after the first game of the season. That's not directed at you mind you.

I also think we'll take time to adjust to the new 6-6-6 rule. Someone else mentioned it earlier too, but I think our gameplan is hurt the most by this. We have probably needed to make the most changes because of it. Couple that with injuries and underdone players and you get what we served up today.

Is that something we simply have to accept? I always felt it would take us a little bit of time to get going with the amount of injuries and so forth we had over the summer. Today was proof of that. I'm not worried, just accepting of the fact it might take us a few rounds to get the ball rolling.

Well, that didn't go to plan. Or maybe it did, when you consider our off season as a whole. We started later than most, had more off season surgeries than any other team and have had to bring players back late into the run of practice games. We were shown up brutally today after the first 15 minutes. The fact that we couldn't score in the last term is evidence of that. We just didn't have it in us, but disappointingly, I don't think we pushed ourselves hard enough either. We didn't have the legs to work hard enough and, when we got a sniff, we couldn't stop them from kicking a few or we mucked something up. You could almost smell the rust coming off the players. Not to mention that Gawn and Oliver were pretty quiet and they took us right out of the contest. Outside of a few, like Salem and Melksham, pretty much everyone was down on their normal output and it cost us the game. I don't think it's a matter of leg speed or even the gameplan. We just didn't have the willingness to run hard enough around the ground, while Port had the youth and the fitness to run us off our feet time and time again. We'll be better for the run. Some players, like Viney (who put in his worst performance in a Melbourne jumper), will have a game under their belt, while we will at the very least get Steven May back next weekend. There is plenty to work on, but is the season over? Of course not. We lost in Round 1 last year as well. Yep, the performance today was worse than that one last year, but my point still stands. I also think Sparrow and Corey Wagner did okay today as well.

Viney has played only 68% game time. I expect him to play a bit more in this last term. We've got it all to do, but we can do it. I'm backing us in.

What is Oliver supposed to do? He is literally running by as he marks it. He can't magic himself 15 metres away.

Jesus we've wasted a few chances. Comical set of errors from both sides.

Super, super kick from Spargo. Edit - followed by a shocker from Fritta. Not like him at all.

True. It was still soft.