Wiseblood

Gawn comes in for Preuss. That is a no brainer. Sparrow out opens up a few possibilities. Do they push Harmes up the field and bring in Rivers? Or, if he is right to go, does Jones come straight back in? There are others they might look at, but it's a bit like deckchairs at the minute. I mean, dropping a Pickett is something that will come up, but is swapping him for Bennell only making the issue of pressure even worse for us? Some want to give Bedford a run but the bloke hasn't been in the mix since Round 1. I can't see them wanting to rush him in to the side. I think it will end up being In: Gawn, Jones Out: Preuss, Sparrow

The Saints game really worries me. As I said earlier in this thread, the Dogs play a game style that is almost the 'anti-thesis' of what we do. They love it on the rebound and love the flick out that quick handball under pressure that releases them from a stoppage. We, of course, get sucked into those stoppages because we all hunt the ball, and when the pressure is down forward of centre we get cut up on the rebound. The Saints, to me, play an even stronger game style than the Dogs do that is full of running, especially on the outside of the contest. If we turn up and do what we did today against the Saints, we'll lose by 7-8 goals. Does Goody have the capacity to make the requisite changes next week? I'm not so sure. At the very least we will regain Gawn, but then I'm not so certain this is a personnel type thing. I think it's more on structure and how we set up against these teams. However, I'm also sick of thinking our what our 'response' to these types of games will be. They happen too often and we should be thinking about how we keep up our terrific style of football, rather than feeling the way we do right now.

Is that Lever's job, though? To me, we want him to defend and to keep their talls under control so they have minimal impact. He has done that very, very well. I'm not fussed about how 'damaging' he is with ball in hand. Leave that to the others who are supposed to have that impact - Salem, Harmes, Lockhart etc. I'd rather him win his one on ones, or to kill a ball as third man up, than to be taking risks with ball in hand. It isn't his job.

All fair questions, jnr. I don't really have an answer to that. I think it's clear that our mids didn't turn up today and they got belted because of it. I think the commentators touched on it during the game, but I think once the pressure ramped up we reverted to a style of play that we have been known for - getting sucked into the contest, taking the wrong option or even trying silly handpasses and chip kicks that rarely come off. Once the ball is turned over we don't get back hard enough, and against the Dogs who hit more targets than most, we get cut open on the rebound. As for whose fault it is - it's on both. The coaches didn't have something in place for the rebound footy that occurred, however, I like that he backed the mids in. That should have given them confidence. Instead they wilted when the pressure lifted.

Agree, red. I don't know why supporters are so focused on the tagging aspect. It had very little to do with the outcome of the game. I'm happy for Goodwin to back in our mids against theirs, but when we don't turn up like we did today, then we'll get smashed no matter if we tried to tag all of them or none of them.

Three things are guaranteed in life: Death, taxes, and Elegt bringing up his own threads after a loss. Why doesn't this occur after a win? Just quietly, Harmes is way out of form and has been all year.....

I agree with all of that, titan, except for the bit I've bolded. Pickett laid 5 tackles for us today, more than anyone else. He needs to hit the scoreboard more - his two chances in the first term are ones he should be eating for breakfast, but he put on more pressure than most today. I know some might ask for him to be dropped, but Bennell is a totally different player to him and I don't really think they are like for like. We stunk it up pressure wise and Bennell isn't exactly known for that.

There is some merit in this, however, bad kicking is bad football. Against good sides you need to take the simple chances and dob a few of the tough ones. While we might have kicked a few of the tough ones, we missed some gettable shots all day and it hurt. It doesn't hide the fact that we were smashed around the contest, though.

I don't think this was the issue for us today. ALL of their mids had their way with us today. Bont, Macrae, Hunter, Libba, Smith, Dunkley etc - the issue, for me, is that our midfield didn't work hard enough. We allowed them to pressure us and we fluffed in the face of it. If Harmes goes to Bont, I think it makes little difference here and is taking our focus away from the real issue out of today, which was our pressure around the ball, our pressure when the ball hits the deck and our willingness to run back defensively. We were totally shown up today.

The Dogs are a side who have a game style that we can't handle. They love to flick out that quick handball to a player on the outside, and they are a terrific team off half back. Their man three - Daniel, JJ and Crozier - cut us up all day when the ball hit the deck. Not only are they clever players, but they use the ball very well and were able to hit targets in these conditions. At half time you could tell that there were a few signs that we weren't playing all that well, but we lifted our intensity and lifted our pressure in the second term and we took our chances. We just had to keep that up. And then we fell in a hole, both on the field and in the box, in the third term. Bevo made some changes, such as English deep and Bruce into the ruck as both had been ineffectual to that point, and he clearly implored his players to look for the switch and run hard at every opportunity. They did exactly that and too often they took the ball from one end to the other and they made us look second rate. Goodwin didn't prepare enough for it, but then the players also didn't run hard enough either. Our midfield was smashed today. Trac was off, Oliver looked like he was gassed, Viney tries but today it didn't really pay off, and Gus didn't have the same influence as previous weeks. Preuss was good in the ruck but, really, we should have had more influence out of the guts than we did. Overall, this was a big test for the club after three wins against teams we should be beating, and we failed miserably. And it really hurt to watch that. People will try and pick out individuals in this game, but I don't see that as the problem. People were pinging Fritsch for goodness sake. The bloke aint the problem. Our problem, against good sides, is that they cut us up on the outside and when the pressure drops they run it out without any issue and make us pay. Our gameplan is too rigid and inflexible to change for it and, unless we put massive amounts of pressure on for pretty much the whole game, we struggle. One positive from today was, again, the back line. We could have had the greatest back line in the world in that third term and it wouldn't have stopped the ball the way it came in. I thought May, Lever and Tomlinson were all excellent throughout the game and gave their tall forwards an absolute bath. Hibberd was off and Wallis kicked 4 on him but, again, he had A+ delivery without any pressure. Season is on the line next week against a side who have even more leg speed and run than the Dogs - the Saints. We will need to make some adjustments and prepare ourselves as if we lose next week, then we're gone. I won't write us off just yet as many here did after the Port game and then three games later we are in the 8. However, roll over against the Saints and it will be very, very hard. Very disappointed after that game but I'm not giving up on the season just yet. While the Dogs were better, we more than had our chances to not only be further in front at different stages, but to also bridge the gap in the last term.

And, often, it feels like we are always slow to react when we do win it. How often in this game have we won it and got it forward, only to have 1 or 2 Dogs players get there in front of our forwards? We can't even play in front.

The big takeaway from that term is the pressure in our forward half. We had no problems getting it in there, however our efforts once it hit the deck, and then the willingness to run defensively, was shocking. No other way to put it. No excuse for it either. They made a few changes, like English up forward permanently, and it's changed their approach entirely. Obviously the game is over but I'm interested to see the response in this last term.

Missed the 8 kicks, 6 marks and a goal in the first half, dazzle? That last piece of play from our point is the problem. How they can get it down into their forward line without us touching it from a point in modern footy is incredible.

Oh get stuffed. I mean, seriously. They have given them numerous chances on the mark, this ump yells twice in the wind and then pings him? [censored] off.

What are we doing with their transition of the ball? They have acres of space. Are we being horribly lazy or have they made some serious changes?

[censored] terrible start. I'm really [censored] off. By the way, Pickett tackled Smith on our half forward line and wasn't rewarded. Umps can get stuffed.

Terrible start.

Which both did do in that second term. Their pressure might not come up as stats, but they have been better as a game has gone on. If they can hit the scoreboard in the second half it will be a massive bonus!

Yep. Won't argue that he could have laid a better tackle on English in the first term, but he's had 8 kicks to go with 6 marks and a goal. Plays his role for the team perfectly.

Well Andy is already supposed to be eating his scarf, so why not join the party?

Just put some sauce on it and you should be fine!

Much, much better quarter there. Our ball movement was better, as was our pressure, and we took our chances. Shout out to the back line. At this stage, May and Lever are giving Naughton and Bruce an absolute bath. Tomlinson has been pretty good too! Mids started to get on top and Preuss his looking better as the game goes on.

Get filming!

Big 5 minutes coming up.

Because we are never as bad as this site can make us out to be sometimes.