Wiseblood

"Tom Dyson is terribly at footballing..." You can't make that stuff up.

God bless a bloke who thinks their views are so much more important than the rest that they start their own thread, rather than sticking it in the post match discussion thread which is for... post match discussion. Nice one Steve. I also like how he felt the post match discussion thread had too many people going over the top, which it did, yet this thread is going over the top after 1 game. The glaring problem that came out of yesterday was our midfield. No run, no accountability, no leadership. It was a poor effort and it made the job of our defenders and our forwards very difficult. Hogan might sook a little, but it can't be an easy day out when the midfield continually kick the ball on top of your head with three blokes on you. Daniher had 15 marks and made our backline look silly, yet when the ball is coming down without any pressure it's hard not to look anything else. Our fortunes live and die by our midfield. When they allow Essendon to do as they please as they did yesterday, then we know what happens. If we fix this up then we are instantly a better side. Well done also, Steve, for masking your potting of Garland by looking at our 'defence'. You spent most of it having a go at a bloke who was never in with a chance yesterday.

Why rock up to training all the time if a loss like yesterday brings a mere shrug of the shoulders? Clearly you think they are your mates and the club itself is a distant second. If you don't really give a stuff then why go?

Absolutely I was. I didn't tell anyone to stop whinging either, just that I still believed we could win. I didn't quote anyone or knock anyone. You comment about Gawn was garbage, frustration or not. Be frustrated, be angry, be whatever you want. But direct it at the right people and for the right reasons. To suggest Gawn is now 'lazy' due to his 'juicy contract' as you put it is pretty low and completely wrong - and you know. I'm disappointed that I was wrong about my belief in the team today, and you've every right to be angry about our performance, but to attack Gawn like that was poor.

Why? The coaches certainly wouldn't be telling them it will be an easy afternoon. The coaches can only do so much, They will take the blame for selection though, no doubt about that.

You've got to learn to sift through the posts Maple - after a loss the same posters jump right in and pot everything about the club they can every single time. They're even the ones who focus on negatives after a win. You've got to find the posts that make sense and look at things in a logical way. Once you do that you'll find it's not so bad.

Logic is not your strong point - we must change things, so you want to bring in blokes who are still lacking in match fitness. Superb thinking.

One of my favourite non-Dee players. His willingness to gut run and do everything for his club is unbelievable.

Demonland at it's finest. I think it was dazzle who made the comment that Gawn was now 'lazy' after signing a juicy contract, or something like that. Supporters on here go loopy after a loss.

I agree. 100%. I also think there were players out there today who just expected to win, and this is a huge wake up call for them as a group. Unless we rock up each week we'll get our pants pulled down. I've got faith we can well and truly turn it around. We've shown enough so far this year to suggest we can do it, but it's up to the playing group now to make it happen.

I agree, and I had thought we might have turned the corner in that regard with our NAB and Round 1 form. We have come from behind in all and shown a willingness to fight. We lost that today and it's up to the players to prove that today was a complete aberration. I have faith and I'm willing to be howled down for it in a months time if we're still on 1 win.

You're welcome to take the prerogative and, after today, I don't blame you. But I'll be waiting to see more of this season before I'm willing to right it off.

I know we don't agree on much mate, but I don't disagree with the above - we were horrible today. No doubt about it and I could never argue otherwise. There is MUCH to work on for this club going forward. But it's Round 2. We need to chill just a touch. There are plenty of opportunities for us to turn things around and we know we can play some exciting footy. We just need to get a few things right. I'm left in no doubt that this will be a very tough week on the track and in the review sessions, and I'm hopeful of a much better performance next weekend. If we've played like this for 4-6 weeks then, yes, my optimism will surely have faded by then.

I thought Frost might have gotten a look in for that role, but the coaching group clearly want him to play forward so throwing him down back for a game is something they obviously didn't think was worthwhile.

Absolutely. One game doesn't make a season. We've got plenty of time to bounce back and make amends. We are still more than capable of some excellent football and I'm hoping the players take this as a huge wake up call so they can get their act together. We know they're much better than this.

No. Our midfield should be the ones to cop the whack today. They allowed Essendon to waltz the ball into their forward line with ease all day. The entire defence was poor because of it. Shows how short sighted you are to single one man out. I'll agree as well that it wasn't one of his better days, but seriously, take a wider view.

Could be a variety of players up for the chop. Kent? Harmes? Pedersen? And do we have anyone ready to come in? Dunn is the logical choice... but are others ready to make the step up? Interesting week of selection ahead.

I'd still go mate. Just bypass the footy and sink a few beers instead. Not a bad place to visit.

I'd love to see you guys have a dip at Daniher when our midfield applies zero pressure. There was a reason they were able to have 20 odd scoring shots, and our defence wasn't the main problem.

Were you calling for Stretch to be included on Thursday or Friday when the changes were made? Clearly we stuffed up, but many of us were happy with the changes at the time, myself included. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

When is the post match press conference? Interested to see what Roosy has to say about this.

20 touches. Keep up.

What would Dunn have done differently? He is no taller than Garland and McDonald, nor is he any bigger in body size. Our midfield are to blame for allowing them so much easy ball going forward. They were able to get it to him quickly and our defenders were helpless.

I don't even know what to say about that performance. I really thought the players would see it as a terrific opportunity to smash a team and go 2-0 to start the season. And we serve up rubbish. I'm laying the blame solely at the feet of the players today. They didn't run hard, no appetite for the contest and allowed them to do as they pleased. I continually thought the players would take some responsibility at each break and look to make amends. We did so briefly in the last... and then we fell over and completely lost the plot. I'm positive at the best of times but I can't take anything out of that game. Nothing. Maybe Kennedy was a positive. Vince and Jones had a dip. But outside of that the only word that comes to mind was 'putrid'.

I had to run with something to keep that bad feeling away,..