titan_uranus

I don't get it. It seems to me, and to many AFL commentators (Brereton, Harley, Matthews, Lloyd) that we are basically the only club that does not at least try to implement the forward press. If we are trying, we are failing miserably. Yet, in our best game of the year, we smashed Adelaide with an effective forward press that nullified their movement of the ball and gave us repeated scoring shots. I cannot understand how we could so effectively use the press one week, and for the next three revert back to the useless style of flooding and pushing numbers behind the ball, thus defending from too far back and not getting enough inside 50s. The game has moved on. If the ball spends more time in your forward half, you tend to win. We do not go forward of the centre enough, because we defend from too far back and we do not lock the ball in effectively when we do get it forward. Our forwards push too far up the ground. We need to look at the Adelaide game to see exactly how we set up then, and work from that, because the last three weeks have seen us fail utterly to work the forward press, and we are being beaten by sides who are exploiting that.

Without reading the thread: I cannot stand Bailey's matchday coaching. At times it's deplorable. Starting last night with a loose man in defence was awful. I cannot see any reason why anyone would do this. Putting a player behind the ball does not help us. We have an undersized forward line. How does giving Carlton a spare man help us score? It has never, ever worked for us, but Bailey managed to take it to another level by starting the game with it. We were doomed from the get go. Absolutely despicable.

Skills look poor when: 1) It is wet. Not a great excuse given this is a winter game, so there's work to be done there. 2) You are under pressure. This is key. When we are winning, we pull off the risky moves because there is less pressure from the opposition and our confidence is up. At the moment we are falling behind, the other side is pressuring us hard, and we fall apart. This is key. Bailey won't be coaching us next year if he can't work out how to get our players to perform under pressure. 3) You are missing 9 of your best 22, and the replacements consist of Warnock, MacDonald, Bate, Newton, Evans and Nicholson. With a full side, we get rid of these players who are honest, and try their best, but can't dispose of the ball, and replace them with Grimes, Trengove, Scully, Bail, Garland, Davey, Tapscott etc., who can.

Based on what I saw (full first half, only bits and pieces of what was a truly woeful second half), I would say Sylvia, Rivers and Watts were worthy of mentions. MacDonald is a good defender, but, like Warnock, is a complete and utter liability with the ball in hand. We will not play decent football whilst we have these two in the side. Jones cannot play a single game of AFL without trying to take on an opponent and getting caught holding the ball. Nathan: you are not Superman. Nor are you Joel Selwood. You are not good enough. Take the first option, release the ball, and stop trying to barrage your way through packs. It gives the other team goals. Petterd does not work hard enough. Jurrah falls into the same category, but Jurrah only needs a few touches to turn a game on its head (eg Brisbane earlier this year). Petterd, though, is not going to change a game with one or two kicks. He needs to work harder, or he will not hold his spot. Put simply, we are not going to win games of football, much less games against quality opposition, when we have Warnock, MacDonald, Newton, Bate, Morton, Bennell, Petterd, Evans and Nicholson. No disrespect to the last two, who haven't done a lot wrong, but these are the benchwarmers. And they are not good enough. Not one of them.

I bloody hope he plays. Not only does that make Carlton a team of 21, but I want to see Moloney run through him. I get the feeling he won't, though. From all reports he was poor against Geelong, and Carlton doesn't seem to like messing around with its team. If someone's not performing, they get dropped.

As bad as we are going right now, I cannot see any feasible reason as to why Jamar would want to go to Port Adelaide. If I were a footy player, Port would be the last place I would want to end up.

St Kilda v Melbourne 10 Leigh Montagna (St K) 7 Brendon Goddard (St K) 6 Nick Riewoldt (St K) 3 Stefan Martin (Melb) 2 James Gwilt (St K) 1 Sam Fisher (St K) 1 Jordan Gysberts (Melb) Interesting. Gysberts sneaking in for a vote, Gwilt getting a 2 from one of the judges, Martin getting a 3!

So incredibly upset that I can't go. If I were going, though, I most definitely would not be wearing the horns.

No, but where did I say that? He should be judged on his ability to get us playing decent football. And his game day tactical coaching. Neither of which are at an acceptable level at the moment. I want to see him become a better match day coach. His plans are predictable and ineffective. Being young does not mean you have to be wildly inconsistent. That too is an area he needs to work on. We should not be 54 points down, then 96 points up, then 41 points down, with wavering and varying levels of effort, against three sides who are thereabouts (by that I mean not Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, nor Port Adelaide, Gold Coast, or Brisbane). That's not good enough, and whilst you can go on as long as you want about youth, injuries and whatever else, there have been plenty of things in our control that have not been dealt with well enough.

Urine on the rocks wins. Agreed, Petterd has managed to get off very lightly for what was a weak effort. However, Newton's game was worse than just a brainfade. His body work is just non-existent (that marking contest against Gwilt was shocking). Laying one tackle and attempting to lay another does not contitute 'pressure'. I do recognise that he chases and tries, which is more than Bate did, but there is so much more wrong with Newton's game than just brainfades.

His contention is clear: Bailey will not be coaching us next year if we do not improve our football. Injuries are no excuse. But it is written poorly.

No, Newton was worse. Appallingly bad. Should join Dunn in the 'doesn't deserve another game for a minimum of 10 weeks' file. Bate was awful too. I don't see the point in playing him. What does he offer? He's a slow, mid-sized forward who can't play midfield, can't play full forward, can't ruck, can't run, can't turn, can't kick, and just generally has little skill. We lose nothing, nothing at all, by swapping him for Howe, and the potential to gain is enormous. Jurrah needs to lift his work rate tenfold.

West Coast were appalling last year. But they played it up as best they could (i.e. they tanked) to ensure the season wasn't entirely wasted. However, their biggest problem in 2010 was Cox being injured, and as a close second, Kerr being injured. Those two are fit and back in 2011. The other improvements have come from a changed game plan (they are, from all reports, as good at the forward press as anyone, Collingwood included), structural changes (Nicoski as a small forward is one) and improvement from midfielders like Shuey.

Jonathan Brown (by a mile. I absoutely love the way he plays, the way he leads and the way he lives outside of football) Luke Hodge Lenny Hayes

Oh I forgot so many. Brad Dick has to be up there. Never plays well, except against us. And carries on like a child whenever he kicks a goal. Campbell Brown is a sniping thug who can't actually play football. Brent Harvey is a whinging, hypocritical stager. Pity he's a star otherwise.

Fool. Evans was good yesterday. Displayed the effort and intensity that we have been crying out for the last fortnight. Meanwhile your man, Morton, can't get a game despite us being laden with injuries and struggling for form. Evans > Morton.

Forward structure. Whether it's the players or the coaches, and I still believe it's the coaches, our forwards push too far up the ground, especially when we're losing. The other thing he does that I hate is he reverts to the loose man in defence when the other side gets on a run of goals. That just doens't work. It doesn't make us play any better, in fact it usually doesn't help us. Moreover, I can't see how, when you're a few goals behind, going defensive is going help. Surely when you fall behind you would want to hit back with a couple of goals? Yet whenever we put the loose man in defence, the opponent's loose man prevents us from getting scores back against them.

He wasn't as bad as they were, sure, but it's not like he was that good. He could have played better. Not as his best, the same as Davey, Jurrah and virtually the rest of the side. Green was incredibly better yesterday, far in front of Davey and Jurrah. His second efforts and tackling were much improved on last week. A big improvement.

Today's issue wasn't the spirit/intensity/effort. It was a lack of class and poor skill execution. We are always going to struggle when we have Bartram, Warnock, MacDonald, Bate, Petterd and Newton in the same side. Replace them with Jamar, Trengove, Scully, Grimes, Garland and Bail and you can see where the problem lay today. We gave away so many goals from turnovers and other assorted mistakes. When we tighten that side of our game up, so long as we maintain the effort, that's when the wins will come. It also doesn't help that Davey, Jurrah and Sylvia didn't play well. Three skillful players not living up to their ability, when we're already down in the ability stakes, hurts.

Jake King Stephen Milne Alan Didak

We won't win any of them. Not without Jamar, Trengove, Grimes, Scully, Garland, Bail and Tapscott.

With a few of our injured players in the side we would have steamrolled them. They were pretty poor, which in a way makes the loss harder to deal with, but in the back of my mind I know if we'd had any of Jamar, Trengove, Grimes, Bail, Scully or Garland back we would have done better. Green was a positive today. He gave a much better effort and lifted his game above the level he's been playing at so far in 2011. Didn't like the fact that he spent most of the second half up the ground. I know he was following Dal Santo but he was doing a good job as a forward. I felt we could have afforded to find someone else to go with Dal Santo and left one of our decent forwards in the forward line.

The Good: Watts Gysberts Martin Maric's first half Evans (needs to work on his disposal but he knows how to find it and has good pace) The Bad: JoMac's second half Jurrah's first half Petterd (not playing as well as he should be) The Ugly: Newton Davey Bate Bartram's decision making Warnock when he has the ball

The biggest worry for me is that we have 3-4 players who I would easily drop if we had the cattle to replace them. Davey, Bate and Newton should all go. Bartram had a shocker today, his decision making was back to its absolute worst. JoMac was great in the first half but poor after that. Warnock is a total liability with ball in hand. Our clear problem is not having clear replacements for any of these players. I honestly do not want to see Newton get another game, he was totally awful. Bate gives us nothing. Davey deserves a run with Casey too. Gawn has to come in for Newton, I don't care how raw he is or even if he's not performing at Casey. Newton is appalling, he is not the future, and getting Gawn in the side now could be really beneficial for his development In: Gawn, Howe, Blease, Strauss Out: Newton, Bate, Davey, Tapscott (inj.) Edit: Forgot about Petterd. He was awful today. Will probably stay because of the injuries but really shouldn't.

Absolutely appalling effort from Davey today. Gave us literally nothing. No output with the ball. No tackling. No body language. No courage. No leadership. Nothing Deserves to be dropped. Our injury situation may save him. But that was a pathetic effort. Maybe a return to the forward line could help him. He won't get tagged as a forward like he gets tagged as a midfielder/half back. His best work was always as a forward.