We have no identity! We don't have our own training facilities, we struggle to get sponsors, we struggle to sign members, we sell our home games & we don't get ex club players & greats back down at the club & now we don't play a brand of footy that is identifiable and consistent week to week.
Simon Goodwin - Senior Coach
Alan Richardson - Director of Coaching
Troy Chaplin - Backline Coach
Justin Plapp - Midfield Coach
Ben Mathews - Stoppage and Contest Coach
Matthew Egan - Head of Player Development
Max Rooke - Development Coach.
The above are responsible for our brand 'our identity'. We get told we want to be a 'high pressure, forward half team'. There needs to be a serious look at our coaching personnel if this is our mission statement and we're putting up crap like tonight.
Don't tell me we're trying to be a high pressure forward half team when:
Weed - 1 tackle
Melksham - 0 tackles
Mcdonald - 1 tackle
Jackson - 0 tackles
Fritsch - 0 tackles
Hannan - 0 tackles
Kozzie - 2 tackles
We lost the overall tackle count tonight 40-59. In comparison - Richmond won by 7 goals last night and won the tackle count.
Effort requires zero skill and has to be a non-negotiable in professional sport.
Bar arguably 2 players - this is our best 22. No injury excuses or shorter pre-season crap this year.
The Myth
Contested possession being a strength of ours is an absolute myth. We turn uncontested possessions into contested at the next disposal by fumbling, dinky handballs, handballing to someone standing still/behind them/ at their feet. Would it hurt for a forward to play in front so maybe one day when we do hack kick it out of a pack - that it might actually go to us. Consequently how easily do teams rebound from defensive 50!?
We need to be stripped right back - too many players happy to cash in a cheque:
Time to go...
Salem - Constantly second to the ball (gave away 3 free kicks tonight because of this). Plays with no urgency. Gray did him a favour by running into him tonight - it made it look like he actually gave a [censored] for a moment. Keep getting told he's our best kick - but he does these dinky 20m nothing kicks. 8 kicks, 14 handballs tonight. No hurt factor.
Harmes - Plodder & unreliable. 16 touches at 62% DE. Plays all over the place - not because he's versatile, it's because he's not good enough in any one position.
Brayshaw - No skills. No hurt factor. 2 kicks for 36m gained in 78% game time. [censored] off!
Jones - Got to play half forward or not at all. Too exposed on the wing.
T. Mcdonald - 2018 an anomaly. No agility. Useless in the air and on the ground. Kids have taken his spot.
The above have poor trade value so this is why the next one is going in
Oliver - He's tough, means well but has found his ceiling. No hurt factor, can't kick that's why he handballs so much. He use to have great vision and would handball to someone into space or in a better position, but we haven't seen this in a long time. If we want to trade for a needs or position ourselves better in a draft - unfortunately this is the ticket.
Jury still out...
Weideman - Could be a good player but we'll never know with our current forward structure and the current forward 50 delivery. Unfortunately worth more to us than he is on the open market.
May - He is our best one on one defender despite being constantly undersized. Would love to be in a position where he is our rebound man and we can utilize his kicking. On that, it does my head in that for someone who is such a good penetrative kick - that his 1 wood is to kick it to Gawn. Would love for us to set up differently where he can take on the man on the mark at kick ins and kick over the oppositions zone down the middle of the ground.
Lever - We thought we were getting a young Jarred Rivers. He second guesses himself a lot and looks unsure. Doesn't take much body & isn't intercept marking as much as he did at Adelaide. Consequently Gawn is being thrown back behind the ball to help out when Gawn would be of more value forward of the ball.
Hannan - Good is good. Bad is very bad. 3 kicks isn't good enough
It can change quickly - for good and for bad. We have enough good players on our list for this to turn, however if we aren't going to grow a set and make a statement one way or another - we're just going to lose more fans. Personally, I am sick of the person this club makes me and I am very close to cutting ties for good.