Red But Mostly Blue

May has been fantastic since returning, and quite frankly one of the few reasons I've continued to watch games, and not resort to full blown alcoholism. This year just keeps on giving.

We're so far gone this year that I'm pretty much at the point that I'll take any positives right now and hope they continue next year, along with the many other things we need to do. Clarry was great, and despite a couple of errors Fritter was good, too. May was awesome, and Lever looks like he's finding his feet out there. We had more scoring shots (story of the year), the game really was there for us to take, like many others this year. Maybe we'll practice our kicking in the off season. It wasn't really the reason we lost, but the umpiring was amateur.

I think Preuss is fun and will add heaps as time goes by, but that dropped mark was not good. Lucky for the free! Finally for Petty.

How the hell was that paid against Gawn? WHAT THE HELL WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO? And another Darling goal. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

1.5 to 5.1 sums up our season pretty nicely.

Not great today, some positives though. Petty was good up forward. Salem was his usual reliable self. I liked some of Hunt's run. May was solid, he had an immense 5 minutes at the end. The problem was these guys didn't have enough mates helping them out. Why was Dunkley left unchecked most of the day? What happened to a good old tag?

Is something wrong with ANB's legs? He seems to only be able to kick about 5 metres?

Ah the old McDonald for McDonald switcheroo. It's not the worst thing I've heard, and the way things are going with injuries we might not have much choice but to bring O back. I'm not a fan of his, but you never know, this might be the second McDonald transformation. At the very least his failed attempts up forward won't cost us any goals. At least directly anyway.

Sorry, I meant funny as in tragedy. I like dark comedy, and this stuff happening to us is about as dark as it gets in the footy world. It was a great kick, looked a certainty to go through, until it didn't.

I love winning, and I'm happy we won. So long as the euphoric feeling of beating the 2nd last team in the league (going through their latest rebuild) doesn't detract from the fact that the nature of today's win is reflective of the trouble we're in, and the questions that we need to ask. I appreciate that we're a few players down right now (as were they), but we bulldozed them last year, and squeaked through today. But absolutely, I'll take the four points as long as we don't feel this was any significant step forward, as it wasn't. We have a long way to go.

I am seeing lots of positive references to JKH today (ie we should bring him back in)... Serious question, and I'm happy for you to change my mind. Have any of you watched any of the other games he played for the seniors after he was promoted, after showing good form in the seconds? In each instance, he's been poor. Lack of basic skills, and brings nothing unique to the team. Proof? He keeps getting dropped back to the seconds, where he then proceeds to 'shine' amongst the lesser types. When do we come to the realisation that something won't work? Bringing him back after we forget he's not that good (or at least not good enough for the seniors) won't solve any of our problems. Lockhart, however, has shown something. Not perfect, but his best has been far more interesting and exciting than anything JKH has ever shown while playing in the seniors.

Completely agree. He's aggressive, lanky and unpredictable. Perfect combo to at least get our opposition thinking.

I've never seen it. Appropriate that it happened to us, especially this year. Like the rest of our footy this year, comedy gold (if you happen to be fortunate not to take it to heart), and tragic.

Don't know the last time I saw a ball sit on the goal line. Too funny.

Wow. That scoreline hilariously, and perfectly reflects where this team is at. We're 5 points better than the Blues, thanks to a goalpost. A draw would have been better, because I'm sure somebody in the club will actually see today as some sort of a win.

JKH never performs when brought into the senior side. He's probably not the worst of the lot, and some of the current group could do with more time in the seconds, but keeping him on when he just can't convert his Casey form is cruel and denies the spot to someone else who might be able to. It may be that he's only good enough to play with the seconds, big fish little pond sort, and that's ok.

Completely agree. I have lost count of the attempts we've made to bring his form in the seconds to the seniors team. He hasn't been able to do it on any of the occasions, and shouldn't have his contract extended.

Tell me about it. It seems that some people forget so easily!

We're a little bereft of depth, which makes it hard to drop some of our guys who probably need to be dropped, but how many chances does JKH get before we come to the realisation that he's not good enough, even for our current subpar standards (which says a lot). The JKH experiment goes something like this: he plays a decent game at Casey, gets called up, plays like trash then dropped back to Casey. His game against the crows was terrible. Some argued it was the effects of coming back from injury, but he played dumb footy and coughed it up more times than I can remember. He was dropped for a reason, and should stay dropped. We very quickly forget how bad some of these guys are! I know ANB is not perfect, but we have renewed his contract, so should stick to developing his role, if possible. Totally up for Preuss returning, with or without Maxxy being injured. He's the sort of crash and bash that we need. Also agree with Pride being an inclusion. Sorely missed!

This is a really positive post, thank you. Look, I broadly agree with you. The only problem is that the Lions (Brisbane era) don't have our tag of being a basket case. I could have mentioned Freo, too. They're not bad, and they'll get better. The Cats were supposed to be finished last year, now look at them! What I'm trying to say is that, ordinarily, a backwards slide wouldn't be such a big issue. But we have form in this area. So it's more concerning. This year has been a freefall in terms of skills and coaching. I also think we should 100% focus on 2020 as of right now, including managing anyone who is carrying an injury, trialling new positions and players etc. But I also think we should have done a lot of that in the off season. When the disappointment of this year wears off (like the other years, the stink of this one will fade), I'm sure that I'll be excited for 2020 (hopefully we'll have perfect vision for the year). But until then, we're stuck watching a team with poor skills and a coach who doesn't seem to see how far off the mark we are, or what to do to fix it. But you're right, we have an opportunity. Our list is decent, I hope we go in all guns blazing to get the extra class we need. The ones who remain will need to make sure they start the year with an unwavering commitment to improving their skills, and playing consistent, fearless footy.

Brisbane is a great example of how it's done. They've been improving year on year, and now have a really dangerous squad that will only get better with time. Plus, they look and play like they want to win. It's nice to see but I remember the last Lions dynasty, and really wish we were on track for our own. Overtaken by another team, again.

So I guess we're not going to play finals, then?

Absolutely. I've always loved Frosty. Yeah, sometimes his execution leaves a little (and occasionally a lot) to be desired, but he does some great things, many which go unnoticed. He runs his guts out, and there's hardly a better sight than the Frosty charging out of the half back, leaving opposition in his wake. Total excitement machine, I think there's always a place for him in the team, even with Nev, May, Lever, Hibbo and even Hore in the mix. For what it's worth, I think Salem works better pushing up anyway, freeing up an extra back possy.

Several of our passages towards goals were fantastic. Superb linkage, with our boys actually lowering eyes to find targets. What's more, the execution was much better. A little scrambly at times, where it looked like the last link could have gone anywhere, but that will improve over time with confidence. Much smarter, more direct, intentional football. Great stuff.

Much better today from the boys. TMac - YES! You could see some fire back in the eyes. He's been so down, hopefully today's killer performance will spur him on. Frosty was awesome out back. In fact, our movement out of defence was so much better. More controlled, thoughtful. May was great in this respect and it'll only get better once Lever and eventually Nev return. Gawn, huge again. As was Clarry. He doesn't always execute well, but Lockhart is creative and energetic. Gets into good positions. As for our leadership. I queried Jack's fitness and leadership last week (more from the perspective of giving him a proper break to let him get his game back together, but he showed a lot today. Real retro Jack performance. Didn't like the leadership shown by Jones in giving away the free though. Liked the passion, but stupid output. If we can build on today's improvments, we might finally be getting somewhere.