Rivers of Belief my friend

Thanks, Ethan. Yeah, I agree re: the gameplan. I suppose I'm still harbouring hopes that the gameplan will just 'click' all of a sudden (by which I mean better F50 connection) and the players will have a surge of belief and confidence and we'll start kicking 20 goals a game. ?

Ok, this thread is naturally depressing reading, and I am massively frustrated too, but here are some positives that I took away from the game: - Hibberd back to his best. Excellent intent, hard at the ball, and those long raking kicks finding targets and creating (I admit not always) - TMac ran his guts out and did some good things across wing and HF. He's definitely not a key forward, but with his reliable kicking for goal, is still a solid No.2 (I wish Weid was up and about) - May was generally great - creative and makes forward earn their marks. A couple of big mistakes, but I think as a defensive unit, they're progressing well. Hampered by selection of Smith. He is also hard at the ball and physical, but over-commits too often. Need Jetta back to form. Who else do we have for backmen? - Fritsch lively as ever. A great pairing with KP, I reckon. (Just need that genuine tall forward) - Petracca and Gawn legends, of course. - Hannan did some good things. Hope he builds on this. But yes, quite a few passengers - Hunt, Melksham and Lever were ball-watching so many times. Coming back to the F50 entries, which are shocking, I actually think if we improved dramatically in that area it would fix a lot of other things. It would reward the effort of the midfield, and would stop the constant rebounds which puts our backline under enormous pressure. Confidence is a huge thing, and the F50 entries sap so much of it. Plus, when you're clunking marks in F50 (especially with our high number of entries), the opposition would really start to look terrible and morale would build on our side and collapse on the other. But, we've known (as Goody has) for a long time that this is a bad weakness. So I don't have a lot of faith that we can turn it around.

I feel like the Dees can be outcoached easily, because if they're not on a roll and pulling off the higher risk plays down the corridor, their fundamentals just aren't at the level of their opponents. I mean it was pretty impressive (albeit boring) seeing Geelong play keepings off. There is no way we could adapt our gamestyle to that kind of strategy. Also, I think it's time to stick with a chosen 'best 22' and give them more time together, especially in this interrupted season. TMac is borderline gone for mine...almost clunked a few marks, which may have got him going, but he's just too lacking in confidence too much of the time. Maybe time to have faith in Weid for a few games? It's a tough one...