Spargonicus

Re: Brayshaw in the middle, absolutely. I reckon Harmes is struggling a bit - can we put him back to a full-time tagger? Rotate him through the bench more? And keep Brayshaw, Oliver, Viney, Sparrow on the ball for the longest periods? Hmm...

Well, lots said here of course. My particular take is that they just don't often stand up to intense pressure. When things are going well - 'downhill skiing' - the can look great; free-flowing football, their own intense tackling and pressure, confidence play. But Port are the top team and put on immense pressure - perceived and real, and here's the thing: our players clearly haven't embedded their skills enough, because it all comes apart and they revert to old, instinctive ways (hand-balling to someone under pressure, bombing out of the centre/into 50, over-committing too many players to the contest, no-one well-positioned at ground level etc.) Some of this is certainly lack of skill and natural awareness/footy brain, but I'm confident most of the players have enough skill to embed these habits deeper. Of course, the rest is a mental fortitude problem. Again, they sometimes show grit, but without the above skills, momentum is quickly taken away and doubt sets in, then effort lags. Although, the lack of effort I saw last night at times was hard to believe. In summary: back to fundamentals. Drill, drill, drill. Built trust in each other. Do the endless 1 percenters. Never take anything for granted. My fear is that even if they get a run on over the next few games, they'll go back to a "we're awesome" mindset again and then hit another brick wall and cop a beating.

I agree, but when we're pulling it off we do look great. Maybe an adjustment? To have better awareness of when to go hard/play on, and when to take a slightly more conservative option?

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...