Redleg

Wise, I think those of us who are heavily invested in this club and have been for years, are just so disappointed and frustrated with the terrible start, to what most thought would be a very good season, that we are scratching around looking for the reasons. Obviously there are more than just one, many of which we have identified and discussed on DL. Anyway I take some solace that others are as upset as my family and me.

Agree with statement that poor skill kills you. I have mentioned lack of pace and skill to MFC officials and been politely told I am wrong.

I will leave that to you Roosy.

Fair enough. I just think that we had later picks that could have been used to fill weaknesses. I know hindsight is easy but as an example Petruccelle went well after Spargo. He is not the only one taken later in the last few drafts with pace. If we had taken Petruccelle for example and say another young Garlett type, with later picks over the last few years, the story would be a bit different. Anyway it is now spilled milk and we will need to do something about it in the drafts and trading periods ahead. We also have been unlucky in trading picks for players who are now injured and that always exacerbates the problem.

Then why would Garlett, Stretch etc be taken off at half time?

Same place as everyone else, drafting and trading. Look at who Port brought in and other clubs. This was an area of concern to me and others on here at least for the last few years, not just this year. It is interesting that we are now called the slowest side in the AFL by all the media, which includes many past players, who should know. We have chased contested beasts only for the last few years and I am sure the FD will acknowledge that. Pace and skill was not our priority and that is why we have skill problems and are slow. Pace and skill are a big part of our current problems.

I am not really suited to watching it .

Another surprise is playing ANB for the whole game with Casey on saturday and resting Sparrow and then picking ANB. Unless injured which I don't believe he is, why not play Sparrow for some of the game last Saturday and keep ANB fresher, with say half the game.

Would you believe I have never had a glass of scotch in my life. I took a sip once and hated it and have never had it since. Same goes for Brandy, Cognac and Champagne, which tends to make me feel sick, much like my footy team.

Thanks Febes you brought a smile to my face. Haven't laughed much lately.

I spoke somewhere about being surprised at our selections . Smith in instead of Keilty surprises me again.

I suppose the real question is would you swap Spargo for Petruccelli today. I would and that is as far as it goes. Revisiting past drafts can be painful and especially for us.

I have had that feeling since saturday.

Thought there might be a few of us.

That is an interesting one. I can't recall being surprised by the selection of any Roos team, yet I am often surprised at the Goodwin teams. Not that that means I am right and he is wrong, but rather he seems to often IMO ignore the obvious. For example if we play against 2 tall key forwards, he might go in with one tall key defender, like against the Saints. If we are playing a quick side, again like the Saints, he brings in slow players and plays our oldest and slowest two on the wings, under the new 6-6-6 rules. I find that very surprising.

Not disagreeing with that, but the game plan shares blame for our position. Gameplans can be changed. Port changed theirs as admitted by the players and they beat the Premier on their dung heap.

Maybe I was smart in discussing bananas, they don't disappoint you too often.

Hard to play when you can't run because of injury. Did you not know that?

In summary you could say it is arrogant to only consider your performance and not that of the team that beat you. To simply say we didn't play our game, is to ignore what the other team did to cause that. That is what he is continually saying each week. It ignores what others are doing to you.

That is not quite right. You could argue that the defence and maybe mid field issues are caused to some extent by lack of fitness, but not the forward 50's. We in fact have more inside 50's than the sides that beat us. That is the gameplan and structure. Having a totally congested forward 50 and relying on chaos footy is purely the gameplan. It is not working. Bombing long is killing us. We need separation. We need to get our key forwards one out to give them a chance. We need to get them leading to give them a chance. We need crumbers, not 6 flying for the ball at the same time with no one down. We need to clear up the forward 50 so that players coming from up field have options to kick to. Yes we need our forwards to apply absolute pressure and stop defensive run and spread from our forward 50, but it is the gameplan that is killing us in that part of the ground which is then causing the problems at the other end.

Ok. I think we can say that the teams that have beaten us have pace and have been manic in their attack on the ball and willingness to run to make position. We seem to be always chasing on the spread. This will be funny as I am not a fan of ANB, with his skill errors, but as others have said he does run hard all day. I watched Spargo pretty closely and he appeared to be jogging to a contest and choosing not to tackle or get involved on several occasions. That was not how he played last year. I hope this is not a cultural thing. Most likely our poor start is a combination of injuries, poor form, fitness, commitment, confidence, pace, skill and a game style that requires the maximum in fitness and desire.

Morris is a Dees fan and I don't think he would go with this players unfit story unless he had some good intel on it. Maybe the Coaches are deflecting after the media wide condemnation of our game plan, who knows. If true however and if it is not because of surgeries as has been stated, then it is an indictment on the playing group and the leadership. You talk about culture, there it is in front of you, a lack of total commitment to success, IF TRUE.

So are you saying that fans are not allowed to analyse team performances, that they have no knowledge of footy and have no right to offer an opinion? Are you also saying that the club will publicly tell the truth about in house matters and that whatever it tells you is correct?

If what Morris said about the players returning after Xmas in poor condition is true, I could imagine McCartney paying out on them. He would tell it as it is and maybe they don’t like hearing it.

Tom Morris also said the players came back after xmas in poor condition. If true that would explain our lack of run and fadeouts after half time. How unprofessional if true?