Redleg

Good post and ends with the conclusion we need a power forward, the same thing I started a thread on last year, using Brown of the Pies as an example.

We appear incapable of 2.

Another worrying issue besides the fact that we have few strong bodied forwards like Cloke, Dawes and Brown or more recently Buddy, Roughie and Hale is that our kicking, especially in the backline was atrocious. I rewatched the game and saw Grimes and Tappy ( inexperienced I know ) play on from a behind kick off and get brought down with the ball. Also Grimes on at least 3 occasions with no pressure miskicked to the Hawks in general play when he had players to kick to. I am talking about 20-30 metre passes. That is very worrying, as it is the second week he has done this.

we copped a pasting on "On the Couch" the stats were terrible. More to come in the papers. Hawks 310 uncontested possessions and us 40 tackles. 7 inside 50's in 3rd quarter and 60 points to nothing at one stage. Ouch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not sure if you mean me but I said that I feel ( my opinion ) that he is not up to it. That is not bashing or denigrating a player, it is merely a personal opinion. That is sport, we praise some and not others. PS. I would however be thrilled to be proven wrong.

Morton.

Obviously the Coach doesn't say play soft. It could be a mental thing with certain individuals, I don't know the answer. There will be games this year where we are up and flying and we will really look the goods and then there will be games like yesterday. Against some teams we will look hard, fast, sharp and really switched on and some on here will think we are a top team and then reality will bite again. I think some blokes are just mentally tougher than others and a team like the Hawks have several in that mould. A guy like Hodge is not overly big but boy is he tough, when he goes for the ball that is all he sees. We probably have a few like that but need more. I am not sure that just getting more games under your belt necessarily alters your mental makeup. I think you either have it or you don't. So in the end if you want it, you recruit it. Tapscott fits the mould nicely of the recent recruits. We probably need a few more like him.

I just finished watching the game again and in the third quarter Healy made an interesting comment, he said that "the Hawks have Melbourne mentally beaten". I think we were about 3 goals down at the time.

Don't use the word "thuggery". We want hard, tough, uncompromising, aggressive football. Nothing more, hopefully nothing less. Funny thing is that if you asked our players they would agree.

Agree.

Nasher you are better than that. I said hard aggressive football, not thuggery. I am not advocating thuggery.

I just feel that there is a lack of real aggression by our players and that we are incapable of playing what has been called unsociable football. We had Rioli who dominated, knock down Jones with no heavy treatment returned and a similar effort by Hodge came and went. Then we had a player who walked out on us not given any close checking or aggressive play, especially early on in the game. When the Hawks got on top unlike what would happen to us in a similar position, we stood back and watched. I know it will be argued that we have a lot of youngsters but we also have some senior players as well and they should lead the way. I am not advocating a king hit but rather heavy aggressive tackling when the other side starts to get on top. We gave away plenty of 50's for a side step, I would rather get them for a heavy tackle a la Guerra and Hodge etc. I think the other clubs regard us as nice guys and we therefore don't intimidate other clubs. There are plenty of players who can be put off their game by aggressive play but we never seem to be the ones in the positive position. Lastly I am not saying we lost yesterday because of this but rather it is a general observation of our mindset.

Jetta was exhausted before half time and is also slow. I feel Maric is not up to it, end of story. On the other hand I thought Tapscott was fantastic and Watts and Bail continue to improve.

Good post. Yes we were beaten in the mid field by a very experienced group of players for a large part of the game, but what about the dreadful play in the 3rd quarter where we couldn't get the ball past our half back line from a Hawks point. I think they would have had the ball in their forward half for the whole quarter, except for the bounce after one of their goals and then straight back in again. I have never seen that before in an AFL game. We were pathetic in that period. Lets be honest if they kicked straight it would have been a massacre rather than the thrashing it was. I am not cutting my wrists and concede that we were beaten by a better stronger more experienced side, but we were pathetic for a considerable period of the game. Oh well lets hopefully belt the Lions and Suns and maybe see the return of Scully, McKenzie and Morton.

That is an interesting use of words, " cover ". We can certainly replace an injured player with another player which we do all the time, but if you are suggesting that 5 players who are not good enough to make the team, but come in when injuries occur should be as good as our top 5 players, that is ridiculous. No club could do that. Just one example, who are the Lions replacing Brown with? So it gets down to the meaning of the word cover. It has to mean merely replace, not be as good as. Agree with Rhino.

Could I split Aces and double up on not selecting Troy Taylor in the draft and not recruiting Fev when he was offered to us by Carlton.

Wins in the next two games would really help.

Last sunday when we got 2 points from the Swans.

How does this thread get hijacked to a "Scully" thread when I was discussing coaching at ground level.

Exactly what my son said yesterday as we watched the game. The only one who bucked the trend was LJ who held it when tackled and then handballed to Dunn for a goal. The Swans were doing it all day.

Before you all jump up and down, I pose this question based on Bailey being at ground level with the players during the game. There are a few coaches adopting this style now but it led to me wondering who is making the moves and directing the play. Clearly Bailey appears content that his game plan ( and I confess I don't know what it is ) is functioning and he appears to concentrate on short discussions with players entering and exiting the ground. Then at intervals line coaches address their groups and Bailey then addresses the team. However it beggars the question of who is actually in charge in the box and responsible for match ups etc. Bailey cannot be doing this job from the boundary when most of the time he doesn't even have headphones on and even if he tried, it would be nearly impossible to manage from ground level. It may actually be no different to him being in the box, with a designated assistant in charge of match ups and Bailey concentrating on sending messages to individual players as they go on and off. With the speed of the game and with rapid interchanges the role of the head coach must have changed dramatically from a few years ago.

Accurate as usual.

Plenty of goals against.

See you in two years.

Scully and Jordie news just reinforces the above.