jnrmac

Rd15 Dees 9.14 to Ess 8.9 (W) Rd 16 Dees7.13 to GWS 9.10 (L) Rd 17 Dees 12.14 to 8.7 (W) Rd 18 Dees 11.13 to Haw 12.7 (D) Rd 19 Dees 9.11 to WB 13.7 (L)

The key was they did it quickly -which meant we were chasing to man the mark. When we played them earlier we denied them that clean ball use. We have also become very stagnant. Not sure what the play on percentages are but to the eye it looks we like we stop and prop rather than the quick give or short kick. And when you stop the quick play players stop running. and then its a slippery slope,

These two statistics combined with our kicking accuracy and the disgraceful umpiring is a pretty good reason why we lost. 3 out of the 4 have been known for a long time now and are fixable. They might be being addressed but they're not being fixed.

Salem has been in poor form since his week off and his reported mystery injury. In the 9 games where he has 19 or more possessions, we win. The Dogs got 6 goals from defensive stopages which shows our set ups are appalling. When the ball hots the ground our defence seems to fall apart. Watched replay of the first qtr here are some highlights: 19:18 to go. Gawn is shepherded out of a ruck contest by McRae - no free Ump 22 19:05 Weightman runs into the back of Salem as Gawn marks. Throws his hands up and gets a free 16:58 Brown misses a sitter in front of goal 15:32 Salem let's Bont get clear to kick a goal 15:31 Salem and Gus running with Libba towards boundary. No talk Libba halves contest 14:20 Fritsch misses easy target 14:22 ANB misses easy target 14:88 Hannan gifted a free - Hibberd push in the back. Simply not there. Hannan flew without a realistic chance should have been a mleb free 13:43 Bont knees May in the head - probably accidental but May was bending down top pick up the ball - where is the outrage? Yet media is calling for Pickett had clash to be investigated??!?! 11:48 Weightman flies for speccy - nowhere near the ball. No free to melb. 10:52 Dog was supn 360deg in a tackle, On the ground and handballs yet gets a free? 9:55 McRae mark that travelled 10m. Even BT and Richo questioned it. 5:24 Bruce attempted spoil gets lever over shoulder no free 5:11 Salem pinged for holding english - shot on goal. V Harsh and replicated many times without free 3:24 Holding free to Libba very tiggy T 1:30 English kicks fluke goal from sky high ball. Despite the appalling umpiring we are our own worst enemy

Thanks Simon You can pull your head out of the sand now

So predictable. May kicks it to the left side 90% of the time. On forward thrusts we kick to the pockets where we can t score We let the opp'n have free players on their defensive side of stoppages - Daniel, Bont, Smith carved us up We got beaten again on the outside We kicked poorly again Our play on percentages were hoprrendously low compared to the Dogs The only time we looked dangerous was when we got the ball quickly into our fwd line. We are a slow motion car crash. What a waste.

Our problems have been evident for a long time to those that don't have blinkers on. Several seasons in fact Goodwin hasn't fixed them. Time is running out in a year when we have been gifted an incredible run with injuries this is unforgivable It would be so Melbourne to completely stuff this up The ostrich brigade will point to our ladder 'improvement' but it's meaningless if we don't win finals this year.

Our positioning around stoppages particularly in our def50 is abysmal. Bont and Smith killed us We were fumbly, they were clean our defence was terrible when the ball hit the ground Petracca went missing in the last We did nothing with Gawns dominance Our small fwd were largely non existent. TMac ... what's happened to him? Olivers 1st half was outstanding. 2nd half not so much ANB seriously, has any player ever had so many kicks smothered? He's so slow with ball in hand. Drop him for mine. Jackson just has no impact Harmes was a liability Jordon was hardly sighted Petty was back to his bumbling best And the umps were diarrhoea

Let's not kid ourselves. We have played 1 good game in the last 5 The way we play will be very important tonight. We need to be switched on the word go. Not Goodwins strong suit though...

Keeping our defence occupied with talls is a smart way for Bevo to go. This along with pinpointing passes where they can is difficult to combat if we don't run and put pressure on the ball carrier. If May Lever and Petty can't intercept the ball cleanly our game plan struggles The Hawks did it, Brisbane did it for a half Lets see if Simon can earn his money this week.

The Dogs totally butchered their 1st qtr and turned the ball over big time trying to swtch across the backline

The couldn't use the corridor because we had used large numbers of players stationed in the corridor, forcing them to go long down the boundary or switch. Max , Lever or May were waiting for them, They probably won't fall for that again but....how many times in the past had we seen teams beat us (like St Kilda) by playing a certain way EVERY time we played them,. Like clockwork you could pre-empt how they would pressure the ball carrier and get the ball to the outside where they would beat us with run. They won 17 in a row or thereabouts playing that way

"Can you smell what the Blues are cooking?" was my fav from 2010

OK Thanks for that. Will reassess The AFL website for you - defaulting to last season

https://www.afl.com.au/stats/team-rankings?CompSeason=20&GameWeeks=-1#rankingstable Last in tackles at 749 for the year. geelong are 1st on 1048 16th in total clearances with 480

We are not holding it in like we used to though. And we are 10th on i50s. Its part of hte reason our last 8 weeks hasn't been as good as the first 10

The track record is damning. You may not like the fact but no good team loses as much as we do to lower ranked teams. Feel free to prove me wrong with evidence

Just checked some stats We are last for tackles in the whole comp We are 16th in total clearances That puts huge pressure on our defence to hold the fort. Its not sustainable.

Agree with this. You can't win forever by generating your scores from the defensive 50. Its great that we have dominant players there but May even said a few weeks ago we "can't keep playing that way" Eventually teams work you out or the dam wall breaks. Our midfield have really escaped scrutiny because Gawn Tracc and Oliver in particular are regarded as elite players. If the are so elite why do we get beaten so often in centre clearances? Why does Oliver always grapple with his opponent? Why are the running patterns and hit outs so off? Then to top it off we kick to the pockets so our scoring is XXX. And our fwds have been unable to hold the ball in as much as we need them to. Playing a back half game is the oppposite of what Goodwin has said he wants. So why are we here? We have largely the same team every week, We're having a great run with injuries. And we are so predictable the way we play. Coaching and leadership are wanting. To bring 'it' only when we play 'good teams' is disrespectful and stupid.

Not only recent form. We did it last year and in 2017 missing finals because we took it easy against lower ranked teams. We don't seem to have learned anything from the 'learnings'

Watch some here try to spin that. All the stats on "On the couch" and First Crack are damning about our pressure dropping, off, our transitioning from defence, our poor clearance work, no advantage from our ruck dominance (in fact the opposite) etc But I love how some come here and say 'gee we're still on top' Its blindingly obvious we haven't been playing well for 6 to 8 weeks bar some good form against Port.

Yeah, great smart alec comment. Play like that in finals and we are out in straight sets. But yeah its only been 57 years, whatever

All teams know not to kick it long to lever and may. The teams that have pinpointed passes, used handball and created theor own chaos or dirty ball entry have done well. We haven't handled it and added to that we are mentally weak - there's no other words for it. To succumb to lower teams so consistently is an abject failure of coaching and leadership

Our whole game appears to be based on being predictable for our team mates. That would be fine but its also predictable to opposition teams and its easy for a good coach to try to upset that. Not all teams are capable of doing it but North and others discovered that moving the ball quickly by hand through the middle destroys our advtantage of strong intercept defenders. Our kick ins I would estimate go 90% to the left hand side if May is kicking in. Often there is a player free in the corridor or RHS of the ground that is ignored. Predictability is clearly a trait that Goodwin favours. Problem is we look so much better when running freely out of defence and when we take the game on. You have to back your talent in that sort of game but we only seem to go that way when the game is reaching its conclusion.

Exactly. So its Coaching and leadership. They both failed against the Hawks. If they can't do it consistently they are going nowhere. Oliver and Trac in particular pick and choose when to go or when to be selfless and do the team thing. Viney frustrates because he is heart and soul but skill errors and decision making negate a lot of that. Our fwd line went walkabout and our defence was humbled by blokes that have played about 20 games (Bruest excluded)