jnrmac

You re missing the point entirely. Its not losing. Its the way we lost and the inability of the coaches to change what clearly wasnt working. And very inconsistent performance by the players. And 14 uncontested marks in their fwd 50. That kind of stuff. Thanks for your soothing words though.

Where we failed on the weekend was our tackles didn't stick. THhe Aints dished off to outside runners and played checkers with our defence. We had no failsafe mechanism in place becuase our defenders, if they were back, would leave their man and run fwd 40m to man the mark. Bingo the ball would sail over their head to a St K foward on his lonesome. Time and time again.... The ineptitude of the coaching box to alter the trajectory of this game was world class.

I guess I was alluding to the old adage about looking at players who perform poorly in losses... We desperately need players that can stand up even when the team is being beaten. We have been bereft of real on-field leadership for so long but that's what good teams have.

Happy for him to replace Kent. His performance in our two shocking losses to Ess and St Kilda are telling.

Actually this happens time and time again. Not just with Reiwoldt but players who cut us up every time we play them. It's a different pilosophy were we in the outer say 'let's make sure Reiwoldt and Montagna don't kill us like they always do' but the coaching staff say 'let's stock with the game plan we are trying to implement for the longer term'. Reiwoldt is too good a player to leave running free against our inexperienced backline. It was cringeworthy to see Jetta, Wagner and even Hunt have to race in to do a one-on-one with Reiwoldt. Well at some point when it's not working there needs to be a readjustment if we want to win the game. If we are working on a plan for the longer term and are happy to forego winning the game then that's one thing. But we have been doing this for a decade now and 2016 is when we have aimed to make finals according to PJ.

Thanks Pollyanna

It breaks down when you can't hold the ball in your fwd line. That's what happened. Our tackles dodn't stick and they outran us wide and created overlap. I would love to see a stat for missed tackles - thta was a big difference from the week before. Hold those tackles and all of a sudden they are not streaming down into an open fwd line..

Jack had 10 possessions in the 1st quarter didn't he? What were you expecting if you call that slow.....

I'm saying that wins can paper over some cracks. And our defence has some signficant cracks when it lets in goals like that. Happy for you to disagree but its not up to scracth by a long way IMO.

It was a 6 day turn around, the same as us. Its not an excuse. They brought in 3 fresh players. 2 of them crucified us.

Bingo. Membrey killed us. As did Acres.

I said that last 4 weeks our defence has let in 21, 9, 14 and 20 goals. Not sure how you could say that stats seem to suggest otherwise. I don't care what other teams have conceded. Why should you care? Its pretty obvious to any football watcher that defences are what make teams successful and get them to finals. Our defence is a problem when we let goals in like that. Individually Salem gets beaten a lot one on one, Dunn is prone to off days like yesterday, TMac has poor disposal, Lumumba suffers and gets caught when the team doesn't spread. Our defence can get cut up very easily. If we are going to play shootout football we don't have enough defensive skill to win in the longer term.

And we couldn't hold a tackle.

Its like being told to stop being a racist

No one was on him that was the problem. Our new zone has dfenders pushing up to hold the ball in our fwd 50. When that doesn't work and the Aints got the ball, their run and spread meant they simply looped a handball or kick over the top time and time again. Reiwoldts running skills and endurance ensured that he was always a link in a chain. They had 18 uncontested marks in their fwd 50 FFS. Our inabiilty to adjust this during a game is just diabolical. The coaches had no answers and the players were a rabble on the field, not knowing where to go or who to pick up. There was no man on man or any attempt that I could see to alter the trajectory of the contest. The first 3 Aints goals were a warning shot and they did nothing to counteract it. Just stuck to the dumb game plan that wasn;t working. IN essence our tackles didn't stick and our players didn't run both ways. SOme of the tackling was amateurish and allowed the Aints time and time again to dish off to a runner on the outside. Poor coaching by our box.

I don't think he would have made much difference today. We got smashed on the outside.

Yep good pick up. changed that.

I'll give you credit for consistent championing of Garland but he's not the answer in my book. May get a run next week though because Frost is sure to be out or maybe Dunn after his shocker..

Frost had 3 kicks I think. The experiment is not working. Not sure what he hads to the team.

And apparently wasn't wearing a mouthguard if you can believe that. His front teeth were wobbly.

Last 4 weeks our defence has let in 21, 9, 14 and 20 goals. The zone thing isnt working and today was a shambles. No-one had a clue what they were doing. Tackles didn't stick. We allowed them to get hands free and dish off to a runner. Infuriatingly Reiwoldt was alone all day. They took 18 uncontested marks iside their fwd 50. Unforgiveable. Our defence stinks. Dunn had a complete shocker. Salem gets out muscled constantly.Jetta had a shocker, Harmes was poor, Hunt was poor, McDonald was a joke today. Lumumba tried to start some runs but they had him worled out very quickly and he had one of those running in circles before getting caught games. So much for Roosy teaching us defence first before moving on to offence. Our defence leaks like a sieve. They need to go back to the drawing board. Fast.

We'd leave him loose all night like Reiwoldt.....

Heartache

18 uncontested marks in their fwd 50. That's how. Let them run loose and take marks at will.