Adam The God

I've since edited my post mate. Thought Gus was poor too. Our entire midfield was poor, including Preuss. We simply don't know what to do when teams get it or try to get it on the outside of stoppages. Okay, so we didn't work hard enough to pressure the first ball, let alone the second, but our stoppage set ups are head scratching at times. A few times Preuss would tap directly to Dogs mids on the wrong side of the contest, which Max is also regularly guilty of too. I'm not sure Harmes would have added much more given our poor the rest of the midfield was. I don't think injecting him into the mix would have changed the cleanness and the lack of two-way run and spread.

You could tell we weren't on half way through the first quarter. Game over. That may have sounded melodramatic at the time, but you can tell when a team isn't switched on. May and Lever, the exception. The midfield was terrible, utterly hopeless defensively. We let them switch with ease all day and when our forwards don't lay tackles, we get murdered on the outside and in transition. Absolutely cut to ribbons. It's not the game plan's fault, it's not the deeper lying defenders' fault either, it's absolutely a midfield/forward issue. Far too much inconsistency and picking and choosing when to go to contests or spread and work hard. I thought we'd play a bit more good footy before seeing a marked lapse, but not to be. May and Lever a mile ahead of anyone else. The defence did okay all things considered. Viney the hardest worker in our midfield, but a butcher of the footy. He's tough, he's a hard worker, but a dumb footballer, who IMV makes our midfield worse with his ball use. I counted 4 direct scores from his kicks pinging back the other way. Bleeds red and blue, blah, blah, he's a turnover merchant who thinks he's playing rugby half the time. Oliver reverted to his quick handball game again in the second half too. I liked that he, Gus and Petracca were looking for the shorter options instead bombing away, but their skills let them down badly. Their refusal to work in transition was pathetic. We got done so many times on the spread too. It was a very familiar loss in that respect. Quicker sides get us on the outside. If teams are prepared to spread harder and switch more than us we don't win. Simple as that. Whereas, the Dogs' style is very similar to our 2018 style, they're a super aggressive pressing side, which we saw in the first half enabled us to get a bunch of goals out the back. We didn't exploit this nearly enough. Our team on its day is a far better team than what the Bulldogs are at their best. Deeply disappointing. I'd say Petracca looked tired, but he's played a few of those sort of games this year. I can hear the commentators probably still salivating over his game, but did he have a single clean possession all day? Had 26 touches, but was truly ordinary to very poor. Even the basic handball to Weideman in the first missed the target by 5 metres, under no pressure. As Gary, rightly, kept banging on about. I was wrong. I thought it had finally clicked for our midfield. But clearly still a work in progress. We need to refresh the half forward line. Kozzie laid 5 tackles, but barely sighted in the first half when the game was on. I'd rest him if we had some pace to come in. Melksham should be dropped but won't be because when he's on, he's vital to our forward connection. But we have too many forwards who don't tackle. I've been on Fritsch about this. He and Melksham squibbed a few contests, not to mention Melksham's inexcusable 50 metre penalty. Hannan very little influence too. I'd bring Rivers in and shift Harmes forward as a pressure player and hopefully Jones is up for next week and we play him as another pressure forward. Still reckon we'll play finals, but unless we shed the inconsistency, I have no faith we'll be able to do any damage whatsoever.

Beveridge has definitely coached well but our mids haven't defended at all and the zone hasn't moved. You could tell we were going to lose half way through the first quarter. The system falls over without sufficient work rate.

Melksham has been disgusting.

Whenever we lose, you notice Fritsch missing regularly. Just for the record.

That play is literally why Viney makes us worse from midfield. Great effort and hard and all that but his kicking is utterly useless. Pings back the other way, 3rd or 4th time as a result of his possession.

Melksham has killed us today too. Haven't we been shocking.

I called this early. Our midfield has been off all day. Game over. Could get ugly.

Fritsch doesn't tackle. If he doesn't take all his chances at goal, that one 30m directly in front, then he's a liability.

Much better from Jack. His best play for the day.

That's why Tom McDonald should be nowhere near the defence. What a panic merchant.

Preuss has been shocking in the ruck. Sparrow still giving us absolutely nothing.

Finally, Viney.

Murdering us on the outside. So predictable. I reckon it's game over here. Our mids aren't defending today.

Shocking quarter. System completely broke down. Beveridge is exactly like me. Doesn't rate the ruck position at all. Completely justified. Good move to ruck a mid against Preuss. Need to adjust here. Lack of tackle pressure evident across our half forward line. I don't think Petracca or Viney hit a target in that quarter. Get Viney out of the middle. He doesn't hurt the opposition at all. Fancy going for the handball from Gus on his right foot. Need a big lift across the ground. Get Sparrow out of the midfield. Trails his opponent every time. Midfield needs to step up big time.

Viney has been terrible. His possessions go nowhere.

Would prefer Petracca getting more of those midfield minutes and take more off Sparrow. Trac is a score assist King and to my eye, Sparrow does very little in or out of the contest. Certainly not enough to warrant 55%.

Well, most of the board are accountants, so you'd expect they'd bring various financial skills to the table.

Interesting this one. With tomorrow's side, Tom can at least ruck. I'd prefer to keep Weideman forward rather than throwing him into the ruck. It's a problem we don't have to worry about at the moment. I'd probably play Tomlinson in the ruck and replace Tom with Jesse, but only with a Jesse willing to do the hard yards RE forward pressure and defensive acts.

Agreed. If the club thinks it's a good idea given what they know, I'd back them to make the right call. A switched on, powerful Jesse would add something to our team. His lack of tackling pressure always annoyed me, but get that right and he's a real talent. The last two years are irrelevant IMO if he can get his head right. He'll play good footy again once/if his head is back in the game.

Reflects really well on Pert, de Crespigny, Bartlett and the board.

There are a lot of talented money-makers on our board. I'd back them to strategically invest wisely with the cash and assets we have. I'd be very surprised if we aren't debt free by this time next year.

I'm surprised you weren't one of them, given the amount of trash you post.

Reckon they'll be keeping him, because they need to angle their list towards youth, given how aging it already is.

Phillips is another one I coached as a kid and I coach with his sister (who I also coached when she was a kid). Out and out Magpie. Would be very tough to prize.