Adam The God

To be fair, Goodwin gave a massive spray at half time against Sydney and we were better in the second half. Langdon kicks that goal from 15m out directly in front and it's less than two goals with plenty of time left.

I think that's more a reflection on you and your posts, which to your credit have remained consistent, but you have no idea about the internal culture. You're basing culture in this post on tackle count, which tells me you're still stuck in 2005 with your analysis of the game. If we use evidence here rather than a nebulous guess on your behalf of our "culture", you'd see that even when we work extremely hard, our zone and corralling does the work of defence and our tackle counts are still much less than the opposition. So if we'd brought the required work rate every game this season, we'd still likely be near the bottom for a metric like tackling. Some of our players are in the top echelon for 1%ers though. Once again, I am not saying our team isn't mentally fragile, I'm just refusing to put it down to something like culture. That's far too easy.

That's certainly not a quote from me. I'm not prepared to say it's cultural or it's because we grew out of a suburb or some other strawman. I did say they do appear to have mental fragility, that's not inherently about culture. People have talked up May's leadership credentials and rightly so, but where was he when we were being spanked in the second quarter? Perhaps there are other factors at play? Nah, it's all cultural and down to the board that sacked Norm Smith.

He also said Weideman needed to get to more contests though. It hardly takes an expert to realise we were off from the first bounce and that Sam wasn't making contests. The rest of it was just self indulgent twaddle IMV.

I didn't see this, but at the end of the day, they are being paid to talk footy, so will talk for the sake of talking. I had to turn off the Sydney game's commentary because I can't stand to hear Dermot, who for most of the game, was completely off with his analysis and loves to hear the sound of his own voice. He's got such a limited understanding of the modern game that it's embarrassing. Whilst I think our playing list does have a mental fragility about it, the list is as others have said, not mature enough yet to bring the required consistency and take the next step. Nor does it have the required balance. If you look around the league, every single team has had an off game or two. Inconsistency is seemingly a larger motif than in any year I can recall. I think 'analysis' of culture is a BS, weak and shallow cop out for some people trying to examine inconsistency of performance.

IMV, Hore is better in the contest, but OMac is the better kick. It's much of a muchness for me. Petty was recruited as the KPD. The way I see it we have May, Lever, Tomlinson and Petty who can/will play the role solidly/to very well. Clearly, the club doesn't particularly rate Oscar, otherwise they wouldn't have first targeted Lever and then targeted May. He can play zone defence better than Frost, but the bar is low in that regard.

The ball use was horrendous. Interesting Max talked about 'bombing it long being in our DNA for nearly two years' and that we'd got that out of our game the last few weeks. It was back tonight and although we were terrible in the second quarter, we failed to convert our dominance in the first quarter (unlike against St Kilda in that first term) and it meant we were playing catch up after that.

I'm just hoping the ridicule directed towards the club makes the players realise you have to bring 4 quarters of football every week. Not too much to hope for, hey?

Oofa doof. Petty, please. Hore is a turnover merchant. A decent intercept market, but Tom McDonald-like with ball in hand.

I've changed my mind on the letting Viney walk as a FA. I think we need to keep him. Particularly, when we'll need more mids in the longer format return next year. He should be very rarely played as the number mid though. His go is defensive mid or pressure forward.

You guys were watching a different game from me. As soon as he went into the midfield we started to win the ball and get it inside 50. He needs to play midfield or forward.

Reckon you might be right, Clint. Thanks for your service, Nathan.

I'm not a fan of the way he plays, but when he's working hard, he's still a valuable contributor.

Gee, Fritsch gets off lightly...

I agree with all of this, but as for the bolded part. I suspect it's because we're still trying to get our defensive mentality right that we're not as explosive and as attacking in stoppages, particularly centre stoppages. It's also pretty clear there's next to no connection between Gawn and the mids for the majority of quarters. Viney thought he was playing rugby again and constantly got lost in the defensive system in the first half. Brayshaw was taking up really good attacking and defensive positions in the first quarter and our guys failed to hit him enough, but for the rest of the night he didn't do enough. Oliver is still easily the cleanest of any of our players, but I counted at least twice he almost missed his foot with a drop punt, another two clearly off the side of the boot, and then another staggeringly poor kick from half back to a Sydney player. Okay, so maybe there's a bit of tiredness creeping in, but aren't we super fit? The only other thing it could be is inconsistency and not bringing 100% focus and work rate to every game. It's simply not good enough. Even when we did win clearance, our ball use for the most part was horrendous. We weren't helped by the fact that Weideman and Brown basically gave us no contest. Weideman was nowhere tonight. Fritsch is still super soft and plays the game on his own terms. The same could be said of Melksham. The timing of the defenders with their spoils were completely off. And I said this in the game day thread, but how many times did our defenders make good position only to drop a simple mark and then fall over, and have their opponent score against them. Happened to certainly happened to Oscar, Lever, Smith and May was terrible for the most part (probably not helped by the tweak early in the game). Langdon's two way running for four quarters was simply outstanding as you say, but his goal kicking, I'm sorry, that's a 15m kick directly in front to make the margin less than 2 kicks. It's basic stuff and speaks to a mental fragility. I think mental fragility describes our group at the moment. Jones had a chance to go back and kick a goal to stem the tide in the 2nd. Nope. Gawn had a chance to kick his goal. Nope. I've no doubt we'll bring a better intensity against Fremantle now, but it shouldn't have to come on the back of not bringing enough the previous game. Incidentally, it was pretty clear Goodwin was making moves in the coaches box. I would have preferred some of them earlier, but the Harmes move really is a shocker. As soon as he was put in the midfield in the last quarter, the first 10 minutes he was willing us towards the line. We need to tidy that up and we need to tidy up selection. I'm sure he's a lovely guy, but Smith isn't the right option down back. I hope Hibberd is ready to come back in. He has to replace Smith. Our forward structure is a nightmare too. We can't persist with so few who fail to bring consistent pressure.

How many times did our defenders get into the right position and then fumble an easy mark and then fall over, only for their direct opponent to waltz away with. Haolened 6 maybe 7 times, maybe more. It's VFL stuff.

No he won't. We're noe excuses. Guarantee you.

This game has been far far far worse than the Bulldogs game.

The lack of leadership in this team is staggering.

Langdon the only bloke that's played the first three quarters

His intensity isn't much different from Fritsch's all year, and Melksham struggles with intensity too.

How is Petracca's ball use. Lazy.

The ball use is a disgrace.

May copped q knock early but wow. What a shocking performance so far.

I thought we actually adjusted from the long bomb to the lowering of the eyes at the end of the first quarter, but we wasted too many chances in the first. The second quarter was simply pathetic. We looked tired, lazy and totally lacking structure. I really thought we'd play Smith forward and Harmes back, but incredibly we're trying Smith back again. He gets completely lost in the zone. You can see him in man's land. And when he's on someone he completely gets sucked to the ball, pushes far too high and gets done at the back. Oscar and Smith almost handed them two easy goals. Oscar did hand them on easy goal. Jones kicking into the man on the mark when we desperately needed a goal to stem the tide. If it's on by all means, but get back over your mark. Viney playing his rugby league again and being caught out in the zone a few really important times. The midfield isn't working hard enough. Oliver and Petracca, don't leave it until the fourth again before you turn up, ala Bulldogs. This game won't necessarily decide the 8, but our guys are clearly mentally weak as a group. I don't know how many times Goodwin and co have to hammer home the point of consistency, but they just don't get it. I thought we'd drop the Freo game, but I was worried about this too. Whenever we look like we're moving in the right direction, this group switch off.