bing181

Players like Magner and Nicholson (and a few others) used to rack up those kinds of numbers week after week in the VFL, but were mediocre at best at AFL level.

Hibberd in if ready, but AFL is a big step up from VFL fitness-wise.

Oh look, I've worked out how to paste an image into an online forum.

Perdersen has a skill set?

Helps puts his performance on Saturday in context, especially as it happened early in the match.

Disposals - Trengove 28, Pedersen 23, Scott 20, Hibberd 20. Goals - Scott 3, Trengove, Pedersen Fritsch.

If you look outside of that image, Jetta had run up the wing following his man (or someone) to block off receiving from the Fyfe possession, and Hunt was in between that back group and the ball-carrier (Langdon?) to stop him just running it in, so they seem to have done what they needed to. But that still doesn't account for the extra man forward. Think it just shows inexperience, together with not being completely switched-on at the end of a gruelling game. The structures needed to be reset given the situation, but they weren't. On the basis of that image, you'd actually think the situations were reversed, that we'd thrown people forward desperately looking for an extra score, exposing ourselves at the back. I'd like to say "bet it doesn't happen again", but not so sure. On the other hand, "bet if Lewis and Hibberd were out there it wouldn't have happened", seems closer to the mark.

This is the ball coming in which lead to the McCarthy goal:

A legitimate question, but for mine, it's too early in the season. I would have said wait till at least round 6, but with the disruptions to the side over the last few weeks, even that's maybe too early for a settled response. Individual players have improved, definitely, but across the 4 matches we've never had the same back 6 (for example). None of this helps, especially on top of our comparative youthfulness and lack of experience/maturity. Going to be a stop-start season I fear, perhaps even moreso than last year.

In regards to Melksham, interesting to read Worslfold's comments re the suspended Don players. A year away from footy is a long time. Running out of steam already?

The colour of the water bottles deserves its own thread.

Memo to club: Could players be instructed to display appropriate levels of looking guttedness after losing. Thanks, A Fan

Using the luck element would just be acknowledging that much that happens in a footy match comes down to luck, or something close to it. The world is a much more unpredictable place than we're prepared to admit, but we still spend our lives convincing ourselves it makes sense and looking for reasons to justify such an assumption.

... was kicked directly to its intended recipient, Neal-Bullen. Who, incidentally, ended up with it, and got it along the boundary to Viney.

... it's probably unfair to highlight one or two players, but I'm going to do it anyway.

It's called inexperience. Everyone can cite the "a young side" statistic, but when we play like "a young side", DL goes into meltdown.

Yes, of course it is. ANB, Stretch, Salem, Hunt and most of the young'uns have all gone up a notch this year, and have played their best games for the club. Same for Spencer. Jones has been great until today (injured? heavily tagged?). Vince had 30 disposals in Round 1, missed a round, was injured in Round 3 and played injured today apparently, though 25 disposals isn't too shoddy. As for Tyson, he had 28 disposals and 9 marks and yeah, shanked a few. 6 Clangers. The same number as Fyfe. A metre here or there on just one of those shots at goal or ball bounces and we wouldn't even be having these discussions.

Or not.

I'm not sure that a quote from Chomsky was what Picket was looking for.

You don't know that Smith would have got that goal, any more than you know if he would have even been in the position to have a shot in the first place. None of us know for certain "what would have happened", and if you think otherwise, you can give me the Tattslotto numbers for next week.

No, it didn't cost us the win. There are/were any number of factors across the whole game, some of them just down to luck (e.g. ball bounces) that cost us the win. The only reason you're singling out these two is that they occurred in the last quarter and are thus easier to remember. It's called availability bias.

We did not lose today because of selections. We lost because we let them get a run on, especially their mids, in one poor quarter. Perhaps we got ahead of ourselves. For all the bitching about Weideman and even the forward line, we still managed to kick a winning score - 15:14. But we let Mundy and Neale get 7 goals between them. That's where we lost it.

So Smith, who in his one game had 6 disposals, is your answer to why we lost? Step away from the keyboard OD.

Had a (really) good 2nd quarter. Took our foot off in the third, and they had enough ability to make sure we paid heavily. Did well to turn it around in the last, but not experienced or mature enough to pull off a close one. In the press conference, Goodman talked about composure with the ball. We still have too many players who don't have it, or have enough of it, which is dangerous around players like Fyfe. Not lost at the selection table, lost between the ears.

Hyperbole much?