P-man

I have a good feeling about this week which is pretty much all I'm hanging my hat on. The only other time I've had a good feeling going into the game was against Sydney so we shall see if my spidey senses can go 2 from 2.

The first quarter against the Tigers was one of our best for the year. If we had maintained that level for the next three we'd have been a real chance. The inability to apply any kind of scoreboard pressure continues to hurt us. Right now it feels like even GAJ wouldn't be able to find any connection with our forwards. Ugh. "Connection". Now he's got me saying it.

A willingness to see something through to the bitter end. The bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter....bitter end.

I’m not disputing the flow down effects of corporate appointments, but I think it’s starting to draw a long bow to suggest onfield performance was impacted by a CEO who wasn’t sitting in the chair yet. I get what you’re saying in terms of unrest over Mahoney, PJ not being involved etc, I just think it’s starting to feel like jumping at shadows. That is if you’re suggesting it impacted our woeful performance in the prelim. The reality was the Eagles sussed us out. As have other sides this year. The list of reasons as to what is happening are all football related, in my opinion. It is speculation, as Smokey says. We are all scratching our heads and looking for reasons. With my own speculative hat on, If Pert’s appointment is on the list at all, it’s at or near the bottom.

Whether or not you feel Pert’s appointment has had any influence on this unfolding debacle, let’s not pretend the decline started this season. Let’s recognise that we were completely humiliated in the final game of season 2018 before Pert had even started. That team is this team.

If we were to win the spoon it would be up there with recent plummets. Champion data had us the best ranked list and many pundits had us as flag favourites. Although we did get a whopping great hint in the last game of the season. The predictable path from here would be to somehow scrap together some wins against average opponents or on smaller grounds where we can’t get torn to shreds, and crawl our way to about 14th. And then it’s back to the draft. The year after we all but missed out on a “super draft” in which Port essentially set themselves up for the next decade with one batch of kids. While we picked up yet another inside mid. Melbourne life.

Players playing today that didn’t play in that game: Weitering Marchbank Walsh Dow McGovern Casboult Gibbons Newman Cunningham E Curnow Silvagni But yeah, basically the same team. Also, I said the BALANCE of their list is better. Which it quite clearly is.

The balance of the Blues list is simply better than ours. Got their pillars sorted and have stocked the midfield in the last couple of drafts with quality inside and outside. And to think that C Curnow, arguably their best player behind Cripps last season, is still to come back into this side. They are set.

He’s on a hiding to nothing, really. Damned if you do or don’t. I understand the want to reach out to supporters and let them know he’s hurting as well. Fair play to him. Fixing the defence is a priority but the inability to score is almost as alarming. Our forwardline is complete puss atm. Certainly the delivery isn’t helping but right now nothing is functioning. We can’t buy a tackle in our attacking 50. We can’t buy a goal from a forward stoppage. On the occasions when we do have forward targets they aren’t working together. We seemingly have no-one that can take a contested mark. As others have noted, the absence of Hannan may be under appreciated. And of course there’s the purple elephant in the room. Or rather in the west. Somehow we need to craft something together that provides a better output than 2 goals in three quarters. We made some small inroads against Richmond. Let’s see if any more can be made against the Hawks. There is still much that can be salvaged from this season.

@McQueen - any new fishing gear?

This is amazing. One goal since quarter time which was from a Richmond mistake coming out of defence.

Andy, time to open up the draft and trades board ?

What really sucks about this is that the Tigers are playing like garbage,

Really feels like we’re missing Hogan atm. We don’t have a forward target. Weid is just standing there flat footed.

Harmes clearly behind held then. No whistle.

Loving Marty Hore. Great pick up.

Add Carey and I’m in.

Under a lot of pressure. The intent is there. Right now I’ll take that.

T Mac. Jesus.

Oliver starting forward?

Bloody hell. What a performance.

For god’s sake get the defence sorted out. It doesn’t seem that long ago that our defensive structures and quickness to set up used to be lauded. The ease with which teams are slicing us up right now is embarrassing. There must be some improvement across the entire team tonight. If it’s another field day for the opposition with our bunch of reactionary chooks all swarming towards the ball carrier with seemingly no communication or understanding of what they’re doing then pencil us in for bottom four because it means we actually can’t fix it. The other must is to crack in hard and win the clearance battle. It is inexcusable to have such a dominant ruckman winning hitouts for fun and losing the clearances to average midfields. And can we at least leave a couple of players sitting outside of the contest instead of seemingly every time the ball spilling to an opposition player unopposed. Oh and good luck Jeffy.

This is actually a dog’s breakfast. We can’t score and we can’t defend lol

Well the final against Geelong last year was fun. That may be the highlight for the foreseeable future.