Jaded No More

Just as with the Freo game, we lost this because we played poorly and made crucial skill errors, plus had a poor setup forward of the centre. We did not lose this because we aren't good enough or met an opposition who was simply better, which was the case against Port, Essendon and Brisbane earlier in the year, where we lost simply because on the day the opposition was much better than us. It is the worst way to lose, especially when we are not comfortable inside the top 4 in the slightest.

Perhaps, what could have worked, is putting a key tall on Stewart, with a lot of defensive experience, who could take some marks and stop Stewart freely intercepting the ball..... if only we had such a player available...

I turned off the TV the moment I saw Petty go forward. Sometimes I think that the club believes they are better than they actually are. Playing and coaching like millionaires. 2021 was two seasons ago. You can only hang your hat on that for so long.

Yeah nah

The second Cameron came off, we needed to thank our lucky stars and swing Petty forward. Instead we did nothing, despite them losing arguably their best player!

I literally never see top sides drop their best talls if it's raining. Geelong didn't leave Hawkins and Cameron at home did they? You need to maintain a structure. Petty or another tall up forward would have helped stop Stewart intercepting at ease and would have created a better focal point bombing it long inside 50, enabling better ground ball opportunities for our smalls. Instead they plonk Gawn at FF. He. Is. Not. A. Forward.

I will continue to bang on that we needed to bring Bowey back and not drop Tomlinson. Carlton and Geelong have a very similar forward dynamic. Hawkins an McKay big bodies who play deep, Cameron and Curnow mobile athletic and play high, and a third mid sized tall in Rohan/ Silvagni. We played May and Tomlinson against Carlton and kept them to a very low score in dry conditions. Yes I concede that Carlton are trash and Geelong in Geelong is, well, Geelong in Geelong. But why do we continue to [censored] around with really important structural positions? It's fine to rotate guys at half back, half forward, hell even in the middle. But our spine is all over the shop and we have not gotten it right since Tmac and BB broke down.

The idea that Gawn is a forward, is quite frankly, dead wrong. The Gawn Grundy ruck combo is giving many hitouts to no advantage vibe. It is not working currently.

We are now passed the halfway mark of the season, and I still have no idea what our forward or backline setup is going to be heading into September, nor do I really understand our game plan. I just hope our coaches have a better idea of what is going on than I do.

We’ve lost that magical ability we had in 2021 to win in different ways and arrest momentum. We used to just find ways to win. Now we seem to find ways to lose. We dominated for 2 quarters. But our domination lead to nothing while they dominated for 1 quarter (first quarter was fairly even) and piled on 6 goals in the wet.

Assuming this is the case, who is the magical unicorn that we found who can now play the tall forward role we had set out for Petty to fill? I agree that in principle Petty is better than Tomlinson. He’s also much younger. I have no issues if we play him back there permanently again. I have serious issues if we think Joel Smith is the tall forward answer. He and JVR cannot carry our scoring in September and without another big body it becomes too easy to defend Fritta and robs our smalls from crumbing opportunities. Two weeks in a row we let the opposition’s gun intercept defender get their hands on the footy. Last game it was ok because it was dry and we dominated around the ground. This week it was a disaster because it was wet and we couldn’t hit a target to save ourselves.

Been happening to Gawn since the beginning of time. God created the heaven, the earth and the holding on Gawn for no free kick.

And yet we didn’t move Petty forward until the game was gone. Nor did we put him on Rohan who was having one of his once a year day out.

Brown needs to prove himself at Casey. He’s banged up and immobile. He doesn’t solve our issues IMO. TMac is who we desperately miss. A tall who can play higher up and take contested marks. We’ve looked awful up forward ever since he stuffed his foot in 2022. This is a role Petty can play well and it’s what they tried to get Smith to do.

Tomlinson back into defense. Petty forward. JJ out. Bowey in. Spargo not the sub. Hibbo to play on Greene. Do we need to give Gawn a week off? He seems cooked. I assume Clarry won’t play. Obviously if fit he is in for literally anyone that isn’t Viney as I would kill for another player with clean ball handling skills in the contest.

Turn Ben McKay into a forward? Can’t be worse than his brother at kicking goals

I think you understand what I mean. It’s not going to be the reason why we win or lose a flag.

This loss means nothing in the context of our season. But bloody hell it’s hard to understand what we are doing sometimes. Our forwardline is a disaster. We kicked big scores early in the season playing appalling opposition. But the reality is that between our mind boggling ball use, and our lack of marking power up forward, we are going to struggle in September. Why just why didn’t we put Petty forward the minute Cameron was taken off? Just pray it’s a dry September.

Couldn’t hit a target but couldn’t find a spot for Bowey in the side. I literally do not understand why we are being so cute with the team setup All bloody season Goodwin said we wanted Petty tried forward. He has a great game against the Hawks and gets injured. Tomlinson comes in and plays a pivotal role and we have our best defensive fortnight of the season. Petty is declared fit and is immediately sent back at the expense of Tomlinson, leaving Joel Smith and a fetus to play on Tom Stewart. The mind boggles.

No words for how badly we performed tonight. Cats without Dangerfield and Guthrie and lose Cameron in the first few minutes, and we just go on to play some of the dumbest, softest football we’ve dished up all year. We absolutely should not have dropped Tomlinson for Petty who was totally underdone. We needed someone to drag Stewart away from the contest, but instead we went too small and nobody was able to stop him intercepting. Spargo was a terrible choice of sub, not to mention that subbing him off for Jordon was just idiotic. Infuriating garbage.

Scott will always outcoach against us. We had one good season against them but we just have no idea how to play them. Old. Injured. Doesn’t matter.

We were onto a good thing with Tomlinson down back and Petty coming back to help the forwards. So we go and [censored] it up and instead let Stewart that dog take 190 intercept marks. Genius.

Embarrassing from the coaches down to the players

Spargo horrendous

WHAT IS THIS [censored] FORWARD SET UP? Why are we letting them have an extra man when we have clearly lost unless we get the goals quickly