Jaded No More

Garlett and Frost play and we win the last two games. The frustration with the coach and the selection is never bloody ending.

Honestly [censored] this team

This goal kicking situation is bizarre. Is there a gusty wind up there we don’t know of? McDonald missing basically means we are in for the worst day of goal kicking ever. Intent is good but we look messy

Under 12s goal kicking

Good to see us defending the transition... #killme

TMac will ruck

One of the few players who consistently covers a lot of ground with his two way running. He actually was very poor this weekend, so may actually get dropped, but generally he is one of the hardest game day runners, so he fits into the defensive mindset we are trying to get to. I wish his skills matched his endeavour.

How can a team with everything to play for, coming off two losses, staring at another season wasted by missing finals, not work as hard as a team with nothing to play for, who have won 2 games? Application? mental issues? laziness? wrong players in wrong positions? pace? too tall? taking it easy? drinking our own bath water? As Gawn said, how did we not come out firing after 2 losses? He was the only player who played 4 outstanding quarters. The rest of his mates, were asleep for 3.

Poor guy. What awful luck! Dunn didn’t fit Roos’ defensive set up. But we got Frost to essentially replace Dunn and he can’t get a game while Dunn is flourishing. Never did get that one.

There is definitely no need for the world is ending, the sky is falling, we are the worst team ever, type of reactions. But I feel like some parts of Demonland have almost gone the complete opposite way. Like it is not politically correct to have a go when we perform badly, because we are doing better. Because after 12 years of being hot garbage, we are now an average team, and god we should be so happy and so greatful for that. Criticism is taken as a lack of appreciation or how far we have come, rather than a realistic view of how much further we still have left to go. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the only thing I care about, is premierships. I don't care for incremental improvements, sure I enjoy them and they give me hope, but to me just being in the 8 for the first 13 rounds, or just making finals, is not a win. I want us to play and win finals. I want us to be successful again. And until I see that we can be consistently successful, and perform consistently towards that ultimate goal, I will continue to be frustrated when we take backwards steps like we did yesterday. We all invest a lot emotionally and financially in the club, and we all have a right to vent (or not) after a loss, so long as we do it respectfully. I don't come on here looking for someone to tell me we will win a flag next year, I come here to share and listen to the opinions of others who share the same love and passion for the Dees as I do, but who might have differing opinions to me. Bottom line is, we all know [censored] and we all can do [censored] about the performance of our club. We are just here to talk crap and make ourselves feel better.

And you know that I only picked on your post, because it's you and I enjoy sticking the boot in... you're pretty ok on here most of the time

So when do we find out if Frost needs to stay or go? Why do we keep players on our list, if when all other options are gone, we don't play them? If Frost was stinking it up in the VFL I would almost agree, but he has been playing well and knocking the door down. He really stood out in the game I saw on Saturday, which was a high pressure tight contest against a quality VFL side. Don't get me wrong, he makes me cringe as much as anyone, but this is season on the line stuff. We don't win this game and we can kiss finals goodbye. Now is not the time to give a kid who isn't ready, playing in a vitally important position, another go to make sure his confidence isn't shattered. The coaches need to do that off the field, and take responsibility for it.

Sure, I understand that Lever going went really screwed us, but Frost and even a mature age recruit like Keiltey surely should have got a go first. There was no rush with Petty, whereas now is the time to put Frost under pressure in the role we recruited him for and see how he copes. I know he is NQR, but we need to find that out for sure so we can decide whether he should stay or go. Playing Petty doesn't tell us anything about him, other than he isn't ready to play a key position defensive role in the AFL, and nor should he be. He is 18 for goodness sake. Being a key defender is one of the hardest roles in footy. Omac came in and played with Garland and TMac, Tmac had Frawley and Dunn etc etc. Poor Petty had nobody there to support him. It left him vulnerable, it left Omac vulnerable, and the whole thing was a shambles. I would have almost forgiven the decision, had Goodwin thrown TMac back in the last 15 minutes to help weather the storm, as we were making our comeback (after we kicked 2 in a row). Instead Petty was left one out, got outmarked, and the game was basically gone.

I’m just really greatful for the journey man

Sarcasm. Over. The. Head.

I hate it when every week supporters who come here to vent, get told by some to get a grip because “it’s just a game” or “there’s more to life than footy”... it’s like telling a person having a panic attack to calm down. Soooo helpful. Years ago, nobody questioned the despair we felt. Now the new hipster [censored] on Demonland is for people to tell other people that we should appreciate the progress we’ve made, and stop complaining about poor performances. Relax man, drink a chai latte, things are fine. Because being mediocre is way better than being the worst team in history I guess. Bloody hell, there is a lot more to life than this game and this club, absolutely. But when I pay $600 a year, because I want to ensure I get finals tickets, and we literally have not made finals since I was a damn teenager (when I could drink the pain away without the 3 day hangover), then I will come here after a loss and respectfully tell you and your salt lamp to get stuffed. Now I gotta adult up and go to bed because I have an 80 hour work week coming up. Goddamn reality.

I can’t wait to bring in more slow talls. If we drop Hannan, as we should, we need to bring in some crumbing options!

I don’t. And I never said Goodwin can’t coach because I don’t know if he can or can’t. I can see glaring problems, we all can. I’m waiting to see if he can fix them and have questioned why they haven’t been fixed yet. I know things don’t take a minute. It takes a long time to get structures right. What does annoy me is that Goodwin took a defensive team and turned it so far into an attacking team, without really having the weapons to do so. Without outside leg speed, without enough top users of the footy, and without a cohesive forward line. I know you’ll say we’ve kicked plenty of goals, and we have, but we’ve beaten up on weak teams that we could destroy in clearances. This is not a safe game plan, because good teams don’t let you destroy them in clearances and contested ball. We can all see our problems. I know Goodwin can too. But we are supporters, we can’t do [censored] to fix the situation. I hope he and the other coaches can, before another season is wasted.

Tom McDonald is literally the most effective tall forward in the comp. The solution is not to move him back (except for in the dying minutes of a tight game), it’s to have him and Hogan learn to play together. Some of the best teams in history had two big talls... Lynch and Brown, Roughead and Buddy etc etc. it’s a strength of ours, that we are [censored] up due to poor use coming into the forward 50, poor game plan and playing far too many marking forwards.

Sure, he gets that we need to run both ways, but does he get that when you play someone like Tyson on a wing, make your best inside mid tag, play 8 marking forwards, refuse to pick leg speed and constantly allow teams to drop 2 back, that it’s quite hard to do the two way running thing? I don’t except his media conference to mean [censored]. It’s all media training garbage anyway. I just expect not to see the same mistakes after 20+ games coaching, in which the same glaring issues continue to rear their ugly head. There is no doubt that we are an OK team. We have talent and we are good at winning contested ball. Excellent foundation to work from. But we continually let ourselves down with selection, with match ups, with game plan. It’s concerning, and it may well cost us finals. Again.

Sorry but we are supporters. It is not our bloody job to determine if a kid is ready to play seniors. He has hardly been knocking the door down, and we all know KPPs take a long time to come of age. Why on earth you would throw him to the wolves (something we have gotten much better at not doing!) with our season on the line and with other more mature viable options available, is mind boggling. Smacks of arrogance and stubbornness. Already our back line is so inexperienced. So you drop Vince and bring in a first gamer. I mean wtf? You can’t blame a first gamer for costing us a game, but gees it was hard to watch. I felt for him and I’m sorry that we ruined what should have been a magical day for him, by playing him too soon without any backup. Pathetic decision making from the coaches.

Why did TMac get dropped from the leadership group? I know he had a quiet game (he never should have played, he was puffing and huffing on the bench, which he never does. I never see him out on his feet but he was struggling), but he is a match winner. He stands up consistently in games. Poor or good games.

If he somehow manages to get us to beat a good side, I would agree with him. But this is not a bump along the way, more like a bump out of the finals.

If ever there was a time to throw TMac back it was in the last after we kicked 2 in a row. He was not doing much up forward and Petty and Omac were getting destroyed. Should have sent him back and cleared the forwardline a bit.

I too feel very sorry for Petty. It was a mistake to play him. I thought we were done throwing kids to the wolves.