Norm Smith's Curse

We may not win a game this season.

87 was heart breaking - 2000 was a great season. Exciting times and I had so much hope. The year we beat Adelaide in the finals then lost to North was very close as well. But I used to hate that the media would always talk us down and act surprised when we did ok.

I stand corrected!

Green will be back after his one week drop just like Davey. Kinda pointless in a way but anyway. Id like to see Couch given a run and Tynan will have a crack you'd hope at least. I dont see any point in having Martin or Bail in the side. Constant changes wont help but if they do nothing Im sure at least a Dunn and a Pettard wouldnt be any worse.

Id have to think that it has.

Stef is like Miller - occasionally you get sucked into believing he has taken the next step and then he has another bad patch. I hope Im wrong and I think he did better work in the ruck than as a forward, although he can be a reliable kick off a set shot.

Stranger things have happened. We might just click. perhaps the Ocean Grove coaching battle will make something strange happen. We shouldnt give up straight away. All indications arent great but you never know...

Im not saying its a total excuse my any means but it does make sense particular given what i saw in the first quarter - we were crazy intent, going hard but not even second guessing - more triple guessing - which aint good for a side that under Bailey was already pretty flighty/panicy.

Since Clark has been the only effective forward option Im not sure that would work. We might improve delivery but at a cost of not having an effective competitors in the forward 50 30% of the time.

Unless you are St Kilda under Lyon??

I remember a game back in 2003 or so against the doggies where we smashed them even after we kicked 29 behinds. I miss those days...

The most embarrassing will come in Geelong.

'Credit to the boys' is a line I am so very sick of. Not that Ive heard it from the Demons yet this season LOL.

I nearly always go - call me a masochist... I think just quietly and perhaps stupidly - that we are a chance against the doggies.

I honestly think with less focus on him and more on Clark, Green and Davey he might just blossom.

Sorry i missed the link to the article. Was talking about his comments during the game telecast.

True. When you look at where we were in 2010 you have to wonder what the reason is. I mean the coach cant have lost the players unless he put Davey's hand on his shoulder

From what I heard Malthouse said (and I didnt hear it as I was at the game) that Neeld had told him that the club was way behind where he initially thought and that it will take a long time to rebuild it from scratch. then he laid into Cale Morton for three quarters all of which Im sure he will reiterate in private to Neeld.

When they say they are worried about supporters it makes me wonder whether they have been reading this forum LOL

As I was saying in another thread - I think Crawford hit the nail on the head: new coach, players wanting to impress new coach by sticking to game plan and new structures to the point where they are second guessing their natural play and instincts and wanting to do the structure thing even when it may not make sense at the time. he thinks it will click eventually. We are better than this.

I think he tried to impose himself on the game - I saw him many times dive into a pack of players for the footy and that impressed me. It didnt always pay off and on one occasion he had posession, wore a bump and then kept going but then poor decision making caused a turn over. But his confidence will be much better for performances where he gives his all and tries to impose himself when it eventually pays off.

That's the thing - its always evolving and structures only work with the cattle suit them. Adaption is the key and who knows, the future might bring back man on man footy.

ive already got my sign painted up for round 13... Look out for a Jonesy lookalike with a angry sign...

That just comes with success. When we were doing well I remember going to my sister's kinda for footy day and seeing three shane Woewodin clones. Whereas kids arent going to want to emulate players that get beaten LOL.

i watched the Channel Nine footy show this morning and I think Crawford's comments made sense. he basically said that the players are confused because they have too much their thinking about in terms of new structures/game plan and this is drowning out their instinctual play. He said that when Clarkson took over at Hawthorn all the players wanted to make the new coach happy so would do what the coach said structure or position wise no matter what and then second guess the basics and their footy instincts, or get the ball and get confused about what they are supposed to do. Particularly young players. It made sense to me when I watched the first quarter yesterday and the strange decision making and kind of panic second guessing you could see before handballs, etc. He thinks that they should spoon feed players a new game plan and structure over time to avoid confusing the players. But he thinks it will click eventually and the structures will become instinct.