Jerry Lundergard

This is exactly what I have been going on about for a while now. We are not clean and quick in the clinches, and outside of Moloney, almost never rove the ball on the move at a stoppage and get a quick and clean clearance moving forward to a target. Not sure if this is a coaching issue or personnel. Maybe a bit of both.

Can you name me one player in our backline you have confidence in when they are trying to get it out of our defensive 50? It's a massive hole in our list IMO.

I like your optimism, but i really think the opposition has a lot to do with that. When we play good teams, we will be back to chasing tail the whole game.

I have didn't question their endeavour today. But endeavour doesn't always get you wins. We are lucky we were playing the Bulldogs, because that endeavour kept us close against an average side, however, against atfreat side we would be slaughtered. I am questioning our game style/plan and the holes in our list.

I know we got destroyed in games last year. But I was actually sitting in the stands today wondering how in the hell did we beat the likes of Adelaide and Freo by 100 ponts last year? How did we actually string together possesion? Get it forward to kick goals? Gain momentum? I seriously can't remember, because I am seeing many of the same players out there, but they are not playing the game I love.

We lack any class anywhere on the ground. Watts may have a little and Davey used to have it, but that's it. Zippo. How do we expect to transition the ball out of our backline when we have the Likes of the two Macs, Rivers, Bartram, Garland and Frawley? Where is our Robert Murphy. 5 years of tanking and stinking it up and we can't uncover one player like that when it is clear that all the good teams have probably have at least of those players. Then if we do get it forward quickly(rare sight), where are pacy forwards running into to space? Oh, maybe that isn't our gameplan. Instead we will just move it slowly around the boundary line and hope we can scramble a stoppage win and bomb inside 50 and hope for a mark. Crap footy. Don't try and polish this turd Neeld.

But let's say there are 2 or 3 absolute standouts like Kruezer/Cotchin or Scully/Trengove, and Viney may not even play much this year ,, would it not be draft tampering to bid for Viney? I stated in another thread, that I thought there would be now way in hell that Sheedy would not bid and allow us to get Viney in the second round, however someone else stated that if he is not ranked in the top 2 or 3 players they can't. Can anyone clarify this?

We have holes evrywhere. Needed: Gun midfielders of all size and description. Pace off the half back flank. Good ball use off the half back flank A couple of quick small crumbing forwards. These are my most pressing needs.

Dusty is better than any player we have on our list at present, so if he is not a top liner, then that pretty much sums up our squad.

I agree with all that you have written, but my concern is the trend of teams pounding us with uncontested footy and also on the scoreboard has been happening for 5 games straight(2 NAB), and there seems to be nothing being addressed to counter it. That is a coaches job, and some people may be talking about 5 year plans to fix it, but coaches are paid alot of money to come up with solutions on a week to week basis, so Neeld and Co. address the problem, and earn your paycheck.

If there is one thing you can take to your grave, I think it is that there is no way Sheedy will allow us to pick up Viney in the 2nd round. Even if the reincarnations of Buddy and Judd where coming up in this draft, there will still be a bid for Viney from GWS.

Like Bruce, TJ, Miller or Maric??? Morton is Fiora V2.0.

But on our team you have to be fit enough to run a sub 2hbr20min marathon, because you are chasing all f***ing game!

We have gone backwards from last year as far as I am concerned. It's too early to blame Neeld, but it won't be for long. I don't see any other teams with new coaches getting pounded, and then blaming it on adjusting to a new game plan.

Firstly, we have a crap midfield. Rarely get first hands to ball and when we do, often get tackled with the ball due to lack of quick hands, awarness, smarts, etc. Secondly, because we have a crap midfield, the ball gets pumed into our defensive 50 way too much, and not enough into ours. Thridly, we may have decent defenders, but we have no rebounding defenders with great speed or skill, which causes the ball to stay in our defensive area even more. That's it in a niutshell as far as I am concerned.

Substitute Bailey with Neeld, and that is the same line I heard being trotted out 5 years ago. I am over it.

I was away on the weekend in the wilderness with no access to TV, radio, etc. I IQ'd the game and watched the first qtr last night. We actaully were not too bad. I have seen us down 5 goals in the first 15 minutes plenty of times on the road in the last few years, and having the standard "we won the last quarter" line trotted out when the game was over halfway through the first period is no better than the belting we got either. I will refrain from watching the rest of the game to not tarnish my optimism for this weekend. I think we have a chance.

One positive is that the Lions may not be that bad. The last two times(once in China) we have beaten them was purely because of some Jurrah magic. I thought they were the better team against us last year at the G, but we just edged them out. They were also very competetive in many games last season without the wins. I would say their season last year was actually better than ours due to the consistency of performance. I know we all feel like we should be ahead of them in development, however they at least have two future hall of famers on their list(obviously Brown didn't play), whilst we have none. Also, they are into the third year with the same coach, and have been out of the finals for longer than us.

I have no knowledge of what actually went on, just my theory.

My version from the facts stated above for that week are A) the senior players go into bat for bailey and speak to the MFC heirachy about the state of problems between the CEO and the football department. B. these issues are then discussed at board level(or McLardy and Stynes), and it is decided that Schwab will lose his job. C) then 186 happens, and powers have a rethink and actually feel they have been duped, and that indeed Schwabby has been the one right all along about his concerns about Bailey, and the sacking is reversed onto Bails. D) I believe the flow on effect of these events has had the likes of Green, Moloney and Davey on the outer in terms of leadership roles at the club this year. This is basically my "Pelican Brief" on the events of last year.

I think that Jamar is Hudsons bunny. He destroyed him in the Dogs game last year also.

I had really low expectations going into this season, but as always you secretly hope you may encounter something special like the Eagles did last year. However, my expectations were sadly met yesterday. My fears of having the worst midfield in the league, players in our backline unable to hit a target and having no crumbers for our bomb it high and long gameplan, all came to fruition yesterday. As alaways we got smashed in th centre. How many times did the likes of Black and co. actually clear the ball out of the centre while on the move. I watch other teams do this also. We stand stationary and get tackled immediately. We very rarely get any clean and quick clearances from stoppages and I have been banging on about it for a while now. Is it coaching, or do we just have a poor onball brigade? The latter is my guess. Our backline is filled with players who have questionable disposal skills. Bartram, Rivers and Macdonald to my mind are the worst, yet Frawley, Garland and even Grimes are not elite standard either. I think the sooner we can get the likes of Strauss and Tappy in the better. I find our gameplan of bomb it long down the line or forward completely uninspiring and predictable. Even so, if we are to go with this plan, why not have at least 2 crumbers at the feet of our forwards instead of 2 or 3 guys flying and the ball spilling and being cleared at the back with ease. I'd like to see Bennell tried as a small forward again, because I think he played some pretty good footy and there and was a multiple goal kicker in games. Lastly, one play I saw in the first half just outside the 50 at the Punt rd. end summed up the day for me. The ball in dispute between Blease and a Lions player, and instead of Blease manicly diving in low and head first in desperation to win the ball. he lets the Lions player get there first and then tries to tackle him. It probaly happened plenty of times yesterday, so it may be unfair to single Blease out, but after watching GWS last week and the way they threw themselves at the contest, Ithere are absolutely no excuses for our players to not do the same.

Geelong were desperate for a big making forward for years, and tried hard to trade and draft to get one. One of these players that was drafted was Andrew Mackie. Geelond had the sense to realise he was never going to be that big pack busting forward they yearned for, but they were smart enough to utilise his other talents elsewhere, where he became an All-Australian in a premiership side. I see Jack Watts in the mould of an Andrew Mackie, smart but not an overley tough footballer. I don't see any traits in Watts that makes me think he will ever be a damaging key forward the likes of Cloke, Buddy, Kennedy and Reiwoldt. But that doesn't mean he can't be a great player elsewhere on the field, I just hope we don't ruin his career by trying to force him to be something he is not.

To me, this thread is more about the fact that we secretly hope that the Tigers fail next year because it would kill us all to come to the realization that they will have passed us on the rebuild. If another club/coach is under the pump, it means we are not. It sucked this year being that club, so I understand the want for that heat to be on another club that we are competing with to get into the eight. Am I off the mark with my reading of this?

Last time a merry-go-round happened like this Wallace went to the Tigers quite quickly, and many were critical of the Hawks for how long they took to make their decision, but that turned out to be a pretty good one don't you reckon?