Into the bye

[Donkey Chop]

Our form the week before the bye is terrible. Some of our worst and most frustrating losses over the last few years have come before the bye. The worst of which is the infamous Buddy 13 game. It shows a lot about our teams mindset and lack of professionalism. They seem to rock up to these games with one eye on their up coming holiday.

2011
Round 2, loss, Collingwood, 87 points

Round 20, loss, Hawks, 17 points

2012
Round 10, loss, Hawks, 115 points

2013
Round 11, loss, Gold Coast, 15 points

2014
Round 7, loss, Gold Coast, 43 points

Round 18, loss, Carlton, 23 points

If I had anything to do with the club I would put it on the playing group to take it upon themselves to give up all future holidays during the bye if they lose the game before. It should be a player driven thing, lead by the leadership group. It seems that's the only way the most dishonest group in the AFL will stay motivated.

 

[scooby1279]

Our form the week before the bye is terrible. Some of our worst and most frustrating losses over the last few years have come before the bye. The worst of which is the infamous Buddy 13 game. It shows a lot about our teams mindset and lack of professionalism. They seem to rock up to these games with one eye on their up coming holiday.

2011
Round 2, loss, Collingwood, 87 points

Round 20, loss, Hawks, 17 points

2012
Round 10, loss, Hawks, 115 points

2013
Round 11, loss, Gold Coast, 15 points

2014
Round 7, loss, Gold Coast, 43 points

Round 18, loss, Carlton, 23 points

If I had anything to do with the club I would put it on the playing group to take it upon themselves to give up all future holidays during the bye if they lose the game before. It should be a player driven thing, lead by the leadership group. It seems that's the only way the most dishonest group in the AFL will stay motivated.

add that to our form in rd 1 over the years....

 

[Donkey Chop]

add that to our form in rd 1 over the years....

The round 1 trend does my head in. They train for it all preseason and then never get out of second gear. It's just odd

 

[tazaa]

lol leadership
where? at North Melbourne?
We have eff all down there

 

[hcd199]

True for a few years before as well - woeful last quarter at Carrara against the Saints in '08, just 3 goals scored in a loss to Adelaide in '09 (ended up being Laidley's last match)... in a vast majority of pre-bye games, we not only lose but lose poorly, lacking in effort. Definitely a long-term problem on par with our limp Round 1 performances over the years. Why consistent application is something that continues to elude us, I don't know...

 

[King Corey]

Eventually you'd expect Andrew Swallow and the leadership group to stand up and say "we're not going to let this happen anymore" with regards to losing before the bye.

No point rushing this process though. It has to be allowed to happen at their pace.

 

[TommyVercetti]

If that's true then what happen comes finals time?

 

[shinboner magic]

We have had a bye every 2nd week this season

 

[year of the roo]

This is no coincidence.

Absolute disgrace.

 

[Whereitallbegan]

I'd suggest that it might be line in sand time for this leadership group, just as we famously did in the 90s, but they'd probably just prefer to build sand castles

 

[justroyal]

These guys must have legitimately awsome travel agents who set them up on a ******* unreal travel experience following the bye..

 

[Archer_11]

Good observation. I can see why Carey wants the Kangaroos to only have one bye.

 

[archereleven]

Disgraceful.

 

[Gasometer]

2008 you say....

 

[Bornanbread]

Interesting topic and I have watched our performances over the years leading up to a bye....similar to most car accidents happening close to home....and most worksite fatalities occurring close to knock off....losing a wicket either side of a drinks break....mentally shutting down mind elsewhere.....DISCIPLINED people know these danger periods and are trained to endure and switch to a higher gear to combat fatigue and wandering minds......

 

[Event Horizon]

add that to our form in rd 1 over the years....

Add to that our form in Finals over the years...

 

[Donkey Chop]

Bump.

Although we won last year, this is still a worry. I hope our blokes have their mind on the task this week because if they show up with holidays on mind they'll get flogged.

 

[D23D]

The round 1 trend does my head in. They train for it all preseason and then never get out of second gear. It's just odd

a couple of years ago I went to a pre season training sesh and then it all came to light. Shits and giggles was all I saw

 

[D23D]

Ok so this was an old post but let me just say, contenders don't lose 3 in a row

 

[Marstermind]

Ok so this was an old post but let me just say, contenders don't lose 3 in a row

Last premiership side to have lost 3 in a row during the season...
Sydney 2005 - R4-6 they lost to Adelaide, Melbourne and West Coast. They also lost in Round 2 to North so they only won one game in a stretch of 5. But yeah, losing 3 straight is not what most premiership sides do,

 

[Gasometer]

Several shitty years l8r...

 

[Marstermind]

I'm actually not too fussed about last night's result. You could see it coming a million miles away. If anything, thanks to Adelaide's awful accuracy, the margin is something I can tolerate. The team has issues, the balance has become out of kilter, too many players are just getting by and of course, the injuries are crippling us. All of that and Sydney, Geelong, Hawthorn and Adelaide are seriously good teams. And, honestly, I don't think we're THAT good.

BUT

I'm fuming about the scheduling of this entire round. In a week where the AFL has indignantly and self-righteously (and selectively) upheld they're inflated belief in their own integrity, they then fixture a round that blatantly disadvantages half of the teams playing. 6 games between 6 teams who have had a week off against 6 who didn't. That's the best they could do. Surely with less games and more timeslots that could have been avoided. That it wasn't just shows that really no effort was made to make this round fair. Tonight Fremantle, on a 6 day break, travel across the country to play Collingwood who haven't played for 11 days. But worst of all is the scheduling of the Thursday night game. Thursday nights are not played during the normal phase of the season because it would impossible to avoid short breaks. The bye weeks are perfect though for using Thursday nights. The AFL knows this and so therefore we get Thursday nights at this time of year. So why on Earth do they not only schedule a side for consecutive 6-day breaks, but they also scheduled them against a side who had a week off. AND NOT ONLY THAT...make the side with to two short breaks play interstate?!?! I'm not at all suggesting a conspiracy against North. The AFL aren't that organised or consistent to plot a conspiracy. Instead North were they victims of sloppy, lazy fixturing by an organisation who simply don't care whether the actual competition itself has integrity. And there's that word again. Integrity. That the victim of such amateurish tardiness was fined during the week $80,000 for amateurishly questioning the AFL's integrity just makes it even more infuriating. Why couldn't two of the sides who had last week off played last night? It's not that hard people! In Round 16, Port come off a 6 day break to play a rested Hawthorn. At least they are at home and off a single 6-day break. But it's so avoidable that it just should not happen.

Last night North had hard enough tasks winning interstate, against a class opponent, with the injuries they had and with their own limitations. Had the game been played on Sunday, then I still reckon we'd have lost. But Adelaide were given more or less an extra quarter to win the game such was their freshness and our exhaustion at the end of the game. But the AFL get on their high-horse about integrity being above question?

Piss off.

 

[Orange Peanut]

I'm actually not too fussed about last night's result. You could see it coming a million miles away. If anything, thanks to Adelaide's awful accuracy, the margin is something I can tolerate. The team has issues, the balance has become out of kilter, too many players are just getting by and of course, the injuries are crippling us. All of that and Sydney, Geelong, Hawthorn and Adelaide are seriously good teams. And, honestly, I don't think we're THAT good.

BUT

I'm fuming about the scheduling of this entire round. In a week where the AFL has indignantly and self-righteously (and selectively) upheld they're inflated belief in their own integrity, they then fixture a round that blatantly disadvantages half of the teams playing. 6 games between 6 teams who have had a week off against 6 who didn't. That's the best they could do. Surely with less games and more timeslots that could have been avoided. That it wasn't just shows that really no effort was made to make this round fair. Tonight Fremantle, on a 6 day break, travel across the country to play Collingwood who haven't played for 11 days. But worst of all is the scheduling of the Thursday night game. Thursday nights are not played during the normal phase of the season because it would impossible to avoid short breaks. The bye weeks are perfect though for using Thursday nights. The AFL knows this and so therefore we get Thursday nights at this time of year. So why on Earth do they not only schedule a side for consecutive 6-day breaks, but they also scheduled them against a side who had a week off. AND NOT ONLY THAT...make the side with to two short breaks play interstate?!?! I'm not at all suggesting a conspiracy against North. The AFL aren't that organised or consistent to plot a conspiracy. Instead North were they victims of sloppy, lazy fixturing by an organisation who simply don't care whether the actual competition itself has integrity. And there's that word again. Integrity. That the victim of such amateurish tardiness was fined during the week $80,000 for amateurishly questioning the AFL's integrity just makes it even more infuriating. Why couldn't two of the sides who had last week off played last night? It's not that hard people! In Round 16, Port come off a 6 day break to play a rested Hawthorn. At least they are at home and off a single 6-day break. But it's so avoidable that it just should not happen.

Last night North had hard enough tasks winning interstate, against a class opponent, with the injuries they had and with their own limitations. Had the game been played on Sunday, then I still reckon we'd have lost. But Adelaide were given more or less an extra quarter to win the game such was their freshness and our exhaustion at the end of the game. But the AFL get on their high-horse about integrity being above question?

Piss off.

Perfectly said.

 

[Kimbo]

So, how's "Out of the bye" looking?

 

[Donkey Chop]

Still worries me