Roast What has Hurt us this Year(Outside of Injuries)

[ClaytonM]

looks like you should be coaching as you clearly know more about it than Bucks

Our recruiting from 2009 to 2011 has really hurt us this year. We traded out of the early rounds of the draft for Jolly, Ball and others. If we didnt do that those early picks would now have 50 odd games under their belt and providing the improvement that we have not got from Fasolo, Sinclair, Thomas, etc (or Paine).

Not a criticism of decisions made, but it is those decisions that are hurting us as much as anything now. It is why Grundy, Kennedy, Broomy, Shazza and Freeman are so critical to our resurgence as the preceding two or three years were pretty lean regarding the drafting young top end talent.

 

[domin8tors]

I am not counting Injuries as that is Dead Obvious but I want to say some things that I have really worried me about the team and how it has gone Backwards from the year before.

We won’t make the Finals with all the players out so the Miracle won’t Happen.

• Our Disposal has gone to hell. We where a top 5 team last year and now we are just about the worst
• We have Missed way too many Tackles and that has hurt our Team Defense
• Losing to many Close Games 4 that we should of won
• Lack of Intensity some weaks where teams have just come out at just made us look 3rd Rate. Just see the Difference in the last 2 games with Lions we looked terrible and not much fight but we showed a ton of Fight vs GWS. To Patchy

Since about RD 7 we have been pretty Much a Bottom 4 Side.

We still have lot of work to do to Improve next year.

Though I think we stay where we are now or even drop down again next year.

2016 is when I can see us starting our Climb up the Ladder

interesting post you have some interesting points but they in my opinion despite what your indicating are directly correlated to injuries.
1) Disposal. kids come in inexperienced and the tempo of AFL takes a while to adjust so disposal is rushed and hence effenciency drops
2) tackles. again young bodies don't have the strength and power to hold tackles as the season has gone on the tackle pressure has dropped because of the long season
3) Close games. in close games you need composure this is something that you can't be taught only experience in these situations can help
4) as per point 2 the season has dragged on and made difficult for younger teams.

 

[dubber]

Since rd 13 we have performed better than 3 sides - GWS, St Kilda and Melbourne.

That's a glaring stat. isn't it. I suppose one way to explain the decline could be that the players who were fresh started to tire. Guys like Langdon looked pretty cooked to me in some of the games they were playing.
Mick Malthouse said something this year that for a first year player you really don't want them to play more than 2-3 games max.

The main problem is our lack of personnel due to various reasons. You cannot tell me that at the start of the year if you were told that the back line would be made up of Frost, Keeffee & Langdon that it wouldn't damper your expectations.

I think all of us misread our form and where we should have been on the ladder due to our early season success. It's bit like Gold Coast, they started the year on fire and have run out of steam. Same can be argued for the Pies.

 

[TradeDraft]

Forgot Adams but I don't consider him part of the problem.

Well when he plays down back his Kicking can be a Worry but if they play him on-ball he Fantastic

 

[Buena]

Injuries - of course, but trades/recruitment. Lynch, White, Young either injured, in the VFL or in the seniors and doing bugger all.
Add freeman & Scharenburg not getting on the park, that has really hurt us. The 2 of them, if fit, could have had a monumental impact on the senior side. 1 strong guy who can mark and kick, and another with pace to burn.

The thing that has hurt me the most, is watching our poor kicking skills week after week. we have a side full of right footers who couldn't hit a barn door. actually, our lefties are probably worse than our righties. Then I flick a Geelong/Hawthorn/Essendon/whoever game on and they barely miss a target. that hurts me, and it has hurt us indubitably.

 

[didaksrightfoot]

Forwards - we were doing really when at the start of the year when Elliot was in form, and Cloke was out of form - because our entries into the 50 was diverse. Unfortunately, as there was media focus put on Trav, I think the team switched to focus to try and "play him" into form - which really was to the detriment of the rest of the forward line. (I don't know whether this was just something the Mids did naturally, whether it was Trav asking for it... or if it was a directive from Bucks). Also, trying to use Jesse White as a leading forward didn't work because he just couldnt take a mark this year - but he was often better when he could chase a loose ball in space.

Mid - our top class mids just don't seem to have become accustomed to the fact that our Rucks our young and inexperienced, which means that for the most part they aren't getting taps to their advantage. Our defense in the centre square has been horrendous all year - and as such we give up far too many easy clearances - which any decent team has taken advantage of. And our 3 best mids (plus Swan - but not sure where to rate him right now) are not the in-and-under type players who can be useful when we aren't getting clean use of the ball... and we were relying on someone like Adams (who I have really liked) to go and get the ball for us... but obviously he is limited in disposal.
Part of that may slowly improve as our Rucks get better - but really it requires a complete change in mindset from Pendles/Beams/Sidey, who have never before played in a midfield that wasn't getting it's fair share of the ball.

Defence - Maxwell, Maxwell, Maxwell - Experience, Experience, Experience. For me that sums it up. We have players down there who are pretty good individually (Marley, Langdon, Frost, Toovey... and include Keefe a rung below)... but once the pressure was on, our structures fell apart. This was also a big factor on kickouts, and trying to get the ball safely/efficiently out of our backline. It would be interesting to see how it would've looked with a healthy Brown, but I also feel that when he was healthy, we should have had Reid back there - just for someone experienced who can keep everyone together when the pressure is on. (Langdon looks like he will become that player in the future - but still too young to be relied on upon repeatedly)

 

[Pie eyed]

I am not counting Injuries as that is Dead Obvious but I want to say some things that I have really worried me about the team and how it has gone Backwards from the year before.

We won’t make the Finals with all the players out so the Miracle won’t Happen.

• Our Disposal has gone to hell. We where a top 5 team last year and now we are just about the worst
• We have Missed way too many Tackles and that has hurt our Team Defense
• Losing to many Close Games 4 that we should of won
• Lack of Intensity some weaks where teams have just come out at just made us look 3rd Rate. Just see the Difference in the last 2 games with Lions we looked terrible and not much fight but we showed a ton of Fight vs GWS. To Patchy

Since about RD 7 we have been pretty Much a Bottom 4 Side.

We still have lot of work to do to Improve next year.

Though I think we stay where we are now or even drop down again next year.

2016 is when I can see us starting our Climb up the Ladder

Apart from injury?
Stupid ******* Twilight matches all over the ******* country.

 

[TradeDraft]

Apart from injury?
Stupid ******* Twilight matches all over the ******* country.

That is No Excuse of when games are Played

 

[cleomenes]

Put all of these posts together, leave out the couple of rants and you have it all.
Forward. Cloke and Elliott were all that we had, and if either played at a lower than optimum level, we struggled. The inability of Jesse white to take an overhead mark was an unexpected downer, given his size and other abilities.
Middle. The youth of the rucks was exposed pretty often. You would expect that time will fix this. The midfielders failed too often at the centre bounces. The second tier did not step up. Only in the last game did Thomas look as threatening as Wellingham used to. No replacement for Dale Thomas was found.
Back. The young backline did really well at defending, but were unable to break out of defence with any penetration. Turnovers in the middle of the ground made them look much worse than they were. The lack of a reliable kick in man, and the lack of any solid kick in targets made exiting defence very hard. Over the team, there is a clear lack of pace, a lack of confidence in the ability of team mates to accept passes, and a lack of confidence in the ability of team mates to deliver them. As someone said, the contested marking is poor, with the exceptions he gave.

Perhaps too, the coaching staff got ahead of themselves and built up the training in anticipation of finals without taking account of the youth of the team, leaving them, as some have said, cooked. This is a surmise and not a fact.

We look to next year.

 

[DAWESOME!!]

looks like you should be coaching as you clearly know more about it than Bucks

Not to singletons just davywap, but there's been (from what I can see) a spate of comments along these lines this last few days. Must be about the least constructive response on an online footy forum.

 

[rose jam]

No small forward
No half forwards

This means we can't cash in on the open field plays where we break through defense, look up and can't run it through to the goal line, the classic Ballantyne and Walters goals, and about 50% of how Hawks score.
The next is our in close handball is poor, which means we don't seem to be able to clear the ball on the outside. It's all rush kicks, opposition mark, and they split us open on the switch

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Apparently its:
Buckley (because he can't coach and doesn't have a game plan)
Eddie (because he has been Pres too long)
Lappin (because he is too short)
Swan (because he doesn't care)
Armstrong (because he can't play)
The Selection Committee (for never picking Kyle Martin or Ben Kennedy)
The VFL Side (because we should be focusing on them more than the AFL side)
The Umpires (just because)

 

[Magpie Mason]

Richmond beating the Swans in the last round.

 

[TradeDraft]

Richmond beating the Swans in the last round.

Don’t think that would make any Difference

 

[Markfs]

You gotta love this thread...... thoughts?

 

[HeathySure]

Our one dimensional game plan. Total lack of flexibility. When things go downhill we cannot move players around to try and fix it. The only thing we did in the last two years is move Reid forward for 5 minutes in a quarter and he kicked a couple of goals and suddenly he is a forward? Reid should be a swingman. We need more flexible players, We need a plan b and a plan c . We need to get rid of the small mids who will be ordinary at best and list cloggers sorry Marty Clarke, Tony Armstrong Clinton young , Kyle Martin, Sam Dwyer, Jarrod Blair etc. Need smarter recruiting of players from other sides, and not rely on hoping draft picks work out because they all wont! We need clearance players to start in the centre, not stoppers.. We need outside run who can deliver with skill so that Cloke and White and our resting ruck does not look stupid and get stopped easily, we need crumbers who can feed off our tall forwards ala Eddie Betts.
So in summary... we need to be patient for 6 or 7 years....

 

[Krueger]

Our one dimensional game plan. Total lack of flexibility. When things go downhill we cannot move players around to try and fix it. The only thing we did in the last two years is move Reid forward for 5 minutes in a quarter and he kicked a couple of goals and suddenly he is a forward? Reid should be a swingman. We need more flexible players, We need a plan b and a plan c . We need to get rid of the small mids who will be ordinary at best and list cloggers sorry Marty Clarke, Tony Armstrong Clinton young , Kyle Martin, Sam Dwyer, Jarrod Blair etc. Need smarter recruiting of players from other sides, and not rely on hoping draft picks work out because they all wont! We need clearance players to start in the centre, not stoppers.. We need outside run who can deliver with skill so that Cloke and White and our resting ruck does not look stupid and get stopped easily, we need crumbers who can feed off our tall forwards ala Eddie Betts.
So in summary... we need to be patient for 6 or 7 years....

So our window is now 2020 - 2021? I hope by then Bucks has "his" team............

 

[HeathySure]

So our window is now 2020 - 2021? I hope by then Bucks has "his" team............

Only 1 side can win a premiership every year (yeah i know , thats obvious). We were close with a young side to winning 2 or 3 in a 6 year period. 18 sides, sides like GWS and Gold Coast improving and Port Adelaide and Swans are going to stay up there for a while. We got rid of 5 or 6 A/B graders and replaced them with C/D graders and consequently we need to find A graders again. They don't grow on trees. Rebuilding doesn't work, Tweaking works. We have stuffed our list completely. So we will have to wait a long time to get back up there again. I am old. i am used to it, The same thing happened after 1990. We didn't learn. I will still support them and all that, but I am not optimistic!

 

[Krueger]

Only 1 side can win a premiership every year (yeah i know , thats obvious). We were close with a young side to winning 2 or 3 in a 6 year period. 18 sides, sides like GWS and Gold Coast improving and Port Adelaide and Swans are going to stay up there for a while. We got rid of 5 or 6 A/B graders and replaced them with C/D graders and consequently we need to find A graders again. They don't grow on trees. Rebuilding doesn't work, Tweaking works. We have stuffed our list completely. So we will have to wait a long time to get back up there again. I am old. i am used to it, The same thing happened after 1990. We didn't learn. I will still support them and all that, but I am not optimistic!

Agree with entire post and esp the bold but I hope we can do it much sooner, however the way things are going I highly doubt it.

 

[esc0bar]

Agree with entire post and esp the bold but I hope we can do it much sooner, however the way things are going I highly doubt it.

Yep cause Wellingham and Dawes were both A graders lol

Only players we lost were Heath and Thomas. Jolly, Krac, Davis and Brown all retiring. List management is dynamic but we have done well in terms of recruiting for our future.

 

[Rusty Beam]

Lack of clearance winners who run both ways and genuine X factor crumbers in the forward line have been a major achilles heel.

Personally I think we can target these easily in the draft. Hopefully freeman and eventually sharenberg will help too.

Kicking all across the ground and set up from kickins has also been deplorable.

 

[Kirby]

The only A grader we lost was Heath Shaw and I don't believe he has played A grade football this yewar with GWS. Does anyone think the Heath that was running around Saturday night against us looked like the answer for us?

Daisy was an A grader in 2010/2011 but has not looked remotely like it since, including 2 injury riddled years since then with us. He played most games with Carlton this year and looks like he will never be A grade again, not even close.

Wellingham and Dawes are no-where need A graders and never will be.

Jolly, Didak and Krak were all well and truly past it and would have only held us back if they were allowed to play on.

Yes, we need more A graders, but we really haven't lost any that we could have retained that would have made any difference.

 

[TradeDraft]

The only A grader we lost was Heath Shaw and I don't believe he has played A grade football this yewar with GWS. Does anyone think the Heath that was running around Saturday night against us looked like the answer for us?

Daisy was an A grader in 2010/2011 but has not looked remotely like it since, including 2 injury riddled years since then with us. He played most games with Carlton this year and looks like he will never be A grade again, not even close.

Wellingham and Dawes are no-where need A graders and never will be.

Jolly, Didak and Krak were all well and truly past it and would have only held us back if they were allowed to play on.

Yes, we need more A graders, but we really haven't lost any that we could have retained that would have made any difference.

Then how do we get A-Graders as you have to give up a Ton for them?

 

[TradeDraft]

Lack of clearance winners who run both ways and genuine X factor crumbers in the forward line have been a major achilles heel.

Personally I think we can target these easily in the draft. Hopefully freeman and eventually sharenberg will help too.

Kicking all across the ground and set up from kickins has also been deplorable.

Well you have Adams and Thomas who can become good Clearance Winners

 

[Rusty Beam]

Well you have Adams and Thomas who can become good Clearance Winners

On their day they definitely are good clearance players. Although JT in particular needs to work on his consistency.

We simply need to build a bigger roster of guys who can go win their own ball rather than predictably relying on the same guys.

I'm hoping to pick up both Grace and Urban late in the draft... Both are severely underrated on BF and super consistent as juniors.