What has happened since the GF. Why? And what is Simo going to do about it?

Jul 26, 2007
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Darwin
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Well after todays abismal effort alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear.

Simo and the coaches have to seriously pull everything apart and rebuild our structure and plan with the troops we have available bit by bit.

Questions

Why are our mids frequently kicking blind across their bodies to the opposition?

Gaff seems to be doing this 4 kicks in 5. Its because he is playing inside and under pressure I can see that. So we need to address that and fix it. I wqnt to see a rebounding running Gaff gaining meters down a wing and pin pointing passes to a leading forward, not being gang tackled and blindly kicking to the opposition.

Our other mids must stop this low percentage hack kick. Go sideways or defensively long to the boundary.

We didnt do this last year so what has changed?

Our forward set up looks disorganised. Kennedy, Darling and Oscar plus a ruck didnt work and no true 2ndq ruck v Cats aslo failed. Darling is terribly out of form, why?

Id play Brooksby as a forward / ruck and drop either Darling or O Allen. Possibly both and get Waterman back in.

We are getting smashed at the contest. How can this be fixed long term?

Do we bring in M Allen to play inside and Gaff goes outside. Add inside grunt and get back our outside class.

Think Rotham should get games. He is a good size, quick and a great kick.

Schofield in defense is not working to date. I feel for anyone playing defense with how our mids are going abut is it time for Brander to get a definded role down back?

So what has fundamentally changed?

How do we fix it?
 

Priddis Is Done

Norm Smith Medallist
May 28, 2017
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Well after todays abismal effort alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear.

Simo and the coaches h
Why are our mids frequently kicking blind across their bodies to the opposition?

Gaff seems to be doing this 4 kicks in 5. Its because he is playing inside and under pressure I can see that. So we need to address that and fix it. I wqnt to see a rebounding running Gaff gaining meters down a wing and pin pointing passes to a leading forward, not being gang tackled and blindly kicking to the opposition.

Our other mids must stop this low percentage hack kick. Go sideways or defensively long to the boundary.

We didnt do this last year so what has changed?

Our forward set up looks disorganised. Kennedy, Darling and Oscar plus a ruck didnt work and no true 2ndq ruck v Cats aslo failed. Darling is terribly out of form, why?

Id play Brooksby as a forward / ruck and drop either Darling or O Allen. Possibly both and get Waterman back in.

We are getting smashed at the contest. How can this
Why are our mids frequently kicking blind across their bodies to the opposition?

Our other mids must stop this low percentage hack kick. Go sideways or defensively long to the boundary.

We didnt do this last year so what has changed?

We are getting smashed at the contest. How can this be fixed long term?

So what has fundamentally changed?
Heart, desire, lack of work rate
 
Sep 28, 2009
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At the end of last year we were more contested and mobile. Gaff was out. Redden and Sheed were playing well playing inside while taking up the outside slack. Rioli was in the team. Lecras, who although wasnt the greatest with pressure, was in instead of a tall which gave us more flexibilty.

Now we only have a handful of players capable of doing the hardwork and we are too tall. Our best talents in Allen, Brander and Waterman are all talls so it's forcing us to play taller than we should. It doesnt help that Rioli is out too. Petch adds speed but he doesn't get much of it and is more of a finisher.

In summary we have lost grunt.

Also I dont think the 666 rule helps us as we used to play an extra off the back of the square.
 
Jul 26, 2007
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Darwin
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Gaff on the inside just isnt working IMO.

Never see him sweeping out of defense providing an out and only once did I see him running in space down the sideline to kick a spearing drop punt to a lead.

He is simply better out in more space.

And coincidentally we are losing contested footy counts?

It is not all Gaffs fault but for Pete's sake play the man where he is most effective.
 
Jul 26, 2007
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Darwin
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Very hard to arrest a Premiership hangover when the coaches believe in the players even though they are out of form and confidence ...

Totally understand a coach backing his players.

But great coaches know when a player is out of form / playing under done or injured and does something about it. It doesnt involve a public lynching but it does involve straight talking, a cuddle or two and some tough love when needed.
 
Oct 8, 2007
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Totally understand a coach backing his players.

But great coaches know when a player is out of form / playing under done or injured and does something about it. It doesnt involve a public lynching but it does involve straight talking, a cuddle or two and some tough love when needed.
Simmo has his rating of players and if he believes the good wafl player is lesser than his best 22 player than that is who he backs ..
See Venebles the 3 wafl games he played hardly performed enough to be recalled ,Cripps automatic recall , physchologically damaged Gaff , Kennedy misses pre season auto recall ,Duggan Jetta ,Cole ,Schofield ..
 

kid_a

Club Legend
Apr 5, 2010
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clearly the WAFL premiership is the main game this year, so we can add it to AFL cups in the trophy cabinet. The boys in the AFL are just trying to crack into the WAFL squad for a chance at Premiership glory in a whole other comp.
Pretty obvious guys!!!
 
We beat GWS who are going pretty well.
We beat Collingwood at the G.
We beat Fremantle who are 4-1 otherwise.

We lost to 3 good teams, two on difficult away trips.

We're struggling but dear god some people are overreacting.
 

Priddis Is Done

Norm Smith Medallist
May 28, 2017
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We beat GWS who are going pretty well.
We beat Collingwood at the G.
We beat Fremantle who are 4-1 otherwise.

We lost to 3 good teams, two on difficult away trips.

We're struggling but dear god some people are overreacting.
We were murdered in the Freo game. We should have lost if not for their inaccurate kicking.
 

Astro7

Official Halftime Oranges Man
Aug 6, 2017
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We beat GWS who are going pretty well.
We beat Collingwood at the G.
We beat Fremantle who are 4-1 otherwise.
We lost to 3 good teams, two on difficult away trips.
We're struggling but dear god some people are overreacting.
For sure, some good perspective there.
But I think the biggest disappointment (certainly to the coach) is the size of the losses
and the lack of grunt or tackles etc, that it looks a confused rabble and our ball skills
and smarts evaporate under pressure...just how easily we are dismantled is a concern.
The body language says it all.
Maybe it's one thing to say you don't have a GF hangover, but another to show it.
Maybe next week will be different?
 

Tom_Thumb

Club Legend
Feb 1, 2016
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To have lost 11 quarters in a row and still be 3 from 6 isn't all bad. Luckily there are a fair few teams worse than us but we'll bounce back.
 

kerrazy

Premiership Player
Apr 26, 2008
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I know it's hard.to compare these teams but I remember in 2007 when Geelong were playing bad footy at the start of the season. There was a s**t ton of pressure on Bomber and there was wide speculation that he would be sacked. After round 5 they won every game of the year on their way to the flag

Shows things can change rather quickly. We just gotta be open to the changes.
 
We were murdered in the Freo game. We should have lost if not for their inaccurate kicking.
Yep, still won.

Finals are 18 weeks away. Current form means nothing, just need to bank wins. We're a game off 2nd.
 
Oct 8, 2007
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To have lost 11 quarters in a row and still be 3 from 6 isn't all bad. Luckily there are a fair few teams worse than us but we'll bounce back.

3 wins from 6 games in previous years would be great ..But consider we only lost 6 games in 2018 and the addition of Gaff and Sheppard this year was supposed to be the catalyst for a simliar season ..
 
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