All very good observations.It was an incredibly frustrating game of footy to watch last night by its nature, it had all the components, home ground umpiring, stupid self-inflicted 50 meter penalties and butchering opportunities with poor skills.
But honestly, I think there are too many over the top reactions to the loss on here.
For me (and I don’t think this is just confirmation bias at play) this was an improved performance from the Richo years when we came up against a better opponent away from home...and we were unlucky not to take the points in the end.
We went toe-to toe with them and I felt our midfield outplayed them nearly all of the night. Our midfield is often seen as our weakest point but I like the look of it the past few weeks with Dunstan, Steele, Gresh and Ross mixing it with so called better midfields.
In the end, what killed us was coming up against a team that have a gameplan we just can’t deal with at the moment at this point in our journey. Their precision kicking just kills us. But I saw enough last night to think that after another pre-season and an improved gameplan, we won’t be losing to this team for a long time.
All I want to see is composure being the main thing emphasized next pre-season. A new gameplan, and some more experience and composure injected into this group over the off-season and I see some great things in the future.
Nothing from last night changed it, I saw a greater resilience under pressure than I have for a long time. We just, unfortunately have too many bad habits to expel from the past so it will take time. Bring on the pre-season!
The effort and resilience is there, no doubt.
My point of contention is whether there's enough improvement left in the current mids. I don't think there is and I'd say neither does the club.
Even Ratts let it slip and alluded to some players but being good enough.
Yep, plenty of injuries. Yes a brave loss.
IMO we are not good enough yet. We need to add more talent.
Like we did with Richo it's time to stop making excuses for some players.
Let's be honest, Adelaide is only one of about 10 teams with a game plan and precision kicking that we can't cope with.
Even more damning is the fact that their form was average coming into this game.b
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