Autopsy Bad, badder and ugly v Tigs - Rd 9, 2020

[CarnTheScray]

It dead set looked like the whole team had passed the bong around while Jacko was in getting his ankles strapped. Disgusting.

Wouldn't know, didn't watch after half quarter time.

 

[RedWhite&Blue]

the worst thing is I just know that when Naughton eventually comes back he will be limping and not look right and then will get injured again...
My god we were embarrassingly s**t last night. The jekyll and hyde like nature of this team is killing me.

 

[CarnTheScray]

Later today I'll post my full meltdown when I have time. Need to let the depression wear off.

 

[Dogs Rule]

I defended Bev throughout 2018 and the first half of 2019 but I'm sad to admit that I've lost faith in him. I hate our excessive handballing and play on at every opportunity game plan. It looks great against sh*t teams but it completely crumbles whenever a side puts serious pressure on us.

Richmond were at half strength tonight and were younger than us. There's no way a discrepancy in talent can account for a 40 point margin or whatever it was. In a salary-capped league there is no way they should have been able to field a more talented side than us while half of their best players are injured. It's just statistically very improbable. The difference is system.

If Bevo can't come up with a more effective system that isn't so easily countered then he needs to bring in some assistants who are competent in the game theory/strategy side of the game. I have no doubt that he is an excellent manager of men and that his emotional intelligence is off the charts, but that's only one half of coaching. He needs to recognise his limitations and bring in some help. It doesn't matter what kind of leader you are if your gameplan sucks; eventually your players will still lose faith in you.

What we need is a proper senior assistant. King, Hansen, Smith, Maple...no. We need an ex senior coach, we need someone who has the balls to stand up to Bevo and say ‘No, that’s a s*** idea (to pick Gowers again), Why are we doing this? We need to do that.’

 

[fred cook]

What we need is a proper senior assistant. King, Hansen, Smith, Maple...no. We need an ex senior coach, we need someone who has the balls to stand up to Bevo and say ‘No, that’s a s*** idea (to pick Gowers again), Why are we doing this? We need to do that.’

I think we will look at back at history and see that this was the round that Bevo lost his total power over the club If not we are FKD

 

[adogsfan5]

English due for a rest too I reckon. Time to debut Sweet and Trengove to assist

 

[Substance]

Brisbane have no ruckman right now, so that would be a good game for english to play. Rest him against Port I think.

 

[Doggies_13]

We have some serious issues and it is not just that we had an off night and we are a young team. 4 times this season we have been smashed off the park.

Pressure and intensity - our entire defensive structure relies on pressure up the field to create slow ball movement from the opposition, to allow our players to come across and intercept or numbers to get back. There was no pressure last night

Drive from the backline and half forward - we rely on the likes of Daniel, crozier, JJ and Williams to provide run and attacking momentum from defence, the major issue here is we have a constant break down at half forward and that leads to a turnover and compounded by a lack of pressure catches our defenders out who are all attacking and we get scored against easily on transition.

Midfield - they do not work hard enough, people can blame English not getting the ball enough and the amount of taps we lose but simply put our set up at stoppages are poor and our mids prefer to run solely one way - maybe they bought into the hype around themselves - we also fail to utilise the options we have through there all of McLean lipinski Wallis have shown ability as mids yet we use gowers in there? We need to utilise rotations through there lipinski and mclean must go through there even throw vandermeer through there at times

Forward line - it’s a disaster - we need a second tall and it’s not gowers - we lack pace and pressure inside 50 - we use both vandermeer and Richards (yes his form has been bad) high up the field then want them using their pace coming back which means they are spent and can’t apply pressure when they get there. Add to that that Bruce Lloyd gowers and Wallis are all slow.

How do we fix these issues?
1. Beveridge needs to stop being stubborn with his team selections and his choices of who goes through the midfield. Yes we have Bont macrae smith and libba who are all good on the inside but we need to be rotating other guys through there too like lipinski McLean and even vandermeer NOT guys like gowers. We need to use speed and skill on our wings, lipinski is not a winger he’s a mid/forward. Use Richards vandermeer butler on the wings along with hunter when he returns.

2. Fix the forward line by at least putting in a balanced proper structure. Yes we are missing naughton and no one on the list is going to offer the same things he does accept it and back some guys in. We need another tall, we need some speed and pressure type players down there. Have 5 actual forwards and a resting mid in there.

HF: resting mid (lipinski) lew young/schache vandermeer
F: Wallis Bruce weightman/cavarra/west

and back the structure in

 

[Mofra]

It dead set looked like the whole team had passed the bong around while Jacko was in getting his ankles strapped. Disgusting.

Nope, that would have at least given us more composure

 

[Doggies_13]

English due for a rest too I reckon. Time to debut Sweet and Trengove to assist

He had a rest last night? He played mostly forward in the first half after a very poor first 5-10 minutes then when he was obviously given a bit of a spray at half time and chucked back in there for the last half he did alright

 

[Charlie Bucket]

Allowed CB.

Thanks Yojimbo. My thumbs were going warp speed last night, a few words slipped past the keeper.

 

[Mofra]

What we need is a proper senior assistant. King, Hansen, Smith, Maple...no. We need an ex senior coach, we need someone who has the balls to stand up to Bevo and say ‘No, that’s a s*** idea (to pick Gowers again), Why are we doing this? We need to do that.’

I really want Matty Boyd back at the club.

Has gone outside the Bulldog bubble, been part of a coaching group that got Collingwood to a GF, has 100% respect for his playing career, can deliver "honest" no BS feedback when needed.

 

[hutchy31]

Too many problems to list - main frustrations are the repeated errors at selection. Gowers wasn’t the reason we lost, that’s a whole of team issue, but that’s in the running for the worst two game stretch I’ve seen. If he plays next week MC is broken.

Forward structure and coaching is abysmal. I know we’re missing our main KPF but the pressure is non-existent. Suckling got injured early but going in with him, Wallis and Lloyd as mediums/smalls might be the slowest forward line ever. HBFs are just waltzing out of defence it’s so frustrating to watch.

We can’t claim to be a young, developing team and then play such an old, slow group in that part of the ground. To have those three picked and leave out West, Greene, Cavarra etc is ridiculous. Wallis might have a chance at playing in our next deep finals run, Lloyd and Suckling have no chance so wtf is the point?

 

[Libba39]

Richards hasn't improved in 2 years. Lipinski gives half-efforts all across the ground, did it last week against GC. Gowers has NFI, Lloyd looks off. Our two best forwards are a mid turned forward (Wallis) and a first year player (Vandermeer).

This is fairly accurate I'd say...

 

[Charlie Bucket]

So oh wise one....

what are the answers?

Give me something to work with Bazz. What answers are you after?

 

[fronkalicious]

Guys like Lipinski and Richards will cop it every time we lose.

But please stop and think why we got hammered tonight.

For me, it was ball use, speed in transition and a pathetic forward line.

Ball use - Lipinski is arguably our best ball user. I like Richards having the ball in his hands as well.

Speed in transition - big issue for Lipinski for sure. He’s slow. And that’s a problem for our midfield. But if his fellow mids used the ball like him, there’d be a lot less turnover for him to have to defend.

Richards has elite speed to help our transition D.

Forward line - these boys don’t play there (or very rarely if they rotate through). They’re not responsible for this.

These 2 guys are fringe mids, so when we lose, people look at their low numbers and point the gun.

But zoom out. Are these guys really the problem? For me, they help balance a team and a list that is missing some key ingredients.

Thank God Bazalenka has added some zing to our midfield. But we need more speed and more class through there.

And as for our forward 50?? Good lord. Sam Power has work to do.

 

[BEaston]

The biggest killer tonight was the conditions. I don’t think there’s another team in the comp who’s game is so punished by being forced to play in greasy conditions every week.

we’ve spent a whole year practicing a style of ballistic handball out of a stoppage and smooth corridor precision kicking off half back to create scoring opportunities. This style is designed for our games under the roof at Marvel, not Metricon Stadium.

that’s the reason why we don’t look as impressive this year IMO (although I think our defense has improved somewhat)

It’s just going to be so tough for us to play our bestfooty this year considering the circumstances.

You might be on to something here.
In all the greasy games we've played, we've been fumbly and timid. After a couple of fk ups, it saps their confidence. No doubt it's a mental thing as well.

 

[Schlurp]

Not directly related to the game but just noticed Richmond play the Lions at Metricon and not the Gabba while also playing the Suns at the Gabba instead of Metricon.

That and more than likely avoiding the WA teams in Perth is a pretty big advantage

I'm sure you are right on both counts but Richmond have had success against both teams at their home grounds in the past. The biggest advantage COVID19 has given the Tiges is an exemption to play at Geelong's velodrome and the Optus Oval miniground. Geelong had a heap of home games scheduled prior to the imposition of hard borders and must have been salivating at the time. It's all history now.

 

[Philthy1]

Sorry for the intrusion

Read the entire thread but couldnt go past without applauding you for a great post that described the game brilliantly
Doggies are a good team but was not their night tonight and all teams have them Richmond v Saints / Richmond v Hawks the above post could have been about the Tigers.


Good luck against the Power & Lions

You should say thank you for us playing you into form.

 

[Bazzas Lovechild]

Give me something to work with Bazz. What answers are you after?

We could start with your changes to make us competitive against a ladder leading Port.

I don’t think there are any easy answers...we’re just not that good. This being said I like to read others suggested changes, some of them seem pretty sensible to me.

 

[dogwatch]

I really want Matty Boyd back at the club.

Has gone outside the Bulldog bubble, been part of a coaching group that got Collingwood to a GF, has 100% respect for his playing career, can deliver "honest" no BS feedback when needed.

He’d be ideal and a good mentor for Bont. Someone posted he doesn’t see eye to eye with Bevo though. So I’m not sure it’d work.

I realise the difference between the two is your point but it won’t help if they can’t have at least a working relationship.

 

[BEaston]

Is Lipinski the slowest player in the league for his size? Runs in quick sand.

Said it last week but I don't see how Greene does a worse job than Gowers in the team. He can crash a pack like him, but actually has some footballing skill as well.

Similar to when we got smashed by the Blues, our midfield was the issue (apart from Macrae). We lacked intensity around the contest, didn't attack the ball, fumbled when Richmond applied pressure and our ball use was errant all night. When our midfield gets smacked, our forward line struggles hard as we have basically nobody that can win 1v1 (maybe Wallis aside). Sometimes our defensive running and backhalf structure can bail us out when our midfield is losing, but tonight Richmond moved the ball quickly and cleanly which put our backline in bad spots and our defensive running through the middle of the ground was non-existent. We need Dunkley and Hunter back asap. Something is not right with Bont.

I don't think we need to make wholesale changes to the team, I think the mental application of the game is the issue. It's the main thing that explains the wild variations across the whole team in effort and intensity. As someone said, it looked like they'd all been smoking bongs. The effort was 0. What is the reason for that? Something needs to be done to get the guys switched on for every game, then hopefully the consistency will follow.

 

[Glaeken Oracle]

Just on Bont. There has been some discussion and comments (myself included) on his kicking of set-shots. Lots of hypothesising about whether it's his hip. If his hip affects his set-shots, then surely it affects his field kicking? Anyone know if there would be less pain in kicking while in motion than starting from a stationary position? And then on his set shots. 2016 Bont kicked crucial goals from set shots (the semi v Hawks where he outbodied Hodge a perfect example). Bont's goalkicking stats (from afltables.com so I don't have a breakdown by set shot vs snap/in play):
2014: 15 G 10 B
2015: 17-10
2016: 26-17
2017: 20-29
2018: 22-16
2019: 15-27
2020: 4-3

I don't doubt Bont has ongoing hip issues - is it only his left hip?. At times, his right foot passing seems to be more accurate than his left (based on eye test, not actual stats, not even sure if that sort of stat is recorded anywhere by anyone). The set shot he had last night was about a 45 degree angle to the left, and with the camera behind him, as soon as it left his foot it was obvious it was going to veer too far to the right. I don't know how good his right foot is as a set shot vs on the run, guys like Hawk and Leon Cameron and Gilbee seemed almost natural left footers in traffic, but rarely, if ever, kicked (or had to) from a stationary start, likewise McGuinness who as a left-footer was a very good right-foot kick. The left-foot set shots that come to mind are Chris Grant in 2000 v Essendon, and Tom Boyd in the GF. If there is a psychological aspect to his missing set shots, does anyone think there should be consideration given to him taking set shots left of centre on his right foot? Maybe I'm over-thinking something that didn't determine the outcome last night, but it seems deflating when a (the) key player and captain misses a shot that, mechanically, is not difficult, and the mental pressure has more bearing on routine and delivery.

Edit: this was triggered by the apparent trend of him missing what appear to be gettable set shots. He's obviously not on his Pat Malone, but he's certainly someone who was able to kick them in the past.

 

[Glaeken Oracle]

He’d be ideal and a good mentor for Bont. Someone posted he doesn’t see eye to eye with Bevo though. So I’m not sure it’d work.

I realise the difference between the two is your point but it won’t help if they can’t have at least a working relationship.

Wonder if it stems from Boyd playing (in my opinion) reserves games in the back half of 2017 when the team was struggling at times. I'd hate to think it was because he didn't get to 300, but there was discussion on here at the time too that he would have been far more value in the seniors than in the VFL.

 

[Glaeken Oracle]

I'm sure you are right on both counts but Richmond have had success against both teams at their home grounds in the past. The biggest advantage COVID19 has given the Tiges is an exemption to play at Geelong's velodrome and the Optus Oval miniground. Geelong had a heap of home games scheduled prior to the imposition of hard borders and must have been salivating at the time. It's all history now.

One of the few fantastic outcomes of COVID for the AFL industry.