Autopsy Geelong loses to Demons by 25 points.

[Ricketz]

How did you interpret his comments?

I don't think I paraphrased him unfairly; he was having a sook.

Backtracked a bit later in the week with the old 'well, I was asked the question' ''defense'' which I found just as irritating; take ownership of your comments or else be smarter and don't give a straight answer (something that he is perfectly capable of).

For those of us unable understand what you are talking about can you give us the start and end time of the clip that you are paraphrasing?

 

[catempire]

Can’t remember feeling so ambivalent about a loss. As I said pre-game, I thought it was a really weak side we wheeled out and just being competitive would be passable. As it turns out, we were fairly uncompetitive in the first half and it really should have been over by half time.

I thought we found a new way of losing in that first half. We were so loose in defence. Gave them way too much space and were only saved by their poor conversion. Conversely, it was almost comical how we simply bombed it to Hawkins against three opponents repeatedly as though this was a winning move.

The third quarter was much better. We arrested the hiding we were getting in contested ball and started to show some more ambition moving the ball. It was by no means perfect but it more closely resembled what we are trying to do.

To the individuals...

Stanley monstered by Gawn and that miss in the last was just so Stanley. What an enigma. He’s just not smart enough or brutal enough to be successful in that position.

I really liked Close and Clark tag teaming in the long sleeves at half forward. Both showed spark that has been missing for us forward of centre for some time. Persist with both please.

Our midfield really took a hiding. The second half papered over how bad it was. Petracca and Oliver in particular. Interestingly Scott would not reveal why he didn’t tag Petracca but it mattered not given Oliver got a hold of O’Connor anyway. Selwood was brave and probably our best over 4 quarters but also sloppy in ways that hurt at times. Menegola looked like a player that had missed months. Guthrie never really got going.

Dahlhaus on his last chance failed badly again. He goes to ground so easily and just doesn’t give enough with the ball. I will be pleased to see his name in the Omit column on Saturday at 6:25pm.

Overall, I’m not too worried. 2-2 isn’t going to ruin us. There’s still plenty of upside in personnel and in executing a game plan that will do damage in September. We will bring back Danger, Rohan and Parfitt next week, possibly Cameron too. They are huge ins. Anyone who ignores that has their head in the sand.

 

[PatrickBateman]

There's a degree of cop out there, I mean the Adelaide match we could have won with at least some effort. But we put in enough effort to get over the line in two and we were never winning today. We were beaten by a side which had more tools and far better preparation at its disposal than we did.

True to an extent.

If I'd watched a GFC effort that at least matched Melbourne's yet they still lost, I'd be content. This didn't happen. Even the third rate commentary team didn't stop calling it out FFS.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Atkins was a turnover machine today. Horrible.

Sometimes taking the game on risks turning it over. I think he added far more than he lost for us

 

[Cataholic]

Nah, the sides that missed the finals had younger players start preseason in Nov. That's like a week or two after we were in a GF. Something like half our squad was out until Jan. Not even counting the guys who've come in who are clearly still not ready like Stanley and Dahlhaus.

I would be extremely surprised if we look anything like this come the middle of the season

I think the age profile of our list has something to do with it. Naturally harder to recover, stay fit, and avoid injury as you get older. Less younger players to select from too.

Then throw in some unexpected injuries to key players.

 

[Chinacats]

I think they are not unprepared for round 1, but I’d say, they are more setting up to peak at the end of the year. Which means that they aren’t in the greatest form right now. I can’t think of many teams who were awesome for the entire year, after backing up from a grand final. Brisbane, Hawthorn and even Richmond never looked that great in the first half of the year.

Doesnt mean that theyll get to finals, it’s just their planning at this stage. And if it starts to fail and they look like missing out, they’ll spend their petrol to try and make the 6th, 7th or 8th spot. And if it gets dire, they’ll put their stars in cotton wool. It’s a constant evolution, based on the data and situation at hand.

We tried peaking in finals last year . Didn’t work!

 

[fpm84]

I don’t think it’s coincidental that of the three undefeated teams, two didn’t play finals last year (Demons and Swans) and the Bulldogs lost in the EF.

Or that of year’s top four, Brisbane are 1-3, us and Richmond are 2-2 and Port are 3-1... also noting that none of those four teams have looked exceptional at any point.

Also - after round 4 last year, we were 2-2 and Richmond was 1-1-2. Gold Coast and Hawthorn were both top four and ended up finishing 14th and 15th...

Let’s win the next two at home, build some momentum and take a vastly improved team to Sydney in round 7.

 

[catempire]

Atkins was a turnover machine today. Horrible.

Glad someone mentioned this. The experiment has probably come to an end now. He just doesn’t have the poise necessary in the back half.

 

[00VicWard001]

Here's the exchange Frggr;



You could look at it and say it's tongue in cheek, you could also look at it and wonder why Chris Scott chose to say that at all - could have responded in any number of ways, but he weighs his words pretty carefully, generally.

If I'm an opposition coach and/or player and I hear the coach of the team I'm playing against that week moaning like that then I am going into the game with extra confidence knowing that they're struggling mentally.




Disagree with you there Vic; imo psychology has it's part to play in sport and signals like that which we are discussing can definitely have an effect, I believe - if I was Simon Goodwin and I'd heard that during the week then I'd have been licking my lips in anticipation.
If I was a Geelong player and I'd heard that during the week then I'd be wondering why the coach was depressed and whether I should be concerned.

Don't disagree that we are undermanned and down on form, btw, that much is obvious. But I don't think messaging such as that which Chris Scott chose to run with publicly during the week is helpful at all.

Yeah, the psychology part is spot on.

It was definitely not something that needed to be said. He could have easily publicly said “oh, it would be up to Brad if he wants to coach”. Privately: “F*ck no Brad, don’t do it!”

Sometimes, a lot of the time, Scott let’s his ego and self-belief that he has a superior intellect take over his mouth, with no added value to the team or the club. He would do well to just shut up.

 

[Cataholic]

Glad someone mentioned this. The experiment has probably come to an end now. He just doesn’t have the poise necessary in the back half.

Where to from here in your opinion?

 

[Cursed Cat]

I think handing over the reins would rejuvenate Joel a bit, actually.

Only problem is I think the club would feel obligated to give it to Dangerfield which, IMHO, is a bad move.

Ling and Harley were both great captains without being superstar players and I think there's a link between those two things.

I have massive respect for Joel Selwood, but I reckon he should have handed the captaincy reigns over at the end of last season.

The club needs new voices; it's been the Chris Scott and Joel Selwood show for a decade now.

They've done a great job but football is cyclical and fresh leadership might have given greater ownership to the next generation of players.

Agree with you on Dangerfield, btw, and also that Selwood himself might have benefitted somewhat from being allowed to concentrate solely on his onfield role.

 

[ToreadorMarch]

I'm referring to Chris Scott moaning about what a sh*te job coaching an AFL team is during the week.

Correct me if I’m wrong but feel like the comment was more in the conversation about his brother’s coaching future. May just be brotherly talk rather than a reflection of his personal standpoint

 

[00VicWard001]

We tried peaking in finals last year . Didn’t work!
[/QUOTE
We did peak and were looking good. Unfortunately, so did Dustin Martin.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

True to an extent.

If I'd watched a GFC effort that at least matched Melbourne's yet they still lost, I'd be content. This didn't happen. Even the third rate commentary team didn't stop calling it out FFS.

Yeah but effort comes easy when you're skiing downhill. Let's see how good they look later in the year when we can pull our defenders out of the forward line and replac them with Cameron and Rohan. With Dangerfield and Parfitt in the middle do we get belted around the contest? I'm confident we win the next one against them in the last round

 

[Cursed Cat]

For those of us unable understand what you are talking about can you give us the start and end time of the clip that you are paraphrasing?

The clip goes for 3 minutes, you can manage that leg work I reckon.

 

[RegHickeyStand]

Just so much wrong with this club:

- sh*t style not worth sh*t in this modern game. Don’t give me that crap that it’s the players - find a style that suits the players AND the current rules

- an extension of WHY the style is sh*t us it saps natural instinct and natural flair our players have. They look flat, over think, hesitate and just f*cking look to be HATING their time out there. This is why no one congratulated smith. No unity out there.

- another extension is it LETS the other team play well and take advantage

- moving on from style, we just don’t tackle and harass with aggression. Every time the ball was in contest there were more melb players. We were out numbered and lost. No urgency, half tackles and melb players broke tackles

- too many defenders in the team

- there is no unity in transitioning the ball. The players have NO CONNECTION. Do they even like each other off the field? Looks like they’ve never spoken to each other

- what is our culture? If Scott dodges through the press conference I’ll blow a fuse. The direction our club is taking is deeply concerning. From game style, to list management. We’re about to fall off the cliff hard. And we don’t have good picks or enough elite youth to dig our way out

- lastly, why the f*ck were we trading our future round 1 pick in the last draft. Absolute dead set arrogance. You NEVER know what’s going to happen the year after. I called it at the time. That was stupid as were likely going to have a top 7 pick. Richmond laughing all the way to the draft

Yep. I could watch a quarter of that game, and no more. Skills are poor. The desire to win has been cooked out of them, I suspect by being over coached. Scott rides every play. I woud rather his sit back and eat a salad roll of game day.

Many of them have got the Blicavs hesitancy bug going for them. Stopping and propping with that worried look on their face when they have the ball... way too much. Too scared to take the game on.

 

[Ricketz]

I'm convinced it's a complete cop out. If you aren't ready to go by Round 1 it's your own fault. The AFL isn't tying players down preventing them from training.

Among the many pathetic excuses fans now make, that one is still right up there.

Yes they do. Club training couldn't start before January this year.

Then you have players who are carrying injuries from the late October finish, some of whom underwent surgery or other treatment that restricted their training schedule and loads.

It's pretty unrealistic to think they would not be affected by such a short turn around.

 

[ToreadorMarch]

I have massive respect for Joel Selwood, but I reckon he should have handed the captaincy reigns over at the end of last season.

The club needs new voices; it's been the Chris Scott and Joel Selwood show for a decade now.

They've done a great job but football is cyclical and fresh leadership might have given greater ownership to the next generation of players.

Agree with you on Dangerfield, btw, and also that Selwood himself might have benefitted somewhat from being allowed to concentrate solely on his onfield role.

Interested to see who you‘d place as new captain then?

 

[CatToTheFuture]

I'm referring to Chris Scott moaning about what a sh*te job coaching an AFL team is during the week.

He was standing up for his brothers reputation more than anything

 

[catempire]

Where to from here in your opinion?

We have plenty of defenders. With Dangerfield, Parfitt, Rohan and Cameron returning we will need at least Henry and Tuohy to move back and possibly Clark who was forward today. I expect him to be squeezed out.

 

[00VicWard001]

Interested to see who you‘d place as new captain then?

Tom Stewart for mine.

 

[ToreadorMarch]

Yep. I could watch a quarter of that game, and no more. Skills are poor. The desire to win has been cooked out of them, I suspect by being over coached. Scott rides every play. I woud rather his sit back and eat a salad roll of game day.

Many of them have got the Blicavs hesitancy bug going for them. Stopping and propping with that worried look on their face when they have the ball... way too much. Too scared to take the game on.

The salad roll comment made me smile. Those were special times

 

[ToreadorMarch]

Tom Stewart for mine.

Nice call. Think he’d carry it well. I‘d be happy with that.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

We tried peaking in finals last year . Didn’t work!

To be fair we did peak in September

 

[Cataholic]

We have plenty of defenders. With Dangerfield, Parfitt, Rohan and Cameron returning we will need at least Henry and Tuohy to move back and possibly Clark who was forward today. I expect him to be squeezed out.

Same here. Was interested in another perspective.

Simply can't see another position for him.