- May 1, 2016
- 28,894
- 56,301
- AFL Club
- Carlton
- Moderator
- #351
GWS are like that. When they're cruising, it looks effortless. GWS are a team you judge on their effort rather than their dominance, because the level of talent you have in that team ensures that when the effort is there they're just going to be unstoppable.They played reasonably well, but it felt they were just going through the motions at times.
There was a clear intent to tackle, but that just seemed like a general design for the game. Teams go after Cripps and Walsh, and they largely kept 3 or 4 same mids at the stoppages.
Otherwise they were happy to dictate field position and play tempo footy without a heap of urgency in their movement. Gaps naturally opened up in our defence, as they do each week, and they picked out players pretty comfortably.
A better team would have smacked us on that effort.
But - and I'm still really rather pissed off - I don't really give a * how they were. What was our excuse for not being ready to prove a point?
I cannot decide if I just wholly full on agree, or if I agree in part.Thoughtful and articulate Geth. Kudos. You have a much better understanding of what our various gameplans are and how they are being executed than I, but I ask this.
Can any game plan, from the Red Fox, to Barrass, to Yabby, to Lethal, to Dimma be executed if the players just do not try?
What I saw in the last two games were a team who were not 'collectively' trying.
You don't suddenly expect a team to just up and play a different way, unless the plan to do so is simply 'take first option', 'play on instinct', 'play on always'; the simpler it is, the easier it is to transition to it. What we were trying was an incorporation of a Bolton-esque deep press into a Teague gameplan (think, his press in 2017 that held its position deeper rather than what he was doing in 2018-19 which had a close press at the ball carrier to shut down short options and drive them wide) but the players that weren't there for Bolton - who have no way of learning or knowing how to play that press - kept ******* it up.
See, I don't like the notion that players don't try. It doesn't make sense to me. Why would you actively walk out there, you're getting paid and not a small amount, and not do what you're told to do? Even if you don't do what your coach says, why wouldn't you just play the game your way and have a bit of fun?
Going out there and not giving it their all isn't something that happens all that often at AFL level. You're going to see it maybe once every 5 seasons. You're going to see players ignoring or forgetting coaching instructions far more often, and that's why it's a bit of a struggle as to whether I agree in part or in whole.
Because today, I saw players who weren't trying, and who were struggling to adapt to something they didn't agree with.