Review Bad, Ugly, and Horrendous vs Hawks

[CutAboveTheRest]

So i haven't had the chance to read all 31 pages just yet..

Has anybody mentioned how bad Jake Kelly was yet again?

 

[StonesThrow]

So i haven't had the chance to read all 31 pages just yet..

Has anybody mentioned how bad Jake Kelly was yet again?

Kelly just doesn't have polish. Under pressure he is poor, which can be very damaging considering where he plays. I don't mind him, but when the heat is on he gets found out

 

[pjcrows]

We were pathetic, but at least we got given a kick in the arse in Round 1. A lazy win at home against a low team isn't what we needed, either.

 

[Eagleboy2011]

We were pathetic, but at least we got given a kick in the arse in Round 1. A lazy win at home against a low team isn't what we needed, either.

but id take it.

 

[1970crow]

The ugly is really the fear, the what if time has come early on tex, JJ and Betts?

They’re not young and it will come soon, and often it comes falling off the table edge; seeing that performance makes you wonder what if?

It’s not pretty either to think about either

Time catches all, the actual problem is that our coaches choose to carry players who are no longer physically capable of being up to it. If Sauce and Tex are done, ROB and Fog get a crack, that’s footy. But not at our club, Sauce and Tex will limp through a season costing us games. That’s what our selectors and I’d presume management prefer.

 

[Dank Academy]

Pretty hard to kick a winning score when your forwards are standing behind their man and the mids are kicking it out in front. Each group as much to blame as the other.


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[mistylake]

Love how a loss brings out the most rational supporters

Excuse me, but there’s no way you could accuse me of being rational.

 

[1970crow]

Right so after a nights sleep I've collected my thoughts on yesterday.

I'm very grateful I've made changes to my life over the past 18 months or so that mean I don't hold onto the losses as much as I used to. It still hurts, but you get over it quicker. The one thing I am still flat about is Tom Doedee, gutted in fact. Even Richie Douglas, that should be his last AFL game, and no one deserves to go out injured.

Round 1 losses aren't the end of the world, indeed 5 of the 6 favourites have been done over. Difference with us though, is we shouldn't have been undercooked. Who is the one man you KNOW is going to have something up his sleeve ?? That's not an excuse for our coaches, rather an indictment.

I'm hesitant to chalk this one down as just a bad day, but when your 3 gun rebounding defenders fumble all day and miss targets, skilled players missing easy shots at goal (been a round wide trend), that's just what it was.

The issue we have isn't those players, they'll get better and probably won't all play that bad again. Even Mackay is unlikely to play this weekend. It's the captain, it's the ruckman and it's 2 small forwards who don't kick goals.

The midfield collective, they're all good players and they're all proactive.... issue is they can't be when they have a ruckman who taps 3 inches away from the contest. We have to have such a defensive setup up, so when we do actually win one we are on the back foot. It's at the point now where it doesn't matter how ROB plays, but he has to play...... but he won't.

The defence, 3 guys were worried about getting their own ball and not where their opponents are. Again, they won't fumble all day and miss targets again but they did us no favours. Keath was great and will only get better, Talia looked solid if a little underdone.

Forward line is our biggest issue. The mix is right, the players are wrong. Eddie still looked dangerous but delivery was poor. Lynch started brightly but needs to cut those dinky 15m passes to nowhere. Jenkins is in a tough spot, with Tex lumbering into what space he found he was never going to have a good day. Murphy is not a forward, nor is Knight. Pressure is one thing, but you actually need to have forward nous and be dangerous around goal. Time for Davis and Stengle.

The captain gets his own paragraph. It's time Tex, it's time. The injuries have taken their toll on the big fella and it's now not fair to have him out there. We didn't just give Sloane the captaincy to help out, we gave it so he could take over if this very situation arose. We have a 20yo Tex clone sitting in the 2s, he's big, he's aggressive, he kicks like a mule and he isn't afraid of the tough stuff..... just like Tex used to be like. We won't do it, but it's the biggest thing holding us back this year.

Our side is going to look so much better with Seedsman, Greenwood, Stengle/Davis and ROB in it..... So do it.

Mackay will play, we’ve got 2 forced changes, 1 with nearly 250 games to his name. There’s no way our coaches make an unforced change on top of that. Especially one that results in another 200 games of experience being lost. We’d have carried Dougie out of form for months, Mackay is a perfect replacement.

 

[ABAB]

Pretty hard to kick a winning score when your forwards are standing behind their man and the mids are kicking it out in front. Each group as much to blame as the other.


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That's the game plan, but having said that if they knew it was going to be dump kick all day long the forwards should have adjusted and push their defenders up 10-15 meters than their normal position as dump kicks usually fall that much shorter.

 

[VictorianCrow85]

Firstly I'm just going to say Keath played pretty damn well, took some good marks. Still a bit raw in his positioning at times but overall was a shining light in a dirty day. Sloane & the Crouches were typically pretty good and Jones looked like he'll pick up the level pretty well in time.

As for the bad stuff and my analysis of what went horribly wrong yesterday (and part of last year)....

So much of our issue yesterday was structural. Hawthorn does this to us because they are defensive first and always keep their numbers back and structured enough so that we're always kicking to contests where a 3rd man can get in. On the flipside Pyke seems insistent on putting place the highest press possible, which is fine if you're having a good day and you get those repeat entries resulting in scores but our forwards were out of form most of last year and didn't show anything yesterday with the congestion down there. What comes next? Hawthorn win a contest and the rebound down the ground was quick and basically we can't work back hard or fast enough to slow it down. Nutshell is Hawthorn is manipulating play to have an open forward line with space everywhere meanwhile ours is a cluster f*#k with no space anywhere and considering none of our forwards are especially strong contested marks it doesn't take a genius to work out what happens.

Then that leads me to a huge, huge problem we've got now if his form doesn't turn around... Tex. Look back in 2017 when were a pretty dominant side and where Tex was getting so many of his possessions - leading up hard in the middle of the ground where he'd then use his field kicking to propel us into better attack. So the big question is where the hell has that gone? We look a completely different side when he's getting those kind of leads and marks. It's just one game at this point but I didn't see a lot in the JLT to see a big turn around so he's going to need to find some form & fast or I'd be dropping him in favour of Fogarty. Of course club will never drop the captain so we're in a hard place there now.

Lastly yesterday we just lacked the work rate, Hawthorn were superb, they consistently got numbers hunting the ball where as we didn't! Our mens side should be instructed to watch our Womens match against Geelong earlier - constant hunting of the ball in numbers.

One thing is for sure our coaches have got a lot of work to do and some changes to make because what was dished up yesterday isn't going to cut it.

The only positive I see is that it was against Hawthorn who do this to us every time so it is possible we'll rebound. The season is long so over reacting about 1 loss isn't productive but there's absolutely points of concern that we shouldn't be discussing after round 1!

 

[mistylake]

Yeah, lol,
something to remind them overandoverandover how s**t they were in the 2017 GF and set them straight, mentally, using professionally unqualified people ...?

A few mental breakdowns and early retirements might work wonders.

 

[Pugsley]

“You try telling Sammy he’s not playing this week”

Just put him in the wheelchair.

 

[Pugsley]

He was awful and symptomatic

I’m more worried about Gibbs long term though

He endured 10 years in a toxic, soft environment. Sadly, it's all he ever knew.

 

[Pugsley]

I'd rather Seeds on four fingers.

 

[Pugsley]

I get people are peeved at walker and Jenkins. Jenkins had one of the stinkiest games of his career which is saying something.

But when you have Atkins, Mackay and Laird continually putting it at your feet, over your head or straight to your opponent, there’s not a lot a big forward can do.

He couldn't kick 35 ******* metres for goal right in front of me. Luckily, there was young children next to me or they would have had a thesaurus in decorated language.

 

[Mike Smyth]

We were pathetic, but at least we got given a kick in the arse in Round 1. A lazy win at home against a low team isn't what we needed, either.

If we had to play like that im glad it happened round 1. Rather than fooling myself into thinking we are contender and then burning in finals, i can sit back now with low expectations and watch us finish around 12th.

 

[arsene wenger1]

This.

It’s how all of our terrible losses play out. We get stifled, we panic, don’t know what to do.

Long kicks down the line to useless talls that don’t take their share of marks, or even provide enough of a contest to advantage a crumber.

We never look like winning at any stage when it goes this way.

Some big forwards enjoy jumping into a marking contest. Unfortunately none of our starting 22 key forwards enjoy it all. in fact when they do it I reckon they almost do it with their eyes shut, that’s how much they hate it. Shouldn’t be left to Eddie to crash a pack

 

[1970crow]

I think I said 2 yrs ago when our forward line was our strength that it would soon enough be our weakest line ( and I got laughed at ) - and we are definitely at that point now

Our forwards only perform on their terms when the ball movement is non Pressured , our forwards just can’t compete when it becomes a scrap to get the ball , they are just not up for that kind of fight whether it’s talent or want

Pure downhill skiers. Our key forwards can’t compete and are s**t at pressure. Then we expect others to make up for their lack of contested ability and pressure.

 

[pjcrows]

Round 1, hey.

Top 8 fancies Collingwood, Melbourne, Adelaide, West Coast, Sydney and Essendon all looked bog average. Richmond looked just okay against Carlton, and are now without arguably their most important player.

A long way to go.

 

[Mike Smyth]

Walker and Jenkins are actually very similar as forwards. Their strengths and weaknesses are the same. There has been a number of games in the last 18 months where they both become liabilities because the same sort of tactics quell both of their influences.

In other words, if you come with a plan to beat Jenkins, you beat Walker too.

McGovern was the fly in the ointment for opposition defences.

Can somebody name me anyone on our list who can take a contested mark inside 50?

This is true. The only time i have seen jenkins play anything like a key forward was last year when tex was out of the team. Absilutely shouldnt be playing both at the same time.

 

[VictorianCrow85]

I get people are peeved at walker and Jenkins. Jenkins had one of the stinkiest games of his career which is saying something.

But when you have Atkins, Mackay and Laird continually putting it at your feet, over your head or straight to your opponent, there’s not a lot a big forward can do.

There's an element of truth to this though what I want to know is where were Walkers and Jenkins hard leads up the middle of the ground to give our players a legit target instead of always having to hack or bomb to a contest where the talls were outnumbered? I don't think they got good delivery at all in the forward 50 but they weren't pushing up hard to provide a target out of the forward 50 which is damning because that's when Tex is playing his best footy.

 

[COKEandCOLA]

I think you all need to take a deep breath and relax FFS.

It was Round 1 and if every other game proved anything, it's that the competition has evened out even more than last year.

There's also the fact that all sides would have been blowing out the cobwebs and it takes a couple of rounds before everyone is generally playing at the level they want to be.

Some of the things being said here is totally disgraceful and almost Carlton or St Kilda like and to be honest, I thought you lot were better than that.

Your mods will certainly be busy cleaning alot of this dribble up, there's no way known our mods would tolerate such venomous statements aimed at our own.

You all need to relax and keep your chins up because you will be there, come the pointy end of the season and I would like to think you were just as much outcoached as you were outplayed.

The real thing you guys and girls should be disappointed with is the injury to Doedee because he's a great kid and although he's only played a handful of games, he's one of your better players.

I wish him all the best and a speedy recovery because injuries like that are gruesome, regardless of what colours they wear.

All the best for the season and please try to put the pitchforks away.

 

[Murray2503]

If we had to play like that im glad it happened round 1. Rather than fooling myself into thinking we are contender and then burning in finals, i can sit back now with low expectations and watch us finish around 12th.

The problem with this is that we gave up pick 16 to move potentially a couple of spots in the draft. If we finish 12th and carlton 14th, it was pick 6 and 16 for pick 4. We have been SOS's bunnies for 2 years in a row. Would never have done the deal. You get elite talent into your program asap, especially when the list is average. Huge mistake. If we didnt rate the talent after pick 15 why did we not trade our 4 picks for 3 higher picks? Or god forbid throw in an underperforming player which another club wants to get the deal done.

 

[Pugsley]

I think you all need to take a deep breath and relax FFS.

It was Round 1 and if every other game proved anything, it's that the competition has evened out even more than last year.

There's also the fact that all sides would have been blowing out the cobwebs and it takes a couple of rounds before everyone is generally playing at the level they want to be.

Some of the things being said here is totally disgraceful and almost Carlton or St Kilda like and to be honest, I thought you lot were better than that.

Your mods will certainly be busy cleaning alot of this dribble up, there's no way known our mods would tolerate such venomous statements aimed at our own.

You all need to relax and keep your chins up because you will be there, come the pointy end of the season and I would like to think you were just as much outcoached as you were outplayed.

The real thing you guys and girls should be disappointed with is the injury to Doedee because he's a great kid and although he's only played a handful of games, he's one of your better players.

I wish him all the best and a speedy recovery because injuries like that are gruesome, regardless of what colours they wear.

All the best for the season and please try to put the pitchforks away.

I don't think it's your place to tell anyone how to post

 

[Murray2503]

I think you all need to take a deep breath and relax FFS.

It was Round 1 and if every other game proved anything, it's that the competition has evened out even more than last year.

There's also the fact that all sides would have been blowing out the cobwebs and it takes a couple of rounds before everyone is generally playing at the level they want to be.

Some of the things being said here is totally disgraceful and almost Carlton or St Kilda like and to be honest, I thought you lot were better than that.

Your mods will certainly be busy cleaning alot of this dribble up, there's no way known our mods would tolerate such venomous statements aimed at our own.

You all need to relax and keep your chins up because you will be there, come the pointy end of the season and I would like to think you were just as much outcoached as you were outplayed.

The real thing you guys and girls should be disappointed with is the injury to Doedee because he's a great kid and although he's only played a handful of games, he's one of your better players.

I wish him all the best and a speedy recovery because injuries like that are gruesome, regardless of what colours they wear.

All the best for the season and please try to put the pitchforks away.

That's fine, you barrack for the most successful club over the last 20 years. Try barracking for a club you know deep down have little chance of winning a flag for 20 years run by a bunch of incompetents who hire mates and don't give a * about onfield success as long as the ground is full. Trust me, it wears thin.