Autopsy Rd 4 - Massive choke - Bottomed out again.

[teagueyubeauty]

We have played 4 games and been in a winnable position in all 4 games. That says we are not too far away. He isn't saying we aren't far away from being top 8 or a premiership side, but we are not far away from winning and winning multiple games and getting the win graph on the increase.

Agreed, but we need a win badly. I fear we are another honourable loss away from a couple of weeks of beltings.

Mentally, it just has to be draining. Eventually, it becomes overbearing and at that point selfishness creeps in and beltings start to happen.

Nothing will save Bolts if that happens

 

[Blue and Blue]

They love Bolton to the point they can do anything they like and get away with it and on the flipside probably quietly disrespect him

Idiotic remark.

 

[DamoESP]

How you can go in with such a tall forward line, and not have one of McKay, Curnow, McGovern, Casboult or Lobbe one out in the goal square for F50 entries, is mind boggling.

Why have such a tall team if we're just going to kick to Gibbons (who lets not kid ourselves, is a lucky VFL player) every ****ing entry? Seriously?

 

[teasa31]

I feel bad for the defenders, barely put a foot wrong all day. I mean Plowman's disposal by foot was horrendous and O'Brien's holding the man free was unforgivable, but Weiters, Jones, Marchbank all played superb games. Not exactly an A-Grade forward line but they did what they needed to do.

Did Fasolo get injured in the VFL or did he literally have one disposal for a whole game?

 

[Nut_Sacks]

I couldn’t sleep last night because of yesterday’s performance. What kills me the most is that 15 years on and we’re still playing the same standard of football we were in the Pagan days.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[OldCarltonian]

Finally calmed down after nearly killing the dog yesterday...…

Pluses;
Walsh - wow. Frightening how far ahead he is of Dow, Fisher, SPS etc. Next captain
Jones and Weiters - awesome. I know GC are not West Coast up front, but they just controlled the area.
Cripps - man love but jeez he can also make some stupid decisions kicking into the 50
Gibbons - got to the right spot enough just cooked it. Tried his guts out but he is clearly VFL standard (no slight meant)
McG - nice cameo
Lobbe - set play out of the centre to hit Dow 2-3 times running into the 50 was really well done. Broke even with Witts

Minuses:
Like everyone else has said. Kicking, composure, decisions, brain fades etc. Even Murphy with 2 mins to go should have turned backwards to kick to Daisy in the defensive goal square and soak up 30 secs. Ed missing a sitter from the goal square - last week he kicks them from everywhere doesn't he...... Dow kicking the ball into the middle and turning it over in the last minute, no one locking that ball in with that last stoppage. I suppose you could lump H and CC in there as well, but I wasn't there and have no idea if we ignored kicking it to them or if they were well out of position and just well beaten on the day. I could go on and on and on.

I thought out 'game plan' against the Swans was awful. But yesterday we took away the GC weapon and if we had any idea of how to kick the ball, we should have been 5-7 goals in front at 3 qtr time. And I just knew we would somehow find a way to blow at the end. Told the dog that at 3 qtr time and even he agreed.

How do we fix it? Well out backs are playing great, our forward line has talent on tap (if we could just get it to them properly). So it really rests with this bunch of 8-10 midfielders. SPS, Fish, Crippa, Murph (at times), Walsh can all kick well. Dow, Setterfield, Kennedy, LOB are VFL standard at best. So unless this changes of we recruit kids who can kick first and foremost I dont' see us winning more than 2-4 games for the next couple of years. Hurts to say it but no other team in the comp has wallowed like this since GWS and we know why that was. Sick of being a laughing stock but resigned to it

 

[rp84]

This is a tricky one as he just needs to play footy. Think he's better playing at AFL level than VFL in my opinion. He'll get better as the season progresses.

Absolutely prefer him playins firsts. 16touches and 8 marks has him far from our worst. Was spreading well. Low contested possession count but he didnt seem involved in close very often. Needs to be given more time at the coal face. Cripps needs to play 20% of the game at FF (if anything just to lower the amount and battering he is copping) and setters plays his role, IMO.

 

[rp84]

I feel bad for the defenders, barely put a foot wrong all day. I mean Plowman's disposal by foot was horrendous and O'Brien's holding the man free was unforgivable, but Weiters, Jones, Marchbank all played superb games. Not exactly an A-Grade forward line but they did what they needed to do.

Did Fasolo get injured in the VFL or did he literally have one disposal for a whole game?

Hurt his back. Missed 3.5 quarters

 

[Macca43]

I could rant all day about the negatives however it's will just depress me more.

Just wanted to heap praise on the following 4

Weitering- Dominated. Has the strut back. Couldn't have done much more.

Jones- Super. Just super. Took the game saving mark. Umpires didn't pay it but it was a mark. Had the umpires paid the mark all the talk would be how good he was and how he stood up in the big moment... which he did.

Cripps- superstar. We almost take for granted how good he is. It's unbelievable really.

Walsh- no first year player has ever come in and done this. Generational player. Thank god we have him. Going to be a big part of why our other young mids grow and develop

It can be hard to see where we are going at times (especially after being nutted like that) but even if we just look at 3 younger players you have highlighted - there is so much to build around.

The hard part now is that we have to get experience into so many young blokes and unfortunately experience isn't just number of games played, experience is making mistakes and paying a high price for them so you learn not to make them again.

This loss while incredibly hard doesn't change on long term plan.

Also it should be pointed out we laid 79 tackles. St Kilda has the best tackle average in the league so far this year with 68.3.

 

[RoyalParade]

Have never been a sack the coach person, but I've had enough.

Any coach worth their salt would of got wins over port , swans and GC.

Bolton can't cut it. Time to move on before much more damage is done.

Saints, GC and lions who were at the bottom last year have 3 wins.

Carlton 0 wins, and odds on for 0-22

This once great club is now an Afl laughing stock.

 

[CFC18]

Plenty of talent that happens to be under the age of 21. Those teams don't win many football games, look at how long it took GWS to figure it out. Couple that with the injuries we had last year and Clarkson doesn't win 4 games imo.

GWS won 6 games in their third season and 11 games in their fourth. Things can change quickly in football but more than a few wins this season looks like a pipe dream at this stage. There's no comparison there at all.

 

[Stamos]

And Matty Wright.

Nah, he was done.

 

[chunkylover53]

The 3 talls need to learn to play together. Having Charlie miss a game and Casboult in for 2 changes the dynamic completely. So they have still only played 1 full game together as the lineup that will take us into the future. Need continuity with just those 3 together.

So tired of this excuse. Harry and Charlie have now done 4 pre-seasons together and should know their roles enough to be able to work together. McGovern is a 3rd tall - it's a simple bloody system. Why can other teams bring in 5-6 new players to their 22 every year and have no problem 'learning to play together' yet we need 4 years to learn.

Also, if the coach needs to learn them to play together why does he shuffle the team to 4 KPF's like he did this week? It confused the absolute hell out of them.

 

[Blue Chip Pass]

OMG, 55 pages of mostly hard negative reading.
Well done, to the few that can see the bigger picture.
I am as gutted and bitter as all of you. In the last minute of play, my whole body was contorted and twisted praying we can could hold on for a crappy WIN.
I too think the selections was a mistake. Bolton stated before the game, I am backing my talls. It didn't work.
Charlie is poorly out of touch. Casboult.....NUP
If we can get (FIT?) inclusions of Kruezer, Kennedy, SOS & Cunningham, Hopefully even Wilo. Then we will win.

A big shout out to the following that were standouts:
Jones, Weitering, Cripps, Murphy, Walsh, SPS. And a little shout to Newman & Fisher.

Sure is tough being a Blues supporter. Knowing every other supporter is having a little private chuckle at us.

Go Blues!!!

 

[Gethelred]

Um I didn't say he did?? I said if his thought of thinking is reflected in the playing group then it is an issue. I guess extrapolating my statement to something more lets you have a crack. I hope that made you feel better it has been a tough weekend!

What you said was this:

Ok I have watched the replay and reading through this thread. Sorry but what you are saying is nonsense - it is excuse making and head in the sand of the highest order. It is this type of thinking that IMHO breeds a losing culture and I hope it is no where near our side.

... with the bolded being where you blamed Soapy V for what he thought. You want to be a dickhead, don't object when it gets called out.

People are entitled to what they think on this forum, for good or ill. "I disagree," is thoroughly better than accusing someone of a number of things as you do here. Would you object to me calling you a carrion eater, as you've waited until your argument is at it's easiest to make?

As for you 'not having listened to Kane Cornes', it's uncanny how your errors of fact and argumentative shorthand replicate his.

And it doesn’t make you question when Bolton is still making the same selection mistakes as last year even though he doesn’t have the excuse of injuries that he had last year?

I question pretty much everything. I continue to come back, though, to the same sort of issues that I provided to you last week; Bolton has never had a list of players of an acceptable level of maturity/talent to pull of an AFL level gameplan, and he's one of the key reasons our club's culture has shifted for the better and removing him could be exceedingly detrimental to that process.

 

[Gavstar]

Spot on arm was free

Luckily the MRO is known for consistent application of rules.........

 

[BluesRule]

People calling for Dow to be dropped should watch the game against gold coast last year.

He is a kid being asked to play a role of a seasoned afl player. Sure he made mistakes with ball in hand, but so did other players. Positive thing is that he is learning, earlier on in the season he was blazing away at goal after bursting away from the centre clearance, this game showed him lowering his eyes and overcooking the target.

The final product is not there yet, but that can be said about a handful of our guys. Unfortunately we are a work in progress and these guys are not coming in to take us to a flag immediately.

These young players have a ton of pressure and expectation on them. They don't have the luxury of a vfl apprenticeship that a constable or the like have. This is the position our club is in unfortunately. I'm going to back the young guys in, because not every player can be a Sam Walsh straight off the bat. Confidence is a massive thing at afl level and the signs are promising, wins are needed and I have belief they will come with inner growth and development.

Agree, hopefully adding Kreuz, JSOS and Kennedy will give them more time and space to create.

 

[Robbo's my hero]

Feeling like a wrung out rag this morning. I only had to read the headlines in today’s paper to know that the articles would not be good for my psychological well-being. On a positive note (can I use the word positive? It cops a hiding in these parts), Cripps is leading The Age Footballer of the Year.

 

[Gethelred]

So tired of this excuse. Harry and Charlie have now done 4 pre-seasons together and should know their roles enough to be able to work together. McGovern is a 3rd tall - it's a simple bloody system. Why can other teams bring in 5-6 new players to their 22 every year and have no problem 'learning to play together' yet we need 4 years to learn.

Also, if the coach needs to learn them to play together why does he shuffle the team to 4 KPF's like he did this week? It confused the absolute hell out of them.

The two sets of bolded are incompatible.

And I've said to you before that the gameplan itself is theoretical for a significant number of the players. Harry McKay missed nearly one and a half years to his stress fractures/turf toe, and Charlie appears - at least to me - not to be a deep thinker about the game. It could simply be that the leading patterns required are indeed complex, and the only one able to play to them - albeit for a short amount of time at the moment - is Gov.

That patch in the second term where he kicked his goals, the talls structure functioned as intended, before it fell away again. It's flashes like this that signify that a) there is a plan and b) when the side actually begins to play to it, we are capable enough. It's for the coaches to ensure that those flashes grow ever longer, and for the players to keep learning and to keep the level of effort across 4 quarters up!!!

 

[Arr0w]

It wasn't a disgraceful loss because the players brought effort for 4 quarters. It was however extremely disappointing because their skills and decision-making were deplorable.

I think we are all entitled to question why a team stacked full of high draft picks who were hand picked because of their elite disposal can produce such poor skills on such a regular basis. Bolton claims that it's a lack of composure. Yet the problem hasn't been limited to just the kids. It's prevalent throughout the whole group. When was the last time we've come away from a game being able to say they had a crack and their skills held up well all game, particularly when the heat was on. It's no longer acceptable to say they're building, or that they're still in development. If the club wants to achieve its own goals as stated in their plan they need to show real improvement this year and I'm not talking about the being competitive but lacking polish type improvement. I want to see some polish!!!

Nori, I think we are all guilty of generalizations, Weitering, SPS, Willo, Cunners have shown they are all elite users. Once LOB, finds the tempo, so is he. Fisher, Charlie, Harry have been inconsistent, but we shouldn't be concerned

Players like Dow who are similar to Dangerfield types, bring other characteristics

 

[Brighton_Diggins]

Calling for bolts and the 'lack of game plan' melt downs make me chuckle. He's still the man for the job. DO i need to remind people of coaches in similar positions. Bomber, Dimma and Buckley to start with. They were hung drawn and quartered, couldn't coach, pathetic, sack em. So yeah. He still needs time. He needs this year. It would be utterly insane to punt this bloke before the end of 2019. The next person to come in would be nothing but a band aid solution to appease the masses and an "oh look we're doing something" knee jerk reaction. He stays and I'd be livid if the club buckled and sent him on his way.

As for the game. Well that was ours. As stated previously...... the jones mark. That it was it right there. Im ok with it. My biggest fear was to go up there and get belted. Boohoo it didn't go our way. There'd be a lot of different attitudes if we'd slipped over the line.

We've been in every game. Albeit lack of '1%ers', umpires reaming us and some inexperience and poor disposal. We've been around the mark. I still thing we're going to click this year and come thru the back end of the season with our 6-8 wins. We're craving a win somehting chronic and looks like we're going to have to earn it and some. But it'll be worth it's weight in gold going forward.

The one issue i will raise is the final changing of the guard. Simmo and Murphy. It's almost time. I'm sorry to say.

 

[Robertio]

Seems like a few posters are enjoying our loss too much, will come back to bite you on the bum.

 

[dumb]

Was always going to look like this when we didn't get the mature midfielder in the off season, ie Shiel. It's why we chased him as hard as we did. Maybe this mature midfielder comes on board end of this season.

 

[thylacine60]

You've summed it up perfectly.

Our list is so full of potential but bereft of consistent performers (the guys that win you games). Will Bolton cobble enough performance out of this group to save his arse? He took on one of the toughest coaching gigs in history, given the off-field recruiting methodology.

You could definitely see someone come in and take full toll of the fruits of his arduous labour.

that's a great post

 

[HavUEvaSeenTheRain]

Agreed, but we need a win badly. I fear we are another honourable loss away from a couple of weeks of beltings.

Mentally, it just has to be draining. Eventually, it becomes overbearing and at that point selfishness creeps in and beltings start to happen.

Nothing will save Bolts if that happens

The biggest worry I have is if we don’t have a win on the board when we inevitably get belted. Bolton has still completely got this group onside as you can see with our effort. the worry is that their trust may wane if all of a sudden we cop a couple of beltings and will still have nothing to show for the season and they can see perceived basket cases in the GC already having three wins.