Autopsy 31 point loss to Collingwood

[Dubai Quacker]

There is an old saying in footy;

DON'T GET BEATEN BY WHAT YOU KNOW

Last night we got beaten by what we knew would happen. They kept the ball wide, opening up the ground and then when they got to between Wing and CHF they centred the ball. We should have shut this down but we didn't. We allowed them to have possession, which is what they want. On the other hand they denied us what we wanted, the corridor, but we had no plan B. The coaching was amateurish from Cox. The players were not tuned in and several players were lazy as hell.

If Chad Warner keeps playing like this he can go back to Perth next week. Everyone was praising Heeney last night but the reality is he is great when the ball is either in contest or he has the ball but as soon as he doesn't, he slacks off. He was not chasing hard last night when they had the ball. Sure, he's brilliant and so talented. But I want him to work defensively, like he used to.

We allowed them to bully us all night. They roughed us up and we did not even give a whimper. When Daicos put his knee deliberately into Jordan's head players should have knocked his head off. Instead they did nothing. There was no camaraderie there. NONE. There was no fight. We were piss weak. We had a saying at my old footy club, ONE IN ALL IN. If someone gets picked on their teammates have their back. Not so at Sydney obviously. Nobody was flying the flag last night. It was a pathetic performance. We should have flogged that mob, even with half a side because everything they do is obvious and the same as when they won their premiership. Nothing different at all. Note, we have not won a Premiership since 2012. In 13 years we have been there 4 times for 3 floggings and an umpire's match.

GET THIS COX; MCCARTIN IS NOT A FORWARD. HE HAS AS MUCH FORWARD CRAFT AS MICKEY MARTIN

What happened to the Bloods Spirit? Because it sure as hell is not out on the footy field. The only spirit this lot know is in a bar.

chortle

Nice rant.

Unhinged, but entertaining.

 

[Deccas]

Until we can find a way of at very least breaking even in centre clearances and not letting opposition get a run of momentum in there we're going to struggle.

 

[Tedeski]

Against the best coached/drilled teams on the grounds longer than the SCG, we don't have the game plan to defend a score. If we lose the corridor, we lose the game every time against these teams on grounds other than the SCG.

Sam Wicks, Roberts, Campbell, Bice, Sheldrick, Hanily, Cleary & Jordan play every week till season's end, unless they stop learning & showing improvement.
As for any other player, they need to earn their spots. Some of them just don't have a position anymore like McCartin.

 

[wolftone57]

Melican back will help. For large chunks of last year I thought he was our best defender. McCartin best interceptor but in terms of playing the man Melican.

As much as I love Melly, he can't do anything but hold his man down to a small score, or zero. Thi is a team game and when the ball is being brought down so easily then we have far worse problems further up the ground. Murdered in the stoppages and clearances. Murdered. yet again, in contested ball. It's our much vaulted mids that are the problem. Two of them do not work hard defensively. Chad & Isaac. Yes he's the goal kicking hero, but he is also the villain as he just lets Pendlebury do what he wants. Pendles is not fast and Isaac made him seem like a bloody 100 metre runner at the Olympics as he coasted after him.

THE MIDS ARE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM. ALL HOLYWOOD AND NO HEART

 

[wolftone57]

Against the best coached/drilled teams on the grounds longer than the SCG, we don't have the game plan to defend a score. If we lose the corridor, we lose the game every time against these teams on grounds other than the SCG.

Sam Wicks, Roberts, Campbell, Bice, Sheldrick, Hanily, Cleary & Jordan play every week till season's end, unless they stop learning & showing improvement.
As for any other player, they need to earn their spots. Some of them just don't have a position anymore like McCartin.

We need to do something about the mids. We can't continue to bleed at stoppages and clearances. We are haemorrhaging and it is hurting the defence big time. Chad and Isaac refuse to chase hard defensively too. Sidebottom and OPendles, the two slowest players on the field were able to rack up disposals because neither of these blokes went anywhere near them. They gave them room at stoppages and then refused to chase. When Long was in there it was worse.

 

[wolftone57]

So far from our problems tonight.

Actually had an impact in the midfield which most senior players didn't besides Heeney.

Heeney had an impact offensively but defensively he was crap. Allowed his opponents to get lots of ball and run away from him. I mean Pendles running away from Heeney? ****. He just didn't chase.

 

[Tedeski]

Rampe is cooked and we should consider trading Blakey to North .

Yep this.
Give something to get something.

 

[Mister B]

Observations from at the game:

• Collingwood seemed to have players in the perfect front centre position after every contest.
• Our handball game needs some work, either hand balled to the players feet or to a position that halted the run.
• Leaving the game hearing that long 'Cooolllliinngggwooood' cheer everywhere was hell. And I they think it's unique to them, but I swear years ago we used to do the slow Sydney chant.

The chant started with us in the final round of 1996. Then WCE started doing it around the time of our grand finals. But of course if it’s not from Victoria it never existed.

 

[wolftone57]

Defence also wins flags

Our defence is not the probelm. Every defence in the league falters under the huge pressure ours was under. Why were they under pressure? Our mids that's why. Our mids were not only beaten they were slaughtered. -12 at stoppages, so far down in contested possession it was a joke. Let's fix up the shite midfield, who turn up to play once every 3-4 games. The much vaulted mids who refuse to chase their opponents When our REAL BEST mid, Rowie, has a bad night it is obvious because we don't get anywhere near winning clearances, stoppages or contested possession. The others might have the flash but this guy is the real deal.

 

[WillHayward]

Yep this.
Give something to get something.

We need to be way more proactive.
Last few years we have let good players go without much fuss or fight
Brought in some average top ups.
Drafted a bunch of spuds .
Let Hawthorn take Weddle while Beatson counted his little points.
Relied passively on our academy to deliver.

 

[GoulburnSwan]

Pies travel well. Guess when it is such a rare novelty it is easier

It is a novelty that’s for sure. It’s funny now that Damien Hardwick is at GC he has been having a right whinge about the amount of travelling they have to do, and is now realising that the trip across town from the MCG to Marvel wasn’t so bad after all when at the Tigers. He’s now in the real world that the interstate clubs have had to put up with for decades. I still find it hilarious how pies supporters still don’t get that even when they play , as they say an “away”game at the MCG that they still aren’t travelling. The only change is possibly the Dressing room and the colour of their shorts. My nephew is the physio for the Canberra raiders. Since their NRL Vegas Trip, he’s been home a total of 9 days - the Raiders have played in Townsville & Manly, they are currently in Darwin and then head strait to the Gold Coast tomorrow for round 7. Home for 10 days (and one round in Canberra) then back up to Brisbane for magic round. NZ at the end of may. Canberra always get the rough end of the stick. The Sydney teams that want to make money on having a remote location game - 9 times out of 10, it’s against Canberra, pisses my niece off no end I can tell you.

 

[mattpolo8]

thoughts gathered (get it?)

- McCartin forward was the panic button and it all fell apart from there. He is not a forward. And our defence was messy and chaotic once he went forward

- I would've liked to see the stucture changed a bit and go a little smaller in the forward line

- I want to see Bice on a wing...

- Which means Lloyd comes out. Just think he's a bit lost out there in the sense that he doesn't have a definitive position, and i get that sometimes that's a good thing but I don't think it is for Lloyd

- We have too many half backs/wingers that can't defend. Moving Bice on a wing helps this, Meli and Harry come in. Hamling out. Back 6 more defensive (shock horror) then we have been all season

- I'm sticking with Ladhams, we've seen 2 rucks work

- The fear is Cox doesn't play Logan next week and sticks with McCartin forward. If so, toys out of the cot. Just play Logan

 

[The King!]

Logan is on restricted minutes and Mccartin move I didn't mind, tried something

 

[wolftone57]

Positives?
Heeney, Florent, Sheldrick & Bice is composed.
Negatives?
Rampe & Hamling in trouble. McCartin & Blakey cannot defend.
Grundy no influence for the amount of hitouts won.

I saw it differently.
I thought Heeney great when attacking but dreadful at defending. He refuses to chase at the pace needed to impact the the player with the ball. His opponent got 26 disposals and he couldn't even catch him. I mean Pendles is not the fastest player on the ground, probably the slowest I should think, yet Heeney could not chase him.

The midfield group as a whole are to blame for this loss. Rowie, who is normally so good, was crap. Chad was non existent. Heens was great at attacking, shite at defending. Our mids were flogged and that really hurt us. Then there re the forwards. Last night none of them seemed to want to chase, except Hanily.

Coaching; NEVER BE BEATEN BY WHAT YOU KNOW

Pies did what they always do, Stay wide until between wing and HF and then centre the ball. So predictable but for our blokes it must have seemed like a brand new experience because they did nothing to close this down. What was Cox doing to shut them down? We gave them lots of room to move along the boundary. How & why? I am not on Hamling's case. He tried in the face of a barrage of forward entries. Rampe panics too often. He made bad decisions that ended up in goals, like not giving that ball off and taking the player on. I think you are right. He's finished.

But who replaces him? We just don't have anyone. Paton? That is about as far as the list goes.

 

[Adnico26Parker]

Cox's presser

 

[wolftone57]

Jordon will be disappointed given how good he’s been so far this year

They blocked for Daicos all the time. What's more, our other mids didn't make it easy by not picking up their players. Heeney gets all the plaudits but he was shite defensively last night. Chad was just dreadful in every way last night.

 

[wolftone57]

Ten decent players out.
8 or 9 of them best 22.
It's gonna hurt you.

No excuses. You play with the players you have. We could have won that if players had been tuned in., But they weren't. We had very few missing from the mids, Gulden only or Macca too and yet we got flogged in there.

 

[wolftone57]

i think Melican Mccartin Hamling are the tall defenders

Blakey needs to go midfield fwd he is a liability down there

Rampe just retire

I said in the match thread that I thought Cox might look at Blakey in the mids or on a wing. I like the idea of him in the mids. The other option was to send him forward, after all he played forward quite a bit in juniors. But instead we get McCartin to FF. Stupid. MCCARTIN IS NOT A FORWARD COX!!!! AND MAKING BLAKEY PLAY AS A KEY BACK IS EFFING STUPID. GET OVER IT!!!!

 

[Citrus22]

Feeling like Premierships are won in April with a double digit out list around here

 

[Citrus22]

No excuses. You play with the players you have. We could have won that if players had been tuned in., But they weren't. We had very few missing from the mids, Gulden only or Macca too and yet we got flogged in there.

I’m really not convinced the midfield was the main problem. The defensive unit had an absolute shocker, as bad as the grand final. Players not tight enough on their men, not watching the ball, nobody willing to get the ground ball. They were collectively embarrassed and maybe got ahead of themselves after a good two weeks.

 

[Dubai Quacker]

Against the best coached/drilled teams on the grounds longer than the SCG, we don't have the game plan to defend a score. If we lose the corridor, we lose the game every time against these teams on grounds other than the SCG.

Sam Wicks, Roberts, Campbell, Bice, Sheldrick, Hanily, Cleary & Jordan play every week till season's end, unless they stop learning & showing improvement.
As for any other player, they need to earn their spots. Some of them just don't have a position anymore like McCartin.

When a team loses, the sub gets axed. So Gus is probably in strife, despite doing a good job yesterday.

And I can’t recall the last time Sydney dropped a “senior” player.

I support your statement - but I doubt it happens. If (?) there’s change, the youngsters will pay the price, as has become the norm.

 

[wolftone57]

He knows it too, looked filthy being subbed off.

He had no choice. Possible Hammy. I would have been putrid as well if I were him. Yet another injury.

 

[The King!]

I said in the match thread that I thought Cox might look at Blakey in the mids or on a wing. I like the idea of him in the mids. The other option was to send him forward, after all he played forward quite a bit in juniors. But instead we get McCartin to FF. Stupid. MCCARTIN IS NOT A FORWARD COX!!!! AND MAKING BLAKEY PLAY AS A KEY BACK IS EFFING STUPID. GET OVER IT!!!!

Mccartin can take a grab but I do prefer him staying back, agree 100% re blakey

 

[wolftone57]

I’m really not convinced the midfield was the main problem. The defensive unit had an absolute shocker, as bad as the grand final. Players not tight enough on their men, not watching the ball, nobody willing to get the ground ball. They were collectively embarrassed and maybe got ahead of themselves after a good two weeks.

I don't agree. The backs were under the pump all night due to the mids being slack. Rowie would normally chase. But he didn't. Chad was non existent. Heens is great with vball in hand but when he has to chase an opponent he drops off. The forwards were not good either. This puts huge pressure on the backs and Pies opened up gaps and kept them open all night all because sa bunch of players refused to fill those gaps. Not the backs, they were guarding the players who are supposed to run into those gaps. But the mids and HF brigade. They refused to man up and we got towelled up because of it.

 

[caesar88]

I think we never really looked 'on' from the opening bounce. All three areas of the team were pretty poor and the skills/ball handling issue seemed to become infectious amongst our players.

The positive is that we showed enough fight to keep at it. If this game happened in recent years it'd be a 60+ point loss.