Arrogance at the Selection Table

[Ben the Gooner]

I disagree. I don't think we are. I think we are an average team. Good teams don't lose to Melbourne. We may be on the rise but until we can develop some consistency we cannot consider ourselves a good team. Our relatively easy draw made us look better than we really are. We will scrape into seventh or eighth.

If you want to use single games as proof, average teams don't beat West Coast like a red headed step child.

 

[yaco55]

Agree with Ben that we must get the structure correct - If we played Gumby - StKilda would not have had McEvoy dropping back into defence - or we would have made him accountable - Digressing but McEvoy's game was over-rated - yes he did a job in defence - but was soundly beaten in the ruck by Hille and Ryder.

Anyway we are playing Power at the correct time - After the showdown.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Without Schulz.

 

[aussierulesrules]

We're a really good team. We thought we could beat an average St Kilda team (and they are very average) with a half arsed gameplan built around the 22 picked.

Very average? How much have you seen of us this year, especially recently? I think you're underrating us.

Do "very average" teams convincingly win 3 of their last 8 games against current top four teams? (We beat Carlton easily in round 7, when they were sitting 2nd on the ladder, when they had lost only one match for the year and still had the likes of Murphy, Waite, Henderson, etc playing, we then completely dominated 4th placed Sydney for much of our match with them, the week after they won by 100 points and the week before they won by 90+ in their next match and last night we again smashed a team sitting in the top four).

In that time, we also lost to Adelaide (in Adelaide) by only 4 points, to an on-fire Richmond by a goal and against West Coast in Perth we got back to within a couple of goals at about the 20 min mark of the last quarter, on a hot day, coming off a six-day break, when we were down to 3 on the bench by quarter time. Last week, coming off the bye, we were sluggish as hell and put in our worst match of the year and made some horrendous selection mistakes (leaving out both Jones and Ray, our two best tagging options for Wells and Harvey, was diabolical), plus being down to 2 on the bench for the last 45 mins, on top of Kosi being physically ill for much of the game, yet we were still within a couple of kicks inside the last 10 mins of the game, against a rampant North.

You also say that you were the only team that hadn't been "flogged" this year, but our worst loss of the season is just 36 points, against Hawthorn, which was a close match until about 3/4 time, with them pulling away in the end. Our next worst was last week, when, as I said, we were withing 2 goals in the last 10 mins of the game.

The only game we've played this year where we weren't within a couple of goals (or leading) inside the last 10 mins or so of the match, was that loss to Hawthorn (which was close to 3/4 time) and I don't think "very average" teams are that competitive.

We also went through the toughest part of our draw without our two best/main ruck options (McEvoy and Stanley, who was also doing really well up forward: who both missed about 5-6 weeks), meaning that we had to take our best marking option up forward at the time out of the forward line and play him in the ruck and also play one of our only "talls" down back in the ruck as well, at the same time Sam Fisher (who is easily in our top 5) missed a bunch of weeks of footy, taking him out of our backline, at a time when Gwilt was also still out of the side (getting back from his knee-reco).

So we went through the hardest part of our draw with a seriously undermanned and undersized backline, makeshift rucks and short forwardline, yet were still ultra-competitive against, or convincingly beat some of the best teams in the comp.

You may not be aware of this, but we're also the second highest scoring side in the comp this year (Hawthorn passed us today), so maybe you shouldn't feel so bad about last night, as I don't think it was a "very average" team that you lost to (unless you have extraordinarily high standards).

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Yeah, I stand by that. You're an average team.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Looks like you've already dropped the "very", so you're not standing too strongly by that!

The other thing is, when we tackle like that (which we did especially well against Sydney and Carlton as well and which was such a huge part of our game in 2009, when we won 19 on the trot), we pretty much don't lose.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Very average. Whatever you want.

 

[Phone]

I'd say they're above average. I mean, they've still got their guns, they've got their ruckman back. Depth is questionable but they've still got the top end talent. I'm expecting them to make the 8.

 

[daffo]

No Hurley, Crameri or Monfries meant we had no one leading from inside the 50. When players from half back looked up there was no one to kick to. We got stuck.

I don't think it was arrogance because we don't have anyone else in the side (VFL/AFL) at the moment that can play that role. Winderlich also does it but he is injured. Crameri out was compounded with Monfries also being out and when Hurley went down we were stuffed.

 

[Childish Gambino]

Great post Ben.

The only part I disagree with is that we're a really good team. At the moment we're a good team with a few issues and humps to get over before we become a really good team.

 

[Slattery_20]

I'm not sure if it was arrogance, but the way Lonergan and Dyson have come back in reeks of picking players the coaches, well, know. Instead of say, a Kav or even Browne. (Not saying they would have played, just examples of players they don't know). I think that's misguided

The VFL fixture has killed them this year, as well. Someone like Browne's played maybe 3 games in the last 6 weeks. Playing havoc with match fitness & ability to rotate.
Keep that in mind.
Don't really want to see newbies unless they're actually fit to go. Melksham's lack of tank, and resulting up & down form has been bad enough; what we really don't need is another 2 or 3 in exactly the same boat.