Today's result shows an insight to what may end up being a somewhat disappointing season.
Enough of the tubthumping about being ok without Cousins and Judd - let's get to the honest truth; our midfield is slow this year and lacks skill in its disposal. Each of Embley, Steglein, Braun and Fletcher are past their peak and will only deteriorate in their endurance and consistency.
We waste time in the centre overusing the ball because we still have no organisational setup in our forward line which just causes congestion and allows opposition backmen to outnumber us at every forward contest which takes our big men out the game as they are easily beaten to the ground ball.
With our big men ineffective, we are then unable to kick high scores if our midfield doesn't get forward and kick the majority of them. However with the midfield brigade lacking in pace and being unable to hit targets - we can't expect it to occur all too often this season.
With the combined inputs of our midfield being slower to get up the ground and not kicking to the advantage of our forwards, and our forwards being unable to compete for the ground ball and man their opponents effectively - the opposition can effectively build a wall across half back and launch waves of counterattacks against us before our defense has time to effectively man up.
As a result of this it becomes very hard for us to attack quickly off half back ourselves, as our backmen become weary of running off their men offensively should it come back quickly the other way, which ironically gives the opposition more space through the middle of the ground to get it in quickly when they are on the counter.
Additionally this also provides the opposition with higher percentage scoring chances as they are mostly from the central corridor (Adelaide 21.7 today with almost all their goals from with 45 degree of centre; conversely the majority of our chances were from greater than 45 degrees angle to the goals).
Another worrying trend that seems to be emerging is being unable to contain an opposition forward if they are having a good day. If you include the final preseason match with near full strength squad against Essendon then bags of 6, 6 and 7 have been gained by individual players against us in the past three games. Many of our defenders seem lost at times without the midfield help that they have had in previous seasons and it is now being exploited.
We have to be honest with ourselves and admit that we are no longer one of the highflyers of the competition challenging for premierships, but now are just a decent side that can be very good on its day.
We only have three players that seem capable of winning contests in the middle: Cox, Kerr and Priddis - each of the others is either ineffective or inconsistant, and we can't keep all three on all game unfortunately.
The youngsters coming through whilst they may in time be very good are not going to be the saviours that some have been touting this season - they need to be given time to develop.
It's not just Cousins and Judd being missed - its Chick's aggression and tagging on players like McCleod or Johncock, RoJo's workrate off the ball to keep the opposition honest and even Banfield's ability as a second tagger in the centre if needed - none of those voids have been filled adequately as of yet.
To gain anything from this season we will have completely restructure the way we play, otherwise other teams whom have watched this will just play the same tactic to gain similar results.
Less big men up forward - Lynch, Kennedy each one out and Hansen playing up the ground and then have one or two crumbers hanging around the 50 arc running forward towards contests when it comes in to take the spoils - get the congestion out of there.
Play Cox as an onballer and Seaby as the ruckman - we don't have enough quality through the centre and Cox is absolute gold.
Stack the backline - I know, I know, its ugly and its not our style - but if we are not winning the middle and the backline is under the pump and we have players up forward whom are just bring more opponents to our big men and not much else, then why not put them down at half back to help get it out of defensive 50 easier and also congest the leads of opposition marking forwards?
Sorry about the long post - as you know its been a long day; IMO today is worse than the debacle against Port last year - at least we were injured then and Port were a top team headed for a final.
Today we had a good list to choose from and this was the result from a side that most had tipped to struggle to make the top eight.
Woosha never play two debutants in the same game again - we average a 14 goal loss whenever that happens
Enough of the tubthumping about being ok without Cousins and Judd - let's get to the honest truth; our midfield is slow this year and lacks skill in its disposal. Each of Embley, Steglein, Braun and Fletcher are past their peak and will only deteriorate in their endurance and consistency.
We waste time in the centre overusing the ball because we still have no organisational setup in our forward line which just causes congestion and allows opposition backmen to outnumber us at every forward contest which takes our big men out the game as they are easily beaten to the ground ball.
With our big men ineffective, we are then unable to kick high scores if our midfield doesn't get forward and kick the majority of them. However with the midfield brigade lacking in pace and being unable to hit targets - we can't expect it to occur all too often this season.
With the combined inputs of our midfield being slower to get up the ground and not kicking to the advantage of our forwards, and our forwards being unable to compete for the ground ball and man their opponents effectively - the opposition can effectively build a wall across half back and launch waves of counterattacks against us before our defense has time to effectively man up.
As a result of this it becomes very hard for us to attack quickly off half back ourselves, as our backmen become weary of running off their men offensively should it come back quickly the other way, which ironically gives the opposition more space through the middle of the ground to get it in quickly when they are on the counter.
Additionally this also provides the opposition with higher percentage scoring chances as they are mostly from the central corridor (Adelaide 21.7 today with almost all their goals from with 45 degree of centre; conversely the majority of our chances were from greater than 45 degrees angle to the goals).
Another worrying trend that seems to be emerging is being unable to contain an opposition forward if they are having a good day. If you include the final preseason match with near full strength squad against Essendon then bags of 6, 6 and 7 have been gained by individual players against us in the past three games. Many of our defenders seem lost at times without the midfield help that they have had in previous seasons and it is now being exploited.
We have to be honest with ourselves and admit that we are no longer one of the highflyers of the competition challenging for premierships, but now are just a decent side that can be very good on its day.
We only have three players that seem capable of winning contests in the middle: Cox, Kerr and Priddis - each of the others is either ineffective or inconsistant, and we can't keep all three on all game unfortunately.
The youngsters coming through whilst they may in time be very good are not going to be the saviours that some have been touting this season - they need to be given time to develop.
It's not just Cousins and Judd being missed - its Chick's aggression and tagging on players like McCleod or Johncock, RoJo's workrate off the ball to keep the opposition honest and even Banfield's ability as a second tagger in the centre if needed - none of those voids have been filled adequately as of yet.
To gain anything from this season we will have completely restructure the way we play, otherwise other teams whom have watched this will just play the same tactic to gain similar results.
Less big men up forward - Lynch, Kennedy each one out and Hansen playing up the ground and then have one or two crumbers hanging around the 50 arc running forward towards contests when it comes in to take the spoils - get the congestion out of there.
Play Cox as an onballer and Seaby as the ruckman - we don't have enough quality through the centre and Cox is absolute gold.
Stack the backline - I know, I know, its ugly and its not our style - but if we are not winning the middle and the backline is under the pump and we have players up forward whom are just bring more opponents to our big men and not much else, then why not put them down at half back to help get it out of defensive 50 easier and also congest the leads of opposition marking forwards?
Sorry about the long post - as you know its been a long day; IMO today is worse than the debacle against Port last year - at least we were injured then and Port were a top team headed for a final.
Today we had a good list to choose from and this was the result from a side that most had tipped to struggle to make the top eight.
Woosha never play two debutants in the same game again - we average a 14 goal loss whenever that happens
