Autopsy Flogged by way more composed swans, back to the bad old days.

[scottywiper]

Don't think this is ever going to change. Need a second, contested mark KPF so bloody bad.

We got Darling!

 

[Possession]

We got Darling!

Lol I should have said closer to 200cm

 

[scottywiper]

I know they're only human and it's just a game, but to see the players smiling and joking in rooms afterwards wasn't ideal either. I'm sure they do care a lot, but I was expecting a more sombre mood after that performance.

 

[Danni_Benson]

Don't think this is ever going to change. Need a second, contested mark KPF so bloody bad.

It’s frustrating.

I’m no expert, but it felt like there were a hundred players in our forward 50 all night - no one creating space.

 

[ansonholt]

In the light of day this loss doesn't feel any better. It's as bad a feeling as the round 2 win was good.

A pivotal moment in the game as follows:
About a minute to go in the second quarter. We'd been playing average footy to this point with some nice moments, and only down by 15 points.

Swans kick a behind to make the lead 16. Caleb Daniel with the kick out. No-one really moving for him but there's a group of players about 40 out and he tries to hit up Bailey Scott of all players. Too much traffic around him for that option, easy intercept and goal to Warner.

Heads drop, and Sydney have momentum. Very bad turnover and whatever was said to the team at half time didn't make any difference, obviously. A 7 goal to 1 quarter against us results and the all too familiar rout is on.

Turnovers killed us, but that one late in the 2nd was particularly painful. That plus the Zuurhaar missed pass in the first quarter, which would have been our 3rd unanswered goal and would have had us down by 3 points if converted after Sydney scored the first 20 points of the game.

This game was all about turnovers and overusing the ball. The more turnovers we committed, the worse it got as we generated even more turnovers due to losing self belief (Sheezel excepted). Like compounding interest.

Difficult to see how this turns around but that's what we pay all the $ to our coaches for.

Over to you now, coaching group.

Those of us who have supported this club financially and physically at games deserve better than the rubbish dished up last night.

 

[Only Forwards]

It’s frustrating.

I’m no expert, but it felt like there were a hundred players in our forward 50 all night - no one creating space.

We collectively flat out refuse to lead.

We want the ball long and high because we make believe we have contested marking beasts down there.

We need a genuine Key forward with marking power.

Maley or Teakle who ever plays better should play against the Suns. They should know this prior to the game today. Step up and a spot is yours.

We cannot have the ball movement we do and the structure we hold. They are incompatible.

 

[Only Forwards]

Swans kick a behind to make the lead 16. Caleb Daniel with the kick out. No-one really moving for him but there's a group of players about 40 out and he tries to hit up Bailey Scott of all players. Too much traffic around him for that option, easy intercept and goal to Warner.

This is a game plan issue as it is quite clearly an instruction on how we kick out.

Not on an individual, it’s just tactically inept.

 

[Flawed Genius]

So much lateral ball movement because we refuse to take the ground they give us and refuse to lead to provide options.

We do not do the hard things anywhere near enough.

To be fair to Sydney, they get into their defensive zone so quickly. Every time we got the footy back off them they were straight to where they needed to be. Their zone is excellent. It doesn't help that we spent the better part of 45 seconds shifting it side to side - but not quickly enough to fatigue their players. Pretty easy to defend against if our #1 choice is a 25m sideways kick to Daniel, who stands there for 15 seconds waiting for someone to lead, only to kick long to McCartin & Grundy, or go back from whence it came to Comben who takes another 15 seconds to shift it out the fat side to Corr, only to discover the fat side is now the skinny side because Sydney are fit as f**k and have shifted their zone very easily.

On the very few occasions our players did sprint and lead and cut through the zone or switched it quickly, it caught Sydney out. The only subsequent problem being once we got the footy about 70m from goal, none of our forwards are leading, Sydney have simply flooded back into the hole, and we're forced to ... Bomb it long to McCartin and Grundy

 

[Marstermind]

It wasn’t the only difference but it is absolutely the cornerstone on which Sydney built the win.

They worked hard with and without the ball.

We were no where near matching them in either.

Throughly disappointing.

Agree - not many of our blokes could look each other in the eye and say they had a real dip. I thought in the first half we were jumped, but actually fought well enough to hang in there and minimise the damage. But in the second half - that was as close to a team giving up as you'll ever see.

Poor skill level is the defining characteristic of our team - whether work rate is up or not. Even again Melbourne it was ordinary outside a 10min burst which was built off centre clearance, not transition. And trying to counter it by crabbing backwards and sideways across half back, building up nice uncontested numbers but achieving precisely sweet FA isn't going to cut it either.

You can work your arses off for 100mins, but if you can't execute the simplest of skills or move the ball with any purpose, you lose 9 times out 10.

 

[Ashley B]

The Swans are one of the most professionally run clubs out there on game day. So are their neighbours GWS , on field anyway.
The Swans were on another level to us last night.

 

[Val Keating]

Fixed it for you. Lol

sick to death of it.

 

[Val Keating]

I love Larkey but can he please stop looking for a free at every contest! Drives me mad!

It seemed last night a couple of times the whole effing team stopped, waiting for a free to be paid whilst Sydney just waltzed on!

Yep. The frees are there but because he’s exaggerating them the umps won’t pay them. Needs to use his strength and play through the scragging.

 

[TruRoo]

Swans kick a behind to make the lead 16. Caleb Daniel with the kick out. No-one really moving for him but there's a group of players about 40 out and he tries to hit up Bailey Scott of all players. Too much traffic around him for that option, easy intercept and goal to Warner.

Heads drop, and Sydney have momentum. Very bad

Followed this up by jogging along next to a swans player with the ball who kicked the goal from outside 50 to kick off the third quarter rout.

Get Caleb Daniel out of this ****ing club.

Jade Rawlings, Farren Ray, Nathan Hrovat, Lachie Young, Caleb Daniel. The Braves constantly **** us over by tricking us to take their scraps (bar Higgins)

 

[leighlee13]

After the game ended, I turned off the tv and my computer. I have not read one post in this thread and TBH, I don't know if I want to. Its not the fact we lost (well it is sort of), it is the way we lost. If not for 2 late goals by Larkey, we would have lost by nearly 80 points. I know LDU needs to hold up his end of the bargain but if we continue to play like this, who can blame him for leaving. I certainly won't. Sheezel and Parker the two obvious shining lights. Too much being done by too few. Zurhaar and others need to play their roles otherwise its another season of more of the same for the players and for us.

 

[TruRoo]

Yep. The frees are there but because he’s exaggerating them the umps won’t pay them. Needs to use his strength and play through the scragging.

The frees aren’t there. Defenders are allowed to make body contact. Larkey’s a sook and we’d lose our shit if logue and corr were penalised for the exact same crap larkey simply can’t cope with.

 

[ansonholt]

This is a game plan issue as it is quite clearly an instruction on how we kick out.

Not on an individual, it’s just tactically inept.

I agree. I wasn't really blaming Caleb totally for that kick. It was clearly a plan and poorly executed, not just by him but by his team mates who weren't moving dynamically enough to pull it off.

Plan B should always be to go long to Xerri, Larkey or JD if that kick is not on. Seems like there is no plan B.

If we'd cleanly exited D50 at that point and perhaps even gotten a goal in that last minute it would have been a 10 point margin going into the half and therefore game on. The boys would have been fired up at half time. Possibly a totally different result on the night.

 

[scottywiper]

A senior figure at club said after last preseason game that if we didn't learn to defend we'd finish last again. And here we are a month later. Yesterday felt like early last season all over again.

 

[muttley45]

How many times at kick in's, did oppo just station someone with a bit of pace close enough to pressure Daniel, and force a turnover, when he does the same routine every single time, backline coaching deplorable.

 

[SheezNuts]

At this point I want anyone that has been in the side since 2021 gone.

 

[Passmore]

So at half time we were not doing well, but cracking in and still in the game.

Then there were three diabolical efforts at the start of the third that just showed we mentally aren't there.

Effort 1:

At the third stoppage after the first centre bounce. Sheezel was the sweeper and Daniel had rolled up to the back of the stoppage near him. Both of them watch Brayden Campbell stream through to get a handball receive right between the middle of them. No one blocked his run. They didn't even bother.

Effort 2:

Centre bounce, Sheezel as sweeper, LDU on Heeney at our front offensive side. LDU too focused on getting his own ball let's Heeney barrell through the middle of the stoppage instead of blocking his run, receive the hit out and stream forward. Credit to LDU he realised he was defensively lax and put in a good chase and got a hand to him right as he disposed of the ball, but the ship had already sailed.

That's two exits out the front of the stoppage at the start of a quarter. Unacceptable.

Effort 3:

Boundary throw in about 20m back from our half forward flank. Jy and Parker were at this stoppage so there's no excuse. Colby is a corridor side spare, so obviously a wing who has rolled. But front a boundary throw in, where is the hit zone 99% of the time? Directly in front of the two rucks towards the boundary side. Guess who is standing there completely unmanned, as Sydney's spare player?

Isaac flipping Heeney. He then gobbles up the tap and cruises down the boundary and hits a target.

I've been really positive towards their midfield smarts but Jy, Parker and LDU absolutely need to do better there. Someone needed to sacrifice a chance at winning the ball to get an extra number where the tap was most likely going to go, realising that Heeney occupied the most dangerous position at that stoppage with no one on him.




They banged on 3 quick goals from this insipid midfield work and then the game was done.

Great analysis. You need to start a Shinboner style blog. I'm being genuinely serious.



Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

 

[Spud11]

Everyone will melt down in here and call for this and that. But nothing will change. We all know it. The whole rest of the competition doesn’t think we’re a relevant, proper AFL entity and our players seem to believe it too.

 

[Zondor]

A valuable lesson? We're the slowest learners in AFL history..

We learnt a valuable lesson Vapour. We need to wait until these young guys play 60, 80 or 100 games.

 

[Gasometer]

That whole 4th quarter wasn't about us playing well, it was about Melbourne playing shit. We were 'meh' in the previous 3 quarters as well.

Awesome

Splitting hairs over the level of shitness

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

Brodie Grundy is such a campaigner. How we allowed him to towel us is disgraceful.

I love how that

I don't think we're a serious football club. These Boys just play for vibes and to have a laugh with their mates. We don't have ruthless people who demand success and set the standards to an acceptable level.

It’s literally in our song to be fair: “just for recreation sake; to pass the time away”…

 

[gokangas]

I know they're only human and it's just a game, but to see the players smiling and joking in rooms afterwards wasn't ideal either. I'm sure they do care a lot, but I was expecting a more sombre mood after that performance.

I agree Scotty - except it's not just a game when blokes are being paid high hundred thousands and perform crap with no consequences. Thats the issue to me. They are just going through the motions. No expectations and no consequences for poor form. I think I am hurting more than I have for a long time as I honestly thought the years of absolute unaccountable garbage were about to end under Clarko. I am losing hope. 60 years plus a member and this is as downhearted as I have felt since the winless 60s. Glad they can find a smile.