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

[Possession]

It’s all giving me bad vibes for Good Friday

Carlton are playing like we did last night. They just seem to give up. For all their talent, nobody wants to work. I'm fully expecting them to beat us now, as we are seemingly unmatched in that area.

 

[Reagan Smash]

The game is called football .
But how many of our players are elite or even very good at kicking the damn ball?

 

[Private Hudson]

We’ve won 16 out of our last 111 games. I don’t understand why everyone thinks it’s going to magically turn around. We were good against Melbourne but they are terrible - other than that I haven’t seen any improvement to be brutally honest. Still doing the same shit we have done for the last 6 years.

 

[Possession]

We’ve won 16 out of our last 111 games. I don’t understand why everyone thinks it’s going to magically turn around. We were good against Melbourne but they are terrible - other than that I haven’t seen any improvement to be brutally honest. Still doing the same shit we have done for the last 6 years.

That we were staying in games for most of four quarters was an encouraging sign thus far, but a six goal loss last week against top shelf opposition into a ten goal loss this week against a weakened side represents a very concerning trajectory. A bit of 2023 about the start of this season so far.

 

[Masked Avenger]

Their kick to handball ratio was 2.1, ours was 1.2.

They kicked a goal every 18 possessions and scored every 12, we kicked a goal every 49 possessions and scored every 32.

They had seven players with over 350 metres gained, we had two.

It's called crabbing - extraordinary when you think that our core training drill over summer was that overlap, slingshot play through the corridor.

Our worst offenders are McDonald and Corr who refuse to get on their bikes and prefer to seagull by running sideways and backwards screaming for the ball from complying young players.

 

[tricknologist]

I expected us to lose. Sydney are undermanned but they're a professional side and I expected them to narrowly get past us. But the ease with which they dog walked us all night was very concerning. It's also concerning that, despite investing so much draft capital in our midfield, we struggle to generate significant advantages from it. The midfield looked electric against Melbourne, but this is the third game this season where it looked middle of the road at best.

Also, I really don't understand what our backline is supposed to be. Logue is supposed to be the lynchpin, but he's made of glass and has played more bad games than good for us. Daniel was recruited to provide leadership and class, but he's doing dumb shit like trying to pinpoint a kick inside the defensive 50 with 30 seconds left in the quarter. I really like Dawson and Whitlock, but is the plan to wait 2-3 years until they're ready to do the job (why were those sorts of players drafted half a decade into a rebuid?) and we draft a small-medium defender who can move faster than a glacier?

 

[Duck the GOAT]

3 players in Daniel Stephens and Tucker that got stacks of ball around half back but weren't able to break lines. Of those 3 only Daniel seems to be aggressive with the ball use but last couple of weeks been a turnover merchant when he has.

 

[Dingster]

FOS - I feel lethargic and don't feel like doing anything.

North senior team - hold my beer.

 

[shinboner magic]

The worst and most simple part of the game that we struggle in , is in team defence.
The other sides just chip it around at will and take it from one end to the other so easily.

Zone defence just lets these campaigners be lazy
Are they dumb , unfit or have no footy intelligence
Till we fix this up - nothing else matters

 

[chickenonachain]

The game now is all about uncontested possessions and we can’t play that game because none of our players can FECKING kick!

 

[Chadwiko]

You're blinded by leftism. You wouldn't understand.

So when challenged multiple times to actually define what the "woke" part of our club you're complaining about is, you have failed to do it every time.

I'm not sure even you know what you're complaining about.

 

[scottywiper]

Didn't watch the game, was very busy at work, but was able to hear bits and pieces, I did say before the match we would take them to the cleaners, I may have been wrong about that, as much as I hate to say it, the Swans were way to good and performed like a team who had made two out of the last three grand finals.

Have read every post on this thread tonight, for once can't actually defend our boys tonight, that was real bad, they are indeed better than that BUT its "round four", they are one of the "top teams", they have made it to "2 of the the last 3 grand finals" and they know their system perfectly well, while we are getting there but the penny hasn't quite dropped yet, quite stunned to be honest, but on reflection, maybe this was always about them coming good rather than us playing so badly, we got taught a valuable lesson tonight and I know with how everyone's feeling this won't sink in but we aren't there yet and to be the team we are striving to become, there are still some issues to be worked out.

Regroup, next week is Gather Round in Adelaide, we play the unbeaten Gold Coast, who will be Phar Lap odds to win, get our team structure right, our selections spot on and see what happens, right now its Hell, but nothing is ever as bad as it seems!

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

 

[Harris 10]

The worst and most simple part of the game that we struggle in , is in team defence.
The other sides just chip it around at will and take it from one end to the other so easily.

Zone defence just lets these campaigners be lazy
Are they dumb , unfit or have no footy intelligence
Till we fix this up - nothing else matters

The amount of times this year sides are able to open us up with small little chip kicks from the back half is incredibly frustrating.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

For the first time in a long time, I’m not genuinely not sure where to go from here.

We have enough talent to be at least competitive. I just don’t know what the problem is anymore, and that scares me.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

The worst and most simple part of the game that we struggle in , is in team defence.
The other sides just chip it around at will and take it from one end to the other so easily.

Zone defence just lets these campaigners be lazy
Are they dumb , unfit or have no footy intelligence
Till we fix this up - nothing else matters

Correct.

This when coupled with the unpressured turnovers make the gameplan untenable.

 

[ChopChopDigDig]

Our % is back under 100

 

[Warrboy]

It’s so frustrating. I am convinced Clarko and Viney can see it but nothing seems to have changed. We don’t care if there is evidence of effort but where’s the effort? No effort (and/or fitness), no skill, dumb decision making … it’s Groundhog Day all over again. They don’t look committed! You can be dumb and unskilled but effort - numbers to the contest, defensive effort, presenting as a credible option - should be a non negotiable.

 

[Val Keating]

It’s going to be a long week

 

[scottywiper]

It’s going to be a long decade

Fixed it for you. Lol

 

[Samsquanch]

The sad thing is, Sydney weren't even that good. They were wasteful too and average. We just couldn't do anything right.

Our own worst enemy. We keep doing the same mistakes.

I concur. Sydney looked sloppy and unconvincing. We were far worse than them however.

The North Melbourne effort across almost every position last night was below par. Sydney looked ordinary - any half decent side would have blown them away. They did transition much better than North though, but even that wasn't a big deal as North players hardly positioned defensively and they often only made token chases. It wasn't unusual for Sydney to have three runners alone without a North opponent within 50m when they won a turnover in our forward line - that happened all night long.

And it looked terrible when our blokes did manage to win a turnover - at times our deep forwards appeared to not anticipate the ball coming into the 50 arc. It was like several of them weren't concentrating. I saw Curtis on a couple of occasions position himself to crumb off a marking contest then realise that no North player was going to contest, so he had to pivot from the sweeping position to contest the mark.

I'm right off Zurhaar at the moment. Maybe it's just that opponents have him worked out or maybe he's getting good defensive players on him, but he's not playing well.

And it's time to sort out a role for Daniel - it might well be that our blokes just don't make space or position to take advantage of whatever it is he does, but if I'm an opponent my eyes light up when he gets the ball. Sheez was really the only North player who created a viable target on a consistent basis.

 

[Danni_Benson]

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!

 

[Themanbun]

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.

 

[Possession]

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!

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

 

[Marstermind]

Very very disappointing night. I could literally write an essay on what is wrong with this team... So I'll just jump to the most disappointing moment of this game:

3rd quarter: Heeney gets the ball in the centre, runs sideways and for the 1st time all night we must have had their forwards covered, so he dawdles around with it. Cam Zurhaar runs up from behind and could literally do anything to him, since Heeney had no idea he was there... and... ugh, I don't even know how to explain what happened next, other than maybe say "absolutely fn nothing".

Maybe they call him "Bull" for a reason:

Remember Rhyce Shaw's first game in 2019 against a peak Richmond where he hunted down anything in yellow and black that moved? If the ball spilled out from his tackle and a Richmond bloke dared pick it up he just moved on to him and mowed him down. 11 tackles, a few weeks later he laid 9 against Hawthorn and maybe where he got the name Bull.

Now he's just Bullshit. Hasn't laid 11 tackles for the season so far, and hasn't got anywhere near that in a game since. Now he's just a mid-sized flanker looking for cheap goals who's work rate hasn't just dropped off - it's near ground zero. That he missed that tackle was bad enough. But late in the first we're playing badly but only a goal and a bit down. Easy 25m pass to set up a shot for goal, lazily stabs it, misses it, Swans rebound and get one themselves and we're never in the game again. I'd drop him.

 

[Ashley B]

When a team has a week off like the Swans had , you need to start well. We looked slow and lethargic as the game wore on . We deliberately stopped them scoring and us too by playing keeping’s off half way through the third, as it would have ended up being a much larger loss . Playing the September shuffle down at the club all week also a hindrance lol