I was wondering if that GF loss just did too much damage to some blokes confidence, whether the pressure of being that one Eagles side who truly lowered their colours on a day the club has such a rich history of success is too much. Fremantle lose in similar fashion, no one cares, it doesn't haunt them the same way because there is nothing to compare it to. Our game however, the expectation because of what the club and the players who came before them have achieved was that we win, or a at minimum lose honourably. We lost dishonourably that day. Psychologically, its probably significant, the internal pressure that you'd feel in the lead up to every game thats seen as a must win, the pressure you'd feel in every 4th quarter when the other side is hunting you and the consequences of losing the match and how it'll reflect on your character are about all you can think about. Our players go to water in those situations, when the pressure is off we are fine.
I don't think its 42 players though, the younger players coming through in general show a lot more fighting spirit. They didn't play in that game. And its not every senior player. And some of the senior players who cop a lot of flack, they were actually very poor in big games even before that loss. So i'm not saying its the only reason. I'd bet its one of the big reasons though. And the solution, well its probably something completely counter intuitive like just saying **** it, lets not take ourselves too seriously lads, its a game, lets enjoy playing our footy, the expectations coming from people outside these 4 walls are meaningless. Lets just stop and take a break for a minute from being so disappointed in ourselves and putting pressure on ourselves to be the best, its clearly not working.