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Ok first off, apologies for the very long post – was not initially intended to be this way
I do not like to make negative posts about my team but after the lacklustre efforts of the past two weeks in particular, I cannot help but vent some of my frustrations here…
However you want to say it;
4 losses from our last 5,
5 losses from our last 7,
6 losses from our last 9…
Is more than just a slump. We had a slump last season. This is far worse – at least last year in games they looked competitive and would run it out every week rather than just rollover when down with little more than a whimper.
I know that there will be those whom will say that if you look at the ladder not too much damage has been done, we are still equal 2nd and as soon as the guys are back from their injuries the team will be back to their winning ways and the premiership is ours. Well I am hoping that they are right, because currently now when I look at the ladder I see ourselves sitting on the same win/loss as 7th, with Sydney, Fremantle and three trips to Telstra Dome to come. The way we are currently playing, I fear that we could lose all of those games and our only game in September will be against Essendon on the 1st.
I know we currently have among the worst injury-hit lists in the league, but with that said nine players missing from last year’s premiership team should not constitute a loss by almost 100 points to a team that will most likely finish in the bottom half of the top eight.
Yes, I expected a loss (We always lose to Port, much like how we always beat the Crows), but it was the way we lost that I find the most infuriating. There was no lift from the team after the debacle against Brisbane, after watching just the first 10 minutes you could tell that it was going to be long day where at the end a 15 goal belting can only be described as a deserved reward for the team’s performance.
We got played off the park today; lately the team seems only capable of winning when the opposition is playing worse than us and not because we are playing better than they are. The game-plan (what is left of it – everyone seems to just try their own thing 15 minutes into a quarter) has been worked out by the opposition and we are being tactically outmanoeuvred more often than not.
Some issues I find worrying about the team’s recent performances:
#1. PASSION – Where has it gone? Think back to Round 1 when we had 7 premiership players out against Sydney away at a ground that we had never won at before and how the team galvanised as a unit, despite the injuries and media circus over Cousins, to earn a great victory. Look at the performances lately – just where has that fighting spirit gone? The cohesion just doesn’t seem to be there. Surely the guys couldn’t have lost the hunger after last year’s win could they?
#2. DISPOSAL – What the hell has happened to it? We used to be the team that was renowned for clean disposal, quick football and effective possession. At the moment I think I could kick a sack of wheat more accurately that what I’ve seen from the team in the latter part of this season. We just seem unable to hit targets which makes it so much easier for opposition teams. And its not just one player or inexperienced players – every player on the team seems to have caught this disease of inaccurate disposal of the ball. Whoever is the kicking coach for the club should be kicked out that is for sure.
Additionally the decision-making of the choice of disposal has been miserable to put it kindly. We are playing little different to the under12’s teams that you see in the park on the weekend – just bomb it forward without looking and hope that a team-mate might get to it first before the opposition does or handball to someone next to you whom is stationary and just as likely to get caught with it as you are. They are professional and premiership-winning players, why do they suddenly seem unable to decide what on earth they are going to do with the ball when get hold of it?
#3. ACCOUNTABILITY – How hard is it to tell a player that he has someone from the opposition side to be watchful of, and to be defensively accountable and run with him when your team does not have the ball? Every footballer gets told this fundamental from the first time he pulls on his boots in the juniors until the day he retires, but it seems like we’ve forgotten all about that – the midfield in particular.
I rated Stenglein highly before, but now I believe that he is easily amongst the most key players for our club. It seems that he is the only one of our midfield brigade that works to close down opposition midfielders finding space to get easy marks up forward. Without him in the team, we have been dominated by players pushing up and finding space at half forward because players are not being accountable for their opponents.
#4. THE BACKLINE – If we didn’t have Darren Glass we wouldn’t have a backline. He is the shining light in a backline that has lately not been rebounding but instead looking slow and awkward and coughing it up under pressure. We look very uncomfortable defensively when the opposition team plays 3 or more talls up forward as we are unable to matchup upon them all. It also seems this season the defence will have episodes where they can go to sleep for a period in which the opposition is allowed to pile on 5-6 goals very quickly and effectively win the game. Our kickouts always go wide and we work the ball out slowly without direction, which allows the opposition time to set up defensively. There are a lot of players lacking confidence down there and today would’ve done nothing to help that. As we all know if Glass is out or has a bad game, we will struggle very immensely (When he copped one in the nads against Brisbane and was on the bench for just 3 minutes, the Lions kicked 3 crucial goals – and Brown played a part in all of them – god help us if he misses as much as a game).
#5. THE FORWARDLINE – Will it ever be balanced? It always seems like we’re too tall and too slow or too small and easily outmarked. Up forward we provide very little defensive pressure on the opposition – every time the opponent has a kick-in we allow them to get it out of defence far too easily and don’t start applying pressure until the second or third kick and by then its usually at centre wing. If we don’t get a clean mark in forward 50, we are almost always second to the contest on the ground. We have no-one in our squad that can perform the roles at a standard that Rodan and Motlop did for Port Adelaide against us today.
#6. TACTICS – I believe we have been found out somewhat, and that even with all our injured players back, it is going to be more difficult than last year due to the way teams are beginning to approach us tactically.
The strength of the Eagles’ dominance over last seasons has unquestionably been the quality of the midfield. In the past teams have always tried to quell our running players by trying to tag them out of the game, hoping that they break even there and leave it to the other areas of the ground that match-up better to decide the game. This tactic rarely works as most taggers can’t keep up and end up getting burnt to the tone of 20-or-so possessions by Judd, Cousins, Kerr and co. so their efforts are wasted and the brilliance of the Eagle’s midfield wins the game anyway.
Lately however, opponents have been starting to focus not upon our midfield strength so much but more upon our backline as an area to exploit.
Specialist taggers that were previously going to our midfielders are now marking up on our smaller backmen with the result that our ability to rebound hard into the midfield out of defence has been lost due to the opposition’s added pressure. Due to the backline not being able to rebound possession so effectively, our gun midfielders are now finding themselves having to run into the defensive half to help the defence get the ball out, thus negating their attacking threat whilst at the same time adding to opposition’s goal threat as they take their opposite numbers with them. As we are a team relies heavily upon our midfield to do the attacking and push forward, the forward line becomes isolated and our lack of a true crumbing forward is compounded as the ball is allowed to rebound out of the opposition defence rapidly before the midfield can rush forward to support the attack.
This tactic when executed as it was today (and the last few times Port has played us I might add, which could partially explain their very good record against us) keeps us to a low score whilst giving the opposition the chance to score quickly.
I’m not saying our season is over by any means. I still believe in my team and its players and am confident of their abilities to turn things around. It’s just that I’m sick of hearing people say that everything will be rosy as soon as a few players come back when there are some serious questions being asked, that I believe will not be necessarily fixed by slotting in underdone players coming back from injuries.
Opponents are taking notes from these games and will be applying these tactics more and more often in the future.
At the moment any opposition team can be competitive and win against us if they do the following:
- Double team Cox to stop him becoming an extra midfielder.
- Not fall into the trap of tagging the running playmakers; instead putting their own playmakers head-to-head against them as the West Coast midfield is not accountable when going back.
- Place hard-running, fierce tackling players upon players that like to run in the Eagle’s backline (Wirrapanda, Nicoski, Waters, B.Jones, Selwood etc) to kill the quick defensive rebound transition into attack.
- Stack the forward line with 3 tall marking options, as only Glass and Hunter are strong defensively against big men, and the other matchup will become a mismatch.
- Have a hard running midfield-type player playing almost as a loose man at half back to crumb the marking contests and act as a playmaker to rebound out of defence.
Or if that doesn’t work, just get some blood-nut from the bench to smack-out Glass behind the play...
Seriously though, we need to quickly find a solution to those tactics above and really lift our game if we are to remain competitive. Hopefully this is the bottom of the well and it is only upwards from now on, plus Sydney always have a habit of playing us into some form.
Despite the bad and the ugly, its time to stay behind the guys and help give them the confidence to get it together again on the field.
Come on Eagles! Let’s show those Swans what we’re made of!!
I do not like to make negative posts about my team but after the lacklustre efforts of the past two weeks in particular, I cannot help but vent some of my frustrations here…
However you want to say it;
4 losses from our last 5,
5 losses from our last 7,
6 losses from our last 9…
Is more than just a slump. We had a slump last season. This is far worse – at least last year in games they looked competitive and would run it out every week rather than just rollover when down with little more than a whimper.
I know that there will be those whom will say that if you look at the ladder not too much damage has been done, we are still equal 2nd and as soon as the guys are back from their injuries the team will be back to their winning ways and the premiership is ours. Well I am hoping that they are right, because currently now when I look at the ladder I see ourselves sitting on the same win/loss as 7th, with Sydney, Fremantle and three trips to Telstra Dome to come. The way we are currently playing, I fear that we could lose all of those games and our only game in September will be against Essendon on the 1st.
I know we currently have among the worst injury-hit lists in the league, but with that said nine players missing from last year’s premiership team should not constitute a loss by almost 100 points to a team that will most likely finish in the bottom half of the top eight.
Yes, I expected a loss (We always lose to Port, much like how we always beat the Crows), but it was the way we lost that I find the most infuriating. There was no lift from the team after the debacle against Brisbane, after watching just the first 10 minutes you could tell that it was going to be long day where at the end a 15 goal belting can only be described as a deserved reward for the team’s performance.
We got played off the park today; lately the team seems only capable of winning when the opposition is playing worse than us and not because we are playing better than they are. The game-plan (what is left of it – everyone seems to just try their own thing 15 minutes into a quarter) has been worked out by the opposition and we are being tactically outmanoeuvred more often than not.
Some issues I find worrying about the team’s recent performances:
#1. PASSION – Where has it gone? Think back to Round 1 when we had 7 premiership players out against Sydney away at a ground that we had never won at before and how the team galvanised as a unit, despite the injuries and media circus over Cousins, to earn a great victory. Look at the performances lately – just where has that fighting spirit gone? The cohesion just doesn’t seem to be there. Surely the guys couldn’t have lost the hunger after last year’s win could they?
#2. DISPOSAL – What the hell has happened to it? We used to be the team that was renowned for clean disposal, quick football and effective possession. At the moment I think I could kick a sack of wheat more accurately that what I’ve seen from the team in the latter part of this season. We just seem unable to hit targets which makes it so much easier for opposition teams. And its not just one player or inexperienced players – every player on the team seems to have caught this disease of inaccurate disposal of the ball. Whoever is the kicking coach for the club should be kicked out that is for sure.
Additionally the decision-making of the choice of disposal has been miserable to put it kindly. We are playing little different to the under12’s teams that you see in the park on the weekend – just bomb it forward without looking and hope that a team-mate might get to it first before the opposition does or handball to someone next to you whom is stationary and just as likely to get caught with it as you are. They are professional and premiership-winning players, why do they suddenly seem unable to decide what on earth they are going to do with the ball when get hold of it?
#3. ACCOUNTABILITY – How hard is it to tell a player that he has someone from the opposition side to be watchful of, and to be defensively accountable and run with him when your team does not have the ball? Every footballer gets told this fundamental from the first time he pulls on his boots in the juniors until the day he retires, but it seems like we’ve forgotten all about that – the midfield in particular.
I rated Stenglein highly before, but now I believe that he is easily amongst the most key players for our club. It seems that he is the only one of our midfield brigade that works to close down opposition midfielders finding space to get easy marks up forward. Without him in the team, we have been dominated by players pushing up and finding space at half forward because players are not being accountable for their opponents.
#4. THE BACKLINE – If we didn’t have Darren Glass we wouldn’t have a backline. He is the shining light in a backline that has lately not been rebounding but instead looking slow and awkward and coughing it up under pressure. We look very uncomfortable defensively when the opposition team plays 3 or more talls up forward as we are unable to matchup upon them all. It also seems this season the defence will have episodes where they can go to sleep for a period in which the opposition is allowed to pile on 5-6 goals very quickly and effectively win the game. Our kickouts always go wide and we work the ball out slowly without direction, which allows the opposition time to set up defensively. There are a lot of players lacking confidence down there and today would’ve done nothing to help that. As we all know if Glass is out or has a bad game, we will struggle very immensely (When he copped one in the nads against Brisbane and was on the bench for just 3 minutes, the Lions kicked 3 crucial goals – and Brown played a part in all of them – god help us if he misses as much as a game).
#5. THE FORWARDLINE – Will it ever be balanced? It always seems like we’re too tall and too slow or too small and easily outmarked. Up forward we provide very little defensive pressure on the opposition – every time the opponent has a kick-in we allow them to get it out of defence far too easily and don’t start applying pressure until the second or third kick and by then its usually at centre wing. If we don’t get a clean mark in forward 50, we are almost always second to the contest on the ground. We have no-one in our squad that can perform the roles at a standard that Rodan and Motlop did for Port Adelaide against us today.
#6. TACTICS – I believe we have been found out somewhat, and that even with all our injured players back, it is going to be more difficult than last year due to the way teams are beginning to approach us tactically.
The strength of the Eagles’ dominance over last seasons has unquestionably been the quality of the midfield. In the past teams have always tried to quell our running players by trying to tag them out of the game, hoping that they break even there and leave it to the other areas of the ground that match-up better to decide the game. This tactic rarely works as most taggers can’t keep up and end up getting burnt to the tone of 20-or-so possessions by Judd, Cousins, Kerr and co. so their efforts are wasted and the brilliance of the Eagle’s midfield wins the game anyway.
Lately however, opponents have been starting to focus not upon our midfield strength so much but more upon our backline as an area to exploit.
Specialist taggers that were previously going to our midfielders are now marking up on our smaller backmen with the result that our ability to rebound hard into the midfield out of defence has been lost due to the opposition’s added pressure. Due to the backline not being able to rebound possession so effectively, our gun midfielders are now finding themselves having to run into the defensive half to help the defence get the ball out, thus negating their attacking threat whilst at the same time adding to opposition’s goal threat as they take their opposite numbers with them. As we are a team relies heavily upon our midfield to do the attacking and push forward, the forward line becomes isolated and our lack of a true crumbing forward is compounded as the ball is allowed to rebound out of the opposition defence rapidly before the midfield can rush forward to support the attack.
This tactic when executed as it was today (and the last few times Port has played us I might add, which could partially explain their very good record against us) keeps us to a low score whilst giving the opposition the chance to score quickly.
I’m not saying our season is over by any means. I still believe in my team and its players and am confident of their abilities to turn things around. It’s just that I’m sick of hearing people say that everything will be rosy as soon as a few players come back when there are some serious questions being asked, that I believe will not be necessarily fixed by slotting in underdone players coming back from injuries.
Opponents are taking notes from these games and will be applying these tactics more and more often in the future.
At the moment any opposition team can be competitive and win against us if they do the following:
- Double team Cox to stop him becoming an extra midfielder.
- Not fall into the trap of tagging the running playmakers; instead putting their own playmakers head-to-head against them as the West Coast midfield is not accountable when going back.
- Place hard-running, fierce tackling players upon players that like to run in the Eagle’s backline (Wirrapanda, Nicoski, Waters, B.Jones, Selwood etc) to kill the quick defensive rebound transition into attack.
- Stack the forward line with 3 tall marking options, as only Glass and Hunter are strong defensively against big men, and the other matchup will become a mismatch.
- Have a hard running midfield-type player playing almost as a loose man at half back to crumb the marking contests and act as a playmaker to rebound out of defence.
Or if that doesn’t work, just get some blood-nut from the bench to smack-out Glass behind the play...
Seriously though, we need to quickly find a solution to those tactics above and really lift our game if we are to remain competitive. Hopefully this is the bottom of the well and it is only upwards from now on, plus Sydney always have a habit of playing us into some form.
Despite the bad and the ugly, its time to stay behind the guys and help give them the confidence to get it together again on the field.
Come on Eagles! Let’s show those Swans what we’re made of!!
