I have never been more frustrated

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Not yet 3/4 time but I have had enough. I like to be positive and not bag players but this is hard to take.

Hawthorn have not played particularly well, but the Blues have had no system at all. There have been no positives to console me at all. I'd like to once again put the question to those passionate Lance Whitnall fans about his lack of consistency. He has a superb football brain but his fitness and application go missing quite regularly. Woods has shut down Ratten and there goes the ball game. A lot of Blues players are content to let the Hawks mark the ball and hold them on the mark instead of trying to spoil. We look slow and disinterested.

This game has not impressed me about Hawthorn's chances, just rang alarm bells a few days after the outlook looked pretty good.

Aaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kobe]

A couple of points..the Allan/Porter resting up forward move doesnt work, we lack talls who can take a mark in the forward fifty and we lack size down back.Manton is too small for FB or CHB and Silvagni playing up at FF all the time never works. Hawthorn had too many targets like Croad, Barker and Thompson.
We were also killed in the midfield which is usually our strong area.
The odds said Hawthorn were due to beat us..its just the manner in which they did and the lack of depth we seem to have when Ratten and Camporeale are having ordinary days that worries me. Time to promote Plunkett off the rookie list and maybe start blooding some of our youngsters. One bright point was the form of Kouta he has come back well and was in our best players..he just ran out of steam at the end.

 

[blues_brilliance]

Exactly. They are an exceptionally, exceptionally tall side. Even when we come up against the Bombers next week we won't need to counteract that much height.

Please refrain from laying the responsibility on one or two players, guys, as well as the credit. It is a team game, and one or two players DON'T make a team, good teams can cope with a lack of form or injuries.

 

[meg]

The thing that frustrated me, was that the team didn't really seem to have any passion about them while they were playing - maybe the whole team was just having an off day, but no player stood out in my mind as having a good game.

Seems a bit of a worry at this stage - loosing to the Hawks at Optus Oval, and only beating Fremantle by a point.

Credit where credit is due though, Hawthorn did play very well. They're very lucky that they have such an extremely tall team, with players like Croad, Barker and Hay being goal kickers, and very mobile players.

And now we've got Essendon on a thursday, with the team only having a 5 day break!

 

[natmac67]

We looked slow, tired and disinterested. It was a frustrating game to watch, especially after the great start we had. The Hawks played so much better than us, I just hope it was simply not our day. We kicked the ball out on the full quite a few times, and luck didn't really go our way. At least injuries have been low, maybe we'll have more luck this year in that respect. Not looking forward to next game at all!!

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Nat

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Originally posted by blues_brilliance:

Please refrain from laying the responsibility on one or two players, guys, as well as the credit. It is a team game, and one or two players DON'T make a team, good teams can cope with a lack of form or injuries.

You are right bb, but Lance's bad days in my memory are starting to outweigh his good days. His good days are very good but his bad days are awful. I think he is missing Hamill as a foil for him. That is fine as long as fans realise that is where he is at as a player and not build him up to be a messiah. I think he could be a lot better but he really needs to get fitter. It's up to him. Simon Beaumont also had a less than successful game and I am a big rap for him usually. I don't blame Ratten either. It is nearly impossible for players to break tags week in week out. What he did do, he did very well. Massie was also out of his depth down back (hurry back Ang). Kouta can only get better from here. Porter is struggling in the ruck (and up forward for that matter). McKay was good again. I thought Camporeale was a trier all day. Hickmott couldn't get into it. Fletcher and Houlihan played to their ability. Freeborn was mismatched.

I agree that Plunkett could be an option. He was good in the preseason and could take the pressure off the other midfielders a little.

I am not bagging the players, just pointing out my observations. I fully expect them to lift this week against the Bombers. They seldom play without passion two weeks in a row. There are losses and there are LOSSES. In round 20 last year against the Bombers we lost, but I was proud of the boys because they gave it their all.

I hope we haven't lost that attack on the ball that we had last year. All is not lost however. It just would have been nice to find some positives yesterday.

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mens sana in corpore sano - a sound mind in a sound body

 

[Kobe]

Fact is we are too short all over the ground, Hawthorn just exploited what most of us knew. We have to get more size into the team which means Merrington must play this week, he kicked a couple of goals and was one of our better players in a equally ordinary effort from our ressies..Plunkett was best on ground for the blues in the ressies and must be promoted onto the senior list to help ratten and camporeale. I am fed up watching Massie and Beaumont struggling against taller players each week. If you look at the ressies there is a shortage of taller players..Matthews,Merrington and Livingston are the only real tall options...
Christou is 190 cm but he is not a key position player. I think the blues can hit back against the bombers but they have to be smarter in selection then they were against Hawthorn ...my mate reckons Simon Wiggins showed some class in the ressies and is very promising..pity he isnt taller.

 

[blues^rock]

my family keep saying that we dont have a good team but i disagree, so we don't have a forward line excet for big lance and our backline could be a littl ebetter but we definately have the best midfield in the league, unfortunately on saturday we didn't play to our abilit, id like to think we were just having an off day and hopefully we can playa lot better against essendon and beat them. our problems, i think are the hight problem and also we don't hjave to many fast players. while we've got the ball we're great but as soon as we've lost possession theres nothing we can do until they score or muck up somehow. i think we should get some of our younger players into the team and maybe work a bit more on athleticism rather than mainly skill work coz that we've got really good at. well i think ive said enough now cyz.

 

[Chris_23]

Originally posted by The Old Dark Navy's:

This game has not impressed me about Hawthorn's chances, just rang alarm bells a few days after the outlook looked pretty good.

Aaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Come on, credit where credit is due please! You aren't impressed about Hawthorn's chances? Keep knocking us, we'll just take the 4 points. What is it going to take before Hawthorn gets some respect?

Chris.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Originally posted by Chris_23:
Come on, credit where credit is due please! You aren't impressed about Hawthorn's chances? Keep knocking us, we'll just take the 4 points. What is it going to take before Hawthorn gets some respect?

Chris.

Aw jeez, why doesn't anybody like me?

Just kidding Chris. Did you happen to read when I wrote this? Almost 3/4 time of an extremely disappointing match! When I watch my team play, I generally only watch the good or bad things that they do rather than admire the opposition. I'm sure a lot of fans do the same.

I do not begrudge the Hawks anything as they are one of the few rival teams I have any time for (even during the 80's). In fact if the Blues are not around at the business end of the season, I will be more than happy for the Hawks to knock off those cocky Bombers.

Feel better now?

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mens sana in corpore sano - a sound mind in a sound body

 

[Bernie]

Those second tier guys MUST step up. They were looking around for the senior guys to show the way but they had their hands full. The team lacked that even-ness that the Hawks showed, but I worried about the matchups. The Hawks made many good moves , esp. changing backs and forwards to get little breaks, and we seems just spectators and reactors.