Is Bomber to blame this week?

[Mr Sensitive]

To say I'm disappointed tonight is an understatement, but I can't help that feel that today's loss isn't really Bomber's fault. I mean the cats destroyed the eagles up until the 15 minute mark of the 3rd quarter with some excellent attacking football. Then all of a sudden the players decided to shut up shop and "save" the match with a quarter and a half still to be played. Surely such an instruction didn't come from the coach's box rather the players initiated the switch allowing the eagles back into the game. I feel that today's loss isn't due to poor coaching but down to sheer stupidity on the part of the players.

 

[geelong_boy]

I agree. It wasn't Bomber who let a 9 goal lead slip away.

 

[Micksy]

Yes it is Bomber's fault.

Mooney to Half-Back.

Enough Said.

 

[catdman]

Fremantle last year
Melbourne at Shell last Year
Richmond nearly at Shell last Year
Syney in the final last year
Hawthorn this year
Melbourne this year
Richmond this year
Today

In control of games only to get overrun- argh!!!!!!!!

See something happening? We are the best frontrunners in the AFL , but when things get tough we ccannot handle and its been going on 4 years.
Physical preparation is the coaching staffs' responsibility..
Mental is the players..

We are lacking badly in both. Play the kids and see who has and has not got it......

 

[geelong_boy]

Yes it is Bomber's fault.

Mooney to Half-Back.

Enough Said.

So that move cost Geelong a nine goal lead, did it? From memory that happened after Harley's injury, and fair enough it might have had an inpact but we still went into the last break with a six goal lead.

 

[SpRiGgZy]

Disagree...it cannot be in any way bombers fault at all. He is not the one who let the eagles slip through and kick 9 goals to beat us. We had that game made pretty early and we let it slip in the last quater or so like we have in the same trend for 7 weeks. Even if bomber did move Mooney he could not have single handidly saved 9 goals from being kicked no player deserves such a huge responsibility. I know a big percentage of the supporters on here will blame bomber just because that is the easy option. As it always is, anyone can blame the coach but ultimately he is not the one out there playing the game and cant tell the players where to go and where to be every single second of the match. I am as disapointed and very deeply hurt again this week like every other geelong supporter but i am definately not one to point the finger. Especially when our first two and a half quaters or so, was a purely great effort by the whole team, to me it felt like our boys were back for a little while there. Hmmm..

 

[Mr Sensitive]

Yes it is Bomber's fault.

Mooney to Half-Back.

Enough Said.

That's a rubbish comment. I agree that taking mooney out of the forward line helped swing the game for the eagles, but Bomber had no choice, Harley had done his shoulder. You can't blame him for that. Besides the cats still had a very healthy lead to protect... the players can only blame themselves.

 

[Micksy]

That's my take on it.

Glad that you aren't all sheep and going along with me.

But I'm not enjoying this garbage football that we play.

Either he told them to play that way, or he didn't and they ignored him.

You choose.

Mooney was kicking goals and butt across half-foward.

They can't kick goals at the same time we are.

We never learn!

 

[Scarlett30]

Yes it is Bomber's fault.

Mooney to Half-Back.

Enough Said.

this is ture. he tried to save the game from half time.

 

[wendy]

Is Bomber to blame, are the players to blame, is the Club as a whole to blame.
Does anyone out there know the answer? I have followed the cats for 40 years, and I have no idea. Is it a mental problem? Maybe. I heard Jimmy Bartel on 774 this afternoon after the game, he sounded pretty disappointed, but as he pointed out West Coast are a very good team, great mid fielders, minus Judd of course this week, and just ran over the top of us in the end. But was then asked if today's loss was one of the worst he'd had at the Club. His response was that the loss against Sydney last year in the Semi was. I think they need to get over it (I know it's easier said than done) but remember they were run over in that game, a game where goals were hard to get, low scoring etc. well we all know what happened. Forget the Scooby Doo Cup (NAB Cup) I know it was great to see them get some silverware, (the only thing that I've ever seen them win in 40 years), we beat the Kangaroos and Brisbane in rounds 1 and 2, but they were 2 teams that were really struggling at the time. What have we done since? We have done "Jack" since. I thought the loss to Melbourne was the most disappointing for the year (the way we lost it) thinking it was just going to happen. Well Melbourne wanted it more than us. And then there was today, I have never been so diappointed in Geelong, they've given me false hope again.
They've just about Broken my Heart!

 

[jim boy]

Its Bomber's fault alright. Individual players can have their off days or be simply crap, but when you have a team with the requisite talent then you need to manage the motivation and the psychological aspects.

Teams don't fall apart after 2 and a half quarters becuase all of the players suddenly rest up, they fall apart becuase the coaching staff just aren't good enough to maintain the psychological advantage.

Back in 1986, John Devine came to my school to talk about motivation, he said that he didn't believe in motivating players. Before he had coached even a single game, I knew we would never do anything under him. And nothing has changed, the players that played under him, such as Hinkley, are now delivering the same message.

 

[jess_555]

I think we need a poll for this topic.

IMO I don't think it is Mark Thompson's fault. The players are the ones that let it go completly. Thompson was restricted with what he could do because of all the injuries that occured during the game. From memory i think Gazza injured his knee (he actually came into the game injured i believe), Harley went off for over a 1/4 i think coz of his shoulder and Callan was injured for awhile there but he tried to play on. I'm not blaming the entire loss on our injuries BUT I think having Harley off which made us have to move Moooooney to the backline made our team suffer heaps.

 

[Devilcat]

The basic reason for today's pathetic performance in the last 1 1/4 quarters was that Geelong players ran out of legs. On another post I read that Thompson did nothing in rotating the midfield. Ling according to whoever it was played on the ball all day - as did Corey. Players like Ablett did not get a run all day. For this reason, blame Thompson for the loss. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realise that Geelong are not fit enough atm to run all over teams like West Coast for four quarters without changes. In the article on the AFL website, Thompson blames the players in a way by saying they were tired and tried to slow the game down with chip chip football. Dont blame them Thompson u jockey. Where the were the changes through the middle? Change it up a bit... Put Joel Corey on the bench for a bit... Stupid coaching led to a stupid loss.
It was obvious after the first half that Geelong have some super skills, but if the changes dont come from the coaching box, theyre gonna run out of legs. End of story. Blame Thompson. + as said be4 he moved big Cam from the forward line to cover the loss of Harley. WTF?> His fault for going defensive and throwing it all away. Play the way we had been playing it with massive success for the first half. Dont let the opposition dictate terms.
Not happy.

 

[captain dewy]

totally agree with the Devine motivation scenario. it's all about belief and motivation.
i can't believe anyone here says it's up to the players, f***.
If that was the case how come richmond beat adelaide because the playerers decided to play that way? why did Neil Craig get a bath over it? if its all up to the players. bull!
It's up to everyone.
Coaches can't kick, tackle or defend.
Players can't select , plan or motivate and determine training systems.
Leave the stupis uneducated comments elswhere.
today they were told to defend, i mean if you really want to defend a lead put all 18 in there and give up scoring not the token effort as per today.
don't get me wrong, i am a big fan of score more than them to win, we should of come out of 1/2 time and killed em by 100+ points and backed ourselves, AS BUMMER SAID DURING THE WEEK, IT'S ACONFIDENCE THIN, WELL IF YOU HAVE IT COHNTINUE IT!!!!!!!!!

 

[Conan Troutman]

This may be of interest before putting blame solely on Bomber...

Most disappointing for Thompson was that the undoing of the team on the day had come when his players attempted to slow the game down, in a ploy adopted to give players a rest during fast-running games.

"If they (players) feel like they want to have a spell and control the tempo, it means they must have wanted to slow the game down. Unfortunately they did it a bit much," he added.

http://gfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=270995

Someone else said here (I think?) a week or two ago, that teams are just deliberately running us into the ground because they know our players aren't up to scratch fitness wise - certainly seemed that way today too, even going by what Worsfold said, saying they just had to keep running for the 4 quarters and they thought they'd have a chance. If true, the sacking of the fitness coach in hindsight, may have been for more reasons than just the injuries, which seemed to be the problem at the time.

 

[CF]

the players fault 100%

 

[MrAaron]

It's ok fellas, we will glady take Bomber Thompson off your hands. He'll do us ok I would think, come back home Bomber !

 

[Devilcat]

This may be of interest before putting blame solely on Bomber...http://gfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=270995

Someone else said here (I think?) a week or two ago, that teams are just deliberately running us into the ground because they know our players aren't up to scratch fitness wise - certainly seemed that way today too, even going by what Worsfold said, saying they just had to keep running for the 4 quarters and they thought they'd have a chance. If true, the sacking of the fitness coach in hindsight, may have been for more reasons than just the injuries, which seemed to be the problem at the time.

Read my previous entry Tima. But yeh the fitness coach was sacked for these reasons. Many of the articles on Bigfooty for the past week have been on Geelong's fitness. It is no secret that this guy was a tool bag. But still, Thompson shouldve worked with what he had. Any amateur coach could have told him that. He needs to go. We should swap him for Sheedy!

 

[ezbian]

Mostly players, a little bit the coaches.

I was really disgruntled with the midfield rotations in the last quarter. We continued to get smashed in the middle and in the clearances, and Ling, Bartel and Rooke continued to go in there, whilst Lil Gaz and Chappy stood inside the forward 50. The coach game be blamed for that. The players are to blame for going into there shells and not working hard enough.

 

[CF]

I seen the press conference on TV and bomber looked really rattled to me. He was his cool self as per usual but he looked like he was going to throw up any minute

 

[Champ39]

No.
It's not his fault, it's mine for only liking the 'underdogs'
FFS when is someone I like ever going to win?
DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

 

[chapmanmagic35]

Bomber isn't reponsible for some of the complete melt-downs me had by some players when the pressure was applied.

There's only so much coaches can do...

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

This may be of interest before putting blame solely on Bomber...http://gfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=270995

This would suggest that Bomber allows and maybe encourages the players to slow down and chip around. We all saw it, as soon as they started to do this, they missed passes, fumbled around and dropped easy marks, and a flood of goals for the eagles.

The problem is, as soon as you take on that mindset of slowing the tempo, your adrenaline and energy and even your alertness drop automatically. And when you've been working your ass off for half a game of football, you can't just switch it back on at will. It seems the players think they can slow down for 10-15 minutes and then be right back where they started....stupid. It doesnt work like that. Bomber and the whole coaching department have to wear that tactic that they have allowed the players to use.