Lets be honest

[della]

Lets all be honest for a min, a quick look at our list and really how so many thought we could win a flag is a joke.

we finished 6th last year and stumbled into the finals beating the Tigers by a pnt and beating Melb who were all whacked upped and injured and got close to Sydney on a bog track.

Where was our improvement coming from this year compared to so many other clubs, we have not alot of youngsters coming thru apart from the hype on varcoe and Nathan.

Our fwd structure, i mean how can u win games with Kingsley, Playfair and Ottens, i said this all pre season and kept getting bagged, just look at those 3 players closely, thats the 3 worst key fwds any team has had in a long time

it seems since Ablett retired we have paid the price , havent had 1 decent fwd since.


midfield lacks zip at the moment and our clearnace work sucks.

Ling - How much longer can u have a bloke who just points to his teammates to pick up his opponent cause he can't keep up with them, we r playing 1 short in the middle.


Small defenders r slow and loose, hunt is pathetic and corey shouldn't be left there so often.



Not sure what we do but we need 1 more key midfielder with pace and skill and a decent fwd who can relieve the pressure every know and then and bail us out by taking a few contested marks and kicking straight.


i thought we would play finals and we won't be now thats 4 sure, but i never expected flags or the like,

a quick and honest look at the list and our overall structure wil tell u we r a long way off the top teams, sad but true.


della!

 

[Turbocat]

Although I didn't bag you I Della , I'll stick my hand up and say I picked them to finish top 2 and as well as being well and trully capable of winning the flag. Of course , this was based on the type on uninterrupted run that the Swans got but , no matter .I was wrong and if you posted what you noted, you had more insight that myself.

The thing is Im not sure I totally agree with you on why you were right.

Midfield does need a bit class, yes. If Kelly had Deludio's speed we would be fine but as they say if the Bull had udders it would be a cow. We probably would never have got to Kelly if he was as quick as Deludio. We struggle to break away from packs and speed is a part of that.Ablett is fantastic, he is creative and finds way for the ball to be put to advantage. Rooke at least hits the pack hard at speed. The others really struggle to break the football forward.But our main problem is the mindset of these players.We dither the ball all over the shop because they refuse to trust someone to a contested mark. This may well be founded in truth but it means over possession, slow entry.It means some one getting the ball that ends up turning it over(Mooney yesterday). KK is KK. One can not expect him to be what he is not. H has had a poor year but has it been poorer than so many others. It just shows how bare our cupboard is with conetsed mark forwards of centre .Ottens was got with this in mind, Ottens was got because he was gettable but he is not the answer. Watching yesterday Meyer and Patterson I'm happy with the dice we rolled, they may be fine players but they are not what we need.If Otten had only played as often as King , I would be turse but in fact he has helped us in this area.

Our backline,loose.Yes but why.I have been durging on about or poor neutral ball clearance's for ages, we have rellied on rebound to kick goals. Our defenders are not brilliant of foot, Hunts main weapon is not being used or has lost its edge. Scarlett,Egan,Enright,Wojo, whoever we have playing there they are just average by foot and when the miss target they turn the ball over , it hurts us. It also creates this dithering approach to football, yet again.

I dont agree on the young thing. Varcoe sound good but I havent even seen him yet. Nathan has the raw look of what we need but to say these are the only young guys is unfair. First define young. To me 22-23 is still young, that age still allows planty of games to be played for us. On this benchmark most of our team is still around the young mark. Prismall looked good pre-season, it was an error not to keep him in the side and bad luck about his break when he came in.Egan is still young. People are forgetting how many games he has played, he is still having to play above his rating because Harley has gone into meltdown.Yesterday Byrnes was one of the few who tried to add run. Tenace played a great last quarter against the Saints to have a main influence on the result. These guys and others are all still improving, you dont always need new names to improve.

Dont get me wrong, you were right. And to be frank Id rather be beaten and show up our weakness now than yet again fall at the final hurdle. To me our current predicament is only a painfull growth spurt. With so much reliance on the 99 and the 01 group we were always going to need a re-balance.Out of 40 odd players there are some that just will not drive us all the way there. At the end of this year I think we will be re-balancing quite a bit and they may not all be ordinary players being cut.

 

[Furious_G]

It's mental pure and simple. Look at how they played in the first 2 games. There was hunger and passion in the way they played. They haven't had it since.

 

[della]

alot of people have talked about us having no heart and passion and at times its been like that.

Yeasterday i honestly thought we had a real dip but were just beaten by a better side on the day who were more polished and had a tad more run, we had our chances no doubt but again we just lack that 1 fwd to bail us out when we need a goal.

Furious i disagree about ya comment on the 1st 2rnds, look who we played, the roos r the worst team going aroun and the Lions are not much better.

Again look closely at the list and its just an average one at best i feel.

 

[Turbocat]

alot of people have talked about us having no heart and passion and at times its been like that.

Yeasterday i honestly thought we had a real dip but were just beaten by a better side on the day who were more polished and had a tad more run, we had our chances no doubt but again we just lack that 1 fwd to bail us out when we need a goal.

Furious i disagree about ya comment on the 1st 2rnds, look who we played, the roos r the worst team going aroun and the Lions are not much better.

Again look closely at the list and its just an average one at best i feel.

Della , did you see any of the Lions today. Boy how quickly can it change if you have the right core players.
Just like a house, you build a list on structure and with Johno Brown the lions have the structure to build a mansion , you can top the mids when you have a champion like him and quickly you a ready for another tilt.

 

[burto]

our problem at the moment is one Steven King. The big gump is so injury prone that we never get to use Ottens where we'd like to - in the goal square.
Take the captaincy from King, give it to Chapps. Ditch Gardiner, Playfair and KK as they're all useless. Put Mark Blake in the ruck (he's better than mooney in the ruck), Ottens at FF, and give NABlett and mcCarthy some game time, give them a chance to learn in the big time.

Trade Ling, my grandma can run faster than him. Byrnsey can take his spot. Bring in Varcoe for S Johnson, Stokesy for Kelly.

and there we have a team that might actually go somewhere.

Maybe try egan at CHF, mix it up a little, as he, dasher and chappy are probably the only geelong players capable of marking it over their head.

 

[Devilcat]

And... we need a new coach.

 

[chapmanmagic35]

our problem at the moment is one Steven King. The big gump is so injury prone that we never get to use Ottens where we'd like to - in the goal square.
Take the captaincy from King, give it to Chapps. Ditch Gardiner, Playfair and KK as they're all useless. Put Mark Blake in the ruck (he's better than mooney in the ruck), Ottens at FF, and give NABlett and mcCarthy some game time, give them a chance to learn in the big time.
Trade Ling, my grandma can run faster than him. Byrnsey can take his spot. Bring in Varcoe for S Johnson, Stokesy for Kelly.

and there we have a team that might actually go somewhere.

Maybe try egan at CHF, mix it up a little, as he, dasher and chappy are probably the only geelong players capable of marking it over their head.

McCarthy has been around for as long as Bartel, Ablett etc.

He hasn't got what it takes...

 

[cats2rise]

McCarthy has been around for as long as Bartel, Ablett etc.

He hasn't got what it takes...

Bartel, Ablett etc have not been injury prone. McCarthy now looks fit and in uninjured. When he finds some form I think we should give him a shot. If we are giving all these other players shots, why not him?

 

[burto]

you have to admit, giving McCarthy a bit more time to prove if he is capable of staying is better value than watching Charlie fall over if he gets within 10 metres of the ball.

 

[Bojangles17]

our problem at the moment is one Steven King. The big gump is so injury prone that we never get to use Ottens where we'd like to - in the goal square.
QUOTE]

hmm that 20 goals a year would come in real handy, who are you kidding ottens is a ruckman or a poor mans key forward in the KK class...whoever thought he could fill a KP post needs there head read

 

[burto]

a ruckman with one of the straightest kicks in the league

 

[itsintheblood]

a ruckman with one of the straightest kicks in the league

And what has that netted you so far?? Also has one of the smallest hearts.

 

[rizzo]

you have to admit, giving McCarthy a bit more time to prove if he is capable of staying is better value than watching Charlie fall over if he gets within 10 metres of the ball.

McCarthy hit the post from 20ms out directly in front yesterday. I really dont want another kick in the team.

 

[The Hulkster]

Well Playfair cant even get a kick.

 

[catswhiskers]

Ottens is a ruckman.

Some may have hoped he was a key forward but he is not. He is the best ruckman we have and may kick a few goals on the way.

Thats it.

 

[Devilcat]

Ottens is the worst recruit Geelong has picked up in the past 10 years. Even White and Spinks brought more to the ground than 'the dinosaur'. I can't believe we are paying him 500,000/annum. What a joke.

 

[chapmanmagic35]

Ottens is the worst recruit Geelong has picked up in the past 10 years. Even White and Spinks brought more to the ground than 'the dinosaur'. I can't believe we are paying him 500,000/annum. What a joke.

He isn't on that much...pure media hype.

He isn't the worst recruit. To some people he is because they have set overly high standards on him...

But no, he hasn't been setting the house on fire.

 

[shahla_selena]

i agree with most of what's been said - apart from someone saying mccarthy should be given a run. he's a vfl standard player, he can't hold his own out there in the afl. he's been given chances to step up and he hasn't cut it each time. i definately agree that steven king is as good as useless, if he's not injured he's only out there for 50% of the game. was a mistake making him captain this year too. give the captaincy to someone else, put blake in the ruck, let ottens have some time in the forward line and lets see what he can do.