I wasn't sure whether to discuss the starts issue in the autopsy thread from Sunday or in here but I'll add my take on things:
It's hard to gauge at this point the exact issue regarding our starts as I don't think we started particularly poorly against Hawthorn - we had a number of opportunities to score in the first half but fluffed them and to me just seemed that our system wasn't quite gelling while Hawthorn were far more decisive early on and took their chances early. The discrepancy in clearance numbers was quite telling though, which leads into Sundays game and may begin to paint a better picture.
We were jumped in the first half on Sunday mainly because we couldn't get first use, didn't apply enough pressure and basically Swallow et. al. were able to move the ball relatively easily from stoppages and then spread quickly, exposing out defenders who looked a bit rattled early on. We were able to get a couple back mainly due to our defence being very well drilled and able to read the play, which facilitated a few counter attacks. I thought we actually spread and moved the ball quite well on the counter attack early when given the opportunity.
So what of the clearances early? A portion of this is logically attributable IMO to having inferior rucks at the moment - especially against someone of Goldsteins calibre. The second part to me seems personnel based rather than a mental issue. As
Partridge says, we have a few blokes that are perhaps not up to a full game of intense bash and crash ala Joel Corey (and to a lesser extent Kelly) and thus are being used in different positions/roles to manage their work load and to extract the most out of them, particularly when the game slows down. I agree with this notion. When Corey and Kelly joined forces in the guts the immediate impact was telling. There was much more physical pressure around the ball and smarter play in order to clear the ball from stoppage. Once this was addressed, the runners were brought into the game. Stokes' inclusion also played a part.
So why such bad clearance numbers when the others are in the guts with Selwood? I think that we need to be realistic about our other midfielders' capabilities at this stage. Promising as the younger guys are, they still have a way to go before they emulate the service that Corey and Kelly have provided over the years (though I thought Bundy was immense on Sunday). It also doesn't help when we don't get ruck ascendancy. These things will come together in time. Hopefully the return of Stevie Johnson to the midfield will help in the clearances area, too.
At this stage I don't think theres anything fitness/training based but others may have seen more than me and may like to shed more light on this