AFL Autopsy R22: Power out

[The Prosecutor]

I wonder how long they'll wait before offering the $50 GF guarantee for next year.

 

[MiguelM]

Signs were there in the 2nd half last week. Players have checked out completely.

100+ point loss coming up against the Tigers.

 

[Koopa]

Our deficiencies as a team were laid bare.

Lack of forward half pressure, turnover city and over handballing. Teases of structure, flirting appetite for the contest but no consistency, little defensive heat from our midfield and no options for a chop out mark down the line. Plus no viable options to cover Wright being blanketed. Just to name a few!

Someone mentioned booing in the game day thread. There was some booing at half time at the ground and at the end of the game but nothing really notable.

There's no quick fix for this current predicament, we just have to take our medicine and commit to turning over the list while plugging gaps to help with the above. Yay top 4 pick though! It will be interesting to see how the next six months play out on many fronts and how much rope Truck is given. Plus do we have the gonads to stand our ground and make some bold calls, eg. Heppell, Dodo.

 

[westking]

A loss like that is on everyone, bar none.

Demarcating blame between players an coaches for today is futile, every single person deserves all the flac the club will cop this week, with no sympathy or defence from its supporters.

A loss like this plus a season like this plus seasons previous to this is also on the paid up members. We keep fronting up gifting our hard earned year in and out.

so I can see there are elements the likes of Brasher and Campbell and the board and even the recruiting teamlead by Dodoro that really truely don’t care that much. They know the dollars will keep rolling in.

That is on us.

 

[srobbo]

Everyone still happy for Rutten next year??What a *kg disgrace.

 

[ant555]

cue it’s the players fault
a coach coaches
this pleb has no answers and no imagination
please watch the 1984 and watch what a decent young coach did when our team was down
i was privileged enough to be there
i can’t comprehend anyone being an apologist for rutten
he just isn’t made to be head coach in my opinion
i am surprised he coped with that rigorous coaching process and interview



oh dear

I do not see it is apologetic to be saying the players / total lack of leadership / recruiting gaps are not as big an issue as the coach not being able to get buy in from the players. I was watching from level 3 behind the goals and the level of stupid from the players was off the charts. Zoning grass. Not rolling over in defense. Pushing back down the ground to defend but running to stupid spots and not to where the Port players where.

Truck looks ****ed. The players are not buying it and that is death. It is his failure for sure. However the issues run deeper than the coach. Once he can not sell the plan you get what we have tonight. Time to go. I would say so. How much will it fix ? not a lot short term . We also need to turn over another 10 to 15 players (not just fringe players). We need to sack the list manager and despite what the board says it is a 3 to 5 year build from here.

 

[ant555]

Listening to the cats game and commentators made comment about the way the cats play, which is completely unrecognisable from the previous few years.

Yes the cats are far more senior and better footballers, but it is like Scott just flicked a switch and away they've gone playing a vastly different style. If anything it should be harder for habits to be broken by an older side.

Got me thinking about how we are always in a transition phase towards "the way we want to play".

Cats always have good leaders to start with. It is half the battle.

 

[Seb78]

You can (in theory) sack pretty much all of them as long as the payouts don’t go over the salary cap.

Lol yes, however extremely unlikely outcome

 

[Blind Turn]

watching the 84 grand final.... Ahhh the memories.

Sadly, most on this forum probably never saw those glorious glorious days. 26 year old men and women wouldn’t remember us ever being successful or even close to it.

 

[ant555]

Some things really stand out.
Total inability to take a mark killed us. Wright had a shocker and no one else stood up.
Midfield turnovers from over handball. Handball, handball, fumble , turnover, Port goals.
Team defense was at under 12 level. Players guarding grass or standing 20 meters away and thinking they had Port players covered.
Total lack of work rate in front of the ball. The defenders got screwed as no one bothered to try and work into space.
No forward able to crumb or pressure.

The lack of small forwards really kills us. If you watch the VFL today in the last quarter Alwyn Jnr was able to use his pace to chase and pressure at least 4 times. Now he did not stick the tackles but he put enough pressure on to affect the kick and produce a turnover. Menzie did it a couple of times as well. It is this we are missing from the forwards. Langford was a non event. Stringer put in some effort for a couple of quarters but was ineffective offensively and overall very poor in the first quarter.

The captain can play an okay game but can not do anything to inspire the team.
Parish simply butchered the footy. And could not break clear at stoppage or center bounce.
Shiel was pathetic defensively.
Caldwell struggled against the bigger bodies.
Wright could not counter Alir Alir and his pace.
Bryan did not pick up the speed of the game.
Guelfi was quiet.
Perkins was bloody horrible in the first half before doing a few good things after half time. Paid zero attention to defending in the first half.
Not going to say anything about the back 6 because their team mates screwed them with lack of pressure.

 

[The Prosecutor]

Cats always have good leaders to start with. It is half the battle.

Nailed it.

The Cats have that core of Selwood/Hawkins that has continued to drive premiership standards into everyone who walks into that club 10+ years removed from their last flag.

Hawthorn likewise contended for so long because they retained a core of players who continued driving those standards beyond their premiership peak. Its only now they may start to feel the pinch of a leadership void as the last of that era comes to an end.

Collingwood likewise have the likes of Pendlebury there instilling what it takes to have a winning culture into this team.

I will say though that I am optimistic that once the right steps are taken to embrace new standards and the results come to reinforce it, change can happen quickly (look at Melbourne/Richmond), however I think we're an elite player or two short of achieving the required results to reinforce any attempt at a cultural change.

 

[yodellinhank]

Cats always have good leaders to start with. It is half the battle.

They do, I've no idea why our "leaders" are so venerated.

 

[Schnitzengruben]

This is what I could hear for pretty much the whole last quarter.

 

[TheWeapon]

Team almost full strength played bruise free footy
Have no confidence in this group moving forwards
Big changes required to personnel in the off season - players and coaching staff

 

[Blind Turn]

We’ve really done our 150th year celebration proud haven’t we.

Pass marks to Redman, Martin, Merrett, Lav, Wright, Guelfi (who has risen in my estimates after I wanted him out), Zerk, and, yes, Shiel, who I am so happy for after being so maligned. The rest of them have either been well below what they are capable of, still finding their way (eg Duz, D’Ambrossio) or are just not up to it.

Add the disenchantment of Tippa to all this and it really is a miserable season.

 

[ant555]

They do, I've no idea why our "leaders" are so venerated.

I think it comes down to the no dickhead recruiting policy continually giving us Dave Myers or Dyson Heppell etc as leaders.
We could have easily drafted Luke Parker or Jack Graham (both players I am on record as saying we should have picked before the draft) but we only seen to draft those types in rookie drafts or mid season so you get average players like Snelling or Geulfi as your leaders but no top end leaders that can pick the side up and carry them when needed.
We really are 100% flat track bullies.

 

[lmaohelp]

Signs were there in the 2nd half last week. Players have checked out completely.

100+ point loss coming up against the Tigers.

Doesn't take a premiership coach to demand a certain level each week to be competitive but our coach has managed to motivate the players on how to not perform.

 

[The Prosecutor]

We’ve really done our 150th year celebration proud haven’t we.

Pass marks to Redman, Martin, Merrett, Lav, Wright, Guelfi (who has risen in my estimates after I wanted him out), Zerk, and, yes, Shiel, who I am so happy for after being so maligned. The rest of them have either been well below what they are capable of, still finding their way (eg Duz, D’Ambrossio) or are just not up to it.

Add the disenchantment of Tippa to all this and it really is a miserable season.

Too bad it wasn't a 15th year celebration, then we would've done that period proud this year.

 

[ant555]

We’ve really done our 150th year celebration proud haven’t we.

Pass marks to Redman, Martin, Merrett, Lav, Wright, Guelfi (who has risen in my estimates after I wanted him out), Zerk, and, yes, Shiel, who I am so happy for after being so maligned. The rest of them have either been well below what they are capable of, still finding their way (eg Duz, D’Ambrossio) or are just not up to it.

Add the disenchantment of Tippa to all this and it really is a miserable season.

Martin made a few big defensive errors. Shiel was horrible after half time. His efforts to defend where 5/100.

 

[ghostdog]

Dambro's goals were good to see. Thought Duz tried hard although he shanked a couple of kicks. BZT tried hard again - breakout year for the young fella. Well done, Zerk. Martin kept running and trying. Hobbs did a great job of warming the bench, which should be noted.

Don't really gaf about the rest of them. They don't seem to gaf either.

I want to back Rutten but he's starting to look like a bloke with no answers because the players don't gaf.

Our youngsters are dangerously close to inheriting a losing mentality from our senior players. We need to bring in a senior player or two with better attitudes and responsiveness, and get rid of a couple at the same time. Someone like Boak or Cotchin.

 

[ant555]

Parish / Shiel / Merrett combo failed again.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Nailed it.

The Cats have that core of Selwood/Hawkins that has continued to drive premiership standards into everyone who walks into that club 10+ years removed from their last flag.

Hawthorn likewise contended for so long because they retained a core of players who continued driving those standards beyond their premiership peak. Its only now they may start to feel the pinch of a leadership void as the last of that era comes to an end.

Collingwood likewise have the likes of Pendlebury there instilling what it takes to have a winning culture into this team.

I will say though that I am optimistic that once the right steps are taken to embrace new standards and the results come to reinforce it, change can happen quickly (look at Melbourne/Richmond), however I think we're an elite player or two short of achieving the required results to reinforce any attempt at a cultural change.

They won't feel the pinch, at least not for a while. Their next generation of leaders know no other way except for the standards set by Selwood/Hawkins/Gunston/Bruest/Pendlebury so those standards will continue to be set, enforced as much by the culture within those clubs as by the leaders.

 

[ant555]

Nailed it.

The Cats have that core of Selwood/Hawkins that has continued to drive premiership standards into everyone who walks into that club 10+ years removed from their last flag.

Hawthorn likewise contended for so long because they retained a core of players who continued driving those standards beyond their premiership peak. Its only now they may start to feel the pinch of a leadership void as the last of that era comes to an end.

Collingwood likewise have the likes of Pendlebury there instilling what it takes to have a winning culture into this team.

I will say though that I am optimistic that once the right steps are taken to embrace new standards and the results come to reinforce it, change can happen quickly (look at Melbourne/Richmond), however I think we're an elite player or two short of achieving the required results to reinforce any attempt at a cultural change.

Yep you need leaders who can pick up the side and carry them along with you. We have captain knackers followed by pretty much no one.

 

[eDPS]

Parish / Shiel / Merrett combo failed again.

The same combo that failed at the start of the year, go figure.

 

[Highly Evolved]

View attachment 1477253

That was Essington-brand football.