Autopsy Rd 2 vs Hawks - Blues fight but lose due to lack of class and pace ... again

[Soapy V]

What's happening with Wilson? Heard he played midfield in the VFL practice match. Is he changing roles?

He went there in second half and was good. That's where they want him to play but not sure if he will yet. Tonight will be interesting

Kid just needs games. Had a great pre season and hurt himself late. Just going again

I still think he should be HB until he really gets going

 

[Soapy V]

I've noticed this too. He's really reverted to the mean in regards to his career. Hopefully it's just a slow start and he gets back to his Carlton form.

Didn't really have a pre season. Makes a difference

 

[Stamos]

I've noticed this too. He's really reverted to the mean in regards to his career. Hopefully it's just a slow start and he gets back to his Carlton form.

Had back surgery last year a missed a chunk of the pre-season.

 

[blueboy25]

Speed isn't the main issue, it's skills. We can't hit multiple targets in a row and we continually turn it over which means we are chasing arse.

We could have Ben Johnson (more likely suited to Essendon), Usain Bolt and Carl Lewis playing for us but it wouldn't make a difference as we would couldn't get the footy to them.

 

[CCurnow3picks]

Not me

It hit home for me last night that we aren't good enough. Effort for 4 quarters was great. Can't question it

Issue is game plan/structure and bottom end talent. We just aren't good enough to compete with the top teams and that really saddens me. We are 5-10 years way from competeing for a flag and that's if we get it right

The effort at the ball was better.

The effort to run & present options was terrible.

They need to take the game on a bit more from half back to present better forward entry’s.

Saad did something he hasn’t done in a long time - look how open the F50 was.

 

[CCurnow3picks]

Firstly congrats Blake Acres on playing 50 games at the club.
Secondly, his first 2 games have been horrible, unlike his first 2 years.
Disposal averages are down 7, inside 50's average is down 2, and Effective kicks average is down 5. Kicking efficiency is at 31 per cent after being over 60 in the first two years, Ground ball gets is down 4.
We need that run back from flank to flank. Hopefully the dome brings him back to form.

He looks heavier through his hips - slower

 

[FlowersByIrene]

I feel pretty sick and hopeless after that game.

Am I being too pessimistic or are we seeing the hopes of our golden generation (Cripps, Docherty, Weitering, Curnow, McKay, Newman) going up in smoke?

Is there a world where our next crop (Walsh, TDK, Jagga, Cerra) can move us up? We'd want to find some key position talent soon if so.

 

[blueboy25]

I feel pretty sick and hopeless after that game.

Am I being too pessimistic or are we seeing the hopes of our golden generation (Cripps, Docherty, Weitering, Curnow, McKay, Newman) going up in smoke?

Is there a world where our next crop (Walsh, TDK, Jagga, Cerra) can move us up? We'd want to find some key position talent soon if so.

The only thing I guess we can take out of our two losses is McKay and Curnow haven't shown up at all.

They get back to some semblance of form and our season looks different

 

[Irish BlueBagger]

The effort was there but we just weren't good enough sadly. I just hope we still aren't winless and on four straight defeats after the Pies game.

We are badly lacking in pace and decent foot skills, the forward line is pretty weak and substandard outside of two players.

Is the coaching panel getting the most out of the playing resources? That is up for debate imo, this team has been on a seemingly out of control death spiral since the end of June last year.

 

[Gingerbread man]

Forward line except for SOS is lost at sea, not help by our delivery into our forward 50, Lewis young is a liability, Cripps still doing too much ruck work, umpires robbed us

 

[Coops93]

Speed isn't the main issue, it's skills. We can't hit multiple targets in a row and we continually turn it over which means we are chasing arse.

We could have Ben Johnson (more likely suited to Essendon), Usain Bolt and Carl Lewis playing for us but it wouldn't make a difference as we would couldn't get the footy to them.

Speed is one of our biggest issues defensively. We can't spread from midfield and once the opposition done it's a free run essentially to our backline.

Going forward I agree it's not as important and skills are what let us down, but defensively our lack of ability to cover the ground absolutely kills us. We were the worst team in the comp at defending transition last year, and this year it's started the same.

 

[Sector 7G]

Missing Newman more than we thought we would. Must get Boyd into the team so we have someone who can kick

 

[Stamos]

Missing Newman more than we thought we would. Must get Boyd into the team so we have someone who can kick

Hopefully Boyd puts in a good full-game performance tonight to force his way in.
I agree we need him, but rushing him back if he's not right yet would be detrimental.

 

[Jacks Seething Rage]

Hollands at half back isn't working. 11 possessions and isn't providing us any run and is a poor kick.

To my eye that's one of the few things that looks promising. He's working very hard and has won key contests both weeks

With the seasoned vets around him looking all at sea I think he's doing comparitively well.

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

The plus side is that rebuilds now have been shown to not need to take 5-7 years. They can be done in 2.

The key really is the players you bring in via trade & Free Agency. Hawthorn rejuvinated things seemingly overnight with a couple of astute trades. They've got a couple of drafted kids but the biggest impact is coming from players brought in from other avenues.

It's just crucially important to get those inter-club moves right and for good value. The issue is, we've been less than great at that.

Agree and this is probably the main concern that so much of our salary cap is consumed by prized assets on long term deals, Petracca and Oliver have shown that the players tied to these deals are hard to shift but perhaps we will need to look to trade one or two of them to free us up to attack some needs based players.

Its blasphemy to suggest but perhaps trading Sam Walsh, to enable us to pick up a Darcy Jones or Bobby Hill gets us closer to a premiership..

 

[Opium]

To my eye that's one of the few things that looks promising. He's working very hard and has won key contests both weeks

With the seasoned vets around him looking all at sea I think he's doing comparitively well.

Agree to an extent. But we're not getting any drive from our wingers. Ollie would often push deep into defence when on the wing to offer additional support. If he's to play half back he needs to get alot more of the ball than 11 possessions.

 

[Blueballs38]

Our disposal has been dismal for a long time. Hawthorne have had massive success over 30-40 years by only picking players with at least great disposal. We constantly look for X factor.

Penny will never drop.

We play contested ball yet no one is no position to take a handball when we win possession.

Look at the hawks last night, win possession and dish it off to a ready player all night, then look at us … chalk and cheese. THATS COACHING!

Recruiting and coaching have killed this list. Except for a handful of players we have too many D grade players. Too much top end talent and spread too thin else where.

No chance of making a championship team with a great spine and nothing else.

 

[BringFevBack2021]

it's round 2 let's not trade the entire team, sack the coach and burn the place down

 

[Blue__Balls]

I felt for Campo last night. He is picked to be genuine link up wingman. He was running up and down wing all night yet we never swicthed or went wide. Only ball he could get was going into contest where he was smashed very time

I think that's just wet weather footy - Hawthorn didn't do much switching either. They ran in waves, we kicked for territory.

 

[Blue_Fusion]

it's round 2 let's not trade the entire team, sack the coach and burn the place down

People aren't basing their frustration off the back of 2 games though...

 

[Soapy V]

it's round 2 let's not trade the entire team, sack the coach and burn the place down

It's a lot more than 2 rounds

 

[Blueballs38]

The most damning thing is our recruits from other clubs and how many have improved. Look at the Hawks and their recruiting. They have managed to put themselves as flag favourite with a three year rebuild with not much draft currency! Let that sink in. They gutted their list, like we did and it took three years to come up with this list! How much top end talent do they have?

What they have is excellent recruiting, a great coach, a brilliant system and everyone on the same page.

Unfortunately we actually have none of that.

We have a top heavy list of flops (Cripps, TDK, Weitering excluded). Charlie folds in big games and McKay is well I think we all know, Cerra has gone backwards, Walsh has not been Walsh since his back injury, Motlop is a squib of the highest order.

This team has no identity, no soul, no hardness and what’s truly damning is all other teams know put them under pressure and they crack.

Years of bombing it long and not lowering the eyes …. Grrrr!

We need to recruit high footy IQ players with good disposal. Stupid … **** off. Bad disposal **** off.

So many problems of our own making and no clear steps to alleviate any of them. We roll out the same shit week in week out.

What’s truly damning is that the competition has worked out our limited game plan, knows how to beat us and Voss is a deer in headlights. He should have clicked last year when the wheels fell off and we scrapped into finals. But no … I know the answer we will do the exact same thing over summer and hope all other teams regress.

Truly sick of this St.kilda losing mentality, close enough is good enough culture we have made ourselves snug in.

I remember when we were ruthless we are now toothless and have been for 30 years.

We are a joke and on second to St.kilda in the laugh at us stakes. Sad

 

[Soapy V]

People aren't basing their frustration off the back of 2 games though...

I'm frustrated off 30 years but it's the consistent issues of the past 2-3 years that has me really concerned

 

[Arr0w]

It's clear you need at minimum 4 absolute elite kicks in the back half of the ground, including the wingers to be able to transition effectively and score from defence. I'd argue we have none.

Difficult to execute a gameplan when we don't have elite users, let alone above average

Really missing Newman and Boyd

 

[Blue since 72]

Last night this was stark

Watching Amon Impey Sicily DAmrosio etc kick the ball is impressive. They kick darts and hit targets

Mitchell has a bunch of very skilled by hand and foot players with the added bonus of pace.

To use your word the difference in game styles was stark. We don't have their skills and pace but the game style we have suits us, the only thing I really want to see is more class in the back half particularly in the attacking half back piece. As I've said elsewhere we need more from Saad and he needs a helper.

His one run that resulted in a goal and another mini run which had the Hawks on the hop was great but we need that more often as currently we're not initiating out of the backline with handball and run we're just dump kicking in hope.

I'll premise this because I haven't seen the last quarter but the boys held up for 3 quarters I just think we need to be better exiting the back half.

And tbh it's no good pining for players right now like the Hawks have we would have to swap out half the team in one go. This is obviously why we got Jagga and he should be the start of a shift in player type from the recruiting team.

Voss's game style suits our list as it sits but we do need more polish and pace to get us to the top. However I do think the team should take more confidence out of this game than the first.