Autopsy RD 22 - Exposed by the Crows

[Dogs Rule]

Didn't get to watch today's game due to work...

..don't watch it is the vibe I'm getting here?

I would go directly to a more enjoyable task...like shooting yourself in the hand with a nail gun and then removing the nail from your thumb backwards.

 

[wayniac]

For some reason even when we are a very good side we can't string together a long sequence of wins. To be fair, it's normally only the very best sides that put together long sequences of wins ... but haven't we been one of them for at least some of the last decade?

Consider the premiers for the last decade:

Collingwood (2023 premier) won 8 on end. They also won 7 on end when they were runners up in 2018.
Geelong (2022) won 16 on end. Say no more. I haven't even bothered to look past that for Geelong. A truly professional and reliable side nearly every season.
Melbourne (2021) won 9 on end and 7 on end in the one season.
Richmond (2020) won 6 on end.
Richmond (2019) won 12 on end.
Richmond though eliminated in the PF in 2018 still won 6 on end and 7 on end that season.
Richmond (2017) won only 5 on end but did it twice.
West Coast (2018) won 10 on end.
Hawthorn (2015) won 8 on end. They also happened to win 9 on end in 2016 and 6 on end in 2018 not to mention their recent 5 on end in 2024. And of course they had long sequences of wins in 2012-2014 as well.

By contrast in 10 seasons under Bevo we have only ever won 6 on end once (in 2021) and 5 on end once (in 2023).

In fact we have won a mere 4 games on end just 5 times in that decade: 2024 (the last four games before today), 2017 (rds 17-20), 2016 (the finals series) and twice in 2015.

Lets put it in a table:
2024 - 4 wins once
2023 - 5 wins once
2022 -
2021 - 6 wins once
2020 -
2019 -
2018 -
2017 - 4 wins once
2016 - 4 wins once incl the flag
2015 - 4 wins twice

Does anybody else see a problem here? For a supposedly powerful side over the last decade this looks decidedly flaky to me. Is it any wonder we can't secure a top 4 spot with this sort of brittleness?

Or is this just telling us that we have never really been top echelon and we were lucky to snag the cup with a purple patch in 2016?

I could try to analyse it every which way (including the bewildering late season losses to lowly teams when finals beckon) but the most positive way I can view it is to look forward and say that if we can beat North next week, then lose to GWS but still somehow make the finals then that will be our best shot at a flag.

Because we can hope to play out of our skins for 4 consecutive weeks as we did in 2016 and again in 2024 over the last 4 weeks, but anything longer than that and the elastic breaks.

Interesting analysis. We've lost key players along the way to massive injuries. Bob Murphy, Mitch Wallis, Clay Smith, Liam Picken. What would Richmond have done without Dustin Martin during the 2017+ era?

 

[Deadly Darcy]

We need a new club psychologist.

If we could all see this was a danger game and the type of game we tend to drop going in, how the hell do the coaches and players fail to recognise it and prepare for it.

Our midfield is still questionable despite the hype. Hope we bring Sanders back in and he is up and about for next week.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

And planning to sub out Naughton left Darcy having to compete against 2 and 3 opponents and cover for English. Why throw a 20 yo to the wolves to help MANAGE your vice- captain who is one of your supposed leaders.

They were probably worried about Naughton’s knee, he was wincing at one point. Better to sacrifice this game that was going down the gurgler anyway, and having an ok Naughton for the next few games. I think they did the right thing. Darcy coped as well or not, as expected. It couldn’t be helped.

 

[Dogs Rule]

We need a new club psychologist.

If we could all see this was a danger game and the type of game we tend to drop going in, how the hell do the coaches and players fail to recognise it and prepare for it.

Our midfield is still questionable despite the hype. Hope we bring Sanders back in and he is up and about for next week.

This.

So much for them to do. The inability to bank wins early in the season, the goalkicking, the mental fragility, the timidity, the fact that pressure of expectation makes us crumble, the dropping of games that shouldn't be dropped and the games where we just show no effort...at all.

Lucky the club held its million dollar request thing last week...

 

[W W Biscuit]

We need a new club psychologist.

If we could all see this was a danger game and the type of game we tend to drop going in, how the hell do the coaches and players fail to recognise it and prepare for it.

Our midfield is still questionable despite the hype. Hope we bring Sanders back in and he is up and about for next week.

I thought Bevo's Brief was interesting. A little more candid than most, and hovering around the fringes of your point about mental preparedness.

 

[bresker]

Garcia worth persisting with in the midfield? They just walked it out of there today.

Libba was chasing shadows too. It's hard yakka at 32 & a bit years old when your ruck is giving you peanuts.

I wonder if he'll go round again, when the explosive power on your legs goes, it's frustrating chasing younger blokes. Add to this the concussions.

 

[mattwa]

Out biggest issue is conversion. Missing goals kills your momentum. Looking forward to seeing the xG (not that it matters). Macrae needs to come in he was playing well before he was 'managed'. I'd then have Sanders or Garcia as the sub with the other in the 22. Can't wait for Buss to come in and take that role as 3rd tall

 

[mattwa]

Libba was chasing shadows too. It's hard yakka at 32 & a bit years old when you're ruck is giving you peanuts.

I wonder if he'll go round again, when the explosive power on your legs goes, it's frustrating chasing younger blokes. Add to this the concussions.

This is why we must keep Macrae next year

 

[Lindsay_Gilbee]

I’m an English defender but that was beyond bad. Wasn’t the fact obrien had 50+ hit outs, it’s what he did with him. Put them on a platter for their midfield. Also took massive marks around the ground. Unacceptable for a bloke who was AA.

Don’t care what this “pressure” VDM brings. I don’t reckon I’ve seen a player double grab like he does. It’s almost every possession.

The tackling as a whole was probably the worst it’s been in 5 years.

Thought our only winners on the day were Lobb, Mcniel and CD when he came on.

Also a shocker in the coaches box. Was clear after one quarter Jones needed to go to Fog. Don’t know why they held off for so long.

 

[AFDogs]

Williams, Bont, Poulter were good. Nobody else stands out for me.

English is terrified to run and jump in the ruck. He just grabs his opponent and lets them win. No competitive edge whatsoever. I played undersized ruck in the reserves for years not getting paid a dime in a shit team that never won and even I took pride in not getting absolutely reamed by my opponent and at least had a crack.

 

[_Mike_]

The game was lost in the middle from the very start. English was completely ineffective at the stoppages/bounces and each time he did get hands to the ball it went straight to the opposition. Libba rarely got first use and Richards was down last night as well

VDM had another howler, Garcia was lost in most contests and Astro had a bad game.

Crows did their homework and played well against us.

 

[Cookie]

This.

So much for them to do. The inability to bank wins early in the season, the goalkicking, the mental fragility, the timidity, the fact that pressure of expectation makes us crumble, the dropping of games that shouldn't be dropped and the games where we just show no effort...at all.

Lucky the club held its million dollar request thing last week...

Lucky's right!
If it was this week, they'd get about 50 cents.

 

[Next Waiting]

This game was lost in the ruck, at centre clearances, with goal accuracy ... but most importantly ... between the ears. And the between the ears part was reflected in the difference in intensity between the 2 sides and was my primary concern before the match. And it as evident from the first minute.

A couple of changes can and should be made but it's the grey matter that needs the most work.

 

[Unorth]

Posted this a month ago and it remains painfully true.

 

[Bulldogs85]

 

[dogwatch]

Interesting analysis. We've lost key players along the way to massive injuries. Bob Murphy, Mitch Wallis, Clay Smith, Liam Picken. What would Richmond have done without Dustin Martin during the 2017+ era?

Every club has to deal with a fluctuating injury list. It definitely helps if you have luck with few injuries like Melbourne did in 2021. I agree the latter part of 2016 was unusual and injuries had an impact for that part of the year. There was also Macrae’s knee injury for a few weeks late in 2016. But outside that period I don’t remember us having to deal with too much out of the ordinary.

Dusty is unique. We didn’t have a match winner like Dusty. No other club did. We do come close with Bontempelli but then he has stayed pretty fit over the whole decade averaging over 20 games a season.

Another possible reason is our style of play. It was suggested after 2016 that we played an unsustainable “high octane” style of frenetic footy. I don’t know if that was really the case.

Even if it was true back then I am not convinced our style has been any more draining than other clubs’ style in the last 5-6 years. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who thinks it is.

 

[lachy]

It is hard to win games with poor intensity, poor goal kicking, deplorable tackling.

It is even harder when you struggle to win any part of the ground.

In defence only Bramble played a good game. Jones and Lobb were ok. Dale and Durea poor. This exposed the obvious weaknesses of Buku and Coffield that the others had been covering off for a couple of weeks.

In the midfield other than Trealor and Williams all others poor to shocking. Poulter ok.

The forward line had no winners. Lack of movement, lack of separation, lack of goal kicking. Only McNeil played at the level.

Opportunity for a bit of a shake up in the team and be a bit brave with selections

 

[Unorth]

It is hard to win games with poor intensity, poor goal kicking, deplorable tackling.

It is even harder when you struggle to win any part of the ground.

In defence only Bramble played a good game. Jones and Lobb were ok. Dale and Durea poor. This exposed the obvious weaknesses of Buku and Coffield that the others had been covering off for a couple of weeks.

In the midfield other than Trealor and Williams all others poor to shocking. Poulter ok.

The forward line had no winners. Lack of movement, lack of separation, lack of goal kicking. Only McNeil played at the level.

Opportunity for a bit of a shake up in the team and be a bit brave with selections

Shoulda woulda coulda etc but Darcy could have had 6 goals. None were crazy difficult. Something went right there on some level to generate those chances.

But it was a glimpse into how panicky teams will get around him, at least. They had no answer for him, he was just his own worst enemy.

 

[bresker]

English's goal insulted me. He ran into empty space and stuck his big knees into a bloke half his size for a soda when the game was over. I guess that's a 'contested' mark.

16 possessions and a goal . Great. But if he gets belted like that in a final , all his brownie points from previous games go out the window.

Interesting, bad sort of interesting, to see that Bevo put Naughts in the ruck briefly when English was on the pine.

 

[TiAn_]

Interesting Bevo presser. Pretty much conceded that getting killed in the ruck is a big issue.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Weird, does he know Tim was AA last year?

Tim is 10 years into his career and as one of our senior players and four main onballers his inconsistency in effort and application at the primary contest just doesn’t cut it.

If he brings that poor of an effort again this week Xerri might be the match winner for Norf.

 

[CarnTheScray]

I just can’t understand how we go from performances over the last four weeks to yesterday’s disaster. We have basically been ranked top 4 in every key stat and rating in the second half of the season, so it’s not like we are just the usual flakey side that can get found out away from home like Fremantle, or for a closer comparison, us in the past two seasons.

We didn’t actually win on any front, forward line, midfield and backline all sucked. We never even looked like being in the game or even kicking a goal.

How does that happen? The only genuine explanation could be that we are a team of mental cases that desperately need world class psychs in the joint. The worst part is this isn’t even the first time. It’s probably the 30th time in 5 years I have seen us not even turn up for the first minute. At least this was on a Sunday and not the usual Friday night where the world can see it.

 

[Dogs Rule]

The game was lost in the middle from the very start. English was completely ineffective at the stoppages/bounces and each time he did get hands to the ball it went straight to the opposition. Libba rarely got first use and Richards was down last night as well

VDM had another howler, Garcia was lost in most contests and Astro had a bad game.

Crows did their homework and played well against us.

In the end it comes down to a few things for me. Effort, intensity and ruthlessness. All non existent yesterday.

If you're a legitimate contender you just get the job done against a bottom four team. We're not legitimate sadly. Despite the past month or so we still have a soft underbelly and are as fraudulent as ever when it come to the real crunch.

When opportunity and expectation collide we can't handle it and apart from 2016, it's been that way for as long as I've followed the club.

There's no ruthlessness there. I love the bloke to bits, but I watched the post match chat on the club website with Bont and it was as those he had nicked himself shaving.

I don't expect tears or rage, but you kinda want your captain, your leader to be seething after that. It was a deplorable performance. He is seeing the best years of his career frittered away by far too regular peahearted performances from teammates. I would be absolutely p***** (and behind closed doors, I hope he is).

 

[BEaston]

I just can’t understand how we go from performances over the last four weeks to yesterday’s disaster. We have basically been ranked top 4 in every key stat and rating in the second half of the season, so it’s not like we are just the usual flakey side that can get found out away from home like Fremantle, or for a closer comparison, us in the past two seasons.

We didn’t actually win on any front, forward line, midfield and backline all sucked. We never even looked like being in the game or even kicking a goal.

How does that happen? The only genuine explanation could be that we are a team of mental cases that desperately need world class psychs in the joint. The worst part is this isn’t even the first time. It’s probably the 30th time in 5 years I have seen us not even turn up for the first minute. At least this was on a Sunday and not the usual Friday night where the world can see it.

Roast - Players' mental application

I know the in-thing to do after tough losses is to bag the coaching. It's an easy scapegoat and has been in footy for probably 100 years. However, can somebody explain to me how coaching was to blame for the pitiful effort by the players in the first quarter that led to us getting 40 points...

www.bigfooty.com

Seemingly, nothing too much has changed

 

[Dogs Rule]

Roast - Players' mental application

I know the in-thing to do after tough losses is to bag the coaching. It's an easy scapegoat and has been in footy for probably 100 years. However, can somebody explain to me how coaching was to blame for the pitiful effort by the players in the first quarter that led to us getting 40 points...

www.bigfooty.com

Seemingly, nothing too much has changed

And it never will at least not until we get leaders who don't accept the sort of garbage we dish up in performances like yesterday and against Port and demand better day in, day out.