AFL Autopsy Rnd 7: Loss to the Cats

BrunoV

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We won't win a final/grand finals with our current our gameplan.

When the opposistion takes our run away we are nothing.

Coaching staff need to go back to the drawing board.



Basically.

Not only did the Cats stop our transition they carved us up going the other way.

We don't really have a plan for moving the ball, when the corridor is taken, which doesnt seem to involve going long to Tippa or Baguley.

Last year it was Green when it wasn't Baguley.

If that's not structural I dont know what is. Has a lot of Adelaide 2017 about it.

We cant seem to possess the ball long enough to play slow.

There is also no point citing injury as an excuse for any of this. The plan has been there from day 1.
 

Knox Harrington

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May 27, 2016
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Cats were great. Our forward line really struggled by not having one of McKernan, Brown, Stewart or Laverde over Francis. We also desperately need Raz.

Thought this was the difference maker.

Some thoughts on players:
- Zaka goes missing again in a loss. Surprise surprise - can't ask effort from your younger players if we roll out tired old vets who can't chase or tackle

- Langford looks slow and is missing something between the ears. Pretty sure the midfield infringement was against him

- Francis has flashes of brilliance mixed with zero percent effort. Hope it can be ironed out because we could use him.

- Ridley forgettable game

Let's not overreact given who we just played. They and GWS are the benchmark.

IN: Myers, Raz, Clarke
OUT: Langford, Francis, Zaka

Pretty much all this.
We struggle against anyone half decent without young Horace. He's our most important player I think.
Stringers more a third tall than big target so we missed our second target there.
Poor Francis tried but ain't a key forward. Given he was our eight choice (behind Joe stringer, brown, mckernan, Stewart, zlarke, laverde) it's expected. Keep the faith as a third back.
Langford is a hit up linking forward, not a mid. Love to give him a month in the twos there or in the ones over Bags.
Zaka I think is just about done.

Biggest concern for me is how small we are against the top teams all round the ground.
Our mids are all small.
 

Pweter

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I was lamenting the fact we'd just bomb it time and again into forward 50 but I was only watching on TV.

Can someone who was at the game advise what the movement was like inside 50? If we have no space to lead into, or if the forwards aren't leading, doubling back, leading again etc when the ball is coming down then it's hard to blame the players pumping the ball in. Ok, we could hold onto the ball, move it laterally and wait for an option but Geelong's pressure combined with our skill also makes that a turnover prone exercise too.
 

Towno78

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I’d drop McKenna. He’s a liability & anyone who wants to deny it has rocks in their head. I’ve had a gutful of his turnovers by foot & his lack of awareness around him when he runs & carries. Gets caught too often & when he avoids it he invariably puts a team mate under pressure.

We’re flush with small backs & need to start cleaning up our errors within the chains. I’d be sending McGrath back there & shifting Irish back to the VFL to clean up his game.

We’re just not a good enough side to be giving the best teams a leg up with school boy errors.
McKenna had a really poor game. But that was not reflective of his normal output. He is an excellent player who is a massive asset.

He hasn't reached his best yet, does need to be more consistent with his disposal, but he will get there.
 

fairbump_playon

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Ahhh it wasn’t so bad. The 4 missed set shots by Francis and Langford really change the game. Cats kicked deadly straight. I think it’s underestimated how much scoreboard pressure changes the tone. There were stages in the game where we dominated field position and I50s. Cats very clean and classy, took chances and smashed us on the rebound. They are miles ahead of the comp at this stage. Lots of our players had their worst game, and our ball kovement inside 50 needs to change. Future of this season can still be bright.
 

Towno78

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Ahhh it wasn’t so bad. The 4 missed set shots by Francis and Langford really change the game. Cats kicked deadly straight. I think it’s underestimated how much scoreboard pressure changes the tone. There were stages in the game where we dominated field position and I50s. Cats very clean and classy, took chances and smashed us on the rebound. They are miles ahead of the comp at this stage. Lots of our players had their worst game, and our ball kovement inside 50 needs to change. Future of this season can still be bright.
There was only 2 scoring shots the difference, which makes it seem as though it should have been closer.
However watching the game, felt as though the margin should have been larger.
 
Feb 2, 2011
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Pretty much all this.
We struggle against anyone half decent without young Horace. He's our most important player I think.
Stringers more a third tall than big target so we missed our second target there.
Poor Francis tried but ain't a key forward. Given he was our eight choice (behind Joe stringer, brown, mckernan, Stewart, zlarke, laverde) it's expected. Keep the faith as a third back.
Langford is a hit up linking forward, not a mid. Love to give him a month in the twos there or in the ones over Bags.
Zaka I think is just about done.

Biggest concern for me is how small we are against the top teams all round the ground.
Our mids are all small.

This only really seems to be a problem when we can't get the run going. Being smaller is a big advantage when the ball is being run through the corridor or the dirty ball hits the forward line, but as soon as we get slowed down and the kick mark game is on this becomes a lot more apparent. It's the reason why we would love someone like Langford/Laverde to be Fyfe lite.

The contested marking mids are just a thing of beauty. Heppell is sneaky good at it but we drop off after that.
 
Jan 31, 2012
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Felt our poor set shot conversion really hurt us at crucial times, esp when they had us at bay with that 3 goal margin for large periods.

Francis misses either side of HT, esp at the beginning of the 3rd was inexcusable. Had he kicked the latter, we would’ve been back in business & within 2 kicks.
 
Every week half of the league loses. That’s sport. You don’t think that half tries to win?
Sometimes there's a draw, and less than half the teams win :p
 

donlav99

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Alot of babies being thrown out with the bathwater in this thread.

Plenty to take out of the game. Structurally, we were rattled by Francis required up forward and Raz out.

Lets move on, win the next couple and get the season back on track.
 
Ahhh it wasn’t so bad. The 4 missed set shots by Francis and Langford really change the game. Cats kicked deadly straight. I think it’s underestimated how much scoreboard pressure changes the tone. There were stages in the game where we dominated field position and I50s. Cats very clean and classy, took chances and smashed us on the rebound. They are miles ahead of the comp at this stage. Lots of our players had their worst game, and our ball kovement inside 50 needs to change. Future of this season can still be bright.

17-8 marks inside 50. They were better and cleaner in every way. No Selwood and basically no Danger.
 
There was only 2 scoring shots the difference, which makes it seem as though it should have been closer.
However watching the game, felt as though the margin should have been larger.
That's the scoreboard pressure. When the opposition kicks 6 goals straight and we are missing easy set shots, you know you are in for a tough day.
 
Oct 12, 2014
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Alot of babies being thrown out with the bathwater in this thread.

Plenty to take out of the game. Structurally, we were rattled by Francis required up forward and Raz out.

Lets move on, win the next couple and get the season back on track.
Poor excuses. Dangerfield played on one leg and had no impact. They also lost Tuohy and Selwood before the bounce. We've now failed miserably against the clear top 3 sides in the competition. Very worrying signs at this point.
 
Jul 15, 2008
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Thought Hooker and Francis should have swapped ends with with Daniher having to do for to much ruck work we lacked any presence up front
You’re saying you expect Woosha to make an in game positional switch? I would have liked to see an in game structural change but knew it was never going to happen. Or more accurately would have liked our planning to know Geelong stretch the ground and leave their defenders further back.

With regards to this specifically we kept Geelong to their third lowest total (a bit more than Collingwood and Giants gave them). Moving Hooker forward would have been a bit of robbing Peter to pay Paul but you’re right we needed some change to make things harder for Geelong and give us a chance to come back.
 

Grimoz

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I come in peace, you blokes shouldn't be to disheartened, i still expect you to be there at the pointy end of the season, i don't think you were as far off than you think, yes we played well but if you had kicked straight it would have been a lot tighter, i also think that McKenna had a bad game and that cost you, everytime he touched it he seemed to either shank his kick or get tackled which from what ive seen in the past isnt his norm. Anyway good luck for the rest of the year.
 
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I come in peace, you blokes shouldn't be to disheartened, i still expect you to be there at the pointy end of the season, i don't think you were as far off today than you think, yes we played well but if you had kicked straight it would have been a lot tighter, i also think that McKenna had a bad game and that cost you, everytime he touched it he seemed to either shank his kick or get tackled which from what ive seen in the past isnt his norm. Anyway good luck for the rest of the year.
This is a good way of looking at it. A lot of our posters are hairtrigger with their posting and are willing to write off our season based on a sub-standard performance against the best team in the league.

Congrats on the win, your blokes are brilliant to watch in full flight. Hope to see you in finals.
 
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We seem to really struggle against sides that don't let too many of their defenders get sucked upfield. Cuts off our over the top/back with the flight avenue to goal.

I think the effort was there and we actually won a lot of clearances but because of the above we became a bit demoralised, especially when it was pinging back with such efficiency.

The other thing is that even in our wins we seem to give up 2 to 3 goals every week taking risks trying to hit the corridor or run out of defence. Too kamikaze sometimes and the better teams will punish it.
 

ghostdog

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Parish had a solid game. Shiel came good once he started kicking it.
Put a strike through Langford, we can't carry him.
Beaten by a better team.
Decent first quarter but only because the Cats were loose. Said it last week, we're pretenders. If we weren't, then at the very least we would have been as competitive as last week, and that's being generous. Thought Parish was solid as well and needs a consistent run. Smith looked underdone and Joey suffers without a competitive third tall. Missing the run of Fantasia... could've done with Nick Hind out there had we recruited him. Dylan needs to back himself to kick. Keep kicking Dyls, the mojo will return.
 
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