Land of the Giants
Premiership Player
It’s just unacceptable, to be honest.
Thursday night was, without doubt, one of the club’s top three “Hall of Shame” performances. Round 7 against the Cats in 2018, and Round 21 last year against the Hawks would be the other main contenders.
Fingers are pointing everywhere, but given the talent we have available, and the fact this sort of thing keeps happening, indicates there’s an absence of authority somewhere.
Why does this team often appear to lack motivation? I’m no expert on team dynamics but when so many otherwise good players are sub-par there’s got to be a reason. Something for Dave Matthews and Tony Shepherd to dwell on, which they probably are.
I’m unsure whether the problem lies with Leon Cameron or within the team itself. Leon has taken us to three prelims and a grand final, and his overall win-loss ratio is quite good, but nothing he said or did on Thursday seemed to work, and that was after barely getting over the line against Essendon the week before. Is he losing his connection to individual players and the team collectively? It’s a legitimate question.
Whatever the source of the problem, it will take a monumental change in attitude to avoid a pre-2016 style flogging against the Eagles next Sunday. History suggests it’s going to happen; we got hammered the week after the other two embarrassments.
Toby and Phil Davis will almost certainly be back at the expense of Tom Hutchesson and Lachie Keeffe. Mumford will probably replace Jacobs – again – and he could hardly be any more ineffectual. But so many good players were way down against the Swans; Taranto, Himmelberg, Cameron, Shaw, Whitfield, Hopper, even Nick Haynes. We can’t drop all of them. And the line-up this week is almost irrelevant anyway; what matters more is looking like they actually want to be out there.
We now face the real prospect of not winning any games in the Perth hub, and should that happen, that would just about be the end of 2020. Sorry I can’t be more positive with this preview but Thursday might have been season-defining for all the wrong reasons.
Thursday night was, without doubt, one of the club’s top three “Hall of Shame” performances. Round 7 against the Cats in 2018, and Round 21 last year against the Hawks would be the other main contenders.
Fingers are pointing everywhere, but given the talent we have available, and the fact this sort of thing keeps happening, indicates there’s an absence of authority somewhere.
Why does this team often appear to lack motivation? I’m no expert on team dynamics but when so many otherwise good players are sub-par there’s got to be a reason. Something for Dave Matthews and Tony Shepherd to dwell on, which they probably are.
I’m unsure whether the problem lies with Leon Cameron or within the team itself. Leon has taken us to three prelims and a grand final, and his overall win-loss ratio is quite good, but nothing he said or did on Thursday seemed to work, and that was after barely getting over the line against Essendon the week before. Is he losing his connection to individual players and the team collectively? It’s a legitimate question.
Whatever the source of the problem, it will take a monumental change in attitude to avoid a pre-2016 style flogging against the Eagles next Sunday. History suggests it’s going to happen; we got hammered the week after the other two embarrassments.
Toby and Phil Davis will almost certainly be back at the expense of Tom Hutchesson and Lachie Keeffe. Mumford will probably replace Jacobs – again – and he could hardly be any more ineffectual. But so many good players were way down against the Swans; Taranto, Himmelberg, Cameron, Shaw, Whitfield, Hopper, even Nick Haynes. We can’t drop all of them. And the line-up this week is almost irrelevant anyway; what matters more is looking like they actually want to be out there.
We now face the real prospect of not winning any games in the Perth hub, and should that happen, that would just about be the end of 2020. Sorry I can’t be more positive with this preview but Thursday might have been season-defining for all the wrong reasons.
