Review Shattered

[theGav56]

I don't think we played badly, but we lost the game through some poor skills. If we are serious about playing finals and developing as a team we should have won that game. We don't have any excuses. Yes we have injuries, but the Cats had a clutch of young players in for some pretty significant "outs". We gave a team who we expect to confront if we make finals an advantage at our home ground. We dropped a home game we should have won.

We need improvement from most of the players who were out there, and to stop thinking that when Barlow or Mzungu or Hayden or Ibbotson or Mora return we will be better. Maybe yes, maybe no. We used to say that about Palmer, yet he is just squeezing into this line-up as a sub.

Last seasons success was partly built on courage at the selection table, and I invite it next week.

 

[BeinPurplenGreen]

Why is it that some people seem to think that 4 points in Rd 2 are somehow worth less than 4 points in Rd 20?

4 points = 4 points and are invaluable at ANY time of the season. You put yourself in a position to win, you must win and lock away those 4 points. It's all well and good to say we outplayed them, and not to bag anyone out, and don't worry we'll be up and firing come the business end of the season... but what if this loss is the one that bites? That costs us a position in the 8 cos we didn't win when we should have?

We should have won last night, but we ****ed it up and handed the 4 points to the opposition.

That's 4 points in our tally that we won't have come the end of H&A and could very well cost us dearly. It's not like that has never happened before.

Yep, but last week we didn't deserve to win an away game, yet somehow scraped home. The wheels on the karma bus go round and round - for every lucky win there will eventually be a close, undeserved loss. Hopefully the footy gods are sated and we win the rest of the close ones this year...

I don't know what was the more frustrating thing, the crap umpiring or the crap kicking for goal. I think we are still underdone from a poor pre-season. We improved greatly on last weeks performance though and should get better from here.

I thought Harves would have moved Pavs to CHF given our inside 50s with lack of goals.

Lots to work on this week at training. Loved Hilly, Ballas and Mundy last night too BTW.

Goal kicking and attacking the marking contest would be great starts for practice this week. Followed closely by some actual contested end to end kicking drills, preferably with the defenders having an extra 3 or 4 players. Teach the forwards to deal with congestion and floating free defenders that try to be the extra man up in contests on our CHF line. Last night and against Brisbane our ball carriers kicking into the forward 50 just had no idea how to deal with the concept of a floating free defender.

We need improvement from most of the players who were out there, and to stop thinking that when Barlow or Mzungu or Hayden or Ibbotson or Mora return we will be better. Maybe yes, maybe no. We used to say that about Palmer, yet he is just squeezing into this line-up as a sub.

Last seasons success was partly built on courage at the selection table, and I invite it next week.

Would agree with most of that, except for the bit about Palmer. Much like Mundy, Rhys needs to play full games, and run out 4 quarters, before he will improve. Mundy was much better this week than last, and I reckon he will be better again next week, purely 'cause he's getting more match footy under his belt. Would like to a few changes at the selection table, with maybe Pitt, Michie, Jesse or Mello in for JVB, and possibly JA or Zac for MJ. Would also prefer that we had the courage to back Rhys and Lower for a full 4 quarters, instead of subbing them.

I'm surprised by the amount of negativity and crap like the old freo are back.

We outplayed Geelong. No doubt about it. We lost because we couldn't kick straight on goals. A couple of players need a rocket, for sure.

I'm not sure how, but from reading a lot of comments on this board - not just this thread - it would appear we played bad, gutless, skill deficient football, to go down by 11 points against the Cats. Obviously this is rubbish. We played bloody good football and got beaten by Geelong going through the corridor a few times, and by failing in our finishing. The endeavor was brilliant, the end to end running play was very good most of the time. We had the ball locked in our forward half for long periods, purely because of our tackling and intensity.

Cut the crap people. It was a very disappointing loss, but we played bloody well for most of the game. And we showed a ton of guts and grit. Geelong could have blown the game apart at several times and every time they got their noses out in front we pegged them back through grit and determination. If we fine tune a couple of things and get our kicking boots back on, we will be formidable.

Great post. We are hardly in 2001 form yet. And we are a ways ahead of where we could be, given the pre-season we've had. If we lose the rest between here and the first bye, then it is time to panic...

 

[shibz_1989]

This in particular.

How can you be so wrong? All of the time.

Opinions are never wrong.

 

[free at last]

I can almost guarantee you he plays next week

nah! one of anthony,silvagni , ibbo or clarke will demote him. that is a guarantee.

 

[GordonGecko]

Opinions are never wrong.

Well, clearly on this occassion you are wrong.

It was painfully obvious that Walters fumbled the ball across the line.

 

[Dormammu]

I'm surprised by the amount of negativity and crap like the old freo are back.

We outplayed Geelong. No doubt about it. We lost because we couldn't kick straight on goals. A couple of players need a rocket, for sure.

I'm not sure how, but from reading a lot of comments on this board - not just this thread - it would appear we played bad, gutless, skill deficient football, to go down by 11 points against the Cats. Obviously this is rubbish. We played bloody good football and got beaten by Geelong going through the corridor a few times, and by failing in our finishing. The endeavor was brilliant, the end to end running play was very good most of the time. We had the ball locked in our forward half for long periods, purely because of our tackling and intensity.

Cut the crap people. It was a very disappointing loss, but we played bloody well for most of the game. And we showed a ton of guts and grit. Geelong could have blown the game apart at several times and every time they got their noses out in front we pegged them back through grit and determination. If we fine tune a couple of things and get our kicking boots back on, we will be formidable.

Stop talking sense, it's strikes such a discordant note when you're trying to listen to the baying for blood

 

[Clay Davis]

It's not sense, it's excuse making. We were outplayed by a clearly under strength team, on our own ground. Our lucky win last week was against a rubbish side that was heavily injured.

We are in for a long 2011.

 

[free at last]

It's not sense, it's excuse making. We were outplayed by a clearly under strength team, on our own ground. Our lucky win last week was against a rubbish side that was heavily injured.

We are in for a long 2011.

good use of reverse psychology clay!

 

[longsuffreosupp]

It's not sense, it's excuse making. We were outplayed by a clearly under strength team, on our own ground. Our lucky win last week was against a rubbish side that was heavily injured.

We are in for a long 2011.

I agree with the first part, but we'll see about the second part.

Referring to the round 3 game last year, the way we played that game we would've romped it home had we played anywhere near that last night. Had Geelong played anywhere near how they played that game, they would've smashed us too.

I just hope Harvey isn't banking on getting a good run in the lead up to the finals.

 

[Moo]

Well, clearly on this occassion you are wrong.

It was painfully obvious that Walters fumbled the ball across the line.

1 wrong post by Schibizzle > Every post you have ever made.

 

[Selggad]

Why is it that some people seem to think that 4 points in Rd 2 are somehow worth less than 4 points in Rd 20?

4 points = 4 points and are invaluable at ANY time of the season. You put yourself in a position to win, you must win and lock away those 4 points. It's all well and good to say we outplayed them, and not to bag anyone out, and don't worry we'll be up and firing come the business end of the season... but what if this loss is the one that bites? That costs us a position in the 8 cos we didn't win when we should have?

We should have won last night, but we ****ed it up and handed the 4 points to the opposition.

That's 4 points in our tally that we won't have come the end of H&A and could very well cost us dearly. It's not like that has never happened before.

Don't disagree at all with this IP. What I disagree with is people saying we are rubbish, it is the old freo, the players are crap, the game plan doesn't work, Harvey is a crap coach, and so on and so on. We played better footy than Geeloong for much of the match and didn't capitalise. It is very disappointing and we need to make we win these games, but there is nothing wrong with most of what we didd, kicking for goal excepted.

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater which is what a lot of people are doing.

It's not sense, it's excuse making. We were outplayed by a clearly under strength team, on our own ground. Our lucky win last week was against a rubbish side that was heavily injured.

We are in for a long 2011.

Wrong. Wrong. Right.

I don't agree. I feel pretty optimisitic after the first two weeks, especially given we are playing with a very undermanned side. though this week against Adelaide is a worry. We need to win at least 2 of the first 5 while we are getting everybody back on the park and some game time in to underdone players. A loss against Adelaide, which I expect, will be a dent and makes the loss last weekend even more unpalatable.

 

[sportsmaniac89]

Well if you can't kick straight, you're shooting yourself in the foot and we managed to do that beautifully

If we have momentum we should be beating ****ers like Geelong and losing to them hurts even more in that regard

The only consolation is that, while we've played crap both weeks, we're 1-1 and if we could actually get something resembling our best 22 out there, we could do damage.

That being said, where's the pressure of last year? Where's the efficiency in front of goal?

Very shattered and Adelaide is worse to come for us

 

[Avid_Avenger]

We were the best of two teams down on form and application. We just didn't translate that to the scoreboard. But we were ten times better than we were against Brisbane (bar the goal kicking), which surprised me.

We outplayed them all over the ground, in every quarter otherwise (bar the start of the second quarter). If we had kicked straight from the outset, the tension would have dropped and we would have won by 30+. If we had kicked straight in the last quarter, we would have won by 12+.

Fact is we didn't and we managed to lose a game that we won in every other way. That is what is so shattering. We are not playing to the level of last year. We have players out with injury. Some others are underdone, and some others seem to want to avoid contests which is the opposite of our play last year. Some others have just been lazy (Johnson). And yet we should have easily won that game.

To lose such a winnable game like that is hard to take. I was half-expecting to win one out of two at the start of the year but the way that game transpired we should be 2-0. It's these early season wins when we are out of form and understrength that will decide where we finish on the ladder.

Johnson has to be dropped for lack of application but I don't see it happening.

 

[Clay Davis]

I don't agree. I feel pretty optimisitic after the first two weeks, especially given we are playing with a very undermanned side. though this week against Adelaide is a worry. We need to win at least 2 of the first 5 while we are getting everybody back on the park and some game time in to underdone players. A loss against Adelaide, which I expect, will be a dent and makes the loss last weekend even more unpalatable.

What's undermanned about it versus Geelong's outs? Compared to the team who beat Hawthorn at the end of last year, there's a lot of like for like swaps, and we don't look any vast degree poorer on paper. All our A-grade players have been playing well in the first two games.

What is different is the application, which is completely lacking as compared to last year. The second tier of players like Crowley and Johnson have decided to abandon doing the hard things. As a result the team is poorer for it.

 

[Sman-21]

Exactly we didnt get where we were last year on talent alone.

We got there through bloody hard work an a massive team effort.
The outs we have is a smoke screen the replacements are more than capable.

Its all down to lack of effort.
Theres also minor changes to gameplan or just players not willing to take the risks.
We barely use the corridor at all now.
Which makes us take longer to get it forward an leaves less room, plus means we are generally taking shots from worse angles.

Only player we cant replace is Taz but so far Grover has done fairly well an it hasnt been the forwards beating us.

We are not far off, at the moment it looks like we will be battling for 6th-10th.
Pull their fingers out, give 100% play like a desperate team again an its better than 6th which is what i want.

 

[Lach72]

Exactly we didnt get where we were last year on talent alone.

We got there through bloody hard work an a massive team effort.
The outs we have is a smoke screen the replacements are more than capable.

Its all down to lack of effort.
Theres also minor changes to gameplan or just players not willing to take the risks.
We barely use the corridor at all now.
Which makes us take longer to get it forward an leaves less room, plus means we are generally taking shots from worse angles.

Only player we cant replace is Taz but so far Grover has done fairly well an it hasnt been the forwards beating us.

We are not far off, at the moment it looks like we will be battling for 6th-10th.
Pull their fingers out, give 100% play like a desperate team again an its better than 6th which is what i want.

The 6 we missed in the last quarter were VERY gettable

 

[Sman-21]

yep they were mental misses

im talking about in general we are getting alot of shots from angles an because we arent coming through the corridor its easier for defenders.

 

[Ricketts]

Should have been a comfortable 2-3 goal win tonight minimum,

Not really.

It's your own fault your forward line was about as organised as a slice of poo.

Instead of guys like McPhee, Bradley, Walters etc o), could do with some polish and class like Chappy, Jimmy and Menzel.

 

[Man of Men]

Not really.

It's your own fault your forward line was about as organised as a slice of poo.

Instead of guys like McPhee, Bradley, Walters etc o), could do with some polish and class like Chappy, Jimmy and Menzel.

Yeh, we had more scoring shots than you. Just missed a lot, nothing to do with organisation.

 

[MadMac]

Not really.

It's your own fault your forward line was about as organised as a slice of poo.

Instead of guys like McPhee, Bradley, Walters etc o), could do with some polish and class like Chappy, Jimmy and Menzel.

WTF are you on? Forward line was better organised than yours, unfortunately for us we didn't capitalise. And when you come to our forum here, show some respect champ.

 

[Notorious_29]

Not really.

It's your own fault your forward line was about as organised as a slice of poo.

Instead of guys like McPhee, Bradley, Walters etc o), could do with some polish and class like Chappy, Jimmy and Menzel.

Your own coach said in the post-match press conference that the cats had a fortunate win due to Freo missing too many shots. Our kicking decided the result of the game, it's as simple as that.

 

[Clay Davis]

I don't know what you guys are quibbling about. Our forwardline was a shambles.

Better sides than Geelong will put us to the sword. Collingwood's defence will eat up the way we played on Saturday night and destroy us the other way.

 

[theGav56]

Its all down to lack of effort.
Theres also minor changes to gameplan or just players not willing to take the risks.
We barely use the corridor at all now.
Which makes us take longer to get it forward an leaves less room, plus means we are generally taking shots from worse angles.

Blaming lack of effort points the finger directly at players, but I think that sort of thing is more a coaching responsibility. Harvey had the greatest impact on the side with creating a full commitment playing attitude in the last 2 seasons. At the moment that has slipped. After a strange pre-season playing giants through the midfield, getting injuries through reported "over-training" and never really looking like we were replicating our 2010 gamestyle, that pretty much follows.

We have also moved into a period where we are going to see fewer rookies getting games, although Pitt has come in (yes Lower is in too but he already has afl experience). If we are going to get back to the playing commitment levels we had in previous seasons it will partly happen with selection of form players who will offer that.

We recruited Anthony and Faulks and Silvagni recovering, so we have the depth to test out MJ's commitment level. If he is selected again, then Harvey is making the statement that he is happy with him.

 

[Selggad]

What's undermanned about it versus Geelong's outs? Compared to the team who beat Hawthorn at the end of last year, there's a lot of like for like swaps, and we don't look any vast degree poorer on paper. All our A-grade players have been playing well in the first two games.

What is different is the application, which is completely lacking as compared to last year. The second tier of players like Crowley and Johnson have decided to abandon doing the hard things. As a result the team is poorer for it.

Outs from the team who beat Hawthorn were Morabito, Ibbotson, Hayden, Silvagni, Bradley, Ballantyne and Crichton.

I don't see how you can say application is completely lacking (your words) when we outplayed the Cats on every statistic except tackles. I do agree we need to lift the intensity in tackling but application otherwise was excellent

I don't know what you guys are quibbling about. Our forwardline was a shambles.

Better sides than Geelong will put us to the sword. Collingwood's defence will eat up the way we played on Saturday night and destroy us the other way.

Why, when we had more scoring shots, more inside 50s and more marks inside 50 do you think our forward line was a shambles? That doesn't make any sense, nor was it evident from watching the game. Enright had a great game, but that deosn't make out forward liner a shambles.

Reality is we didn't kick straight. There were about 7 or 8 shots on goals that were all very very kickable. Geelong with less opportunities had the polish to finish well and consequently won. I'm not disagreeing that we need to improve out tackle count, but the reason we lost was because we couldn't kick straight. We weren't taking shots under presssure; it was simply inaccurate.

 

[Clay Davis]

Outs from the team who beat Hawthorn were Morabito, Ibbotson, Hayden, Silvagni, Bradley, Ballantyne and Crichton.

What? Ballantyne didn't play finals last year, and played on the weekend. Ditto Bradley.

Almost no point discussing with someone so demonstrably wrong in the first sentence.