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Straight Sets

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Could be the making of 2026.

Nicks cannot carry the gameplan into 2026 knowing full well it doesn't work, or at least doesnt work with our players.

Started the year with a vicious offence and a leaky defence. Turned around the defence beautifully but seemed to have a ******ing effect on our offence.

Needs to find the balance.
 

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Game plan was devised to milk wins from the bottom 10 in hopes of making 6th-8th. Ultimately we drew two teams with good finals experience and quality coaches. The fact that we finished 1st making it straight sets is just an artifact of the gulf between the top 9 and bottom 9. We likely beat Fremantle, Gold Coast, GWS at home in week one had we finished 6th say.
 
CrowToon said:
Could be the making of 2026.

Nicks cannot carry the gameplan into 2026 knowing full well it doesn't work, or at least doesnt work with our players.

Started the year with a vicious offence and a leaky defence. Turned around the defence beautifully but seemed to have a ******ing effect on our offence.

Needs to find the balance.
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Of course he can, he’s a stubborn ****wit.

Imagine trying to build belief during the preseason after that capitulation
 
1970crow said:
Welcome back to the Neil Craig days, not that we ever left. Home and away side that is deliberately geared to be lesser come the major round.
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Neil and Nicks shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence.

And I’m no Neil fan.
 
The club hoisting the white flag and giving up without a whimper after the Rankine incident was utterly predictable.

The club has a long history of surrendering and sulking when things get tough.

Anyone who has followed us since the Carey goal post incident should have seen this coming.
 
In these trying times we may, as supporters, feel embarrassed. We did nothing wrong. We just support a shitty team. Lots of people are guilty of that.

To paraphrase Michael Bolton from Office Space:

tenor.gif


Why should we be embarrassed? They're the ones that suck.
 
CrowToon said:
Could be the making of 2026.

Nicks cannot carry the gameplan into 2026 knowing full well it doesn't work, or at least doesnt work with our players.

Started the year with a vicious offence and a leaky defence. Turned around the defence beautifully but seemed to have a ******ing effect on our offence.

Needs to find the balance.
Click to expand...

We can’t find balance until anyone involved with the club after Blight has been purged.
 

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1970crow said:
Welcome back to the Neil Craig days, not that we ever left. Home and away side that is deliberately geared to be lesser come the major round.
Click to expand...
Op needs to really describe the level of derailment from Craig to now. This is a mini paragraph that doesn’t expand on derailing tactics from every coach till now
 
I'm a glutton for punishment and I'm watching the whole post-game Fox Footy coverage (on delay).

In Nicks' press conference, he was asked about Rankine. I am paraphrasing here, so don't expect me to recall verbatim, but he said that Rankine is one of the best players in the competition and if any side lost a player of his calibre they would struggle.

There's something a little irksome about that mentality. Nicks was visibly upset, but his words are going to be scrutinised. In my mind it's absolutely no excuse. Look at Hawthorn losing Will Day. He is arguably Hawthorn's best player, but his loss hasn't dampened the Hawks' resolve.

Rankine's inclusion would not have materially changed the final result of either game. We were never even close. We were uncompetitive. Insipid. I'm so frustrated, upset, embarrassed. I wish we had finished outside the top 4 and just gotten knocked out in the first final.

I don't see any positives to come out of these two results. None. Yes, a couple of individual players can hold their head high. But over all, it was just an abysmal, diabolical, shambolic and utterly humiliating result.
 
Has there ever been a more disappointing finals series? We saved our worst performances for the year for the finals.

Biggest losing margins at home.
We were missing one player.
Didn’t win a quarter
So many players down
Stupid coaching

How is the club supposed to be enthusiastic over summer?
Even if we play well during the year these performances are going to haunt them
 

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We were not the top team, we just finished top because of our weak draw - courtesy of being 15th last year.

It put us out of our depth. Players and coaches.

Happy with the progression of many of our players - need to see more of the squad that have been on the edge come through next year AND we had better be fighting hard to get players in through trades again.

It’s a bitter pill to get whacked like that, but be honest … we were never going further than maybe one win in the finals whichever way you cut it.

I’d rather this than what we have produced the last few years … bad a choice as that is!
 
baldandbroke said:
We were not the top team, we just finished top because of our weak draw - courtesy of being 15th last year.

It put us out of our depth. Players and coaches.

Happy with the progression of many of our players - need to see more of the squad that have been on the edge come through next year AND we had better be fighting hard to get players in through trades again.

It’s a bitter pill to get whacked like that, but be honest … we were never going further than maybe one win in the finals whichever way you cut it.

I’d rather this than what we have produced the last few years … bad a choice as that is!
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How do you explain beating Hawks and Pies recently to losing both insipidly?
 
George CantStandYa said:
How do you explain beating Hawks and Pies recently to losing both insipidly?
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We really only snuck a win against Collingwood - and we were in better form against the hawks … also, both previous games we had Rankine.

Good teams don’t drop so much when a single player is out. We aren’t there yet.

The best teams play their best footy in September - we definitely are not anywhere near that yet.

It’s crappy, but it’s part of the journey towards a premiership.
 
baldandbroke said:
We were not the top team, we just finished top because of our weak draw - courtesy of being 15th last year.

It put us out of our depth. Players and coaches.

Happy with the progression of many of our players - need to see more of the squad that have been on the edge come through next year AND we had better be fighting hard to get players in through trades again.

It’s a bitter pill to get whacked like that, but be honest … we were never going further than maybe one win in the finals whichever way you cut it.

I’d rather this than what we have produced the last few years … bad a choice as that is!
Click to expand...
Not sure you can say that.
We beat everyone but freo and geelong and didn’t meet either of them in the finals.
We didn’t get blown away at all throughout the year.
Two home finals should have seen at least 1 win
 
The mania around straight sets and 8th beating 1st and 'worst minor premier' means nothing.

Journos will have a field day.

Oppo fans will laugh.

But ultimately it should mean absolutely nothing to the group and the club.

Because it means nothing.

Ill take all the negative records there are on offer if it means a flag during this window.
 

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