Well....now what??

[jod23]

Well, we manned up!!!! But we couldnt match the skills of the Bullies and went down by a disappointing 48 points. Im beginning to really hate the Dockers and will be barracking with all ive got for a Swans victory tommorow. Why? Because there the only thing between us and a wooden spoon.

Wirrpunda looked disinterested, Wilson was non existent, and we were on and off the field every other minute in a hope to what ... confuse the opponent??? We cant kick a winning score to save our lives and our midfield consists of one man. (For the ignorant ppl, that one man is Cousins)

Im beginning to think.....just when is our next win gonna come? I can only hope that McIntosh, Glass and Cummings will be back against Carlton. Carroll and Harding for Glass and Milli and our D looks a lot stronger.

But its not all bad i suppose, im frustrated at losing but i have to get used to it because thats what the rest of the season holds, loss after loss. The aforementioned "but" though was for Kerr, continuing to become a star. He's just 18 yrs old and 9 games under his belt consistently has a bigger impact on games than Kemp or Banners, between them having 350 games!

Gaspar was ok and Hunter was ok but there not coming on in leaps and bounds like we would want them to. Williams continues to impress me and Embly got better as the game went on but in the end we just couldnt kick goals and we couldnt win it out of the middle.

"Our midfield is stacked" is a regular comment i hear from fellow supporters, but is it?? I disagree. Kemp is getting old and is surely in his last year, Morrison is more of a half back flanker as is Matera in his old age. Kerr is a bright spot but isnt expected to win games of his 18 year old boot.

Fletcher, Braun, Taylor, Chambers, Banfield and co just seem to make up the numbers. On paper they look alright but on the field they cant seem to win it out of the middle unless Cousins helps them!! On top of that Banners looks gone with a serious knee injury.

Sorry for the novel but im half cut on bourbon and coke and wallowing in the wake of another loss by my beloved club.

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At least we manned up?? Kinda?

 

[Visro]

Where to start, where to finish!! WC yesterday were really pathetic after the 1st qrt. Only Peter Matera, Cousins and Kerr looked like they tried to me and the skill level was shocking! Our second efforts were almost non existant. Wirrpunda and Jakovich were quite pathetic and even players like Carroll and Harding played better than them. Embley did a bit but really should have kicked that goal from 30 meters our running in. We should have got thrashed with the number of scoring shots against us but what really worries me is that the team is playing without pride and passion, hands on hips and they dont look like they care about losing. No release of anger or crying or whatever, just "another loss". Anyway thats all I want to say for the moment, Im still pissed off.

Vis

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

I said it before, now i'm about to say it again, play the youngsters and use the oldies in support roles. Who showed the most commitment and passion yesterday? Kerr, Cousins, Williams and Gaspar. Youngsters still get adrenalin rushes just from playing in the AFL, they work their arses off because they still believe that they can become stars. Older players like Harding, Prior, Taylor(though he has really impressed) know they will never amount to anything better than theyalready have, so they just take everygame knowing that one way or another they will get paid.

Jako, Kemp, McIntosh and Matera all play passionately because thats the type of people they are, but they will not keep that passion up forever, eventually they'll give up. If we play Cox, Gaspar, Glass, Kerr, Hunter, Haynes, Williams, Embley, Collica, Chambers, and the likes every week we will see passion from the players.

Last night i watched Kerr closely, and the guy never stops running. He chased three opponents in one passage of play, he started on the HF line and finished in defense.

That type of commitment wins games. Now if we could only have our whole team show such commitment.

 

[Visro]

Originally posted by daddy_4_eyes
Last night i watched Kerr closely, and the guy never stops running. He chased three opponents in one passage of play, he started on the HF line and finished in defense.

I was right in front of him when that happened and was very impressed. The guy sure does show a lot of heart and determination. Unfortunately it all ended up in a goal but Kerr should win the Norwich Rising Star Award. He may not have the statistics but this guy is a shining light in a struggling team. Two of his handpasses led to goals although that shot right in front was a shocker!

Vis

 

[GoEagles]

Comments from the game

Firstly a few positives:

* Good to see Cousins and Kemp both show their leadership on field. They were probably our two best players and they really led by example!

* The first 40 minutes of the game - It could of been a different story if we could of kept that intensity up for the whole game.

*Daniel Kerr had 23 touches, probably one of his best games all season.

Now the not so good things:

* Brad Johnson absolutely killed Rowan Jones... so why on earth did Judge not try a different player on him? Was he secretly working for the Bulldogs or something?

* Very bad luck to see Banfield and Taylor go off with injury. Banfield was keeping Nathan Brown out of the game and Taylor was definately having an influence in the midfield. When we lost these players we seemed to have lost the game.

* Some players were non-existant... AGAIN. I speak of Morrison, Fletcher, Carroll, Wilson.

People around me were blaming the umpires which I thought was quite weak. The free kick count was 23-22 in our favour - it's about time we had a good hard look at our players, coaches, admin and stop blaming the men in white who are doing their job. (We had 2 of the most experienced umpires out there plus a West Aussie out there!)

Sheez - I'm scared to think how we will go against Carlton on Saturday. Maybe we can take John Worsfold back home with us and Leave Judgey behind?

 

[Frodo]

Well I was happier after last nights game than previous matches because of some commitment not seen since the Dockers game.
There's something wrong behind the scenes!!!!
Take Wirrapunda. I was sure he was carrying an injury for the first three quarters of the game because he did nothing. Then he went onto the ball in the last quarter and looked good. 10 possesions. I can only believe that he is confused. Doesn't know where and how he is supposed to play.
I hope Banners knee is not another reconstruction job. We need him.
Braun showed some very good signs and so did Embley. It was also Carrolls best game and maybe he does have something to offer. Rowan Jones and Williams are clearly carrying injuries. Jones also looks frail compared to the ferocious tagger we saw last year so I think we can conclude that his back injury is precluding weight training. I thought Jacko at CHF looked a reasonable structural move in the first quarter but he does lack pace. In fact apart from Kerr and Joey pace seems to be an all round problem. Losing Taylor early was a big loss and Banners was crucial. Rebuilding the defence is critical. Milli and Glass will help a lot although Milli is not a medium or long term solution. Ranking our back six last night I'd say :-

Now 2 years time
Harding 4 2
Carrol 5 4 ?
Collica 4 4
Hunter 3 6
Matera 8 3
Gaspar 5 7

A decent ( not good) defence must average 7

Consider this ranking
Lamb 8
Brennan 9
Waterman 8
Worsfold 10
Jakovich 9
Mckenna 10

Not only are we no where near a good defence but the likes of Harding, Collica, Carroll surely have no potential for the future either.

The we have top players like Wirrapunda and the laconic Morrisson not standing up at all.
Fletcher seems half burnt out after a good start to the season. His lack of pace, strength and height is showing.
Gardy is a top ruckman but he too lacks pace. I would not rank Gardy in the top 6 ruckmen in AFL at present.
Cuz puts in every game but where is his strength to make tackles stick and break opposition tackles. Look at Buckley, Harvey and a dozen others and they ride the tackles well. How often do we get two hands on an oponent in the ruck contest and let the guy still get an effective handball away.

Even with Cummings, Milli, Glass, Wooden, Merenda back I can't see us winning many games and in two years time there is only likely to be Glass of the five that is up to standard.

Not a very good Sunday morning

 

[WA]

daddy-4-eyes - you are spot on, particularly about the Kerr passage of play both you and Visro mentioned (by the way Visro, we must sit in pretty similar spots). My question about the whole passage was 'where the hell was ANYONE to help him?' Kerr is impressive.

Also, agree Kempy and Cousins got in there and gave it their best. We need our guys to get into the packs, not just stand back and wait for the easy ball, which even Cousins can be guilty of doing at times. It's not ALL about the number of possessions you get, but also what you do with them.

Goeagles - I thought the umpiring was OK and didn't have any impact on the result.

Wilson gets bagged by supporters most weeks, except of course when he's on for most of the game and kicks a bag full... How do we expect him to have much impact when he's never on for long enough to do anything? Judgey immediately drags him for a mistake, which I might had, he didn't have a huge amount of control over - who else was there helping?? At various points during the game we had no big men to look for, the only player down there was Matera. Sure Wilson makes mistakes, but at the moment most Eagles are, surely having him down there is a better option that having knowone to target. Even having him on to push abit of weight around couldn't go astray.

Commitment is the key. The majority of our guys simply doin't have it. Simple.

I've got my fingers crossed that the rumour about Worsfold going to Freo is just a rumour. I'm still clinging to the hope of seeing him back with the Eagles, with Guy McKenna by his side......

 

[Visro]

Yesterday I sat right in front of the John Worsfold Club...pretty good seats! There was these two old guys sitting behind who didn't stop swearing (used every word in the book which didn't impress my dad ) and all they did was criticise WC, they were Freo supporters. I can't believe how disillusioned some people are on the WC official forum, saying the boys are playing with passion, bull********, one visit to the footy last night proved to me they aren't!

Vis

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Originally posted by Visro
I can't believe how disillusioned some people are on the WC official forum, saying the boys are playing with passion, bull********, one visit to the footy last night proved to me they aren't!

Vis

What? Its the other way around, everyone has been saying that the eagles play without passion. Only Kerr is credited with showing passion, and at times Matera, McIntosh and kemp.

 

[Visro]

There are some supporters there that believe we should not bag the players for playing without passion for their club. There are some good posters there but unfortunately there tends to be a few teeny boppers in there who believe they should sing endless praise for players when praise isn't due.

Vis

 

[eagleskickass]

I went to my School Ball last night, so only saw the first quarter. They seemed to go alright in the first quarter, but from what I have heard did nothing after that. Hope they can start turning this around, and I say give the youngsters a go, so we can see who to keep and who to cull.

 

[jod23]

D4E - how can you leave Cuz out of the players that show passion. Cousins never stops running and is week after week givingit his all. I agree though on a whole the team is not showing enough passion or commitment but i was impressed that somehow and i dont know how but Judge managed to get across the point of manning up. We manned up all game but were beaten by a more skilled and committed team. Really glad Milli and Cummings will be back next week. Milli is really needed down back, i just feel at ease when the ball goes into our defence and Milli is back there defending instead of Harding or Carroll.

A lot of you have lost faith in Cummo but i have always wanting him back in the side. Wilson is really not a spearhead, he's good for a couple of goals a game but thats all. Cummings when uninjured is usually good for 4 or 5 a game. I like Wilson but i hope Judge puts him at CHF for the Carlton game, he can take a very strong mark but isnt the best kick for goal.

 

[jod23]

Oh and i also forgot that we still have a big problem in kicking a winning score. Wilson and Joey Matera have been inconsistent all year long but with any luck it will get better once Cummings comes back.

We need Cummings to get back to the form he showed in 99 and we need Wilson and Joey to be able to contribute 5 or 6 goals a game between them. Mainy and Commetti were also talking about how Cousins would really take the next step to superstar level if he could become more of a goal scorer. Which i think is true. Buckley will get the same amount of possesions as Cuz but he also drifts forward and kicks a couple of goals a game and hurts you not only with his possesions but his goal kicking.

The Eagles need to start kicking 15+ goals a game to have a chance at winning games.

 

[plays tall]

i was at the hawthorn game and i was appalled at the freedom hawthorn were given. every time they won the footy they seemed to have 5 guys free. at least on the weekend against the bulldogs the ball was contested.

statistics show we went inside our forward 50 about as often as the bulldogs and had almost as much possession. i think skill errors and inability to convert cost us. we are now paying for letting mitchell white and fraser gehrig go- they were scoring options, now we have wilson and matera as multiple goal kickers and not much else.

i think the skills will improve if we can keep players fit. morrison for instance made several skill errors which may be attributable to his absence from the team.

the huge positive out of the game was kerr. until now i thought he was just going to be a good midfielder - i'm now convinced that he is going to be much more than that. he plays with intensity, he has skill and poise and he knows how to get the footy. he will be a star.

embley looks good when he gets it but he won't hurt many teams if he averages less than 10 possessions a game. it will be interesting to see if he develops as the season progresses.

 

[jod23]

I pretty much thought Kerr would be a star from the get go and Embly if he gets enough of it can be damaging. Did you see his goal against the bullies, pretty good goal.

 

[Visro]

Yeah but don't forget the goal he missed running in from 30 meters out. He should have got that one!

Vis