What happens with this fitness thing next week when we turn it around, we’ve finished strongly V Richmond and GWS before the bye. Our fitness can’t go up and down week to week, it’s something else missing, it’s located in the upper chest and pumps blood. But I mean in the metaphorical sense.
Get blighty in again. He will win 2 flags quickly then take off.
I'm happy with that. Being serious i feel this club needs someone that has come from a very strong culture and the players will have no excuses. Clarko would be perfect but he would never come. The number 1 aspect a coach needs is to be liked and respected. The coach can be a real prick and the players love him if the coach is relatable and authentic. The players need to believe in a coach and have faith and total commitment. I can tell Pyke doesn't command that. Said it many times before that there will be no flag under Pyke. I also feel our older core that is jaded needs to go before there is the youthful total buy-in of a new playing group that believes they can achieve the ultimate. Way too much faith has been placed in the wrong experienced core that has proven to fail at every hurdle. We overinvested in a tilt as though the club believed we may not be there again for some time. That overinvestment in experience is now being felt.
That 2nd half was partly our coaching but a majority of it (80%) needs to be put on the leaders and experienced players of the club. They went to water as they went to water in the 2017 GF and every subsequent game that matters. They are total downhill frontrunning pretenders.
A good point on the 'best football program' - This was one of Fagan's big things, but it seems we can't attract decent coaches. It's been like that for a number of years. The exception is Francou, who I think is a good coach, but left when he was put back in his box.
Great points about forward structure but I'd add the fact that Walker has to be physically and mentally 100% before he will bother to lead and compete aerially.
As I said, I watch Tex closely as I know he gets a lot of criticism.
We, like a lot of teams now, lead to the boundary sides because you're not actually trying to score as the number one priority. You're trying not to cause a turnover in the middle of the ground which can get you scored against quickly and easily. So you push the game out down the wings and to the pockets because it gives you the boundary as a safety net should you lose possession of the ball. This isn't a scenario our forwards work well in though, you need contested markers, we've got Tex who is a lead out forward and JJ who would prefer to be in open play rather than taking contested marks.
I agree we need to get a contested Tom Hawkins style forward in there. Tex goes a good job at not being out marked, which is probably his #1 KPI. However, if we do this, we need to get some smalls in there who know how to crumb. Murphy tries hard and is ok for defensive pressure, but other than Eddie who struggles to get to contests, we don't have any crumbers.
I agree with trialling Stengle with or without Eddie. We’re putting a lot of the blame on the tall forwards in Tex and JJ, when there are other significant issues such as:
That second half had a very grand final like feeling to it being at both games. Just didn't have to listen to "oh were from tigerland" 38 times in a row this time.
Look what wce have done. Rioli, Ryan and now Cameron. We have a cooked Betts and Murphy who exerts a lot of energy doing very little. We need to get Stengle and McAdam up to speed asap.
That's where we need crumbers
Get blighty in again. He will win 2 flags quickly then take off.
