Autopsy 2023 Rd 5 Blues get smashed by Crows

[Benaly28]

Does Carlton seem like a top 4 side to you?

Not yet long way to go complete opposite from last year re performance.


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[4flagsin5yrs]

For weeks now, our ball handling has been poor - fumbling, two or three grabs, punching when an easy mark could be effected.....tackling without intent.

Are Cripps and Hewett playing injured?

Both are miles off their best. Many miles....

Pitto had been off too, I'd almost give Mirkov a crack! (Pitto gives us jack around the ground anyway).....

TIME FOR THE COACHES to earn their pay.

(and for a few players to be sent to the 2s)

 

[gadj1976]

Without trying to sound basic it starts with the basics.

We are an extremely low IQ football team. This sits with the coaches. If they can’t instil the basics as a default in these players then there’s no chance.

It’s a lack of discipline that appears to be supported by a lack of consequence.

The easiest thing in the world is to monkey point after a game like last night, there’s going to be a myriad of examples to make. It’d be too easy. But I’m going to. Because from my perspective the below sets the tone for the rest of the match.

Everyone knew prior to the game that Adelaide were going to come hard and early, that the best chance to exploit us was to run and carry, play up-tempo, spread football. Our best chance was to absorb that, create contest and grind them down.

So one of the first entries into our defensive 50 comes a highball to a contest 20m out 3m from the boundary. One of our most experienced players attempts to climb the back of the opposition player to mark the ball, doesn’t mark it as it spills to the front of the contest to be hanballed to the unmarked most dangerous forward in the game for a snapped goal.

How does this happen? How does Saad not kill that ball to the boundary so that we can set-up for a stoppage? You know, like playing to the game plan that you‘d believe was instilled into the players all week?

How?

It was a horrid example to the group of what not to do. There simply has to be consequence for this.

Jake Lever would have torn him to shreds, because in a team that implements and expects standards this simply wasn’t good enough. Unfortunately, it was an example that was followed and repeated for the rest of the night.

But I’d love to sit on the review of tape of the first two minutes and ask the simplest question to gauge the response - Why didn’t we adhere to the basics?

And when the same bullshit answers that obviously come back week after week are expressed when clearly the basics weren’t followed I’d be handing out “you don’t play next week” cards like Oprah hands out cars.

I've said this for years. Dumbest footy team going around. How TDK keeps that ball in on the goal-line and hands Keays a goal is Div 3 stupid. Even Keays was surprised! No offence to anyone playing Div 3 but I'd expect better even in lower grades of community football.

Why does Fish try and kick a checky running away from goal instead of centering the ball.

Just dumb.

 

[gab213]

oh dear god, I can just see what the Saints are going to do to us, might be over at qtr time again

Meh, we are just as likely to come out and beat St. Kilda next week. Hopefully McGovern playss next week, ,losing him and Doc and then Pitto during the game screwed us. Adelaide was switched on and everything they tried early came off for them.

There is no doubt that we need to improve but we have known that alll along. This game doesn't change my perception of where we sit. The season isn't over after losing our first game in round 5.

 

[Benaly28]

Why don’t we just go back to what made us dangerous last year?

Put out 5 mids through the middle,win contested ball and lower the eyes when coming inside 50.

We didn’t have pace last year as we relied on our contested ball.

Our ruck is one of the main issues right now.


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[Benaly28]

Reserves go around tonight let’s see who puts their hand up as there’s at least 4 spots up for grabs.


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[The Blue Weirdo]

i agree and I was hoping the preseason just gone would have fixed some of our issues that came to light second half of 2022.

id like to know what we practiced during trainings since.

I’d also like to know how we review the games and what sort of an action plan comes out of them.

When Voss was interviewed for the job at the time of the previous vacancy he was described as unimpressive, according to 1 of our reliable ITK's.
I wonder what changed during those 2 years for him to become impressive?
I'd love to hear Ash Hansen's honest views on how we are progressing and how closely his opinions align with the senior coach.

 

[blues4flag]

Why don’t we just go back to what made us dangerous last year?

Put out 5 mids through the middle,win contested ball and lower the eyes when coming inside 50.

We didn’t have pace last year as we relied on our contested ball.

Our ruck is one of the main issues right now.


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It hasn't worked since round 10 last year.

 

[TeeJay Blue]

We are an enigma - we have the most unconvincing wins and the most convincing losses

An enigma would be both our wins and losses being one or the other.

If our wins are unconvincing and losses the opposite, that isn't being an enigma. That is being below par.

 

[Kaladin Stormblessed]

Normally a big fan of Voss’s communication but really disappointed last night.

If he thinks the game panned out the way it did only because they got the jump on us and after that we were evens he is on a completely different planet.

We were never ever in that game after the first 10 minutes and never looked like it. Even when we got to 18 points the Crows went bang bang. It was as clinical and as dominant a win as you could get.

Hope this isn’t what he’s preaching behind closed doors ie “well done boys we matched them for the rest of the game just need to work on our starts”

 

[reubsblues]

Why don’t we just go back to what made us dangerous last year?

Put out 5 mids through the middle,win contested ball and lower the eyes when coming inside 50.

We didn’t have pace last year as we relied on our contested ball.

Our ruck is one of the main issues right now.


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I was pretty much one of the only ones on here to say we had the worst ruck stocks in the comp
Pittonet is vfl level and TDK is talented but is a long way off it
We should of went after grundy instead of Acres

 

[TwiggleyFanClub]

I think most of us were expecting a rough night at the office last night.
None of our wins have been convincing: we've played less than a half of good football in any of our first 4 games.
Individual brilliance got us past a few mediocre opponents in the first 4 weeks, but last night showed us what our out of date and poorly executed gameplan looks like when matched against a skilled, ruthless team playing a modern style of football.
And I'm not sure if Voss has the nous to fix the gameplan. We rarely look like we have a plan B, and seem to get beaten the same same way every time.

 

[gab213]

Normally a big fan of Voss’s communication but really disappointed last night.

If he thinks the game panned out the way it did only because they got the jump on us and after that we were evens he is on a completely different planet.

We were never ever in that game after the first 10 minutes and never looked like it. Even when we got to 18 points the Crows went bang bang. It was as clinical and as dominant a win as you could get.

Hope this isn’t what he’s preaching behind closed doors ie “well done boys we matched them for the rest of the game just need to work on our starts”

What we hear in a presser and what is said behind closed doors is very different I'm sure

 

[bigblueboy]

Almost every successful CEO goes through an interview process including those that are headhunted for the job.

Ross wouldn't even deliver the club what his intended gameplan aas, how he would fit into the new culture that Sayers was trying to implement, etc.

Brian Cook who was as successful as they come interviewed for his position and was headhunted yet committed to due diligence.

100pc this.
Lyon is not and never was going to be the answer. Saints will fade.
Voss was far from our first choice - Sayers well and truly messed up that process.
It was only after the board got wind of the options we had been ‘exploring’ in the background that we started a proper process but still one defined by requiring a coach with ‘experience’.
All that said Voss has been good …. but needs to take us up another level now.

 

[BlueJet]

Too one paced & defensively limited through the middle - we're desperate for better balance and better use through there.
ATM we're all or nothing, we're susceptible to being cut up by fast, aggressive release by hand & counterpunching, skillful sides, as our use & lack of coverage through the middle means we get opened up at will, if we get clean use we can hurt the opposition due to H & C being 1 out.
As it stands, we have too many triers that don't move the needle or players that are largely MIA unless we're on top.
I have confidence that Austin & Co will be able to churn the list & find the right balance.

 

[charred_fate]

An enigma would be both our wins and losses being one or the other.

If our wins are unconvincing and losses the opposite, that isn't being an enigma. That is being below par.

Yes, true. I guess I was thinking in the broader context - sitting second on the ladder without a loss etc… and just the somewhat amusing (infuriating) nature of our performances… although even that doesn’t really make sense. Confused myself!! Fixed

 

[Sam The Doc]

I hope they show the Cowan tackle on Tex 1000 times this week to the playing group.
We are very ordinary at tackling!

 

[BrianSetzer]

I was bracing myself for this result next week, not this week

 

[Ald Gardiner]

When Voss was interviewed for the job at the time of the previous vacancy he was described as unimpressive, according to 1 of our reliable ITK's.
I wonder what changed during those 2 years for him to become impressive?
I'd love to hear Ash Hansen's honest views on how we are progressing and how closely his opinions align with the senior coach.

Goodwin coached a flag, let’s lay off Voss for the moment

 

[TheBlueCampaigner]

Like most on here I'm gutted by the performance which was almost a rinse and repeat of the last time there in terms of lack of mental application. We pretty much just had our pants pulled down for all of the football world to see.

Surprised to read though that a lot of posters have made mention of not making top 4. Not sure that they were ever reasonable expectations. The media dangled that out and some have fallen in. My expectations for this season are to make finals. That is par. Winning one would be an amazing step forward IMO. I'll hold back on passing judgement unless making finals becomes realistically out of the equation.

Hold fast Baggers.

 

[Blue since 72]

I said in the preview that this was a danger game and losing shows we don’t have top 4 potential… I stand by it.

We were off today and I won’t discount that but Cerra/Kennedy at halfback didn’t work, Laird, Dawson and Keays again just cut us up. Matthew Nicks said during the week they were treating this game like it was massive and they fronted up.

I’m concerned, I’m not giving up or melting the membership but we’ve got a lot of work to do.

One thing I'd like to see is stop playing our mids off half back. We could have had a Cincotta or a Kemp in tonight who actually play the position.

Mids were soundly beaten all night, Cripps virtually unsighted.

The definition of insanity is to continually kick the ball on Harry and Charlie's head while being double and sometimes triple teamed ..... all night. Jesus I would have taken kicks out in space in front of them over that rubbish, at least it would have been more of a 50/50 contest.

Bar a few individual efforts (JSOS, Ed) maybe a couple of others but I'd have to watch it again and I can't stomach that.

Seriously poor team effort and both players and coaches need to go back to basics, get out of their own heads, start playing with some more instinct and confidence. I don't have a problem with a system but you cannot play an entire game of footy purely on system because situations pop up that don't allow you too, you need to use and be allowed to use the instincts that got you drafted in the first place.

You start over thinking a game like aussie rules and you're done.

 

[Wickzki]

Oh please. Ross Lyon was offered the job, then asked to sit for interviews and explain himself.

At stkilda, he was given the job. No questions asked.

At no stage was Ross ever straight up offered the position or had a contract put in front of him.

The club put feelers out to see if he was interested.

He confirmed that he was. They then put him through the process.

In employment terms you can say that he was shortlisted.

 

[Blue__Balls]

I've said this for years. Dumbest footy team going around. How TDK keeps that ball in on the goal-line and hands Keays a goal is Div 3 stupid. Even Keays was surprised! No offence to anyone playing Div 3 but I'd expect better even in lower grades of community football.

Why does Fish try and kick a checky running away from goal instead of centering the ball.

Just dumb.

Nobody else went forward for him. Simple as that. He tried, he looked for the inboard option, there was nothing, so he had to just take a low percentage shot. He had an ordinary night but that play wasn't on him.

 

[Benaly28]

It hasn't worked since round 10 last year.

So ifs that’s the case the onus is on the coaching staff.


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[F_therest]

Really rough game. We were clearly not switched on right from the first bounce. I think it's official - we aren't a good travelling team.

They exposed just about every weakness of ours. If our big mids don't get first touch we can be had on the spread. We aren't a clean team, there's lots of 2 and 3 touch takes by our guys and few clean pickups. We aren't a skilled team, we bomb long and if we look for targets we often miss them.

However conversely, Adelaide looked unbelievably skilled. Their kicking has to be the best I've seen from any team this year, if not the past couple of years. The way they were hitting up targets was extraodinary.

We got the matchups wrong right from the start in D50. Weitering to Fogarty and Young to Walker was an awful call. Walker was always going to be too big, strong and aggressive for Young. I've never quite bought in on Young, for that reason, he's very much a finesse key position player and isn't aggressive and doesn't like the physical play. Putting him on Walker was a horrid call.

Fogarty was too nimble for Weiters. This isn't the Fogarty of old that moved like a dump truck, there's a reason he's started kicking goals.

We have a desperate dearth of goal kickers. Charlie and H aside, very few in our side are legitimate and consistent goal threats.

Our inside 50s are disgustingly bad and predictable.

We lack skill. Everyone knows this, but until we fix it we won't be winning a flag. Even our "skilled" players don't hit targets at the moment.

Cripps seems out of touch. He's fumbling and 2/3 grabbing the footy more than I've ever seen from him and is uncharacteristically missing inside handballs. He's also being pushed past the footy in the contest very easily. Probably hasn't quite been mentioned as we've won, but if we'd been losing everyone would be asking what's up with him.

Was good to see Walsh back and it was like he'd never left. I was concerned about his touch early but he blew me away - the handling of the footy was like he'd been playing all season. Great first game back by him.

As far as I'm concerned, all of our deficiencies that we knew about were all exposed quite extraordinarily by Adelaide. I didn't learn anything new about our team, but I did learn that all the deficiencies from the past couple of years are still there.

Also, Adelaide did what we don't do and showed the killer instinct at the end. They didn't let us get a few cheapies to go home with and feel good about ourselves, they kept pressing and stepped on us right to the end.

Agree with all of this, however after sleeping on it, I'm not panicking just yet. Let's have some perspective.

1. All clubs bar St Kilda have had a poor loss this year. Adelaide themselves were very disappointing in their loss to GWS, who lost Whitfield and Kelly to injury in the game. They then lost to Richmond by 5 goals at home who we drew with. Point is, everyone is raving about them now but they started the season 0-2 so things can change quickly.

Dogs started 0-2 and got smashed by 50+ points. Have since turned it around with good wins against Brisbane and Richmond.

Collingwood were world beaters then coughed up many soft goal against Brisbane and we haven't heard much about them this week.

Melbourne were very poor in their loss to Brisbane, down by almost 50 points at one stage.

Sydney got smashed by Melbourne.

Geelong were 3-3 after Rd 6 last year.

Let's not overreact to 1 bad loss.

2. We have clear deficiencies we all know about. But these are exaggerated when we simply aren't switched on. We saw last year our best is good enough. I really don't think Melbourne's midfield is much quicker than ours and they are a premiership favourite. Our perceived issue of a slow midfield can be overcome.

3. We rely on our home crowd. Think of the games where we kick 5+ goals in a row and have huge momentum and our tackling pressure is insane. Games like last year vs Sydney and Richmond. They all typically happen at home games, especially Marvel where the crowd noise is electric. It clearly gives our players energy that they seem to lack interstate.