Autopsy Autopsy vs Geelong - Geelong think so little of us that at one stage their starting midfield was Stanley/Bruhn/Dempsey/Atkins & they won the clearance

[Mav]

Bridge Rd Brewers is also pretty good. The Beechworth Bakery is massively overrated unless you have indulged at one of the breweries/nice old pubs the night before and are craving some hangover food.

I bought some binoculars in Beechworth cause I’m a bit blind. A brilliant buy cause a bevy of babes were being beautiful.

 

[Gasometer]

I was having a gander on the Cats board game thread and some were furious when the margin was 9 goals in the 3rd quarter. They wanted 100 plus.

Then you have ours where some consider today acceptable.

You wonder if the low standards have not just permeated through the club but now through a good portion of the fan base.

We might be slightly better than last year but we are are basically where we were in second half of 2021 - semi competitive some weeks except this time we aren't even winning games

At the end of the day we are still cemented on 2 f-cking wins and don't know where the next will come from. It's not just bad, it's boring. Only reason we aren't last again (yet) is because there happens to be 1 club who is worse.

It’s abysmal

You just want to come back in a few years time IF we are successful

I seriously can’t justify paying $290 for a Membership when I cbf investing a day on a weekend to watch not much hope.

Time to wind back to a Country Membership or minimum Game whatever it is.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Not surprised. That's been LMac for most of his career and it's Curtis Taylor to a tee. Head of the teams social club. Zurhaars food blog camera man...

Half the team is phoning it in at the moment.

I know football isn't their entire life but I don't want to see cooking, painting, podcasts, twitch streams etc. until they are putting everying they can into their performances.

It’s an amazing gig.

Train 10-12 hours a week, play one game and the rest of the time is your own whilst getting six times the average wage.

Play for 5-6 years and it’s like you’ve worked for 30.

 

[William Caresser]

I blame them but I also don't blame them.

Pretty hard to invest themselves at the moment but they are also the agents of change.

So hard to dig out of this hole...

True. The low standard of preseason at the club is something Shiels and others have talked about. They all clock in OK but only some work hard, become better runners and some - too many - just don't. They can play but are basically semi-professional with VFL level running capability. And it gets shown up game after game after game - we get outnumbered and outworked. But these guys still get $10,000 to $15,000 appearing in their account each week or $20,000 or $30,000 a fortnight. Amazing really.

 

[William Caresser]

Sorry but I thought Zurhaar was horrid again today. Constantly trying to break 10 tackles and kick the miraculous goal rather than the team first dish off to advantage the team. He needs to work out what sort of player he wants to be

And doing very little running without the ball.

 

[Ligma]

(puts on my North are kinda s**t positivity hat) .. so, it made for some interesting people watching experiences then?

One of the creeps brought me a shot though!

 

[Its a Process]

Was at the game today. Geelong were clearly attempting things they wouldn’t against other sides due the absolute ease they were winning the ball around the contest and on the rebound. Few positives, but largely we were uncompetitive.

I actually thought our defensive structure was ok first quarter (I was sat behind the goals), we generated a heap of extra man but apart from LMac taking a mark early we were not able to exploit it. Apart from BMac on Hawk we looked awful when in a 1vs1 match up back there. Could have and probably should have been 100pts plus.

Minor positives
Coop - something about the kid, doesn’t fumble, smart, good kick.
TT in the 2nd half behind the ball gave us something
Cam around the ball in the 2nd half have us something

Very few though, midfield was demolished which has been a trend last month. Jy 2 concussions in 6 weeks isn’t great either, hope he’s ok

 

[hcd199]

Tiring to try and few any sort of new angles on yet another trainwreck - but we looked disinterested from about 5 minutes in today, players were jogging around aimlessly while Geelong picked out targets they were presumably supposed to be guarding. No semblance of defensive capacity at the centre bounce, obviously we'd like to be winning clearances too but next best option is to neutralise it/prevent the easy inside 50 for the opposition, and too many of our first-choice mids today don't really offer that option (which is a good argument for Greenwood holding his place fairly often for this season and next, to ensure we have someone who can defend in the middle). Thought we covered the loss of Logue okay - Corr and McKay both went alright - so it's telling how poor we were defensively despite managing that setback decently.

At this point, it just feels like learned helplessness - we go into every game expecting to be belted and have done for a couple of years now, barely even striving to shake the cultural shackle of going through the motions waiting for some mystical moment when 'it will turn', because hey, fans and the media have all settled into a rhythm where North dwelling at the bottom is just the norm, so why shouldn't we? Not really any obvious signs of leadership or standard-setting out there today, someone to show a bit of pride when Geelong openly showed contempt for us by toying with it from the second quarter onwards - and we'll continue to be mired in the exact same way, meekly living up to the low expectations pundits set for 'minnow' clubs, until the culture that produces performances like this, and thinks not getting blown away by a team with their foot so clearly off the pedal is reasonable, is completely extinguished and replaced. No idea how we get there at this point - losing begets losing, and habits are hard to shake - but gee, it'd be nice to see something other than a faint glimpse in a close loss one week and utter hopelessness in a belting the next...

 

[Horizons_00]

I'm not ITK, not well connected but do have a mate who knows a player. Heard some worrying things. It sounds a lot like the mid to senior players are just resigned to being sh!t and don't see it as their responsibility to improve things. As though they just happen to be unlucky to be there and can't do anything about it. Happy to have $10,000k plus put in their bank accounts each week though. There's a lot of going out, poor preparation before training , pretending to be earnest at the club but really not giving a rat"s. And apparently some really loose behaviour but that wasn't elaborated on. Not surprising though given how unfit we are. Then there's Sheezel, Wardlaw and some other kids being absolute professionals. So rifts at the club.

So what is Clarko going to do about it

 

[William Caresser]

Not surprised. That's been LMac for most of his career and it's Curtis Taylor to a tee. Head of the teams social club. Zurhaars food blog camera man...

Half the team is phoning it in at the moment.

I know football isn't their entire life but I don't want to see cooking, painting, podcasts, twitch streams etc. until they are putting everying they can into their performances.

Those guys need to be sent to the AIS in preseason and put into a controlled environment. In part to get them away from the rest of the group influencing younger players like an unfit small forward. But also because we pay them $10,000 a week to be professional, fit AFL footballers who bring consistent effort. Not to be part of a brat pack living the high life.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

True. The low standard of preseason at the club is something Shiels and others have talked about. They all clock in OK but only some work hard, become better runners and some - too many - just don't. They can play but are basically semi-professional with VFL level running capability. And it gets shown up game after game after game - we get outnumbered and outworked. But these guys still get $10,000 to $15,000 appearing in their account each week or $20,000 or $30,000 a fortnight. Amazing really.

It’s a symptom of having to pay a certain amount of the cap.

Half these blokes aren’t worth 100k a season, but due to needing to pay 92.5%, they’re earning 3 x that.

Removing the salary floor would save clubs millions, if their list is full of absolute potatoes.

 

[Carey4life]

Not surprised. That's been LMac for most of his career and it's Curtis Taylor to a tee. Head of the teams social club. Zurhaars food blog camera man...

Half the team is phoning it in at the moment.

I know football isn't their entire life but I don't want to see cooking, painting, podcasts, twitch streams etc. until they are putting everying they can into their performances.

CT, CZ, and GF spent their week off having cocktails and high calorie meals at expensive restaurants in Sydney.

I really don't want to disparage what players do on their single week off, it can't be all misery, although some of the older players have a feeling of apathy to losing.

 

[DesertRoo]

******* hell

Unless he gets his shit together, this is looking into the future..

 

[Passmore]

So what is Clarko going to do about it

I’d be expecting some ugly exit interviews at season’s end.

 

[Cyber_punk]

It’s abysmal

You just want to come back in a few years time IF we are successful

I seriously can’t justify paying $290 for a Membership when I cbf investing a day on a weekend to watch not much hope.

Time to wind back to a Country Membership or minimum Game whatever it is.

I've been a supporter since the late 90's and before 2020 the worst years I have seen are 2006, 2001, 2009 and the first half of 2019. But even those years had some surprise or exciting great wins now and then, with lesser talented teams. 2009 the win against the ladder leading Saints, 2019 where we smashed both Richmond and Collingwood.

It currently feels like 'can we win today' might not even be a regular thought until 2026 and that is so damn demotivating.

 

[hilly]

So what is Clarko going to do about it

Wouldn't be surprised at all if one or two 'untouchables' are shopped around.

And there must be 500 bakeries between Melbourne and Sydney that have won some form of award.

On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Spud11]

Well it’s up to them if this is what they want to stand for. Being insipid every week is now the culture of this club and even though we went and got the A-team, I don’t see much of a difference tbh. Up to them if this is what they’re happy to produce. It started at selection and it’s set the tone for the year.

Can’t keep doing this. People will start voting with their feet (and microwaves). Yep, it’s just a game and it’s not meant to be serious I get that. But it’s also meant to be fun and enjoyable and if it’s not, can’t blame people for taking a break. I for one don’t watch a minute of games at the moment. There are better things to do with 2 hrs. I know what we’re going to get and there’s not even a chance of an incredible, stirring win. We all know it. This team is soulless.

 

[sruss]

We’ve fished up putrid football this year, but far out, I don’t think the players owe an explanation to anyone on this board about what they do in their week off from football. Go all in on what they do on-field, but it’s hardly our business what restaurants they go to

 

[chubbspeterson]

Sorry but I thought Zurhaar was horrid again today. Constantly trying to break 10 tackles and kick the miraculous goal rather than the team first dish off to advantage the team. He needs to work out what sort of player he wants to be

That's fair, just thought he was far from our worst and at least was trying to bring some pressure in the 2nd half. As for being selfish, LDU did the same thing when he had two guys free on his 2nd shot for goal, so Zurhaar wasn't the only one. Maybe the players are too concerned with their stats.

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

I know it may seem like a bit of a personal vendetta against McDonald, he was actually just comically bad today.

Apart from a good smother, a good intercept mark and a half decent long kick to a 50/50 down the wing, this guy just monumentally stuffs up the big and small things:

• leading by selling teammates into trouble
• handballs that can’t clear the direct opponent
• jelly legs
• getting pinged 3 times a game HTB
• the sh*truest one-on-one defensive efforts we have seen in a long time
• no acceleration or backing up from a contest to the next
• u8 brain farts leading 50MPs inside opposition 50 leading to certain goals

If you were playing a bingo drinking game where you had to imagine writing down the laziest and lousiest efforts in football, you would win your way to a stomach pump in the local ER.

 

[leighlee13]

I wish Sellers was on our list.

 

[Gasometer]

I've been a supporter since the late 90's and before 2020 the worst years I have seen are 2006, 2001, 2009 and the first half of 2019. But even those years had some surprise or exciting great wins now and then, with lesser talented teams. 2009 the win against the ladder leading Saints, 2019 where we smashed both Richmond and Collingwood.

It currently feels like 'can we win today' might not even be a regular thought until 2026 and that is so damn demotivating.

Ours was the 80’s

Up and down like a yo yo with so many false dawn years but probably 1986 through to 1989 were blah years

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

Laz was actually pretty good.

Another game across HF/wing with Ford next week please.

Ford I thought did a great job on Blicavs and bobbed up for some important offensive moments too. He has almost cemented his spot in the 23, which given were started this year is a great achievement.

 

[koshari]

Wouldn't be surprised at all if one or two 'untouchables' are shopped around.

And there must be 500 bakeries between Melbourne and Sydney that have won some form of award.

On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

There only are 3 untouchables, ldu, sheez and wardlaw. Maybe souva but he just signed a long term deal.

 

[Val Keating]

Smashed everywhere it counts,
Disposals
Inside 50’s
Contested possessions
Uncontested possessions
Marks inside 50

And obliterated at centre clearance.

They were just far too good