Hate to lose, but...

[Pres]

This is why the chronic injuries to JWS have killed us. Add him into the midfield, and suddenly, we've got options - Wells, Ziebell, and JWS is a damn good midfield trio. Add McIntosh feeding the ball, and it's bloody magnificent.

I think about the same thing quite a bit. I would have Blake Grima in that group as well. Would have been keen to see how his career would have gone without any injury interruptions.

A fully fit 2010 midfield of McIntosh-Goldstein-Zeibell-Smith-Harvey-Grima-Wells-Wright-Campbell would have been something to have gotten excited about.

 

[hurricane]

I'd give Levi another game or two.

Admittedly, I haven't watched the match yet and he may well have been rubbish. But after his debut he was sent back to the VFL where he responded with several weeks as BOG or in the best.

I'm not sure that dropping him back right away is necessarily going to help... I'd prefer to see him given two or three weeks in the seniors and give him every chance to adjust to the pace of the game. If he can't manage it then fine, send him back to work on his deficiencies for the rest of the year. But if we drop him now and he goes back and gets BOG again in the twos I don't think we're really learning anything about him.

 

[Kimbo]

It is still 3 games. Not every young player can set the world on fire in their first few outings. We have veterans who are marked less harshly than our young blokes.

With you on this DR. And, even if we're going to 'judge' Levi, I reckon some of the judgements are harsh. He contests well, finds the pill okay, for his experience, relatively calm in traffic. Major issue is disposal, and perhaps pace, but he isn't alone there.

This is why the chronic injuries to JWS have killed us. Add him into the midfield, and suddenly, we've got options - Wells, Ziebell, and JWS is a damn good midfield trio.

There's this other little bloke, Brent someone who goes okay too.

 

[AGC]

I still think we need to give Levi some time- but his kicking isn't great- and he doesn't really have the pace to play in the midfield- which would leave him as a HBF'er- a position that we have filled i'd think.

 

[street_fighter]

Sure there are some positives, but don't people find it extremely frustrating watching us play with the same inherent problems week in, week out.

For me, two main things are killing us.
1 - Poor skills. This is hard to fix anytime soon, so we will have to live with it this year it seems.
2 - Forward line structure. This whole year we have played with a totally over crowded forward line and for most of our games have looked completely impotent. This is something that can be changed, but for some reason it never is. Does anyone know why we persist with what we are doing? Or is it just because it seems to work at training?

 

[Event Horizon]

I just couldn't understand why we refused to try man on man approach when it bacame obvious that our flood wasn't working?

When they were setting up play from the backline, our blokes droped back, allowing them plenty of time to create loose man and pin point their passes. This flood is absolutely useless. It not only gives them multiple free players in midfield but also does not prevent them from marking inside 50, at times uncontested, which is bizzare.

By going one on one we would at least have stopped their run and would make them earn each posession. I think our current midfield is much more suited to that approach than the one Laidley is trying at the minute.

 

[NICK_ROOBOY83]

I just couldn't understand why we refused to try man on man approach when it bacame obvious that our flood wasn't working?

When they were setting up play from the backline, our blokes droped back, allowing them plenty of time to create loose man and pin point their passes. This flood is absolutely useless. It not only gives them multiple free players in midfield but also does not prevent them from marking inside 50, at times uncontested, which is bizzare.

By going one on one we would at least have stopped their run and would make them earn each posession. I think our current midfield is much more suited to that approach than the one Laidley is trying at the minute.

That was one of the single most annoying thing for me yesterday. Just couldn't understand why we wouldn't man up.

We seemed stubborn, at the end when there was about 5 or 6 mins to go, we were trying hard to get back, why didnt we man up then? Brisbane just burnt about 3 mins chipping it around in the back line because we refused to man up and put them under any pressure.

 

[we57st]

I think North has some great young kids as you've all identified, and yeah it hurts as supporters to lose but you need to get these losses under your belt before you can go forward. Having said that, Hale was and has been disappointing all year and the forward half generally except for Warren was lacklustre. Surely Edwards will be dropped this week? His strength is usually his marking but on the weekend he was even dropping the easy ones, outside the forward 50 where he was not a chance to score anyway and defeats his whole purpose of being in the team.

Will Matty Campbell be right this week? I found it weird to see Lindsay Thomas running around NOT inside the forward 50 and his poor decision-making and inability to hit a teammate by foot was testament to the fact that he has to stay inside 50! But I think we all know Thomas and Campbell work best when they're playing together.

The obsession with handball at all costs is fine if your team as the skill to execute, but North needs to simplify the game plan and emphasize long kicking rather than trying to find a handball target which is more often than not, a teammate in a worse position thatn the ball carrier anyway.

Do you guys remember at the Freo game when the announcer guy at Etihad chats to someone in the crowd and asks for their opinion, this lady they spoke to said "stop handballing and kick it long!" and everyone in the crowd cheered??? Hope the players heard that!

 

[Morcosovich]

Sure there are some positives, but don't people find it extremely frustrating watching us play with the same inherent problems week in, week out.

For me, two main things are killing us.
1 - Poor skills. This is hard to fix anytime soon, so we will have to live with it this year it seems.
2 - Forward line structure. This whole year we have played with a totally over crowded forward line and for most of our games have looked completely impotent. This is something that can be changed, but for some reason it never is. Does anyone know why we persist with what we are doing? Or is it just because it seems to work at training?

I have to agree. Im not denying we have some gifted youngsters in the squad, that can be dominant players. However, our game plan/structure is terrible. We can still lose games but have structure. An example of this is essendon last year, regardless of them having a not so great season they stuck to the game plan (run and carry).

I dont think players in our team have positions on the field, i.e at a ball up or throw in where to position themselves so when we have the ball we already know our next move. Or any clue where our forwards/lead up players will be. Players in the midfield should have confidence that when they get the ball they can generally kick to a certain part of the ground and know a lead up player will be there.

In my oppinion we definately need to have a sweeper behind the ball in these instances. And i think this may be Firrito's best position (i think this may have been Ziebell's role at times during the game against lions).