Autopsy NM v West Coast - the great choke!

[Disco Dew]

Im with you mate. Its a little OTT. The young fellas are cooked and we know most our senior players aren’t up to it. Its not a new phenomenon

Sure isn’t. We’ve now had 5 years of it.
Tired kids, shit geezers.
3 - 4 wins, anchored to bottom 2.

 

[Horizons_00]

Im with you mate. Its a little OTT. The young fellas are cooked and we know most our senior players aren’t up to it. Its not a new phenomenon

We need to get more fit and stronger. I wish Clarko over this preseason to give the players the key to the gym and let them loose. Will it happen? I think just by going this year we definitely look fitter and have less injuries but some players have not developed at all since coming to the club

 

[amaz199]

Sometimes to win a game of football, it does come from individual efforts but it can also be a significant indicator that the team is making progress because of the opportunities those players are getting.

We've seen the Daicos brothers do it, Allen literally did it for the Eagles on the weekend and we saw Bails kick the sealer last week. It also takes a team effort to get those opportunities as well.

Individuals will achieve lots when the team collectively lift. PC doesn't kick 3.4 if we are not lifting our intensity. LDU kicked 3 goals last week just from being able to get space because his teammates opened a path for him to exploit.

The contributions behind the scenes is what this team has got really good at that makes the individual efforts more special.

 

[DuckYeah]

Sure isn’t. We’ve now had 5 years of it.
Tired kids, shit geezers.
3 - 4 wins, anchored to bottom 2.

Its difficult to process but I swear this year albeit the same wins currently, we are a heap better than last year. Next year better again. Hang in there knackers

 

[Horizons_00]

Took a break for awhile but I've gotta step in here with some negativity.

That was a shitful display and lays bare this team's most fundamental flaw. Namely, they don't know how to win.

Think back to all of our most recent wins. Let's go back to 2022, when things began falling apart (again) at a rate of knots.

2022 WC: barely scrape by a COVID-ravaged club fielding top up players. The door never quite closed on the possibility of a comeback

2022 Rich: lose a 5 goal lead, regain it thanks to some Goldy/Zurhaar brilliance, nearly lose it again but are saved by Jake Aarts having the football IQ of a cabbage

2023 WC: lose a 4-5 goal lead, CT hits the post from point blank with a shot that would've iced it, we get a dodgy ruck free kick, just hang on

2023 Frem: cough up a 20 point lead in a matter of minutes, saved by Sheezel and the siren

2023 GC: massively outplay GC, they somehow score three quick ones to keep themselves in with a sniff, we're saved at the crucial next centre bounce by TT, and Curtis ices it

2024 WC: lose a 5 goal lead again, get it back thanks to a shocking umpiring call, Curtis eventually ices it

2024 GC: massively outplay them, don't make it count on the scoreboard, GC somehow claw back, and we have to rely on an Ainsworth miss (from a relatively easy shot) to win

2024 Rich: massively outplay them, don't make it count on the scoreboard, rely on Richmond to miss shots in the final quarter, before Stephenson of all people steps up, and Scott ices the game

Anyone see a common theme there? I certainly ****ing do. No one knows what they need to do to win. We can play like the Harlem Globetrotters for the first three and a half quarters, but sure as eggs are eggs, we will absolutely fall apart in the final fifteen minutes of a fourth quarter if we have the lead.

By my count we have three players who play like they believe they can win every game. Their names are X, Arch and Sheezel. The rest of them are the losingest losers that ever lost.

All the top 5 draft picks in the world will not compensate for such a mammoth mental block. We as supporters have a right to be furious. We've had a gutful of this. We've tolerated more abject shit than some fans of other clubs will tolerate in a lifetime. 'Oh, but 1994 was worse.' Give me a break. Losing a prelim like that is gut-wrenching. However, it does not result in long-term despair as you come to terms with the fact that your club has forgotten how to do the only thing that matters in football. You cry your eyes out about it and look to the next optimism-filled season.

Losers. 40 players on our list are losers. They are comfortable as losers and they expect to be losers. They don't enjoy it, but they don't realise that they have the power to step up and become winners. Until that happens, all of your starry eyedness over shiny new toys and this bloke's form and that bloke's form won't mean jack shit

Good and depressing post lol

This is why when i read that Clarko isn't looking at winning games this year it made me so mad. Winning short term or long term is just papering over the cracks?! We have ZERO winning culture at the club, these players don't know how to win as they have never developed it properly.

Losing on the weekend like that has put us back way more than being thrashed by Sydney. We learn zilch from these thrashings. These players like you said, will develop habits and a mentality when its the last 5 mins of a game, we may lose. Its a horrible mind-frame and destroys our confidence as a club going forward.

I expect next year we will have zero tolerance. If Clarko is allowed to let loose (from the powers above) and be a bit more brutal with these players. We need to develop this competitive win at all costs mentality or we will never win or even get to finals with this group. Time is now to create these good habits!

 

[ferball]

Good and depressing posts.

This is why when i read that Clarko isn't looking at winning games this year it made me so mad. Winning short term or long term is just papering over the cracks?! We have ZERO winning culture at the club, these players don't know how to win as they have never developed it properly.

Losing on the weekend like that has put us back way more than being thrashed by Sydney. We learn zilch from these thrashings. These players like you said, will develop habits and a mentality when its the last 5 mins of a game, we may lose. Its a horrible mind-frame and destroys our confidence as a club going forward.

I expect next year we will have zero tolerance. If Clarko is allowed to let loose (from the powers above) and be a bit more brutal with these players. We need to develop this competitive win at all costs mentality or we will never win or even get to finals with this group. Time is now to create these good habits!

When did you read that? I'm sure he said repeatedly that winning is more important than drafting and anything else, except perhaps learning how to be better. (Which leads to more wins anyway.)

 

[Disco Dew]

Its difficult to process but I swear this year albeit the same wins currently, we are a heap better than last year. Next year better again. Hang in there knackers

Oh I agree with your assessment. Our best footy has been the best we’ve played in 10 years imo.

 

[scottywiper]

Good and depressing posts.

This is why when i read that Clarko isn't looking at winning games this year it made me so mad. Winning short term or long term is just papering over the cracks?! We have ZERO winning culture at the club, these players don't know how to win as they have never developed it properly.

Losing on the weekend like that has put us back way more than being thrashed by Sydney. We learn zilch from these thrashings. These players like you said, will develop habits and a mentality when its the last 5 mins of a game, we may lose. Its a horrible mind-frame and destroys our confidence as a club going forward.

I expect next year we will have zero tolerance. If Clarko is allowed to let loose (from the powers above) and be a bit more brutal with these players. We need to develop this competitive win at all costs mentality or we will never win or even get to finals with this group. Time is now to create these good habits!

For all the people keen to sugarcoat the defeats, I am reliably informed Clarko tore strips off the players afterwards.

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

So I've gone through it. Rewind, pause, rewind etc.

I'm focusing on

* fundamentally poor skills with the inability to hit or complete a simple skill

* poor positioning that leads to a goal or shot on goal

* poor decisions that leads to a goal or shot on goal

Who is to blame? Let's find out.

Period 1 - Start of Game to Lmac's out on the full (7:50 to go in the third qrt)

14:57 left Qrt 1 - WC 1st goal comes from a Darcy Tucker mistake. Takes position of ball deep 50, has Scott for a quick handpass, doesn't give, turns over. Goal.

13:51 left Qrt 1 - This deep WC entry highlights Charlie Comben's poor positioning defending. He's 15 metres infront of Allen as WC move the ball quickly off half back. The long kick comes in, and Jack Darling's 1st thought is not to contest the mark, but to get body on Comben in the air. Allen gets hands to the long kick as he jumps over the back and Comben is interfered with in the air. Luckily Archer manages to get some body on Allen causing a dropped mark.

13:20 left 1st qrt - Colby is caught holding the ball as he tries to dash out of 50. Set shot for WC. Kick falls short catching everyone by surprise. Despite standing next to Allen, Comben doesn't react quick enough. Allen pushes off Comben for basically an uncontested mark 3 metres out from goal. He misses.

10:16 left 1st qrt - ford drops regulation chest mark. has time to pick up and handball, no harm done.

8:00 left 1st qrt - PC second miss. 15 out on angle. He tries to bend a drop punt like a banana. Kicks it on the full. If you're kicking straight, drop punt. If you're bending it, banana or snap. Terrible option on the kick.

7:08 left 1st qrt - Bailey Scott turnover on fast break transition under no pressure.

4:58 left 1st qrt - this play basically sums up the day. We are kicking in after a point. we get the ball to 40 out defensive boundary and then kick long to the wing. Larkey is next to McGovern, but the ball drops well short to Xerri and others in a contest. The ball hits hands, lackey starts trying to get out the back, McGovern keeps going forward to the contest and gathers a loose ball.

While this was happening 3 north players run to the feet of the Xerri contest, but as I said the ball gets out the back to McGovern, who handballs over Xerri and the 3 north players, to the 3 trailing WC players, giving them the opportunity for a fast break back the other way.

Not sure if Allen is on the ground, but Comben is playing ultra aggressively infront of the pack in defensive 50. But the quick ball movement allows a deeper kick, over comben's head to McDonald with a 1 vs 1 198cm Jack Williams, who marks and goals. To be honest, he could have been Comben's man if Allen was off the ground.

But this play is the tale of the game. Larkey/North not doing enough to quell McGovern, and Comben being all at sea with his positioning.

1:15 left 1st qrt - Jy misses regulation handball ball on quick transition, no harm done as we keep ball.

3:58 left 1st qrt - poor inside 50 from Larkey

1:10 left 1st qrt - drop mark from Jy at CHB no harm done.

Summary of 1st Qrt - game largely played on our terms. The match up of Comben vs Allen, whilst not hurting on scoreboard has shown dangerous signs. In addition, Comben's overall positioning has been exploited and Darlings focus of making body contact with him in the air has been exposed. Up the other end, McGovern has shown up Larkey and helped them rebound for at least 1 of their goals.

Second Qrt

19:20 left - Terrible inside 50 from Pink.

Question: If Larkey changed his game to be solely a defender on McGovern do we win the game? This is the 2nd game in a row in taste that a defender has kept his team inn the game against us. Stewart and McGovern.

13:30 left - North work the ball well, switching, along boundary. Lovely inside kick from PC to Phillips, hands to Sheez. Larkey on short lead to HF, McGovern decides to leave him, goes inboard and intercepts sheez's short kick to leading pink. This is the pattern of why we aren't further infront.

Just after and before this we have a series of inside 50 chances. LDU, Ford, to go with Pink and shez earlier. All 4 are kicked short/dropped short and intercepted by an eagle playing infront.

At 12:10 we have the opposite. Bergman is running into 50 under no pressure and has Hansen Jnr out the back. but he can't hit a simple pass.

5 good inside 50 chances for nothing.

7:45 left - Allen marks inside 50 under no pressure. Comben and Allen get to contest on HF/Wing. Allen starts working back to goals, Comben lets him and stays in no mans land between the contest and Allen. WC win ball, simple pass to Allen over Comben's head. Honestly, Comben should be checked for concussion at this point. Allen misses.

6:40 left - JY left foot clearance under pressure out on full.

3:36 inside 50 for west coast. Allen leads up to just inside 50, Comben miles off him. Lmac saves day by spoiling mark.

2:49 Larkey leads up through CHF to Kerch who over kicks and misses Larkey

2:39 Another poor inside 50, this time to Zuhaar.

0:13 LDU has ball 80 out, streaming towards goal. Larkey makes lead, in acres of space e, a simple Brent Harvey pop kick of 20 metres and we are having a shot at goal. instead he bandpasses sideways which ends with Zuhaar missing a shot on the run from 50. Poor decision.

Half time Summary - Again game is played on our terms. We are dominating most aspects other than McGovern. Allen is goalless despite only being semi manned up by Comben.

Qrt 3 - 20 mins to 7:52

14:08 left - Bergman misses sheez all alone on the wing, kick goes over his head and out of bounds. She gives him a thumbs up. Ever afl player should hit that pass.

12:10 - terrible inside 50 Ford

7:52 left - LMAC kicks on the full under little pressure. Every north supporter knows what will now happen. Most of us would have said it out loud. WC kick their 4th goal with a little over 7 minutes to go in the third qrt.

Period 2 of Analysis - last half of third qrt.

1st CB stoppage of this new game - LDU misses a simple tackle on Bailey Williams who hacks it forward.

6:34 left - After repeat stoppages at CHB Tim Kelly is inexplicably free at the last stoppage. He wins it, handballs inboard for long kick deep. Comben is again well infront of Allen. He rushes back and instead of punching the ball over the boundary line, he seemingly tries to mark with one hand, horizontally in the air, dropping the ball softly at Allen's feet who snaps a goal. His 1st of the day. That's 2 in a row and panic has set in.

Next CB 6.07 left - Xerri wins contested possession, handballs blindly backwards, over LDU's head, Kelly swoops and kicks long inside 50. Comben runs back with flight, tries to mark, does mark, before corr cannons into him, jarring ball loose for Allen to pick up, handball to Cripps who kicks a goal. That's 3 in 2 minutes.

5:40 Next CB - LDU beats Kelly, but it's Scott vs gaff on the wing, camera side. Scott runs towards defensive 50, Gaff runs at the ball, and wins it leading to a clearance to WC.

4:53 left - this is embarrassing. Stoppage at HF for North. Gaff wins clearance leading to long kick to wing Darling vs Lmac. Darling wins free/mark. If you press pause, just before darling marks, Comben and Allen are jogging through the centre circle. Comben has about a metre on him. For reasons, combine stops caring what Allen does, veers away from the on fire key forward and runs towards the contest darling is just about to win. Allen charges towards the goals, and ultimately takes an uncontested mark, as Comben is floundering. There is a long list of embarrassingly bad defending from combine in this game, but this just about takes the cake. Allen kicks his second. This goal could have been stopped with a defender standing next to their man. That's all that was required.

1:35 left - Boundary throw in HF for north. 1st, Yeo arrives at stoppage late and stands there all by himself. Xerri stands behind Williams and of course the boundary throw in is short, Williams taps it down with no pressure to Yeo, who stands there all alone. Clearance leads to Ryan free. WC loose about 10 seconds getting the ball back to Ryan for a kick. He kicks long.

Again, for reasons, Comben is 10 metres infront of Allen. The ball goes over his head. Darling looks Comben running back, and makes body contact with Comben, ensuring he can't get off the ground. Allen takes big contested mark. Kicks his 3rd.

WOW

How did we shit the bed for those 7 minutes

1 vote shared between LDU, Scott and Xerri who all made bad choices, lost concentration which lead to eagles scoring.

2 votes - Lmac. started the rot as all of rollovers start, with a mistake down back. He then got beaten by darling, and Ryan, leading to goals.

3 votes - Charlie comben. said all week he shouldn't play. Maybe he was right to play. If he was, he should hand his pay cheque back. The worst decisions in defending that a defender can make. STAY ON YOUR MAN CHARLIE AND STOP HIM GETTING THE BALL. THAT'S YOUR JOB.

Period 3 of analysis - The last qrt

1st CB - yeo swats Jy away, clears but this time Comben is standing next to Allen and out marks him. It's amazing what can happen when you are next to your man.

19:01 - while the Allen vs Comben blood bath was happening, Corr was doing a good job on Waterman. at 19:01, waterman leads out from full forward, corr trailing. Waterman decides to not go back to full forward and mills around HF. Corr seems to hand off defensive duties to Pink (who has moved back with durs coming on). Unfortunately, no one actually mans up on waterman, as as WC win the footy, waterman is hit up on a lead about 45 out with no one on him. Core, manning Williams I think in the goal square lifts his hands in frustration. Pink tries to work out what's happening. Waterman misses.

18:01 - Kerch kicks long (or a long as he can kick) to HF. Larkey tries to lead McGovern away from the ball, but he decides to ignore lackey leading to a place he can't get the ball and comes back to the contest at HF. the kick from Kerch had no desperation to get the ball boundary side of the contest. It's hooked back to the centre side of the contest, allowing McGovern who has just arrived to take his 127th intercept mark. The kicks is put boundary side and its a stoppage for us at HF.

17:16 - LDU streaming inside 50, decides not to kick for goal. misses Ford in acres of space over his head. Ball out of bounds. Simple kick missed and shot at goal forgone by fundamental skill error.

16:50 - fundamental skills errors continue as Pink can't hit a 20m kick, kicking 25m, and over Powells head. This leads to Cripps kicking a goal, beating lmac on the lead, though I'm not sure that was his man.

14:30 left scores are level

A sliver of positivity is that despite the ineptness that has occurred, we rally and go back to playing good footy.

We win the next 2 CB clearances. The first of which sees ldu hand pass to Curtis for his first goal.

8:41 left - Larkey misses. McGovern kicks out to back pocket. Curtis leaves his man at CHB to apply pressure. Durs lazily jogs to Curtis's man, not really caring if he makes it to him (with fresh legs mind you), and he marks between wing and CHB. He kicks long. stoppage at HF for WC, WAPS man wraps around back of stoppage, and kicks goal from 50.

5:44 - you'd think yea was a top priority for a defensive contest inside 50 for west coast. Apparently not. The ball bobbles around 10 metres out from goal, LDU standing next to Yeo gets sucked into the contest, yeo holds back, ball comes to yea, yeo kicks a goal.

4:50 - Ford misses snap. McGovern kicks down the middle. WC go coast to coast as we seemingly don't know how to defend a long kick down the middle. Allen again miles infront of comben leading out to 50, but kick goes over his head. Sheez behind Hunt, quick hack kick out lands with hunt, who misses.

1:45 - In an almost exact replica of this play from the second qrt

"7:45 left - Allen marks inside 50 under no pressure. Comben and Allen get to contest on HF/Wing. Allen starts working back to goals, Comben lets him and stays in no mans land between the contest and Allen. WC win ball, simple pass to Allen over Comben's head. Honestly, Comben should be checked for concussion at this point. Allen misses."

This time Allen kicks the goal. 7 points in it. 1:30 to go.

Ball bobbles around CHB. Sheez decides to spike a ball he could have taken possession of. It goes straight to an Eagle who kicks long inside 50. McDonald drops a toughish mark. He was under a lot of pressure. but it was a chest mark. Darling again does nothing but use his body to stop a north defender from marking. Cripps goals.

1 point in it, 40 seconds left or so

CB - Jy actually clears the circle with a kick off the ground. Powell is at chf, he is going g backwards. the eagles defender is coming forwards at a rate of knots, wins ball and kicks long.

I have no issue with JY. I have an issue with Powell, and the other forwards.

Gaff takes mark.

Xerri is doing his best to get back on the line. Comben has completely disregarded Allen for the 18th time of the match. Allen tries to signal gaff to kick short to him. Gaff kicks long. ball spoilt forward to Allen who snaps the sealer while climbed stands in the goal square scratching his head.

North lose somehow.

Final points

- McGovern doesn't play or is handled better and we are 10 goals up when Lmac kicks it on the full.

- Allen has a defender on him that is trying to defend him and we win. It's not often you can blame a single player for a loss, and I love Chom more than most, but that wasn't just a "bad game". His complete lack of care for what Allen was doing, leaving him to track back. His positioning wasn't working 5 ins into the game. it was obvious Darling was looking to nullify and the eagles were instructed to kick long over combine's head. but no adjustment was made to any of this from comben (or the coaches) as goal after goal after goal after goal, went through in the last 37 mins off the game.

- Fundamental skills errors didn't cost us the game. but they did limit the margin we were infront by when the panic set in.

- Our mids won the battle. but simple errors of not manning up at times when dogged defence was needed was telling in the result. LDU prime culprit.

- We were a key defender down. How Dawson played ahead of Bergman should be explained to members when west coast had Allen, Darling, Waterman, and Williams (Jack), who kicked goals from contested marks inside 50.

Damning. Great work. Why didn’t any of the coaches notice any of these trends and make changes? Like for instance moving Comben? Moving Larkey?

Bafflingly dumb.

 

[Horizons_00]

When did you read that? I'm sure he said repeatedly that winning is more important than drafting and anything else, except perhaps learning how to be better. (Which leads to more wins anyway.)

Someone posted it earlier on in the year. Cant remember who lol

 

[Only Forwards]

For all the people keen to sugarcoat the defeats, I am reliably informed Clarko tore strips off the players afterwards.

I am not surprised.

It would have been almost the exact scenario we had specifically trained for and highlighted post the Pies and Melbourne loss.

Which means that when tested on it we failed dismally.

I'll be astounded if we are even a remote threat to either of the sides we have to play.

 

[DuckYeah]

Oh I agree with your assessment. Our best footy has been the best we’ve played in 10 years imo.

It actually says a lot of how far back we were in 2022.

 

[amaz199]

For all the people keen to sugarcoat the defeats, I am reliably informed Clarko tore strips off the players afterwards.

and deservedly so.

It was completely uncharacteristic how we managed to lose that. Came out of ****ing nowhere when you consider last week with two mins to go Richmond couldn't touch it.

 

[giantroo]

 

[roos_fanatic08]

No more half forwards as sub. Midfielders who aren’t one paced and can actually find the ball only.

Duursma, RHJ, Shiels and Ford all suck as sub. Never again.

Even have Lazz in as a specialist sub makes more sense than any of the above.

 

[Samsquanch]

It would have been almost the exact scenario we had specifically trained for and highlighted post the Pies and Melbourne loss.

Which means that when tested on it we failed dismally.

Not sure if the intention of the coach was to specifically learn whether or not the team is capable of sticking to a plan and organising itself to hold structure and composure when under pressure, but I reckon that he found out with no doubt whatsoever that when under the pump, about a third of the team buckled and nobody stood up to take control of the situation.

Making 3D chess moves and pulling levers from the coaches box could well have saved the game but reality is, the TEAM didn't deserve to win. Too many of them bottled, despite some who did try their guts out.

The forward line, as noted by the big lebowski choked, as did one or two of the defenders.

The team let themselves down.

 

[Only Forwards]

Making 3D chess moves and pulling levers from the coaches box could well have saved the game but reality is, the TEAM didn't deserve to win. Too many of them bottled, despite some who did try their guts out.

Being 3 goals up with 2 minutes to go Clarko probably had pulled enough levers to have won the game. Then with 2 minutes to go I am not sure there is a hell of a lot the coach can actually do.

just from a practical side of things.

He'd have to get a message from the box to the runner for the runner to a leader, from the leader to the rest of the team and then to enact whatever the change was required.


We seem to struggle to effect that sort of change inside entire quarters let alone inside 120 second where practically everyone is running around like chooks with their heads cut off.

 

[Ruckle]

For all the people keen to sugarcoat the defeats, I am reliably informed Clarko tore strips off the players afterwards.

So now they all need counselling?

 

[tazaa]

For all the people keen to sugarcoat the defeats, I am reliably informed Clarko tore strips off the players afterwards.

Wonder how this mornings meeting went?
Reckon they eased into recovery and then all went and got massages. She'll be right


All jokes aside, I hope he delivered the mother of all wake up calls. Lets see what we do in the next 2 weeks.
Would love to end both Doggies and Hawks seasons. F*** them both

 

[Only Forwards]

So now they all need counselling?

+

 

[gokangas]

For all the people keen to sugarcoat the defeats, I am reliably informed Clarko tore strips off the players afterwards.

So did I.

 

[DrZaius]

Oh I agree with your assessment. Our best footy has been the best we’ve played in 10 years imo.

Even though I was not much of a believer at the time we definitely played some pretty decent footy after the bye in 2021, it just gets glossed over these days with the benefit of hindsight because of how bad we were in 2022.

Our first 2 games last year were also pretty good and we looked to be on the right track, then nothing but pus for the next 20 weeks.

Maybe our floor has been raised from historically bad to regular bad (though the next two weeks may tell the tale), but for all the improvement fluff that people like to point out we are still sitting on 3 wins with a current % worse than what we ended up with last year.

With all due respect to those that will snidely make their passive-aggressive remarks and dismiss anything perceived as being negative, we've seen this story before and it means absolutely **** all until we actually get the runs on the board.

 

[shintemaster]

Maybe our floor has been raised from historically bad to regular bad (though the next two weeks may tell the tale), but for all the improvement fluff that people like to point out we are still sitting on 3 wins with a current % worse than what we ended up with last year.

Truth. I will say we are doing that with a significantly younger team again than last year. I'm comfortable we are better now, obviously I'd like that to start translating to some serious wins.

 

[Frank Thring]

We were over 6 goals up and we lost because of one thing and one thing only. Their senior players got work and ours took an RDO.

 

[The acurate one]

Midfielders who aren’t one paced and can actually find the ball only.

If that happend from now, the loss to the Eagle would have been worth it. we roll out the same types against the Dogs, we will get walloped.