Autopsy Our home losing streak and our current sorry state of affairs.

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Dark Sharks said:
That's actually a fair point, and yes i can totally see it happening.

Essendon copped plenty of flack for finishing last and getting gifted with the number 1 pick (McGrath) after everyone got suspended for doping etc etc.

No reason why we won't get the same questions asks with us and whether we truly 'deserve' the number 1 pick after we "mismanaged covid/injuries".






Struth, still remember Dwayne crying for several weeks and making comments on air after we finished last in 2010 and WHOOPDEE DOO got a priority selection in a compromised draft (Pick 26 - Darling) like we rorted the system somehow.
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His whingeing was pretty much the whole season (even though all but 1 of the clubs could have drafted him before our compensation pick).
 
Obeanie1 said:
Witherdens kicking is good.

His decision making is poor. If he doesnt gain more poise and make better decisions with ball in hand he wont be playing at the top level much longer IMO.
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Witherden's kicking action is good and he can kick it a long way .

But his control and accuracy are terrible.

He makes the right decision but just misses regulation targets every week .

He is also not a great defender
 

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Ambrose Burnside said:
Did he also acknowledge that dropping underperforming players and seeing what the new gameplan can do is pretty much impossible atm?
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Sure but how many credits in the bank jokes do we see every week? "Backing in the boys" has definitely been a feature of our match committee for quite a while
 
Monocle said:
Case in point someone needs to spell it out to NN that he has become a over weight, badly out of condition former facsimile of his former self.

And that if he doesn’t rectify the problem then he has a very limited time left in the game.

Furthermore and more significantly, his lack of condition is adversely affecting both his performances and team balance and structure.
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Just on NN.

Saw a photo of NN wearing yellow training vest in paper last week. It was not a very flattering photo. Carrying that weight (skin folds not a thing anymore?) cannot be easy.

His lack of fitness/stamina/ etc means he needs more rests than some others and means he is consuming mora than his share of ‘rests’

Knock on effect to other runners.
 
Dark Sharks said:
Struth, still remember Dwayne crying for several weeks and making comments on air after we finished last in 2010 and WHOOPDEE DOO got a priority selection in a compromised draft (Pick 26 - Darling) like we rorted the system somehow.
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People like Dwayne always miss the point when discussing "underserved" priority picks. Had we not got a PP in 2010 we only had to get through North and Brisbane to get Darling anyway. Seems very likely Darling comes to us anyway.

Same as Judd. I've seen a few people claim we got gifted Judd but it's actually Sampi who would've gone elsewhere if the PP system didn't exist.
 
The Passenger said:
People always miss the point when discussing "underserved" priority picks. Had we not got a PP in 2010 we only had to get through North and Brisbane to get Darling anyway.

Same as Judd. I've seen a few people claim we got gifted Judd but it's actually Sampi who would've gone elsewhere if the PP system didn't exist.
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The only reason we got that priority pick was the AFL gave the first 3 picks to GC that year and the top 2 picks were under-age WA guns .
 
Well the government are going to scrap close contact isolation across the country so looks like what's happened to us won't happen to other clubs.

We are done for this season as now we losing games due to Covid and have been serverly disadvantaged yet it won't happen to other clubs like we thought. A Compromised season for only us it seems. AFL decision not to postpone games with covid protocols outs has killed us.
Might aswell win the wooden spoon now going for the top draft pick. No point being competitive. Sorry Kennedy and Hurn had to go out this way but we won't play finals so no point aiming for 9th. Does nothing for us except gives us a shitty pick. We are way overdue for another superstar Judd, Nic Nat type pick. Wheres our father sons at. Any looking good.

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Free Agent said:
Well the government are going to scrap close contact isolation across the country so looks like what's happened to us won't happen to other clubs.

We are done for this season as now we losing games due to Covid and have been serverly disadvantaged yet it won't happen to other clubs like we thought. A Compromised season for only us it seems. AFL decision not to postpone games with covid protocols outs has killed us.
Might aswell win the wooden spoon now going for the top draft pick. No point being competitive. Sorry Kennedy and Hurn had to go out this way but we won't play finals so no point aiming for 9th. Does nothing for us except gives us a shitty pick. We are way overdue for another superstar Judd, Nic Nat type pick. Wheres our father sons at. Any looking good.

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Click to expand...
I am afraid WAshot itself in the foot.
 

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Free Agent said:
Well the government are going to scrap close contact isolation across the country so looks like what's happened to us won't happen to other clubs.

We are done for this season as now we losing games due to Covid and have been serverly disadvantaged yet it won't happen to other clubs like we thought. A Compromised season for only us it seems. AFL decision not to postpone games with covid protocols outs has killed us.
Might aswell win the wooden spoon now going for the top draft pick. No point being competitive. Sorry Kennedy and Hurn had to go out this way but we won't play finals so no point aiming for 9th. Does nothing for us except gives us a shitty pick. We are way overdue for another superstar Judd, Nic Nat type pick. Wheres our father sons at. Any looking good.

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Click to expand...

There was no way it was going to happen to other clubs, only the wa clubs hadn’t been through covid and combined with our injuries it was the perfect storm… it is what it is we were going nowhere anyway.
 
Lots of problems.

Hard to know exactly where we are at given the sheer amount of changes (26 in the last fortnight?) and, again, multiple key outs to the most important area - our midfield.

This has us bottom 2 at present. Even if we resolve the above and get some consistency in personnel, I expect we would fall in the 9th-14th range.

It's disappointing that none of our youth have grabbed the opportunity these past few weeks to give a stand out performance. Granted, some of them have been disrupted as well. Foley has shown improvement. Naish handy.

Would love to see Chesser and Clark out there.
 
Free Agent said:
Well the government are going to scrap close contact isolation across the country so looks like what's happened to us won't happen to other clubs.

We are done for this season as now we losing games due to Covid and have been serverly disadvantaged yet it won't happen to other clubs like we thought. A Compromised season for only us it seems. AFL decision not to postpone games with covid protocols outs has killed us.
Might aswell win the wooden spoon now going for the top draft pick. No point being competitive. Sorry Kennedy and Hurn had to go out this way but we won't play finals so no point aiming for 9th. Does nothing for us except gives us a shitty pick. We are way overdue for another superstar Judd, Nic Nat type pick. Wheres our father sons at. Any looking good.

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Click to expand...
You're right that this season looks done but the more I accept it, the more I see the silver linings of finishing bottom 4. There are two scenarios that I see playing out over the next couple of seasons as our formerly A grade vets retire (Shuey, JK, Nic Nat, Hurn):
1. Our best 22 is still good enough for the finals mix but we lack depth due to lack of development and elite talent. If this is true, a bottom 4 finish gives us a chance to grab some elite talent and build the depth for a quick rebound. Sydney did it recently, so did Melbourne in 2019 and Richmond 2016.
2. Our best 22 is not good enough and we need a few down years to rebuild. The sooner we start the better. We missed finals last year but finished in the dreaded 9th position, we would be kidding ourselves if we do it again.

My gut feel is that we're sitting more in scenario 1. but we're unlikely to get our best 22 on the park due to injury/luck etc. A couple of down years gets us the next generation and we go again. This is what happened from 2000-2001 and 2008-2010. If we nail two bottom 4 finishes we could be back in the mix by 2024.

The doomsday scenario is that we stuff up the drafts and/or hover around 9-12 for a few years. Once Yeo/Sheed/Kelly/Darling/Gov/Barrass etc move on we need another group of young talent with 50-100 games to take over the senior core. If they're aren't up to it, that's when you get stuck with 10 year rebuilds (eg Carlton and Melb).
 
Simpson is adamant lots of work is being done to change the game plan and how we play and we have seen some very small samples of it so far.

Here is my issue with it however, this new game plan would be getting drilled into them one would think every single training session. That is the entire playing group. Granted we have not had much of our group together on game day but either way you swing it football is generally play as you train.

Gov and Hurn while doing admirable jobs are clearly not playing any type of new game plan, are they training at a different club? Wouldn't you expect your leaders be the ones more than any others that implement the plan. Hurn seems to be working off the 2018 and before plan. He above all others has a weapon in his kicking that can fast track a new and exciting game plan. But not using it? I have no doubt the club would be working on it but I am not sure how serious the coach is about it all how much he likes it?

Other things that are very clear is the inability of our forwards to find space, block and or screen for each other to help find space. Other clubs we see the FF and CHF consistently get 5-10m on their opponents yet JK and JD are always having their opponent right on them. Something is wrong here.
Why are all our forwards still leading to the same spots? Why is there no separation? We are making it way to easy for our opposition to defend.
Why are our small forwards not at the ball drop, most of the time they are sitting over the back waiting for the easy possession.
I know we all like Ryan taking huge marks but the reality is that he is a small forward and should never fly for the mark over JK and JD, his job is to stay down and be that brilliant crumber we know he can be.
This is all basic footy stuff yet it seems to be lost within our club.

It really worries my that these basics don't seem to be non negotiable but in actual fact it seems it is just accepted that the playing group just won't do it.

We have way to many players who don't get the ball enough, what a waste of time training your heart out to play a sport where you hardly ever touch it. Talk about going through the motions to simply get a pay cheque.

I could touch on things across the ground that i think are just basic footy things and are for the good clubs. I get we have not had our best players out there but lets face it this is the AFL, it's not as if we are playing players who have never played the sport before. The basics are taught at under 12 level.

It just really worries me where we are at. As I am sure it is worrying many others.
 
greatwhiteshark said:
Simpson is adamant lots of work is being done to change the game plan and how we play and we have seen some very small samples of it so far.

Here is my issue with it however, this new game plan would be getting drilled into them one would think every single training session. That is the entire playing group. Granted we have not had much of our group together on game day but either way you swing it football is generally play as you train.

Gov and Hurn while doing admirable jobs are clearly not playing any type of new game plan, are they training at a different club? Wouldn't you expect your leaders be the ones more than any others that implement the plan. Hurn seems to be working off the 2018 and before plan. He above all others has a weapon in his kicking that can fast track a new and exciting game plan. But not using it? I have no doubt the club would be working on it but I am not sure how serious the coach is about it all how much he likes it?

Other things that are very clear is the inability of our forwards to find space, block and or screen for each other to help find space. Other clubs we see the FF and CHF consistently get 5-10m on their opponents yet JK and JD are always having their opponent right on them. Something is wrong here.
Why are all our forwards still leading to the same spots? Why is there no separation? We are making it way to easy for our opposition to defend.
Why are our small forwards not at the ball drop, most of the time they are sitting over the back waiting for the easy possession.
I know we all like Ryan taking huge marks but the reality is that he is a small forward and should never fly for the mark over JK and JD, his job is to stay down and be that brilliant crumber we know he can be.
This is all basic footy stuff yet it seems to be lost within our club.

It really worries my that these basics don't seem to be non negotiable but in actual fact it seems it is just accepted that the playing group just won't do it.

We have way to many players who don't get the ball enough, what a waste of time training your heart out to play a sport where you hardly ever touch it. Talk about going through the motions to simply get a pay cheque.

I could touch on things across the ground that i think are just basic footy things and are for the good clubs. I get we have not had our best players out there but lets face it this is the AFL, it's not as if we are playing players who have never played the sport before. The basics are taught at under 12 level.

It just really worries me where we are at. As I am sure it is worrying many others.
Click to expand...
It all comes down to speed of ball movement.

We've historically been a risk-averse team - slow build up, starve the other team of turnovers and then back our forwards to win enough contests in the F50 to kick a winning score (as they will rarely be 1v1 due to the slow build up).

The issue now is that teams have worked out how to defend that, and when we do turn it over they just want to move quickly at all costs which puts us under pressure (and, generally, if they do happen to turn it back over to us we give them time to set up defensively as we move it slowly).

What I would like to see as the season progresses is more risk taking and faster ball movement. We have a decent forward line (when they are all available), so lets see what they can do when given the chance to play 1v1. We may surprise, or not, but doing what we have always done is going to set us back further (low finish, and another year behind on a new gameplan).
 
shooshka said:
It all comes down to speed of ball movement.

We've historically been a risk-averse team - slow build up, starve the other team of turnovers and then back our forwards to win enough contests in the F50 to kick a winning score (as they will rarely be 1v1 due to the slow build up).

The issue now is that teams have worked out how to defend that, and when we do turn it over they just want to move quickly at all costs which puts us under pressure (and, generally, if they do happen to turn it back over to us we give them time to set up defensively as we move it slowly).

What I would like to see as the season progresses is more risk taking and faster ball movement. We have a decent forward line (when they are all available), so lets see what they can do when given the chance to play 1v1. We may surprise, or not, but doing what we have always done is going to set us back further (low finish, and another year behind on a new gameplan).
Click to expand...

Speed of ball movement is, as you say vital , however our current leading patterns forward of the defensive 50 metre arc need urgent attention.

As greatwhiteshark mentions our forwards are making it difficult for themselves by clogging the lead zones.

We congested our own forward line and this problem is compounded by the “bomb it long mentality” …….. and I am sorry, it gets worse…. Because we don’t adequately crumb either front and square or behind the contest.
( Willie does however and in the last few games JJones has played he does too)

Our defensive ( witches hats ) structures are easy for opposing teams to pick apart as we guard space not players.
Teams are now skilled and drilled at the shorter, quicker accurate passes that enable fast ball movement to split open our defensive structures .

These are just a few of our fundamental shortcomings .
Don’t get me started on:
Tackling.
Short 2 metre handpasses.
Run- stop- pivot ….killing momentum.
Playing through the whistle.

Likewise are the apparent IMO, lack of discipline to enforce non negotiable’s.
Having said that I am assuming that we have at the very least the sort of non negotiable’s that even an U/18 team has.
 
I’m at peace with the state of the team as it means I can relax on my weekends without stressing out about the team losing.

What does stress me out is the team we have in the back office responsible for match committee, drafting, trading and fitness. I have concerns that these folk are not progressing with the times and/or are gone past their “expiry”. Heck even a Nisbett needs to be assessed.

At some point succession needs to be factored in so we can avoid stagnating.

Do we feel comfortable that we are in the right hands? Probably not.
 
Last edited:
-Freo oozing talent??...Nah!!
-Our depth is suffering because we haven't recruited well and we dont play/back in our youth.
-Witherden,Naish,Langdon? Stop bringing in players who are just gap fillers.
-We recruit the big fellas as good or better than anybody but whoever is responsible for picking our mids needs to be shown the door.
-At our best we will be more than competitive.Hang in there guys.It will get better.
 

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Autopsy Our home losing streak and our current sorry state of affairs.

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