I think this thread is going to be awful, but to be honest, that was a solid result. We're a long way off right now, heading for a wooden spoon, and attacking the whipping boys isn't going to help.
To be honest, our issue is simply we don't have enough good players in their prime.
Our midfield is Cripps, Murphy, Curnow and then... Kennedy, Dow, Fisher, Petrevski-Seton, Cuningham. 5 out of 8 have played less than 20 games, and at this stage, their all 15 possession games (in fact they all had 13-18 today), not 25+. You need more than 3 midfielders to compete at this level, and they are just a year or two off.
So then we have another bad balance issue. We have a choice between players in their prime who have severe limitations, and players who are too young and don't contribute all-round. We get very little from Garlett (3 games) and Polson (3 games), which is ok - you can roll a few guys who aren't quite ready yet. But the older players we have in the team who are there to contribute are also giving us very little. Lamb, Wright, Mullett, Jones, Casboult - we all know they aren't superstars, but they are there as placeholders until the young kids are ready. But it seems each week only 1 of them actually plays that role. Wright was great vs Richmond, totally missing today. Casboult was good today, but not previously. Mullett was solid last week, MIA today.
The only fringe players who just 'do their job' each week for us seem to be Simpson (due to age) and Thomas. That's our problem right now, and we can't win uless we fix this.
But what choices do we have? It's either the inconsistent fringe players, or kids who aren't playing well at VFL level...
Casboult or McKay? Casboult is in his prime, kicked 4 goals, contributes in the ruck... and has his weaknesses.
Lamb, Wright or Silvagni? SOS probably better than Lamb at least for experience.
Mullet or O'Brien/Schumacher? Will happen within weeks.
The only real change that makes sense for next week (injuries aside) is Kerridge in for Polson. I just think we need that extra mid who can go all game, tackle, and get 20+ possessions (even if he does butcher a few of them).
Some big positives from tonight though:
- I thought Murphy was great. Highest rated player on the ground, led the team in possessions, contested possessions and tackles. He's not a bruising mid, should be playing out his gravy years as a wing like Boomer Harvey did, but that's the best we can hope from him
- Weitering was much better, and grew in confidence as the game went on. He got to the right spots all game, and by the end was taking intercept marks. He'll cop flack from idiots who don't know what they are watching, but that's how it goes.
- We started with fantastic intensity, and kept bringing it back after half time. Finished with a huge effort in the last quarter. I think those last 2 goals mean a lot. We ended up with more inside 50s, more scoring shots, and a 4-goal loss, which was probably par.
The negatives:
- Injuries to Marchbank and Kennedy. Two guys who we just can't afford to lose
- Our tackling was sub-par. To have 14 players with 1 tackle or less (and 10 with 0) at 3/4 time was putrid
- We seemed to have no way of stopping that 10 goal run. Maybe Bolts wanted to let them run it out, but I'd like to see more. Cut that to a 6 goal run and the game would have been a lot more interesting at the end...
Great post and agree on nearly all of it.
Only question I have is the captain's body language and form early in the game.
Early in the game, maybe second quarter he had a basic shot on goal from around 30m out on a generous angle and he tried a check side kick and misses. Then moments later fumbled the most basic of handball receives from Fisher about 1m away. These two **** ups robbed us of momentum and an opportunity to stay in the game and were endemic of the errors made last week.
To my eye he doesn't inspire his teammates. Understand he's had to adjust his game but his body language is so uninspiring (granted I'm not on the field). Where is the hardness and pep talk on the ground? Just looks a normal good player as opposed to a leader.