AFL Autopsy RND 12: Loss to the Saints

[essendon]

Building a system... for who??.....you only got 5 games left.....you had plenty of time....it didnt work.....thankyou and all the best....

 

[BomberTime]

Scrap the whole thing and start again.

Poor coaching and the dumbest players in the league. We will rightfully be sliding down now, so top 5 pick to be used on a flanker no doubt.

McKernan - Cooked. Dumb. Drop him and delist.

Townsend- One good game. Rather see Begley/Langford in that role for the rest of the year.

Cutler- Dud. Useless.


The midfield is not working, yes they get lots of it but can’t kick into the 50. One has to go.

 

[essendon]

You know, Woosha isn't coaching this year. Make of that what you will.

Yeah...fully aware....so dont give us the BS

 

[Bjchan13]

The players genuinely look like they have no idea whats going on during the game. The whole system seems like a roll of the dice

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

We are a bottom 2-3 club, play the kids and stop rewarding mediocrity from our soft senior core of players.

Inside midfielders with our first two picks.

 

[Jesse Custer]

Only way the club will listen is to stop the dollars. Over to you everyone. Its time dare i say it but a line in the sand.

 

[BrunoV]

Great news everyone!

Shiel had the ball 29 times, Parish 28 times, Merrett 24 times and McGrath 23 times.

Maybe they will get coaches votes.

If only football matches were won by possessions and coaches votes. We would be elite.

 

[Zach Package]

yeah, we basically kept it level in the second half.

Today clearly showed that although we seem to be playing a game plan where we try to move the ball along wing, to give time for our defense to set-up (and kudos to Pearce and Hodge for attempting to explain to Taylor why we're doing the slow movement along the line. He didn't listen, mind) and all that, we simply don't compete in contested mark situations. We're the equal worst team in terms of average Contested Marks a game. Our rucks have taken 8 contested marks all season (not counting McKernan and Langford who have drifted into ruck contests and may have taken one while playing as a ruck) and Marshall/Ryder took 4 today. So it's all well and good to move the ball along the wing, given time to prepare our defense for a turnover, etc etc, but the down line kick is ending in disaster for us, we're not even getting the ball out, so that means from marks taken in the middle of the wing, we really only end up looking dangerous from them when we stuff up but maintain possession which opens up the game. It leads to the stalemate which we saw for most of the second half, but inevitably we will turn it over, whereas we're not able to force the turnover, so we'll end up losing the stalemate

Yeah if you want to have a genuine discussion instead of cussing everyone out this is a great summation.

The other thing I will say is that when we tried to take the game on we cut through the Saints relatively easily, it was just the final entry kick that miffed it. The unwillingness to take the game forward has been stark in the last couple of weeks, a real change and not one for the better IMO, tempo footy has a time and place but shouldn’t be the default.

 

[Inspecta Gadget]

Out of curiosity, do we have to play the rest of the season?

 

[JayJ20]

We were 4-1 at a stage. We've gone 1-5-1 since.

We thought the Collingwood win was good. Turns out they are just extremely ordinary (and will miss finals).
The rest of the wins are:
Adelaide 18th by 3
North Melbourne 17th by 14
Sydney 16th by 6
Fremantle 14th by 6
Gold Coast 13th - Draw

Basically, we are a bottom 6 side in quality.

 

[windyhill]

Been calling for Mozzie for weeks now, can not get a look in. If it’s a fitness issue, play him off the bench. ****ing mystified as to how he can not get a run after watching this shit show.

 

[Vander18]

That had nothing to do with injuries, effort, short break or anything else.....that was pure, unmitigated incompetence. To be clearer, that was clubwide incompetence - lest anyone think that was just about the players.

More than incompetent though, we are weak. From the top down, we are weak. In every sense.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

It is a difficult year to be trying to work on a new game plan. It does take a bit of work with the full squad and not groups of 2 or 6 like we had early in the year.
However effort is something you can bring every week.
Working harder and thinking smarter can also be done under any circumstances.
We have a side that is either full of the dumbest footballers to pull on a boot or they do not give a fu**.

Difficult year as well to have injuries as the players coming in only have scratch matches for match practice, many times with players from other teams making up squads.

 

[Stopher]

Could you blame any player wanting to be traded to another club? I probably would ask for a trade if I played aha

Tbf, he's half the problem.

Bye, Joe.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Great news everyone!

Shiel had the ball 29 times, Parish 28 times, Merrett 24 times and McGrath 23 times.

Maybe they will get coaches votes.

If only football matches were won by possessions and coaches votes. We would be elite.

Well would helped if we had a forward line to take advantage.

 

[Falcon27]

Been calling for Mozzie for weeks now, can not get a look in. If it’s a fitness issue, play him off the bench. ******* mystified as to how he can not get a run after watching this sh*t show.

Yep, said the same thing a couple of weeks ago. Rather him off the bench in bursts then the likes of Zaka, Cutler, Townsend etc for full games.

 

[Seb78]

So proud of this club atm.

Genuinely surprised we didnt lose by more

We would've to a better side

 

[NAB777]

Have to enjoy little things like Drapers development

I hope I'm wrong, but I am not seeing what everyone else is. Has no leap, which is a worry...and old, injured Patty Ryder was jumping all over him.

That had nothing to do with injuries, effort, short break or anything else.....that was pure, unmitigated incompetence. To be clearer, that was clubwide incompetence - lest anyone think that was just about the players.

More than incompetent though, we are weak. From the top down, we are weak. In every sense.

Spot on. I can accept being not good enough, but I can't accept insipid.

 

[brutus76]

Having just witnessed that live. That was not great.

Undermanned yes but we were outworked and outskilled.

Way too many passengers and again lack of 2 way runners. The Saints seemed to have 2 extra up front and down back as they ran and worked wayyyyyy harder

Bugger me there were some tryer's. Saady I love you. The Shield Pigeodo and Darce worked their ****** off but the forwards either didn't lead or didn't make a contest or they were under pressure.

Forward line inept. Stood still or didn't at least force a contest. Delivery wasn't great but FORWARDS CAN DICTATE TO WHERE THE BALL IS TO GO BY MOVING. If you don't move it gets bombed in.

Time to play the kids. A few tough calls to make at the end of the season but this handball handball handball mentality needs to change.

McKernan can't play again. I'd prefer Joe on one leg or Harry Jones.

Mozzy needs to replace Towny.

Connor McKenna needs first boat home.

Cutler I thought was ok but needs to toughen the ***** up.

Zak Merrett has become Nick Dal Santo cheap kicks. No impact.

Drapes I love him. A bit of mongrel and had a fair dinkum crack.

The Riddler is a ******* gem but looked jaded but toughed it out.

BZT tried hard but is still a work in progress.

One or both of Hooksy and Hurls needs to play forward next year or Hooksy needs to retire a year early.

Wouldn't mind either King brother. God help us in a couple of years when they fill out = frightening.

 

[calyam]

I'm sympathetic to the fact that we are missing a number of quality players.

Heppell, Stringer, Daniher, Hooker and Smith. Not to mention your second tier players who are frequently in the best 22 such as Bellchambers, Laverde, Francis and Ambrose. That's a serious chunk of the salary cap.

Nevertheless, we still had a pretty strong core of midfielders and a reasonable back six. We should have put in a greater fight even if your forward line was lacking the quality to kick a big score.

Some big decisions need to be made at seasons end. There are guys that should be in their prime who are merely treading water that should ultimately be let go at the end of the season, such as Zaharakis, McKernan and even Gleeson (among others). We should also consider trading talent to obtain pieces that either better fit our structure or timeline.

 

[rumply]

Been calling for Mozzie for weeks now, can not get a look in. If it’s a fitness issue, play him off the bench. ******* mystified as to how he can not get a run after watching this sh*t show.

No excuse from here on out to try players that might figure in our future.

 

[Falcon27]

That had nothing to do with injuries, effort, short break or anything else.....that was pure, unmitigated incompetence. To be clearer, that was clubwide incompetence - lest anyone think that was just about the players.

More than incompetent though, we are weak. From the top down, we are weak. In every sense.

On every level. Board, Management, List, Coaching and Fitness are just mediocre

 

[Howard Moon]

The game plan balance is all out of...balance

We were the best slingers in the league, now we hold it like treacle, gone full 180

Gotta tweak the knobs a bit, get the attack to holding defence to 60/40. Why in hell would we take away our greatest asset?

 

[Macca18]

We've already had some ordinary moments before today... but I'm hopeful this is our lowest point of the season. With still a few very good sides to play, that is probably a bit optimistic.

As I said in the 'Gameday' thread, I'm not interested in who is missing at the moment... whilst still fairly relevant to the conversation. There is absolutely no system, whatsoever, to our game. There was a 90 second period in the middle sections of the 3rd Quarter that summed this up best today. We had drawn within 23 points (47-24) after kicking the first couple of the second half and even though I wouldn't of said we were on a 'roll' or were going to storm back to take the lead, we looked... semi-decent for a brief time. We then proceed to play kick-to-kick on the half back line for that 90 seconds without making up any ground at all. Not prepared to take even a slight risk. Predictable turnover (I think possibly from Hurley or Ridley?) and then straight back for a goal. Summed up the game for me.

No system at ALL.

I think we have a good dozen or so players on our list just content enough to be on an AFL list getting decent coin. Every list has them... we just have a significant number more than most. They have little carefactor for a win or a loss. They get their mid-year, all expenses paid holiday at some Queensland resort and just need to play a bit of footy in between. Andy McGrath is the exception here! One player that is captaincy material in a couple of years time.

The "coach" (yeah, right) has well and truly checked out and is already in the business class airport lounge waiting for his flight back to Perth. I applaud him for the job he did in 2016/17 but wow... his legacy is diminishing, badly, with every game now. And Rutten isn't inspiring much confidence right now either!

Apart from a great history (that stopped a decade or so ago), there is really little to sell about this club right now. If you were shopping around for a club right now... we'd be the run down 1940s built bungalow in Glenroy. Once pristine, now a rabble. "Renovators Dream"? Maybe. But a hell of a lot of work to do.

 

[tha Freak]

No game style, no pride! We need a face in charge of coaching that will represent this club!!