Autopsy The gentle dogs go down in a thriller

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We simply have no answers when an opposition midfield gets a hold of us.

It’s like we can’t play tempo footy. Look at what Richmond, Hawthorn etc (both teams had slow mids) used to do when an opposition midfield got on top. Even if it meant Hodge or a Cotchin gave away holding free kicks…they’re looking to change the tempo and slow it down.

If we’re not going to tag and we don’t have dominant tap ruckman, then all we’re banking on is the other side running out of gas. That doesn’t work.

Sanders will probably make a midfielder, but his lack of speed is a real concern and he’s struggling with the tempo of AFL. It’ll come, but he’s a concern at the moment imo.

I love Caleb Daniel, but even he was fumbling tonight and the game has simply gone past him. Summed up the team (butter fingers everywhere).

Libba made a lot of ordinary decisions, although he wasn’t alone in that regard. A lot our basic errors were under no pressure as well.

O’Donnell isn’t a fwd, but he competed well and JUH looked like tearing it apart before their midfield got on top. I still don’t think we go to him enough when he’s deep.

Williams and Jones were just about our best, Bont better as the game wore on…we need to get JUH fitter so he can spend short stints on the ball, while Bont tries to lose a tag.

Freijah is a gun. Has looked just about our most composed player since he come in.

I actually think Macrae is going well in that high half forward role, but tonight we just couldn’t link up to make him more useful.

I’ve defended Lobb in the past, but time to move on. Better off just playing Smith and use English to plug holes when not rucking as much (he should be our Blicavs - he ain’t a No. 1 ruck).

We missed Richards and some JJ spark tonight, while Darcy is nearly our most important player.

Didn’t have the cattle.
 
One of the most frustrating things about the way we play of late is that we don't make changes until it's too late. We got absolutely smashed in the midfield in the first half, losing the clearances 13-31 with the centre midfielders primarily being Bontempelli, Treloar, Liberatore and Sanders. We did not change our centre set-up until very late in Q2 when West came in for a couple of CBAs.

In the second half we swapped Macrae for Sanders and from Macrae's 8 CBAs he won 3 centre clearances (team high for the night) and the total clearances in the second half were even at 19-19.

Any other team would've made that change at QT and tonight was not an isolated incident, we are serial offenders in this sort of thing, always believing that "the system" will work and it's cost us chances at getting back in games more than once over the last few years.
Feel like our worst performances are when we just roll the same players through there. Surely if we can see that it’s not working people inside the club can?
 
At least Fyfe playing a randomly good game in the middle of a season where he's done little else has been outdone by Hipwood
 
Not to necessarily excuse the performance, but that looked like a very tired an inexperienced team.

We have had a makeshift team line for some time, but there's been a couple of players holding it together - Darcy and Naughton's excellent football supports the whole team more than we probably realised.

Our weird wing/forward/mid with West, Daniel, Gallagher, Macrae, Sanders, McNeil, Garcia just felt weird. Other games they looked like versatile players. This one they just looked all out of position.
 
There's an aspect of the injured players that hasn't been discussed, and that's leadership.

Sure we miss the natural talent that Naughton, Richards, Darcy, Harmes and Cody have, but all five of them have genuine spark and play a team game. Darcy is still very young and no doubt has a lot to learn about team leadership but he plays the alpha tall role really well and that lifts his teammates.

We were largely devoid of that spark and team cohesion tonight. Libba was not quite himself and was probably focussing more on getting his own game right and to see if he could play in a different style to reduce the risk of further head knocks. So he wasn't providing as much of his on-field leadership as he normally would.

Fagan looks at what's left and what does he see? Bont, for sure. Maybe Treloar, maybe Duryea and maybe the introverted Macrae. West is not there yet.

So he realises he can kill two birds with one stone. Berry quells Bont's influence early but also gets him preoccupied with lifting his game and shaking the tag. The demands of that take his focus away from providing leadership to his overwhelmed teammates.

We played with low cohesion and showed little ability to adjust as the game went on. I think the absence of those injured five had a fair bit to do with that, quite apart from their on-field ability.
 
Why aren't there a million likes for this post?

The Berry tag and the Neale non-tag set them up for the night and we gradually lost confidence. This move alone gave the coaching points to Fagan. Comprehensively.
Bev once again showing that the only Plan B he has is in his Mrs' bedside drawer.
 
Too many blaming our bottom 10 players. This was all on English, Bont, Libba, Treloar. They got absolutely flogged and went missing for the firts 3 qtrs. (Treloar was ok but still down on his consistent A grade form).

What the hell are VDM, McNeil, Bramble etc going to do if all our high level senior players aren't performing. The mid tier of JUH, Lobb, Macrae, Daniel were also terrible. C'mon guys dont focus on the easy targets
 
We lost total team run by 8km again. Think that’s 12 of 13 games we’ve ran less than our oppo. Coaching, fitness, work rate or all 3?
Can't be true. I got told we were the fittest team ever....
 
We were very poor. Personnel was sorely poor and the umpiring is killing the game. We lost to a better side, but the umpiring is destroying the game. It is hard to know what you are watching at times. 4 umpires each with a different interpretation of the rules. this is not good for the game. BTW Brisbane were the better side, I reiterate.
 

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Those first quarter clearance numbers are horrific. Incredible that we were still within a few points of them at that stage but it certainly felt like the dam wall was starting to crack.
 
Hard to believe some of these numbers...

Clearances - Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4
WB: 6 / 7 / 12 / 7 (32)

BL: 18 / 13 / 10 / 9 (50)

Centre Clearances - Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4
WB 2 / 3 / 3 / 4 (12)

BL: 6 / 3 / 3 / 3 (15)

Ball Up Clearances - Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4
WB: 2 / 1 / 4 / 3 (10)

BL: 5 / 6 / 3 / 2 (16)

Throw In Clearances - Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4
WB: 2 / 3 / 5 / 0 (10)

BL: 7 / 4 / 4 / 4 (19)

Centre Bounce Attendance / Centre Clearances

Q1

7 / 1 - English
7 / 1 - Treloar
6 / 0 - Bontempelli
6 / 0 - Sanders
4 / 0 - Liberatore
1 / 0 - Garcia
1 / 0 - Lobb

Q2
6 / 0 - Bontempelli
6 / 0 - Treloar
5 / 2 - Liberatore
4 / 0 - English
3 / 1 - Lobb
2 / 0 - Sanders
2 / 0 - West

Q3
7 / 0 - English
6 / 1 - Bontempelli
5 / 1 - Macrae
5 / 0 - Liberatore
5 / 0 - Treloar

Q4
7 / 1 - Treloar
7 / 0 - English
6 / 1 - Bontempelli
5 / 0 - Liberatore
3 / 2 - Macrae

Centre Bounce Attendance - Centre Clearance Rate
38% - Macrae (3/8)
25% - Lobb (1/4)
11% - Liberatore (2/19)
8% - Bontempelli (2/24)
8% - Treloar (2/25)
4% - English (1/25)
0% - Garcia (0/1)
0% - West (0/2)
0% - Sanders (0/8)

Tidied it up in the second half but it was already too late, we needed to mix it up sooner. Garcia, Macrae, West and even Gallagher should've been rotated through the midfield from QT onwards, the signs were there 5 minutes into the game.
Sadly, the bont is human. He looked gassed tonight but still had 20 and 3 goals. Was his tog too much last week?
 
Feels like we constantly lose these games which would be statement wins since the 2021 GF.

Way too inconsistent, I know we have injuries but this was one that would have set up our season nicely.

Freo is a must win now.
 
Upon reflection, some of the umpiring was horrendous in that first half, the free kick count not truly representing it aside.

It absolutely was a three or four goal swing early.
 
It’s a bog average list, coached by a flawed coach. A refresh will come soon.

Or the board will be convinced to stay on. That always works well.

The list is full of potential though, a few smart acquisitions and we should be right at the top.

Hopefully whoever is coaching can get us there.
 
The list is full of potential though, a few smart acquisitions and we should be right at the top.

Hopefully whoever is coaching can get us there.

I don’t disagree. It should be a finals team imo.

I keep being told our list isn’t that great. Didn’t stop the pies winning a flag last year, but maybe it’s a complete lottery.
 

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Autopsy The gentle dogs go down in a thriller

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