Autopsy This question must be answered....

[TheFreshBanana]

In the past month, all I see each week is us being constantly outnumbered at the contest.

Aren't we meant to have the best facilities in Australia? Don't we send our players to the best preseason program? Don't we have the best conditioning staff money can offer?

Then what the **** is the problem?

Is this,

Buckley's gameplan?

Terrible conditioning?

or, the players just are too ****ing lazy?

IMO, you'll never win a game of footy if you don't win the contested possession count, and you can't win that if you don't get numbers to the footy.

I'm sick of this shit. We are playing like a side that can barely make the top 8. The ridiculous thing is that we have the ****ing quality, the calibre, even with all the injuries, we should be ****ing winning these games.

 

[upnsmoke]

No matter the talent...
A player is only as good as his effort.

 

[HFF]

I'm more worried about outside football than contested ball.

We tend to always get sucked into the contest and forget that the most dangerous space and players are actually on the outside when the ball comes where teams just waltz it away from us with ease.

 

[TheFreshBanana]

I'm more worried about outside football than contested ball.

We tend to always get sucked into the contest and forget that the most dangerous space and players are actually on the outside when the ball comes where teams just waltz it away from us with ease.

If we got more players to the contest we can actually afford to have players stay on the outside of the contest.

 

[PepperFace]

Why are every team using 2 ruckman at each contest (or a third man up) except us??

 

[beez]

IMO, you'll never win a game of footy if you don't win the contested possession count, and you can't win that if you don't get numbers to the footy.

We won the contested footy count last week, yet lost. We've won the contested footy count in 5 of the 6 games. 4 of the 9 losing teams last week won the contested footy count. Yes, stats mean bollocks.

 

[Baltimore Jack]

I think the answer to the question is, yes

 

[HeavyPop]

It's not quite as simple as just getting to the contest and winning the ball. You've also got to be wary of what the opposition is doing. If you commit to a contest, the opposition wins the ball, then they've got a free player somewhere close to the contest.

 

[Yidaki]

In the past month, all I see each week is us being constantly outnumbered at the contest.

Aren't we meant to have the best facilities in Australia? Don't we send our players to the best preseason program? Don't we have the best conditioning staff money can offer?

Then what the **** is the problem?

Is this,

Buckley's gameplan?

Terrible conditioning?

or, the players just are too ******* lazy?

IMO, you'll never win a game of footy if you don't win the contested possession count, and you can't win that if you don't get numbers to the footy.

I'm sick of this shit. We are playing like a side that can barely make the top 8. The ridiculous thing is that we have the ******* quality, the calibre, even with all the injuries, we should be ******* winning these games.

I hate to say it, but I think Buckley can't coach. He is turning our side into dogs balls imo.

 

[pies1958]

My thoughts

We are 4-2.
Lost two games badly against two very good teams.
The way we played against North and Carlton was spirited and good footy.
I think we showed some of that against Hawthorn but not since.
We showed guts against a determined Tigers. But yesterday despite making lots of errors and missing a number of key players, still won.

The team is almost unrecognizable to me at the moment. Kennedy, Dwyer, Elliott, Seedsman, etc. New players in Lynch and Russell...

I do think the spirit of the team has dropped off since the Hawthorn game. I thought we played well enough to beat Hawthorn but were ground down by a very good team and very peculiar and poor umpiring at curiously important moments in the game. I'm just spitballing here, and it's a bit off topic but.... I know Hawthorn are good, but the last few times we have played them, the umpires seem to have stepped in and destroyed confidence with very dodgy decisions.

 

[SuperSub17]

I hate to say it, but I think Buckley can't coach. He is turning our side into dogs balls imo.

The last time MM had an injury list comparable to 2012-13 was in 2004-05, just off the back of two successive grand finals like this time around, and we finished 13th and 15th in those years. There has been no evidence that Buckley is a poor coach by any measure.

 

[jmac70]

I hate to say it, but I think Buckley can't coach. He is turning our side into dogs balls imo.

What do you think he should be doing differently?

 

[Hardas]

We won the contested footy count last week, yet lost. We've won the contested footy count in 5 of the 6 games. 4 of the 9 losing teams last week won the contested footy count. Yes, stats mean bollocks.

If those stats are right, then perhaps it is more that we're still adapting to the changed system.

Certainly, it would be nice to get a more settled line up to see how we go then.

And, Beez, I love your motto there: I'm actually a really nice guy, I just have a low tolerance for stupidity.
Choice.

 

[forwardflanker]

In the past month, all I see each week is us being constantly outnumbered at the contest.

Aren't we meant to have the best facilities in Australia? Don't we send our players to the best preseason program? Don't we have the best conditioning staff money can offer?

Then what the **** is the problem?

Is this,

Buckley's gameplan?

Terrible conditioning?

or, the players just are too ******* lazy?

IMO, you'll never win a game of footy if you don't win the contested possession count, and you can't win that if you don't get numbers to the footy.

I'm sick of this shit. We are playing like a side that can barely make the top 8. The ridiculous thing is that we have the ******* quality, the calibre, even with all the injuries, we should be ******* winning these games.

4-2

 

[PieNSauce]

I hate to say it, but I think Buckley can't coach. He is turning our side into dogs balls imo.

Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what leads you to this belief. The side that Bucks dragged to a finals series from their hospital beds last year begs to differ I suspect. Considering that the list of unavailable experienced and senior players this year has been considerably worse than last year, I don't get it.

 

[Baltimore Jack]

I hate to say it, but I think Buckley can't coach. He is turning our side into dogs balls imo.

But you would have to concede he knows far more about coaching than say a random anonymous punter.
Once that premise is understood, I think your argument quickly falls apart

 

[TheFreshBanana]

4-2

What's your point?

Are you saying you're happy with our performance to date? You're confident that we can win the next 3 games against Fremantle, Geelong and Sydney with the way we're going? Are you satisfied with mediocrity?

I'm not. It's an issue that needs to be addressed, the fact is, we're not going to be a premiership threat if we're satisfied with our current performance or we're sitting on our asses waiting for Ball, Beams and Maxwell.

 

[soreplums]

Bucks will be better and will be a ten year coach at the maggies

 

[THATSGOLD]

In the past month, all I see each week is us being constantly outnumbered at the contest.

Aren't we meant to have the best facilities in Australia? Don't we send our players to the best preseason program? Don't we have the best conditioning staff money can offer?

Then what the **** is the problem?

Is this,

Buckley's gameplan?

Terrible conditioning?

or, the players just are too ******* lazy?

IMO, you'll never win a game of footy if you don't win the contested possession count, and you can't win that if you don't get numbers to the footy.

I'm sick of this shit. We are playing like a side that can barely make the top 8. The ridiculous thing is that we have the ******* quality, the calibre, even with all the injuries, we should be ******* winning these games.

EFFORT.

 

[100volt1]

inb4 "bring back mick"

 

[ash84]

What's your point?

Are you saying you're happy with our performance to date? You're confident that we can win the next 3 games against Fremantle, Geelong and Sydney with the way we're going? Are you satisfied with mediocrity?

I'm not. It's an issue that needs to be addressed, the fact is, we're not going to be a premiership threat if we're satisfied with our current performance or we're sitting on our asses waiting for Ball, Beams and Maxwell.

I think for the players we have had we are where we should be. Our best players are having good years, but their are so many young players playing that we are not going to be able to play out games to plan for 4 quarters.

As these kids get more games under their belts and the rest of our guns come back from injury i'm confident we will be fine.

It's only May and so many people are writing the season off....

 

[dayna36]

we need side a that is settled instead of changing all the time Problem is injuries are costing us dearly I'd like to see how we play with Beams Ball & Maxy in ..then u can drop those who aren't performing for the depth players rather than continuously chopping and changing the youngsters to trry and find the right balance..but that scenario is still a few weeks away ..it would be nice to be able to win atleast 2 of the next 3..so personally I believe we do have the right fascilities, coaches and game plan BUT we need our more senior players to play the better sides

 

[Green Eggs]

The problem in my eyes is we have too great a divide between the players who want to give their all for the club and put their bodies on the line compared with the players who are coasting through. We need to get some sort of team building exercises happening because we don't look like we're one team when we get out there.

We have some extremely talented individuals who will play just like that, as individuals. They need to buy-in to the culture and play as a settled team for a while before we can really figure out where we're at.

IMHO we need to settle our backline, our forward line and our mids before we become a real threat. It happens to every team when they have injury, it's not the worst thing in the world, it just means we're not right yet. Nothing to freak out about what so ever!

 

[PieNSauce]

What's your point?

Are you saying you're happy with our performance to date? You're confident that we can win the next 3 games against Fremantle, Geelong and Sydney with the way we're going? Are you satisfied with mediocrity?

I'm not. It's an issue that needs to be addressed, the fact is, we're not going to be a premiership threat if we're satisfied with our current performance or we're sitting on our asses waiting for Ball, Beams and Maxwell.

I think the word would be closer to "ecstatic". Give me 4 and 2 with our list of unavailable players at the season start and I would jump at it like there's no tomorrow. Seriously, I don't understand why people expect to see such an inexperienced list perform like we did in 2010/11 so early in a season. I said a couple of weeks ago that I saw no parallels with 2010 but on reflection I think I may be forced to withdraw that comment given the apparent depth we will have once a significant number of our experienced players return from injury and regain fitness. That we have managed to retain a top 8 position in the face of our injury list is nothing short of extraordinary.

 

[Sellyme]

Aren't we meant to have the best facilities in Australia? Don't we send our players to the best preseason program? Don't we have the best conditioning staff money can offer?

There's the problem. Collingwood seems to think that you can solve problems by throwing money at it. No facilities or conditioning will solve the problem of just having crap players.

The problem with Collingwood from my perspective is that a third of the players aren't trying, and another third just aren't any good. Both of these problems require a lot more work than giving the players a fancy change room and saying "Okay, now go win us a premiership".