This thread is uglier than the 2nd half.....
This thread is uglier than the 2nd half.....
Last year I think. As for the coaching I have been very critical of the bomb it in at all costs coaching. I would rather we did what we did with Jesse in the first half last week, hit him up. now if we did that to Jesse, Kurt & bombed to Pykie or Mummy when one on one then it would work. But the way we are doing it at the moment is @@@@@@. By the way I think the fit players were bloody pissed off that we played unfit players!!!
I think Pyke is signed until next year.
I don't think this team was all that inferior to last year's, even though we were missing some big names. We've had a few good additions this year in Tippett, Rampe and Mitchell (who played well except for his shots on goal), and Parker playing in the 21. It was our senior players that made most of the errors tonight. We played some very good footy this year with substantially the same side.
Who on this site really thinks we will beat Rich|Carlton next week? If we do win we then get Geelong or Freo in Perth. Unforunately we really do look like we are limping in to the finals ths year tired and injured lame ducks.
I think we are all disappointed because we expected to see the side that played the first 3 quarters last week, but that side spent it all last week. No Buddy and Cyril gave us a very real chance to win this one, but last week turned out to be an aberration in a fading season. We have now lost 4 of our last 5 games, this being our poorest performance.
PS: If this is my vaunted rope-a-dope, it's even better than Ali's. Sad to say, but I have to make a retraction on that one.
Poor effort. We looked tired in the 2nd half and half the side are probably carrying injuries. Found out for pace big time.
Unfortunately Gary Rohan is playing like someone who hasn't played footy for 18 months.
We ran out of depth tonight.
Still, we live to fight another day.
If it's true, as people say, that you learn more from your failures than from your successes, we learned an awful lot tonight.
To pick the main thing that led to our loss, this Hawthorn team is the best in the business at accurate delivery by hand and foot. Being hard and relentless is not enough to beat a team with these outstanding skills, and I expect that this year the Kennett Curse will be broken.
Our problem is not speed, it is accuracy. It is compounded by the fact that we do not spread with the flair and and sense of position these Hawks have. When we can kick and handball as accurately as Hawthorn, we will have a show of beating them. The question that nags away at me is, if we demonstrated these skills when we dissected Collingwood earlier this season, where are they now?
The mistakes on the field were amplified by, as I see it, the mistakes in the coaches' box. When I realised that Mumford had been subbed off I groaned inwardly, thinking 'not another injury'. But if Mummy was physically OK, why on earth take him off? There are several players we would have missed less than him. And I agree with some of the comments about getting matchups wrong. To take just one, Sam Mitchell is usually seen as a relatively slow player, but he is a very accurate kick and creates space by his precision; I think a fit Bird would be a better match. Or another: ROK has done very well in the past by playing as a defensive forward on Hodge, so why not try him there again?
Then there were the brain farts. What on earth possessed McVeigh to shove Spang in the back while the ump looked on, and all smack in front of the bloody goalposts? And if the ball is coming down to a defender with no opposition player in the immediate vicinity, why punch the bloody ball when it would be much more constructive to mark it?
I think we can still beat Richmond (although I don't say that with any great confidence) and Carlton, but I can't see us winning a Prelim Final. So I would bite the bullet now and replace Jude with Jed, leave Rohan and Jetta in the team, and give Biggs another run in Dre's place. I think we can still play Mummy with Pyke and retain Tippett at full forward. Although he is not the future I'd give Morton a send-off by bringing him in for Benny. And I wouldn't mind seeing Brandon come on as the sub.
Finally, we are missing our injured. The most obvious changes would be Goodes and LRT, but that ain't gunna happen this season. So let's give it our best shot with what we have and give the future some experience.
He reminds him of the guys, close-set, slow, and never rattled, who were play-makers on the team. (John Updike, seeing Josh Kennedy in a crystal ball)
Funny isn't it. We end up with three talls, having blown the entire recruiting budget on one of them, where can really only play two.
Strange that most everyone on here has reached the same conclusion - albeit one which is the opposite of the coaching staff
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