Their fwd lines haven’t remotely taken the hit we have
If Cats were missing Hawkins (JD), Ablett (Raz), Rohan (Stringer) & Dahlhouse (Smith)… plus Ratugalea (Smack) in and out of team via injury also they ain’t going to be scoring like they have been
And then our depth (Brown/Stewart/Lav/Begley) have been injured at various stages also
It’s absolutely a valid excuse for us
That’s not taking away from the other issues within our team as far as pressure/ball movement go. But our fwd line really has been a distaster this year.
I think it’s two fold - personnel as in we don’t have the talent, but also the inconsistency of who is there and the disconnect between the forward players themselves, and forward players and the midfield.
Watch some of the good sides and they just know where they are meant to be and what they are meant to be doing. We have no consistency week to week what that looks like.
What are these “learnings” we keep hearing about. If, year after year we are learning how to be a good team next year, that is the wrong thing for players to be learning.
There’s a thing called carpe diem aka have a crack now. Its the opposite of patience and procrastination that Woosha keeps instilling in the players. I even heard Dylan Shiel say this is not the year, we are looking at 2021 or something to that effect. I mean he came to Essendon to win a flag. Now he has been converted to the procrastination mindset.
When we go out to play GWS, the message should be “seize the day and win the farking game” not go out and play and see whether the learnings will set us up for a good run in 2021.
Sure plan on 2021 woosha, but keep it to yourself. Play each game to win. Fair dinkum. We would never have won 1993 if we were learning so we could win in 1995. When 1995 rolled around, Richmond knocked us off in the semi.
And obviously Joe in peak form is a plus.
I just don’t think he’d have made a difference last week.
And the reason for that is the way we played, not who was playing for us.
The fact that Geelong forward line is going so well probably negates the Woosha excuse that we’ve had 4 new players come in over the past 2 season and they need time to gel. Rohan, Atkins, Dalhaus have taken no time.
Prestia, Nankervis, Caddy won a premiership in their first seas.
And they finished very good based on a large number of games post-round 8. Getting a few good wins in the last handful of 2019 matches is not going to tell us much.
The key is to having us improving and being more consistent - if we are failing to achieve that then this year has been a lost one.
I’m going to play devils advocate here… I really like Dodoro but… Why/How does he still have his job?
We keep blaming our coaches, Dodoro has been in charge of our list build the entire time we haven’t won a final, 16 years.
Our best KPP are much older than our best mids/flankers and our younger KPP are largely unproven (coach and match committee issue)
We probably have too many small mids compared to the better teams in the league but he will continue to select best available (in his and his teams mind) when a different type of player will probably suit best.
Maybe he his team and our coaching panel need a complete overhaul?
Honest question, since people keep bringing this up- how much does Dodoro choose the targeted player, and how much does he get told “get #” by coach, selection committeee or whomever and he has to seal the deal? Because he is pretty good at getting #.
I don’t want Clarkson at my footy club. I know he’s supposed to be a good/great coach but I don’t like him and I don’t want him around. Somehow I’m reminded of the words of Samuel L Jackson (Jules) in Pulp Fiction … “Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy ■■■■■■■■■■■■■”.