“Please Ban Me” - the Review Thread vs Sydney

Sinclair has hit a bit of form but I reckon he was given a task to specifically match up against Hurley… make Hurley accountable and use the extra 20 cm reach he has to worry Hurls in the air (his weakest area)… master coaching stroke.

Our lack of replacement for Hooker really cut deep at that point because there was little Worstcoach could do within the overall shittiness of our gameplan.

Would have been keen to see Hurley on Buddy, Hartley on Sinclair with Ambrose playing the chop out/spoiling role. I also would have dropped the wingers back immediately after Buddy’s second goal. Essentially clog up the space for 10-15 and try to cling to a 25 point margin while we adjusted.

Walla was doing absolutely nothing, so would have been keen to put him in the back half and see if he could apply a bit of pressure at ground level… free mckenna (who was struggling with the pace and hospital passes) to go a bit further up the ground and maybe get some run and dash.

Harley, Hurley and Ambrose all needed to be told to play in front during that burst… if they got a few over the back then fine… but we just left a heap of space and trialled them in most of the game. The positioning had to change earlier than it did.

JD was giving their back six a nightmare when the ball came down long… I would have loved to have seen 10 minutes of pagans paddock, trust our legs. Flood 17 players back and just keep JD in the F50. Then run it out in a wave with Walla, Fanta, McGrath, Gleeson and Zack with the instruction to hit a predetermined lead point for JD. If he doesn’t make it… so be it… but be proactive.

Unfortunately we got panicked and thus threw the ball to goddard and kelly who became so gun shy it was embarrassing. Sydney rotated Lloyd/heeney/Cunningham about 20m off the contest in the corridor and in one fell swoop we lost all momentum. Another coaching masterstroke that left Woosha wanting.

I’m sure others saw it really differently… such is the greatness of our game but there were probably about 20 key coaching moves made during the game tactically that I saw… and Horse won all 20.

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With Francis, Ridley, and Redman coming into our backline.
With strong bodied midfielders Begley, Mutch, Langford coming into the midfield. Add the rising star to that too.
With Laverde trying to fit into already great forward line.
An unbelievably talented English ruckman in the wings.
It’s going to be the 1980’s all over again.
Enjoy the ride its going to be great.

Hes 20 you ■■■■

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What a load of sh*t. We could have done all that this year and instead picked players like Howlett, Hocking and Myers. and all the other retirement aged veterans. Enjoy the ride of being a basketcase club for another decade whilst ■■■■ clubs like North and Carlton go up and down again in the same time we’re trying to work out that Myers might not be that good after all, after he turns 33.

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For those saying “going from last to 7th” is a great achievement… we DID NOT have a wooden spoon list. Last year was an outlier, we were forced to play rejects, 2013/14th we were around 8th and 2015 were were on until the year fell apart thanks to WADA appealing. When you actually look at it we’ve made no meaningful improvement since 2012, if anything we’ve gone backwards and picked up some extra layers of mental scarring along the way.

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If i were coach there would be no Mad Monday after that shitful performance and no patting on the backs either celebrating just making the finals is why we have been mediocre for so long,

Here here. Run out of likes but spot on. Are people really that stupid they have already forgotten why we ‘won’ the spoon last year.

This was a list that was on track for top 4’s… finals etc etc for four years str8 and have some extraordinary circumstances derail us. Somewhat unsurprisingly… we have gone exactly back to that level, if not a little below, once those circumstances subsided.

Does anyone actually realise the age profile/games played profile of our list? We are not the youngest or most inexperienced by a long long way. Baffling amount of people that think it is a minor miracle that being able to add Hooker, Hurley, Watson, Heppell, McGrath to a lineup that was unlucky to get the spoon would get better results.

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Our list is completely different to 2012 and I think we have better young talent.

Of the players we’ve lost only Ryder (30) Hibbo (28) and Carlisle (26) are worth speaking about. I can live with that. We’re in a better position.

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Next year we will be close

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Yeah… especially if we stop selecting spuds like Myers… Goddard probably gone by end of season and Colyer will either turn the corner or be gone too.

That is why I wanted to see a lot more games put into Langford/Laverde/Mutch/Francis types… and Begley…

People want to say oh it is only 6 games or 7 games or 12 games… but statistics show that young kids need those games… 50 still seems to be the magic number or nearly 3 seasons… we missed some tricks this year by playing old blokes for no reason.

I think we will take a step backwards next year especially with a harder draw but on the flip side the days of one team dominating and winning multiple flags seems to be over. if we get out sh*t sorted out this year and next we can win a flag.

Alot of people saying we shouldn’t have bothered making the finals, it was a waste of time etc.

TBH, I have echoed similar thoughts but if there is one positive out of yesterday, its Worsfold got to see this list in a final and see all its failings. Not the top ups list, the list he was meant to inherit at the end of 2015.

Had we finished 9th or 10th, Im inclined to think this club would have persisted with the same rubbish, same direction, thinking this group is close and can automatically take a step forward next year to the lower reaches of the 8.

They may still do the above but I think Worsfold isnt that stupid, he knows success and he would be embarrassed about yesterday as much as us. He wont be taking another side into the finals that far off the mark again, mark it down.

The next time we play finals, Worsfold will enter with a team that wont embarrass the club and his coaching record and pride, and if he doesn’t its because his recruiters are sh*t.

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I think there is definitely validity in what you are saying there.

But I would say I would like to have seen Mutch.

I think Langford was a little hard done by but progressed his game in the VFL well.

LAV was actually gifted games.

Franga probably didn’t earn games.

Begley… Not sure, he performed a lot better in our AFL team than I thought he would. He was impressive. But he will need to spend time in the VFL as well to learn to win the footy. He isn’t a natural ball winner.

So there isn’t too many games missed imo.

I agree with all of that and I feel pretty much the same way. My original post was not an attempt at humour. It was a sincere expression of concern. Do what ya gotta do - just want you to buck up a bit, that’s all :slight_smile:

Yesterday was devastating. That 20 min of the second quarter was soul destroying but sadly not unexpected. Was sitting watching with my Dad and laid out the script for him when we laid about a tackle a minute in the first quarter. Told him can’t trust this team to keep this up and Sydney look like they’re just absorbing and waiting. Then bang x10.

Some really tough decisions need to be made over the summer. Some players on contract need to have their papers stamped UNLESS they show otherwise via smashing the VFL.

Those kids you drafted high, play them and find out. There are 5 or so culprits that are selected most weeks that are not offering much more than one of the kids might.

I have to agree with RoCo, this year has been wasted to the extent that we don’t know much more about our midfield depth at the end than we did at the start. Yep we made finals. THATS IT we made finals and demonstrated we didn’t belong.

I WANT TO BELONG THERE. Time for this club to start making clinical, professional decisions about how we get to that stage and who is going to contribute to it. Otherwise we’ll just end up wasting the talent we do have already and in 10 years we’ll be waving goodbye to club greats J Daniher, Heppel, Hurley, Fantasia, Parish, McGrath et al with ■■■■ All to show for it again. Lucky they’re all nice blokes because at this rate that will not experience success. Just like J Watson.

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Agree JD06,

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Worsfold may be a strong leader of men but he is NOT a good match day or tactical coach. All your suggestions are reasonable but I didn’t see one change made.

Kennedy has torn us a new one every time we have played Sydney. Parker the same. I don’t want to mention that word “tag” again but call it “run with” for argument sake but FFS how many clearances do either of them need to get before the coach makes a change. Did we even have a plan B just in case Kennedy ran amok AGAIN.

You would have known that with Hooker out Sydney would be relieved to only have to deal with Joe. How about being really radical and putting Hurley at FF or bringing in Smack who at least would have throw his weight around.

Worsfold lacks the ingenuity it takes to be a modern day coach. Footscray won a premiership under Luke Beveridge who really had one gun (The Bont) and couple of really good players. But he convinced the team that they were unbeatable if they played a committed team game where every member of the team performed a role. They, to a man, attacked the ball and hunted the opposition for the entire game and wore the opposition down. They ran hard both ways.

Now Hardwick has got the same message. Demand total commitment from the players and get rid of those who do not conform. Swarm after the ball in numbers and don’t give the opposition an easy disposal. Nobody will convince me that Richmond have a better list than ours. The difference is they have a great team ethos and self belief. They believe they are better than they really are and they are hot right now. They may not win it but their supporters can’t fault their effort. But then again Tiger supporters are a bit different and they do have Dusty.

I don’t believe that Worsfold possesses the flexibility to change his ways or come up a winning formula and the same goes for his assistants. If you look at Richmond’s coaching panel you see Caracella, Leppitsch, McRae etc. I noticed Neeld sitting next to Worsfold yesterday, FFS. And WTF are our development coaches doing. We have a couple of 1st rounders and couple of second rounders just running around in the VFL.

I may be wrong but my view is the saga has made everybody just a little bit precious. Footy is a tough game and is not for the faint hearted or those who hesitate. If you can’t handle the heat get out of the kitchen. A bit of tough love.

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Paul Roos said that. The AFL didn’t.

Where can we get our Heeney and Franklin from(the two reasons they busted us apart).

We got the Franklin part - Joe. He is good enough.

We.need that ongoing midfield factory the swans have. The dogs have built, that cats have scored, Richmond have built and so have Adelaide. And Adelaide I think are our template. Lost stars, draft picks but top of table.

So you’re saying we need an academy we can get top picks for cheap.

Once teams worked out our game plan we were screwed. I’m glad we got to see it in full flight, but as the season wore on you could see how easy it was to stifle our play.

Where was plan B? Or at least A.01

Anyway, I hope Sydney choke on a bag of dicks and lose to GWS in the grand final.

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