They are a 50/50 side at the moment at 9-9 and inferior percentage. A win against a depleted Richmond a couple of months back when they were struggling, great narrow win against Geelong who were in a bit of a slump at the time & people are falling all over them for brushing aside a travelling depleted Fremantle at home last week.
This is a side that two weeks ago was made to look second rate by St Kilda. Not to mention a thumping loss to a Bolton led Carlton & home loss to Gold Coast this year.
Yeah… they’ve got a decent recent record against us… but so did we against Port and look how that panned out today.
Dogs have some dangerous weapons, yep, and clearly it won’t be an ‘easy’ game… but I give us every opportunity to rebound.
This was a disgrace. We were out performed in every area. Zlarke is obviously not up to it, but we don’t have much choice at the moment.
There was a complete lack of pressure on our part and really only one player was a a winner: Merrett. Of the others, the less said the better.
Very disappointing all round. We’ll need to work a lot harder next week.
if anything the dogs will try to run us off our feet, and they generally do that to good result in general.
last year they ran rings around us cos they had a midget as a loose man in defence and he just went wherever the ■■■■ he wanted.
there was no one else worth taking, it is why no other clubs took anyone. Even the one we wanted hasn’t be played by Sydney and they are also lacking ruckmen.
Yup, team balance got thrown off with Smack late withdrawal, Parish off early and Francis on and off. Too many important positions to cover with the rest of injuries that we have.
Was always going to be difficult after quarter time, and missing easy set shots also doesn’t farking help (Zlarke, Tippa, Hooker)
1 - Got fkd in the ruck and consequently the clearances.
2 - Pressure. Was bad post-clearance which is apparently the thing we’re focusing on. Plus the forward line pressure was deplorable.
3 - goal kicking. the main difference between the sides (before the rout) was that we missed gettable shots while Port kicked every single one.
No doubt personnel is a factor but we just weren’t fired up today. Port won because they played like they had more to lose.
I feel similar. There was gonna be a breaking point after all these close wins , interstate trips and seriously mounting injuries. My hope is that today was a one off. We make some Changes to improve our strength around the ball and we don’t lose our Courage to take the game on
I don’t want to hear excuses like “they were due for a loss”.
I could name you maybe three players that didn’t humiliate themselves today. I watched this team give up today, and sadly it was Port’s younger players that put us to the sword.
Hmm I like your optimism. In reality, I was venting a bit. Settled down a little now, and feel like the players are basically very tired after 2 interstate trips, and a 6 day break. Looked sore as well.
Maybe we are a chance verses the dogs, but need some grunt and hard nosed football right from the get go. btw, Myers coming in now is a given I reckon.
Yes, I still think we will make it. Just looked at the Fremantle injury list, and they will probably be in holiday mode by the time we face them. We can hope…