Yes but our forwards might - on occasion - at least get a 1v1, or some space to lead in to.
We’d probably kick more goals.
2 Likes
Our scandals tend to directly involve the footy side of things and not be off field incidents, and we ■■■■ the bed in Elimination Finals rather than Grand Finals, but there are some similarities in recent years.
1 Like
A Scott choice. Obviously. But probably driven by our annual mauling from Tom Hawkins who never got to play against us with Ben McKay and has now retired.
We’re spending 850k on a defender who has one trick. Essendon just find ways to be stupid.
We genuinely have about 8 players that are talented and competitive enough to be part of our next push which looks to be at least 3 years away.
Caldwell, Durrsma, Durham, Caddy, Roberts, Martin, Merrett (though will be coming towards the end), Ridley if he can ever get fit again
There are a few that may be there
Tsatas, Reid (yep I’m still not selling his stock yet), Hayes, El Hawli, Langford
That leaves a boatload of
Panic Merchants: McGrath, McKay, Kelly, Laverde …basically our entire backline
Painfully slow midfielders : Hobbs, Perkins, Parish
Footy Dunderheads : Draper, Menzie’
One quarter specialists : Jones, Gresham,
Unicorns : Cox
Lots of work for Rosa. Time to be bold, shop some of these big names. Have a look at Will Hoare in the VFL as a tall defender, the kid has a great set of hands and a desire to compete that would embarrass McKay.
16 Likes
Yeah and we could’ve gone into next season with all the momentum.
So apparently Hep wasn’t in the best 23 last week. Whatever……
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Maybe. Not with this backline though. I don’t trust any of them with the ball.
Hopefully Ridley gets back to his best. Perhaps Baldwin has a bit of luck. Roberts comes on. Still need to find at least one more good kick if all that goes right
1 Like
Something Brisbane didn’t think of - the game’s not over till the final siren goes. We kept playing; they didn’t. Yes, we should have made more of it when we had the ball. We didn’t but, that’s our season really.
It was just symbolic of where we are atm.
If anything, the last 2 weeks this year were a massive improvement on the last 2 weeks last year…but that is a very low bar.
We worked hard all night - what stopped us pinching a win was what sees us struggle in so many games. Namely, missed opportunities in F50 when we have momentum. Martin just can’t quite hand onto Shiel’s kick then, a minute later Langford (who had his best game in a long time) missed Martin with a simple pass I50.
Tonight was a good summation of the year:
- Horrific kicks - either decision-making or execution or both simply gifting the opposition goals. Again, we had less turnovers, again I would say we got outscored on turnovers because ours are under zero pressure, in space, and often because we want to go sideways and not directly down the ground.
- Defending transition - we deliberately seem to cede the corridor to Brisbane and set up spares across of D50 arc. I recall seeing this writ large in the lead of to the Lions second goal - we allowed free players to mark unchecked through the corridor whilst McGrath and Roberts guarded grass across the 50m arc…and get easily bypassed because the Lions player is under no pressure running through the middle of of the ground.
- Don’t take our chances in F50 - again the opposition had better efficiency inside F50.
- Against the best teams, we are well beaten in contested ball and clearances. Tonight, a lot of this was due to letting Bryan be #1 ruck against the Big O. Bryan was badly beaten in the first half I thought but played much better after half time.
Interestingly, we won the contested possession by +2 in Q4 which was a big factor in it being our best quarter…after losing by about 35 in the first 3.
It was great to see Heppell play such a fine game to finish his career. His best game since earlier this year.
Langford also played his best game for a long time - roaming up the ground and then pushing forward. He looked much freer in his movement.
Both Roberts and Caddy competed well. Roberts already has no problems finding the football at AFL level. He has to adjust his kicking selection to the tempo at this level. Amazing for such a young player, he was our 7th highest ranked player on the ground. We just to need to recruit more competitive, combative types like both of them - not players who could be “anything” but can’t win a contest e.g. Cox. Now that Dodoro has fully exited, the way is clear for our recruitment philosophy to change for the better.
If we can find 2nd/3rd round picks for contracted players like Shiel and Wright we should do so without blinking. there are plenty of good prospects in this year’s draft. As tonight showed - we need players who can compete, win contests and kick the ball well. We don’t have enough of them because those traits have not valued as highly as having “upside”. It’s a long road we are on, but we need to draft like last year to move forward…and adjust our game plan so we start playing more direct, dynamic football (like Q4) and much less slow, kick-mark sideways football that inevitably esults in opposition scores.
26 Likes
How did we end up with so many pants ■■■■■■■■ in our backline? Like… seriously?
1 Like
Lol we play Collingwood twice every single season, doesn’t matter where we finish on the ladder, that’s not a maybe
The last couple games last year were embarrassing and I remember thinking at least show some pride and effort.
There were skill errors tonight and flaws in the game but at least they had a crack.
10 Likes
Because they come from good families
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I don’t understand what’s happend to Mckay the bloke was rock solid in the first half of the season
6 Likes
Same. Fallen off a cliff, where’s his confidence gone
2 Likes
Needs more Psych sessions in the offseason
Would do us well to have a settled backline without the likes of Kelly and Lav too, if those two were in my team I’d be second guessing everything as well
2 Likes
He’s making a few bonehead decisions with the ball in hand, but are his opponents kicking goals?
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He legit can’t hit a target by hand
Bit like the rest of the team
1 Like