Review v cats

31 unforced turnovers in the 2nd half.

So that’s a fatigue thing , yeah?

2nd qtr was blistering and we looked sluggish as fark after 1/2 time.

The second half drop off reminded me a bit of the final against North. Whats worse, when asked about the cause of it. Woosha, like all at least 2 coaches before him said " I dont know"

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its not the losses that have me worried, its the way we lost. Same thing in all 3 games with us getting overrun.

Really hope the boys are ready to go for a full 4 qtrs against hawthorn or we will get hammered.

Losing looey is by far the worst thing though

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I actually went to the game today, I reckon from your photos I just saw I was about 30m away from you on the wing @saladin.

Anyway, here’s my review. Got there at around 12 so I could get a seat (gates don’t open until 2) so we could get ourselves a seat, then waited another 2 hours for the game to start and got absolutely fcking roasted in the sun until some late cloud cover gave some mercy. To watch them pile on 10 odd goals in the third after such a good first half killed me after 4 hours of waiting.

On the game:

  • I changed my tune on Tippa down back, looks absolutely fcking electric up forward.
  • Stewart has almost won himself a Round 1 berth. Lead well, marked well, and is a good third forward for when Hooker returns. He had a good game.
  • Heppell is not quite there yet, he’s good, but not Heppell yet.
  • Daniher finding form, some good clunks and snags.
  • Langford does some really nice things or has some brain spasms.
  • Smack in the ruck, had a good game personally but we get spanked in the middle that got worse as the game wore on. Yikes.
  • Bags is in shocking form, but even worse is that he looks slow. Not playing Dea is horrific given how good he was in that first JLT game for us.
  • Colyer was one of the few in that last half to actually run the ball
  • Gleeson was fantastic in the first half, went missing in that second.
  • Parish/Watson/Heppell all good in the clinches but far too handball happy, we actually need someone to take it upon themselves to deliver the ball.
  • Say what you want about Goddard but he still delivers some beautiful passes.
  • Kelly had a shocking game, some horrid turnovers down back.
  • Can’t recall Stants in the midield once
  • Dangerfield carved us up in the third like chopped liver, 34 touches by 3/4 fck me.
  • Only thing I recall BIG BOI doing was turning it over by hand
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It’s still pace in the midfield IMO. If the opposition gets their tails up and run in waves were are just powerless to stop them. We also lose confidence and go into our shells very quickly.

Obviously today we were hurt by losing luey but our reaction to a momentum shift is to put a man behind the ball. I think the reaction should be to push as much pace onto the ball as possible and lift the pressure on the ball carrier as much as possible. Leave one of jobe or hepp there for grunt and then run zerret, tippa, fanta, lav and colyer around him. No ones going to be bursting away from that midfield without someone right up their clacker. Someone please pass this onto woosh.

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I don’t remember us playing a full consistent bunch of games, quarters or a season in the past 7 or 8 years is the thing. I think that’s why everyone is freaking out it looks like the same old story. All it needs now is the excuses of ‘we will take longer to get fitness than the other teams because…’ and we are set for groundhog day all over again.

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Yep, the only thing today was missing was jay neagle playing on in front of Taylor in slow motion.

i honestly do not know what to think going into round 1

We could win by 10 goals

We could lose by 10 goals

I’m not sure

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Normally from a game like that I would see nothing but negatives. But in fact I see a couple of positives.

First one. We killed them in the first half. OK, they weren’t switched on, etc., etc., but we were 40 points up against Geelong, and that’s pretty good.

Second one. We pulled back to level about 10 minutes into the last. We had been totally outplayed in the third, and went a further goal down at the beginning of the fourth, but we scrambled and fought our way back to level.

OK, having done that, Geelong then kicked four in a row and won in a canter. But what does that teach the players?

It teaches them that they were half a quarter away from beating a very hard, experienced team, and that they can beat them next time they play.

I’m hoping that this year we have a season a bit like Melbourne’s season last year. Some very bad losses, to be sure, but a lot of very good wins, too, and generally looking like a team on the way up. I want us to be a team that’s heading up the ladder with some purpose.

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So, had time to sit back and digest. Pretty happy with what I saw today. A functioning forward line, nice delivery from the midfield and slick, compelling ball movement out of the back line. Then of course the second half happened. Was I disappointed that we let the lead slip, absolutely, but it is not the end of the world. It is pre-season.

For the record, the four teams that didn’t play last week that played teams that did all lost after leading at half time. The Suns, Hawks and North were all overrun much as we were. In fact no team that didn’t play the week before defeated a team that had for the entire JLT series. Take that as you will, but it may explain a few things at this early stage of the season.

Throw in the loss on Luenberger, which allowed the Cats to dominate the hitouts and it isn’t surprising that we got overrun. I know he is a ruckman and not a midfielder, but it still impacts on our ability to rest players during the game via interchange.

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Thank goodness for that!

We wouldn’t want an extra half like the second one.

In isolation the result is just about meaningless, but it is hard not to get a little concerned about how the result happened (moreso than JLT 1 or 2). I’ve just gotten through watching the third quarter (my goodness the 3rd was dire) and I have no doubt that it’s an issue between the ears. It wasn’t form - we absolutely belted them in the first. It wasn’t fitness - we fell off the cliff too early in the game.

Hey - I reported it before it happened :wink:

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'Twas the best of games, 'twas the worst of games…"

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It’s been said before but I think we need to realise it’s going to take us half a season to a full season to gel. I’m definitely not one of those people who likes to make excuses for the side and pull random crap out of my ■■■ to justify losing but we will just need time to uncover our best 22 and allow them to learn how to play together.

It is for this reason, and in light of the fact that we have the easiest draw in the comp, that I’m really hoping we can put enough wins together to make the 8. Regardless of how frustrating we may be in the early part of the season, I’m hoping we hit our straps as we go so that even if we just scrape into the 8 points-wise, we can give a team a rude shock in the finals and launch into 2018.

But I may be too optimistic.

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I’ll tell Tippa to iron out 1 Rioli.

Injuries aside (yes, not having either of our two legit senior ruckmen is a big problem) I’m reasonably happy.

We are continuing to demonstrate that we suddenly have a forward line that can score without any significant contribution from/presence of our preferred FF and CHF. Mini-bags of 4 and 3 in all three games.

I don’t think guys like Watson and Hurley will have shockers like that again. And unless Hurley continues to do so, and Hartley stays a mysterious out, and Ambrose rucks, I don’t see last year’s best area crippling us.

Though I will agree that if any other team has a similar Four Flea (Raz TIP Green Col) setup, we’re in trouble…

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Also, we need to cheat more.

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add

in hocking
out laverde

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Giving up winning positions is a problem that has haunted this team for quite some time now. Even at our best, we’ve always been able to cough up a lead.

Our one-way running midfield is much of the issue imo. Watson, Heppell, Zaharakis, Langford… There’s a number of guys who have very little defensive side to their game. (Although Zaharakis chased hard and tackled well today, which is good. We need more of that.) Zach Merrett can’t do it all. At the very least, one of Bird or Hocking must come in.

The forward line looks very impressive, and our ball movement at times was very slick.

There’s a lot to like about the pre season, but there’s some familiar problems popping up too.

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