I wonder if Guelfi could be our tagger?
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I would love to have had Guelfi on the ground last night.
The tagging role does not need to be all game.
They had a definite strategy for Parish & it worked well.
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Canāt help but feel that weād have played better at Marvel, even without fans. We donāt seem to like life in S.E. Qld, hubs or no hubs.
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No question about it, dry fast deck as opposed to the slippery conditions last night. The mental aspect alone wouldāve changed the game.
None of that excuses the lack of intensity last night though.
We still have to win in wet conditions. We need to fix that up.
they have gone way to far in this slow safe forward movement.
iād rather watch us kick 20 goals and lose by 12 points than watch a listless 7 goals
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I clearly rate GWS a lot higher than many on here - their midfield is absolutely stacked and we needed Parish, Merrett & Stringer to all have BOG-type games if we were any chance without Langford, McGrath & Caldwell. Unfortunately, our gun mids all did SFA in the second half and that was the difference in a 2 goal game (along with plenty of missed chances).
Plenty to be excited about with our kids, though! Rapt that weāve found another one in Durham - kid has heart, moves well, and looks to be a reasonably reliable kick. Perkins, Cox, Draper all showed exciting moments again.
The thing that bothers me most is actually not the loss itself, but the decision to drop Guelfi at the selection table when weād FINALLY been sending a clear and consistent message all year that form now dictates selection, instead of past reputations.
I just couldnāt rationalise any argument where Zaka & Smith had done enough to earn a spot ahead of Guelfi on the back of his game last week - they quite clearly got a gig based purely on reputation (maybe experience? āleadershipā?).
Admittedly, Zaka had apparently played well in the VFL the week before at least - but then he shouldāve come him in for Smith in that case, who stunk it up last week against North! Gifting games to less deserving, high profile players ahead of role players (who are doing their jobs well) is something Iād finally thought weād stamped out.
Anyway, Iām incredibly disappointed in the loss but we only have ourselves to blame and we still have so much improvement left in this side. Regardless of wins/losses, I really want to see us finish the year off strongly - both in terms of our effort on the field AND our team selections.
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Dubious team selection led to natural conclusions.
What bothers me is that a lot of our āwinsā this year have been offset by ālossesā.
For example:
The shifting back of Laverde (definite win) coupled with shifting back of Stewart (epic failure).
The picking of kids (win) balanced by continued picking of absolute plodders (Cutler, Zaharakis, Ham, this yearās version of Smith).
The re-signing of Zerrett, Parish, Stringer coupled with re-signing of Smith (whoever is responsible needs to be frog-marched from the club pronto).
Form of Philips (no world-beater, but solid) and Wright (ditto) versus form of Draper (average at best, uncompetitive at worst).
On the whole, itās been better than expected, but weāre still miles off it and things like the above need addressing. Finals should just not be on the radar.
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He gets to play full time midfield in the VFL, an opportunity he wonāt get in the Seniors.
Either way, itās good experience and development for him.
Disagree. Heās developing well back there. He did some really important things last night. Heās a big unit (our biggest) & often gets the best forward. (Larkey kicked 7 this week.) None of our up & coming backs are ready yet & BZT is not as good as Stewart.
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We can get all the draft picks we want and we
will still get thrashed in a final
We play a style that dosent stack up been proven against the top sides
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The expectations on Stewart are way over the top.
Zerk has never proven he can play on big forwards.
Francis is not suited to the really big blokes, though you could make an argument that he could be in anyway, and everyone plays taller.
Then you have a collection of Blitzers that want to get Reid in ASAP, based on Draft position and potential, without a reasonable understanding that he may be a long way off.
Every mistake these whipping boys make is exaggerated unfairly.
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We played not too bad I thought. Kids getting tired. To be expected.
Lloyd is right.
Cameron took away our strengths tag Parish and limit Merrett
Yet we let Whitfield run free doing what he wants. said Rutten likes to back his system but sometimes you need to stop the oppos best player.
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Our kids are Perkins and Cox.
Who else would you classify as ākidsā? I think this youth thing is a bit of a furphy.
Actually, Durham as well. But he was good.
Tagging Whitfield wouldnāt have helped.
We needed to compete harder at the contest as Truck said in the presser. And compete harder for marks
Tagging Whitfield would have helped he was the link man
Helped giants tagging Parish and limiting Merrett
I agree with the above, but I think that the Truck also broke an important contract he had formed with the younger players, good form should be rewarded with selection which means senior players need to earn their place.
Replacing Guelfi with Zaharakis, sent the wrong message to the young players in particular.
The kids were not the problem. Cox was better than he has been for weeks, and Archie was still Strong. Walla had been Down for weeks now Iām 100% sure heās injured, and zakka just didnāt give us anything, parish got soundly beaten, Smith doesnāt give us much, then list goes on. Has almost nothing to do with the kids. Team has lost their way. This was one of just a few games where the players looked a bit disinterested to be honest. There didnāt see to be any enthusiasm or desire
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After having the morning to mull over it iāve come to the conclusion weāre just not that good yet.
Weāve played fairly crap footy since the bye and wins against 3 of the bottom 4 sides have given an over inflated representation of where weāre at, and I feel as though some of the players have been drinking their own bath water as a result. GWS gave us a much needed reality check that weāre a long way off.
Use X/Truck/Ham/Smith as an excuse why we lost if you want - end of the day weāre an over achieving mid table side.
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