Our biggest problem is sustaining our best football for four quarters.
We have shown our best football is good enough to match it with the best teams, our problem is with consistently being able to produce our best football.
That game against the Hawks is prefect example, we were nowhere near them in the first half, looked like it was going to be a significant 10+ goal defeat.
However, we then came out in the 3rd quarter and I believe it was a 6 goal to 0 term in our favour and we were right back in the match.
So what causes our inability to perform for a full 4 quarters. I don't think it is a lack of fitness because there were a number of games where we got blown away in the first quarter, which cannot be put down to substandard fitness levels.
It seems to me that our issue are three fold. One we can struggle with mental application, you cannot go into games assuming that you simply have to turn up to win games, hence our losses against Melbourne and St Kilda and very close wins against teams we should have beaten far more easily Bulldogs x 2, GWS and the draw against Carlton.
Another issue we have is that we do not know how to get consistently and effectively get the game back on our terms when they other team gets a surge on. We tend to panic which just causes more issues, we are not effective at reverting to tempo football to kill the other teams momentum and get things going in our favour.
The third issue we have is that as a playing group we are selective in our intensity. We got back into that game against the Hawks because we lifted our intensity and attack the man and the ball. Everytime the Hawks got the ball they were crunched, it put them under incredible pressure and forced them into making mistakes which we were able to capitalise on. Our issue is our intensity levels not only changed from week to week, but from half to half and quarter to quarter.
Our best football is good enough to challenge any team in the competition, but this season we were only able to produce for a quarter, or maybe a half of a game, the closest we got to a full game performance was against ■■■■ Carlton in round 3, and even then we let them kick a number of cheap goals in the last quarter, which robbed us of burying those ■■■■■ by over a 100 points.
What to we do to ensure they playing group can produce their best football and play at the right intensity level for 4 quarters every single ■■■■■■■ week? Don't know. Are they capable of it? Don't know, but if they aren't, the club might as well start rebuilding because we won't challenge with this group if they aren't able to achieve it.
This is where Hird, the assistant coaches, list management and recruiting staff need to be brutal in the assessment of our list. For too long has mediocrity either not been identified by the club, or tolerated by the club. They either need to be clear on knowing what they need to do to get the current group to play at their best consistently or they need to rebuild the playing group and they need to do it quickly or we are going to waste the likes of Watson and Goddard and another 2006 will be on the cards.