Been thinking about why things have gone completely pear shaped compared to last year. I’m sure this isn’t an exhaustive list.
the backline has gone through a very big change. Initially Gleeson, Kelly and McGrath were all out of their for a variety of reasons. I think I’ve perhaps underestimated the importance of Gleeson and Kelly last year. All 3 reliably win contests and use the ball quickly and and aggressively. They were key components of our quick transition. Saad is winning contests but his first option is to run not kick low and hard to a 45. Zerret has also been denied ball at half back and Hurley just doesn’t seem to hurt by foot atm. I do wonder how much this has upset the positioning of the forwards who are getting caught too far up the ground, leading for that quick kick which isn’t coming perhaps?
Zerret is badly down on form and fitness from last year. ditto JD. ditto Fanta. That’s arguably our 3 most important players from last season. Combined with the disruption to half back we’ve basically been robbed of everything good about last year.
Unfortunately, forward line dysfunctional. Daniher horrible, Hooker out, Stringer in, no Fant… it prob looks a lot different to how they trained in preseason.
Also, teams like the Dogs, Pies and Melb have recruited for the modern game, a dozen young fit ruck rovers or more in each of those, who have played and trained together, against our dwarves and plodders. They can’t keep up or get knocked off it too easily. That’s the bulk of it.
The poor skills come from a lack of confidence, knowing they don’t have the cattle, size, foot speed etc
It’s a collective issue not an individual one for mine.
We are obviously trying to implement a new system and it’s obviously failing miserably. More concerning is that even when we look like we are playing the way that the coaches want us to play I can’t see anything good. We are repetitive in our systems, we don’t seem to have any of the creativity that we had last year, and we are really easy to break down.
I don’t think Worsfold is understanding the gravity of the situation either. This is the worst that I’ve seen us play since the last 10 rounds under Hird and Knights’ last season.
He talks about West Coast in 2004 as a blueprint but we were nowhere near where West Coast was in 2004 last year. I think we are a bona fide bottom 4 team this year.
We’ve also clearly got deeply ingrained cultural issues that mean that when we drop our heads they stay dropped for 20 minute patches.
I haven’t felt this ■■■■ about where the club is going in 20 years. It feels like we’ve gone backwards.
Wolsfold changed the gameplan from last year. He did this because we ‘leaked’ too many goals. However, in changing the gameplan, the players seem confused and unable to execute what the coaches want.
Our lack of inside midfielders. Last year we delisted Howlett, Hocking and Bird. We did so in the hope that Stringer , Langford and a few others i.e. McGrath could step up in the middle. This has completely failed.
If you are going to include the last 10 rounds under Hird when we had 8+ of our best 22 missing in each of those games and a whole bunch of kids playing who were not physically ready, as well as the external pressure, then you need to include 2016 as well when we were similarly undermanned and regularly noncompetitive.
The common thread of latter stages of 2015 and 2016 is that we didn’t even field a team which could be expected to win, and they usually didn’t. Obviously that is quite different to 2018, when we’ve beaten 2 good teams with what we believe is an underperforming but good list.
BS selective memory. We got belted 4 times (by crows, dogs, saints & cats) in 2015 with a team of kids and 8+ best 22 out, but competitive in other games with a few wins ie similar to 2016. You’re confused because your expectations were different in 2016 and you had an anti-Hird obsession which doesn’t acknowledge the reality of the teams we fielded and the external conditions they played under.
I wonder what it does for team morale bringing in 3 new senior players who haven’t had to earn a spot via the VFL? I know free agency is a new reality but it’s a pretty strong signal to the younger players on the list that a lot of them aren’t good enough to push for a spot.
Hooker going back has meant that Daniher is getting double teamed. This is having an impact on his form. It’s not all of the issue, but it’s a significant contributing factor.