Well, I don't know what to say...

[Sedat]

Are you referring to the ease at which they were able to get behind our defenders and midfielders pushing forward when the ball was transitioning out of our forward line? I saw the same thing happen against Fremantle continuously.

Defenders allowing quicker opponents to get goal side of them is a cardinal playing sin for mine. They would be better allowing them the opportunity to lead at the ball, take a mark and turn around to be faced with an empty forward line with no targets to kick to.

If our defenders did that, and we didn't turn the ball over with reckless abandon yesterday we'd have kept GWS to 12 goals.

What also stood out was the quality differential in foot skill between their young guns and our general playing spread. We really need to draft a high quality user of the ball by foot this year. We can't continue with shoddy kicks.

I can understand the jury being out on Bmac as a match day coach, though I still think there's insufficient evidence to suggest it's a coaching issue and not a player issue. We have some dumb footballers.

Nice post Jeemak. I reckon it is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. We certainly do have our fair share of dumb footballers but I also think BMac does get found out during the cut and thrust of game day. Yesterday's game and the Freo game were exactly the games I thought of when I made my initial post - we absolutely dominated key indicators like CP's, clearances, inside 50's, and yet the opposition scored so easily and efficiently from their limited forward entries. And when it happens repeatedly over the course of 120 minutes, the coaching group has to take some share of the responsibility.

[Greystache]

Nice post Jeemak. I reckon it is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. We certainly do have our fair share of dumb footballers but I also think BMac does get found out during the cut and thrust of game day. Yesterday's game and the Freo game were exactly the games I thought of when I made my initial post - we absolutely dominated key indicators like CP's, clearances, inside 50's, and yet the opposition scored so easily and efficiently from their limited forward entries. And when it happens repeatedly over the course of 120 minutes, the coaching group has to take some share of the responsibility.

That's a frustration I'd called out earlier in the season. We can dominate 3.5 quarters of footy yet still be a goal down because team's can score so easily against us, and yet we find it such a hard fought struggle to do the same. BMac keeps talking about hanging in games for longer, but you can't dominate 4 quarters of a game on a consistent basis.

We either need to stop teams scoring and turn matches into a defensive scrap, or we need to score more freely and play shoot out footy. Ideally as we get better we'll be able to do both reasonably proficiently.

We're doing neither at the moment, so hence we can win every statistical measure in the game and still lose.

[bornadog]

Nice post Jeemak. I reckon it is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. We certainly do have our fair share of dumb footballers but I also think BMac does get found out during the cut and thrust of game day. Yesterday's game and the Freo game were exactly the games I thought of when I made my initial post - we absolutely dominated key indicators like CP's, clearances, inside 50's, and yet the opposition scored so easily and efficiently from their limited forward entries. And when it happens repeatedly over the course of 120 minutes, the coaching group has to take some share of the responsibility.

Its not just coaching, we just don't have the players. When you have guys like Austin and Young as your key defenders, and poor old Morris playing on monsters, no run out of the backline and slow midfielders who can't run down the opposition what do you expect.

[Daughter of the West]

What we haven't talked about from yesterday was the woeful kicking for goal. 34 shots to 25 says it all, 15.19 is not good football.

My grandfather always used to say, "Bad kicking is bad football." And he knew a thing or two.

[westdog54]

What we haven't talked about from yesterday was the woeful kicking for goal. 34 shots to 25 says it all, 15.19 is not good football.

Totally agree. GWS' goalkicking, particularly in the last quarter, was magnificent, whilst we were downright wasteful.

We created opportunity after opportunity and then ruined it with poor execution. I hate to pick on a kid for this but JJ is a massive culprit here. Does all the hard work and then overcooks the kick by about 5-10%. He irons out that one flaw in his game (and as a small defender that's the only flaw I'll call him on) he'd be close to elite.

I'll say this much: I wasn't in the rooms after the game nor have I seen any footage, but the Jake Stringer I've seen this year would have been distraught. He's so much better than that. Just got to the right spots all day and made things happen. Hard to believe this was his second year of elite football. He will come out breathing fire next year and be a far better player as a result.

As far as getting killed on the rebound like we do, surely this is a setup/structure issue. Our coaches aren't stupid. I've no doubt that players aren't playing to instruction when it comes to this. We have players who get sucked into the contest and forget about where they need to be. I read a post in the three things thread suggesting we needed a Franz Beckenbauer style sweeper. I don't know if it's the answer but it's not the stupidest idea I've ever heard.

Any way you look at it, we blew it big time last night.

[bornadog]

Any way you look at it, we blew it big time last night.

Not really we get Pick 5 instead of 6. A draw would have been good.

[westdog54]

Not really we get Pick 5 instead of 6. A draw would have been good.

That might be a side benefit, but I'm not willing to accept that losing that game was a positive for our club.

[BulldogBelle]

Not really we get Pick 5 instead of 6. A draw would have been good.

If Frawley leaves Melbourne we will probably end up with pick 6 because they will more than likely get a 1st rounder after their first pick.

[F'scary]

Yes it was and he knew it.

100% sitter. Tough on the kid to say that's the reason the dogs lost, but that's football. A good game by Jake tarnished with a glaring mistake.

Stringer's dropped mark was a sitter. There's no excuses.

Sorry guys, but a sitter, by definition, is a mark that you or I could have taken.

[westdog54]

Sorry guys, but a sitter, by definition, is a mark that you or I could have taken.

Actually, by definition a sitter is a catch where the item to be caught is sitting perfectly for the catcher.

That ball was sitting beautifully for Jake and he dropped it cold.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

Nice post Jeemak. I reckon it is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. We certainly do have our fair share of dumb footballers but I also think BMac does get found out during the cut and thrust of game day. Yesterday's game and the Freo game were exactly the games I thought of when I made my initial post - we absolutely dominated key indicators like CP's, clearances, inside 50's, and yet the opposition scored so easily and efficiently from their limited forward entries. And when it happens repeatedly over the course of 120 minutes, the coaching group has to take some share of the responsibility.

One of the major traits of Hawthorn's Clarkson is to recruit players who can dispose of the ball correctly. We have too many players on our list with poor skills. Geelong similarly are a very skillful team. I would doubt that a player like Clay Smith would be recruited by Hawthorn because of his poor foot skills. Matthew Boyd has consistently over many years turned the ball over far too much. Macrae who is a prolific ball getter needs a lot of work on his disposal. Dahlhaus is another who needs to do better by foot. Yesterday was a case in point where GWS kicked some outstanding goals, when we in similar circumstances missed too many opportunities. There is little point being one of the best at winning the hard ball contests, if in fact we lose the initiative through shoddy disposal.

[F'scary]

Actually, by definition a sitter is a catch where the item to be caught is sitting perfectly for the catcher.
...

Which concurs with my definition. I will stick with Stringer's attempt was a bad miss without it being a sitter.

[F'scary]

Ok, I took another look at it. For an AFL player, it was a sitter.

[Hotdog60]

It's not all doom and gloom, In the game yesterday two players were the instigators of our comeback and near win from a shambles.

Bonti, I would say he was feeling the effects of a long season but when this guy gets his fitness base up he will be one of those players that when the team in sinking into a bucket of poo he will grab the game by the scruff of the neck and lead us to the surface. A few times this season he has sparked a revival.
Griffen, quite first half by his standards but lead from the front and got us moving. We have the base to build on and if we can do well in the draft and maybe the odd FA or castoff. who know we may surprise next year.

[bornadog]

One of the major traits of Hawthorn's Clarkson is to recruit players who can dispose of the ball correctly. We have too many players on our list with poor skills. Geelong similarly are a very skillful team. I would doubt that a player like Clay Smith would be recruited by Hawthorn because of his poor foot skills. Matthew Boyd has consistently over many years turned the ball over far too much. Macrae who is a prolific ball getter needs a lot of work on his disposal. Dahlhaus is another who needs to do better by foot. Yesterday was a case in point where GWS kicked some outstanding goals, when we in similar circumstances missed too many opportunities. There is little point being one of the best at winning the hard ball contests, if in fact we lose the initiative through shoddy disposal.

Our biggest issue with field kicking is turnovers. In the second quarter we won the ball many times only to give it straight back with poor kicking skills and they made us pay.