I think he has more body strength than all 3 of them and would be better in a marking contest than all 3 of them. I think he has better decision-making skills. And he's a straighter kick. So there's 3 things I can think of he might have added.
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JJ was played out of position, we needed him in the backline. Schache needs to go, West I would give another game, as too Hannan. The Scott experiment has to be over, as well as Cordy.
As I said before, this loss is solely based on poor selection.
Wallis, Khamis, Garcia, JUH all have to come in.
I’m not flat … I’m angry. I saw this coming as soon as the side was named
I look at it that Richmond were always going to be tough tonight as they have had a bit of heat put on them.
I think in the end some poor ball skills and fatigue wore us down.
I agree with Cordy and Schache being really poor and should be under the hammer for our next game.
We weren't blown out of the water and I think we just tired in the end and they got more players loose.
I would like to know what Cochin's injury was as he looked okay on the bench and was it a shifty move to get some fresh legs on.
Selection?
Did you miss the whole third quarter where our midfield got slaughtered? We didn't have a touch in our forward HALF for about 20 minutes. That wasn't because we selected Schache over JUH.
This is on our senior group. Richmond turned up the heat and we didn't go with them. Yes we had some players not contribute much, and that did make it harder, but the inability of Bont, Macrae, Smith and Martin to lift and go with them is what cost us big time, coupled with our defence being exposed to quick and meaningful entries to good forwards.
There is no way any of Wallis, Khamis, Garcia or JUH change that result unless they turn out to be some kind fo spiritual leader that can raise the entire side.
Wallis is also just about our slowest player, bad at covering options and completely reliant on getting his goals in one out marking opportunities that were sorely lacking when it mattered tonight. They play very different roles and Scott is in the side as much for what he does off the ball than what he does when he has it. Wallis was competing for the Schache role.
Well that was a reality check. But let's not forget that it's a game of inches. Who knows what would have happened had Lipinski not hit the post? If Bruce's late snap had been a goal? Sure, I'm an optimist mostly but in the cold light of day it is really obvious that we need a big defender and we don't have the depth we thought we had. They won just about every 50/50 contest and of the "ins" only Lipinski was reasonable. Hannan missed an easy goal, Schache was ineffective. Rhylee West had a couple of chances but didn't grab them. Once again Bont let us down by missing a soda. You just can't do that! We missed English and Dunkley tonight. I am sure we will learn from this defeat.
I have not been overly impressed with West. He had an average first VFL game and in the second hardly touched it in the first half, and then was moved forward and kicked a couple of good goals.
McSteal should have played tonight, he is quick, applies lot of pressure and is good for at least a goal a game.
I'm pretty ok with that result. It's disappointing sure, but on a number of fronts we were good, and in other respects i think we can come out of it positively.
Firstly as MJP has said winning 7 in a row is hard. Being "on" for that long is tough, and seeing as we haven't really had much competition in most of those wins we were a lacking a little match fitness in dealing with good opposition when it matters. Only the West Coast game has required us to fight back at any point this season, and while last week was a grind it was more like we eventually just pulled away than had to fight to clinch the win. So thats a good change for us in terms of experience and mindset.
Richmond are a good side (duh), and if they lost would be 3-4. They made good adjustments after halftime and their good players (Shai Bolton wow) really stepped up. We were playing a team that has had more big moments and quality team performances than anyone in the last 5 years, there's no shame in them turning it on and us not being able to go with them.
Having said that it did expose our weaknesses. If our midfield isn't on top our defence is horribly exposed. As we are all aware we are extremely susceptible to getting killed in the air and Lynch played that out tonight. We badly need to get someone to assist Keath and just be able to hold the fort in the air and give our excellent smaller brigade a chance when their talls get ontop. But ultimately if our midfield finds a way to not get slaughtered out of the middle every chance they get then that third quarter is much better for us and gives us a much better chance in a game we very much still could have won with 5 minutes to go.
I'm still pretty optimistic, i think it's a good wake up call for a lot of players and at the very least it gives us something to keep in the back of our minds when we beat up Norf by 24 goals next time. You learn a lot from your losses and this was no where near as bad as virtually any of our losses last year. I just wish Naughton nailed that last shot instead of whatever you call the kick we got.
Missed the game but it sounds like one of those matches where our much vaunted midfield group get slaughtered at the coalface and it exposes our lack of key defensive depth.
Our next opponent has embarrassed us in very similar ways the last couple of years - good test for our maturity next week to see if we are actually a contender this year.