I'm prepared to offer up my left nut...

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

That's the way I see it. There is still plenty to get excited about but some hard assessments and decisions need to be made

And where does that asessment need to fall?

[The Bulldogs Bite]

I get the criticism of Stringer but in a team that has a lot of workmanlike players, I wouldn't like to discard someone who can do the mercurial. Reckon we need to trust that he will develop into the player we hope he will be.

The mercurial is aptly named; it rarely happens.

Jake doesn't do the basics and has gone backwards for 24 months. I'm done hearing about how mecurial he is, or how much of a weapon he is. His output for a long extended period of time has not been up to standard, regardless of any physical attributes. His work rate is absolutely non-existent, he doesn't win his own ball and his goal kicking is putrid.

[GVGjr]

And where does that asessment need to fall?

The assessments on players hunger, ambition and capabilities need to be made. If we have a player or two who aren't buying in lets help them move on. We also need to make hard decisions on some players if they have the skills and talent to play the game as a senior footballer or if they offer enough upside to preserver with

[ledge]

We are a premiership team with a very young backline filling in . One bad half of footy and we are all doom and gloom.
I'm not so upset about our forwards but our delivery into it . It seems our mid Coach is not on the same page as our forward coach.
I don't believe we need to trade or bemoan the list , it's a good list , it's a young list.
I question not playing Roberts and putting a 4 game ( youngest player in the league) on a man mountain with Massive talent.
I question that Toby Greene and Patton are our devil but we seem to do nothing to stop them.
To me it's a coaching thing and getting all our coaches to work together better .
65 entries to 35 tells you we get it in better than any team in the league. We just need to deliver properly or get the forwards to run to spots our mids kick it to.

[Ozza]

I think the inside 50 stat on a night like tonight can be really misleading.

We may have racked up a stack of inside 50s, but many of these were just scrambling repeat entries into a very very congested forward line. Those type of entries - the player with the footy looks up and sees no clear options - and the forwards have no space to get clear.

I think there were two areas that really killed us.
One is more or less the title/intent of the thread. When we did get chances - we missed set shots, we hand balled backwards to the 'good kicker' imposter Suckling, or we kicked to options that were very very wide - giving us less chance to be accurate.

Another key area that killed us was centre clearances. Now there are centre clearances - where you get a scrambling clearance under the pump - and then there are centre clearances where players link up and someone gets the ball in the clear and kicks inside 50 to a non-congested or at least evenly balanced forward line of 1 on 1's. No prizes for guessing which team got the quality centre clearances.

I really thought Rough could give us the ascendency there - but he wasn't great, and Libba and Wally looked like witches hats against the class of Shiel, Ward and Kelly.

[Twodogs]

Something I need to get off my chest. If I see Jack Macrae find himself clear on goal and instead of taking the shot turn his back on goal and look to pass it off it will be me you can hear screaming. He did twice tonight.

[LostDoggy]

And when woll

I get the criticism of Stringer but in a team that has a lot of workmanlike players, I wouldn't like to discard someone who can do the mercurial. Reckon we need to trust that he will develop into the player we hope he will be.

And when will this be as he has wasted 2 years and usually flashes in during the last quarter when game is over. He can do anything but rarely does!😒

[ratsmac]

We panicked all night. We seemed to be scared of the pressure that the Giants were putting us under. A lot time we had a chance going forward and our entry into 50 was a nervous kick with zero confidence. We don't have that goal nous that we once had. I want to say its because of the players we have available but forward of centre is where we actually look OK an the moment. The old clichè is bad kicking is bad football, well last night we gave it an exclamation mark.

One part of the game plan that was pretty good was to restrict the Giants forward entries because of our depleted defence. We kept their numbers low but it was their clean ball use that killed us. They showed us of the skill level that is required. The answer to this problem is......... Trade and recruit well and employ coaches who can get results I suppose.

[Twodogs]

I'd love to know how much train inning we do. Is it a once a week thing, or every day/session.

The last time I watched them practice they were having shots from different parts of the fifty. They were doing all the things wrong they normally do but nobody was standing on the mark so pretty much every shot sailed through.

It was very frustrating to watch.

[LostDoggy]

The mercurial is aptly named; it rarely happens.

Jake doesn't do the basics and has gone backwards for 24 months. I'm done hearing about how mecurial he is, or how much of a weapon he is. His output for a long extended period of time has not been up to standard, regardless of any physical attributes. His work rate is absolutely non-existent, he doesn't win his own ball and his goal kicking is putrid.

Agree

[1eyedog]

I think the inside 50 stat on a night like tonight can be really misleading.

We may have racked up a stack of inside 50s, but many of these were just scrambling repeat entries into a very very congested forward line. Those type of entries - the player with the footy looks up and sees no clear options - and the forwards have no space to get clear.

I think there were two areas that really killed us.
One is more or less the title/intent of the thread. When we did get chances - we missed set shots, we hand balled backwards to the 'good kicker' imposter Suckling, or we kicked to options that were very very wide - giving us less chance to be accurate.

Another key area that killed us was centre clearances. Now there are centre clearances - where you get a scrambling clearance under the pump - and then there are centre clearances where players link up and someone gets the ball in the clear and kicks inside 50 to a non-congested or at least evenly balanced forward line of 1 on 1's. No prizes for guessing which team got the quality centre clearances.

I really thought Rough could give us the ascendency there - but he wasn't great, and Libba and Wally looked like witches hats against the class of Shiel, Ward and Kelly.

Yeah they were happy to allow us to go inside 50 last night into congestion and back themselves in to extract and run. They are at the top of the tree in contested ball and move it out of defence like a fast flowing river. Out coached last night.

[always right]

Yeah they were happy to allow us to go inside 50 last night into congestion and back themselves in to extract and run. They are at the top of the tree in contested ball and move it out of defence like a fast flowing river. Out coached last night.

You make it sound like a deliberate tactic to allow us to have the ball in our forward half 83% of the time in the second quarter. I'm not buying it. If they "backed themselves in to extract and run", they didn't do a great job of it with only four forward entries for the quarter. The only thing that stopped us going into halftime with a four goal lead was our own ineptness and some resolute defence from GWS.

[always right]

The mercurial is aptly named; it rarely happens.

Jake doesn't do the basics and has gone backwards for 24 months. I'm done hearing about how mecurial he is, or how much of a weapon he is. His output for a long extended period of time has not been up to standard, regardless of any physical attributes. His work rate is absolutely non-existent, he doesn't win his own ball and his goal kicking is putrid.

I'm not defending Stringer but you don't trade blokes like him out without being sure it is a fruitless cause. I think he has one or two years left on his contract so he has one or two years to prove he can address his shortcomings. I wouldn't be rushing to extend his contract but you don't give up on blokes with his talent prematurely. I don't want to give him an excuse but his private life has been a distraction all year and I'd like to see how he approaches his footy next year before writing him off. As I said previously, we need blokes who can do something inspiring.....it just needs to be on a consistent basis.....whilst also doing the basics well.

[anfo27]

It doesn't help when we have having our shots from the boundary or outside 50 & we have guys like Stringer, Dunkley, Cloke & Redpath who are poor kicks for goal. Then one of the best kicks going around in Bont has the yips.

Its amazing we kicked so straight in the finals last year.

[bulldogtragic]

I'm reminded of a convo I had with BMac. He said Jake is the most talented player he's ever coached or been round (think of all the Geelong players, GAJ etc). But he said the biggest issue Jake has is work rate.

Work rate seems to be the issue nearly 3 years on.