Where did it all go wrong?

[merantau]

When I was in London in 1974, George Best, went missing.
He was discovered in a Mayfair hotel when a staffer inadvertently entered his room. He was on a bed with the newly crowned Miss World, Majorie Wallace. She was naked and covered in banknotes. It was reported in the press that the staffer uttered the immortal words: "George, where did it all go wrong?"

I thought I'd begin this thread with a bit of levity because, what follows is sure to make pretty sombre reading.

So, where DID it all go wrong? Like many, I believed we were at the start of period of real ascendency. To be faced with the bitter reality of dashed hopes so soon after a glorious year is hard to take. But we must take the bitter with the sweet and learn from it.

So, here goes. Injuries. A number of key players had significant surgery over the break and were unavailable for the opening of the season or were coming off truncated pre-seasons.

We lost Stewart Crameri, who I'd penciled in for a big year, very early on. And then Travis Cloke, who was tracking nicely, was butchered out of the game by a dog act that went unpunished. Jake Stringer, Clay Smith Jack Redpath and Tory Dickson also missed many games through injury. So we were bereft of forwards a lot of the time.

Next, our kicking for goal was beyond putrid. Stats prove that. And it went across the board. Mids, defenders coming off half back and rucks chipped in to ensure we kept our oppenents in games or gifted them victories.

Rule changes. I think we suffered more from these than any other team. Banning 3rd man up deprived us of a major attacking weapon around stoppages.

Defenders. Losing Hamling was a blow and the failure of Roberts to cement a regular spot meant we needed a good run from others. But what happened? We lost Adams, Morris and Wood for various amounts of time, the game caught up with Matty Boyd, and to a lesser extent, Bob, and our major attacking weapon off half-back, JJ, was exposed badly and we weren't ready, as a team, to respond to that. We failed badly as a collective in that situation. We just didn't think it through and the loss to Melbourne was a really bitter pill to swallow. Previously we had come out fighting after a bad loss. But this was an insipid response.

Match Committee. There were some mistakes made but I will leave others to comment on those.

And I'm sure others will raise further issues or disagree with points I've raised. But I think it's worthwhile to have a thread that brings all our angst together in the one place.

[macca]

The MRP went out to interpret the rules against us. It was disgusting. So the afl have their wish now to gift gws a grand final berth

- ziebel no ban
- woods tap jumper punch to mcgrovern , who ends up playing the following week with bruised ribs
- Redpath twice for punches
- tony green punch to Caleb , record an inspid 2 weeks, and deliberate kick to Dalhaus face. Which the umpire reported the incident , beyond a joke the mrp decision



Beyond ridicoulous
Is williams on the mrp , the same one who use to coach for us ?

[Flamethrower]

We won the 2016 premiership.

Our club just hasn't had enough practice at backing up after a successful campaign - 1955 and now 2017.

[Remi Moses]

If you were offered a flag and a non finals appearance the next season you couldn't grab a pen quick enough to sign for it .
Disappointing this season, but I still reckon we're in pretty good hands

[The Doctor]

The off season

Losing Graeme Lowe in particular

[Rocket Science]

We won the 2016 premiership.

Our club just hasn't had enough practice at backing up after a successful campaign - 1955 and now 2017.

Curiously, in '55 we missed finals on freakin' percentage.

Groundhog day.

[Bullies]

A lot of teams put a lot of work into us and being the premier everyone wanted to beat us. That takes a lot out of the team week in week out. Also take into account we had never been in this position of winning a flag before so pre season was very late and players unprepared. We also have players who had peaked last year and are on the other side now (Picken/Dickson/Smith). Would be extremely disappointed if we don't make finals next year. Just need to freshen up the list and make some trades.

[Eastdog]

A number of factors:

- Shorter pre season not used to coming off winning a flag.

- Our forward entries and goalkicking been just awful and needs a review at seasons end.

- Injuries - had them last year as well but we have not been able to get our best 22 on the park all year. Losing Marcus Adams, Lin Jong, Cloke, Boyd, Crameri, Stringer, Dunkley etc the list goes on. Need more luck here.

- Players out of form - Bont - still be great at times but at the other times been down. Wasn't the best yesterday, Dahl, Libba, Dickson, Wallis, Clay Smith, Picken, JJ

[Webby]

Curiously, in '55 we missed finals on freakin' percentage.

Groundhog day.

Well by '59 we'd won our first wooden spoon, so hopefully we're not emulating that particular slide!

[ledge]

I don't believe shorter pre season is an excuse .. Hawks did it three years on the trot , Geelong, Sydney have also been dealing with it for years and it didn't bother them.
I just believe we won it early and our delivery into the forward line was atrocious.
Injuries also played a part and maybe we were kind of satisfied with last year .. Let's face it , it wasn't just winning it, it was the way we won it would make you feel unbeatable.
I can only see us learning from this year and being better next year . We were forced to blood some kids and they didn't let us down, they are all looking up.

[Eastdog]

Well by '59 we'd won our first wooden spoon, so hopefully we're not emulating that particular slide!

Hopefully not Webby.

I think right now age is on our side we have some retiring veterans and after that will have a youthful list still with many good years to come and hopefully can get another flag. I'm excited by our young defenders coming through and with another pre season more games they will just get better.

[lemmon]

Our injuries were just as bad, if not worse last year. We had more depth to plug the holes but I don't think it's an excuse.

The biggest factor for mine is stagnation in players that should be at the age and experience where they do the heavy lifting.

Stringer had a rubbish year, as did Libba. Roughead went backwards, Roberts went missing, Wallis ran out of puff. Smith is moving like he's 35, Dahlhaus lacks polish and Hunter is wasteful. Jj was very hit and miss, Adams was hurt as was Jong.

It's that crop of guys that are 22-26 years old and most have played 50-100 games that should be elevating themselves. Due to a mixture of form, injury and conditioning, none had a year as good as 2016 and most were pretty average.

That group should now be the nucleus of the side but the only one in that bracket that's actually stepped up in the way we'd hope has been Macrae.

[ledge]

Our injuries were just as bad, if not worse last year. We had more depth to plug the holes but I don't think it's an excuse.

The biggest factor for mine is stagnation in players that should be at the age and experience where they do the heavy lifting.

Stringer had a rubbish year, as did Libba. Roughead went backwards, Roberts went missing, Wallis ran out of puff. Smith is moving like he's 35, Dahlhaus lacks polish and Hunter is wasteful. Jj was very hit and miss, Adams was hurt as was Jong.

It's that crop of guys that are 22-26 years old and most have played 50-100 games that should be elevating themselves. Due to a mixture of form, injury and conditioning, none had a year as good as 2016 and most were pretty average.

That group should now be the nucleus of the side but the only one in that bracket that's actually stepped up in the way we'd hope has been Macrae.

Bont ?
I think Stringer has been affected by his personal problems which could take two years to get over.
Boyd had issues too, once they get their head right it will be fine.
I think we had a bad year all round with everything but we did well to get the wins we got in the circumstances.
I believe a big year is coming next year. If we get just a little of this turned around.

[bulldogtragic]

Lots and lots. But if I can adjust the question to why didn't we make finals?

We smashed GWS early in the year but couldn't kick goals. Loss.
Both games against WCE they gave us a good look, but couldn't kick goals. Loss Loss.
We had Freo (14th this year) on the ropes at 3/4 time. Loss.
We were going ok until 3/4 time against Geelong. Wildly bad umpiring and limp last quarter. Loss.
Leading Port Adelaide during the last quarter. Loss.

Win some of these and we are not having this conversation. So my question back is, 'are we not able to close games out, and if so, why?'

[FrediKanoute]

The off season

Losing Graeme Lowe in particular

Yep. Have to agree this probably disrupted us more than we as fans realise