3 things learned from Rd1 2023

[anfo27]

1. We haven't done a thing over pre-season to correct our inability to defend as a team.

2. 1 practice game was a dumb idea cause we played like it was another practice game

3. Has bevo got new chompers?

[Boots]

Actually, I was pleasantly surprised that Bruce held as many marks as he did. Seemed more relaxed playing D.

Yeah and it's harsh on Duryea, he saved our bacon a few times too.

My three:

1) our midfield is not as good as we think it is; even before we lost Dunkley it was slowing down and showing cracks.
2) I'm convinced; we should move Naughton back to defence. It will break the midfield's reliance on dropping it on his head, save us from his bad goal kicking, and let the forward line grow some chemistry with the midfield in his absence. Also, imagine him muscling people out of the way like Stephen May does.
3) We might have traded away too many good players. No single loss was impossible to cover, but wow collectively we've lost too much. It's great we have a clean cultural slate now, but at what cost?

[Scorlibo]

1. There are two ways to play football: the easy way and the hard way. Melbourne play the easy way, and we play the hard way. Melbourne wait for opportunities and then burst into top gear when one comes. We labour to 'create' opportunities out of nothing, which mostly ends in a chaos kick forward. Melbourne win clean centre clearances, when there's no congestion and even numbers. We win stoppage clearances, when there's congestion and Jake Lever waiting behind the ball for that inevitable chaos kick. Maximum frustration as a supporter, can only imagine it's an even worse feeling on the field.

2. There's no point being tall if you don't have the wheels or smarts to get to the drop of the ball. Of course it was terrible delivery for our four headed monster, but there were more than a few sky balls that should have been contested, if only to be spoiled to ground. Naughton was Naughton, and should have kicked three. Lobb, Darcy and JUH were totally ineffective.

3. There is a very large chasm right now between our best 10 or so players and the rest. Tonight we had some good players below their best or committing poor errors (Dale, Daniel come to mind), some good players play very well (Richards, English), yet basically no lesser lights exceeded expectations. We can't progress so long as the last 10 players selected are just making up the numbers.

[Grantysghost]

1. We haven't done a thing over pre-season to correct our inability to defend as a team.

2. 1 practice game was a dumb idea cause we played like it was another practice game

3. Has bevo got new chompers?

Not that I've noticed.

[azabob]

Not that I've noticed.

If you had’ve im sure you would have started a thread on it.

[chef]

1. We still prefer to give up than fight it out when things get tough.
2. Four tall forwards sounded crazy in theory and was diabolical in practice. Never again please.
3. Might be time to try Daniel further up the ground.

[Grantysghost]

If you had’ve im sure you would have started a thread on it.

Now there's an idea!

[MrMahatma]

1. We are officially the property of the Melb footy club. They would love playing against us. Just like the Cats over the last decade, I can’t see us taking too many Ws from the Dees in the coming years.
2. I can’t recall seeing so many “out of sorts” errors. Baker - Literally handballing to the opposition, Darcy in the goal square, Dale and Daniel turn over kings, Jones looked all at sea… that felt like either as bad as we could possibly play, or we’re a team in significant decline cause so many of our team just seemed past it or not up to it.
3. I know you always see what you’re looking for, but I did notice on a number of occasions how Macrae and Treloar would give up rather than chase. Kind of like the whole team essentially gave up in the last.

[Bullies]

1. Melbourne looked so much fitter than us. We looked spent early on with guys pulling on their jumpers whereas Melbourne were up and about. Watching from Level 4 you could see it open as they ran in waves and numbers and we just didn't chase or pressure. You expect more from Smith,Treloar and Macrae in the middle in regards to pressure and chase.

2. We have too many "list cloggers". When we won the flag our bottom 6 basically won it for us. Our bottom 6 at the moment would not be much better than North's.

3. I wasn't sold on Lobbe to begin with. Had watched him for 10 years at GWS and Freo and wondered what he offered. It might mean that he is the level of player we can attract as we can't compete with the big boys when the elite players are out of contract. You would expect so much more at $600k+ but not sure we are going to get it. Hope to be proven wrong.

4. I think we have seen enough of Hannan to know that what he does in the VFL he can't do with the big boys. Why do we give such long contracts to these type of players - Crozier, Hannan,O'Brien and now Baker?

[BornInDroopSt'54]

1 we are not as good as I thought we were.
2 Melbourne and probably a couple of others have us covered
3 The end of an era: '16 team will not win another prem, rather I will hope the young guys carry us to one before I die.

[Funke disco]

1. We have few players that can kick into our forward 50 well under pressure. We may get a win vs St Kilda but against the better teams our poor kicking stands out.
2. Our old strength in midfield is no longer able to dominate the opposition (especially the better ones) leaving our defense too much work to do.
3. Plan A did not work, we spent 6 months working on something that failed catastrophically in round 1. It reminds me of that Warren Buffet saying in that "only when the tide goes out do you discover who has been swimming naked"

[meenies]

1. CD should not play down back when we play high pressure sides (Melb, Geel, Rich, Colling).
2. We need to field mid rotations A and B of similar quality and different skills. Maybe an offensive and defensive team. Experiment with this over the next few weeks. In particular field fresh blood in there. Teams know how to constantly beat Macrae, Smith and Bont now. Add in CD, West, McComb (let him show us what he can actually do), Garcia, McLean, Cody. Last night showed we have absolutely nothing to lose.
3. My guess is Lobb is carrying some injury. More than that rolled ankle that sent him straight off for an X-ray during a match sim. Thus not used much in ruck and limited time in some recent training sessions. Give him time to settle. I have faith it will all click.

[macca]

1. the gap between our good and bad is widening. When teams get a 5min run and dominate, we need to find a way to stay in the game. The 2016 team would not have let this happened.

I really don't know what JJ or Hannan offer when the game plan is not working. Could have tried Lobb in the ruck to get him into the game.

2. Where is the forward line pressure? Melbourne killed us on the rebound. Its so predictable, opposition teams may as well let us win the centre bounce clearance and wait for the skill error for the turnover. As mentioned by a few posters, our field kicking is terrible

3. Goal kicking , has not improved.

4. mid gets smashed by power athletes like Petracca and Oliver


Its the same old issues rearing its head against good teams

I am starting to be concerned now some of the younger players in the 21-24 bracket are not emerging to take these positions: Bedendo, West, Garcia , McNeil, Vanders. Some of them may be injured. like Weightman and Gardner but the depth is lacking. Gee, Young would have been handy tonight when Liam Jones went down. Instead we are using Bruce in defense.

My question is where will our improvement come from? Sydney have an amazing ability to grow and play their younger players: Gulden, Warner, McCartin x2, MacDonald etc...


Port seem to have another leg now with Horne Francis and Connor Rozzee in the midfield.

[macca]

1. Melbourne looked so much fitter than us. We looked spent early on with guys pulling on their jumpers whereas Melbourne were up and about. Watching from Level 4 you could see it open as they ran in waves and numbers and we just didn't chase or pressure. You expect more from Smith,Treloar and Macrae in the middle in regards to pressure and chase.

2. We have too many "list cloggers". When we won the flag our bottom 6 basically won it for us. Our bottom 6 at the moment would not be much better than North's.

3. I wasn't sold on Lobbe to begin with. Had watched him for 10 years at GWS and Freo and wondered what he offered. It might mean that he is the level of player we can attract as we can't compete with the big boys when the elite players are out of contract. You would expect so much more at $600k+ but not sure we are going to get it. Hope to be proven wrong.

4. I think we have seen enough of Hannan to know that what he does in the VFL he can't do with the big boys. Why do we give such long contracts to these type of players - Crozier, Hannan,O'Brien and now Baker?

Maybe Freo mids have better field kicking and able to kick to leads?

Apart from Naughten ( who is a freak at pack marks) , I don't see anyone else leading. Maybe he just demands the ball all the time with his prescences.

I question our fwd leading patterns and how we setup forward ( hard to say when just watch on TV).

[Mofra]

1. We can play badly and (save for goal kicking) we can still be in the game

2. We haven't improved our goal-kicking. In particular, Bont & Naughton - on the big bucks - missed easy shots on goal

3. Bruce can actually step in and play KPD to a passable level