Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

[Jasper]

My first post here, so apologies if it comes across as over the top or inappropriate.

Over the years a number of players have let us down in big games, I wonder if this is a legacy of our lack of success as a club that causes/perpetuates mental pressure that causes otherwise champion players to fail in pressure situations.

Johnson and Cooney set shots in last quarter that were gettable.
Murph's disposal all game
Higgins (who iced a great shot late in the game but put one out on the full and missed an easy shot early)
Gia missing a mark and played poorly
Minson poor set shots and (again) poor marking/contesting in the fwd line.
Hahn goes missing under pressure

This game wasn't isolated, you can throw up senior names throughout the years even though they have been great servants (Murph and Johnson standout). Mid tier players such as Eagle and Hahn regularly let us down.

I'm not sure what we can do about it as a club, accept hope against hope we can win some big games and get the monkey off our back, I certainly don't think dropping or trading our guns is an option, its just a worry especially as next generation of players may absorb this culture...

[DOG GOD]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Winning a grand final will be the only thing to take that monkey off the back. We had a great chance today to get a little closer to that dream, but like the Cats prelim last year, we missed chances at costly times and couldnt get over the line.

ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS!!!!

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Welcome to Woof Kelvinator,

I have no doubt that the pressure to win one looms large over us just as it did Geelong, Sydney and Collingwood who faltered in finals for many years before finally breaking through.

However I think the example you've shown could be found similarly in any lost game of footy. Winning football games comes down to chances and taking them, and for any team who loses there will be moments to disect and think 'if only'.

My view is that looking over the journey of 22 rounds of footy, both the Cats and Geelong look that bit better than the rest and it was always going to take a supreme effort to beat Geelong today.

We faltered, and we now have to get back on the horse next week and show that we are able to challenge.

I have not thought at any stage this year that we are anything more than an outside chance of winning the flag this year. I'm not accepting second best, but with our personnel we need to be at 100% across all 22 players on the day to have a chance, and if a couple are down on the day, we will struggle against the Saints and Geelong.

[GVGjr]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Welcome about Kelvinator.

I've never regarded us as chokers and certainly don't think we choked today. Despite playing good footy leading into the finals we didn't have another level to answer their challenge. We didn't choke, we just weren't good enough today.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

I don't think we're used to playing ..
A) on a saturday arvo
B) On the MCG
C) Finals intensity

[Jasper]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Welcome about Kelvinator.

I've never regarded us as chokers and certainly don't think we choked today. Despite playing good footy leading into the finals we didn't have another level to answer their challenge. We didn't choke, we just weren't good enough today.

Thanks for the welcome.
Well perhaps I overate our list, but I tend to think we are good enough, didn't we just beat Geelong two weeks ago and only just miss out earlier this year...or is it as I suggest we tense up under finals pressure and are a worse team in finals than other teams.

[GVGjr]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Thanks for the welcome.
Well perhaps I overate our list, but I tend to think we are good enough, didn't we just beat Geelong two weeks ago and only just miss out earlier this year...or is it as I suggest we tense up under finals pressure and are a worse team in finals than other teams.

It's about reaching for another level and we couldn't do that today. I rate our list as well but we didn't answer the challenge. The Cats played better than they did against us a couple of weeks back and we got caught napping in the first quarter. It's like they had the map to get where they wanted to go but we struggled to get our bearings.

[Bumper Bulldogs]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Thanks for the welcome.
Well perhaps I overate our list, but I tend to think we are good enough, didn't we just beat Geelong two weeks ago and only just miss out earlier this year...or is it as I suggest we tense up under finals pressure and are a worse team in finals than other teams.

Kelvinator, we are a good outfit and on our day can smash anybody, the issue today was that we got jumped and let a couple slip in the 3rd quarter. If we had of been 10-12 points closer at 3/4 time the result would have been different.

See you next week, I think this is the loss we had to have, The boys will respond well and be better for the experience.

Thought that we also had 6-8 blokes with less than 2 game of Finals experience out their today.

Also I thought the ball just went their way today even the centre bouncing from the umps (AKA Maggots)

[Studentlib]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Yes the team absolutely needs a 100 minutes from all players to be competitive at finals level.
Murph, cooney, gia, cross are all carrying injuries that affect their kicking which today really hurt us. I don't so much blame Johnno for missing, he is getting to the stage where fatigue must affect his kicking in final quarter.
The greatest area of improvement will have to come from the sports psychology support team. Far too many players are mentally weak in as much as many seem unable to perform their tasks for a full game. Eade referred to it in his postmatch. Its been obvious all season that the pressure they put themselves under, due to skill errors and poor decision making creates turnovers and more pressure- a not so virtuous circle. A tough preseason of mental conditioning may be as valuable as physical conditioning.

[Remi Moses]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

I just want to know in every Big Qualifying Final we resemble Deer in the Headlights. Players make schoolboy errors in the big games.

[Remi Moses]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Yes the team absolutely needs a 100 minutes from all players to be competitive at finals level.
Murph, cooney, gia, cross are all carrying injuries that affect their kicking which today really hurt us. I don't so much blame Johnno for missing, he is getting to the stage where fatigue must affect his kicking in final quarter.
The greatest area of improvement will have to come from the sports psychology support team. Far too many players are mentally weak in as much as many seem unable to perform their tasks for a full game. Eade referred to it in his postmatch. Its been obvious all season that the pressure they put themselves under, due to skill errors and poor decision making creates turnovers and more pressure- a not so virtuous circle. A tough preseason of mental conditioning may be as valuable as physical conditioning.

Why do we bring intensity for parts of a game then bring zilch for parts of it. Not Good Enough Dogs

[AndrewP6]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Not sure about us choking. I think the game was a fairly accurate indication of where we are - 3rd best team in the comp (fourth best, but for Johnno's last minute goal!)... the things that led to the loss aren't new for us, unfortunately.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

Not sure about us choking. I think the game was a fairly accurate indication of where we are - 3rd best team in the comp (fourth best, but for Johnno's last minute goal!)... the things that led to the loss aren't new for us, unfortunately.

Thats all well and good but it doesn't explain Geelong being 5ms in the clear all day. Nor does it explain the poor kicking/decisions. Overall the thing is we can play better than what we did. Choking exactly describes what players did yesterday. To many self doubters out there.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

It's not automatically a choke just because you lose.

At the moment Geelong are better than us. Only by a little bit and if things go right we can beat them.

29pts up early in the last and getting rolled is a choke.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Can the Dogs take the Choker Lead Off

It's not automatically a choke just because you lose.

At the moment Geelong are better than us. Only by a little bit and if things go right we can beat them.

29pts up early in the last and getting rolled is a choke.

lol

Had the game gone 10 minutes longer Geelong may have been in this category.