The biggest problem I have with last night was that we went back into our old ways.
The first half was good, although the cracks were showing if you looked.
1. We ran, had overlap.
2. We had handball chains.
3. We hit targets by foot.
4. We had tempo when there was no target.
5. We changed angles.

Then in the second half the wheels fell off and most of the above either became rare or not at all.
Weitering, TDK, Kemp, Hewett, Cerra, Cripps and JSOS can walk away saying they gave it a red hot crack.
Not sure what Innes has planned this offseason and if we are due to peak in the last half of the year but our fitness is shite, has to be the worst in the league.

Our wings are cooked, dropping Campo was ridiculous, it's better to keep him out there to get experience or we need to start targeting wings from other teams.
I didn't think Acres could be worse but he only kicked at 27.3%.
I hope the club can now see Hollands on the wing is also a shite idea, he was a liability and his kicking also dropped to 57.1%
Cottrell started off like an absolute gun but as per usual disappeared at least his kicking was at 75%.

It is sad to see Doc out there, he needs a break in the 2s, most clubs would've done it by now as too Acres.
There is something wrong with Walsh other than form, he was very poor by his standards.
If he is injured rest him, if not put him on the wing.

Not sure on what Evans brings that Lord or Campo could not have, a total waste of a spot.
Motlop was everywhere in the first half then he ghosted the team.

Willams was not surprising, that run through the middle might well be his last highlight for the club.
Pay him out or trade him at the end of the year, we need to move on from this.

Boyd was a little disappointing, but first game back so he gets a very small reprieve.

I think what we seen last night was Voss trying to change the game plan, different to what was trained in the off season.
But the players couldn't do it, be it fitness or skill or both, when the fatigue kicked in they went to pieces, again.
The only concerning part for me was we finally got a look into Voss's coaching philosophy in the post match interview.
He basically said, that making big changes is not the way to go as brings in too many variables.
All I can say, is what have you got to lose, at least make a couple big moves.

I'd drop Acres, Doc and Evans this week and bring in Campo, Lord and White at minimum.
I'd consider Durdin (if fit) and Binns also.

The one positive was at least they were looking better for the first half and they have built on the week before, they just have to do it for longer.

Press conference a good watch. No doubt Voss is as perplexed as everyone else as to why we shit ourselves and make dumb decisions.
He mentioned the 8 free kicks and how you just can’t do that in a quarter..

He talks so much about playing like us… but to me the problem seems when we can’t, we really can’t and we struggle to adapt during the game. I do query what wonder boy ash Hansen is doing as well?

I agree.
I'm all for getting better support for Voss, especially game day tactics.
But after watching last night, I'm not sure the players can adapt during games.
Too many role players and if the roles have to change they go to water.

Once Williams went down, we lost any run we had from our half forward line. Very evident.
Unfortunately, Cottrell and Fogarty need to be replaced with some attacking half forwards. Pity Elijah is out - big loss and even bigger with Williams down. Motlop tried to create.

Our wingers were beaten badly and Acres is in a terrible spot. Needs upgrading with Binns. His disposal can’t be as bad, surely.
Camporeale needed to stay in the team and adding Evans just tripled our issues. Terrible footballer.
Thankfully Cerra, Hewett, TdK, SoS, Weitering and Kemp were up for the night.
Young was good as well, except for rushing the last kick to Charlie. Should have taken it himself. Can’t hang him for that though.

Is it time we talk about Walsh and his decline. And the possibility we’ve seen his best as back issues continue to hamper him?

Another #1 pick that got us nowhere.

That’s why I was dead against tanking for high picks. That you have to eventually pay high salaries to

Last year we had the opportunity to trade out Harry. Get some more draft picks and fill the list up with another 3 or 4 high ceiling guys and cut some deadwood out. Spreading the talent is how you build an afl list. Not chasing a young prince with a high pick. It’s a 22 man sport

Docherty should have been offered a coaching role on a medical retirement. There’s a spot opened up. Etc etc

Amateur hour stuff ....
Either the guys doing the logistics here aren't up to it, OR
the team balance is so wrong that there's little trust on those remaining on the bench.
I go the latter

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"IF YOU FAIL TO PREPARE, YOU'RE PREPARED TO FAIL" - Mark Spitz

I thought Plan B worked really well in the first.
What happened to Plan A?

At quarter time, I recall braithy on match thread posting something like"[ great stuff, play on footy, running]" and described the style of Plan B with the word "Untempo". Ilike that. He also questioned if we could play (Plan B) footy for 4 quarters.

I haven't read the above posts. I wont this weekend. Might have a laugh during the week. I can just imagine.

My phone hasn't stopped. I'm receiving messages from interstate and overseas. Bluebaggers are blaming Voss, CEO, Fitness, Players, Injury...the usual things. Opposition supporters are texting me things like red emojis, but mainly saying we had that. and those easy shots at goal missed by good players in the middle of the game killed you, why did you guys give Jones away for nothing, now all you need is for the WA derby to be a draw, Harry would have made the difference bla bla bla.

What I thought post game

The players are offering support to Harry and Elijah. Its a pity they can't support their mates in times llke this.

Woke up this morning and first thing that came into my head was

Jones

I thought about sidex....at least my hand wasn't on it and Hollands 12 possessions
I thought about Acres kicking style ... nowhere near AFL standard.
I thought about TC, and the number of "I told you so" I would have to read.

Its raining outside.

Then turned to my wife .... she asked if I was feeling blue? I said nah, lets have some fun.

Later I looked at my phone messages...had a laugh, then thought about Jones again. Why Vossy? Why didnt you want him back? Was it the players? What a hole he left. Then remembered Weitering on Darcy, SOS' game on Naughton and Kempy's, and Young's too, I forgave the latter 2 for missing easy shots with their first kick.

Concluded, its the players. Mentally weak. Bottom 10. Fitness. Form. I remembered Walshy's kick to Charlie on the run and the kick falling 5-10m short straight into hand of Bulldog. It looked like he missed by a long way on TV. Happy for BAM BAM. Glad I didn't hear any boos. Oh the footy gods. What are they telling us?

What happened to that run and play on footy in the first. Players looked weird coming out of the race with huge smiles and hugs and high 5's like they came out of the Carnival. Surely everyone noticed that. Something weird about that, but it worked. Then what? Was it the players who ran out of juice? Juice between the ears? I think a bit of both.

Geez Crippa was killing it till he went for that mark landing heavily on that hip. Lucky to see out the game. Was weird not having the captain in the middle of the heat. Someone had to stand up and it was 2 players: TDK and Hewett. I know TDK was the flashy one having first dibs at every ball up, but for pure football, Hewett was amazing. Broke tackles, ran rings around opponents, sometimes two or 3 of them and connecting with his disposal. Amazing performance. Amazing player and puts his hand out for his $400K pay when he plays like a player worth double. What a recruit. Best Trade of the decade.

It was another close loss. Another that got away. We led all game, then casper Naughton takes an uncanny mark, where the ball fell into his hands. Such is life. Doesn't help the Bagger army. Looking forward I'm still a glass half full, but looking back I'm bitterly disappointed about Jones.

Gotta walk and don't look back.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

We are easily the worst in the league at kicking to the opponent's advantage (maybe WCE worse but they're never on Ch7 in Sydney). Someone expressed astonishment in the match thread when Young took a couple of excellent 1-on-1 contested marks with body work, but he's always been good at that, it's just that we so rarely put the ball on the side of the contest that allows the target to do that. Like, way less than 50%. The rest of the time we're giving the likes of Buku Khamis a chance to twerk for the AA selectors.

Footy is such a simple game. And for me hewett has been one our best consistently over the last 3 years.

It’s no secret. Speak to anyone, players coaches etc. hewett is the consummate professional and no one works harder.

Jagga was asked who’s impressed him the most and he didn’t blink just said hewett. He’s so diligent and works so hard.


I look at the majority of our list who don’t work hard and aren’t diligent. See this in boxing all the time. Hard work beats talent every day of the week.

We don’t work hard. Our coaching is not afl standard and nor is our development… and that is a perfect storm in afl land. Perfect storm of underperforming

Our culture isn’t anywhere close to where it needs to be. See Hawks, Hawthorn; Magpies, Collingwood for what successful off field chemistry and team culture does to onfield performance

We are playing like us.

Constantly.

This is us.

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Congratulations CK95

Actually it wasn't. He did not shut us down, there were no positional moves he made. He had no plan B (for Braithy) they just made the most of their opportunities which they missed earlier, plus got some lucky umpiring decisions that went their way.

Pros:

Continuing to compete.
Better accuracy. Although 3 costly misses in the 3rd quarter from Cottrell, Docherty and Walsh.
Some better ball movement. Especially early.
Coaches did well with some key match ups. Weiters on Darcy. SOJ on Naughton. Cottrell on Dale.
TDK, Kemp, SOJ, Weiters, Saad, Cottrell and Young.
Good first half from Charlie and Motlop.
Good to see Boyd back in the team. I think we need his pace and skill out of defence.
Walsh finally started to find some ball in space late in the game. Can't understand why in our bull-heavy midfield he spends so much time playing as an extractor.

Cons:

Still leaking goals at defensive clearances.
Again our scoring shuts down in the 2nd half when the play opens up. Simply can't match opposition team's run.
One goal out of our running players is simply not going to compete.
Williams. Can't really afford to lose one of our few quick and skilful players to injury.
Simply not getting enough of a contribution from too many. Hollands, McGovern, Evans, Fogarty and Cowan. Acres and Docherty particularly disappointing.
Perhaps even more concerning is that our best (and highest paid) players in Cripps, Charlie, Weiters, Walsh and Harry are simply not doing enough (apart from Weiters). Hard to win games when your best players are being beaten.
I'm sure we'll get on a winning streak sometime. But right now, it's hard to see where the next win is coming from. Pretty sad to think this season may be a write off.

we have Jagga and probably and a Dean!

I think the second part of the sentence (long enough) is the correct part. We were in front for the vast majority of the game!

Motlop was taken out of the game - with an hard tag, and dogs stopped the ability of our run and corridor use by beveridge setting up differently in his zone. He planted an extra man in the corridor and that man would trail back to be an extra man in defense.

Beverdige allowed us to win stoppage (where we had an extra man) but he cut off the corridor and backed his extra defender (most of the time jones) to intercept/ turnover and then run/ spread hard from the contest and hit us coast to coast

In the first qtr beveridge used more man to man and clogged the flanks which allowed us to look inside and take the corridor. Since we haven’t used the corridor all year this opening took dogs by surprise.

That is by definition, dogs coaching adjusting. And us (Voss) just watching it all unfold and not blink like a deer in the headlights at the oncoming car.

Two reasons why our 2nd half for and against is 8 goals for, 24 against.

We are being figured out and out manoeuvred in the coaching box - the fact we had 12 interchanges left deep in the 4th while dogs had 2 - tells me game management and coaching is all gone to shit.

And we are lacking fitness/ didn’t work hard enough in the summer.

Either way it’s a shitshow

Love the summary
Love the positives. Problem with stoppages too.
Lets hope that winning streak starts in the first half of the first half of the season.

No room for $400Kpa Hewett in your best?
I'm sure it was an oversight.

Just looking at his stats.....just to highlight Hewett, not to question you Chooka

Missed out a mention in Herald Sun too, despite clocking up 4th highest fantasy points on the ground.

27 Disposals
9 tackles, no frees against
56 pressure points (HS)
8 clearances
4 centre clearances
13 contested possessions
6 score involvements

He and TDK have been our most consistent this year. One of the best in every game in 2025

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Hard tag on Motlop. I find that difficult to swallow. Sure, an opponent but a hard tag? Because he had 4 disposals in the first and 3 in the 2nd?

Accept all the other stuff you saw. You must have been at the ground. Can't see that sort of stuff on TV.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Everywhere Motlop went his opponent shadowed him. And Motlop doesn’t have the tank to get up the field and lose them on the way back and doesn’t have the explosiveness to shake his man around stoppage/ in traffic

All night dogs played a mix of man and zone defense …

Motlop didn’t seem to have a direct opponent in the 1st qtr and he’d be in the centre bounce for some and then drift to the wing and then forward from there all by his lonesome. After qtr time everywhere he went a dogs player followed him and then they’d switch from the wing to the forward position

Beveridge is a super smart tactician. He identified Motlop as the link from wing to forward and put a stop to it. From the ground Motlop felt like he was on fire in the 1st qtr. he seemed to be everywhere