It's a sign of mental weakness that we can't put supposed weaker clubs to the sword. And against a weaker club we can generally get away with it. But until we can play at our maximum intensity on a consistent basis there'll always be question marks over us.

If the GWS game was the only occurrence this year, then yeah, maybe it could be excused. But we've clearly learnt nothing from the Essendon* result.

And that's the concern I have.

Perhaps it's an easy comparison, but do you reckon Geelong just slackened off because they could against Melbourne last year?

Killer instinct. We don't have it.

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Just watched the last qtr.

The crowd involvement with bootsma was fantastic. He reminds me of William katt from greatest American hero fame

Also great to see the boys get around big Irish.

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What I believe is our mental weakness is being the hunted, in that we don't necessarily win games we are expected to win not the fact we don't put sides away. I believe we were called "flat track bullies" last year - correct if I'm wrong?
We need to step up to the the plate when we become the hunted and win games we are expected to win! The next few weeks the focus will be back on us as "Premiership" material again. Lets see if we have learnt and grown - shall we? StKilda and especially the Adelaide game will be interesting.

I don't know, I really don't think you can take anything much out of a game like today except 4 points, % and no injuries. You use Geelong as an example, but did you see them play Gold Coast last year? Very similar game to ours today, in fact GC were in front at half time. Collingwood also struggled against GC last year. On the other hand, we smashed em, even though we are a much better team now. What does it all mean? Not much I reckon.

The big disappointment for me was the lack of apparent effort or polish from payers who should have used the opportunity of putting their hand up to play a part over the next few weeks.

Lots could be said about today's game, and much of it negative. But I will keep to 2 points.

We got beaten in the clearances by a bunch of mostly kids, not good. Third week in a row we've lost clearances. Got to be a worry.

I went along today curious to see how we would approach our game style. I have noted on these boards a number of times what I think is our amateurish game plan going forward - get the ball, bomb it into 50 (regardless of whether the opposition is playing a loose man back), hope that a tall marks it, and if not, hope that the little guys crumb. It generally works against the weaker teams because of the talent, but against the top teams, and the better organised defences, it struggles. It's why we're not getting value for the number of inside 50s we have.

Today was an opportunity I thought to try and hit forwards on a lead, to create space for forwards to slip into. But with the odd exception, there was none of that. The game plan is simple - bomb it long - and was plainly illustrated when Bootsma got an early possession between wing and half forward. You could almost see the cogs in his head turning over...follow the coach's instructions, kick it long...and he did. No criticism of him, he followed the game plan. But the game plan is amateurish, other teams are working it out, playing loose men back and getting numbers there, and we're struggling with it. We're relying on sheer player brilliance to kick goals. I don't think it will succeed in the heat of finals. Think of Geelong, Collingwood and Hawthorn in previous years, and the system they had going forward, kicking to leading forwards as well as bombing when appropriate (t is appropriate at time). I fear that we won't win a flag until we develop a more sophisticated game plan going inside 50.

Oh, one more thing, which Ratten and the coaches (and players) should take credit for. After 6 rounds, we have conceded the least number of points in the competition. That's a great stat, and a strong basis for a Premiership tilt. We just need to get the forward half right, and sort out the clearances, and look out!

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Our defence is really coming together. As someone else mentioned Duigan seems to be struggling a bit, but he is not getting beat and Hendo & Jamo have the potential to be our best defensive spine since Silvagni & Sexton.

The clearance work is a real worry though.

I loved the crowds reaction to Bootsma too. The roar that erupted before he even touched the ball and he was in space waiting for it was just special.

Three of our five wins have been by over 10 goals, including a 15-goal win and yesterday's game which, but for our inaccuracy, would have been around 100 points. Last year, we won 7 games by over 10 goals including two wins by over 100 points, so I'm not sure we're having too much trouble putting teams to the sword.

But it's just not possible to be "up" for every minute of every game and it is not necessarily the case that just because we don't beat Gold Coast and GWS by 20+ goals that something is wrong. The players are not robots that can be programmed to operate at a particular intensity each and every week. Rather, it is a long season, during which intensity levels will inevitably vary. Games against Gold Coast and GWS are a special case in which it would be difficult not to mentally relax somewhat knowing that the win is assured. It's just human nature. It's silly to worry about the intensity level brought against GWS being replicated in a game against a decent side in which the challenge of winning is obviously much greater.

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[youtube]V_uJRMqr6Tg[/youtube]

Bootsma = Nigel from Top Secret.

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Beat you to it.


viewtopic.php?f=36&t=31045&start=120

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Ok video coming in multiple parts today

AFL.com.au match highlights
[youtube]lHSIkC3yauM[/youtube]

Brett Rattens official full press conference post match
[youtube]Z1qmyJNwFyY[/youtube]

Booooooooots highlight reel
[youtube]d73vsA5YENo[/youtube]

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Can someone please post the stats relating to GWS and clearances this season? I think someone mentioned they're 3rd.

We didn't get smashed by a bunch of kids, we got smashed by a good clearance team.

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Not sure what the stats are but I would say our 5 best clearance players are Judd, Curnow, Carrazzo, Murphy and Robinson. Three of the top 5 missing combined with playing against McDonald, Ward, Palmer and to a lesser extent Scully and you can see how things can change. It was frustrating to watch but a 10 goal win, no injuries and a bit of game time into a few players on the fringes was ok.
It is quite clear how teams think they can beat us and that is to congest the area where there is a stoppage and make it difficult for us to run into space. The stronger teams, Hawthorn, WCE and now Freo at home are very good at this tactic and that will be our challenge for the remainder of the year.
If you look at the Hawthorn and WCE games of last year both teams got an early 4-5 goal break and although we made runs at them later in the game it was all over. So far this year Freo had a crack at the tactic and the opposite occurred, we had the 4-5 goal break and they were playing catch up and failed. I think we will learn a lot more about this group against Hawthorn and WCE more than other game in the season.

Rd 1 40 - 40
Rd 2 48- 35 lost
Rd 3 39-33 win
Rd 4 38-52 loss
Rd 5 37-49 loss
Rd 6 41-28 win

Dont know how that compares accross the comp but losing 3 out of 6 games i dont think would have them sitting 3rd

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Second Part of the Video collection

Carlton match highlights and goals
[youtube]4OChR-ITL8U[/youtube]

Shaun Hampson post match interview
[youtube]ZN5RI-5PV9o[/youtube]

Bootsma and Betts post match interview
[youtube]uUV6g2sbbss[/youtube]

Brett Ratten post match interview (this is not the press conference)
[youtube]fZ69iUbZLss[/youtube]

Team song
[youtube]yluEd2RHPOQ[/youtube]

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I'm not saying he is, or that he isn't, but Bryce Gibbs jibbed at two contested ball situations yesterday.

Geelong? They were lucky to just beat Richmond by 10 points at their own fortress only a couple of weeks ago.
Last year had Melbourne completely give up whereas GWS did not yesterday.

Killer instinct? We beat Brisbane by 90 points and followed that up by beating Collingwood by 60, the week after.

Having said that, this was always going to be a game best forgotten and almost all objectives were met.
We rested the players we wanted. It was an easy work-out for our backs which is tantamount to a week off, and we introduced a debutante.
As Ratten had rightly highlighted though, the second tier players somewhat failed in really giving it their best shot, as they did through the NAB. That was disappointing.

It's true there were some positives yesterday, but can't really see why so many seem willing to excuse the negatives.

We should beat Brisbane by lots.

Great, we got up for the Collingwood game, that was three games ago. Have we seen anything resembling a four quarter effort like that since?

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I have no idea where this year will take us, but one thing that does resonate strongly are Rattens words that we have geared our program towards being in our best condition at the pointy end of the year.
This is why Ratten has been somewhat disappointed, not in our first 16-18 picked players but for the next tier, as in order to achieve our objectives, we need those boys to slot into the team with only a loss of say 10% to the overall and not 20-30%
Even though players Ellard, Joseph, Bower, Armfield, McLean, Collins etc. may not be in our best team, they are vital components in the bigger scheme of things.

Overlook the margin, what's important is the mechanics of the team.

The backline looks reasonable, but there were some lazy one way running players yesterday. Case in point, a GWS player streaming from the backline, through the middle all the way to the forward 50... the only player chasing was Kreuzer... the ruckman was the only guy busting a gut to catch him.

There was a soft approach to the game by a few yesterday, and I'll name names based on what I observed:

Those "taking it easy" - Betts, Armfield, Henderson, Duigan
Those "taking it seriously" - Kreuzer, Simpson, Murphy (boy was he copping some cheap whacks behind the play), Russell (yes his disposal was ordinary at times, but he also put his head over it and took a lot of contested marks in the backline), Hampson, Bower, AJ, Tuohy, Ellard (leading tackler on the ground), Robinson

The rest in my view were more middle of the road... as mentioned above Gibbs is the one largely this year who has me concerned. Yeah he is the fourth highest average disposer of the ball... but some of his disposal (especially yesterday) was lazy. Also, he is among the bottom half of the team in terms of contested ball. He's also well down on his tackles. Loose man you say? Great, but his 1%ers are among the worst of the team.

Maybe it's circumstantial or in fact instructional, but in being at all Melbourne games this year the observations are clear that at present he isn't putting in the work rate that you would expect from one of the top 5 at the club and he has definitely shirked a few contests. Maybe he will open it up in the second half of the year. He was certainly pivotal in the crunch end of last year and missed terribly in the Perth final.

Gibbs is one of my favorite players... maybe that's why I am frustrated that I see others around him putting in 100% and he looks as though he's going at 85... someone tell me I'm wrong.