Have come against the top 2 and the bottom 5. Personally I think we've been average since we flogged the saints.

1 W
2 W
3 L
4 L
5 ?
6 ?
7 Carlton
8 L
9 L
10 L
11 L
12 W
13 W
14 W
15 W
16 W

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

After first analysing it I was speechless too.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

Our best game since the Saints one was probably the one just passed. Didnt kick straight though and poor converting is poor footy so maybe not.

Where were those teams in the bottom 5 on the ladder when we played them?

I think teams have started to work out how we like to play and counteract this alot better.

You need to remember that it is an even competition with all teams capable of beating each other if they bring their A game (Geelong aside).

What has suprised me though is that we have also seemed to change our game style over the course of the season. I expected a far more possession style of game at teh star of the year, and over the past few weeks we have seemed to move away from this in part by not maintaining possession in favour of long kicks deep into a contested situation, rather than hanging on to the ball and waiting for a better option.

In the first qtr against North I was most disappointed that we let them get out to a 4 or 5 goal lead by not controlling the game. Sure, they had us under pressure but we needed to hold onto the ball, whilst we got our get our minds on the job-damage control. I think the two significant wins we have had have lead to a mindset of "our best is better than the best" so no need to show adequate respect to all opponents and control the tempo.

In my view we last did this in the game against Port where they were all over us early, but we minimised the damage by maintaining possession.

We lack an elite long kick, in my view, who can skirt around a team mate 55-60m out and bang through a goal. None of our midfielders at the moment displays an elite long kick. Gibbs is closest, but has not been in a position to deliver inside 50 enough for it to show.

I'm just really grateful we lost the last two games. Now we can go into the break and take a good hard look at ourselves and where we want to be at the end of the year. Time for the coaching staff and players to sit down and confront a few home truths. We're soft and not as good as we'd like to think we are.

We also have massive potential but we get way too excited (and comfortable) every time we knock off a side. Good sides string wins together in a row. We win two and take our foot off the pedal. If we want to challenge for the top few spots we have to develop a level of ruthlessness that we haven't had since Greg Williams played for the CFC.




This post started as a pisstake but I'm starting to think there might be something in it...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

sides very quickly realised if you got numbers behind the ball you can beat Carlton it was that simple - we tried to draw sides up the ground then beat them by running at the defence and kicking over the top - It worked to a certain extent - but then sides held a few back and when we tried to kick it over it just went straight to the opposition - On Saturday night Ratts tried to hold the two forwards back but they flooded the area in front of them and they were left leading towards the pocket - Every time our players looked to go through the middle it was full of Dockers - A couple of time we tried the Geelong approach and played hot potatoe with the footy trying to create an opening but most times it meant we just turned the ball over . To say we missed Kruezer was an understatement as it robbed us of the chance of pushing him forward as a marking option and allowing Waite and Hendo to push further up the ground to provide the link

Funny enough have a feeling that Fisher could be the answer as he can play deep and the leading role meaning we can rotate all three around the forward fifty

Losing Murph didn't help either and he should have been replaced with another midfielder - Ratts brought Carrotts into his role and used Armfield in Carrotts negating role a fit Brocky would have been a better alternative

We beat Freo all over the park except on the score board - we did the same against Brissy -
The bad games have been the Bombers - Hawks - North and Pies

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws