Anyone who attends training often will know a lot of our training is about repetition.
Repeatedly doing the basics.
Denis doesnt like to complicate the issue too much.
Compete fiercely, be efficient in your ball use and do the basics well.
We probably let ourselves down in most of those aspects yesterday.

The basics

Basics like getting back from the mark after you've taken a mark or basics like jumping at the ball and taking the mark at your highest reach with arms extended.
I watch drills at training repeatedly aimed at these basics yet today I saw numerous occasions where our lack of attention to these details cost us forward 50 entries and goals.

Efficiency

Inefficiency hurt us more than anything else today.
Denis often says his football philosophy is based on getting the ball inside 30 as quickly as possible.
Today the Kangas got the ball there more than us but also kicked 7 goals from within 30 metres.
We kicked 2.

Our failure to convert was our biggest problem. We had enough shots, we just wasted them.
In the first quarter we kicked 3 goals 5 yet 3 of those behinds were quite kickable.
4 of the Kangas 9 behinds were rushed yet 3 of our 13 were.
In simple terms, 10 of our behinds were a result of poor kicking.
Double that of our opposition.
Davies missing 2 shots from 15 metres is a perfect example.

Competing fiercely.

Our midfielders didnt have a great day but on the whole they worked hard.
Grant and Piciaone had roughly 50% of their possession in the last quarter which indicates our midfielders ran out of steam.
Campo fell back into some old habits which were disappointing to see.
Kouta was quality with more than double the clearances of anyone on the ground.
Prender was efficient and Stevens ran his guts out.
Scotland was strong in the contest but tried to create the play too often instead of moving the ball quickly.

The workrate of our forwards was a big problem.
They failed to work for each other or to work hard in general.
Not only were Red and Fev shadowed by the performance of Norths key forwards but the stats of their own opponents paint a poor picture.
Brown and Watt had 30 possessions between them and 13 marks compared to 17 disposals and 6 marks for Red and Fevola.

Too often our forwards ran to the same space or gave individual options instead of laying blocks and creating space for each other.
I watched Carey conducting drills this week where blocks and screens were used to create options.
For this to work, players need to sacrifice their own game for the benefit of the team.
Our forwards worked for themselves against the Roos.
As an example, in the last 5 minutes Whitnall had a shot at goal whilst Fevola and his opponent were 10 metres out.
Instead of shepherding his opponent from the spoil, Fev stood there and allowed Brown to touch the ball on the line.

Gameplan.

I've read some posters who believe our gameplan failed or we were outcoached by Laidley.
To me, yesterday reinforced how effective our gameplan is.
Our midfielders were quiet, they had no bench relief, we lost our full back and our forwards played selfish football.
Yet we were still in the game halfway through the last quarter.
Had we kicked with the efficiency we have enjoyed the last 12 months, we could have won.
Many teams are going to employ different tactics during games. Our players need to act on their feet and be smarter than they were yesterday.
We'll have many more exciting times than yesterday delivered.
The structure is in place, we have quality young players who will learn a lot from yesterday.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Good analysis BV

While Waite played well yesterday, there were 2 instances where he didnt go back far enough - that mark on the HF flank and the other in the pocket. You could see before he kicked it that he wasn't far enough back.

BV, are the smalls instructed to do the blocking or is it only the talls that do it?

well done BV. Spot on (I'd say as usual except I've disagrred with you about another topic ).

To me everything you said is about the mind. We came and expected to play. We were not focused or 'switched on' as I and others have mentioned. The things we had been doing we forgot about. the things we did we did sloppily.

I think we played like crap, i expected to lsoe after that first quarter - and especially once Walker and Livo were gone yet

Yet until what 10 minutes to go, we were in with a chance. if a couple of things has have gone our way we may have pinched a game we had no right to win. That tells me our gameplan is extremely efficient but it needs everyone to be switched on.

These kids are learning. Another lesson happened this weekend. Another chance to take another step forward.

Go Blues!

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Believe in the game plan BV,but it did not work yesterday.Dissappointed that we didnt employ a contingencie B or C.They were patient and probed for the gaps when it suited them.We just kept rushing forward blindly all day and not at any stage tried a different tack.Cant see the point of bashing your head against a brick wall all day.If we tried an alternarbative and got rolled i would be happy in that we at least try something.

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All my dangerous friends

Spot on Effes.
Waite worked hard to get the mark and gave it away. Scotland was smothered twice from memory as well.
IMO Scotland also erred when Kouta crossed the ball to him in the centre. Instead of jumping at the ball, he stood flat footed and tried to mark it in front of his eyes.
This gave Sinclair that extra split second to spoil resulting in a Roos goal.
The players practice these things ad nauseum at training.
Seeing them disregarded in a game would frustrate Pagan enormously.

All the forwards were instructed to work for each other. Whitnall was exceptional blocking at training but most of it went out the window yesterday.

I think we were hamstrung in our options Mickstar.
When Livo went down and Walker was injured, our forward options were limited.
I personally believe the Roos replicated our game plan but were smarter than us on the park.
We dropped our ruckman back, they dropped theirs back.
We played loose backmen, so did they.
The difference is their older, more experienced players utilised the spare men much better.
Colbert killed us.
Not to mention our full forward led at their ruckman too often.

Our inability to take a mark up forward killed us.
Their key forwards took 17 marks.
I dont think it was our structure that beat us.
It was the inability of a young player group to adapt.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

With all due respect to old moles - we played like a pack of old moles yesterday, but BV is right when he says that our game plan kept us in the game until late in the last qtr. I kept calling for 15 minutes of good footy, thats all it would have taken.

Carrazzo, Davies and Whitnall all missed goals they should have kicked - and Nth got too many on the rebound. I wish Waite had brains in the same proportion that he has talent - he runs to some crazy places at times.

PS We have a shocking R1 record in recent times:

yesterday - if we played Nth 10 times we should win 8.
2004 - cleaned up by Freo - 12 new players though who needed to gel.
2003 - smashed by the Swans (old moles again)
2002 - cleaned up by the Saints before they were any good
2001 - beat Freo by 1 pt - Freo went on to lose their next 10 (or thereabouts) - once again we came out in R1 and played like old moles!

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Get comfortable being uncomfortable

Stimulating post, Blue Vain. Thanks.

Arent we forhetting a few things/
Our injuries cost us in 2 of our main improvement areas this year- namely PACE and POISE.
The loss of Chambers and Walker cannot be underestimated in terms of Pace- it just seemed to be a return to the slower side of last year without these 2 players.

Poise- I had been very impressed with the poise and discipline of our backline which I think has been disrupted with the loss of Thornton who always seems to have plenty of time and options when running the ball out of the backline. To a lesser extent but still significant was the loss of Livo. The disruption to our backline structure from the loss of these 2 players got us back to the "scrambling" type of play at times.

I would not be surprised to see us struggle a little bit until we get a settled back line again. Whether we have to wait until Thornton gets back, remains to be seen

well said BV.

Also don't forget to take out of the mix Thornton, who was there until almost the end at the wizzer. To then lose Livo was very unsettling.

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"Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost

Great analysis BV. (More of this every week please! )




Marking the long bomb into F50 is not the forte of Lance and Fev so we need to have that extra option when the opposition floods and clogs up the space for our Fwds to lead into . And this is where it's important that someone like DeLuca steps up. The sooner he gets back to form, after his injury, the better for the balance of our forward line esp. with Fisher injured and Kouta req'd more in the midfield.

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When Dick became President, it was as if everyone at Carlton came out of the hailstorm and into the sunshine - Stephen Kernahan

YARRAN!!





.

Reckeon we could get it down to these:

Hitting a target

Passing the ball cleanly to unmanned opposition players (Kouta repeatedly...)

No gang tackling and team pressure (a feature of the Wizzer)

When North were dropping back into Fev's path - the midfield need to have the collective brains to look for other forward targets & turn Fev into a decoy who will draw defenders.

It was like Groundhog Day...

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"...that's the thing about opinion - you don't have to know anything to have one..." Andre Agassi commenting on Pat Cash 2004
"...the less you know - the more you believe..." - Bono 2006