dane wrote:
5 days is a long time on TC.
Post of the thread so far.
We played pretty badly and came out slowly again. Worst of all was that Levi went OOB and Philp missed a sitter early and just like that w were down four or five.
The umpiring was shit but not biased IMO. They should have paid a lot more HTB and as usual there was the bevy of soft 50s against us but the worst thing for me is the way they just can't measure out 15 metres in their tiny brains. If they force players to kick the footy 15 metres, both sides will find it harder to zone off. These dinky 8 metre marks slow the game down and inflate the stats, not to mention allowing a team (tonight it was StK) to control the footy. We had our share of them, including the 9 metre pass from Cripps to Martin towards the end.
People crucifying Jones for making a couple of bad turnovers are short sighted. He often opens up the field like that and tonight he missed two. It was left to him because Doc was tagged out of the game. Murphy giving away two stupid fifties was worse.
People crucifying Plow don't see the good things he does. Tonight he had his obligatory free against for holding but it was obvious as usual that both players were holding each other.
Willo slipped over a couple of times and went on his right foot twice. Drop him for that as well.
The midfield was beaten. Pitonett was beaten. OK. He got beaten. Steele held Cripps all night. At one stage he had his back to the stoppage and was holding him off the contest but the umpire was bouncing the ball and couldn't see. Not his fault. There are two other umpires out there, though and one or both of them should be tasked to look for illegal holding against Cripps, Selwood, Danger, Fyfe and so on. Tagging is fine but why are the umpires busily looking along the line to make sure nobody puts a toe over it before the ball is bounced? Cripps has lost his main weapon as well. He needs to put back those few kilos he lost. Ed is a warrior and one of the best run with players in the comp. He is always going to give away a free or two and when he racks up a few possies, its a bonus. Setterfield is starting to find his feet, Cunningham the same. I have said it here before but unless a player gets the Brownlow votes, TC want him dropped the following week.
For me, the big issue is the forward structure and the way we go inside 50. It starts when the ball is down the other end. We ask our forwards to go into the defensive half of the ground and then try and get back if there is a turnover. Tonight, that resulted in allowing the StK backs to form a line of three along our F50 behind our closest forward. So what? It means they get there faster and also that they are all able to follow the play across the field with no opponent. It's madness. If we put Harry in the goalsquare and tell him to stay there, straight away, he has someone manning him up and another defender in the hole in front of him. If he never gets a kick it doesn't matter. He didn't get one tonight anyway. The secret of having three tall forwards was revealed in Geelong. It hasn't changed since footy was invented. They lead to different parts of the ground and make the backs accountable. Not like tonight where they just got in each other's way. You only had to look at StK. King playing deep made Weitering stay on him and when he led, Weitering was behind him. Just like we did against Geelong.
OK we lost but the list is the same list that won last week and the week before and almost the week before that. Bondi likes the list and I think it's almost there. It's the mindset of the players. People on here say it all the time.
"They have to come to play."
It's as simple as that. If we turn up to beat Geelong or Essendon** or Collingwood once a year it isn't enough. The good teams come to play every week and that's the Teague problem. Once he gets that sorted, the wins will come. And when they do, Dane's TC pendulum will swing back the other way.
Martin played a gutsy game.
I would drop Harry for next week. He isn't interested or if he is, he doesn't show it. Bring in TDK or Kennedy.
Philp isn't ready. He's had a taste, now drop him and tell him where he has to get better. He is supposed to be quick. He is supposed to be hard at it. I haven't seen either of those qualities in him so far. When he kicked his first goal for the club, nobody got around him, just a few who were nearby and that was half-hearted. That might be because he torched three sitters first.
The rest stay.
No idea who we play next week or where but Teague has his work cut out. We were percentage off top 6 yesterday and a win would have put us on the fringe of the 8. A win was super important but it wasn't enough motivation to turn up early.
Stop making so much sense ... you don't belong here.