My 19yo has never seen us win live.
He has booked tickets to see the Filth game during his weekend in Melbourne in a few weeks and is now terrified we’ll get pumped.
He was so up and about after West Coast, talking about the side and said at least we should be competitive against them.
The look on his face last night …
All fans of his generation know is embarrassment, failure and false dawns.

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I just want my old club back ... (edit) maybe I have!

I’m starting to lean towards game style.
I think we have overcorrected from our brutal game plan from last year and also overcorrected on our struggles to close out the last two games.
Now the players have too much going on in their heads and we have lost our 1 wood.

Imagine how this exact same list would be going under Macrae? The role players would be playing their role. The stars would be shining.

No team has 23 stars. We have a very strong list. A handful of weaker players but so what? Most coaches would kill for our list. Having said that, I reckon we have a lower avg footy IQ so that is somewhat about the players.

But mostly, I reckon it’s the game plan.
Voss talked about adding layers but in practice it looks like we’ve replaced our plan from last year with a different one.


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When Pittonet plays well we do well. Unfortunately it's nowhere near enough. Thought he was well beaten last night

I only caught about 60% of the game, and was fortunate enough to see our best bits (mid 1st to end of 2nd, late 3rd to end of 4th), but I thought Pitto was absolutely smashed and am surprised the stats make him look good. Lots of cheap frees against, and at one centre bounce he won a clear tap that he knocked back 15m to a Lions player with no one within cooee of him... very lucky that the easy F50 entry only resulted in a behind. Hopefully he learns from last night and doesn't kid himself that he won his battle, because he could be an above average ruck if he tidies it up a bit.

For all his influence, Oscar had four score involvements. Pittonet had three.

Too many sharked hitouts for Pitto.

We needed Chugga out there sooner & Kemp’s necessity was evident when Young was the one to make way. Beaten at the coalface & beaten out the back by smalls. Both tactical defeats.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

Pros:

Excellent crowd.
Tackled well and tried hard. Finished well.
4 goals out of Motlop and Durdin.
Cerra and Acres.
Hewett controlled Neale.
Docherty pretty good.
Silvagni our best forward.
Kennedy a good last quarter again.

Cons:

Defensive turnovers absolutely killed us.
Brisbane's superior pace again troubled us. Found it almost impossible to clear the ball from defensive 50.
Weiters was poor. Harry and Cripps ineffective. Not going to win games with 3 of your best players soundly beaten.
Hollands, Cincotta and Kemp were exposed under the high pressure. Just hope we keep pouring games into them, because they've got the zip we need in our team.
Umpires seemed a little caught up in the Brisbane pressure. Seemed to get far less time to kick the ball before the call of 'play on' compared to the opposition.
Stupid questions at the presser about the crowd.

Saw that too.
It happened before the game when the crowd was pretty small at that stage.
Hopefully they are ok.

Same as me.
It has been a long time since the team was booed.

I agree with this. I was disappointed, but not devastated. We're not the only side Brisbane are better than.

Well wasn't that fun......not!

However, it's not really as bad as it feels and we need to keep this in perspective.
Brisbane is a very good side, top of the table and premiership contenders.
They have a ton of talent across all lines and have drafted/traded in great players at the ends of their career as well as at the start.
They have also done this to play a certain game plan with defined roles and made hard decisions on their list deficiencies.

Voss so far has done the right thing in developing the game plan to be more controlled and with more deliberate ball movement to sure up our defensive game.
At the end of round 7 we were the 3rd least scored against team and has so far solved an issue we had last season.
The issue is that we didn't trade/draft right last season for him to be able to implement that style of play and then hurt teams going the other way.
For me he needs to stick to this game plan until mid season and if he can't get it to work then try the rush forward at all costs style again.

Last season the coaching, player development and recruiting teams all made an error, they looked for other reasons than the midfield depth and talent to try and fix our core issues. We needed quick skilful inside mids, another bonafide ruck and a small forward.
You just had to look how stacked the Brisbane midfield was even without 2 very important players for them, Dunkley had a day out.
So with this being said we had no real reason other than organic development and uninjured players to assume we would be better than what we were last season.
Definitely not a top 4 side and as I alluded to preseason we would still struggle to remain in the 8, while still hoping that was not the case of course.

Acres had a shocker last night, if you thought otherwise please have a time-out. That second quarter he cost us a shot on goal, kicked one out on the full, gave the ball back to a player coming out of defence that cost us a goal and then at the start of the 3rd gave up one again.......but wait he still kicked the ball to another Lions player 40m out from goal, lucky he missed - total 19pts directly and a team high of 7 clangers.
That is not what you trade a mature player in to fix an "issue" with our wings, that's momentum killing stuff and contagious as well.
Hollands the other "required" wing needs a rest, I still think he will be a good player for us but both he and Acres last night offered very little more to LOB and Cottrell last season IMO. It's time to stop with the sugar coating, if we want to make finals put the players in the team that will get us there and rest the ones that need resting.
And I know he is a kid, but last time I checked we were just outside the 8 last season pushing to make finals, not a development year.
Acres 57.1% Kicking efficiency and Hollands 53.8%.

Walsh had a shocker, 36.4% Kicking Efficiency and although both he and Docherty (55.6% KE) competed, their drive forward was not what you'd expect from players of that quality. Saad had a game to forget also with 64.3% KE, so with all the players that are supposed to provide the outside run and drive off of half back through the middle, they all had a terrible game.
The other glaring obvious shortfall was at Half Forward/Forwards. We really need Owies in our side.
JSOS was having a blinder to begin with but fell off and the other two key forwards were being owned, this is when we needed the smalls to step up and well.......they didn't.
If you look at Brisbane their smalls were dangerous and they have a very good forward line and in the end that was the difference.

So then the real question becomes, what do we do.
Well, as I said earlier scratch all we have trained for this season and go back to last years game plan (which would not be great IMO) or start to be more creative with our roles.
Acres for his lack of kicking ability knows how to find the ball, so let's try him in the middle rotating on the wing with Cottrell.
Acres has good hands, he's a Dow with a defensive side and a tank, let's try him and Cottrell inside and see what they can offer.
Hewett and Ed have been up and down so far so why not give them a rest or put them in the sub role.
Walsh needs to play himself back into form so he should be placed on the other wing for a couple of games, possibly rotating with Doc, Saad or the other two.
Or it may be time to consider, Binns, Boyd and even LOB to make a statement if nothing else to one or two positions (depending on how they play today of course).
Kennedy needs to be back in the middle with possible rotations up forward, with Crippa possibly doing the same.
We had the same amount of inside 50s so we need some players to get in there and lock the ball in, apply pressure and try and create some opportunities out of nothing.
A lot of our issues stem from a break down in the middle, either we are not quick enough or apply enough pressure or can't be damaging with our delivery moving forward.......the same as last year.
All this being said, Voss won't make many changes and TBH probably shouldn't, our top players need a chance to make this right.
And although I think we are still missing a few required players, as a whole we should still have a reasonable year and hopefully make finals, we just need to tweak a few things and try some new things to keep up with the other top 8 teams.........these will be the things that will make us win more games.

And this week at training - kick, kick, kick, kick and more kicking.

Sorry for the long post.

Without a doubt they key stat.

Big Oscar normally smashes us. I agree that Pittonet was one of our better players.

How about it….

they put up the white screen around them…
like a race horse…somebody put pics on FB…yikes…!

apparently they’re ok…!

it’s not that big a drop really…about 2 and half
Andrew Walker screamers…!


kindest regards tommi






the empty plastic seat backrests broke their fall…!




nah seriously…i heard they’re ok…!

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that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

Good post, siders. Reading bb's reserves commentary today, it sounds like Cottrell is worth a look for senior selection next week, while Owies needs another run out for the ressies. I'd bring Cotters and BamBam in for Ed and Honey.

Thanks.
Sounds like they were pretty lucky then. Imagine if they had fallen from level 3.

I'd love to know if there was a deliberate change in game style compared to last week, or if the boys just freeze under pressure.

Chalk and cheese the way we moved the footy compared to the Eagles game. Too scared to move quickly and too scared to use the corridor.

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I thought overall Pitto won the contest vs Oscar. Pitto got exposed in clearances. He had 3 and Oscar had 10. That stood out.

But Pitto had 3 marks to 0, and won HO 48 to 29 with 15 to advantage vs Oscars 8.

Again we dominated contested possessions, but after that our skills failed us. Pitto cant be blamed for that.

He did his job. We dont have an alternative, and TDK isnt the alternative right this minute,

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Seriously….

in what world does Honey or Ed get a game ahead
of Kennedy…?

is our game plan THAT delicate…?

i know it’s not like for like…but Kennedy brings
SO much more to the team in general…doesn’t
make sense…!

rather arrogant of us thinking we’re that good
we can afford to have Kennedy as Sub…!

gee whizz…!


kindest regards tommi

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that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

Pressure was a big factor last night. Perceived and otherwise. Foot steps.

Maybeplayers dont have confidence in the game plan and dont have faith in their team mate at the next play...but some of the kicking.....forwards had no chance.

I noticed on Game thread you saw the running pattersn from level 2 and the Lions were better prepared. Maybe the entry of the ball had something to do with that. What do you think?

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I am trying to work that out too.
We said it last night. I also don't know what Honey brings to the team. At 3/4 time I think he had only had 3 possessions.
There have been a few selections that leave you scratching your head.