If we're going to make decisions on a week to week basis, we'll deservedly become a basket case of a club.
I understand people were emotional and upset after the game Thursday. I was and I still am. I won't watch any other football shows or listen to it on the radio.
But I don't understand demands to sack the coach after 1 loss. If I recall correctly, Brisbane lost 5 of their first 7 games last year and there were plenty of calls for Fagan to be sacked. On social media and by football "experts" in the media.
Fast forward 5 months and they win the flag and he's a premiership coach.

I don't buy the criticism of our game plan being 20 years old. You build a game style to suit the personnel on your list. We can't play the back half game like the Tigers or Hawks because we don't have the leg speed in our group. Neither out of the back half or forward of the ball. The conditions suited the Tigers on Thursday night and our players failed to perform when the heat was applied.
And the reality is, of the 8 highest rated teams scoring from the back half last year, only 3 played finals football.

Finals football is still won by the most aggressive, competitive teams. Our side has shown that they are a team that can be brutal around the contest and when we had the personnel available, that got them to second on the ladder late last season. We fell away but the statistics show we were decimated by injury. It's not an excuse, it's a fact.
The Lions last year were number 1 in the AFL for clearances. We were 4th. They were number 2 for contested marks, we were 4th. They were number 1 for stoppage clearances, we were 5th.
The game is still about contest.

Thursday night showed our players were underprepared for the conditions and probably expected the Tigers to roll over. When they ramped up the pressure, too many of our players didn't handle it. Is some of that attributable to the coach? Definitely but every AFL coach will make mistakes most weeks. None are infallible.
If we miss the finals as some suggest, I'm happy to see changes in the coaching team. But I still don't buy the doomsday scenario. I still think we're good enough and believe we'll finish top 4 if we have a decent run with injury.
Disappointing games will occur. Brisbane lost to the Giants by 9 goals last year. Sydney won 13 of their first 14 games. Their only loss was to Richmond. Shit happens.

The advantage is Voss has seen who will let him down when the going gets tough. His challenge is to change it or eradicate it. Let's see where we are at at the half way mark.

the problem is much bigger red, there is no trajectory off halfback. we don't propel the ball forward with speed on it. we meander. and that gives teams - even the freaking tigers who won't win another game, time to flood back and snuff us out.

we need to run & spread. but, we have the slowest team in the afl. we're not built for that. so ....

The biggest takeaway from watching bits of other games over the weekend is how poor our disposal was across the entire ground compared to other teams.
Even the best gameplan in the league is going to struggle when players can't successfully handball to a teammate 3m away.

Yes , our ball handling is woefull . We are the most fumbly team in the comp . And its not fumbling under pressure either . Its plain sloppiness . Horrendous . I agree Woj , worlds best gameplan will be destroyed by turnovers . My number one instruction this week would be get the ball first before you worry about what you are going to do with it . Just grab the ball FFS .

Will make a huge difference to our game.

May even get us to 75 F50's.

More important, given the forwards couldn't kick goals, improved handling may have kept Tigers to only 8 goals last week and won the game for us.

If we're going to make decisions on a week to week basis, we'll deservedly become a basket case of a club.
I understand people were emotional and upset after the game Thursday. I was and I still am. I won't watch any other football shows or listen to it on the radio.
But I don't understand demands to sack the coach after 1 loss. If I recall correctly, Brisbane lost 5 of their first 7 games last year and there were plenty of calls for Fagan to be sacked. On social media and by football "experts" in the media.
Fast forward 5 months and they win the flag and he's a premiership coach.

I don't buy the criticism of our game plan being 20 years old. You build a game style to suit the personnel on your list. We can't play the back half game like the Tigers or Hawks because we don't have the leg speed in our group. Neither out of the back half or forward of the ball. The conditions suited the Tigers on Thursday night and our players failed to perform when the heat was applied.
And the reality is, of the 8 highest rated teams scoring from the back half last year, only 3 played finals football.

Finals football is still won by the most aggressive, competitive teams. Our side has shown that they are a team that can be brutal around the contest and when we had the personnel available, that got them to second on the ladder late last season. We fell away but the statistics show we were decimated by injury. It's not an excuse, it's a fact.
The Lions last year were number 1 in the AFL for clearances. We were 4th. They were number 2 for contested marks, we were 4th. They were number 1 for stoppage clearances, we were 5th.
The game is still about contest.

Thursday night showed our players were underprepared for the conditions and probably expected the Tigers to roll over. When they ramped up the pressure, too many of our players didn't handle it. Is some of that attributable to the coach? Definitely but every AFL coach will make mistakes most weeks. None are infallible.
If we miss the finals as some suggest, I'm happy to see changes in the coaching team. But I still don't buy the doomsday scenario. I still think we're good enough and believe we'll finish top 4 if we have a decent run with injury.
Disappointing games will occur. Brisbane lost to the Giants by 9 goals last year. Sydney won 13 of their first 14 games. Their only loss was to Richmond. Shit happens.

The advantage is Voss has seen who will let him down when the going gets tough. His challenge is to change it or eradicate it. Let's see where we are at at the half way mark.

BV I wish I had yours and Bondi's optimism albeit you are coming from different angles .
I have real concerns over this team as we have gone into the season hoping that improvement is going to come from making us injury free.

There to me is a complete lack of leadership out on field - Its Crippa saying jump on my back and I will carry you there and nothing else. - Newman provided some sort of leadership on back half but he has gone and there is zero leadership an organisation in the front half - Who stands up and directs the traffic up there . Runners cant even get on the field to offer instruction. We have to many players with doubts about their own games to be offering instructions to others. That is why when a team kicks a couple in a row you can see the flood gates opening.

We know when they turn it on they are up there with the best but you can't rely on this one quarter of brilliance to win games consistently they need to grind things out when the tide turns . This group doesn't appear capable of it .
To me its Crippa or a purple patch from Curnow or bust.

Trust me I have never wanted to be more wrong about something my life than this

I reckon the game plan is very clear and the players are sticking to it perfectly.

If the opposition does A then do B.

If the opposition does C, D, E or any of the myriad other things they’ve trained and drilled for over the last six months, do B.

That’s our DNA.

Bold to assume we have a B.

No, we have plan B but our plan B is our plan A.

But they have a genuine plan A.

They also have all the other letters.

We only have plan B.

This why we have no genuine plan B.

If we did it would be plan C.

That's about as clear as our gameplan.....

We don’t and never have, had a plan b under Voss.

OK , lets get back to our Plan A which is contested ball . Focus on getting that right . Stop trying to do it all . Get the one thing we do well right . Simmo is right .