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I only watch the first 3/4 of the game. I had to go out and once I seen the final score I couldn't put myself through the last quarter.
Pre-game, all I wanted was a 2.5-3 quarter effort.
I thought we were able to run a bit harder than the last couple of weeks and although you could tell they were getting on top of us midway through the second, we didn't roll over as early as we did in the last 2 games. But our skills and fitness..........FMD! When we are bad we are the worst team in the comp.
Towards the end of the 3rd quarter when George kicked that behind, the look on his face was one of absolute exhaustion, he was cooked.
This is where the problem is for me, all the effort we use to move the ball forward and the constant failure at the last minute is not only energy sapping, it is also motivating deflating. I knew in the first 6 minutes of the game we were done, before a goal was even kicked.
Our forward entries are diabolical, so many skill errors, eyes not lowered and long options chosen over trying to hit a target.
These are all player driven errors and no coach, coaches can fix this, this is under 18 level football skills that are not being completed.
The way I look at our issues is this, who is responsible for what:
Voss and coaching.
Voss and his team are responsible for a game plan and strategy that can combat the opposition players strengths and elevate our own.
They are also responsible for changes and rotations to player positions during the game and stoppage structures etc.
IMO, the fact we can blow teams away for a quarter to a half says we know our structure set ups are good, players are in the right positions and we can get the better of teams. Will a new coach and coaches fix this, I highly doubt it. We may get a sugar rush, but that would be about it.
The Players.
The coaches can't kick the football for them. So the players are responsible for skills, decision making, reaction to opposition players and how much effort they give.
Even in the first 6 minutes our skills were deplorable, as I have said this costs energy. Repeat entries, makes our players burn defensive and offensive energy more due to our lack of efficiency. When you do this in the first half of the game for little reward, it goes from being a physical issue to a mental one.
This is solely a player responsibility, but we know they can play to the game plan when we they have the energy and are mentally in the right space.
And our on-field leadership is just woeful, Cripps and Weitering are really letting us down.
I know I keep harping on about this, but our midfield is the problem:
Walsh 86% CBA 430m - good
Cripps 76% CBA 183m - poor
Hewett 66% CBA 37m - putrid
Smith 52% CBA 238m - pass
Pitto 76% CBA 108m
Total = 996m
vs
Steel 86% CBA 386m
Pickett 79% CBA 834m
Sparrow 72% CBA 427m
Windsor 45% CBA 447m
Gawn 83% CBA 362m
Total = 2,456m
A 1,460m deficit (appx. 10 lengths of the ground) is outright disgusting, the fact Pickett nearly had more meters gained than our whole midfield is woeful.
And this is only looking at our ball movement, we can all see how horrible our disposals are, inability to hold a tackle and total lack of effort is once the game turns.
So what is the solution?
We need to change the personnel in the positions that are costing us, which is coaching, but with who?
I don't know what is happening with Hewett and Cripps but they are fast becoming a liability.
We need to get Cripps out of the midfield and to be honest, in the 3rd quarter when he had Carlton players all around him ready for the handball and he decided to keep the tackler hanging off him and go for the kick (bomb into F50) and gone done for HTB, he should be dropped. That is not leadership, that is a total lack of awareness and selfish. But if we do something like that, then who will replace him, our cupboard is pretty bare, it is a real conundrum.
The players need to take some accountability also, their inability to complete the basics and dig deep is all on them.
Even our new recruits have somehow managed to fall into the Carlton way a lot quicker than even I thought they would, their disposals were very ordinary at times, I should say poor.
I actually don't know how or even if it is possible to get them to fix these basic areas they fail in, this is not a coaching issue at all, this is just a total lack of class.
And it gets worse, we couldn't even win in the 2nds with a stacked team and Reidy got smashed in the ruck by Mirkov (admittedly I didn't watch this game).
Our list is pretty poor the more I look at it. I think all players should be put on notice that come the end of the year you either perform or you are gone.
I would actually prefer if we come out after this weeks beating by North and say, we are going into a rebuild and we are playing the kids for the rest of the year to see who we keep and who we delist/trade.
The only positive is that if we keep playing this way we will be able to use our first pick on Cody, have a second first rounder for another top talent and maybe trade out some of our players like Cripps and Harry for some more top picks to stack up before the Tassie draft to give us some chance of not bottoming out totally for another 10 years.
Anyway enough of the rant.
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