[quote]It's also clear that the players are intimidated, and are scared to bite back. Good on K-Dog late in the quarter to serve it up to Buddy, setting an example, but everywhere our players go there are hawks in abundance. They need to stand up to them and show them that they aren't going to be walked on. They need to put their head over the ball, not bend down at speed to try and pick it up. They need to realise that they don't have all the time in the world to make decisions. [/quote]

Good point here. The number one factor that led to us getting belted in that first half (last half of first term and first half of the second) was the fact that we were far too intimidated. Too play at the highest level in front of big crowds you need to be mentally tough. Now i have never/ never will play at the highest level but one thing i do know is that our attack on the footy was poor at best. We got pushed around too easily and got treated with contempt.

Watching it was soo frustrating knowing that we really didnt have the balls to stand up and fight back as well as taking them on from the get go. Like Ratten let's get the arrogance/ ego back into our group. I know it realistically was one poor/ unaccountable quarter of footy but thats what costs you against a very good side. Players like Russell and Grigg i will back all the way and i believe that they will be key runners in years to come but we/ they need to develop that hard edge or else we will get beaten when it really counts and when it hurts the most.

Admiration for Kruezer who showed excellent courage and was willing to push himself. Ditto Cameron Cloke who i like for the same reasons. Gibbs played his best game for the club and exemplified just how good he will be and it was good to see Murphy get his hands on the pill albeit a couple of errors by foot. Armfield is another who i like due to his hard running and intensity at the contest and young Ellard looks another one of those types.

Was also pleasing to see Fevola's work off the footy and it seems as though Ratten's effect has been three fold on him. Early days yet still. Waite again was so good yet frustrating however he needs to keep his head down and stay focused and im confident he can erradicate such errors out of his game.

Good to see Hadley in the navy blue and he showed that he'll be a real plus for us this year (his cool head under pressure was noticeable), whilst having sound foot skills and strong over head.

Lastly, young Pfieffer continues to really impress me and i love his attack on the footy and hardness (which sets an example for others) whilst his pace and foot skills combined with his height could see him reach an elite level in years to come on the basis that he keeps focused.

Disappointing game for mine, but good to see us fight back.

Go blues.

I suspect they've been playing lots of "hot potato" at training....

It's all about getting it right for the season. It's going to take time - hence Ratten's call for patience a few weeks ago.

WOW !

thought i'd stumbled into bigfooty for a moment there


carry on

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Nah, if it was bigfooty we'd be swamped by opposition supporters with "HAHA YOU SUCK CARLTANK OMGLOL!!!!!!111" and the like.

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

the team are still coming to grips with the game handball and move the ball quickly style and some fine tuning is needed

a lot of the players ran to the wrong position and when they received the ball, there was enormous pressure... the fine tuning I hope for is to figure out the players that are naturally better at running into the right position and start giving players roles.

a good example in last nights game was when Bower had the ball and he had 2/3 options of players wide but to his credit he assessed that they were poor decisions and cut back inside and found a better option of a player running down the corridor. this example illustrates that too many players are giving options and confusing our players, these options are often poor, and there is no working as a team to get the ball to the best option (sheparding and linking forward ... i think simpson is fantastic at doing this). so when players are under the pump they are likely to go to the first option and unfortunately many of these are not always great options.

i thought gibbs was outstanding at winning clearances but also at running to the right spot and picking the right options. he is an absolute genius and will become a great player. judd everyone knows will be awesome too at running to the right spots.

stevens worked his arse off tonight but he is as guilty at running into poor positions ... he is imposing and will often get the ball .. his decision making with the ball is quite good but he is needs to look at gibbs and try and straighten up the team a bit as he tends to drag play wide

the SOS/Sexton comparisons with bower are spot on. these two players had their weaknesses but the team learnt how to get them to play to their strengths and then to dish the ball off to the skilled backline/midfield players to set the play up forward. they learned how to look for the right option and the right players learned to provide that option. this is really for the coaching panel to sort out. so i for one think Bower has a role to play in the backline and will be great.

this notion that every player needs to good at everything is crazy it is about working out how the team work together best and again this is where Ratten will need to earn his money

someone else mentioned it too, but there were too mant times a player was at HBF and no real options were presented with players standing still and waving their hands. we switched the ball a couple of times and start the handball run which was good but at other times we kicked it long around the boundary which is such a low percentage option... we need to work on this process

we certainly worked hard, won lots of the ball, had some players that stood up Simpson as usual, i liked what i saw of hadley, jameson .. the move of waite to the forward worked because of his forward pressure, cloke was great and Kruezer looks like a gem.

i think we still have a long way to go, but we have the players we need to get the game plan right we need to get the right players executing in the right roles

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The glass is neither half full nor half empty. Rather the glass is twice as big than required.

I also think the NAB rule changes hurt us too. For a team that's trying to implement a gameplan of short passes to targets, 20M minimum and no backwards kicking certainly wouldn't have helped.

The boys seemed lost a lot of times, chipping the ball 15-16 metres and then the player being told to play on. I think they'll be glad to get to real rules this weekend, and wouldn't be surprised if this was one of the big reasons Ratts didn't give a rat's (pun intended) to the NAB cup this year.

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

Apart from being totally embarrassed at the pathetic efforts, I kept asking myself about the game plan (or lack of it?) -

WHY DON'T THEY KICK THE FRIGGIN THING?

I was so glad that I had to go out before half time to save myself further disgust - but made the mistake of wahtching the replay of the last half when i got home at 1am.

And where was hartlett because sorry, but edwards is not the answer yet.

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one you knock back is one you never have

Cue - Melvey - the sky has fallen.


For those anti-tankers out there you better be glad we got the wake up call in Round 2 of the NAB Cup instead of Round 12 of the Home and Away Season.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

kicked like a dud all night - maybe still recovering from all the ops - another groin was it?

but whatever, not good enought from him

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one you knock back is one you never have

never, ever forget that it was clarkson who king-hit ian aitken from behind and broke his jaw in that "friendly" in london at the end of the 87 season!

that's what i think of him - can't wait for him to get sacked

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one you knock back is one you never have

last night we lacked leadership once again.

going on last weeks performance and last nights i felt that some players just looked lost, they didn't know what role they had to play.

i watched the bombers on friday night and it looks as if some players have been given particular roles and are executing them well.

Maybe Ratts is just throwing them in the deep end and see how they cope.

There's still a few weeks to Round 1 and plenty of time to put things together to towel up Richmond.

FWIW, Murphy will be good. His disposal will improve and he will have a great year with others taking the heat off him.

Gibbs, I thought he was terrific. He's playing above his age and I think he could be one of the 5 most important players for the team this year.

Stevens looks more confident than he did last week so I don't see reason to be concerned there.

The defence certainly has some major gaps in it - Jamison is good and it will be even better with Setanta down there. Bower I think will be okay you can tell he's just inexperienced at the minute. Armfield I like very much.

The three things which probably need the most work are 1. Disposal (as has been said) 2. A game plan to at least break even on centre clearances - could be our biggest downfall this eyar. 3. Our method of attack between the centre and half forward. Even though we are looking for a CHF, I think we need good flanking options too.

Aside from that, the Hawks should be a good team this year, and we outplayed them for much of quarters 2 onwards. If we stop teams getting a jump on us early while we settle, we'll win a few and the group will gain confidence.

All is not lost!

...sack the whole team, and the coach.

I'm never ever watching football again.

Never.





















The entire side will lift 20% when Judd's on the ground, ala Andrew Johns.

And we're not going to let a first quarter slip like that again this year.

Don't get me wrong, the midfield is the most important part of the modern game. In a fast paced, running oriented game that AFL has become, the midfield is essential. But you still need your bookeneds. Both Hawthorn and Carlton have young, promising, excellent midfields. Ours will improve greatly when Judd is back. However the difference in my opinion (and this is not not really based on last night, but on previous contests between the sides and Hawthorn last year) is key position players.

Hawthorn have Roughead, Franklin and Thorp who are all top notch.

We have Fevola who is awesome on his day, Kreuzer will be a gun.

I think both sides can potentially win premierships in the next five years.

But if we want to get a leg up over Hawthorn, we need two more gun key position players. We can get those two in Natinui and Hurley. I know it's tough to stomach, but that's the reality. If we get those two players at the end of the year we can win two, three or four premierships in the next decade. If we don't get those we can still win a premiership, but it is going to be alot harder and probably won't be followed up by another one or two or three.

Yes poor first quarter but who thought we were going to be beaten by 100 after the first quarter - I didnt expect to win realistically so apart from first quarter not too disappointed as the papers said a reality check

Agree still refining /learning the Ratten game plan after bombing long for 5 years -handball happy which is ok if not continually going backwards or sidewards and most of the time to a team mate in a worse situation

Will release pressure valve re Richmond game -players wont and wont be let get too ahead of themselves

Dominated the first ten minutes of first quarter and couldnt find a way forward and then dawks (dirty Hawks ) clicked into gear -they have got some good skills and players but how arrogant are they

Good games by Murphy Gibbs Simpson Hammer Jamieson bower (no longer panics when he gets the ball) stevens Hadley another midfielder and will get better -Fev tried hard and didnt have kicking boots on

Cloke and Fev flying the flag when that despicable Brown (one of the dirtiest players in the league )charged Cruise missile - brown saw it was cruise and tried to charge him -got the pedigree I suppose -cruise great effort getting up and showing them he plays for the Blues

Good for Gibbs to be standing mitchell some of the match to learn from him
Another game at the dome for Edward Austin Bower Jamieson ellard cruise gibbs murphy Pfeiffer

Feel sorry for Waite we need him at both ends - difficulty of one- dimensional forward line exacerbated by fisher injury -waite is only other forward bar fev that could take game by scruff of the neck- only other alternative ATM is clokey who is a little immobile but may be able to play spalding type of CHF -but this would be pinch hitting

Improving but lets be realistic -will be better with Judd and Walker -exciting seeing youngsters developing

Will probably coach a premiership before too long the way things are going. Has done an excellent job at Hawthorn and no one can deny him that. Hawks should finish top four this year and possibly win the flag. We should be modelling our development on them.

AGRO you should be getting a holiday soon. Our team is set. Why do we need Natinui and Hurley? We're all set to win premierships. The key will be winning eight games this year. Those eight games are going to set us up for a hat trick of premierships in the next few years.

And for those of you worried about our game plan, shut up. It's the game plan you need to win premierships. But it takes a while to get used to, especially after the long kicking game plan of Pagan. This year will be a development year. We will stick to the game plan, get thumped, but gradually get better. ANd in the long term that game plan will ultimately win us premierships. It's going to be painful at first, but worth it. ANd it should ensure we end up with Natinui and Hurley.

So what appears at first to be lose/lose ultimately ends up being win/win.

It's the right game plan. Neither Edwards or Hartlett are the answer. Westhoff might have been but not either of those. Natinui and Hurley are the answer and you're kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

BO, are you planning on making any football related post in the next 2 years that doesn't have Wayne Hughes or Tanking as its general theme?

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010