david31 wrote:
We’ve got issues popping up across the board. The coach is culpable in some of it but not all of it.
(1) Game plan / tactics. We’ve gone from a high scoring team in early 2022 to a team that struggles To score, despite having close to the best key forward duo in the competition. Yesterday we were mauled in the coaches box. +86 disposals but -4 inside 50s. We’ve been a bottom 6-8 side on win-loss since round 10 last year. This is where Voss and his assistants are culpable.
(2) An injury prone playing list. We have a group of at least 5 players who almost never get on the park - Marchbank, Cuningham, Philp, Williams, Martin. With a list of barely over 40 (including project players and raw 18 year olds), this puts undue pressure on the rest of the list to stay fit and perform. It means we’re always playing players 30-35 on the list which leads to my next point.
(3) The top end talent on the list masks questionable depth. Due to the above point, this depth has to play. Fisher, Honey, LOB, JSOS are examples of players who should be fighting tooth and nail to play but are being handed games due to no selection pressure. How many of these guys play in top 4 teams over the past few years?
(4) Average game day execution. It’s astounding after all these years how average some of our skills are, especially kicking inside 50 and goal kicking. It was on show yesterday and was a big part of the reason we lost. Continually kicking to St Kilda defenders. Harry is a Coleman medalist from 18 months ago but his inability to kick goals from set shots saps the team of confidence. JSOS missing from 15 metres out in a game that was goal for goal until that point.
The next 5-6 weeks will be telling against good opposition. Regardless of what happens with the coach (too early to make that call in my view), it’s clear we need to do a bit of work in the list management space - move on from perennially injured players and try retool the list with young talent on the fly.
Good post
Retooling of the list should have occurred 2 years ago
It boggles the mind that both O’Brien and Fisher have a contract beyond this year. It will unfortunately hold us back in the short term.