Why do we defend, with all 18 players, so deep? We just retreat and invite pressure that we’ve proven time and again that we can’t handle. Oppo moves the ball down field with no pressure and still hit up targets in their F50.

And the few times we try to run and carry from the back half we have no one to @#$%&! kick to. How many times are we streaming through the corridor and have to kick wide to the wing?

Coaching. System. Structure.

Appalling.

I get really irritated by Jeremy Cameron and his stupid little ball compression ceremony when he's got a set shot. Elicits a similar reaction to Rafa Nadal's arse pick-n-sniff. I should perhaps see a psychologist about this. But that aside, at least these blokes have a routine and deliver consistently. I noticed last night, H is all over the shop. Sometimes he spends 30 seconds debating whether to go around the body or go the drop punt. Sometimes he places the ball on the ground and wipes his hands, Sometimes he spins it around. Sometimes - and a lot of our guys do this - he just gazes off at the shot clock and then suddenly goes oh crap, I've got to kick it now. Everyone in our squad should be put on notice: choose a routine and replicate it EXACTLY on your next five set shots, otherwise you're delisted, cauliflower.

Were are not the only team that does it.
However, we are one of the teams that can't pull off the transition very well due to personnel.
We lost that game, not because of coaching, not because of umpiring but because of poor kicking.
It is as simple as that.

It’s personnel that we don’t have anyone forward?

part of the S & C role is player availability and injury management. and we have the best injury list we've had since ratten and bradley were playing. so that's a big departure in a really positive direction from the last decade ...


i think we are physically fit, but not emotionally and mentally fit. i know i harp on about this a bit. But i see elite endurance athletes at boxing. putting up obscene numbers on the beep test, and 400m, 1500m and 5km trials etc etc

... and they get into the ring and are gasses and cramping up after 2 rounds. maybe even hurling in between rounds 1 & 2.

i also see guys who can't run to the end of the street, yet can spar 10 rounds no problem. mental exhaustion, anxiety and of course fear wear you out much quicker than what one can aerobically exhaust (hope i'm making sense here).

if you can't stay composed, you can't stay in the fight.

i see us tighten up, i see guys out there not breathing. no leadership whatsoever is in their ear calming the farm, (not on the field or off it) and while the stress exponentiates, so does the fatigue & cramping.


different leaders, we'd see different results and i would bet my house, two dogs, car, motorbikes and my favourite signed Suns jersey on it.

i'm not sure we have drafted the onfield leaders we need, but the off field "leaders" need to go asap before permanent damage has been acquired.

I've said this before, like golf which most of these boys play, you need to reset the brain and a routine does this.
I also read whey they press the ball and that is because they are not always inflated the same.
Maybe it is something they should all be doing, last night the kicking on both side was deplorable at times.

The pressing the ends of the footy is because there are approximately 5 new footies used in every game so they are hard, especially at the ends. This makes drop punts harder to control.
In the old days, a footy used to soften during the first quarter but now with all the footies, they don't.
That's why Cameron does it.
I've heard Fev talk about this in the past.

Sent from my SM-A556E using Tapatalk

"Sometimes, you can get a footy that's too pointy. That makes it harder to kick and distance-wise, it doesn't come off the boot as nice. So, I'll look at the ball and press it in if I see that it's too pointy to try and get a nicer, rounder shape."

The only team that I have seen and I could be wrong that keeps a player in F50 is the Hawks and that is Gunston.
The full team defensive press is pretty much normal for most if not all bar 1 team.
I regularly see the opposition smalls in in D50 and their talls on the wings.

It's personnel that we don't have the leg speed to break lines and spread to open up opposition defences.
And most importantly we don't have the foot skills to do it anyway.
Surely you can see that.
That is not coaching.
If you can't hit a target as an AFL player that is on you, they are professional athletes.

I know exactly what I see. I’ve seen us lose 26 of our last 38 games with a head coach that clearly can’t turn it around.

Blaming it ALL on the players is laughable and ignorant imho. But each to their own.

I know we all want an answer to all of this and have a desire to find a scapegoat that makes sense (and allows us to think there may be a simple solution which would be incredibly convenient) but isn’t it far more likely (though unpalatable) to just acknowledge it’s all of the above?

Poor drafting.
Poor trading.
Poor skills.
Poor attitudes.
Poor leadership.
Poor game plans.
Poor flexibility.
Poor assistant coaches.
Poor head coach.
Poor administration.
Poor club.

We pretty much tick every box.

Staggering comment from Wright

"We were aware he was struggling during the game"

WTF is going on at this football club?

You can read anything you want in that comment.

I don't find it "staggering" at all. If anything, I need more information to conclude what he was alluding to.

Maybe he implied the usual you'd expect in footy talk...."struggling .... [to get a kick] " . The obvious.
It is said every week.

No one knows.

I know we all want an answer to all of this and have a desire to find a scapegoat that makes sense (and allows us to think there may be a simple solution which would be incredibly convenient) but isn’t it far more likely (though unpalatable) to just acknowledge it’s all of the above?

Poor drafting.
Poor trading.
Poor skills.
Poor attitudes.
Poor leadership.
Poor game plans.
Poor flexibility.
Poor assistant coaches.
Poor head coach.
Poor administration.
Poor club.

We pretty much tick every box.