I dont think he should. At this stage he doesn't appear to have the competitiveness we need in all our players if we stand a chance of beating the Tiges.
I was at the game and concur with most of what has been said thus far. I wasn't going along to the game with great expectations but I was expecting effort. The fact that I could notice lack of effort from some very early in the game was disappointing. If this was by design then I don't get it.
A team in out situation needs to have naturally competitive players who despite any situation will provide maximum effort no matter what. It engenders an all in it together philosophy throughout the team and lets the opposition know that we're never out of it.
I can forgive skill errors and decision making but I won't accept lack of effort, especially from our recognised leaders. Murph and Gibbs were not providing the best example to our newbies and thats disappointing. By contrast I thought Simmo could say he provided maximum effort whilst on the ground. Didn't he get the memo?
Marchbank, Fisher, Pickett gave some indication that they have something to offer going forward and Le Bois provided a nice highlight. I thought Kreuze moved well and did some good things, Weitering was solid, Ed tried with minimal impact, Charlie was OK without being spectacular. There were a lot of players that didn't contribute much. We clearly missed Crippa around the ball. Why are we persisting with Daisy?
The fact that some players can turn effort on and off and that this has been going on for too long is a worry and is one reason we've been crap for so long. I know its a pre season game in Summer and I didn't care about the result, but I expected better. Am I wrong to think this way?
I don't want to be negative and I didn't expect us to win given the amount of newbies we had in the team, the fact it wasn't our best 22 and that Freo are on top of the ladder for good reason. I don't believe the new guys let us down and the margin at the end of the day was acceptable.
I was disappointed though with our approach in terms of moving the ball and the performance of the more senior guys in the team obviously with some exceptions to this (Murphy and White come to mind). Whether it was by instruction or just the way the players approached it, we never gave ourselves the best chance to win. I think we could have acquitted ourselves a lot better with the senior players playing more to their potential and the team taking the game on. Maybe Army is more integral to our game style than we care to admit. Most players cracked in all night, which is a far cry from where we were under Magic Mick and its a level of effort that should be a non negotiable week to week. Lets take it to the Hawks this week.
Our style of play did not allow us the chance to win tonight. We set up way too defensively. I got sick of seeing the ball kicked to Hendo with two or three blokes on him and not a crumber in sight. In fact we've been too defensive the last couple of weeks.
We're not taking the game on and seem to be playing in the Malthouse style again. We're boring to watch and still having holes picked in our defence with extra men in our defensive half. Lets get back to the run and gun approach of the Adelaide and Port Adelaide games and display the energy we had in those matches. Besides this the skills and decision making left a lot to be desired and Everitt,Hendo, Menzel and Yarran are taking the piss.
Good performances by Bucks, Cripps, Docherty and Kreuzer.
In relation to Murph's comments at the beginning of the week, it looks like we've identified Clem Smith and Jason Tutt as two players who don't want to be at Carlton. I'm being facetious.
Looking at the two lineups I believe that we match up pretty well with the Bummers although I would've liked Dylan Buckley in at the expense of perhaps Carrazzo, just to add more pace. What will separate the two sides in the end is work rate and desire to win. Go hard Blues and good luck to Ciaran Byrne.
