We have to send a strong message at the selection table that passengers need to buy some new tickets.
Having a handful of guys who are just making up the numbers is unacceptable on all levels.
We have been hit hard with injuries when we can least afford to with five very hard games coming up, it is not out of the question to go from 4-0 to 4-6 in the blink of an eye.
Kicking for goal was simply atrocious, 14.14 to 16.4 cannot be tolerated.
Durdin & Fantasia are always passengers, Acres has gone backwards, Boyd is grossly over-rated, Owies is inconsistent & Williams was a complete lost cause.
We are kidding ourselves if we think 50/50 players are going to take us to the promised land. Our best is very good but we have to play at that level every week for the full 100-minutes.
Extremely disappointed ..... make that embarrassed, by that performance.
Clearly we did not learn a thing from last week's fortutitous win. Our players were only too happy to rejoice & backslap each other for a win we didn't deserve when they should have been harder at it this week to show they deserved the benefit of that brain-fade.
Apparently Clark called the umpire a "cheat" which if true, is a massive no-no which prompted the double free-kick. Going on past performances, Clark could face the tribunal as well for that, they normally frown on that behaviour very strongly.
The mark to Cottrell .......... it would have been very hard not to pay it based on the fact it "may" have grazed Aish's arm or hair, I reckon that happens 100 times in a match and if the umpire does not have a clear view of it then they have no chance of calling it.
As for Kennedy's free kick, Johnson pulled his jumper, it was as clear as day and warranted a free kick. Every week I see Curnow & McKay get their jumpers pulled in an attempt to impede their run at the ball and the umpires miss it.
Added to that, I see jumper grabbing all around the ground in all games, especially the ruck, yet they either miss them or conveniently let them go.
I'd like to see a strong & consistent clampdown on all jumper grabbing (forwards, mids, taggers, rucks & defenders), they have been far too lenient in this area which has lead to the ongoing conjecture of how & when they get paid.
I feel for Freo, they played very well and IMO, were the better team overall but it may have been only a brain-fade at the death that cost them the match.
Fair enough. I was impressed by Weitering's cool head, to be honest. Larkey (and no small number of his team mates) had lost the plot and were close to getting reported, (I wonder whose influence that is?) but Weitering was strong and firm and intelligent.
Had to work Friday & Saturday so wasn't home at all, had to get a room on the road for the night.
Watched the second half of the match drinking a schooner of Tooheys Old & scoffing a chicken parmy at the Argyle Hotel in Moss Vale (southern highlands).
There was a fair bit to like about this game but felt we should have won by a lot more, North are rubbish. One of my close buddies from school is a died in the wool Kangas fan and all he could sook up about was how they got reamed by the umpires. Was he watching the same game as me ??
Elijah Hollands showed some glimpses of what he has to offer, hope he keeps going with it.
Cerra looks at odds to me, uncharacteristically poor.
Curnow plays in bursts, it would be interesting to see what he could do if he went like that for a whole game, he'd probably kick 15-20.
Did TDK really lower his colours to that blonk Xerri ??
I have serious concerns about Fantasia's longterm viabilty, whilst others seem to like what he does, I'm not impressed at all. I'm also not enjoying Kennedy's output at present either, seems to making some poor decisions at crucial times, he's better than that.
Thought Weitering showed great leadership when he went in & grabbed Larkey and yanked him off the wrestling maul on the ground and then as they were all breaking up, he pointed the finger at Larkey with an angry face and said something obviously along the lines of "pull your screwing head in mate".
We still need a few more players with some aggro, we are getting rid of the Von Trapps's but not quick enough IMO.
Seemed to get dragged down to Richmond's level playing a messy scrappy game style that was error filled and we lacked cohesion even though we had control of play for most of the game.
My thoughts exactly, we never got out of that scrappy pattern and it made it very frustrating to watch.
I've never been a McGovern fan but tonight he was one of our better players for the whole match. In the last, some of our better players like Hewitt & Cerra had a lot more influence on the game which turned it around.
Lewis Young worries me, the Tigers players broke through too many of his soft tackles.
I keep hearing Boyd is elite by foot but he was woeful, I don't understand what they see in him. The recruiting of Fantasia looks idiotic and Cuningham only seems to play well when we are really on top of the opposition.
Curnow needs a massive kick up the jaxy for that undisciplined brain-fade in the goal square. FFS, take the mark, go back and take some time off the clock and kick the simplest of goals. Had he done that, it would have given us a three-goal lead which was virtually unassailable. You can have all the big highlights you want but it's the 'bread & butter' stuff in the heat of battle that sets the really good players apart form the rest.
Kemp was terrific all night but that 'Mark of the Year' attempt on the last line of defense was also a massive brain-fade, it looks great when it comes off (Saad last week also tried it and came unstuck) but its too costly when it doesn't. Just do the team-orientated thing and give a defensive punch and follow it up on the ground.
DeKoning kicked a really important goal in the last but given he sprayed his first set shot left and then his second right, the odds were in his favour of splitting the middle with the third.
I was really hoping someone would clean-up Bolton, he is a massive show-pony/lair week after week who needs to be taught some humility & respect.
And our guys didn't pay attention to Maurice Rioli who always hangs around the man on the mark looking for a quick steal. It's smart play by him but you can't keep letting him do it.
The umpires really reamed us in the first half, it was embarrassingly poor from them, we should be making an official comlain it was that bad.
Two wins and a week's break to then face North & Freo after that isn't a bad place to be, just need to tidy up some of those really bad loose ends.
A very fair & balanced article about where we are right now.
It points to the huge opportunity in front of us this season whilst acknowledging there are still a handful of things that need to happen amongst the players.
We are up by 5 goals. Second quarter, first ruck contest, Pittonet goes up against Mcinerny, free kick blown, ball in Cripps hand and he either misses the whistle (I heard it from row D in the forward pocket) and he bombs it long without looking.
If he thought it was a free kick to Pittonet he should have quickly looked back & checked before kicking. There is no way known he didn't hear the whilstle, the umpire was only metres away.
Poor leadership, totally irresponsible & lacking in game awareness.
That was a game-changing moment that never should have happened.
The danger for us is believing that we'll be there for sure next year, because that's when it can come undone. And that's a challenge for the coaching staff in the off-season.
Amen to that !!
Getting to a PF sounds nice on paper but we have to view that realistically, we finished 3rd or 4th which is just not good enough.
Even being beaten in a GF is not good enough either, 'second is the first of the losers".
Whatever happened this year gets celebrated but only for a very short time, we still have a ton of work to do to get close to winning a premiership.
Added to that, sometimes luck does go your way but more often than not, it goes well against you when you least want it to (injuries, close losses, bad umpiring decisions etc). We have to build an inpenetrable wall around us that the others cannot get through plus enables us to absorb the things outside of our control !!
Yes, we have a good nucleus of players but don't for one moment be lulled into the false belief that its a finished product either. Just look at the Pies who won the flag yesterday, they brought in 4-5 important pieces to their jigsaw puzzle last year because they lost a PF by 1-point. If it's good enough for them to make some hard calls, then it sure as hell is for us too. Therefore, delistings, trades & FA acquisitions will be crucial this time around.
The really really good clubs are ruthless in their pursuit of success, especially in professional sport.
We cannot be complacent, we cannot just expect success, its all about the the hard work and the building of a very strong platform.
Roll the sleeves up, we have even more work to do this time around, the gap at the pointy end may be small but it's a way more intense bridge to cross.
The climb to the top of the mountain starts all over again when we hit trade week.
It crapS me to tears when a bloke like McKenna - who has cut us up previously - does so again. It reeks of poor planning. We have issues across half forward that need addressing. When he was 'on' Martin was that man, but yesterday our half fowards just didn't get it done and Coleman and McKenna ripped us a new one. We've got a group of these blokes eg Martin Fisher Cunners Owies so I can see why we'd be chasing Eli Hollands, its part of the ground that we need to find a player for. Pace, class and ability to take a mark. They're always a bit up and down but a bloke like (gag) Rohan who could kick six on a good day, and stops the half backs running wild might be what we need.
Outmuscled, outrun, outplayed and outgunned by a clearly superior opponent. No disgrace in that performance IMO. They have real hardness and real skill. I'm tipping them for the flag.
