Watching the replay there was more than a fair bit of luck regarding Bolton's last quarter of winning the footy, actually more than once it ricocheted off other players to fall in his lap. But in contrast to us, when he got the lucky possession he used it, he did not waste it.
Bolton always creeps forward of the stoppage and is always seemingly on his own if they win the ball. Surely we should have known this, and always had someone goal side of him.
Handball misses a target by an inch, they run away from goal. Ball bounces between 3 blues, and somehow finds a docker, run away for a goal. It’s amazing when it ain’t going your way, everything goes wrong
The other thing is, Evans & Ainsworth cannot take set shots from around the 50m arc, they just cannot make the distance.
Ainsworth may have made the distance if the freo player took the mark where the umpire asked him to. Told him to move back a few meters, to where the free was given, and he just didn’t …..
The missed tackles, oh my days!!! Add tackling coach to the list of priority appointments.
I was just about to post this! So many freo mids dancing around stoppages, and getting easy handballs out of contests. Gives such an advantage to them when they know we will only stop them about 20% of the time
Also, why is Bolton always on his own 10m goal side of the stoppage. If he always cheats out, then have his man just start 5m off him, goal side
Others being asked to develop their leadership skills? Weaning off Crippa?
Agreed, and possibly an opportunity to send a message.
The media will claim it was sending a message to Cripps on the bench, because there hides the controversy and the clicks.
But for me it was more than likely a message from the coach to the blokes in the centre square, and perhaps in conjunction Hewett's absence is more about a lack of fault rather than disciplining or punishment.
The coach showed them what it's like when you haven't got someone sacrificing for your benefit! So I'd be having a close look at the replay to see who was the middle in their absence! Was there a Judas?
The major culprit for the issues in the middle, when Cripps was off, were the umpires - in my opinion!! 2nd quarter we gave up 6 centre clearances in a row, and 4 of them were free kicks (all of which were dubious). wouldnt have matterred if diesel, kouta and ratts were in there, we would have struggled
We miss far too many goal scoring opportunities when we have the pressure on and are using up our petrol tickets. Then we ease up and oppositions reel us in relatively easily. Nothing more soul destroying and we go to water. We either have to build massive leads early or pace ourselves more evenly.
yep. how often do we dominate, and you look at the scoreboard and we are only 3 or 4 goals up? need to convert when we are dominating
Every side loses the stoppages and clearances at some point but find other ways to win.
@madbluboy Is part of our problem we are trying to win everything, instead of just focussing on maximising what we are best at?
Have we spent too much time focussed on our weaknesses, and that is having a negative effect on what we are good at?
i always thought that - when we were flying a couple of years back, the knock on us was that the oppo could score to easily on us (when it happenned). so, voss spent the entire off season focussing on defending and defensive structures. it seemed to knock all the attacking flair out of the players. we have never got it back.
There is always some humidity in Sydney and the same applies in Brisbane. The Dogs were able to handle the conditions well enough to win. Just what is our problem? When the Tassie side enters the competition, will we be blaming the cold conditions in Hobart for any loss we have there?
we are just unprofessional is my summation. Can't play for the club, cant play for the team, worried about individual performances rather than doing the team things i reckon. Then you get slippery, cold, wet, hot excuses.
easy to say our fitness was a problem. but its amazing how slow and unfit you look when the other sides is just on one. they couldnt do a thing wrong, and you always look spent when you are chasing for 45mins.
i agree with all the comments about the lack of any tactical changes to try to arrest the slide in the 3rd q. but not sure we can blame it on fitness
Alistar Clarkson recently came out and said how to tough it is to drag a struggling team off the deck and how bottoming out will be a think of the past: Interesting comments on StKilda: "The game is as tough as it has ever been. You only need to go to Essendon, Richmond, West Coast, North Melbourne, a couple of others perhaps to see that. You see what's happened with St Kilda, it's nearly like you've got to do something absolutely out of the box radical to break this mould of getting yourself out of the bottom eight or 10 sides in the competition and give yourself a chance to get into the top part. https://www.afl.com.au/news/1471514/whats-realistic-in-a-rebuild-why-north-melbourne-kangaroos-coach-alastair-clarkson-says-bottoming-out-will-never-happen-again
And the move to put williams in defence after looking settled in the F50 is yet another brain fart from the coaching group
i really dont understand this - he was really good last year, and seemed to have found his spot. creative, good finisher. i know ainsworth, Lij and Haywood have all come in, but surely we could still find room for him up forward. guys who can kick goals dont grow on trees
