Re: Post Game Passion: AFL 2019 Rd 6: Carlton vs. Hawthorn
Reply #246 –
Compared to last year, our good is much better... much better. However, the same problem as last year still exists. When opposition clubs apply real pressure, up the ante, we go to water. Needs only be for 20 minutes, a quarter or a quarter and a half, but it's enough to lose us the game... another brave defeat. It's habitual. Opponents would love this about us.
Some blame youth, some blame not enough from senior players, senior coach blames areas of disconnect, some blame senior coach, some blame not enough senior players and so it goes. But the cold hard facts are that when any opponent applies ridgy didge pressure... we do poos in pants, it's our signature.
Some, very defensively, look everywhere but the senior coach for an explanation - don't touch Bambi. Why is BB exempt from accountability/scrutiny? Why is our poor W/L situation little to do with the senior coach's performance (according to some on here)? I bet BB doesn't see it like that... strikes me as that kinda guy. Shouldn't everyone at our club be under constant accountability/scrutiny?
I bet BB's looking in the full-length mirror asking himself important questions about his coaching /communication /leadership, about his line coaches, about his players, about his game-plan - (remember your family BB, they'll still be there when footy aint). He said (hopefully jokingly) that he wouldn't have slept last night - sounds to me like someone who does not believe we should be losing.
Perhaps that's the downside of a stated rebuild, the drop in expectation, maybe that's created a psychological millstone that we just can't quite shrug... pressures off - and in a game where 1% either way can mean a great deal...
But then, as the AFL and media often remind us, the game is in the ***entertainment business. And it would seem we are certainly competitive and entertaining... mission accomplished.
***bullsh1t. The combativeness, skill and simple magic of our game is the core, the heart and soul... it just happens to be entertaining. But that's a story for another day.