Forget the emotion... here's my objective analysis...

[Seaford_Saint]

Ok.... no crucifying individuals.... there's enough of that going on any plenty of other threads tonight....

How were we exposed tonight??

1) A 1-paced midfield.... Ball, Lenny, Fisher, Blake and Harves rotating through the middle are all 1-paced. Dal is not slow, but not lightning either - same for Schneider and Milne. When 1/2 dozen Dogs put their foot down, there was nothing but daylight following.

2) Poor upper body strength in the back half.... Raph, X, Geary and Gram were all exposed in that area tonight.... This can be linked back to item 1) above, as the ball often streamed inside Dogs 50 with minimal pressure....

3) A fragile mentality.... soon after the Dogs got cracking, our run stopped.... I don't believe the players are lazy..... I do believe however that their confidence becomes easily dented.... and the introversion spreads through nearly the whole team

What can we do in the short term to overcome these deficiencies...

1) 1 paced midfield...... Jones must come in... beyond that, I'm not sure.... Birss and Armo certainly aren't quick.... I guess the good news is that there are not many other teams with the capacity to hurt us in this area like the Dogs did (probably only Cats and Hawks).... the bad part about that is, they are the teams that will be up there in September.

2) Poor upper body strength in the backhalf..... yes, Maguire would help, but from what I saw at Casey, he's still a fair way off.... his current form isn't good enough to warrant a recall just yet.... BJ's return was welcome, and he will only improve from week to week..... perhaps Kosi or Roo need to go into the back half for a few week - both might appreciate a run-straight-at-the-ball role to help them regain top-level form

3) A fragile mentality.... gee i'm not sure.... call me old fashioned, but i don't believe in shrinks..... the problem isn't when things are going well, but it continues to rear it's ugly head when the going gets tough


So all in all.... perhaps we aren't yet as close to the grail as we had been lead to believe....

[SaintWodonga]

I also think there were 2 other things to mention..

1) Kicking for goals still shocking. Should have really had a 50 point buffer.

2) Decsion making. Raph for the 3rd week in a row makes poor decsions under pressure.

[SaintWal]

What about allowing a team like the doggies to generate all their run out of the back line.

Manning up would not hurt. You can try your zone defences and you can try coralling the opposition but if it does not work then bloody well man up!

[Devilhead]

Perhaps an internal player assessment by the players themselves much like Geelong did last year may expose a few honest truths to a few individuals.

Western Bulldogs did it in the off season and it seems to have had a fantastic effect on them as a team.

[redwhite&blackblood]

Essentially the Essendon game in 2 weeks is huge for us. Given that we most likely will lose next week making us 2-2. A win over the dons gets us to 3-2. Then we have the Power at AAMI who in essence are similar to the Doggies with their run and quickness. We also have struggled to beat them over their of late and a loss is more than likely making us 3-3.