only 1 question, why no change made

[The darkness]

Was at the game and have watched it 3 times..
Can not fathom why when the game needed to be won, and as our forward set up was not working ..why wasnt a move made to change up the forward structure ?
Kosi to the ruck, Gardy to the square
Dempster to a tag role and Bj to the square ...isolating a mid size defender
Surely something could of been done...call me radical, but this game could of been anyones with 5 mins on the clock.
Sure if a move was made and we lost( as we did ) well at least we tried something right to the last gasp.
Maybe I'll get shouted down but i think a few out there could of come up with some move that might of given us 1 or 2 more shots on goal with a few mins on the clock

[JABBER]

It is easy to change after the event The coaching staff done great they work out the best way we can win the game they know which players were hurt and we only lost the game in the last 3 minutes

[bigcarl]

hindsight's a wonderful thing. everything looks better with the benefit of it.

in the end he stuck with what worked for most of the season.

that might have been one of the problems. because we'd won so many games we'd seldomn needed to try other options.

[saintsRrising]

Was at the game and have watched it 3 times..
Can not fathom why when the game needed to be won, and as our forward set up was not working ..why wasnt a move made to change up the forward structure ?

I am fascinated....

1/ how do you predict that one player after the other will miss easy shots?

2/ how do you predict which other players will kick at goal better?

The structures we had were delivering ample shots on goal to have won the game.

[Sainternist]

hindsight's a wonderful thing.

actually, i find it annoying if anything.

once again, harry hindsight out coaches the present coach.

[Milton66]

hindsight's a wonderful thing.

actually, i find it annoying if anything.

once again, harry hindsight out coaches the present coach.

Is he related to Harry Highpants?

[bigcarl]

hindsight's a wonderful thing.

actually, i find it annoying if anything.

once again, harry hindsight out coaches the present coach.

that's what i'm getting at. it's easy to be a genius after the event.

[Milton66]

Was at the game and have watched it 3 times..
Can not fathom why when the game needed to be won, and as our forward set up was not working ..why wasnt a move made to change up the forward structure ?

I am fascinated....

1/ how do you predict that one player after the other will miss easy shots?

2/ how do you predict which other players will kick at goal better?

The structures we had were delivering ample shots on goal to have won the game.

And he we been down at 3/4 time, then fair enough. But we were still in front with 5 mins to go.

[Sainternist]

hindsight's a wonderful thing.

actually, i find it annoying if anything.

once again, harry hindsight out coaches the present coach.

Is he related to Harry Highpants?

no, he is more closely related to harry houdini because of his ability to be invisible during a game and then magically appear after the game is played.

[Milton66]

hindsight's a wonderful thing.

actually, i find it annoying if anything.

once again, harry hindsight out coaches the present coach.

Is he related to Harry Highpants?

no, he is more closely related to harry houdini because of ability to be invisible during a game and then magically appear after the game is played.

I thought that was Milne's gig.

[The darkness]

scores were even for at least 15 mins of the last..in that period we did not score, well for the quarter for that matter...goals that is.
My query is about specificly the last 5 minutes...
game in the balance...do we go same same to a structure that had not delivered either a contested mark in the forward 50 or even a mark on the lead ?
Is the saying Glory Favours The Brave ? No body would of bemoaned the coaching staff for giving it one last shot but when we dont at least try something, anything then the question will always hang and always be asked
Yes hindsight is a wonderful thing but we will never know what could of been by no move made at all...Im not saying change the whole side upside down in the last 5...just that we needed someone anyone to just jag something ...just thought a change up might of done the trick !
By no means am i not proud of the boys and Ross and co but lets disect this thing to the shizen , pick it to pieces and then never let it happen again.

[Winmarvellous]

BJ to the square? Stuffed collarbone and all? I don't think so. Maybe our forwards should've tried something new for the day...kicking straight.

[The darkness]

BJ to the square? Stuffed collarbone and all? I don't think so. Maybe our forwards should've tried something new for the day...kicking straight.

Ross thought him fit enough to take the field so why not...If he wasnt fit to be on the field to play a role anywhere on the field then why was he there ?

[Teflon]

Was at the game and have watched it 3 times..
Can not fathom why when the game needed to be won, and as our forward set up was not working ..why wasnt a move made to change up the forward structure ?
Kosi to the ruck, Gardy to the square
Dempster to a tag role and Bj to the square ...isolating a mid size defender
Surely something could of been done...call me radical, but this game could of been anyones with 5 mins on the clock.
Sure if a move was made and we lost( as we did ) well at least we tried something right to the last gasp.
Maybe I'll get shouted down but i think a few out there could of come up with some move that might of given us 1 or 2 more shots on goal with a few mins on the clock

Never mind the harry hindsight jibes - its a fair question and Im a huge Lyon fan.

I do think the coach learnt something on the weekend also - hence his comment post game that maybe the bombing long at his direction was his fault....theres no shame in admitting we got that wrong. Its how we learn - even if some are scarred from it.

I too thought the Cats were a matter of time to score in the last - we didnt look like it, the ball wasnt in there long enough and yes its odd that we have THE BEST lead up fwd in the game whose endurance on multiple leads sets him apart from the rest.......so we continually kick it on top of his head on a wet, greasy day to help out defenders.....

To be fair, perhaps part of the plan was for crumbers to be given opportunities that they SHOULDVE taken - cant say we didnt generate any.....and we all know we didnt execute.

We'll learn. But a couple of things are clear:

1 we'd kill for some more midfield goals....look at how many Geelong players kicked 20 or more this season while we had Roo/Kosi to kick our bulk....

2 we need a mid size fwd type who can rotate via the middle aka Chapman - and I believe Goddard is that man

3 we need another quality run and carry mid to release Goddard AND to help Hayes out.

IF Im Geelong and I play St Kilda next.....I send Bartel straight to Hayes - they NOW know that if you shut him down most of our midfield drive goes.....while Ling sits on Dal...they can afford to then back themselves in with Corey/Ablett/Selwood to do the damage with Chapman help. They bat deeper for quality here its their strength so why wouldnt they use it???

[mbogo]

Before anything is dissected you would need to know what moves were actually made, rather than assuming that there were none.
It was probably a fair assumption that if we put it up there enough that someone would mark or snare one off the pack and the pressure that would cause would give us an advantage.
Weather had cleared a bit by then.
Very easy in retrospect.
Armchair analysts

[Teflon]

Before anything is dissected you would need to know what moves were actually made, rather than assuming that there were none.
It was probably a fair assumption that if we put it up there enough that someone would mark or snare one off the pack and the pressure that would cause would give us an advantage.
Weather had cleared a bit by then.
Very easy in retrospect.
Armchair analysts

The coach said it himself - why do so many struggle with the fact we got that wrong?

Geezus grow some balls - we'll learn from it but lets not be Collingwood about it....

The ball was wet, slippery and still tough to mark - I mustve missed the 30 degree change that came through drying everything up....

[Milan Faletic]

Was at the game and have watched it 3 times..
Can not fathom why when the game needed to be won, and as our forward set up was not working ..why wasnt a move made to change up the forward structure ?
Kosi to the ruck, Gardy to the square
Dempster to a tag role and Bj to the square ...isolating a mid size defender

While I don't agree with the "5 minutes to go" comments from The Darkness, I would have liked to have seen Kosi go in to the ruck and Gardiner go forward just to see if we could take a contested mark. Ross Lyon did admit that he may have made a mistake by telling the guys to kick long and leave the forwards to mark. Hell, I was pushing that. Given the low scoring game we really only needed one contested mark to put us 7 or 8 points up and put the pressure on them. Gardiner might have been able to do that. Just speculating and I am surprised that we had 118 tackles and all the Inside 50's and still lost. Have a look at the contested marks stats and that might explain a lot. I know we missed chances, I know all of the other reasons. I have met Harry Hindsight. Just think that the Darkness should not be trashed for making some critical comments.

[Teflon]

Was at the game and have watched it 3 times..
Can not fathom why when the game needed to be won, and as our forward set up was not working ..why wasnt a move made to change up the forward structure ?
Kosi to the ruck, Gardy to the square
Dempster to a tag role and Bj to the square ...isolating a mid size defender

While I don't agree with the "5 minutes to go" comments from The Darkness, I would have liked to have seen Kosi go in to the ruck and Gardiner go forward just to see if we could take a contested mark. Ross Lyon did admit that he may have made a mistake by telling the guys to kick long and leave the forwards to mark. Hell, I was pushing that. Given the low scoring game we really only needed one contested mark to put us 7 or 8 points up and put the pressure on them. Gardiner might have been able to do that. Just speculating and I am surprised that we had 118 tackles and all the Inside 50's and still lost. Have a look at the contested marks stats and that might explain a lot. I know we missed chances, I know all of the other reasons. I have met Harry Hindsight. Just think that the Darkness should not be trashed for making some critical comments.

correct.

on a footy forum a few days after a dreadful gf loss....al we have is harry....leave him alone.

[bigcarl]

2 we need a mid size fwd type who can rotate via the middle aka Chapman - and I believe Goddard is that man

yep.

[SaintWodonga]

Actually that is a very fair point. Felt that Bomber clearly out coached in the final quarter..

[Milton66]

The thing is that if he made some changes, and we still lost... people would be on here moaning about why did we change a set-up that had served us so well.

It's over, we lost... no point looking at the what ifs... won't change shyte about the result.

Geeelong had us in the last quarter. Had we had a buffer on the scoreboard it might have been different. But we didn't.

Bring on 2010, and tell Harry to F*** off until next year.

[chook23]

Actually that is a very fair point. Felt that Bomber clearly out coached in the final quarter..

Please explain exactly "clearly out coached"

[rodgerfox]

Before anything is dissected you would need to know what moves were actually made, rather than assuming that there were none.
It was probably a fair assumption that if we put it up there enough that someone would mark or snare one off the pack and the pressure that would cause would give us an advantage.
Weather had cleared a bit by then.
Very easy in retrospect.
Armchair analysts

Lyon has put his hand up for making an error. He directed us to bomg it long, and he feels he erred in doing so.

In hindsight he was wrong.

He coached incredibly well all day, and really gave us every chance to win.

However he panicked in the last quarter, and in my opinion tried one too many times to use our 'get out of jail free card' - kick it to Roo.

[mbogo]

Yeah well it is f***** captain obvious that Ross got it wrong - as he admitted. I was only saying that it was a fair assumption at the time we would score early in the last.
While watching the game it looked like just a ball spilling our way would have sealed it. Kossie was running up and down with Scarlett - and was only a metre away during "that" contest in the middle.
It was hectic and crazy and FWIW I would have moved Roo up to wing-half back way earlier .... but it might not have helped.

[bigcarl]

The thing is that if he made some changes, and we still lost... people would be on here moaning about why did we change a set-up that had served us so well.

It's over, we lost... no point looking at the what ifs... won't change shyte about the result.

Geeelong had us in the last quarter. Had we had a buffer on the scoreboard it might have been different. But we didn't.

Bring on 2010, and tell Harry to F*** off until next year.

well said. all we can do is learn from it and make sure that next time we take our chances.