Observations today

[fugazi]

I turned off at half time...could see where it was going and I try not to upset myself on a Sunday!
We looked tired and underdone. It has been a real tribute to the team spirit that they fought it out this deep into the season.
We just don't have the skills to match our effort, and a team like Sydney approaching finals just took us apart.
We need to extract a top midfielder ....Treloar (although his papers seem stamped already), Motlop, would love to get someone from Sydney like Parker or Hanneberry (though of course that will never happen) .........if we don't its going to be Groundhog Day with brave but ultimately failing efforts next year and beyond.

[spert]

I wish people would stop making excuses for what was a sub-standard performance from our club yesterday, a week after the coach stated that it was really important to have strong finish to the season. That was not competitive, it was a roll over and play dead effort.

[HitTheBoundary]

I think there was a fair bit of experimentation happening yesterday.

Much of the year we have hugged the boundary but yesterday we continually went back into the centre corridor and tried to pinpoint passes. This was happening even from full back. Not surprisingly, when the kick was not exact we were smashed on the rebound.

And Spert, we all know they were poor. But a discussion of the game and the reasons behind the poor performance is not making excuses. If you're only interested in whacking the players and stating the obvious then bump the match thread.

[Richter]

More of a question than a comment. But we are ranked number 1 in the comp for 'pressure' and Id guess we are also right up there for Inside 50s as well. But we are 6th bottom overall. I dont think you can knock our effort this year - but we lack finishing. What do people think we need to make the next step up?

Agree we lack finishing which is usually class and we lack that too
Need more top liners till we get them we are bottom dwellars, bunch of battlers who IF we have a good day and a decent side has a bad day we'll catch them off their guard
Against a side who can absorb our best 'blue collar' pressure we will lose easily as they have the class to break through that and score.

Luckily we do have a few 'finishers' coming through, none of whom played today... McCartin, Billings, Lonie and Sinclair are all quality players under 21yo who will only get better.

Today's front six - Minchington, Weller, Hickey/Roo, Bruce, Schneider
vs
2016 - 2020... - Billings, Weller, McCartin(/Roo), Sinclair, Bruce, Lonie. Back-up: Membrey, Templeton, Saad, any new recruits

At the start of season 2020, the oldest player in that front six will be Josh Bruce at 27yo.

[spert]

I think there was a fair bit of experimentation happening yesterday.

Much of the year we have hugged the boundary but yesterday we continually went back into the centre corridor and tried to pinpoint passes. This was happening even from full back. Not surprisingly, when the kick was not exact we were smashed on the rebound.

And Spert, we all know they were poor. But a discussion of the game and the reasons behind the poor performance is not making excuses. If you're only interested in whacking the players and stating the obvious then bump the match thread.

I'm not interested in whacking players, just interested in stating the bleedin' obvious, and we are a club that has a history of being ignorant to the faults that have resulted in our lack of success.

[plugger66]

It has to be said that the nature and attitude of last weeks opposition compared to today's redefines the "chalk and cheese" analogy. Geelong were a side ready for a dip, Sydney are a hard-nosed, tough bunch of professionals. I would be reluctant to use today's game as a guide to the season for our club. Quite simply, we were shown no mercy for our errors, and were offered no quarter by a very very good side. The boys will lick their wounds, and come back next season ready for another go at climbing the ladder!

Absolutely spot on. Boys are spent both physically and mentally. Remember we were tipped to finish bottom this year and Sydney were favourites at last years GF. Plus they had a top 4 position to play for and we had pride.
The Jiggster has got it spot on.

Sydney are plain scum.

They are not a real team. They are love child's of the AFL so it's a null and void game playing them. Bit like playing drug cheats when they are in a cheating phase.

Wow. Do you post these type of things to get a reaction? Have you ever had a serious conversation about footy?

[spert]

Yeah- I played footy off and on for a number of years with good teams and terrible teams..maybe you are qualified to talk about ping pong or knitting P66?

[plugger66]

I think there was a fair bit of experimentation happening yesterday.

Much of the year we have hugged the boundary but yesterday we continually went back into the centre corridor and tried to pinpoint passes. This was happening even from full back. Not surprisingly, when the kick was not exact we were smashed on the rebound.

And Spert, we all know they were poor. But a discussion of the game and the reasons behind the poor performance is not making excuses. If you're only interested in whacking the players and stating the obvious then bump the match thread.

I'm not interested in whacking players, just interested in stating the bleedin' obvious, and we are a club that has a history of being ignorant to the faults that have resulted in our lack of success.

I have no idea how many wins you thought we could have this year but I am suggesting not one person without bias had us winning 6 and half games this season. When you consider our list to SW last years of coaching list its surprising we won a game let alone as many as we did. Yesterday was terrible but the season have been above every single non biased persons expectations.