Jim05 wrote:Would doubt any coach could do much better with this lot.
They have been playing a lot better over the last month but have just ran out of cattle.
I did love the presser last night though, love the way Mick treats that wanker Stevens with total disdain
Jim, for the first time ever i reckon, I'll disagree.
On Friday night I saw first hand how bad we are. These are a microcosm of our season and I could do this about any game. Problem is, it happens week in week out.
Westhoff takes possession of the ball in the back pocket. I think it was either Johnson or Sheehan ran straight at him. He sidestepped them ran off, created the loose man and they kicked a goal.
Tuohy had a marking contest on the back flank. He created a contest but didn't spoil the ball out of bounds, loses his feet, White runs off and kicks a goal.
Set play from a stoppage in the second quarter. All 18 of our players are in the back half of the ground. The kick comes in and not one player gets anywhere near Westhoff who takes an uncontested mark 20m out from goal.
Contest near full back. We allow the ball to come to ground for them to swoop, they do and result is an easy walk in goal. Side note: Not one "third up" all game destroying contests. We've allowed one on one marking contest all season. Any chance of anyone leaving their man and destroying a contest?
Johnson tackles Carlisle and we get a free kick between centre and half forward. There is a slight delay in getting the ball back to him. He winds up, kicks it to the hot spot 30m out from goal. I think it was Jonas that took an uncontested mark with 3 Port players closest to him. The only Carlton player any where near the contest was Simpson.
Rowe switches play off one step, kick skews off the ground and Port pick it up and waltz into an open goal.
Casboult's kicking for goal. FFS, someone fix it!
Twice I saw instances where instead of clearing a path for a player with the ball, we peeled off to create a loose man and the guy got run down. Gibbs is a classic for it. SHEPHERD FFS.
And worse still, in the first quarter when the game is still anyone's, we have all 18 in our back half. When the ball is turned over, we get a hurried kick from our half back line to three port blokes because there is no one in our forward half.
Point being - reasonable teams get this stuff right more often than we do. Good teams just do it. Excellent teams (like Hawthorn and Sydney) don't even think NOT to do it. It's the footy basics that are killing us. Those things are the reasons we have sent us back in the pack.