Post Match. Pies down to Dees. All comments.

[piedys]

Exactly. Have a whinge, get it out of our systems and move on

Not whinging mate

Just pointing out a few hubris related home truths which everybody else has danced around over the past few weeks...

[duke750]

A few observations from today:

Pretty ugly game of football. Melbourne shut down the corridor and we had no player able to consistently take marks in the centre of the ground.

McInnes and Harrison are not up to AFL standard. Harrison tried hard and did a few good things, but McInnes’ effort in the goal square was appalling. We will not be a real chance if these are part of our team moving forward.

Cameron reminded me of Grundy a couple of years ago. Grab the ball, ignore players running past, put a mongrel kick on the chest of the opposition. I lost count of the number of times he did it.

Ash Johnson was way off today. I can only remember him running out to mark once. Probably due for a spell in the twos.

I’m not a big fan of Ginnivan, but at least he knows not to fly against the bigger forwards. There were too many times when Bobby Hill competed in big packs. Stay down and crumb like a good small forward.

Lipinkski looked good for the run. 2 important goals.

Pendles looked decidedly off colour. Missed more targets than normal and fumbled when he normally doesn’t. Good time for the break.

Noble’s game today was ok, but the marathon stroll during that kick-in was appalling. But what I did notice was that generally nobody was running to space to provide options from the kick-ins. Pretty stagnant.

Comparing our forward efforts to Peter Wright’s marking last night reinforces our lack of a consistent big marking forward.

IQ was really good today.

WHE appeared to be really stuffed during the final qtr. Probably cost a couple of goals late in the game.

This wasn’t a great game by our team, and yet the game was alive until the final seconds. We will be better when DeGoey, Elliot, Sidebottom, Howe and probably McStay and Ginnivan are available.

We are still on top, and are likely to finish top four. Go Pies.

[piffdog]

Always interesting to visit this thread straight after the game.

We didn’t play well. Couldn’t get it out of our backline which just invited the pressure and as many have said, this should have been a 30 point loss. I don’t know what’s changed from previous weeks. I did notice Moore spent 9 mins on the bench at the end of the first quarter - he’s been averaging something like +90% game time in prior games.

I think we did miss Jordy as the link man from defence to transition - but if we can’t rely on one guy single-handedly either.

Also haven’t seen us that clumsy for a while. Pendles seemed to miss plenty of targets which is very unusual for him. I also think they need to get Adams to get the ball and give to the guy going past - so many times he seems to be finding the perfect target only to unexpectedly find himself under immense pressure.

Not sure what was happening with Maynard dawdling out of defence to get run down with 4 team mates around him. Also not sure how Noble thought he could run 80% of the way to the 50m arc from a kick in. Not sure where Johnson was at today - is it all confidence with him? Dropped a couple early and seemed to lack effort after that.

Hill needs to only fly for MOTY every second opportunity and maybe as a roving forward stay on the ground for the crumb.

Plenty of guys were quiet. Hopefully they won’t be next time we ply after a bit of a spell.

Not the end of the world although a little frustrating not to represent a little better (5 goals to half way through the third q just won’t cut it).

Onwards and upwards.

[Piesnchess]

^ true, but we still kicked more actual goals than the Deeeees. !

[mgh3536]

I really don’t get the hype on Johnson
Potential yes but at this stage better options in mcstay and Kruger

It was clear today not having the ball in Sidebottom and de goeys hands going into fwd line had an impact

Not sure on ginnavan can’t play him hill and mcreery in same team

Melbourne put us under pressure and we had more dump kicks today than I can recall

[What'sinaname]

I'd like to see us provide more options with kick ins. We seem so flat footed and most always kick to a contest out to the flanks.

Forwards - stop trying to get the ball over the back and start leading. This is especially true of Checkers who seems to have forgotten how to lead.

[CPtechno12]

Some serious losers posting tonight.

[Magpietothemax]

What’s the perfect blue print to beat Collingwood? Wait for them to fumble & have an off day?
Put Elliot, Sidebottom back in & then they all need a new blue print. The boys had an off day that’s all.

And supposing Sidey doesn't quite recover 100% from this knee problem by the pointy end?
And supposing Elliott doesn't quite return to 100% effectiveness deep into the season?

That's a lot of hope placed on two injured and ageing players.
Be more concerned about the lack of desire demonstrated today by certain players we fielded.

Too many players having off-days [days off] for the last three weeks.
Totally unacceptable from a team defending top spot.

From your analysis, Piedys, the blueprint to beat the Pies is to wait until the Pies are in a form/motivation slump.
That is not a blueprint that the opposition actually controls.
I agree that we need to urgently get games into Finn McCrae in the midfield and we have Kreuger and McStay as well to get games into and test out their potential contributions. This will happen I am sure in the first couple of games after the bye.
NJDaicos today both looked relatively subdued compared to their usual form. Maynard looked off as well. Tom Mitchell must by now be utterly exhausted. We also have no way of knowing what our training loads are right now, in terms of preparing ourselves for the progression of the second half of the year. They might be very high, which can contribute to sluggish on field performances.
Relying on Sidey and Jamie to return at 100% ? Geelong won a premiership with a similar strategy.
In the meantime, Harrison can stay in the team for a few more games - he looked good today.
We definitely play in accordance with principles of conserving energy, - doing just enough for periods of the game, witholding full physical effort for when it is required. I think we might have got that balance wrong today, which played out in the last quarter when the burst was too late.
I hate it when our team loses as much as you.
But i don't feel any need to chide our team for laziness, unacceptable effort etc.
We will benefit from the bye and regearing for the next game against Adelaide.

[What'sinaname]

I know this will sound shit, but pre game, I just had a feeling the Dees would win in what will probably be Daniher's last Big Freeze. The poor guy is not looking good at all.

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

Agree the kick-ins are lacking the dynamism we had earlier in the year, perhaps teams have got wise to our strategies? Perhaps we are leaving some tricks in the bag until later in the year.

Dyso is 100% correct in his bake, the effort was not there at times today and its been sneaking in for weeks.

We know not what training/loading they may be doing but I certainly hope its related to that.

Hubris is unacceptable

[piedys]

They are a pack of pricks Melbourne we give them everything but nothing in reply **** Melbourne cheats and umpires $$%^%%$ cheats

We reload and onwards to the premiership

The maggots didn't beat us today; we beat ourselves. We've had way worse in 2023.

As long as Rosebury and Stephens aren't selected to co-roger us, we are in with a fighting chance

[23 YIPPEE!!!]

Rest and re load
And **** Melbourne

Ret rest and re load

We have a heap coming back

[piedys]

From your analysis, Piedys, the blueprint to beat the Pies is to wait until the Pies are in a form/motivation slump.
That is not a blueprint that the opposition actually controls.
...
I hate it when our team loses as much as you.
But i don't feel any need to chide our team for laziness, unacceptable effort etc.
We will benefit from the bye and regearing for the next game against Adelaide.

Great to hear from our beloved board bard again!

The blue-print was to strangle our ball movement; which they had the cattle to do all over the field.
I'm thinking Godwin analysed those two prior losses to us in 2022 in depth during the week, to see exactly how we took those matches away from them in the final terms of both games.

Adelaide will be just gagging for revenge for that loss a few weeks back; and no Sidey to produce any miracles this time. They systematically dismantled WCE over four quarters; we turned up for maybe two last week.
We lack the motivation to "slaughter the wounded lamb", so to speak.

Once we plays the Cows and Port again, we will have a much more transparent understanding of where we stand in the flag race, and whether the player motivational observations of a certain jaded, burnt too often over the years fan, are simply a figment of his imagination, or otherwise.

Our training loads aren't the issue; the players are as fit as they are going to get for the remainder of the season.
I think the point should have been go harder today, as we had the bye for optimal recovery, and should have left nothing on the park.

I call it as I see it buddy; happy to throw the issue open to conversation, as controversial and polarising as it may be!
After all - we literally have nothing to talk about now for two whole weeks!
Our other option is to get out actual lives back; perish the thought!

[piedys]

Agree the kick-ins are lacking the dynamism we had earlier in the year, perhaps teams have got wise to our strategies? Perhaps we are leaving some tricks in the bag until later in the year.

We know the fast-ball movement game plan, which was shelved post Brisbane game, will be brought back out later in the season, no question.
However, 1st or 2nd spot must be secured in the process.

Dyso is 100% correct in his bake, the effort was not there at times today and its been sneaking in for weeks.
Hubris is unacceptable

Gives me zero pleasure to bake the team which was sitting pretty 11/1 until 3.00pm today; but any hubris must be weeded out before it manifests into something worse.
Some telling tests await us after the bye, and I suggest the teams prepares accordingly.
Honourable losses from here on won't procure us any 16th Premiership.

[Clifton Hill-Billy]

4 point loss flattered us and would have lost by much more if Melbourne could kick straighter. We had so many good players make uncharacteristic errors Pendles turnovers, Maynard getting run down from behind. I knew a forward line with great barrier was going to struggle against the likes of Lever and May and that absolute howler in goal square should mean automatic demotion to the magoos. Johnson dropped a couple of sitters and both he and Checkers looked treacle slow once the ball hit the deck. Noble has done some great things this year but he also makes at least one critical skill error costing a goal per game. IQ was the only one of our players who played a good game. Time for a rest and reset and Brions loss softened the blow of the defeat today.