Post Match v Wee Gurls.....All comments here thanks

[rychenroller]

u can always pick out individual player highlights but what i dont see is us playing as a team, no intensity, no run, yeh its early and season hasnt even started yet but i havent seen anything to indicate that we will be any better than last year, theres no hardness being displayed, no mass attack on the ball or the opposition with the ball, FFS lift your game Pies!!

Early days yet, stifling heat, tough footy conditions, many top players out....to early to get carried away like this.

[DaVe86]

This might sound stupid and feel free to criticise me. I watched the game and actually thought we matched them in terms of possessions, just we made too many mistakes. If we had a more experienced midfield, it wouldve been one heck of a match.

If you look at the clearences, we beat them quite convincely, meaning for a change we got first use at the ball thanks to some good ruckwork from Fanning and Fraser.

Look on the topic of Fanning and his silly mistakes, all I can say is that the key thing is that he rucked well. Thats what he is there for. The bad sign is that he really looked to suffer from nerves, surely a problem he will get over. Apart from making those mistakes, i thought he was impressive enough to suggest that we could raise him off the rookie list if we hav a bad injury. Ok he dropped the ball a few times, but any girl aged 4 knows how to catch a ball, obviously a skill Fanning has to have made it to this level. The nerves got the better of him in his first match. Next match he plays he will take those marks. He got himself into good positions and seemed to fit into the side well.

If you read through the pre match reports, i remember tipping rheece to pick up judd and beat him. Thats two times now shaw has got the better of judd. Rowe would now have to be inour top 22.

At the critical stages of the match, our midfield still remained less than full strength. Burns, Licuria and woey all spent time on the bench and were never really played in their best positions.

What is worrying is that cam cloke had a poor night forward and for two weeks straight now, i think our forward structure has not been good. Maybe the delivery is poor but something has to be done here. I like having Lonie in front of the ball as he was at stages last night. He is the answer to the flood with a big booming goal from outside 50.

I thought last night, we gave the game to west coast more than they beat us. That is inexperience talking. West Coast were by far the better team, but the youngstars will be the better for it. Gotta take positives out of every match.

[Johnson#26]

[DaVe86]

geez take it easy, all teams hav a bad game.

[Daks]

We make the 3 stooges look graceful !

What a bunch of babbling boobies we looked , the much awaited debut of "the best of the Clokes" , what a joke , great in the ring at a circus maybe !
Heart ? none on display last night , more in a steak and kidney pie !

Andrew Williams..... this bloke isn't in my best 22 for the Bassendean B grade and old Dunderklumpen himself , Big Tex , couldn't get a kick in a stampede.

Other than Rowe and , IMO , Fanning , our 'young talent' is full of duds , this is gunna be a long season.... or should I say , Decade

You my friend, are spot on. I'm sick of everyone here overrating us just because they can't face the facts. They can't stand that we're no longer any good. Get ready for a LONG season.

[rand corp]

Agree on this point rand. Are we missing Rupe in this reguard?

I actually think the new rules for holding the ball are hurting a bit here too. When Molloy, Rupe et al where struttiung their stuff in the forward line one of our great strengths was to bottle it up and force a set play (ball up, throw in) in the forward line, in 2002 we were masters at goals from set plays.

You just can't force a ball up these days, its get it out or get pinged so crumbers with pace and skill are crucial.

[eddiesmith]

We make the 3 stooges look graceful !

What a bunch of babbling boobies we looked , the much awaited debut of "the best of the Clokes" , what a joke , great in the ring at a circus maybe !
Heart ? none on display last night , more in a steak and kidney pie !

Other than Rowe and , IMO , Fanning , our 'young talent' is full of duds , this is gunna be a long season.... or should I say , Decade

YOU IDIOT

[Daks]

We make the 3 stooges look graceful !

What a bunch of babbling boobies we looked , the much awaited debut of "the best of the Clokes" , what a joke , great in the ring at a circus maybe !
Heart ? none on display last night , more in a steak and kidney pie !

Other than Rowe and , IMO , Fanning , our 'young talent' is full of duds , this is gunna be a long season.... or should I say , Decade

YOU IDIOT

He's an idiot?

Prove him wrong, then.

What have we done this year that justify's any other reason?

That's right. WE'VE DONE NOTHING.

[35forever]

What a bloody sh%tfight!

Couldn't be more disappointed. Yes there were some positives, the form of Rowe & Morrison, the solidity of Jimmy, Wakes & Presty, Rhyce's job on Judd, and a great fightback from Josh after last weeks crucifixion at the hands of the maggot. But the big three problems remain:
Kicking, Structure, & Skills (particularly marking).

Kicking: We were right in it for the first half of Q1, but our bloody set shots (1 goal, 2 behinds, 2 OOF's, & 1 didnt make the distance) killed us yet again. Meanwhile WC were snapping goals from the stands. If we dont do something about the kicking its gonna be a long one.

Structure: We are absolutely reliant on 3 blokes (Bucks, Taz, & Pebbles). If we are missing two of those 3 we simply cant win. We dont have anyone who can do their jobs at all, and they cant do each others jobs. Problem is, with Buck's age, Ant's ankle, & Taz's general nagging problems, we may be missing 2 or even all 3 on a regular basis.

The importance of Taz is hard to overestimate. He basically IS our forward structure. Even when he isnt getting a lot of it, he is constantly creating space for other forwards and presenting upfield. The rest of the forward line looks almost comical without him. In contrast, WC looked dangerous every time they went forward early & it was only the solidity of Wakes, Jimmy & Chad that prevented another 100pt bath.

Certainly we'll have a much better looking structure when one adds Bucks, Taz, Daks, C1, Cara, Tarkyn & Johnno. After all, thats half a great side right there, but injury worries make the whole thing look a bit brittle.

I think Neon's dreaming with this midfielder business, he's a crumbing forward, and we dont exactly have a plethora of them, whereas our midfield, with the likes of Bucks, Scotty, Lonely, Johnno, Woewie, & Richie (both of whom I grant had stinkers - but everyone does), and now Rowe is just fine. Besides, getting the ball up there dont help if you cant score. I would love to see Tex trained up as a marking goalsquare forward, as I think its an area we have been lacking for years. Ant seems to have an awful tendency to run under the ball, doesnt take anywhere near enough pack marks for his size, and is needed as a 'utility' player. I was actually quite impressed with Fanning, despite some silly mistakes (which I think can be traced to nerves), he seems to ruck well & has a helluva vertical leap. The others showed me nothing, but we didnt get much of a look. Unfortunately we interstaters wont get another look till Rd.1, against a fairly impressive looking doggies outfit.

That brings us to skills.

Actually, I'd rather not talk about those...too depressing.

Yes its only a practice match, yes the conditions were tough, but Wet toast played under the same conditions in the same praccy match, and I think their supporters are a lot happier than us tonight. We were sloppy, lazy, and wasteful, and looking far more like the pre-season team of '04 than that of '03.

No, I'm not putting up the shutters yet, but Christ, that was disappointing. Unless we manage one hell of a skills improvement, we are entirely at the mercy of the injury gods for anything like a decent year. Who knows, our big names might remain injury free, forcing the young 'uns to perform brilliantly to make the ones. (last years spate of wounded gave some of these blokes a chance they probably didnt earn). If that happens we could still be top four, after all, these are still mostly the guys who performed so magnificently in '02-'03, and when they're moving at their best they're more than a match for anyone. The last 10 against Richmond proved its still possible, but confidence, accountability, and skills are lacking.

Geez it seems a long time till round 1!

[eddiesmith]

Rocca runs under the ball? That pretty much indicates the midfield kicking was shit and was going over his head, not his fault.

Dids, Bucks, Taz, Lockyer, Johhno all provide better kicking options so more balls will land on our forwards chests.

The way we played last night, we would never have won, but we would have got a lot closer if the delivery was better

Those bagging Cam and Trav for poor games, its hard to play well when you are stuck in the f50 and the ball is being kicked over your head to your opponent and we have no crumbers with any brains.

[pedro]

He's an idiot?

Prove him wrong, then.

What have we done this year that justify's any other reason?

That's right. WE'VE DONE NOTHING.

Daks, this year hasn't really even started yet. At the moment were on the same amount of points as everyone else.

[Daks]

Daks, this year hasn't really even started yet. At the moment were on the same amount of points as everyone else.

That's true, Pedro. But you're only as good as your last performance and out last performance was absolute shithouse.

None of this bullshit "Oh, it was only a practice game, we didn't try", or "oh, we had out injuries, we were never going to win " We lost the game because we're a soft, inconsistant bunch with the ability to finish 1st if only we pulled out fingers out of our asses.

But instead of doing that, we opt for the easier option: playing a softer, less strenuous brand of football. Well that gets you nowhere.

I'm sick of making excuses. I used to make excuses about our team's performances week in, week out. I'd always try to find an excuse for our loss, even though there was never going to be one. You can be positive, but some of you guys are on the verge of delusional.

Sure it's only the start of the season, but i just have one of those feelings that we're in for another rough year, and until our boys put in a decent effort, i have no reason to think otherwise.

[Culprit]

We left Melbourne on Friday afternoon with a temp of around 20 and humidity of 40 to go play in 30 degree heat with 80% humidity. No wonder we got pumped. It's laughable with the team we took up there Malthouse has come out and said the Weagles are a genuine Flag chance. On that you would say we are a genuine wooden spoon chance using MM's Analogy. Nothing to get worked up about, I hope the injury list is no worse.

[3rd degree]

I only saw the last quarter and was very disapointed only a few could say they tried in that quarter. Maxwell definitely looks the goods and battled hard. But our work out of the centre and our manning up was pathetic they had loose men everywhere. They were taking unopposed marks everywhere our movement of the ball was terrible. Our game plan is flawed if all we do is go to Rocca and no one is there to crumb for him if he spills the mark. Sure we missed Tarrant but you'd think this would be the chance for someone to make a statement rather than hiding in their shells. We will have a long season ahead of us if we continue to play such sloppy football and not adapt some new game plans to the team. In the positives I thought Rowe and Morrison tried hard and it was good to see Cole kick a late goal. To lose by 50 points is pissweak!

[BBHS]

yeah I'm jumipng off too after the second round of the wizard cup. they where bloody terrible. ha ha ha ha