Main things that were wrong (not sure in what order)(and I know others have covered most of this stuff already):
1. Poor tackling, pressure and overall intensity - Melbourne killed us in this area. The team perhaps started to think they are millionaires and forgot that our resurgence this year was built on high pressure hard tackling footy.
2. Disposal errors - kicking was back to the standard of last year - but how much of that was due to the pressure applied by the opposition? A lot of the mistakes were without much pressure but this may reflect lack of mental stability under pressure - but could just as easily have just been an off day at the office. The loss of Swannie, Brodie and Cara possibly also caused a bit of mental collapse to the mids, they need to learn from that. Players seemed to go into their shells a bit.
3. MM was totally outcoached on the day. It may be that sides are starting to "work us out" so it will be a big challenge for MM to see how he adapts, or will he go back to playing "blame the players"? WE've heard a bit recently in the media about MM being arrogant, not a big surprise to hear IMO. My advise to players is, don't play for MM but for the side and the club, but of course you must play to his instructions and have faith in his coaching, it just isn't essential to actually like him. Just accept his authoritarian style, it might just get us a flag, and don't worry about him never admitting personal fault. I still think he has coached fantastically this year and I'm backing him all the way at least for the rest of this season. Everyone's annoying in some ways (except me of course
), he might be a great bloke overall for all I know but it doesn't matter much as far as coaching goes.
4. Defense really struggled - missed Wakelin, and Maxwell and/or O'brien who will surely get a go next week (dep on how he went in the willi game). Also was caused largely by point 1 (lack of midfield pressure). Too much was asked of inexperienced palyers like Rowe and Trav in defense, due to us being undermanned. Oh yeah who said Melbourne has a weak defense??
Worst game I've seen the amazingly consistent Buckley play, and Johnno was well down. Some of that could be put down to point 1 again, but we have to play better under that sort of intense pressure - the game was a great learning experience and reality check, and prep for finals footy.
It's not fair to be too hard on Rowe and Yakka, Rowe in particular was quite good I thought considering his first game for about a year, and Yakka showed some promise. I thought MM was a bit hard on them on TV. AS for Trav, as Cam said looks like the 2nd year blues, anyone who doubts he will be an absolute star has rocks for brains.
Pendles settling in nicely, and Thomas started to rediscover his previous flair in the last half so might power on from here we hope.
I still tend to think it can largely just be put down to a flat game and we will be back with a vengeance vs the Swines.
Melbourne look like they will be right up there.
One more thing: we need a Byron Pickett.
