Post match. Pies down to Tigers -All comments please

[ANNODAM]

Come on people, we should be used to this by now - we do it EVERY year.

Always fall away at the end.

End up bottom 8 as we will again this year & bow out first week of the finals. What else is new?

I'd rather miss the finals completely now cause if we go into September playing like this, we will be humiliated & there's another 15 clubs out there that absolutely LOVE seeing us stumble & choke.

Disgraceful performance tonigt!

Only 1 player shone & that was Daisy....

[Prometheus]

Any benefit of training camps in Arizona would be short term. The idea behind Arizona is that it is "High Altitude" training.

Once back down to sea level , the body re-adapts to the sea level oxygen levels and the benefits of high altitude training are gone.

[David]

So, I guess Toovey is clearly Scapegoat Of The Week

Poor game tonight, no disagreement here. But let's not give up on the guy yet. It's still only his first year of senior footy, and it's not like he hasn't shown anything (I actually thought he was very convincing in his first 4 or 5 games).

Go Tooves... still one of my favourite players. Just hope he can learn from tonight and put it behind him.

[hermie]

slow,complacent,soft,lost our hardness at the ball,cant tackle when the midget that was playing for them gives 2 dont argues one of them to our supposed hard man a rocca we are in strife.heath shaw could not out run there ruckman who tore us a new one and why do all the other teams clear it out of our backline to easily why dont we man up against brisbane they kicked it to the same side of the ground every time.PATHETIC

[RudeBoy]

Bloody pathetic, what more can I say. A few quick thoughts.

Our rucks were hopeless against the worst ruck set up in the league. God help us when we come up against good ruck combinations.

Our whole midfield was smashed. Time to turn to Wellingham, Dick and Cox. I don't think Toovey is a league footballer. Bryan has played his last game. I also think that our back line is missing Wakelin badly.

Given that Cloke was playing so badly I'd have liked to have seen him thrown down the backline where we needed some height.

I must say also, that I think i've just about had enough of our short kicking around the boundary line. It's too hard to develop quick momentum, and requires too many possessions per goal. I hope we adjust our game plan for next year in much the same way that the Roos have done. I guess though that it's hard to play direct football when we can't win the clearances.

I know we'll be better with Dids, Pendles and Clarke back in the side, but there is no excuse for what was dished up tonight. In fact we've been very poor since about round 10. On current form we'll be lucky to win a game from here on in.

[RudeBoy]

Bloody pathetic, what more can I say. A few quick thoughts.

Our rucks were hopeless against the worst ruck set up in the league. God help us when we come up against good ruck combinations.

Our whole midfield was smashed. Time to turn to Wellingham, Dick and Cox. I don't think Toovey is a league footballer. Bryan has played his last game. I also think that our back line is missing Wakelin badly.

Given that Cloke was playing so badly I'd have liked to have seen him thrown down the backline where we needed some height.

I must say also, that I think i've just about had enough of our short kicking around the boundary line. It's too hard to develop quick momentum, and requires too many possessions per goal. I hope we adjust our game plan for next year in much the same way that the Roos have done. I guess though that it's hard to play direct football when we can't win the clearances.

I know we'll be better with Dids, Pendles and Clarke back in the side, but there is no excuse for what was dished up tonight. In fact we've been very poor since about round 10. On current form we'll be lucky to win a game from here on in.

[The_Staunton]

I never realised how desperately we miss Pendlebury until tonight.

No class or polish, but then again, first Black, then Scotland, now Foley are strolling around unchecked, and nothing changes. Backline is in chaos since Presti came back. There's no doubt there's a "favourite side", but in 08, there has to be a changing of the guard, particularly in the midfield. Don't think Johnson has been criticised enough, he had a shocker also.

Also, why tell a team who hate us someone particularly is "rested" - why give a flat, dis-spirited side ANY motivation?

What was with the guy in the crowd shining a laser at people? Was that right?

Just a disaster - I think back to how well we played against Sydney, the intensity has dropped away. Still everyone across the season has had this "flat spot" (even Geelong - Port got flogged by Carlton etc) so I pray this is just our turn. However, it's easy to blame the kids, it's the experienced players that need to lift.

I'm trying to KTF!

[David]

[rocketronnie]

Toovey had a bad game but he's young and inexperienced. Give him a break. I'd be looking at some of the sacred cows in the midfield rather than Toovey to take responsibility for this loss.

[Mugwump]

Because it is so easy to lie in the agony it's worth recording the few positives before trying to analyse what went wrong.

Medhurst can play and was actually excellent tonight. Credit to him and the club for giving him the role of fast leading forward.
Thomas was outstanding.
No team in the current AFL is a pushover when they have a good night, and Richmond were pumped tonight. I think the players tried but were outclassed on the night. Had we kicked straight in that 3rd Q and had better umpiring in the first half we'd have won, though. So I wonder if it was quite as black as it feels.
I thought Bryan tried hard and I'd give him time. Big men need more time than most. It is a risk, but I think Richards has had his time and failed. So I'd keep trying to develop Bryan and draft a ruckman.

The only way to react to these things is to learn. Assuming there were no injuries, then we learnt the following tonight in my view :

The midfield is getting smashed each week and tonight was the worst- we are using old players there and the midfield is a game of ultra-quick reflexes now, so we need to blood kids there asap, and probably move Davis, Thomas and Didak through there.
Sorry Licca, you have been a great man for the club but it's over.
Swan needs a week or more back in the reserves.

[virgomag]

It's almost as if Malthouse wanted his old team to win !?

Report on 3AW today that Josh might be a last minute exclusion, not sure what the injury is but he sure wasn't himself tonight.

I luv Licca, no doubt about it; you can't doubt his work ethic but I think the game has taken it's toll and his body is gone. His tackles are still hard but his legs have lost the ability to run.

Chris Bryan belongs back at Frankston.

I totally agree with others, bring in Wellingham and Dick. I would also like to see Nicholls given another [i][b]real[/b][/i][b][/b] go, he's fast and lays a great tackle.

Also what about Danny Stanley???

[DaVe86]

[Snoop Dog]

not one bloke got over 20 touches - we have hit the wall as I said last week.

clearances are killing us and the mids are terrible. You can hope against the demons but if they have one advantage its their mids and hence they will get us.

Get ready not to win another game......gee it hurts!

[Daicosesque]

Lets keep the faith. The umpires didnt help. Lets look at the bigger picture. We get in the 8 and anything can happen. All year as soon as we come up against a low side we struggle. Malthouse is the reason we lost tonight.

[virgomag]

Is it any wonder McKenna is looking for another job !?