Holbrook Bloke wrote:It sounds lame but I reckon that was just one of those games that most sides have (Dees beating the Bombers a couple of years back/ Lions beating Cats). After playing well against better sides, I'm sure there was a subconscious mood within the group that they could just turn up, play a bit of razzle dazzle footy and class would win the day. Certainly for most of the game I thought we had the class to come back but it wasn't to be. Our continual fumbles and misdirected kicks (stats for marks received by opposition kicks must have been huge for Suns) gave the Suns confidence and they won as much as we lost. As good as Ablett was today he got more possessions last year and we won by 97pts so that tells me the Suns are coming along well. We have some amazing talent across the park and have won (and will win some) amazing games but if we take the wrong mental approach in we'll get done. GWS will get creamed next week.
Out everything that has been said ITT this post hits the mark 100%
Our approach to the game was nowhere near a required level for 3 and a bit quarters, hence the shocking turnovers and missed sodas early on.
Its all good and well for Bucks to highlight this after the game but his primary job is to make sure the boys go into the game with the right mindset. This is the second time this occurred this year, the other one was the Sydney game (Port beat us on their merits IMO)
The other significant factor was the selection, I've said I was bewildered by it before the game and all my worst fears came true. Goldsack looked miles away from it with his couple of touches performance in the VFL a fortnight ago and I couldn't give a stuff how well he has been training for the last 4 weeks, he needed to find touch and fitness before the call up.
Mooney hasn't been setting the world on fire in the maggoos either and is a long way away from learning to read the play.
Now for Keeffe's late inclusion, yes he was our only viable option to replace Rambo but did we really need him in the expected wet conditions against the GC forwardline that isn't known for its tall targets???
I'm not a fan of Clarke and even less so Russell but one of them should have been held back considering there were doubts on Brown's fitness few days ago and the wet weather forecast.
How Kyle Martin didn't get a game on the back of his match-turning performance in the third quarter of the last VFL game is simply beyond comprehension. Yes maybe he's been told to work on few things in VFL but he would have been a ten times handier inclusion than the Sack or Mooney.
My other criticism of Bucks' sub-par display on the day was the lack of moves which I expressed continuously in the game thread.
There were multiple options available to him but he has only used the predictable one 2 quarters too late. Krak could have been moved to HB, Sidey forward and while I consider Gablett to be untagable having a defensively minded player, not Swan and Beams, playing on him when he started to exert such a massive influence on the game was a must.
Yes Caff or JT would have most likely got smashed by him but to let him wreak havoc unattended reminded me of the stubbornness of you know who...
And I don't buy for a second the excuses of poor goal kicking and the amount of inexperienced youngsters costing us the game.
While both reasons are correct to the letter there were far mosre significant factors than those two at play here.
We didn't dominate enough early on to blame the goal kicking and the line up we had out there yesterday would beat this GC side 9/10 times.
ps. To the people who told the Club, Bucks, Ed and players to get farked after todays' display - grow a set and show some dignity.
I'm a fairly glass half-empty bloke and not afraid to speak some home truths but that shit is just crossing the line. We're all hurting and feeling shattered but right now everyone at the Club needs our support, not curses and displays of hysterical weakness.
And the less said about the xenophobic drongo and one or two of his defenders the better.
We will be back, just not this year.
Go the Maggies.
