warburton lad wrote:I am not given to knee-jerk reaction, but our performances of the last week require some commentary.
We saw last year against North and these last two games that some of our players are very flaky when put under physical pressure. Our handball and kicking drop away to Melbourne FC levels very quickly.
We only have two players on our list that can crumb, or get front and square at marking contests: one wears number 18 and plays at half back, the other wears number 22 and was more than several classes above his teammates this evening.
There is a horrible tendency for our forwards to ALL contest a pack mark- when was the last time a Pies forward marked, on the lead, in the clear as Kennedy did last week.
Several players have shown that they lack in the basics required at AFL level. Josh Thomas has had four games in 2020 and has yet to kick a goal as a small forward. If he continues to get games ahead of either Appleby or Tyler Brown, I will be astounded.
We lack creativity in the coaches box- Mayne gave us very little up forward and Keane was outmatched down back- surely a switch of players may have given both men a chance to impact.
If we are to continue kicking to packs twenty out from goal, can Darcy Cameron please be instructed to bury his knee into any opponent in front of him at every contest? Fevola made a career of this.
My heart is broken by these insipid displays. We have a tough schedule and every team fits against us, but where is our counter to this? Where is the Magpie spirit? I fear that our club has been corporatised to the point where the financial bottom line has taken precedence over our win/loss ratio.
I look forward to the days to come where we are once again despised and loathed because of our uncompromising approach to the game and our capacity to win 'the big ones'.
Regretably, this may not transpire in my lifetime.
Floreat Pica comrades and buckle up- this season may turn very ugly for us, real soon.
Agreed, I will add that we have become far too reliant on our "star factor" Pendlebury playing a blinder, De Goey kicking five Moore marking everything down back and Grundy smashing the ruck.
What is slipping under the radar is the forn of the second string players has dropped off a cliff this year. What was such a strength in the last two years of players coming in and playing a role has gone.
The likes of Thomas, Eliott, Stephenson, Cox, Phillips have been very out of form.
Now I can't entirely blame them. This hub situation and the virus that stalks our lands is affecting us all and I am sure they are no different.
But I think the club internally should make a call around pushing this year or just suttely putting the cue in the rack for this year and focus on 2021 (likely to start early next year anyway).
"To know nothing of events before your birth, is to forever remain a child" - Cicero (Roman Lawyer/Senator) 46 BCE.