Post Game Passion AFL Rd 10: Carlton vs St Kilda

[Thryleon]

We still hear the same old claptrap on this forum, sack the coach, sack the players, sack the President, sack the Board sack the staff, sack the assistant coaches, every deal is a dud, nobody is any good, the world is woeful, everyone is against us, they should have listened to me. What is the alternative.
We have the fundamentals of a very good list, the club is an very good shape off the field, and they have a plan that they are sticking to.
Tell me the alternative, who, what, when, where, how and why. Give me the details.

This.

Beat me to it Big Nic. I've been a supporter since 1981 and a member for 25 years but I've just about had enough of this crap getting served up week after week. No disrespect to St Kilda but they're ordinary and yet they made us look stupid at times. Too often they ran it from one end to the other with good disposal and picked off unmarked men in their forward line at will....if they'd kick straight we wouldn't have been anywhere near them. They were missing arguably their best defenders in Carlisle, Roberton and Geary and yet with three key forwards we couldn't hit a target if we tried. Charlie worked hard up the ground and probably his best game for the season but if we're plugging holes in the middle by using him up the ground it defeats the purpose.

You can sugar coat it all you like but we're bottom of the ladder (again), destined for the wooden spoon (again) and this year we won't even have the number 1 pick to look forward to. You're kidding yourself if you think we've progressed in the last 3 years. Our skills are absolutely deplorable and turnovers kill us week after week. If you're brutally honest, there's probably 3 blokes on our list at the moment (excluding Docherty who's out again) that would get a game at another club right now....Cripps, Walsh, McKay.

How many times this year has Dow butchered a shot at goal at key moments in games? I'm sick of hearing about "elite runner", "great endurance" and "breakaway speed" when they talk about draftees. If you can't do the most basic thing in the game, kick the footy, then you can have all the running ability in the world and you'll be good at chasing an opponent and not much else. I hope I'm wrong, but we'll look back in 3 or 4 years on the 2017 draft as another one that we slaughtered.

I was taken with Bolton initially and his youthful enthusiasm and honesty but we've stalled, our young players are not coming on (Walsh excluded) and for the life of me I can't work out our game plan. In defence we're like Richmond of about 6 or 7 years ago where opponents just waited for the poor skills and decision making to eventually show through and they'd turn it over trying to kick short, backwards and sideways. If Thomas and Simpson are all we've got to keep a cool head down back then we're in strife. Newman showed some fight yesterday but even he turned it over numerous times.

Agree with EB's earlier comment about Kreuzer. He's been a warrior for us but he looked tired and cumbersome yesterday against a smaller/inexperienced opponent. Like many, for weeks I was calling for Kennedy to be in there to help Cripps but he showed us exactly why he hasn't been in there....slow and ineffective. Take Cripps and Walsh out of that midfield and at the moment we've got nothing. SPS/Fisher/Dow etc just don't do anywhere near enough. Yes they're young, but so is Walsh...so is Cripps.

This mid-season draft is a free hit of sorts but we're gonna blow another chance with Deluca. There's a reason he only played 4 games in 3 years with Fremantle.....slow and not big enough.

I'm not sure how many more weeks Bolton has got left but another bad loss this week and we need to be put out of our misery.

Forget the games this season. 

It was halfway through the third quarter that the penny dropped for me that yesterdays game was going to be a poor outcome win or loss because simply we played terribly and still almost won.

The missed shots by Dow are all part of a learning curve.  Each time he gets that opportunity he gets the chance to learn from it and fix it.  This time he missed and actually was a better player for the rest of that game.

The reason why we keep stumbling is that the kids are learning.  Too much, too quickly.  Stick with them.  This ride is a bumpy one.  It's two years away from bearing fruit, and next year is going to be a lot more fun.