Bryce Gibbs & Marc Murphy

[blue4life]

We've had more 1st round picks than any club over the last 15 years, and if we're not No 1, we would be 2 or 3. We've had first dibs on plenty of talent recently. And yet here we are, 17th with a few games left.

You need to look further than first round picks, how many of our second, third and fourth rounders from 2008 to 2014 are still at the club?
Add to that first round bomb outs like Watson, Bootsma, Lucas, Menzel, Yarran and Boekhorst and it isn't hard to see why we are where we are.
Geelong's great sides had Enright, Hunt, Chapman, Johnson, Ling and Rooke all taken at pick 25 or lower and they got Harley for virtually nothing.

[PaulP]

You need to look further than first round picks, how many of our second, third and fourth rounders from 2008 to 2014 are still at the club?
Add to that first round bomb outs like Watson, Bootsma, Lucas, Yarran and Boekhorst and it isn't hard to see why we are where we are.

Where we are now can be summarized in 2 words - bad decisions - across all fronts, coaching appointments and sackings, player recruiting and player movement in and out, the board, questionable development program. All based one bad decision after another.

[PaulP]

You need to look further than first round picks, how many of our second, third and fourth rounders from 2008 to 2014 are still at the club?
Add to that first round bomb outs like Watson, Bootsma, Lucas, Yarran and Boekhorst and it isn't hard to see why we are where we are.
Geelong's great sides had Enright, Hunt, Chapman, Johnson, Ling and Rooke all taken at pick 25 or lower.

This is my point. I don't want us trading out players to get back into the top end of the draft. Either because it doesn't work, or because we're no good at it.

[blue4life]

Where we are now can be summarized in 2 words - bad decisions - across all fronts, coaching appointments and sackings, player recruiting and player movement in and out, the board, questionable development program. All based one bad decision after another.

And it can all be traced back to Elliott, but there's no use crying about it now.

[laj]

We've had more 1st round picks than any club over the last 15 years, and if we're not No 1, we would be 2 or 3. We've had first dibs on plenty of talent recently. And yet here we are, 17th with a few games left.

High end talent is not the answer. Been there done that. I look at the Hawks, Cats and Swans, and I want what they have, i.e to be able to stay competitive, without bottoming out. Those clubs haven't had many 1st rounders over the last few years, and yet they seem to pluck decent, AFL ready players from somewhere. I watched the Hawks Swans game on the weekend, and marveled at the number of names I'd never heard before, marveled at how they looked big and able to deliver AFL quality footy.

Bottoming out stinks to high heaven, and once you've been down there too long, it's very hard to get back up. The Dees have taken an eternity to look decent. I fear we may end up following them, rather than the 3 I mentioned.

Every side gets a first round pick and usually they are good. It's what you do with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th round picks etc...decides when you win a flag or not. We've been putrid at it.

[Thryleon]

You also have to look at the effect of the players Gibbs and Murphy play on and what damage they do...often their opponents are allowed to run around rack up 30 possies themselves
No use Murphy and Gibbs getting 30 possies if Pendlebury, Treloar, Sidebottom as an example get the same for the opposition etc and by virtue of being better users of the ball impact the game more...
You often look at the stats and see Murphy, Gibbs with high numbers but then look at the opposing teams mids who have about 5 players with similar numbers....Scott Selwood had more ball than Gibbs yet people say Gibbs went well and gave him votes even though Scott Selwood was his direct opponent for most of the night..

Scott selwood is whom they got to scrag Gibbs whilst Gibbs spent most of his time trying to get to either Joel Selwood or danger when he went into the stoppages.  Scott was just interfering and wasn't Gibbs matchup opponent.

Either way our issues lie with the fact that two of our mids get good numbers and the rest are on L plates and only get it 15-20 times.  Our opposition regularly get players with 25+ and hitting the scoreboard. 

[LoveNavy]

In a word. Depth.

We're swimming against the tide. About 1/4 of the list is injured 
I think our lack of depth may have seen players back too soon after injury. See ASOS and Byrne, possibly White and Gorringe too. To make it worse, ex-blues Eddie and Touhy are playing 100+ consecutive games. Durability is something we don't have enough of at present.

Having said that. It's good to see previously injury prone players coming along. Pickett and Smedts for example. Here's hoping their woes are behind them.

[DJC]

Scott selwood is whom they got to scrag Gibbs whilst Gibbs spent most of his time trying to get to either Joel Selwood or danger when he went into the stoppages.  Scott was just interfering and wasn't Gibbs matchup opponent.

Either way our issues lie with the fact that two of our mids get good numbers and the rest are on L plates and only get it 5-15 times.  Our opposition regularly get players with 25+ and hitting the scoreboard.

Nailed it Thry - with one minor correction.

[Thryleon]

Nailed it Thry - with one minor correction.

No worries, thanks DJC.

It's amazing what you notice at the ground when you stop following the play and start looking at the overall picture.

I noticed that Geelong did what the Western Bulldogs did to us a few weeks ago.

Whenever we were kicking in, they actually gave us the back pockets to kick into and had compacted the rest of their team from the HFF line to the Centre Square Circle, effectively leaving us only a long kick down the line on both wings, or if we were brave enough, the corridor.  We only got out when one of our players was brave enough to take the players on, and gain an extra 10-20 metres, before the ground opened up but it was under heavy pressure due to the Cats "flooding forward".

It feels a little as though we have been found out and I'm looking to our coaches to help our boys through it.

[flyboy77]

No worries, thanks DJC.

It's amazing what you notice at the ground when you stop following the play and start looking at the overall picture.

I noticed that Geelong did what the Western Bulldogs did to us a few weeks ago.

Whenever we were kicking in, they actually gave us the back pockets to kick into and had compacted the rest of their team from the HFF line to the Centre Square Circle, effectively leaving us only a long kick down the line on both wings, or if we were brave enough, the corridor.  We only got out when one of our players was brave enough to take the players on, and gain an extra 10-20 metres, before the ground opened up but it was under heavy pressure due to the Cats "flooding forward".

It feels a little as though we have been found out and I'm looking to our coaches to help our boys through it.

Bolton needs to start working on his Plan Bs and Cs.

He has been caught out many a time with no second option....

I like his teaching mantra but not convinced, far from it, he is the 'Messiah'!

Again on Saturday, we had too many kids out there. Smedts and Palmer should have played....I think Palmer will retire year's end.

And I reiterate Fisher will become a better player long term if he plays in the 2s.....for now.