Plan B?

[Go Swannies]

So we've now learned that if the opposing team mans up then even the Cats can nearly beat us. If we're allowed to run, we look great. But what can Paul Roos do to give us a chance when teams man up, as the Bombers did today - and every other team will do for the rest of the season now they've seen its effectiveness?

[dendol]

It really does look ugly when we hold it up and just chip it short. If this was clearly effective in winning us games, then I wouldnt care. However, I really dont think that is our problem. We would be winning games if our clearances improved even slightly.

[swans_premiers]

Our midfield is not consistent enough if it were we wouldn't need a plan B.

[midaro]

Cresswell's retirement may just hurt us more than Lockett, Kelly, Schwass and Dunkley combined.

[Nico]

What gets me is that we didn't play like this last year.

If it aint' broke don't try to fix it.

What happened to our run on style. This is now smacking of the Eade style of running it to the boundry. Heaven help us if it is.

The lack of breaks through the centre today were few and far between. When we did run at all costs guess what happened. Must have some dumb footballers.

[chammond]

If we're looking at who's underperformed during the past two games, you'd have to put Paul Roos on that list.

He's been out-thought and out-manoeuvred by both Daniher and Sheedy in two games that we could have won.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by chammond
If we're looking at who's underperformed during the past two games, you'd have to put Paul Roos on that list.

He's been out-thought and out-manoeuvred by both Daniher and Sheedy in two games that we could have won.

One thing I simply don't understand is why Goodes spends so much time at full-forward!

We NEED him in the middle. Does Roos realise that Adam doesn't have to ruck to play midfield?

[dendol]

Guys, I really dont think its solely a game plan issue. I think its mainly a clearance issue. If we cant win the ball, we cant run it, can we?

We got belted by Geelong in clearances for 3 qtrs, and we were losing. We win the clearances in the last, and snatch victory. Exactly the same thing today. We came within 2 kicks, only to be completely ****ED @@@@@@ FUC*ED over by the umpiring.

Considering the clearances were about 30 to 10 (or there abouts???) against us at 3 qtr time, I thought our forwards were excellent with their limited opportunities. Something has to be done with the clearance structures, not the game plan, per se.

[dendol]

Originally posted by chammond
If we're looking at who's underperformed during the past two games, you'd have to put Paul Roos on that list.

He's been out-thought and out-manoeuvred by both Daniher and Sheedy in two games that we could have won.

The only thing you can fault Roosy for is maybe the clearance setups. Even then, it is probably out under-performing midfield who cant execute the plan.

What can a coach do when the opposition is continually winning clean ball after a goal is kicked? Flood? That will be going right back to the Eade era.

Im not an AFL coach, or an expert by any means. Im not sure what we can do to fix our problems, but I'd put my faith in Roosy for a little bit longer. Hopefully he'll sort something out soon.

[Diego]

Originally posted by Nico
What gets me is that we didn't play like this last year.

If it aint' broke don't try to fix it.

What happened to our run on style. This is now smacking of the Eade style of running it to the boundry. Heaven help us if it is.

The lack of breaks through the centre today were few and far between. When we did run at all costs guess what happened. Must have some dumb footballers.

I agree regarding the Eade comment. Today and the past weeks have Eade all over them. It's interesting to read Roos credits Eade as teaching him tactics.

A theory about your first comment might be maybe last year Roos didn't really have a game plan in place and let the boys create their own play out there. His philosophy was "go out there and play your natural game". Where this year there is and some of the boys have not adjusted. I can't believe how backwards we have gone with in regards to our skills. Players like Fosdike and Jude Bolton have taken a backward step again.

but i agree we did not play like this last year. Even the times where teams worked us out we still managed to get that run.

This chip style of football is really looking crap.

sigh.

[sharpie]

Even apart from our clearance failings, our midfield is not strong by any stretch of the imagination.

But our game plan is for lots of short possessions, both handballs and short kicks. This requires a highly skilled unit. Our midfield does not match this decription, so how can we continue to play a short possession game? It doesnt make sense. While our midfield skills are bad the sooner we get it away from the midfield the better. We must kick long.

If you have guys like Hall, Goodes, O'Keefe & Davis up forward, we must kick long to contests. These guys will take enough strong marks to score goals.

While the ball is kicked long to our forward line, it is spending less time about to be turned over and quickly go back to the opposition's forward line.

What really strikes me, and is starting to upset me a lot, is that it seems we have definitely not improved anything since last year. Same bunch of guys, but all a year older, and nothing looks better. Surely Roos's 4 year plan requires improvement each year, each week, each quarter? So where is it?

[dimelb]

I think we played something like our normal game in the last quarter. We ran, kicked long and quickly, scored goals and nearly caught the Bombers. If the umps had been up to scratch, who knows?
At the same time Essendon played better than we did for much of the match. As people have said, they manned up and they were harder at the ball than we were for most of the game.
The backs worked overtime and did well, the score slightly flattered the Bombers through umpiring blunders. The forward line did well with what they got. It's in the middle we are pulling up short. Let's hope Roos can fix it.

[sharpie]

Eade vs Roos

All this talk of similarities between Eade and Roos has got me thinking now. Look at our losses this year: 1 point, 12 points, 10 points. It is all smelling a bit like 2 or 3 years ago, when we must have lost half a dozen games by less than a goal or something like that. The honourable loss. You know what honourable gets us? Sweet **** all. It has to stop.

We have to go out and play with no fear, just like last year. Either we win due to superiority, or we get blown away, and it is obvious what our shortcomings are. This would be acceptable for a young team. Instead we now more and more seem to head for the safe boundary line option, where alas we have to contest a clearance again. Sigh.

[liz]

I wonder if we're underestimating the impact of our half-back line being well down on form at the moment - thus we're lacking some of the "break the lines" run that might counteract the opposition's man-on-man tactics.

Barry has been OK this year without quite hitting the heights (yet) of last year and of course today he was well occupied with minding Lloyd (which he did pretty well).

Kennelly, on the other hand, is clearly struggling at the moment. Whether it's his knee (which I doubt) or his ribs / abs (which I suspect) he's not fit. He didn't participate in training last Wednesday, nor did he a fortnight earlier. I didn't see the week in between but there's a reasonable chance he didn't then either.

Had we had Schaubs to play on Lloyd, thus releasing Barry and/or were Kennelly playing well, we might have been able to bring the ball out of defence more quickly.

These are not meant to be excuses - if we are to be genuine contenders we need to have more flexibility / depth to cover things like this. However, they may partly explain why things aren't working as well as they were last year.

Finally, I did wonder at three-quarter time why James and Rogers had been given so little time on the ground (8 minutes each to that stage). Why pick two guys and then not play them, particularly when things weren't exactly going our way. James, in particular, seems pretty mobile and has a decent long kick on him so throwing him onto the half-back flank, maybe onto Solomon, might have made some sense.

[liz]

Re: Eade vs Roos

Originally posted by sharpie

We have to go out and play with no fear, just like last year. Either we win due to superiority, or we get blown away, and it is obvious what our shortcomings are.

I think Sharpie has identified another major difference between this year (so far) and last year, although bear in mind that it took the first third of the season to "grow" into this confidence last year. But certainly the guys don't seem to be as prepared to take as many risks at the moment as they were last year.

This may be because they don't have quite as much confidence in each other, or may reflect the fact that the likes of Goodes and Kennelly are well down on the level they can play at.

It's a shame because Bazza has certainly lifted to a new level and is getting great support from O'Keefe in particular.

Things can turn around very quickly. Last year it was that final quarter against the Dees that infused the whole team with the belief that they could do it. And while it is true that Essendon were the better team for much of the game yesterday, the same can be said of the Dees in that game. But we forgot that in the wake of that final term. Yesterday's fourth quarter was shaping up to be a similarly season-defining period had the umpires not intervened.