Round 7: Swans v Suns.

[Daisi]

Cox isn't getting replaced, just needs to get his sh8t together

I hope you're right ....

[imuninformedtwo]

That was poor but not sure where the sack Cox stuff is coming from. We’re seven games in, running on fumes in personnel whilst trying to rewire parts of the game plan. The first half showed what we want to do, but it got putrid after that. Last week we started poorly before clicking. Consistency is a real issue and we often lose our shape around the ball. But you don’t punt your coach in those circumstances. You get the help around him needed to fix it (including a poke around the medical department).

Also you can’t blame the second tier players for that. Cleary deserves an extended run, including on ball. He’s got clear assets to work with. Roberts was hard and deserves a tick too. Corey Warner was ok but you’d like him to finish his work better. And Campbell’s first half was very good.

But as for the midfield in the third quarter in particular, yikes. Grundy got flogged (again), and our starting mids barely touched it. I do wonder if playing two tags makes us too reactive. Rowie seems to do his best work when he’s got a man, but is also given license to go win the ball.

I’m not sure what was going on with McInerney’s disposal. Awful and clearly the worst offender, but Lloyd wasn’t far behind. And if we had any fit, quality soldiers below, the coach would think hard about introducing Hayward and Ollie to Jarrad McVeigh for a week or two. They are both right off.

Oh, and if the Suns can’t win a flag in the next five years with the list they’ve built, it’ll be a criminal waste.

[UUaswan]

I hope you're right ....

Injuries are huge, depth is terrible partly because the last guy never played anyone

[longmile]

Any confirmation of the players wretching/vomitting at halftime? Heard it quickly on the tv coverage but not much else on it. If true it's a massive reflection of fitness woes. It was hot but its been worse in other games this year. Is something else up?

Watched Cox's presser and it wasn't mentioned either. I thought the presser was pretty crap without much explanation as to what went wrong bar "effort".

[UUaswan]

That was poor but not sure where the sack Cox stuff is coming from. We’re seven games in, running on fumes in personnel whilst trying to rewire parts of the game plan. The first half showed what we want to do, but it got putrid after that. Last week we started poorly before clicking. Consistency is a real issue and we often lose our shape around the ball. But you don’t punt your coach in those circumstances. You get the help around him needed to fix it (including a poke around the medical department).

Also you can’t blame the second tier players for that. Cleary deserves an extended run, including on ball. He’s got clear assets to work with. Roberts was hard and deserves a tick too. Corey Warner was ok but you’d like him to finish his work better. And Campbell’s first half was very good.

But as for the midfield in the third quarter in particular, yikes. Grundy got flogged (again), and our starting mids barely touched it. I do wonder if playing two tags makes us too reactive. Rowie seems to do his best work when he’s got a man, but is also given license to go win the ball.

I’m not sure what was going on with McInerney’s disposal. Awful and clearly the worst offender, but Lloyd wasn’t far behind. And if we had any fit, quality soldiers below, the coach would think hard about introducing Hayward and Ollie to Jarrad McVeigh for a week or two. They are both right off.

Oh, and if the Suns can’t win a flag in the next five years with the list they’ve built, it’ll be a criminal waste.

Just play mids that aren't downhill skiers, we are the only team that persist with this crap about having to have a defensive mid.

How about just ball gathering mids that play both ways, like every other team has.

The irony of trying to stop a teams mid from getting the ball by sacrificing your own mid who doesn't get the ball

FYI, I do like Blakey switching roles every now and then

[Merdo5555]

We are down a lot of our top players but are the rest of them playing better or worse. I would suggest most of them are worse than last year, Im sorry thats down to the coach. I always thought selecting from within was a huge mistake we needed to bring in a totally new voice to shake up the team.

Sadly to me Cox is simply Longmire mk 2 with a few positional tweaks.

To get over the 2 GF loses we need a major new reset.

[UUaswan]

We are down a lot of our top players but are the rest of them playing better or worse. I would suggest most of them are worse than last year, Im sorry thats down to the coach. I always thought selecting from within was a huge mistake we needed to bring in a totally new voice to shake up the team.

Sadly to me Cox is simply Longmire mk 2 with a few positional tweaks.

To get over the 2 GF loses we need a major new reset.

Said it 1000 times, we had 5 guys that were exceptional last year that carried the team to win games we shouldn't have.

The next tier were never held accountable as we didn't change a winning side.

Now we have the same guys, playing they way they were without the top tiers and some key players available to carry them thru

Compounding that, by not dropping guys last year, we have very little trustworthy depth.

Cleary hasnt even played 10 games, Warner 20

Both of them played most as a Sub too

[crackedactor 01]

I just want to know what's going on? This is very unlike our usual attitude...Did Lynch really say that players were throwing up at half time? If so then something is very wrong with the fitness staff...

And to repeat my question- If Cox was to be replaced? Who? Who would replace him?

Something very strange going on. Watch the 2nd quarter and there was good pressure on ball carrier. We were 29 pts in front and then Jed Walters got those 2 free kicks from 10 meters out.One of them was an absolute joke. Then in the 3rd quarter all the pressure we applied to the ball carrier disappeared? It like I was watching 2 completely different games. some strange things are happening this year.

[Dow]

Just play mids that aren't downhill skiers, we are the only team that persist with this crap about having to have a defensive mid.

How about just ball gathering mids that play both ways, like every other team has.

The irony of trying to stop a teams mid from getting the ball by sacrificing your own mid who doesn't get the ball

FYI, I do like Blakey switching roles every now and then

Couldn’t agree more

[Nico]

It was hard not to miss those under no pressure clangers. People have said plenty about McInerney. He did 4 kicking turnovers for goals and one hand ball turnover goal. Every game he does kicks into the midfield to players who are marked. In the 3rd quarter I think we were still in front. He gets the ball kicked to him on the wing 20 metres clear, but instead of taking off he stood there like a statue, a player covers his mark, so he kicks to a player under the pump 20 metres in the midfield. Turnover and a goal. Roberts almost weekly undoes his good work with similar kicks. Today 2 crappy little kicks for turnover goals. That's 7 turnover goals from 2 players. JMac is supposed to be an elite runner but refuses to chase and second efforts are garbage. He constantly gets beaten on one on one contests. He had 29 disposals but contributed nothing.

And there was the No.9 serial imposter. Up until half time he had 5 disposals, by game end he had 6!!! I'm still trying work when he had the one stat in the 2nd half. He doesn't chase, wouldn't know what a second effort was and we have to put up with him for another 5 years.

The positives: Cleary, just play him on the ball. same goes for Campbell. We had plenty of players who had plenty of the footy but all came to nothing.

It's hard to believe we had more disposals. I wonder how many kicks were 15 metre or less kicks.

In Blakey's first season he was interviewed on SEN and he said how would like to become a midfielder in time. Now is the time. He has plenty pace and ball winning capacity. But of course this won't happen.

Again left to the few same players to carry the team.

Horrible performance.

[Roadrunner]

Said it 1000 times, we had 5 guys that were exceptional last year that carried the team to win games we shouldn't have.

The next tier were never held accountable as we didn't change a winning side.

Now we have the same guys, playing they way they were without the top tiers and some key players available to carry them thru

Compounding that, by not dropping guys last year, we have very little trustworthy depth.

Cleary hasnt even played 10 games, Warner 20

Both of them played most as a Sub too

Guys, let’s stop this nonsense picking on Cox- for goodness sake, we’re only 7 games in with 2 key movers out in Errol and Paps, as well as 2 of our main forwards in Logan and Joel. This in addition to 2 regular defenders in Harrry and Robbie Fox and now Wicks as well. The reality is we have a makeshift team at present and they can’t put 4 quarters of pressure football together. We are all disappointed but the coach is not the one playing on the pitch and we have several inexperienced players in the team and at least 4 down on form in Wilbur, Ollie, J Mac and Lloyd. Cox has made a few mistakes but he’s a quick learner and not stubborn so I’m confident that the team will perform well once our guys are back. The problem for me is our ressies- is anyone ready to step up if we were to drop a couple?

As some have said, our medical/ fitness staff may need some attention as well as a look into the boots being worn. Onwards and upwards Bloods!

[Velour&Ruffles]

Guys, let’s stop this nonsense picking on Cox- for goodness sake, we’re only 7 games in with 2 key movers out in Errol and Paps, as well as 2 of our main forwards in Logan and Joel. This in addition to 2 regular defenders in Harrry and Robbie Fox and now Wicks as well. The reality is we have a makeshift team at present and they can’t put 4 quarters of pressure football together. We are all disappointed but the coach is not the one playing on the pitch and we have several inexperienced players in the team and at least 4 down on form in Wilbur, Ollie, J Mac and Lloyd. Cox has made a few mistakes but he’s a quick learner and not stubborn so I’m confident that the team will perform well once our guys are back. The problem for me is our ressies- is anyone ready to step up if we were to drop a couple?

As some have said, our medical/ fitness staff may need some attention as well as a look into the boots being worn. Onwards and upwards Bloods!

Well said, other than the not so minor omission of Mills from the Legion of the Missing. We are WAY down on numbers at the moment so I feel there are some unrealistic expectations playing out in this chat.

[Blue Sun]

I wonder what our midfield would look like with Parker (he’s gone, I know) and Tay Tay in there? Do we just need some inside grunts to get it going our way in the middle?

[MattW]

Agree with the negative assessments on McInerney. So many half-arsed turnovers. I also thought Florent was pretty dire. I'm not even sure what position he's supposed to be playing nowadays? If he's a small defender, he hardly gets near the opposition small forwards. If he's supposed to be a rebounder or winger, he's not getting the ball anywhere near enough. I also thought Lloyd was guilty of too many lazy turnovers.

I'm a bit undecided if I want to go into positives, because I'll largely have to ignore the second half, but I thought some were very good in the first half. I thought Campbell was excellent, especially in the second quarter, and you probably can't blame him for then being quiet in the forward line, when we didn't really get it down there in the second half. Warner, Heeney, Rowbottom and Jordon were very good in the first, before fading to varying degrees in the second. Melican, Roberts and Bice were pretty good in defence. Cleary applies good pressure and generally uses the ball well when he gets it. Francis was competent at both ends. And while Blakey's forward cameo was fun, I'm not sure if I really want to see it continue?

It's getting hard to see us eking out enough wins, to make a late charge when we get a few players back. Assuming that we get players back.

Agree with all of that. Well said.

[Roadrunner]

Well said, other than the not so minor omission of Mills from the Legion of the Missing. We are WAY down on numbers at the moment so I feel there are some unrealistic expectations playing out in this chat.

I forgot about Millsy- thanks for that V&R. He hasn’t played for so long, he’s just a memory- and our captain too!