What should we do?

[giant]

The reality is that we were beaten by a better side last night who were more committed and snagged some excellent confident building goals. Our game plan works when the guys are more hungry to win than the opposition. Kangaroos were ravenous and why wouldn't they be - season written off, coming off 2 good wins and playing a premiership team. This game had finals like intensity. Sydney nearly won the game from 40 points down! Full marks to both teams for showing tremendous character. Most teams would have buckled under our fight back, but Shinboners were terrific. So were Sydney.

Correct - except the part about Sydney being terrific. If we were terrific, we would have scored more in Q2 - that's where we lost the game, when we had the advantage but didn't score. Q1 they were too good, we barely had our hands on the ball.

[swansrock4eva]

In answer to your original question of "what should we do?" it's quite simple really. Start the game a half earlier for us. Clearly 6 quarters are required so that the first 2 are a warm up without the opposition having the ability to play against us!

Seriously though, I think the next 3-4 weeks will be the telling ones - lose more than we win and I think we could be happy to make the finals but anything would be a bonus. Win more than we lose and start developing/rediscovering a good style to go about it and we can still give the premiership race a real shake. But where do we draw the line and start thinking about moving into the future given our ageing playing group? Wholesale changes are akin to doing a Richmond and throwing the towel in (i.e. let's not go there!), but there has to be some strategy in place to make sure that the kids we do choose to blood are the right ones and the ones who will help minimise the lull we endure as our key group ages and retires. Right now it seems to be a bit "well there's an injury we can't hide from, quick bring a youngster in!" but this can't be the permanent plan. I applaud Kieran Jack for last night's effort, and hope he gets the chance to stay in the seniors for a while to consolidate himself, but we have probably another 5 (maybe more) who have already had a taste or could be expected to get a taste in the near future, but leaving them waiting until a big injury comes along is a little demeaning and a bit pointless given the time, money and energy being expended on producing SENIOR footballers ultimately.

[hammo]

1. Spida is not the messiah...

He was one of our best last night.

[Nico]

Agreed

I find it puzzling that Sydney can consistently find the guts and determination to fight back after half time - hasn't it twigged with any of the players and/or coaching staff that if the same desperation was applied from the beginning of the game they may not be so far down, or (dare I say it?) ahead at half time?

Why wait till it looks like an impossible task to get their game face on?

Jude Bolton, Jude Bolton, Jude Bolton, where art thou. I'm here, I'm here but I wont be turning up until 3Q time.

[liz]

In answer to your original question of "what should we do?" it's quite simple really. Start the game a half earlier for us. Clearly 6 quarters are required so that the first 2 are a warm up without the opposition having the ability to play against us!

I like that idea. For home games at least they could play the first two "non-quarters" against our reserves team. Kill two birds with one stone - ie give the reserves a decent run around too.

[dimelb]

And I think he's working within some parameters. Sure we are being flooded more but I don't think Hall is fully fit - nor is Nick D, unless his lack of purpose has returned?

No lack of purpose for Nicky D - he was well held last night, in the most literal meaning of the term, and one of the worst lapses by the umps was that it wasn't picked up. At one point he literally had to grab hold of his man and throw him to the ground, then run out to right half forward to present, and it went to Baz and was spoiled. Frustrating!

[NMWBloods]

That's a good observation - I noticed Sinclair seemed to be all over him a couple of times.

[hammo]

I'm not sure about massive changes, but we need to something about our midfield and forward line. Our midfield is slow and defensive. It can keep us in games, by strangling the opposition, as we have seen many times and even in the second half last night. However, it's also vulnerable to exploitation and it means that is very difficult to blow sides away and take advantage of our quality forward line. Our forward line structure also needs some work - when the opposition floods back or has a loose man or double teams Hall, we seem to have few answers.

I think we need to consider getting rid of some of our taggers and adding some pace from the reserves. We need to work more on how we get the ball into the F50 more effectively and take advantage of all our options there.

You've summed up my thoughts exactly. Our lack of a classy midfielder is one thing, but to also lack pace just aplifies it. As always we need some class through there but it's not in our gameplan to do that. Do we sacrifice Malceski from the half back line and push him into the midfield? Physically he's identical to Judd, but perhaps without the explosive pace. Perhaps I'm clutching at straws.

We need to get more out of O'Keefe. He's the best overhead mark in the club so should he be played one on one inside 50 more often?

I think a lot of our problems will be solved when Goodes returns to his best but there are some underlying problems with our side and gameplan as Bloods has pointed out.

Perhaps a more simple solution is for John Longmire to resume as forwards coach and get a midfield coach (e.g Voss next year) who actually played in there.

[Nico]

That's a good observation - I noticed Sinclair seemed to be all over him a couple of times.

They were holding off the ball all night and right infront of the umps. I was watching that incident and the 3rd umpy was within 15 metres and saw the lot and chose to ignore the blatant holding.

Maybe the umps get a letter from Roos every week and they just say up you Jack.

[TheMase]

Things I would like to see.. (once we are fit..)

- Malceski moved into the midfield
- Davis and Schneider greater midfield rotation
- Jude Bolton, banished or re-invented in another position
- McVeigh, either out of the team or small forward


Something like this maybe??

SYDNEY
B: Crouch, C.Bolton, Dempster
HB: Barry, LRT, Kennelly
C: Fosdike, Kirk, Goodes
HF: R.O'Keefe, Hall, Davis
F: Schneider, Everitt/Jolly, O'Loughlin
FOLL: Jolly/Everitt, Malceski, Buchanan
I/C: Mathews, Ablett, J.Bolton, Richards
EM: McVeigh, Moore, Schmidt

Have I missed anyone?
Potentially Schmidt coming in for Ablett, just don't think he gives us anything 'special'.

Obviously it is unlikely to see everybody fit at one time.

Thoughts?

[swantastic]

Things I would like to see.. (once we are fit..)

- Malceski moved into the midfield
- Davis and Schneider greater midfield rotation
- Jude Bolton, banished or re-invented in another position
- McVeigh, either out of the team or small forward


Something like this maybe??

SYDNEY
B: Crouch, C.Bolton, Dempster
HB: Barry, LRT, Kennelly
C: Fosdike, Kirk, Goodes
HF: R.O'Keefe, Hall, Davis
F: Schneider, Everitt/Jolly, O'Loughlin
FOLL: Jolly/Everitt, Malceski, Buchanan
I/C: Mathews, Ablett, J.Bolton, Richards
EM: McVeigh, Moore, Schmidt

Have I missed anyone?
Potentially Schmidt coming in for Ablett, just don't think he gives us anything 'special'.

Obviously it is unlikely to see everybody fit at one time.

Thoughts?

Spida in the goal square,Fossie straight swap for Melcho,McVeigh gone and Laidlaw in.BTW Melcho will be in the mid field soon guaranteed.

[NMWBloods]

I think Schmidt is going to make a good centreman.

[liz]

I think Schmidt is going to make a good centreman.

I think so too. Given that he's in the team, I'd like to see him spend more time at centre bounces. He's effected more clean centre square bounces than Jude I reckon - ie ones that actually count and set something up, he seems to try to get a disposal off before he falls over rather than the other way around, and his tackling looks good.

I've also been impressed by the reliability of his kicking. He's no Malceski but he can spot an option and usually hit it, including over reasonable distances.

He needs to do more of what he's already doing, but that will come if he gets the game time and experience.

[SimonH]

1. A poor performance does not necessarily indicate that there is anything structurally wrong with the team. It can just mean that too many blokes played a bad game. There was a good deal to like about last night's performance, at least in parts (albeit of course there was more to dislike).
2. While I and most spectators would be more entertained by a more freewheeling, risk-taking style, it wouldn't take us as far into the finals (if we got that far) as the existing style. Last night's game was a very high-scoring one by Sydney's standards. We lost.
3. Based on last night's performance, the only thing structurally wrong with the team is that we don't have enough depth in the backline to provide additional flexibility if individual blokes are getting beaten by their direct opponent. That flaw creates the additional problem that we can't release the white-hot Malceski into the middle to carve it up out of the stoppages, without losing the run off the half-back line that we rely on. These are both hopefully temporary problems that can be alleviated as LRT, Kennelly and Dempster return.

[Nolie]

I think Schmidt is going to make a good centreman.

The man we need in the middle or further forward is Tadgh Kennelly. His natural evasive skills from his Irish football completely befuddles the opposition - particularly defenders. Who can forget his 360 degree spin before launching a goal from 50 out - 2005 I think against Brisbane. It just came naturally.
His flair is wasted down back.