The positives...

[msb]

Hard to find any positives when you dont kick a goal for 2 and a half quarters!!!! Anyway I thought LRT did a great job, as did C.Bolton although Reiwoldt really was not fit. Was something wrong with Kirky? He looked slow and did nothing all night.
It is only round 1, but geez looking at our draw I really cant pencil in a win till round 6 against Richmond! Maybe Carlton in round 4.....who knows!

[Wazza]

I thought LRT was good given how often the ball was coming in, he ran the ball out of defence on several occasions and looked very composed.

Shaw came into it more as the game went on and looks like he will slot in well.

White was good and showed glimpses, I would luv to see him spend time in our Fwd 50.

Like everyone was saying Bird looked very good.

Richards had an interesting game - great 1st half. Why couldnt Richards hold down CHF for us??

Not a negative but was Kirk running backwards or did he look rrrreeeaaallly slow?

Cheers

Wazza

[Rob-bloods]

Agree with most posts, some good to come out the mess.

White seemed to tap well would have liked to see him get a little more time on, or even rest forward for a short time.

Why did we drop so many marks?

Briefly a few reflections..

Bird good, White encouraging, Grundy not too bad, Bolton & LRT excellent....considering the pressure defence were under. Shaw glimpses of good stuff certainly not the worst. Why passing off from 50 metres into a crowded fwd line,no one pegging at goal any more from 50/55? Bring back the Vez. Barlow soft several times just eases up around the ball NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Sorry to hear of Ablett family issue very sad.

Why are our kickins so atrocious? Whoever has that responsibility should be SACKED....we were very poor last year and have started the same, the KPI for the defensive coach includes kick in structure and tactics...where are they? That put the defence unnder intense pressure because when they got a run on we could simply not clear the 50 so the ball continually rebounded during the spell that put Saints on top.

Saints flooded more quarters 2/3 and we could not handle it. There accuracy when we then turned the ball over was simply better than ours, they also got the run of ball and frees, for that middle passage they probably earned it.

We certainly need our 'stars' to perform Goodes'y very patchy and decision making poor. They pressured us in 2nd quarter but why so many dinky handballs under pressure, you may as well hoof it!

Indeed not as bad as Richmond but, a looong season no doubt!

[Dalai Lama]

to not score a goal for 78 minutes then only get beaten by 15 points is a positive!

[Rob-bloods]

to not score a goal for 78 minutes then only get beaten by 15 poits is a positive!

No I think we are just trying to look for "something" amongst the strewn ashes of the Bloods!

[Dalai Lama]

& at least Jesse White didn't do a 19th man incident?

[Rob-bloods]

& at least Jesse White didn't do a 19th man incident?

Luv' it "oh revered one", can God's messenger on earth help with our kickins possibly?

[Dalai Lama]

Luv' it "oh revered one", can God's messenger on earth help with our kickins possibly?

Yes my child - avoid directing kick ins to a Rotor Virus affected, ex-Collingwood Rhesus Macaque on all occassions.
then:-
Go quick, go long, and go hard. Don't think - DO!

[Rob-bloods]

oooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....I'm trance like......I can see the future Swans clear their 50 through fast sweet passing by foot...........and then I woke up!

[Nico]

We won't get Chamberlain next week. Almost all of our frees against were given by him. His inconsistency was bordering on cheating. The other 2 umpires were hardly noticed and let the game flow without unnecessary frees.

[Playsmart]

Ugly umpiring again

We won't get Chamberlain next week. Almost all of our frees against were given by him. His inconsistency was bordering on cheating. The other 2 umpires were hardly noticed and let the game flow without unnecessary frees.

Agree - you could almost feel that a free against us anytime with him. It puts doubts in the players mind. How could a professonal AFL allow this kind umpiring to get through?

Better to examine all the negatives (more important now than the positives from shocking 2nd/3rd quarter last nite performance) & postives, and someone a send copy to all highly paid players and coaches to wake them up.

[lwjoyner]

waited until this morning

I nearly sent a message last night, very frusatrating again for a long time member, how did we do so bad in the middle stages of the game. I for one thing that Ed Barlow has gone backwards since his debut and his papers should just about be marked. Jesse White although he did quite well should play in a settled postion perhaps chf , we have no one there. He can run around like Rooey does for the Saints and give Halley a helping hand I dont think he is a number 2 ruck, give the Canadian a go or Currie. A number of other players look as if they are on their way out as well. Kirky even though he had a number of touches looked out of soughts and I hope he doesnt go ebyond his use by date, it will undo all the good work much the same as Leo has gone on too long. We need more movement on the forward line the first quarter was good. If we play like that continually we will get the high draft picks in the years that the "new" teams take the cream and we will miss out.

[swan_song]

There is ONE very important positive to come out of the game...
and that is that there are now only 21 matches to go for us to have to put up with this bulldust...
One of the reasons we didn't renew membership this year (apart from the treatment of ND, the recruiting policy of the past few years, and the GFC -- thats Global Financial Crisis, and nothing to do with Geelong...well, maybe a bit to do with us having no show against a team that's won something like 43 of 46 games) was that we collectively thought that the players seriously let us, as supporters, down last year, especially in the games against Collingwood and Adelaide, as well as others. Now it's started again, but earlier in the season.
At least another positive is that, given Saturday night's effort, my expectations can now only be exceeded.

[royboy42]

Watching LRT fight it out one off with a big forward takes me back a lot...you're right Liz, Plugger must be dirty that he's not playing now...he would have kicked 20 every week..19 from frees. It's a shame that the one off contest has been taken out of the game with the no touching rule...damn shame!

[Legs Akimbo]

What I would like to see next week

- Bird starting on the ground in the centre, spending as much time there as possible.
- No Barlow, Crouch or Buchanan (Ablett, Meredith, MOD or MOL of fit)
- Hall to play true CHF, Grundy FF (although I do think he can play back)
- Moore to have a spells in the middle rotating from the forward pocket with resting Bird, McVeigh).
- ROK as a link man on the wing not in the forward 50m
- Stick with the run and carry and rapid ball movement, even kicking to contests. Even if we screw up, at least the other guys can't run forward en masse into empty space.
- A much much higher work rate with players pushing forward on the rebound to present options.
- Pressure in the centre corridor instead of allowing the other team to switch play at will and bring the ball to 50m arc unharried. No wonder the saints got it into their forward 50m so many times.