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June 29, 2006
It's All Gone To Shit
3 matches.
In that span we have seen 1 lucky win and 2 losses (one close and one not so close), that should of been wins if we were able to ajust our gameplan, style and tactics to suit the weather, opposition, the opposition tactics and underperforming Premiership "stars".
3 matches is all it took for what look like a promising tilt at back to back flags to go up in smoke and for us to drop out of the Top 4 and talk of the premiership, to 6th and talk of the end of an era. 3 matches.
Sure we are at the same spot on the win/loss ratio as this time last year but the difference this year is we don't look like exploding into a run of form that can take us all the way to the Top 4 let alone a Premiership. We have Fremantle this week in what has become a MUST WIN match for the club and then we embark of a two week journey to find our real position in the top 8, when we come up against the two top teams in the land in Adelaide (who we haven't beaten under the coaching of Roos) and West Coast in Perth (where we haven't won under the coaching of Roos).
As you can see we really are facing a do or die 3 three weeks which could even see us battling to keep our spot in the eight if we aren't careful. That's why the past two losses to St Kilda and Collingwood at home when we are better then them on paper have hurt because they hit us at the WRONG time. I know why we lost these games and I know why if we met these sides again in September it would be a different story, but I'm not going to go into tactic in this rant because I want to rip into certain players who I feel aren't putting in 100% at the minute and need to lift if we are going to be ANY chance of saving our back to back dream's.
First of all Ryan O'Keefe really needs to pull his finger out of his arse and start to have the impact as the 3rd forward he was having in 2003, 2004 and 2005. So far this year he has been missing in that duty in EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN MATCH and when he does get the ball is so bloody wasteful you start to wonder if, a) his mind is on the game 100% and b) if he is really trying out there.
Second of all Leo Barry has been a joke this season giving away nothing but needless free kick after free kick. After the first match against Essendon we thought it was down to Lloyd and his diving, but maybe just maybe, Leo has got a little too lazy and has allowed "That Mark" to go to his head and has taken the easy option and thus gives the free kicks his gives. He needs to either cut this stuff out, or Roosy must find a new Full Back and move Leo into a more attacking defensives role.
I don't know what's wrong with Nick Davis and I'm not going to try and guess, other than to say I feel he kept too far away from the play and therefore isn't allowed to impact on matches like he did against Geelong in last year's finals series. Now Roosy should stop with the idea of him being a "midfielder" for the time being and put him back in the forward 50 and allow him to kick his 2 to 3 goals a match and impact on the scoreboard, not the statsheet. Let him do what he does best - KICK GOALS.
With Magic, he either is boxed in by Hall and therefore doesn't have the room to move and thus moves outside his goalscoring range (remember he bearly can kick over 40m anymore) and when the room does open up he doesn't move back for one reason or another. Roosy needs to works out the forward line set up better to work around Hall and Magic because they are key players who will lead us all the way, but as things stand Hall is the centre piece and is being left to do all the work (and doing it well) but will burn himself out if we aren't too careful.
We have only used 24 players which is great injury wise but we need to blood some of our kids and put pressure of the squad and spots in the team because players become lazy if they think they are walk up starts each week if fit. Why isn't Moore or Schmidt getting a game rather than Mathews who has shown this season time and again he is past his best form for us, why isn't Vogels tried rather than Richards who has dropped in form in the last month and why hasn't Doyle pushed Chambers since coming back from injury??
Roosy has three times this year hinted at changes and not made ANY and this week he has promised more. Will he drop Mathews, Richards, and/or Chambers or will he go with droping the likes of McVeigh as per usual??? I for one hopes he goes for a big name just to send a rocket up certain players and to fill the young players with hope that they won't be the fall guys regards as long as they play well and earn their spot.
We have a fight on our hand and the past 3 matches have shown that we aren't the solid bet for back to back we all though we were. Now we are fight not only to make the Top 4 but to make the finals altogether.
Posted by robbieando at June 29, 2006 12:39 AM