Well, that was a depressing performance.
The first quarter was just a disaster. At quarter time I think we had 9 inside 50s to their 22, absolutely ridiculous. You can hardly expect the defence to do much about that. By the end of the game it was 64 to 46 but the damage was already done and the game was over.
There was an interview with Broad at quarter time where he said we just couldn't get pressure on the ball, seemed to improve a lot in the second quarter although no reward for all that effort.
We are clearly out of the running for the finals so it is definitely time to play the youngsters.
Coulthard is a revelation, he looks great.
Cumberland, I reckon his issue is between the ears. As someone above said, he needs coaching - he could well be the type who lacks confidence unless he is going well. The way we get Cumberland going well is to develop his talents. He drops an easy mark then takes a much harder contested mark, the ability is there, he needs it refined and he needs to believe.
Bauer was just ok, clearly not many opportunities but he looked to be trying. Young and only really his first game given the little time he had last time. Needs more experience now.
Footscray clearly have deficiencies. But, gee, do they play well as a team. There is always an outlet, they always have players in position to intercept or to run in to try and get the ball. They get found out against the really good teams but they sure make up for a lot of their deficiencies through the support they give each other. Their list is probably just not good enough to go all the way, but it isn't far off and if they could fill a couple of holes they would be right up there.
In contrast we lack skills: the number of kicks that miss the target, handballs to the feet or over the head, it is all just a bit below par. The footy IQ seems to be missing and this was something we had in spades when we were winning flags, we had players who could read the game better than our opposition. Plus, one thing I really don't get, and especially against a team that run up and down the ground all night and are constantly harassing, is the way we kick to a stationary target, FFS run at the ball and kick it to a player on the move. This is so obvious in our forward line, the ball gets bombed in because everyone is stationary. The slipping over is really grating, it reminds me of how we failed to keep our feet in the wilderness decades. One thing I notice about good teams, they keep their feet so they can stay in the contest, this needs fixing and pronto.
The umpiring was the usual mess. I think it was Bont, but there was that Pickett tackle where he got the player high. The player he was tackling had dipped a little, looked like he was trying to accelerate quickly, and a free was paid for high contact. Ok, fair enough, the rule says high contact draws a free. What sh%ts everyone is the fact that there were maybe a dozen similar instances of high contact in the next 15 minutes and none are paid. If you are going to pay incidental high contact, pay it every bloody time or not at all, mixing it up is just a mess. You don't know what they are going to decide from one minute to the next because they are all over the place.
DS
