Why the stuff did cotch give them the wind in the first qtr??? Was just saying to my wife an hour before that the golden rule to winning interstate was get of to a good start and do t let th home team get their tails up. Game was over after 12 mins like the Ben cousins game lol
Cop out. We just played like shyte. Simple as that.
BTW -Tony - now do you see why pace is important?
It's a legitimate question, not an excuse - please - id like to know the logic behind that decision.
Also today there were bigger factirs than leg speed - gut running being one, outcoached two and the deer in headlights being 3.
Ill give my full thoughts when I get back to melbourne
I explained somewhere else here - and FWIW I don't agree - but I said it was to do with wanting the breeze in the last quarter which is normally Port's strongest. Of course we wouldn't have expected the game to be over by halfway through the second quarter.
There were many factors. leg speed was one of them - they ran away from us and broke lines because they were quicker , they ran us down because they were quicker
Another problem is we jus don't have enough one touch players - and the few we do can't maintain their skills under pressure, which comes back to composure.
Our tackling has been abysmal for years - technique is appalling - they don't watch the hips and there's to many with muppet arms, but also not enough closing speed - so again a pace issue.
Fair points on all. I agree that there was a difference in legspeed out there, but imo that was accentuated by them having the bit between the teeth and their relentless attack in waves on the ball created overlap which just made us look pedestrian.
Heard what Hinkley said - gotta give Cotch the benefit of the doubt but gee wiz I was behind the goals Port bombarded in the 1st qtr and the breeze was coming straight at us...
Anyhow - this is my take: First thing I'll touch on - I only saw a handful of players that handled the tempo today - regardless of how well or poorly they played you can see clearly which players brought the intensity today and those that didnt. Morris, Rance, Lids, Cotch, Ivan Houli(but he killed us with his skill errors early) and to a lesser extent Miles. Everyone else including Ellis, Martin, Edwards, Martin, Floss etc etc etc we're off the pace, don't care what the stats say, early when the game was on, only a handful were able to get their hands on a very hot ball. The rest were made to look like vfl players
Second: We met our superiors today. Some may not like hearing this but even at our best we couldn't have beaten Port today, hell our best would've struggled to get within 5 goals. They were fanatic, fast, strong and backed themselves in. From the moment the hoff spun on a dime and dobbed it from the boundary I thought oh stuff.
Coaches box: One thing I think dimma and his team do exceptionally well is pregame prep - its no coincidence we seem to get the jump on sides most of the time. Today however they got owned by Hinkley. First thing's first - the spare man - get rid of it, man them up do not allow opposition sides to have a spare- very rarely do I see us have the better of the 2 loose man in the game. We've done this quite well over the past 9 weeks, why today didn't we work harder at shoring it up?
Lids and Martin fwd - yes its worked exceptionally well the past 8-9 weeks having those 2 jets up fwd and having our hardworking midfield do the job - but a quick look at the historical stats will show a clear tale - Lids loves playing the power, has taken them apart many times, they just cant match up on him and once he was moved to midfield today - no coincidence he become one of our few winners. Against an A grade midfield in port on their patch in a final - you don't play your workman midfield against them - you play your bluechip talent. Lesson learnt horses for courses - they can still be played fwd but there will come times that they will be required in the trenches.
1st qtr errors: I haven't watched the replay and probably wont - but stuff me what was with the errors, they scored about 4-5 goals from unforced errors? Houli losing it while taking a bounce, martin fumbling, morris missing a target 10 metres away, Chaplin having 10-15 metres start and JOGGING to the ball, got tripped and they run into an open goal but still he should have attacked the fall of the ball harder, that was the blunder of blunders today and that's saying something... bah!
No excuses, they were too good and a better side than us but it was the classic case of a perfect storm, our boys were diabolical, they kicked about 8 goals from the boundary!! and it happened to happen in a final involving Richmond of course just to highlight it.
BTW I was on the flight home with the team, sitting right in front of Dimma and assistants, basically surrounded at the front of the plane. Chaplin and Dimma above and beyond looked shattered - Dimma angry, Chaplin very down, almost felt sorry for the bloke, Griff too. They were pleasant enough, but didn't chat too much, if there was a way to describe the group - they looked emotionally spent, but Lids is still a trooper, never turning down kids photo requests - hes a very polite young man
