Being smashed in contested marks means unless you can retain possession which we couldn't then its pretty much game over. We are just not strong in a pack marking situation. Vickery desperately needs to find some form, his efforts above his head are woeful at the present, even during the pre season he was very poor, a stark contrast to last year, seems to be totally lacking in confidence.
Our defence (and i use the term loosely) is our Achilles heel which i know is stating the bleeding obvious but it will be for at least this season until we recruit specialist defenders with both strength and height. All opponents expose this and play tall timber in the forward line where we are pretty much helpless to counter. At the moment all we can offer in height is Post who is quite simply a stop gap measure and is miles away from being a decent defender. Cloke should kick 10 goals against us next week (subject to his kicking), not sure who is going to be able to contest with him for four quarters.
Again as with every other season opener the hype of a big game has fatigued the players before they start. Once fatigued then the greatest game plan in the world wont win you a game if you are simply too tired to execute. Have we improved from last year, on tonight's effort alone you would have to say no, we got closer to the scum last season. Is there room for improvement, i think there is quite a bit but its going to be more a confidence thing given we could be 0-5 before we know whats happened.
