Hardwick's aftermatch media conference / Plenty of Upside: Dimma

[JVT]

Grigg was good last night, stood up when he needed to and kicked a couple of goals as well. Can't ask for more than that.

Had we applied some scoreboard pressure early when we missed easy shots then who knows how the confidence would have gone.

[Hellenic Tiger]

I would like to see Dimma do this.

Drop a senior player in the lower tiers like an Edwards or a Jackson instead of telling us these blokes are the first on the team sheet every week b/c they train so well and are really good blokes and a really smart and savvy.

The second tier is what lets us down.

[Ox]

"Throughout the night we never really played the way we wanted. A loss is a loss but you can accept losing if you have played the way you wanted to play. That's the most disappointing thing from the night - we didn't play the way we wanted to and know we can. "
I am a little concrened about how Dimma wants us to play. If our game is modelled on the Hawthorn style then i am afraid Brett Ratten is correct. It is easily countered. They kept possesion even though it meant going wide, a la Collingwood, and when the zone broke smashed through it. The our game plan may be solid, but it is getting old, the opposing coaches know it and what's worse, our players are still not capable of implementing it.
I know it is round one and we should not panic but this has ground hog day written all over it.

Hardwick achieved a reputation when he,as an assistant coach at Hawthorn,made a couple of unexpected changes in one of their finals.
That's it.
He's done nothing since.

[Willy]

The second tier is what lets us down.

Is that really such a surprise Tucker. I share your frustration but we all know well and good that we have no depth and a very uneven spread of talent compared to Carlton. We harp on about it all the time and then we jump up and down when it is left to too few to perform every week. There is noone banging on the door to force these middle of the road players out yet. Therein lies our problem. Replace Post with Maguane, Edwards with White, Jackson with Helbig. Miller with Derrickx?.... The result will be the same. Dimma has been weeding them out since he came but you cant cut them all at once. Guys like Post, Edwards etc. are next on the chopping block.
People talk about our structures and their superior ability to break down our zone, but good football players are able to this and sadly we dont have enough of them yet. Carlton do.

[TigerTimeII]

Foley was pathetic possessions mean nothing when they are not effective

[WilliamPowell]

Foley was pathetic possessions mean nothing when they are not effective

Sorry X but take your anti Foley glasses off for a minute, you know I've not been a great fan but last night he was in our best 5-8 players.

Was he brillant? No; not by along way

But he was reasonable and there were alot more ahead of him the terrible stakes IMHO

[Willy]

Rubbish. Foley was good last night. Very sharp in close.
Easily in our top 6.
Too hard for some people to have an objective view of certain players.

[Penelope]

Rubbish. Foley was good last night. Very sharp in close.
Easily in our top 6.
Too hard for some people to have an objective view of certain players.

I doubt if truer words have graced this forum

[Stripes]

Why blame the coach after one game?! The facts of the loss are obvious. Forget the zones, forget the forwards. The problems was two fold - our inexperienced and raw backline plus the superiority of their midfield.

We didn't have the confidence or poise in the backline to stop their small forwards or move it out of the defensive arc. Everyone was too scared of making mistakes plain and simple and this was because of the pressure their midfield was applying to every contested situation.

Our midfield keep up the intensity and matched theirs for the first quarter. After that they were able to scramble, force the ball out of the packs to waiting players, flick it around until a player was free, gut run, break into space, overlap and move the ball into their frantic forwardline. Their small forwards/mids have played together for years and seem to instinctually know where each other will run/be. We seem slow in comparison because we are still looking for each other.

The game in a nut shell - inexperience and lack of poise. We lost because of it. 

[Ox]

foley did some good things last night but still,too high a % of his ball gets are turnovers.
Clearly something you are all accepting of,based i guess on the fact he does "other " things that compensate.

Fair enough but at the end of the day,it's not good enough.

[Coach]

Thought I.Maric went well. people having pot shots at Graham is poor though. we lost in round 1 last year by 3 goals and Goose played reasonably well. Guess al and willy are right, some people can't have an objective view some players.

Newman was poohouse. half his touches come from kicking it to himself from a kickout

[Owl]

lol

[TigerLand]

Kick-ins were terrible

I honestly cant remember a point in my life when they weren't.

Watch tonight and see Collingwood find Pendlebury and Thomas from the kick in who are sure bets to hit the 2nd target effectively.

For what ever reason we kick the ball to KP players who attempt the play on at all cost game plan and struggle skill wise. Think we need to put to bed the play on at all cost game. Too many times we gave a quick handball to someone 30 cms away, its pointless. With no awareness we just put ourselves under unnecessary pressure. Would have counted 10 times we marked the ball in D50 then handpassed it a body length to someone else. Instead of assessing the situation with the time and space awarded after taking a mark we just automatically bring Carlton back into the game and invite pressure.

[Coach]

lol

WTF you laughing at you weirdo?

[Tigermonk]

maybe we just dont play well on Thursdays & at night