Jezza wrote:The defence is the only reason why we didn't lose by 10 goals tonight. Moore was outstanding and a shining light for the team.
A lot of criticism towards Grundy, but the lack of connection between him and the midfielders is startling. It's a problem that was raised years ago and still hasn't been addressed.
Couldn't believe how often we were second to the ball. Dogs always had players ready when the ball hit the ground and seemed to win a lot more contested possessions than we did. Just saw the stats now, and the Dogs had 150 more disposals, which just about sums it up.
Cox and Mihocek looked okay up forward, but I just wonder where our other avenues to goal will come from. Ruscoe doesn't look ready for senior AFL football and Elliott's nearly at the end of his career now.
Henry looked overwhelmed, but at least the kid got a taste of senior football and will learn from the experience.
Being at the ground, a lot of supporters seemed to concede that it would be a "long year". No anger or maliciousness in their tone, they're just accepting of where we sit in the competition. I sense a lot of people have given up on Buckley now and will just ride it out with him for the rest of the year.
On a more positive note, it was great to be back at the football after 18 months. Didn't realise how much I've missed it.
Yeah, Dogs dominated possession. As others have pointed out, the inability of Trey Ruscoe and Ollie Henry to have any impact left us 2 players down. Not their fault...their inability to have any influence flowed from our lack of fast, dynamic midfielders, as well as their own lack of experience. Adz would have been a handy addition to our team tonight.
Dogs dominated possession due to:
a) our disgusting disposal skills which enabled them to keep turning us over
b) our horrendous lack of ability to win clearances, and therefore to always be on the back foot.
Jury is out on whether the players have lost their cohesiveness and team solidarity due to the end of season horror show that resulted in ejecting Adz and JS.
If this is the case, we might be seeing a midseason termination of Bux.