Reality check...

[Lorelei]

http://stats.rleague.com/afl/seas/1999.html

Look at the games, read some of the stats.

Of course, it is awful coming away from a game and not winning - but god help the players and the club if everyone had even an ounce of the down-and-out attitude that has been sprouted around here.

Step back and think about it - we have a long, long season ahead.


Jen

[The Prototype]

[The Prototype]

Okay...this board hates me...I only posted this once, why is it here twice? I only pressed the button once

[lones37]

As i mentioned in the main game thread the reality check has certainly hit home. 6 ordinary games in a row is a concern. The answers to the question is the key. Are we simply off the boil? Have sides really sat down and studied us to work out why we finished 2nd last year? Are we fatigued? Me thinks a combination of all three.

I am hoping that we are in a similiar position to last year where we started slowly due to the fact our training was based around peaking in September. I hope this is the case again.

The worrying thing is it looks like we are fatigued, both mentally and physically. One of the worries about losing a Grand Final is that the team wants to atone so badly maybe they over do it trying to catch up on fitness. In the Wizard Cup we looked super fit, now we look lethargic and sloppy. Hopefully i am wrong and we are just off the boil. Rotating players so regularly off the bench enhances my theory.

Realistically, we should now be aiming for 6-5 by halfway, and i think the club will take stock during the break and unleash everything in the last half of the year. I for one wont be writing us off just yet, on our day we can be the best, playing that sort of football consistently will be our challenge.

[couragous cloke]

ive been thinking a lot after saturday night, and all of a sudden i've become very VERY confident about next week, im almost certain we will bounce back, we play good at AAMI, Football park (whateva) im really really looking forward to hitting back and getting back on the winners list! GO PIES!!

[Brown26]

here's your reality check - it's may. we have a long time until I want us to be playing well - august. I don't care if we win 50 - 50 til then, do enough to make the finals but be in top form coming into September. MM turned horrible form around in one game last year - remember the port final? - now he has three months to do it!

You need three things in football that you can control (the other is luck). You need tallant, confidence and guts, well we have the tallent, maybe a bit out of form atm, we had guts last year, like bucks said we need to find that again, and confidence comes (hopefully) from combination of the other two.

Don't write the year off now, in august when we're smashing teams all over the park people will be asking the question: can Brisbane beat the pies? instead of the other way round.

Form is fickle, but I'm not cenrtain MM would be too dissapointed that we're not blitsing everyone atm. He enjoys using the backs against the wall philosophy, and he surely has it now.

GO PIES!

[AnthonyC]

I'm depressed enough at the moment. Thanks anyway Jen.

[daicos4ever]

I'm wondering how some people here coped when we were 1-11. And if I remember correctly, that win over Freo was more due to the fact that they were just completely dismal rathr than as being any good. Then, between rounds 12-16, we won 2 matches and lost the others by less than a goal. Surely the doomsdayers on here would have jumped off the West Gate bridge after round 7?

3 losses in a row is not great, yes, but it's round bloody 6. There's another 16 rounds to go. Keep the faith. Until it's mathematically impossible to us to reach the finals, or in a more realistic scenario we get knocked out of the finals, I'm going to believe we'll win the flag. I'm the same every season and this will be no different. Yes, it's left me gutted every bloody year since our last flag but I'll be right eventually.