Pies structure and match-day adaptability a concern?

[lethalburns]

I was just wondering if anyone else has been given the impression that... When our pre-match plan is not close to 100% accurate, our side in general (players + coaching staff) have major problems adapting to new conditions during the game.

We have lost winnable games where the playing conditions or oppositions game plan has completely dumbfounded our side for crucial periods of the game, then only to come back with too little too late.

There is no doubt that we are playing crap football, however I think SOME things could be avoided with some better reaction and anticipation.

What do I mean?

For example….

We supposedly played our best forward in the goal square for 4 quarters to keep Joel Smith out of the game... Ok this may have turned out to be a win-win situation... However clearly when it was not panning out that way, why persist till the 30 minute of the 4th quarter? For Joel Smith to enter the game it would have meant they had to change any already successful formula which was beating us comprehensively.

Next door to Taz we have another concern...

We have a bulky, tall, massive leaping forward who is not given any contested marking situations. The one time I can recall a contested situation was in the goal square of the 3rd quarter where he almost took the mark. Someone during Mick's press conference said, " is Rocca ok, he looks slow.” Sorry if I am mistaken, HOWEVER could this suggest that he is being played incorrectly. Rocca's biggest strength is his ability in a pack situation, not his Maurice Green like pace. Just bang it to him when Taz is not free on a lead, let half the opposition backline try to spoil him and let the rovers take any spillage. This NEVER happens in our forward line. The Rocca brothers cannot run in anything but straight lines.. It's not their strength and only tires them faster... so why force them to do so?

Then there is Lonie & Lokan. We are already having huge problems running off our backline and this just compounded the issue.

My question is why was Lokan on the bench for so long and Lonie kept in a defensive role when it was blatantly obvious that we were on the verge of collapse every time we came out of defense. Don’t we believe we can win football games? All over the ground we had match-ups that were totally defensive and suggested we did not believe we could win, yet rather just wanted to prevent a belting. The saddest thing is that defensive mindset was against the HAWKS.

I just don’t see our resources being utilized very objectively at the moment. Confidence seems to be ROCK bottom and none of the players or coaching staff seem to have faith in each other.

I ask that no one get too touchy over this topic... Just expressing an opinion...

[Blanch]

It would be fair to say that MM was beaten in the box last week. However there have been other weeks that we have adapted (adelaide wasn't that long ago). We got blown away by the eagles in 15 minutes of footy and then adapted well - just ran out of legs at the end when Fraz tired.

Sometimes it's hard for us to accept that every move or plan doesn't work, but it doesn't work that way. We have to remember that other teams will try to exploit us wherever they can. Our coaching staff have a habit of letting the boys learn by leaving them there...trusting them enough to come back and do the job.

Let's look at BJ in last years 1st semi. Burgoyne toweled him up in periods but MM left him when everyone I know was praying for a move to be made. BJ came back and showed enough grit to almost take the honours by full time. MM shows faith in the playing group....it seems to be his style of coaching. To be honest, I've pondered many of the things you've written by I keep reminding myself that MM:
a) knows more about afl footy coaching than I do
b) has the track record to prove it

MM seems to come through with the goods come finals time...I'm still confident that we'll have it all right when the finals come.