We were in unfamiliar territory last Friday night holding a healthy 22-point advantage over the Bulldogs at quarter time. It felt like a legitimate lead. It was our most convincing opening term for the season as we slotted our highest opening goal tally for the year with six majors.
Playing against a side with the same amount of wins as us entering the match, I began to think that maybe we weren’t quite as bad as what we thought we were. There was still a side out there that we could beat.
But as the second quarter wore on my relief quickly turned into the more frequently felt emotion of frustration.
Case in point, the Brad Symes out of bounds on the full kick.
Ben Rutten takes the kick in from a Dogs’ behind and the ball is chipped around in our defensive 50 for a number of possessions. Symes draws the short straw by marking the ball on the edge of the 50-metre and boundary line. Severely limited by a lack of space and a lack of options he runs inwards and takes a risky kick across the face of goal to Graham Johncock. With little room for error Johncock marks the ball over the line signalling a free shot on goal for the Bulldogs.
It was amateur and apparent form from a side sitting fourteenth on the ladder. Sitting a matter of metres away from the debacle I shook my head and not in disbelief because what was beginning to unfold was an all too familiar sight.
There was virtually no movement coming from the midfield. Perhaps a few half-hearted leads but nothing with any real conviction. Our players sort of just lope around with their opponent on their tail expecting the ball to fall into their laps. I just don’t understand what we’re trying to achieve when this happens because we seem to do it a lot.
It’s only one of a number of flaws we can’t seem to shake. I really don’t think I need to mention our clearance and lack of pressure issues for what feels like the hundredth time this season.
I felt like running down to Neil Craig as he manned the bench in the last quarter and waving my finger around saying, “Can’t you see that?!” It’s as if we’re watching the game in completely different ways.
There in lies what has been hard to swallow as a supporter. Our losses have been so similar that dare I say viewing has become monotonous.
What we’re desperately hanging out for is improvement, something more substantial than pinning it all on Ricky Henderson’s stand out performance for the year, and I doubt that is going to come from sticking to our structures. But if we see it without making some changes I’ll be happily proved wrong.
I know we are an inexperienced side and missing a few choice players through injury but that doesn’t mean the 22 players that pull on our jumper each weekend can’t bring some passion and intensity to the field. If we lifted alone in this area I’m sure we’d be seeing some different results.
Hopefully with the mammoth task ahead of us this weekend we are forced to make some sort of changes.
We’ve got some work ahead of us as we face off against the Cats in Geelong this Sunday. I’m not really expecting us to move mountains in the space of a week I just hope we don’t get taught a good old football lesson at Skilled Stadium.
I’ll be happy if I can sit back at the end of the match and at least say we’ve given it a red-hot crack.
