The coaching

[battye]

6 rounds in. What do we think?

[BigMart]

Struggled in 4 games..... With regards to selection, strategy and countering....

We looked good against two gumbys

[battye]

We looked good against two gumbys

But is that the coaching or simply by virtue of having enough experienced players that know the drill?

[saintsRrising]

We looked good against two gumbys

But is that the coaching or simply by virtue of having enough experienced players that know the drill?

...more that we have too many players that turn the ball over when they should not. In the first half turnovers was the difference.

[SainterK]

I can see where he is trying to get to.

Turnovers are hurting us still.

Feel like they have to address the end to end stuff as well, last few weeks teams seem to have rebounded too easily.

[mr six o'clock]

Struggled in 4 games..... With regards to selection, strategy and countering....

We looked good against two gumbys

Why ?

Cos when the pressures on , the same players make the same poor mistakes .
I must have seen at least 50 pinpointed kicks of around 25-40 metres by the hawks tonight !
I must have seen at least 50 hospital passes by our team , ask armo how his back is after he was left exposed by a kick on one wing , then again two minutes later on the members wing , in the last quarter !

Its time some of these older players were no longer getting a game !

[Richter]

Match day - below average. 3/10. Got the matchup on Cyril wrong tonight. Out coached by Lyon against Freo.

Development - good. 7/10. We have found a couple of new options going forward in Milera and Stanley. The 3 Talls forward line is helping take the pressure off Rooey who is no longer an elite player; Kosi is thriving - in career best form (outside of a 4 game streak 7 years ago...). Defensively we have a big turnover in personnel, and got beaten tonight, but overall with Simpkin and Geary coming on we're seeing the emergence of new talent. Midfield is just plodding along. I'd like to see more of Siposs and Ledger.

Game plan - more attacking. More enjoyable to watch. Right for this point of our development as a team. Unclear if it will be effective in terms of actually winning games of footy in to the future. 6/10

Media performance - presents well. Clear and positive. Not sure though how much may be a question of style over substance? 7/10.

Overall 6/10

[BigMart]

So youre agreeing......WRT selection???

We were chopped up on the outside tonight..... Just not accountable enough...

Held our own in contested ball

[TJMcCarthy]

Need to draw another line in the sand! Where we are is disappointed. Frustrated by an inability to execute clean consistent football. I wonder are we fierce enough at the contest and willing to back each other? Caring and sharing the ball on the run instead of hospital up and under kicks and poor handballs. I wanna see more fanatasism. Can we stoke the fire a bit more please boys? I wanna see more hunger and belief. Memo to the prez- Instead of family days we need a bonfire night where we burn effigies of the opposition and howl for their blood!

[Con Gorozidis]

offfield great.
but against freo and tonight 0/10.
made some absolutely chilidsh mistakes.

[QuestionOfAccuracy]

Match day - below average. 3/10. Got the matchup on Cyril wrong tonight. Out coached by Lyon against Freo.

Not sure what else he was meant to do versus Freo, he can't kick goals for the players. Lack of skill execution cost us that night, and it did again last night to a lesser extent.

[Ralphy]

Yeah not convinced he is for us..

[Behind Play]

Lack of skills, which caused us to turn over the ball too many times, the consistent going to ground, not keeping our feet is what hurt us.
We really need to bring Gwuilt, back in, espically now with Fish out for 2-3.
Scott has inherited a group of youngsters with limited experience due to previous Coach not blooding these players. I beleive he is doing ok with what he has, Kosi is firing, Roo is playing much better than 2011 and he is getting games into young players. Not to mention a game plan fans don't mind watching.
We may make finals, however we will only be making up the numbers.... this is not the year. Lets give him a chance and evalute him next year.

[Kernal75]

Not sure the last time the coach won us a game when the game was tight. I'm pretty sure he can't help our skills. Lots on here like to defend 6 game rookie players, but we'll judge a coach after the same number of games. Watters had no say in recruiting, list management so how about we judge him at the end of next year. We all have to accept the reality that we are an average team overall with slot of ageing stars, it's going to be a long road back IMO.

[samoht]

Is the coach to blame for too many passengers or bad skill errors last night ?
Under RL as coach we went from 20 wins to 15 wins to 12 wins in successive years and would have probably won 8 games under him this year ?
Was RL to blame for that slide ? Was he that bad a coach , or a coach with a short use by date ?
I'd be happy right now to have any AFL coach coaching us as long as we can go back in time and choose Rioli.
Coaches are over rated and over paid and rely on the cattle to make them look good..

[meher baba]

I think we look heaps better in attack. Our defensive structure is ok too, although we are down on personnel (we are too dependent on a few key guys, hence Fisher going off pretty much finished us).

Our midfield remains weak, but that has been the case for a long while: we can't blame Watters for that.

The players are learning the new style much more quickly than they learnt Lyon's.

Player develolament is at last proceeding as it should.

We are probably on the way down ATM, but for reasons you certainly can't blame on the coach.

[Junction Oval]

It's early days yet for the Coach. He can't kick the ball in tight finishes. There will always be "after-the-game" criticism, but the new attacking game plan looks good. It's the "execution" as usual, that let's us down.

I thought that Dempster was always going to be too short for Buddy, but he was left there all night. Gilbert was a better fit in my mind. Dempster would have been better suited to Rioli. The team seems to be left as picked at times and few major positional changes seem to be made during the game. However, subtle changes , like field positioning are often missed by we supporters.

[borderbarry]

Not so much the coaches as the selectors. Same are gutless, lack imagination, and need replacing. Anybody see Wilkes last week kick 3.1, take a strong mark, then get dragged not to play again?

[Stillwaiting]

We looked good against two gumbys

But is that the coaching or simply by virtue of having enough experienced players that know the drill?

...more that we have too many players that turn the ball over when they should not. In the first half turnovers was the difference.

That is spot on. It will take another year for the changes that watters is trying to introduce to take effect, and in that time I would expect the drafting strategy would include a far greater ephasis on disposal. It will take another draft or even 2 before it really becomes watters team and not what Lyon left him with. Until problem with that might be that the champions we have now may be past their best.

[samuraisaint]

A couple of points -
got the match ups on Franklin and Rioli all wrong - but did he have a realistic choice?
- not his fault that Dawson is gone, Gwilt hurt his knee last year, and Fisher strained his hamstring early on in the match. Notwithstanding losing Macca for six weeks, which is gonna hurt.
But - could have played big Beau - which would have left someone big and agile to play on Franklin, leaving Dempster free to maybe take Rioli.
Field kicking is absolutely atrocious and reminds me of early 2008 when Collingwood exposed us in this same area in a match at Etihad. Watters and his team needs to focus on this at training (if he isn't already).
We need to learn how to play the G - a few years ago the excuse was that we don't play there enough, no excuse now. We have players with years of experience and have been to 'the big dance', so to continually get found out in the deeper pockets of the G when the ball comes down the ground wide around the wing is disappointing. This was an issue under Thommo as well as Lyon.
We are definitely looking quicker now with the inclusion of some of the younder guys, including the talls which is a welcome change.
Watters is doing okay, I reckon. Keep moving through the recruits at Sandy and don't be too quick to retire players would be my advice to him. I think the Bulldogs are struggling due to too many experienced players retiring at once.

[Dr Spaceman]

We lost a game we were expected to lose.

Against the early Premiership favourites who had been fired up all week, both privately and publicly, after a shock loss last week.

And after losing our one genuine ruckman prior to the game.

And after losing our best defender, from an already undersized backline, at half time.

Yet despite all this, some posters are able to critically analyze the coach's match day performance and conclude its sub standard. 

Sensational stuff!

[jays]

very true^^

[Buckets]

We lost a game we were expected to lose.

Against the early Premiership favourites who had been fired up all week, both privately and publicly, after a shock loss last week.

And after losing our one genuine ruckman prior to the game.

And after losing our best defender, from an already undersized backline, at half time.

Yet despite all this, some posters are able to critically analyze the coach's match day performance and conclude its sub standard. 

Sensational stuff!

+1

But it's so easy to do!!!!

[Dr Spaceman]

"Forum Experts, always know what's cooking

How the game was lost and how it could've been won.."

[samoht]

"Forum Experts, always know what's cooking

How the game was lost and how it could've been won.."

We know what's cooking - potatoes.
& Forum Experts = Coach Potatoes.