Pagan seems to be in denial about our defence as much as his own coaching abilites the past three years.

Has he ever considered thats an area of concern. Our total lack of any defenders?

The gifted TE is our defensive coach - isn't it obvious???? The man that
DP can't live without!!!

Tony Elshaug - the trout

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For some silly reason, you people want to assassinate him, and it's just rubbish. You people. All of you, ALL of you!

Livingston and Thornton are that shit that Whitnall needs to go back there.
Livingston is a massive dud and Thornton is no better than he was 2 years ago. hasn't developed at all...

come on mate, no doubt the worst call i have read on this website Thornton shit

thornton killed tarrant today.


who is the midfield coach?

it is the midfield and the lack of accountablity which is the cancer of this football club and our mastermind denis and his [REDACTED] up rotations and tactics.

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SMFC 1959 : ONE LIFE, ONE LOVE, ONE CLUB

actually he's good at one thing. blaming his teammates.

Is the problem not our midfield or at least our midfielders' inability to defend?

The ball comes down with no pressure and uncontested - nothing a defender can really do.

What shits me is the ball so often falls into the hands of the oppositions' defence due to poor delivery.

That's what happens when you set up so that you have 4 on 1 forward of centre, and direct the mid-field to flood down the midddle while the opposition carry the ball unhindered down the wings. And then the mid-fielders fall asleep and allow opposition mid-fielders to slip into space unattended. And finally, when we do get the ball down back, 80% of the team is backward of centre, have no real targets u -field, and turn the ball over. This then leads to the one or 2 forwards who are forward of cebntre to not bother trying to run hard to break free of their opponents, cos they contiunually see the ball turned over at HF by kicking 20m to a contest, or 50 m to three opposition players, or even worse as kept happening today, kicking the ball 20m directly to an opponenent who is 10m clear of anyonw else.

You have to give the players a game plan they can believe in.

YES. People are starting to see beyond what happens inside the forward 50.

Collingwood player running the ball towards the 50 in space... is this Thornton's fault? HELL NO.

You look the other way, is the reason why Stevens doesn't hit Fevola lace out purely the fault of Stevens' skills? More often than not, no. Stevens would probably get run down due to stopping in shock if he got a decent shepard as he streams towards the 50.

Our players are always having to evade the opposition and instead of being protected they have to dish it off to a bloke who is sagging off and running forward like a headless chook.

These are skills taught at the most basic levels of footy, if Pagan wasn't reminding players to do them he would have been sacked in his second or third week at the club.

If we are to play a contested brand of footy because our players are either incapable or unwilling to run into space of create space for other players to run into to receive the ball and dispose cleanly to the forward line then we need to protect the blokes carrying the ball when we can. We need to work in numbers when in possession, which conversely may create some space.

So let's not go shooting down the defense, so much as the mids who need others to flood back because they won't pay attention to their man, yet cough up the ball when in possession because they won't work for each other (as a unit).

In that case the whole team is useless. No development in 4 years. Seriously has a team been that crap for so long - not getting past 10th in 4 bloody years? Were Stinkilda and the Bears that bad in the 80s and 90s?

The Collingwood defence while not brilliant individually are well drilled.

They seem to get the hand at the right time.

T Bird was the best player out there for us as far as i was concerned.. easily his best effortt in 12 months.

Killed them

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

T-bird was good, but it's clear to me that at times he concentrates too much on his man rather than where the ball is. A symptom of having the ball coming in so quickly and easily.

I thought Lance was clearly our best. He did a great job on Rocca, and was clearly the most composed defender when he was down there. Walker did pretty well too.

I wondered what he did

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

I always thought Molly Meldrum was our defense coach.

We're looking for a scapegoat in positional coaches?

@#$%&! that. Denis Pagan is coach. He's responsible.

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This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

Livingston needs to play FB and be left there to develop, Thornton played his best game for a while and McGrath was missed and should never have been dropped ,we miss his body strength and tackling prowess....McGrath has been slaughtered by the MC and done little wrong....for what he gets paid he contributes everytime I see him play and I dont get why he gets dropped and others are retained....Saddington was pathetic....and has done nothing since arriving from the Swans......apart from squib contests....which McGrath,Livo and Teague for that matter would never do.....

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Thorton did well against Tarrant - but Tarrant has not been playing well either... So which way do you you sway?

Agree. Amazing that our 3 best were defenders who won there position... yet we still concede 21 goals. Midfielders must be made to find their man, contest and harrass rather than simply make their way back to the defensive 50 while their opponent is allowed to set up under 'zero' pressure.

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Patrick Smith - Just another reason to HATE Essendon*!