Ouch.
That was the feeling walking out. Not angry, not even frustrated. Just that dull sting you kinda expect now. I’ve had days at the footy where I’ve “gone off like a pork chop,” as Dad would say. This wasn’t that.
The whole ground just felt flat. Not shocked, not blowing up, just worn out. Like everyone’s taken the same hits for five years and now just braces for the next one. You could see it in the stands. People watching the young blokes like Lindsay, CDT, Duursma and thinking how long before they get stung by this system too.
Then you hear the post-game stuff. Senior players, coach, “we’re not in a rut.” Just didn’t land. Whether they walked it back or not, it felt out of touch with what everyone just sat through.
But taking the emotion out of it for a second, why was it actually that bad?
Because on paper, it wasn’t a belting. We went pretty even with Richmond in most areas. The gap came down to three things. Inside 50 efficiency, scores from turnover, and scores against from turnover.
Start with inside 50s.
64 entries. 10 marks.
That’s the game right there.
And watching it live, it was obvious why.
Our forwards just don’t lead. Or they don’t want to.
From TV it looks like we’re just bombing it in, but being there, there’s nothing to kick to. No movement, no separation, no one actually coming at the footy. It’s all static. Easy to defend.
Looks like we’re waiting for some cheap one out the back, or hoping it spills to ground without doing the work to make that happen. No basic leads, nothing to shift the defence. Just standing there. Ducks on a pond.
Then turnovers.
We’re the worst in the comp at scoring from them. When we win it back, there’s no go. No overlap, no urgency. We just let the opposition set up again, and then it’s the same slow entry and long bomb.
You can kinda see what they’re trying to do, that chaos, fast Richmond style. But we don’t commit to it. As soon as the game tightens, we freeze. No options, no movement, no one helping each other out.
And the killer is what happens the other way.
Every time we turn it over going forward, it feels like it’s coming straight back over our heads. We don’t punish teams for their mistakes, but we get smashed for ours.
That’s effort as much as anything. Two-way running isn’t optional in this game, and right now we’re not doing it.
Add in how easily teams just move the ball on us, and yeah… it’s not hard to see why it looks the way it does.
So yeah.
Ouch.