The very many things I learned or “Were you watching and learning from the Clinic Geelong put on tonight?”:

  1. Don’t play the same team that Geelong keep beating.  Other than Stevens, all were older and none the wiser playing against the top team so far this year.
  2. Don’t kick out of bounds.
  3. If you are going to pick up a Geelong player, can we get a better one please?
  4. Don’t expect the old guard to stand up in big games: Reiwoldt, Milne, Schneider, Gram, Gilbert, Baker.
  5. Don’t keep passing the ball to Geelong, they actually know how to turn that into goals.
  6. Show leadership, for lessons in leadership watch Stevens, McEvoy, Jones, Armitage, Ray, Fisher, with a little help from Kosi, Dempster, Dal Santo, Gwilt, Peake, Dawson.
  7. Watch how Geelong do it.  Varco, Ottens, Taylor, Menzel was brilliant, Hunt, Johnson, Stokes, Scarlett, Podsiadly, Chapman, Vardy, Milburn, Wojconski, Enright and Ling.  Almost their whole team, plus the ones I don’t know so well, were so switched on and ready to go, even with 1, then 2, then 3 players down and very little on their interchange.
  8. Don’t play the same style of games that hasn’t given us any success.  Shock them with something different, either players or moves.
  9. Make up your mind where you want Goddard to play.
  10. Play Reiwoldt up the ground, centre or near there where no one expects a goal.  Let him run and pass to others.  Let him find his confidence again.  Play him in defence.  Do something that gives him some room to do his stuff.
  11. Stop bombing the ball forward.  Watch how Geelong move it from player to player.  Watch how they lead out.  Watch how they switch sides.  Watch them full-stop.
  12. Don’t kick it out of bounds.  Get that?
  13. Oh, and don’t kick it to their players either!
  14. Try not to give away free kicks, especially in front of their goals.
  15. Don’t let your runners run across spoiling our OWN shots just out from goal.
  16. Don’t play players you are not confident in like Montagna, if he’s not 100%, put someone on who is.  Even he didn’t understand why he was subbed of so early.
  17. We lost this game, fair and square.  We made so many errors, so many poor decisions, we gave this game away.  We were in with a sniff and got whacked in the nose for our troubles.  What is most disappointing is that we didn’t back ourselves.  We handballed the game to the happy Cats.  They deserve their position.  We deserve ours.  No hope or joy this week.
  18. Writing before bed after a bad game is good therapy.

Yvette Wroby

 

About Yvette Wroby

Yvette Wroby writes, cartoons, paints through life and gets most pleasure when it's about football, and more specifically the Saints. Believes in following dreams and having a go.

Comments

  1. I’m glad you only had as many points as you felt you needed. A lesser writer would’ve gone to 20 for the hellavit.

  2. Yvette – I’ve asked this question before but I’ll ask it again. Why isn’t Reiwoldt played at centre half back? He could play the Harry Taylor role to perfection and kick the ball TO Kosi rather than competing with him across half forward. And with Goddard next to him on a back flank they would have a formidable combination.

    Apparently Ross Lyon had the sads. The Cats won going half pace.

  3. johnharms says

    Yvette, if your piece wasn’t so full of disappointment it would be funny. Why? Why? Why?

    PS The out of bounds on the full thing was pretty funny, when it happened for the fifth time, and then the sixth. and then – ah, Gigs, do you have the final stat on that?

  4. Richard Naco says

    I almost feel guilty, Yvette.

    But I do stress the “almost”.

    ;)

  5. 19. Sign Yvette Wroby up as assistant coach with KISS portfolio :)

  6. Ok boys, thanks for the support, the love and the ribbing. Almost guilty! I don’t think so. Yes, Riewoldt up back with Goddard would at least be interesting to watch. More of Siposs, Steven, Stanley, Simpkin, Lynch, Cripps, Johnson, Smith, Cahill, Walsh, Eddy, Archer, Curren, Ferguson, Andreoli, Crocker, Winmar, Ledger, Polo: bring them all on and all the others experimented with over this year. There’s almost a whole team of newbies. (

    Do you all remember a Preliminary Final two years ago when Collingwood played Rocca and my immediate thought was, they must be desperate, we’ll win this one. And I was right. You look at the selection last week, and I felt we played many Roccas. Players out of form and out of confidence. That next year, Malthouse played so many new players our heads spun, and look at them now. They grew over the year and are almost unbeatable now. Even Geelong, who looked a little old and faded against the Pies last year, have put in younguns and are now flying better than ever.

    Let me at Ross Lyon and the coaching team. After all my years as a psychotherapist, I know depression like the best of them. But I’ve learned, from my own depression as well, that it is often a sign that something needs to change significantly. It can be used as a sign post to guide us to the next stage of life. Mine has led me to a life of writing and art. Let the Sainters take the depression and loss and move towards a direction that gives them light and warmth. You just have to change the direction and the meaning.

    Now I’m off to art class all day.

    I love the Almanac world

    Yvette

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