I think we did our best building the squad, but we’ve gambled a bit on the old guard, and some injuries along with a busier than expected schedule has killed us. Even the amount of rain this season has probably worked against us, with the older guys having to work harder on heavier pitches like tonight.
Smeltz came in pre-season, aged 32 I think?, along with Janko - and we made the grand final. We’ll be lucky to make the 6 with the cattle we have now.
It doesn’t.
It’s only about distance and angle from goal.
I think they meant the following year when the plan was Smeltz-Brosque.
The latter got a long injury early, and the former, with everything on his shoulders, just lost his mojo, for good. To be fair, he pulled a flukey late derby winner out of his arse to rescue something, but it was ultimately our last shite season. Until this.
Security ended up confiscating four of those damn little air horns.
(Disclaimer: I just got home and haven’t seen any replays yet, so I reserve the right to retract this rant after a second watch later. Also the fact that nobody else has mentioned this suggests I am most likely wrong)
In a word: Beathed.
Around the ~65’ mark, diagonal ball to Elvis on the left. Glover comes to claim and appears to touch the ball outside his area. Beath blows for offside. I swear I saw Elvis make his run from an onside position, but I’d like to have another look.
Just prior to their second goal, Beath rules a goal kick that should have been a corner. People all around me in the stands blowing up. It doesn’t excuse our shit defending/keeping at the other end, but if that call went the other way the result could have been reversed.
I think we were pretty average all game, very static, nothing like our clinical play of years past.
But in a week of referee controversy, I’m left feeling underwhelmed by tonight’s officiating.
I had the same instinct for both of those calls. But if we put away our chances the bad calls wouldn’t matter. I don’t care what xG says, a starting striker at this level should put away that lob over glover early on, and Ninko should have buried the one right after his goal.
Fold the league.
Apologies.I think it was 2015 then.It was Arnies 2nd year.
I was talking about the season in which we let Janko go. That season i think we finished with 11 draws or something like that. I remember Arnie was grilled by Adam Peacock on Fox Sports as we missed the finals.
Spot on.
2015 sorry.
I said 2014.
This looks very similar.
I understand the frustration at losing a game we should have won. We outplayed them for long periods and had some excellent chances BUT there is something about us these days that looks/feels like lack of self-belief - which is self-fulfilling. The main exceptions are the old guard: Wilko, Ninko, Grant and Bobo who all play and look like they are going to craft/graft a win - and new boys Amini and Burgess (who should have come on WAY EARLIER and for Retre or Caceres, not Ninko).
People cannot criticise Bobo if he never gets a ball, never receives a high cross (unlike Elvis in the first half!). He is scoring and well when opportunities arise. On the other hand, young’uns like Elvis and Trent B, for all their attacking dynamism have not been scoring for some time. The real conundrum is Alf. He still seems fast and keen enough but there is something gone in his decision making and that means he is vastly less effective, frustrating us and himself.
And why can’t Donachie/Wilko ever play a fast longer pass wide to Grant when he is free and desperately wants it? Why all those back and forward passes across the back line and then to Redders or to Retre and then finally to Grant but only when he is marked by two people? Our defenders have neutralised Grant’s attacking flair and instincts.
Had Ninko scored one of the other two chances (and I am not criticising the great man, at all), we would all now be saying what a genius Corica is to have outcoached the top team in the comp, a team man-for-man clearly stronger than ours … and what a wonderfully motivated team we have despite facing that stronger team.
I don’t know.
Corica has never convinced me even when we’ve won trophies under him.
For mine, there’s always been an air of falling to the top because everyone else was crap whilst we were mediochre.
Two wins in ‘22, says it all.
Relating myself here but the night against Olympic when Brattan came off is when our season proper derailed. He would’ve made this season less painful being on the pitch.
Match report now up.
is it me or is tom glover becoming another janjetovic the way he has played in the past few games?
Beath did let go a yellow carded Retre shirt pull on an City player that may have resulted in 2nd yellow
Nah they showed on the replay that it came off Kosta.
It looked dodgy at first but was correct.
We’re so all over the shop its hard to follow what we’re doing. Its genuinely hard to tell who’s injured, who’s coming back into fitness, who’s out of form, who’s being rested, who’s out of favour? Is Burgess tired or injured? The last time we looked good he was in the middle with Amini. He’s also been the main goal creator this season. He’s on the bench last night. Why? Why can’t we just get our best players on the pitch?
So we go in to this game set up differently for the 5th time in 5 games and come out of it learning nothing, really.
I almost feel like the staff have their hands so full managing the ongoing player availability crisis that we can’t really focus on how to beat the opposition on the weekend. The last couple of games we’ve kind of really just been tactically hung out to dry, set up in ways that so overtly play into our opponents hands. Its pretty disappointing stuff.
FWIW I didn’t think we were very convincing in the first half. We failed to make enough good quality chances and the most obvious one we had was from a Glover brain explosion (LeFondre’s only shot for the game?). At the end of the half our xG was .2
Totally outnumbered in midfield the only way we could create overloads was through the fullbacks - problem was its an inherently slower method and Talbot (who i like) was at a disadvantage on the left and Grant’s efficacy in the final third has really fallen off a cliff this season. It never seemed a likely answer to a glaring tactical challenge - more of a duct-taped effort to get something out there. We’ll just use what we have lying around. Bobo seemed to identify the problem and dropped crazy deep when he came on, but he was clearly the wrong player for that role and it didn’t have the effect desired.
Amini was awesome imo, despite playing in such a crowded midfield his through balls were the most dangerous aspect of our play. If you set up with 2 v 4 in the midfield he’s going to get done in defense sometimes - that’s the risk you take. I think he coped very, very well.
Kamsoba has gone off the boil. Hard to say if its fatigue (he’s played a lot), or if all the inconsistency around him is affecting him (he is switched between CF and RAM and lacks a consistent strike partner) or is he just reverting to the mean a bit, after going on a tear? He’s better than what Barbarouses put out last night though. Kosta’s introduction pretty much killed the game for us, basically completely negating any of the good work done by Burgess. With Bobo coming so deep and Kosta basically unable to control a football we pretty much had no way out of the middle and it was game over.
Corica needs to make a change. Hopefully the new signing is a portent of a change to come, and not just a new body to go into slot in and face the same problems.
Where’s Pat wood?