The Soaring

The Recap

I said this on Thursday night about this game:

Officially we are at the bottom of the barrel.

Turns out to be a little bit too prophetic, unfortunately.

Port Adelaide 5.9 10.13 17.16 22.21 153
West Coast Eagles 1.1 3.4 6.6 9.8 62

We were deplorable. 91 points is an awful thumping.

Top Five

1. Not much separates the good from the very bad
Yes we were undermanned, and with virtually no midfield we got trounced in everyway. No Kerr, Stenglein, Fletcher, Butler (who if you recall won a premiership medal all that time ago), also no Cousins and Chris Judd who was present in spirit alone. There were other players who were missed as well - such as Ashley Hansen - which all in all meant we were not resembling the side of the past three seasons.

The result was one of our top ten worst smashings highlighting there really isn’t such a huge gap across the 16 teams in this competition. When you consider our last two outings - last week vs Brisbane and this week vs Port - a team in the fight for the eight - a few players out, a lack of focus, a drop in confidence and we are right back in the pack.

We shouldn’t snicker, we might yet be battling to make the eight unless we can get some players, form and hunger back in the side.

2. West Coast Eagles Development Squad
This team not only boasted two debutants - Eric McKenzie and Ben McKinley - it also had 9 players with less than 50 games experience, 7 with 20 games or less. That is young team.

I thought McKenzie and McKinley looked a bit over matched but that was probably more to do with the overall form of the side on the day than their longer term prospects. Ditto Chad Jones, who after a fantastic two games in, dropped off the pace well and truly in this one. However, it won’t be the last we see of these players.

The likes of Priddis, Hurn and LeCras continue to make strides and at different stages of the game on Saturday I thought each did well in spite of the direction of the traffic.

3. On-field Leadership
I thought with Judd down and injured we really lacked on-field leadership. That for me was the the most disappointing part of this game. I thought Embley tried hard, but support was sorely lacking. I’m talking about effort and desperation but also skills execution, body language, concentration levels - the whole package.

This to me either says this was a hiccup or we really miss the combined influence of the players missing from this game. Probably the latter, maybe both.

4. Fans, resist the urge
We all know when you get something off your chest you feel better for it. Like clearing the stomach over the ceramic after a gut ache you just feel like you’ve turned the corner and you’re on the mend. The danger signs flash when you make a habit of it, day in and day out vomiting away without a second thought - not a nice way to live. Unfortunately some fans tend to live like that - spewing all sorts of venom on their team week after week. Fans, let me ask you this - please resist the urge.

This was a shocking display- but it’s over. We were undermanned - yelling won’t fix it. Some players had poor games - calling for (all) their heads may be a little premature. Let’s just chill and keep the faith, who knows what might happen - but at least see how this season pans out first.

5. The Positives
All is not lost, the season is not yet done. We do have a massive test this week and playing Sydney should remind us form can be regained. A few weeks after being thumped by Collingwood and Geelong, Sydney are seemingly back and rolling with good wins against the Dockers and Carlton. In a months time we could yet be back and warming up for the finals with a full(ish) list to select from and some good form in the bank - it’s all in front of us.