I commented on another thread, but it seems to have been deleted???
Anyway, here's a summary of my thoughts on our disastrous Prelim performance, as I prepare to watch today's Grannie.
A week has past now since we were bullied out of the Prelim, and I feel worse now than I did a week ago. If you've followed the Pies for 6 decades, as I have, you become used to losing finals, but this loss was different. I still can't get my head around the fact that none,
not a single one, of our 'elite' midfielders - Pendles, Treloar, Sidey and Adams - fired a shot in the Prelim. I could accept one or two of them getting tagged out of the game, but ffs not all four.
But I'm not disappointed, I'm frigging angry. For three quarters we allowed the Giants to play
harder and tougher, with us being smashed at stoppages, despite us having the absolute dominance of Grundy in the ruck. Our footy department needs to conduct a phucking Royal Commission into the dismal performance of our midfield brigade. Our spirited final quarter come back simply rubbed salt into our wounds. Where was that effort in the first three quarters?
Fair dinkum, we had the talent to win the Prelim and then to go on and smash the Tigers in the Grannie. The reason we didn't was not because of a lack of talent, but a lack of heart. We simply have too many players who go missing when the going gets tough. For the 2nd year in a row our midfield group (with the exception of Adams who played well in last year's Grannie), allowed the opposition to smash us at stoppages, despite us having the dominant ruckman. That is simply not phucking good enough.
It will take a long time, at least all of next year, before I have any confidence in our midfield group to stand up in the heat of battle, when we need it most, in September. I never thought I'd ever say it, but to my mind, with a few exceptions,
our team is soft. I'm embarrassed to admit that, but there it is. And if we think this weakness will be solved by the development of our dwarfs in Callum Brown, Josh Daicos and Noble then we are well and truly phucked. We need players who are strong in body and strong in mind.
Anyway, I hope Toby Greene wins the Norm Smith today, just to stick it up the AFL.
