Round 4 - Victory away

[Ancient Mariner]

I think what we are seeing is that it is going to take a long time to fix what is a basket case.

What i see as the problem is that Mulvey came with plan to fix the basket case by concentrating on getting the mariners spirit back. This is a great concept and, I believe, the correct way to go.

However it is not easy to do in practice.

There has been a massive turnover in players and with that you get such a lack of cohesion that it takes more than a ore season to develop any understandings and to work out who is your best starting 11.

There was a lot of pressure to find the right players and the right fit with this massive turnover. Gambles were made and unfortunately have so far turned bad. Simon and McGlinchey who were signed to reintroduce the old spirit are in truth not up to modern Aleague standards. The players carrying long term injuries have not been able to come good. The stars, Oar and McCormack are so far away from being match fit it is not funny.

However, I think there is hope but if anyone expects see anything before halfway through the season, they are more optimistic than me. Hopefully the signings that did not come off can be swept under the carpet and a cadre a players can be put together to build upon to make a competitive team for next year.

We have a good coach, we have a loosening of the purse strings, hopefully there is enough patience and commitment to keep things together through what is going to be a longer process than was first hoped for.

To put it in a nut shell too much of the money committed to signings has not come off. The question is can we survive the time it takes to sort out the wheat from the chaff?

 

[Follower]

I read this forum Everyday but rarely comment, However I have to raise this to see if anyone agrees.

Does anyone think the Bolt circus screwed up the Pre-season preparation and we are behind the eight ball already because of it.

I have heard Mulvey and particularly Monty didn't want the bolt thing in the first place and said early on it will affect the pre-season and I fear we are seeing that now.

 

[JoyfulPenguin]

I read this forum Everyday but rarely comment, However I have to raise this to see if anyone agrees.

Does anyone think the Bolt circus screwed up the Pre-season preparation and we are behind the eight ball already because of it.

I have heard Mulvey and particularly Monty didn't want the bolt thing in the first place and said early on it will affect the pre-season and I fear we are seeing that now.

I've been fairly vocal about my opposition to Bolt's trialing but I don't think it did too much damage, I think the lack of pre-season games we had compared to other A-League sides didn't help though, as well as Mulvey suddenly being told he can spend more money when he had already basically built his team. It did take away Monty from our other players though...

 

[Coastalraider]

Have to agree that our biggest issue was the players and managements attitude towards pre season that had more of an effect than Bolt.

McCormack, Oar, Hoole an O’Neill basically missed pre season due to injury or being signed very late. We didn’t play a single match with our strongest lineup together at the same time. We didn’t take the FFA cup seriously, went out in round 1 again, and missed the potential for some genuinely competitive matches to bring us up to standard, and expose issues that only come to light against stronger opposition. The bulk of our preseason games were played against much weaker competition in NPL teams or lower. Playing inter club matches only work when you’re club is actually competitive, otherwise you just have 20 blokes running around at a low level of competitiveness.

Watching the Adelaide game really highlighted the difference, they looked like a cohesive unit and all understood the gameplay and their role in that plan.

We looked like we had just met, and couldn’t keep a tempo up to the required standard of the league. It looked like we were in the early stages of preseason.

 

[Wombat]

I read this forum Everyday but rarely comment, However I have to raise this to see if anyone agrees.

Does anyone think the Bolt circus screwed up the Pre-season preparation and we are behind the eight ball already because of it.

I have heard Mulvey and particularly Monty didn't want the bolt thing in the first place and said early on it will affect the pre-season and I fear we are seeing that now.

The pre season was poorly structured for me, mainly because we didn't have a squad in the early days.

 

[Wombat]

He was dropped, no injury

Replacing Tommy with Melling is a terrible decision. Hopefully we learn from it.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

I read this forum Everyday but rarely comment, However I have to raise this to see if anyone agrees.

Does anyone think the Bolt circus screwed up the Pre-season preparation and we are behind the eight ball already because of it.

I have heard Mulvey and particularly Monty didn't want the bolt thing in the first place and said early on it will affect the pre-season and I fear we are seeing that now.

I think the fact that our first game together was Rd 1 was a big, big problem.
It's up to Rd 4 and we're still in preseason mode.
But that had nothing to do with Bolt.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

I think what we are seeing is that it is going to take a long time to fix what is a basket case.

What i see as the problem is that Mulvey came with plan to fix the basket case by concentrating on getting the mariners spirit back. This is a great concept and, I believe, the correct way to go.

However it is not easy to do in practice.

There has been a massive turnover in players and with that you get such a lack of cohesion that it takes more than a ore season to develop any understandings and to work out who is your best starting 11.

There was a lot of pressure to find the right players and the right fit with this massive turnover. Gambles were made and unfortunately have so far turned bad. Simon and McGlinchey who were signed to reintroduce the old spirit are in truth not up to modern Aleague standards. The players carrying long term injuries have not been able to come good. The stars, Oar and McCormack are so far away from being match fit it is not funny.

However, I think there is hope but if anyone expects see anything before halfway through the season, they are more optimistic than me. Hopefully the signings that did not come off can be swept under the carpet and a cadre a players can be put together to build upon to make a competitive team for next year.

We have a good cash, we have a loosening of the purse strings, hopefully there is enough patience and commitment to keep things together through what is going to be a longer process than was first hoped for.

To put it in a nut shell too much of the money committed to signings has not come off. The question is can we survive the time it takes to sort out the wheat from the chaff?

Good post. Regarding your early comments on the approach - the problem with trying to get the mongrel back is that the mongrels are going to lose their mongrel if we keep getting beat.
A can-do attitude tends to lose a bit of steam when we clearly can't.

I think you might be right that it will take too long to gel.

Doesn't mean a top 6 is out of the question.......

Anyway, somebody on Reddit was commenting on BK's warmup.....how other keepers are always really intense, really focussed, while BK is just not giving a shot, not bothering to save shots - same with our reserve keeper. Just not switched on.

 

[BrisRecky]

I didn’t think we would beat Victory in all reality, but those 3 goals were soft as
I totally agree , the team got zero pre season together and the two big spends had been playing solitaire on their phones instead of playin* footy....I can only hope Dutch Tommy gets back next week and I think it’s time to rattle the ranks and give J Muzz, Josh from the Gong , Super MARIO, M Millar, and Hoole a run on start
Oh yeah ...#MellingOut....I hope he starts looking for a new job

 

[Offsider]

Good post. Regarding your early comments on the approach - the problem with trying to get the mongrel back is that the mongrels are going to lose their mongrel if we keep getting beat.
A can-do attitude tends to lose a bit of steam when we clearly can't.

I think you might be right that it will take too long to gel.

Doesn't mean a top 6 is out of the question.......

Anyway, somebody on Reddit was commenting on BK's warmup.....how other keepers are always really intense, really focussed, while BK is just not giving a shot, not bothering to save shots - same with our reserve keeper. Just not switched on.

The whole squad warmup is similar. Everybody was just going through the motions ......... practicing lethargy.
This is an assistant coaching problem.

 

[Offsider]

I didn’t think we would beat Victory in all reality, but those 3 goals were soft as
I totally agree , the team got zero pre season together and the two big spends had been playing solitaire on their phones instead of playin* footy....I can only hope Dutch Tommy gets back next week and I think it’s time to rattle the ranks and give J Muzz, Josh from the Gong , Super MARIO, M Millar, and Hoole a run on start
Oh yeah ...#MellingOut....I hope he starts looking for a new job

Melling displayed ........ yet again ......... why he was not retained at his other clubs.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Signing players who want to win is one thing, but they must have the ability and skills to go with it.

I could sign 11 players from Bay 16 with more desire to win than anyone else in the whole league, however it would not create a winning team.

 

[Holy]

We cannot continue being so impotent down the RHS and expect the cohesiveness of a team tactically up for the fight.
The experiment or stop gap measure so far 4 rounds in of playing the left footed Rowles at RB and the left footed Pain or Oar at RW is killing us.
Other teams already have worked out that we are only going to attack down our LHS, and are exploiting it to the max.

 

[turbo]

There was a lot of pressure to find the right players and the right fit with this massive turnover. Gambles were made and unfortunately have so far turned bad. Simon and McGlinchey who were signed to reintroduce the old spirit are in truth not up to modern Aleague standards.

I think you're right there. Both capable bench options but shouldnt be starting and should be fighting for a bench spot.

I think there is hope but if anyone expects see anything before halfway through the season, they are more optimistic than me

On the plus side we don't have many home games before Christmas so the rubbish at home is limited. I think there is hope but we need to take a good look at what's happening on the pitch and start playing our best starting XI. For me that means retaining the backline as is for now, although I would mention mcging at RB seems a bit weaker at the back but stronger going forward so need to consider the balance there. Golec wasn't his best but unless we have a better option we need to build him back up not shoot him down. Pain must start there can't be any more doubt about that. Hoole should start if he's fit, his link up with Pain alone is enough for me to say play him behind Ross and has been present since last season. Need to keep working on Oar and hope he'll come good. Kennedy did have some decent saves, should have committed and had a better crack at saving number two where he came out but not aggressively enough (similar to one Adelaide got). I'd be asking him to fire up and start backing himself unless he wants to miss a few games. Mistakes happen but hesitation is a big problem and will lead to more goals.

So for me it's:

Kennedy

Rowles Cisse Golec Clisby
Hiariej ONeil
Oar Hoole Pain
McCormack

Bench could be up for debate depending on who can play multiple roles. I'd like to see Murray on for McCormack if he can't give 90 minutes, he feels wasted out wide. That doesn't leave much room for Simon at all though.

I can't help but wonder if Tom got dropped for the game for pointing out some of the stuff we've been saying here too. That might look like undermining the culture or something like that. He had a poor game against Adelaide but if that's the bar then we'll be sitting a few players out for the next game and I bet we don't.

IMO we looked a lot better not just going long all the time, when we strung passes together we made decent runs and looked the most consistently threatening we have all season. Long ball out wide = good, long ball straight to a CB = bad, long down the middle doesn't work in park football and certainly doesnt look like working in the A league so that needs to go ASAP. With matches against Glory and Sydney in the next two weeks we need to steady the ship and do so quickly.

 

[Tevor]

I recall MM saying before the start of the season he wants competition for positions and selection head aches. The fact BK was not disciplined after last week speaks volumes, what does it matter to him as no matter what happens he will start every game this year if he is fit. He also probably does not care as he is probably well aware he will not be re-signed next year knowing he is only here after a stupid clause in his contract not performance. This is not an ideal situation for a very important position. Tom H dropped for Melling, everybody knows Melling is not comparable therefore the one non-injury change was a complete failure IMO.

As predicted, Honda handed out a mater class intercepting passes at will and was not really marked all game (same situation as Isasis). It was embarrassing and he showed his class is well above the standard of our team.

Two weeks to re-group and hope Oar can recover. Players need to be dropped for poor performances, they all busted their butts for the first two games now look like they couldn't be bothered and where was the last ditch efforts, all I seen was players jogging back and not marking MV players.

Read the player ratings on 442, pretty scathing of O'Neil. Pretty much suggested all the years training in the UK hasn't really made a difference and probably would be at the same level if he was in Australia for the same time. He looked lost yesterday and is being man marked very well by the other teams making him ineffective. Why wouldn't they when Melling was his partner and no threat as many have already commented on, his game was summed up when he took a long range shot and hit one of our players.

Perth's speed and their structure will put at least 5 past us in the next game and I don't see them under Popa slowing down when they hit three in front like MV did. They made AU struggle and AU gave us a real lesson last week.

 

[priorpeter]

Signing players who want to win is one thing, but they must have the ability and skills to go with it.

I could sign 11 players from Bay 16 with more desire to win than anyone else in the whole league, however it would not create a winning team.

Probably find a better ‘keeper than Kennedy in that mix though

 

[geoffgfletch]

If Bolt had the touch of a trampoline can someone please to me how to describe Melling's touches?

 

[Forum Phoenix]

I read this forum Everyday but rarely comment, However I have to raise this to see if anyone agrees.

Does anyone think the Bolt circus screwed up the Pre-season preparation and we are behind the eight ball already because of it.

I have heard Mulvey and particularly Monty didn't want the bolt thing in the first place and said early on it will affect the pre-season and I fear we are seeing that now.

Shaun said it hadn’t. I believe him.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

I've been fairly vocal about my opposition to Bolt's trialing but I don't think it did too much damage, I think the lack of pre-season games we had compared to other A-League sides didn't help though, as well as Mulvey suddenly being told he can spend more money when he had already basically built his team. It did take away Monty from our other players though...

This for mine.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

The pre season was poorly structured for me, mainly because we didn't have a squad in the early days.

Seemed pretty clear to me that we were still missing half our starting 11 and that affected the timing of playing of quality pre season games

And as Ancient said. With that kind of rebuild, unfortunately it comes with the territory.

We really look like we need another 6-8 weeks before we’d hope to be in form and have everyone fully fit,