TOPIC:

I thought Liam Hickmont took another step forward today. Able to shrug off tackles pretty easily. Thought farone was OK. But something is going wrong in the midfield . Souths ran past them in the last. 
Botchett wasn't bad. 

I think 8 or 9 players tried their guts out today with a bunch of passengers adding support roles. Probably not their fault, just lacking talent. Golding needs to come straight back in, and Gus. Mullane took 9 marks in the ressies. Imagine having a defender that can mark. (Apologies to Savigni). Berenger looks lost every time I see him play. Foley is brilliant at disposal to the opposition. I don’t get the love affair with Robbins - is fast and applies pressure but the mistakes are too much. Cook looked really promising. Sorry for the negative rant, too many second half refreshments to dull the groaning.
Also enjoyed the wonder of having the benefit of dodgy free kicks. Thought we were West Perth for a bit there.

Have to agree with Frothy, I saw alot of half arsed efforts out there yesterday. Foley's effort standing on the mark for one of sloithes goals from 50 out was can't be fucked like. I mean at least put your arms up! I'm sure he was frustrated on the ease which the ball came in to sloithe but no excuse

...and the big question is are we good enough to beat the 3 sides below us on the ladder in the coming weeks

Good game until halftime, looked like it would go right down to the wire ... but the signs were there in the 3rd qtr and the last was a clusterphark. Souths showed up just how slow a team we are, their pace tore us apart and their foot and hand skills were terrific whereas we continue to bomb it into the forwards and missed targets time and time again. The backline, which for years has been our strong point is now our achilles heal. Badly miss Locks but will get Gus back next week, need his leadership down back as they looked rudderless consistently standing 2 or 3 metres off their opponents and then wondering why they were easy targets for the Souths mids. The fact that no hard tag was put on Schloithe was mind boggling. What ever you think of Ducker Schloithe, his game was next level and was BOG by the length of the straight. While we didn't put up much resistance after halftime, Souths look like they could really cause some trouble in September if they hold onto their ladder position. As for us, we need to be looking at guys in our well performing ressies and Colts for next year. Why Mullane, Bellouard and Ash aren't getting a go is confusing as they perform week in week out in the 2's. Golding looks ready to return as well.
Was sitting behind Eatons old man at the game and while he's proud as punch of Kody's efforts this season against huge odds in the ruck he said it is really taking a heavy physical toll on the young fella. The need for a big (203cm++ 105kg++) experienced ruckman for next season should be the absolute prime focus of the recruiters otherwise we will have the same results next season and risk burning out guys like Eaton. If Hayden and Giro come back fit and well next season our mids group will be ok even with the probable retirement of the great man Kitch, but we also need an experienced tall back especially if Locks decides he's had enough.

All valid points SS especially in relation to the backline. When you consider only Savigni and Rohde are still playing in defence compared to a couple of years ago with Heal, Lockyer, Dewar, Stainsby all missing it does make a huge difference. Beringer and Henderson are just not up to it and each at 192cms means they're struggling to match the big key forwards.

We need a decent ruckman, a key forward and a couple good sized defenders next year to be competitive.

Stainsby was one I had forgotten about and hopefully he is back next season too as well as Giro , Hayden and Braut. Agree again our biggest downfall is a lack of a big ruckman or even two who can compete with the rest of the competition. We start every game on the back foot if we don’t have one. And we lack size in our key positions back and forward so if we are going to persist with the current game style we need to be able to physically compete. Not sure if it just me but we definitely don’t seem to be as fit as previously and never seem to push on in the latter part of quarters and the games in general that we were famous for in the past. A lot of work needed!