Notes from the game: 2015 Round 18 Melbourne

The nightmare continues.

If you listen to various pundits around town, there seems to be unanimity that all on-field experience is positive; and that nothing is better for the long-term good of a team than blooding new players. This is usually represented as something like, "We need to get as many games into the young players as possible." It's as though these sentiments are a corollary to the old saw "practice makes perfect."

There is evidence to suggest that practice does make one more reliably reproduce that which is being practised - but that's a two-edged sword. If you are allowed to practise a bad technique, you will firmly embed your bad habits. Now you are fit only for the scrap heap or, perhaps, major rehabilitation as the coaching staff will first try to expurgate the errors before retraining you the right way. Often they'll consider you too far gone.

This blog has already warned of the folly of bringing in two debutants for the same game. There's also the problem of changing the team around too much. When a Hawthorn brings in a single debutant, there are 17 experienced players on the field to make sure the debutant flies right. Collingwood is not in this position. It has a small core of experienced players (roughly the laureates of our last premiership) surrounded by newbies. There is missing a critical mass of experience, a solid core of established players who can provide a framework into which the rookies can be safely encapsulated.

St Kilda has shown that it is possible to build a team in this way. But do we really want to pay the St Kilda price? How many premierships have they won? How often, and for how long, have they languished at the foot of the ladder? Is that what we want? If so, don't expect a premiership any time soon.

It looks to me that even our solid core is crumbling. Swan might be feeling the effects of age, but I'm willing to bet that if he were playing in our 2011 team, he'd be doing all right. If he only had to pull his own weight, he'd still be a star. But with half the team inexperienced, the effect more or less is to double the load on the seniors. To my eyes, even Pendlebury is starting to wilt. Certainly against Melbourne, Sidebottom was below par. He got enough possessions, but he missed a bread-and-butter shot for goal. Brown is usually a reliable defender but lately he's been kicking out of bounds on the full and missing targets.

New players unsettle a team in other ways. I've mentioned before the understanding between Swan and Pendlebury. But that understanding used to exist between almost every player and every other player. Now we see unforced errors constantly. This adds to mental pressure - the players have to concentrate so much harder. They can no longer play instinctively, take the first option. They keep second-guessing themselves. Ball handling is disastrous: marks are dropped; handballs are missed. The opposition feasts on these clangers.

The nett effect is that we are learning to lose. We keep practising and we're getting better - at losing. Six in a row! That's an enviable record! Now the unthinkable - losing to Carlton next week - has become the dread reality. We can spend sleepless nights for the rest of the week. As I once wrote to Mr Malthouse "Never mind about premierships. Just beat Carlton and Essendon." Mr Buckley could do well to heed this imprecation. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Last week, watching St Kilda was more entertaining than watching Collingwood. This week, Richmond provided this observer with spiritual sustenance. Collingwood provides no joy at all. The team is not playing well, even in patches. There is no spirit displayed by the players and there is no source for optimism for the fans.

The wrap

The papers this morning talk about the passing of Collingwood's finals chances - as if we stood a chance had we won this game. When we drew close at the end of the third quarter, I thought that even had we won from there, we still weren't good enough to make the finals, let alone the suggestion in one of Saturday's papers that the Collingwood hierarchy secretly believe that a pass mark for this year would be to win at least one final. Give me a break! Except for the fact that the northern teams seem to have a mortgage on the wooden spoon, I'd have reckoned Collingwood as a candidate.

Last year's result of 3-8 for the second half of the season is starting to look quite attractive - now that 0-11 is not out of the question. On this week's form, I can't think of a single team we can beat.

And this coming week, we face Carlton.