No Rest for the Wicked

[Demonland 64,972]

"Our plan is not to rest anyone – our plan will be to pick the best team," Goodwin told reporters.

"Now, we certainly won't be reckless with that. If players are sore and unavailable, then they won't play. But, our plan is to play the best team available.

"We think we've prepared our players to handle the loads that are going to be presented to them and we're certainly not going to be a club that's going to be in the process of resting players."

Goodwin said Burgess' program during the COVID-19-enforced season shutdown prepared the Demons' footballers for the potential of four-day breaks, which are now a reality.

They have one of the healthiest playing lists in the competition, with Aaron vandenBerg – who underwent surgery on his fractured cheekbone on Tuesday – the only first-choice option unavailable.

[Lucifers Hero 37,077]

That we have played a number of midweek ANZAC Eve games on a 3-4 day break then backed up a few days later and and a year or two go we had several back to back 6 day breaks with travel should hold us in good stead for this block of: 4 day, 6 day, 4 day, 6 day breaks between games.

For the 4 day breaks players will focus on recovery and training will be light duties. 

Good to hear Goodwin's confidence in the team to play thru.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Lucifer's Hero

[Deespicable 2,548]

As with all things this year, adapting to the latest requirements requires some thought.

After Sunday, our Dees, like most other sides, face a tricky prospect with four games in 21 days

Five-day break for Port (Thurs July 30), six-day break for Crows (Wed Aug 5), four-day break for North (Sun Aug 9) and six-day break for Pies (Sat Aug 15).

To me, it is the ideal chance to use our depth, which I suspect is as good as almost any other side and adopt a rotational policy that helps most players avoid injury and tightness, although clearly the shorter games already have reduced the worry of backing-up quickly.

We all know that no matter how much clubs tell us otherwise, they will not rest stars, unless they are injured - so there is no chance that Gawn and Trac are going to miss and in terms of importance an argument could also be made that May and Viney are critical in the roles they play and as leadership role models.

That leaves 18 players who could be rotated six per week over the taxing period with the six most-likely back-ups coming into play (Jones, Smith, Rivers, ANB and Tomlinson, T.Mac).

Assuming T.Mac replaces the injured VDB this week, how it could work is like this:

v Port (rested O.Mac Jetta, Brayshaw, Melksham, Jackson, VDB (inj))

v Adel (rested Lever, Bennell, Oliver, Harmes, Weid, Salem) 

v North (rested Langdon, Hibberd, Lockhart, T.Mac, Fritsch, Pickett)

v Pies (Jones, Smith, Rivers, ANB, Tomlinson and Hannan)

While the above is a methodical approach, my guess is we will adopt more of an unplanned approach as all clubs tend to do. The big game v Port will mean there will hardly be a change, the extra couple of days before the Crows will mean all players put their hand up to play, and assuming we win that one, all players will be on a high and won't want to be rested for the North game. Then can you imagine any player claiming they are sore when a clash against the Pies is coming up.

So as always, I suspect it will come down to genuine injuries or a poor showing to warrant change. 

But I'd thought I'd throw my model (above) out there for feedback anyway.

[Demonland 64,972]

@Deespicable I merged your thread with this one as they're essentially linked.

The Coach doesn't agree with you. I think it makes sense to rest certain players.

[DemonOX 8,530]

20 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

That we have played a number of midweek ANZAC Eve games on a 3-4 day break then backed up a few days later and and a year or two go we had several back to back 6 day breaks with travel should hold us in good stead for this block of: 4 day, 7 day, 4 day, 7 day breaks between games.

For the 4 day breaks players will focus on recovery and training will be light duties. 

Good to hear Goodwin's confidence in the team to play thru.

There is also shorter quarters which helps in recovery. 

[WERRIDEE 5,216]

Gawn's load is what I'm worried about but if he can handle it that's great. Resting players is always a danger cos it makes the other team think that we don't rate them. Playing the best team available gives us the best chance of winning so I'm  happy with that.

[Nelo 813]

Good to hear. We don’t have the luxury of resting players. We need our best side out there winning as many of the upcoming games. 

[Mazer Rackham 14,969]

1 hour ago, Demonland said:

"Our plan is not to rest anyone – our plan will be to pick the best team," Goodwin told reporters.

Asst coach: "will we put a second-best team up against the Lions this week, boss?"

Goodwin: "Yes, of c--  ... no ... no ... (looks off into distance) ... that's just what they'll be expecting."

Edited July 23, 2020 by Mazer Rackham

[Fat Tony 4,409]

14 minutes ago, Deespicable said:

As with all things this year, adapting to the latest requirements requires some thought.

After Sunday, our Dees, like most other sides, face a tricky prospect with four games in 21 days

Five-day break for Port (Thurs July 30), six-day break for Crows (Wed Aug 5), four-day break for North (Sun Aug 9) and six-day break for Pies (Sat Aug 15).

To me, it is the ideal chance to use our depth, which I suspect is as good as almost any other side and adopt a rotational policy that helps most players avoid injury and tightness, although clearly the shorter games already have reduced the worry of backing-up quickly.

We all know that no matter how much clubs tell us otherwise, they will not rest stars, unless they are injured - so there is no chance that Gawn and Trac are going to miss and in terms of importance an argument could also be made that May and Viney are critical in the roles they play and as leadership role models.

That leaves 18 players who could be rotated six per week over the taxing period with the six most-likely back-ups coming into play (Jones, Smith, Rivers, ANB and Tomlinson, T.Mac).

Assuming T.Mac replaces the injured VDB this week, how it could work is like this:

v Port (rested O.Mac Jetta, Brayshaw, Melksham, Jackson, VDB (inj))

v Adel (rested Lever, Bennell, Oliver, Harmes, Weid, Salem) 

v North (rested Langdon, Hibberd, Lockhart, T.Mac, Fritsch, Pickett)

v Pies (Jones, Smith, Rivers, ANB, Tomlinson and Hannan)

While the above is a methodical approach, my guess is we will adopt more of an unplanned approach as all clubs tend to do. The big game v Port will mean there will hardly be a change, the extra couple of days before the Crows will mean all players put their hand up to play, and assuming we win that one, all players will be on a high and won't want to be rested for the North game. Then can you imagine any player claiming they are sore when a clash against the Pies is coming up.

So as always, I suspect it will come down to genuine injuries or a poor showing to warrant change. 

But I'd thought I'd throw my model (above) out there for feedback anyway.

I agree. Apart from Petracca, Gawn, Oliver, Langdon, Viney and May, our players are fairly replaceable. We would be better off swapping our depth players around than playing our tired B graders. We should back Jones, Brown, Rivers, Smith, ANB, Hunt, Tomlinson et al can all be serviceable AFL players.

[Jaded No More 57,951]

At this stage we are extremely lucky on two fronts. The first is that we have a relatively small injury list. The second is that our fitness manager happens to have a soccer background, especially EPL, where short breaks between games is a given.

 

[Demonland 64,972]

11 minutes ago, Jaded said:

At this stage we are extremely lucky on two fronts. The first is that we have a relatively small injury list. The second is that our fitness manager happens to have a soccer background, especially EPL, where short breaks between games is a given.

 

[binman 38,145]

I reckon a big problem with rotating players is that with all its zones, patterns and structures team synergy is critical in footy circa 2020.

You mess with team chemistry at your place peril. 

Rotating players risks increasing the chanced of osing games in this block and disrupting the chemistry going forward, increasing the chances of losses in the next block. Even with a fitter, rested team.

And in any case we need wins now.

[Pates 9,537]

I can’t see Harley playing all the games, he above anyone will probably be one that gets “managed”. Given that our tough couple of games in a row is in the same state he could back up those two but we might have to rest him for Adelaide and then bring him to Tassie vs the Roos. 

Good to hear the confidence in the playing group though, this is hopefully where that monster pre-season on Hell and Back starts to bear fruit. 

[DubDee 20,645]

Playing your best fit team is by far the best approach. 
if players don’t pull up then they rest. But planning for rests is fraught with risk

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,585]

1 hour ago, binman said:

I reckon a big problem with rotating players is that with all its zones, patterns and structures team synergy is critical in footy circa 2020.

You mess with team chemistry at your place peril. 

Rotating players risks increasing the chanced of osing games in this block and disrupting the chemistry going forward, increasing the chances of losses in the next block. Even with a fitter, rested team.

And in any case we need wins now.

Agree absolutely with this.

When you add in the Essendon game, I think the additional disruption that our side dealt with is one of the key reasons why our form has only just turned the corner.

[spirit of norm smith 12,919]

No rest. Our draw is definitely the hardest 

[Stevienic23 1,024]

We're not good enough to be too cute with resting players

[Cards13 9,117]

9 hours ago, binman said:

I reckon a big problem with rotating players is that with all its zones, patterns and structures team synergy is critical in footy circa 2020.

You mess with team chemistry at your place peril. 

Rotating players risks increasing the chanced of osing games in this block and disrupting the chemistry going forward, increasing the chances of losses in the next block. Even with a fitter, rested team.

And in any case we need wins now.

Especially when the back up players aren’t playing any footy at all. Training doesn’t give you the same feel for the game.

I said it in another thread but there is no way we should be resting players unless we are a lock for the finals. It’s a short season, plenty of rest to date, professional athletes, shorter games. 

[Lucifers Hero 37,077]

If we rest players it should be 1 or 2 a game in different parts of the field so that it doesn't upset the rhythm of how we play. 

[Skuit 9,178]

The footy is hard enough to watch this year without adding a series of four- and five-day breaks across the entire competition. If our post-Anzac fixtures vs Essendon of the past are anything to go by it will be an excruciating slop-fest - and I'm not certain that shorter quarters will make a difference. From memory and perception at the time, it was generally our extra day break against Essendon which seemed to be the deciding factor. I really do hope we're not rolling with just an 'anywhere, anytime' attitude but planning the bejesus out of this stretch - the coming month could be the making or breaking of teams in 2020. The cramped fixture and travel and accruing injuries at the back-end of 2017 derailed our season and ultimately delayed our development.  

[Tom Dyson 1,492]

Sorry if this has already been asked or answered, but the boys we left in Melbourne, have they come up to Queensland now or are they planning to come up and quarantine so they can be available if need be?

 

[Demonland 64,972]

26 minutes ago, Tom Dyson said:

Sorry if this has already been asked or answered, but the boys we left in Melbourne, have they come up to Queensland now or are they planning to come up and quarantine so they can be available if need be?

 

They went up to Queensland while the rest of the squad was still in NSW (I believe in the week prior to our last match). Someone else might have the exact timelines.

[Greendale 327]

37 minutes ago, Tom Dyson said:

Sorry if this has already been asked or answered, but the boys we left in Melbourne, have they come up to Queensland now or are they planning to come up and quarantine so they can be available if need be?

 

Goodwin said in his presser yesterday that the rest of the group would join next Friday.

[spirit of norm smith 12,919]

4 games in 14 days including two interstate trips 

5 games in 20 days 

That would not happen to anyone but MFC.  We’d better not play Swans and Giants in SYDNEY - ffs

[rjay 23,922]

May is the one I would keep an eye on...has had some soft tissue problems over the last few years.

Wouldn't want to risk him.

It will be an interesting to watch how we handle him and Max to a lesser degree.