Why are so many players improving?

Why have Salem, Tmac, Lever, Trac, Anb, Hunt, Spargo, Tomlison and Gus gone to new levels.

And all together.

Its a wonderful thing but what has been the difference?

 

Edited April 25, 20214 yr by leave it to deever

3 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Tomlison

* Tomlinson  

6 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Why are so many players improving?

Why have Salem, Tmac, Lever, Trac, Anb, Hunt, Spargo, Tomlison and Gus gone to new levels.

And all together.

Its a wonderful thing but what has been the difference?

 

Some bloke -and I paraphrase said - if you look real closely, overnight success is years of hard work @leave it to deever

The core players are now 25-27 not 19-23 - physically, tactically, technically superior to where they were 2-3 years ago.

Well done to Goodwin and the football department for staying true to the philosophy of 'winning from the contest out'.

Because that was in evidence last night, in why we won the game, and why we are 6-0.

 Now its the contest out, flourishing -  with additional add ons to the suite of services, like 1) constant pressure and 2) outside spread.

With the added recruits that we didnt have 2-4 years ago, which help the spread, and the outside game.

Edited April 25, 20214 yr by Engorged Onion

2 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Why are so many players improving?

Why have Salem, Tmac, Lever, Trac, Anb, Hunt, Spargo, Tomlison and Gus gone to new levels.

And all together.

Its a wonderful thing but what has been the difference?

 

Adem Yze, Mark Williams and Alan Richarson have helped Goodwin switch these guys on. 
they now realize what they are capable of doing and they are all in synch with each other. 
it’s not just playing AFL anymore as it has been for decades at MFC

These guys want success

2 minutes ago, demonstone said:

* Tomlinson  

can you forgive a typo?

I can forgive a typo but he's been spelling it like that for weeks now.  It's my new crusade!!  

I, for one, am both confused and disorientated by this... i want to know what the hell is going on

We've been playing the same way for a while, a few tweaks here and there yes but the only real differences over the last 3-4 seasons has been personnel. We've gotten in a lot of good recruits who have now played a full season or two together now (Lever, May, Langdon, Tomlinson).

The defensive press has been a staple, we've conceded some humiliating goals because we never had the personnel or buy in to make it work.

The midfield has gotten a lot better. In 2018 our contested ball was off the charts but we would still get killed on the outside (West Coast badly exposed us in the prelim). Trac and Oliver have been much better on the outside and we are getting much more sustained defensive pressure from all those guys to help our defenders. If you think back to the game against the cats we lost with a kick after the siren. That final quarter the cats and Hawkins got a run on and we couldn't do much to stop them. Oscar and Frost got slaughtered but the reality was our midfield and forwards had 0 pressure.

Melksham, May, T. Mac, Hibberd, Jetta and Jones have actually got their bodies right. After the prelim year our whole team was basically injured. Melksham and T.Mac were so immobile, now they look much fitter. Their experience and leadership is still much needed, Gawn and Lever have been flying the flag for the last 2 seasons.

Finally it's just a collective buy in. It really feels like this team doesn't have passengers or people trying to get an easy touch. Spargo should be more celebrated than Pickett last night despite having a handful of touches. The reason why was he lead the pressure front from minute 1 to the last minute. That tackle in our defensive 50 and the follow up on Houli really swung momentum.

1. Jackson has helped Gawn and plays that role really well, good mover for a big guy.

2. Salem has stepped up, always had potential but now is a very good player

3. Petracca and Clarry are both now elite AFL players along with Max.

4. We now have one of the best leadership groups in the competition. There was a play last night straight after a Demons goal where the Tigers cleared from the centre bounce and goals in a few seconds (Prestia maybe?) I saw Max go straight to Viney and Oliver for a quick chat and that didnt happen again, great stuff.

5. Defence is now really solid with May and Tomlinson able to play on the bigger talls leaving our defensive genius Lever more options

6. At ground level last night the leg speed of some our players Hunt, Kosi etc is brilliant and both have stepped up a level this year

7. Can underestimate Viney, he plays as a defensive midfielder and does it brilliantly

8. Others playing well this year Frisch, Langdon all linking up well

Theres alot more but that's some of the things I have noted this season

36 minutes ago, demonstone said:

* Tomlinson  

Tx for that.

Hes been a star and deserves to have his name spelt correctly.

 

Edited April 25, 20214 yr by leave it to deever

I have noticed and a few commentators have mentioned that the players seem to genuinely enjoying themselves out there.

The celebrations are always there and so are the smiles and high fives.

But winners are always grinners so its obviously not that simple but the club must have changed a few things to put some joy in it for the lads.

 

Edited April 25, 20214 yr by leave it to deever

The maturity and game factor is there. The one thing I have noticed is  that they seem very united. That is something that has been lacking at Melbourne over many years.

In addition to the pieces that were already there, May, Lever, Maxy, midfield, Langdon etc.

Our small forward pressure has gone to the next level.

Thommos rock solid role down back freeing up Lever for the intercept role he's perfect for

Gus playing the defensive wing position very competently

Our ruck combo. LJ freeing up Gawn to move forward and back as circumstances require.

Just need to add BB. Once he's integrated into the team we have the last piece in our premiership puzzle.

Better coaching staff.. better kids added..

So many things are going better but to me the two big things are:

Lever... his presence slows the rebound which has always killed us

Pickett... a small forward who plays both offensively and defensively plus forms part of the centre bounce rotations on occasion

Playing as a team, instead of individuals. From the outside Trac or Salem or Oliver 30+ disposals and all the stat sheet stuff will get the supercoach points. I guarantee internally it's no more or less important than Spargo, AND and Melksham.

Richmond won 3 out of 4 grand finals with the same mentality. Hopefully we can do the same.

 

If you listen to the players, the biggest change has been their mental approach.

They weren't selfish in previous years, but they also weren't selfless enough.

We now don't rely on our A-graders to bust out an elite performance to drag us over the line. We now rely on structure and role playing.

We've always wanted to play a forward half game. We can't do that with a weak backline. We've strengthened that (May, Lever and Tomlinson is infinitely stronger than OMac, Frost and J Smith). But our back half structure overall is strong enough, and we have such belief, that we can be aggressive in the forward half of the ground because we trust our defensive structure to be there for us.

Yes there have been some quality players added, but for me its the coaching. Players that were turning the ball over multiple times are hitting targets. Our mental toughness is completely different and we are strategically adapting mid game, something goodwin seemed incapable of doing the last few years. Mark Williams gets my vote as the most influential change. 

5 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

If you listen to the players, the biggest change has been their mental approach.

They weren't selfish in previous years, but they also weren't selfless enough.

We now don't rely on our A-graders to bust out an elite performance to drag us over the line. We now rely on structure and role playing.

We've always wanted to play a forward half game. We can't do that with a weak backline. We've strengthened that (May, Lever and Tomlinson is infinitely stronger than OMac, Frost and J Smith). But our back half structure overall is strong enough, and we have such belief, that we can be aggressive in the forward half of the ground because we trust our defensive structure to be there for us.

A lot of that comes down to maturity and experience I would have thought. The Roos-Goodwin rebuild is the first one that has been seen through without being dismantled half way through. I don’t think the mental clicking is JUST down to maturity, but a critical mass of it in the team is certainly a prerequisite.

2 minutes ago, Nasher said:

A lot of that comes down to maturity and experience I would have thought. The Roos-Goodwin rebuild is the first one that has been seen through without being dismantled half way through. I don’t think the mental clicking is JUST down to maturity, but a critical mass of it in the team is certainly a prerequisite.

Yep. Even since 2018, we've added three years and ~50 games of experience. 

As we've gotten older and more experienced, we've hopefully finally started learning from our previous mistakes.

Early season wins are vital IMO. They validated the hard pre-season work, and they inspire confidence to double down on what you're doing. If we were dropping early games would ANB, Spargo and Pickett still be pressuring at the high levels they are six weeks in?

Time. = more experience, more maturity. Also increased physical strength.

1 hour ago, MurDoc516 said:

The reason why was he lead the pressure front from minute 1 to the last minute.

If Demonstone can have a crusade, so can I.
The past tense of lead is led.

 

My view is probably too simplistic, but i think it comes down to the players finally applying the required amount of pressure for long enough. Everyone looks a better player when you are getting ball off of turnovers...it's just so much more damaging.

Think our players have been incredibly lazy over many years...which translated to our bad days being much worse than they should have been. So far this year we haven't let lack of effort decide a game...we've either let them be decided by talent (by matching intensity) or have exceeded the oppo intensity.

I believe the AFL is a pretty low skilled professional sport...premierships are won by the teams that go harder for longer. Not sure what has got our guys heading in the right direction, but it's nice to see some genuine fight.

Most things have been mentioned including general maturity and selflessness.

However the thing that's been most noticeable is tweaks to the game plan. 

We always on an opposition fast break have an extra or two in defence. That allows Lever to be that interceptor which is working magnificently.

I don't know exactly how they are doing it. Langdon and Brayshaw are getting back as is Gawn. 

Add to that midfielders and forwards buying into team defence and our game plan stacks up!

 

Thanks for all the input to this Demonlanders.

A lot to take in.

All I really know is that my calls to replace Goody were way too emotive.

And that I have never enjoyed watching footy as much as this except in 2000.