22 hours ago, jnrmac said:

From Pure Footy:

Aside from an alarming drop in scoring in recent weeks, Melbourne also has an issue when it doesn’t have the ball.

“In the first 10 weeks of the year Melbourne was the No.1 rated pressure team in the competition, they were flying,” Hoyne said.

“Since then their pressure has dropped to 14th.”

James Jordon’s pressure point are down from 63 to 29 per game, while James Harmes, Charlie Spargo, Christian Salem, Clayton Oliver and Kysaiah Pickett have also dropped their pressure significantly in that time.

“If you’re poor without the footy, you’re not winning the flag. It’s as simple as that,” David King said.

Great post.

Since round 9, Oliver, Max, Tracc and Langdon are being flogged.  They are usually over 90% game time. I’d argue our poor pressure recently starts in the centre square.  The dogs key mids have not had a single game with over 90% TOG. The lions rarely do it (once this year).

Our difficulty scoring is likely due to a drop off in pressure (less turnovers in dangerous positions), and a recent habit of not taking the game on with quick movement when we do turn it over. In the last few weeks, so many of our unsuccessful forward 50 entries start in our defensive 50.  It’s always hard to score from D50.

The players are no doubt wanting to perform every week, and at the elite level if you are off 1% anywhere it looks bad but there is a reason behind it.  I hope the coaches can work out the reason. 

Or maybe the players are being flogged on purpose and will start being managed better soon in some cunning plan to have them primed come September. Blight did it at the crows in 97-98 (Goodys first years). Olympians do a 4 week taper after heavy training.  I hope this is the case, but only time will tell. 
 

2 minutes ago, Watson11 said:

Or maybe the players are being flogged on purpose and will start being managed better soon in some cunning plan to have them primed come September. Blight did it at the crows in 97-98 (Goodys first years). Olympians do a 4 week taper after heavy training.  I hope this is the case, but only time will tell. 
 

And perhaps more significantly Burgess used mid season loads and tapering at Port, and Liverpool too i think.

And i think the tigers might have done so too in the last 6years or so (but have no proof of that).

Whilst it is true that almost all of the senior players have super high TOG percentages, mot of the young players are consistently mid 50%.

Hard not to think  this a load management strategy. If so, as we get closer to finals, we can expect to see the young players on filed for longer and the tracc's and olivers getting a bit more of a chop out, meaning they can be more explosive and damaging. 

21 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

At the time Richmond lost to Fremantle in 2017 they hadn't won a final for 16 years.

2005 we lost to Carlton TWICE and they were absolute garbage that year

Cost us a Top 4 spot (as well as losing the last 5 games!!

We still don’t handle being Favourites at all well in 2021, that is my point

You can understand why we are not trusted yet. 

9 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

2005 we lost to Carlton TWICE and they were absolute garbage that year

Cost us a Top 4 spot (as well as losing the last 5 games!!

We still don’t handle being Favourites at all well in 2021, that is my point

You can understand why we are not trusted yet. 

No, your initial point was good sides don't lose to bad sides.

Then your point was when Richmond struggled through 2017, they were a different kettle of fish to us, which they weren't in 2017.

Now this is a new point, which is that we struggle when favourites. That's different, and I agree to an extent (I think we play better when we're the "hunter" rather than the "hunted").

11 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

No, your initial point was good sides don't lose to bad sides.

Then your point was when Richmond struggled through 2017, they were a different kettle of fish to us, which they weren't in 2017.

Now this is a new point, which is that we struggle when favourites. That's different, and I agree to an extent (I think we play better when we're the "hunter" rather than the "hunted").

No it is always the same point at The MFC

The Club does not handle being the Favorite at all well, and has not for years

i repeat, in 2005 we lost to Carlton Twice

Look up how bad they were that year. 
 

(How bad are The Filth this year….)

32 minutes ago, binman said:

And perhaps more significantly Burgess used mid season loads and tapering at Port, and Liverpool too i think.

And i think the tigers might have done so too in the last 6years or so (but have no proof of that).

Whilst it is true that almost all of the senior players have super high TOG percentages, mot of the young players are consistently mid 50%.

Hard not to think  this a load management strategy. If so, as we get closer to finals, we can expect to see the young players on filed for longer and the tracc's and olivers getting a bit more of a chop out, meaning they can be more explosive and damaging. 

Really interesting thread on an issue of growing import in the game; TOG & player fitness.  With the game being so bloody fast now, and with limited interchange, player fitness is getting more focus than ever.  For this reason, and its changing nature, I think the management of this issue is a dynamic one; there isn't an established answer. 

Having our best 6 mids on the park for ~90% TOG may be deliberate for the regular season, allowing them to play more in bursts in finals.  Finals are more defensive anyway, so having Jordon etc fresher to come on then may work.

I suspect TOG is, in itself, not significant. More important measures are likely to be heart rate (compared with the player's baseline), kms travelled and speed, which are all measurable in real time. 

In addition, TOG does not tell us how much is onball and how much might be "resting" in the forward line, although I accept that "resting" is probably not the right word to use.

1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I suspect TOG is, in itself, not significant. More important measures are likely to be heart rate (compared with the player's baseline), kms travelled and speed, which are all measurable in real time. 

In addition, TOG does not tell us how much is onball and how much might be "resting" in the forward line, although I accept that "resting" is probably not the right word to use.

No on rests in the fwd line any more, that went out in the 70s. The fwds are expected to run up the ground and support our exit out of defence, then sprint back into the fwd line.

We are out of kilter vs the comp with regards to game time.

Oliver seems to get better in final quarters though. He has generally been outstanding the longer the game goes on.

16 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

No on rests in the fwd line any more, that went out in the 70s. The fwds are expected to run up the ground and support our exit out of defence, then sprint back into the fwd line.

We are out of kilter vs the comp with regards to game time.

Oliver seems to get better in final quarters though. He has generally been outstanding the longer the game goes on.

Makes me wonder whether the forwards with all that running actually end up doing more kms than the onballers? Do I recall reading somewhere that in his North days, Ben Brown ran more kms than anyone else? 

10 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Makes me wonder whether the forwards with all that running actually end up doing more kms than the onballers? Do I recall reading somewhere that in his North days, Ben Brown ran more kms than anyone else? 

That may say more about his team-mates than it does BBB

50 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Do I recall reading somewhere that in his North days, Ben Brown ran more kms than anyone else? 

75% of that was in his run-ups when kicking at goal.

53 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Makes me wonder whether the forwards with all that running actually end up doing more kms than the onballers? Do I recall reading somewhere that in his North days, Ben Brown ran more kms than anyone else? 

In 2019 Ben Brown covered more kms than anyone in the AFL.  Averaged 15.6km a game.

50 minutes ago, Watson11 said:

In 2019 Ben Brown covered more kms than anyone in the AFL.  Averaged 15.6km a game.

I can see a new useless stat being produced by Champion Data: Goals per km.

Back of envelope calculation would suggest that a 60 goal season at 15.5 km per game would equal about 5km per goal. Now, all we need to work out is whether a high or low number is better! Then David King can go beserk with his analysis.  

Fantastic team pressure tonight. Well done on the team lifting the intensity

22 minutes ago, Stiff Arm said:

Fantastic team pressure tonight. Well done on the team lig the intensity

This is where the game was won. 

 

10 hours ago, Bags said:

This is where the game was won. 

 

 

11 hours ago, Stiff Arm said:

Fantastic team pressure tonight. Well done on the team lifting the intensity

We brought pressure from the first bounce, won every quarter and really controlled the game most of the night (altho it didn't feel like it!)

The fact that Hinkley had to try Alir in the middle was an attempt to change things up and an acknowledgement that they were being beaten around the contest. The move didn't work - and hence he will cop it - but he probably had to try something to unsettle us.

Our second half pressure was in line with the best we have produced this year.

Anyone thinking that our last 3 or 4 weeks was for reasons other than pressure isn't reading the play very well.

Credit to the team for bouncing back and for the coaching staff getting them firing from the first bounce - someting that doesn't happen very often at the Dees.

On 7/7/2021 at 3:43 PM, Lord Travis said:

He’s not been as good since returning from injury/illness. Had a good game on the weekend, but his first 2.5 months were brilliant and far better quality than recent form.
The main difference with Salem is his defensive work has dropped right off, not sure if by design of not. First 2.5 months he was winning one on ones and creating his own opportunities to rebound. He was using his body really well in contests, a big leap up from his defensive work in previous years. He was simply brilliant and the coaches votes reflected that as he was rated top ten player in the league across that time. Was a clear AA contender.
Recently he is barely making it to contents, let alone impacting them, and is relying on being fed that ball as a loose player again. Not sure if it’s by design to keep him free or if he’s getting lazy defensively and sagging off too much. Either way, he was far more effective when he was playing more defensively and creating opportunities. He’s one we’d love to get back into AA form for finals. 

Going back to this, after the game Mayzie talked about the backline composition and how he Petty/Hibs are usually in a contest and how Lever is the intercept defender, when it came to Salem he had a cheeky smile and said something along the lines that he marks space - so assume it's a tactical rejig.