1 hour ago, tiers said:

On a discussion show they mentioned that Ed's tag was not so much a run with and spoil but rather a positioning between Ed and the boundary so that he had less space to work in.

I have only watched the replays of the 2nd and 3rd quarters in detail and it seemed to me that, whilst Ed was quieter than usual, his supposed tagger was quieter still and was not so close when Ed did win the ball.

Ed plays his best when close to the boundary. Surely he would be just as effective running through the middle. His speed and ability to offer as an out for his team mates would be just as good. Let's confuse the oppos.

What I find interesting is that so often the players in defence when in trouble know they can flick it out to his wing without looking and he will be there - I think when he's previously got a bit of attention it requires a half forward eg Kozzie / Spargo / ANB to provide the one-two handball to get round the opponent.  But given how often going to him when in trouble, I'm surprised the Hawks are the first to try this tactic in a dedicated way.

1 hour ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

I’m REALLY getting f<#*ing sick of the lack of respect being shown to our club. Yes, a certain tactical adjustment can help in improving a team’s chances against us. The Stef idea wasn’t completely flawed (but they forgot the big difference between 2019 and 2021 was that we had a different type of ruck we could sub Maxy with), but do any of these self satisfied head wobblers ever consider that A grade talent, maximum pressure over 120 odd minutes, crisp and speedy disposal, supreme fitness and team cohesion might be a factor in rolling us? 🤬

I agree with the sentiment overall, but surely you can see that part of this is just the media trying to find something interesting to talk about.  It's bad for them and the AFL if people think we are untouchable - people will lose interest.  I know I found the fawning over Tigers / Hawks / Cats pretty boring when they were in their hey day.  It's got nothing to do with respect of us.  We've definitely got that.   

14 hours ago, Wrecker46 said:

I could name about 5 things that would help to beat us but I'm certainly not posting them. I want to see a premiership at the G and I won't give an opposition analyst glancing this site a chance of spoiling it.

 

Ok. You can just PM us all then? 

Collingwood and Adelaide beat us by running hard through the middle and taking their chances last year. And playing us when we were flat because you can’t get up for every game, especially against minnows. Hawks had a crack. We seem better prepared for it this year. We were as flat as anytime last year against the hawks. We are even more hell bent on practising defence this year. To the detriment of winning big. I think the practice pays off over the year though and works in our favour. It has shown that when teams need to try and win the game when we are up for it they end up looking pretty mediocre. 

The tactic of leaving a forward deep, behind our last defender (whether that's May or Petty) is a good one.

But it requires the opponent to then be able to match us up the ground. There's no benefit to having someone that deep if you can't get the ball to them.

Hawthorn did well to get the ball to that deeper player more often than I would have liked. But, we were 6 goals up late in the third quarter before tiring. And we missed a number of simple shots in the fourth.

The summary being: yes, that tactic might be a good one, but like any tactic deployed against us, if you can't do it for four quarters, and we're even close to being "on", you're in trouble.

On 5/2/2022 at 3:37 PM, von said:

Collingwood and Adelaide beat us by running hard through the middle and taking their chances last year. And playing us when we were flat because you can’t get up for every game, especially against minnows. Hawks had a crack. We seem better prepared for it this year. We were as flat as anytime last year against the hawks. We are even more hell bent on practising defence this year. To the detriment of winning big. I think the practice pays off over the year though and works in our favour. It has shown that when teams need to try and win the game when we are up for it they end up looking pretty mediocre. 

We also were on our heels in both games. We’re more likely to smash a good team than we are a bad team because of that more intense mindset.

We are eminently beatable BUT you have to daring, you have to execute AND you have to have high end talent in all lines to keep us from ripping through you.

The opposition having a plan to beat us is all good and well but paraphrasing Mike Tyson. They all have a plan for us until we punch them in the face

Our 2021 draw last year was great, at the end of it we could say we had a tough draw, had to travel, and beat the 'good' sides, not Essendon's soft last 6 matches (or 5/6 they got the dogs in their slump). I am more worried about our lack of 4 term pressure from other sides, we expect to run over them in 3rd quarters, the Saints/Freo and Brisbane matches cant come quickly enough, super tough 4 weeks coming up to r11. my pass mark is 2/3 of those. Because the only way we will get beaten is sustained pressure, good run, and accurate kicking. Every other tactic is a gimmick that doesn't last against our supreme fitness and contest.

On 5/2/2022 at 11:44 AM, Colin B. Flaubert said:

Narrative time, is it? 

This was stale at the back end of 2021 and it’s even staler now. 🫤

Remember how Geelong could beat us in the Prelim by playing Ratagoulea in a ‘three headed monster’ forward line? Or how getting Stef Martin to physically push Max around at centre bounces and clearances would guarantee the win cos Port did it to us in R. 1 2019? How about the other idea about how if Aaron Naughton ran in a certain leading pattern when matched up on Jake Lever that allowed him to launch then we couldn’t defend? 🙄🤔

I’m REALLY getting f<#*ing sick of the lack of respect being shown to our club. Yes, a certain tactical adjustment can help in improving a team’s chances against us. The Stef idea wasn’t completely flawed (but they forgot the big difference between 2019 and 2021 was that we had a different type of ruck we could sub Maxy with), but do any of these self satisfied head wobblers ever consider that A grade talent, maximum pressure over 120 odd minutes, crisp and speedy disposal, supreme fitness and team cohesion might be a factor in rolling us? 🤬

— snip

 

So you’re not a fan then.

Lloyd . . . the greatest revisionist and 'retrospect-o-scope' specialist in footy. No idea on Friday, truly Monday's expert. Ross "you can't coach from the boundary line and win premierships" Lyon. He's got a lot to answer for IMHO. Fancy letting the Filth in for a premiership. FMD.

Here's what will work in stopping Melb . . . . . . 

• Put Wayne Gretzky on Trackta,
• Move Kareem Abdul-Jabbar onto Max,
• Get George Best to run with Clarry,
• Tell Amelia Earhart to fly with Kossi, and
• Send Peter Hudson to May.

That should reduce those 17 goal run-ons to 12. 

Edited May 3, 20223 yr by Queanbeyan Demon
Typo

1 minute ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

 

 

Edited May 3, 20223 yr by Queanbeyan Demon

You have to laugh at all the media talk about Hawthorn creating the blueprint to beat us. The fact that they didn't actually beat us doesn't seem to have registered with anyone. Does part of this blueprint require us to be missing seven of our regular starting line up? 

 

 

On 5/2/2022 at 6:50 AM, Webber said:

Ok. You can just PM us all then? 

I love the dees, but the minute I get that info I'm fielding 200K offers from rival clubs. Gotta feed the kids.

On 5/1/2022 at 10:52 PM, Demonland said:

 

Goodwin was asked about that 'stop Langdon' tactic on AFL 360.

He said something like:  the coaches will work out some strategies to counter that.

I would assume the same to counter the 'drop someone behind May tactic'.  Having said that I wonder whether May leaving someone behind him was deliberate to support a defence that was short on manpower with Petty out, Lever not 100% and Smith going off injured.

Commentators talk so confidently of ops tactics but seem to assume others will get away with it, not that the Hawks did as they still lost.  Or that we will not counter.

Of course we are going to develop counter tactics when a side tries something new!  A bit like when Adelaide charged our defence thru the middle; the following week Lever was hoarse from yelling: 'close the corridor' to upfield mids/defenders. 

Edited May 3, 20223 yr by Lucifers Hero

I don't mind Sando's strategy, i think he has some good ideas, but the thing to remember is they can implement all of these plans, but Goody and Yze see the game as well as anyone and will adjust really quickly, and at the very worse turn it into a street fight, so no matter what plans you have, if you want to beat Melbourne you've gotta be willing to roll up your sleeves, go harder than them for longer and convert whatever chances you create. 

the formula to beat us is actually quite simple in my opinion, just really difficult to implement for 4 quarters.

12 hours ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

You have to laugh at all the media talk about Hawthorn creating the blueprint to beat us. The fact that they didn't actually beat us doesn't seem to have registered with anyone. Does part of this blueprint require us to be missing seven of our regular starting line up? 

 

19 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Commentators talk so confidently of ops tactics but seem to assume others will get away with it, not that the Hawks did  Of course we are going to develop counter tactics when a side tries something new!  A bit like when Adelaide charged our defence thru the middle; the following week Lever was hoarse from yelling: 'close the corridor' to upfield mids/defenders. 

 

I think it's great that the oppo are throwing these tactics at us, giving us the chance to work out our counter tactics and tighten up our overall game. There might not be any surprises left available by the time finals come around.

2 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

 

 

I think it's great that the oppo are throwing these tactics at us, giving us the chance to work out our counter tactics and tighten up our overall game. There might not be any surprises left available by the time finals come around.

Exactly! It works both ways.

It's not a secret to beat the Dees, it's a secret to not lose by 10 goals.