On 8/8/2022 at 4:09 PM, bobby1554 said:

Nice work Rocknroll. The easy answer may be the teams we played in the first 10 rounds, as opposed to the teams we played in rounds 11-20. Maybe the better teams have just improved more than we have (or dare I say it, we may have gone backwards a little?)

Gone backwards perhaps,unsettled from some injuries that matter as well.

But my memory of last years finals was that,seemingly from nowhere ,they could hit targets!!!!!

I still recall Gus catching a pass, literally on the boundary line , in the GF...it almost looked intentional!

Even Oliver's wild eyed running and kicking seemed as if he knew where he wanted the ball to go....and it did

That's actually all they need to fix

On 8/8/2022 at 8:19 PM, SPC said:

I’m going to drop something that I heard in an interview last year from Trac. He said that because of the confidence he and the mids had in the defence, that they could cheat slightly with defensive running as they were confident our backs would intercept, then could charge forward. 
The problem we have now is that we cannot always control opposition movement from our forward 50. The clean ball is making our defenders panic and as a result, the midfield push harder back to cover. A lot harder than late last year, this is why they look gassed. 
The loss in faith in the back 6 has meant we are not taking risks with our running patterns, which also makes our ball movement at times looks stodgy. 
It is a small margin for error, but we have just loss a bit of confidence in one another to win key contests.
 

That might be something to do with the form or lack thereof from the likes of Lever & Rivers vs their 2021 form.  Rivers to a lessor degree but Lever is a fair way off his 2021 levels.

Lever was almost on a par with May last season in commanding that back half with so many intercepts.

Last year he was ranked No.1 in the AFL here with 10.3 intercepts per game.  While still a VG effort, has dropped nine places this season to No.10 averaging 7.7

Salem's late return, then struggle with form, would have unsettled the backline vs 2021 lineup as well.  Until last week, where he seems to have turned the corner and is now back to somewhere like his 2021 form.

Getting back to some normality in terms of decent breaks between games/not travelling as often would probably be helping some of the veterans and those returning from issues from here as well, such as Maxy, May, Lever, Hibb, Melk, BB & Salem.  Should also help the mids wIth their general soreness/recovery as well.

There's alway the goal kicking and pressure issues though especially up forward.  Don't seem to have sorted these out in the second half of the season other than the odd match.  So these remain a major concern that might kill off our chances of going deep.  Time will tell i guess.

Edited August 11, 20223 yr by Demon Dynasty

 

All year I have spoken to several supporters and have told them that the fadeout was happening, they all thought I was wrong but the coaches were lulled into a false seen of security by results not facts.

3 hours ago, Demonland said:

 

Hmm it looks like we targeted starting games with a lot more intensity. Perhaps it is simple as spending all our petrol tickets too early in the game? 

Even a novice can see that we weren't going to nail our first 10 shots at goal in a game, no-one does.

So this idea of trying to kill off a game early and then wondering why we didn't when we didn't take our chances suggests idiotic coaching, which we don't have. It has to go deeper than this.

On 9/27/2022 at 12:48 PM, Demonland said:

 

The stats might also be interpreted to suggest that contested possessions aren't a strong predictor of whether a team wins or losses and that other factors are more predictive. The quality of opposition in the latter rounds could also be driving a skew in results

Edited September 29, 20222 yr by Demons1858