Just now, At the break of Gawn said:

I’d actually argue that in those wet games it was when it turned dry our game fell away. For example we got up to a 3 goal lead against Port and I think it would have stayed that way if the rain had continued. When it dried up in the last, Port got on top. On Thursday night, when it dried up in the last, Geelong got on top. Even against Essendon, most of the damage was done in the first half when it wasn’t raining.

You stole my answer to this question but I will give you credit anyway 😜

We know the coaching team have a philosophy of backing in our system, but they've shown with their use of a defensive forward (previously Melksham and more recently Smith) and at times in 2021, a negating mid in Harmes to both Libba and Neale, we are prepared to use "negative" roles to ensure our system functions optimally.

Do you think we should be more willing to use more negating players in our system?

15 hours ago, Surfer Dee said:

I love the pod and Binman's positivity about our team but I see some serious flaws in our game plan. 
 

We're so inefficient going forward that other teams actually want us to play in our own forward half. This leads to the opposition getting the ball 9/10 times. Then they take the risky option. They go down the middle, they go fast and they try burn us with speed. It's risky, and it leads to turnovers. However, we're one of the worst teams in the league at turning a turnover into a goal. So the risk to the opposition of playing this way is mitigated. 
 

We bludgeon ourselves all night in the contest but other teams just need to be vaguely ok in the contest and flood our backline, then they go for it. 
 

We need to move the ball from the defensive half with speed at least sometimes to break the pattern.

i just think we're easy to coach against because you know what we'll be doing before we do it and it requires a defensive system to be perfect. 

We definitely struggle more going forward in the middle part of the season.  I’ll let binman explain one theory why. Mine is the weather nullifies our game plan (turnovers and scores). However, the game plan is sound and forward half turnovers (plus defending opposition i50s) are what wins flags. I’m not that worried about the loss overall but I’ll be worried if it’s wet for our first final. Our strengths (turnovers and running) are taken away when it’s wet and we don’t seem to adapt to the conditions.

Question for the podcast is does the panel have any other theories about our poorer form in the wet.

Edited June 25, 20232 yr by Watson11

It may depend who we play in that first final too @Watson11.

My recollection of the qualifying final in 2021 against the Lions in Adelaide was it was wet.

The Lions are already a slow team, so it didn't overly impact the result.

Cutting off questions here as I'm doing notes and can't include anything else as I need to go out in a bit.

Thank you to everyone for their questions, comment and contributions.

See you at 8:30pm

Thanks for reading out my question and giving me some food for thought.

Great podcast thanks!

Another great pod guys: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  

I deliberately stayed away from most of the ‘gloom & doom’ in post match thread following the Geelong game, and I’m definitely buoyed by the optimism expressed by all three of you in relation to our meeting with GWS next weekend.  Absolutely the therapy I needed.  Huge thanks!