Against a quality opponent, it is one of the more comprehensive last quarter wins I have seen in awhile.

Fritta obviously kept his fitness during the layoff as he was everywhere. A class act.

Laurie (not a fan yet) had some lovely touches.

Viney is rarely out of position for the tackle.

Swans too tired, Dees not.

 

16 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I’m not confident. Was a good win today but;

Our talls at either end are uncertain. Disco didn’t lock down the spot. No idea what our best available forward mix is. We need as many talls as possible but also as much pace as possible as we’ll get exposed for transition pace if the Pies get to the outside.

Hunter and Langdon both got killed by Gulden and consistently leave too big  a gap behind themselves in the zone with the half backs struggling to patch it up. Especially with Salo’s lack of speed.

Gawn is a liability at centre bounces if he can’t win the hit out and we look slow and top heavy in there. De Goey’s power and Pendles ability to hold space for himself are both going to cause huge issues. Oliver showed some good signs today but isn’t exactly in peak form and Gus is now getting squeezed out and having his weaknesses exposed by being more in space.

If the Swans kick straighter they might’ve had a match winning lead rather than 3 goals which would could peel back quickly.

Strong win, good win, no big reason for optimism in to next week 

Do you ever get excited?

You do know we won, don't you?

 

Imagine Jimmy and DeeSpence in a room together discussing the MFC.

What a barrel of laughs.

55 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Any questions raised as to why Gulden was allowed to run freely. Clearly no accountability to try to restrict him.  
42 possessions. 28 uncontested.  2 goals. He would run, kick or handball and then get to the next contest. Commentators also queried him being allowed to run free.

We won due to the collective Will to Win, team ability, Trac lifting and some Fritsch magic. 

Not being a smart [censored], I promise 

But a thought experiment.

Ignore the commentators.

For the sake of the exercise, assume goody elected not to put time into Gulden because he thought, on balance, not doing so would be a net positive.

What might the benefits of not putting time into gulden be?

28 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

He never turns up when we win...

It seemed like we revealed a few cards yesterday. A few positional tweaks and set plays. One in particular completely caught Sydney off guard, where we went wide to the right and got it to centre wing with uncontested possessions. 

A bit like we did against Hawthorn with the cluster from the defensive side of the centre square.

I think we'll have an array of ideas that we'll now look to unleash during the finals series that we know can come off in big moments, in high pressure finals, because we've seen it happen before in '21. 

Due to injury, our forward half is more unpredictable than any of our competitors. 

What do our other competitors have up their sleeves?

The two behind the ball was an interesting one as well. Seemed to open up the wider space to kick into. 

6 minutes ago, layzie said:

The two behind the ball was an interesting one as well. Seemed to open up the wider space to kick into. 

I'm not convinced from looking at the vision that we did go +2 behind the ball.

Either way, I think it's something you can do on the SCG and would get massively exposed on the MCG, where the opposition can use their +2 at the contest or from their own half back to cut any defence to shreds if the ball use is good enough.

That was a move for the smaller SCG and nowhere else, if in fact we did actually play +2 behind the ball.

5 minutes ago, binman said:

Not being a smart [censored], I promise 

But a thought experiment.

Ignore the commentators.

For the sake of the exercise, assume goody elected not to put time into Gulden because he thought, on balance, not doing so would be a net positive.

What might the benefits of not putting time into gulden be?

We play such a system based game & I feel  that Good’s ethos is “if everyone plays their role” then we’re a very hard team to beat. 42 possessions but a lot of those were uncontested..

10 minutes ago, binman said:

Not being a smart [censored], I promise 

But a thought experiment.

Ignore the commentators.

For the sake of the exercise, assume goody elected not to put time into Gulden because he thought, on balance, not doing so would be a net positive.

What might the benefits of not putting time into gulden be?

How many times has it become obvious that the Melbourne way, just like it was at Hawthorn, is to back in your own system?

The most we do in this space is play defensive forwards on interceptors, which IMO we very likely pioneered. And occasionally we'd run soft tags through the middle (Libba and Neale in '21 come to mind).

I said after the Port loss that despite letting Butters run around without a tag, to 3/4 time in that match, when he had done his damage, we led, and that as a team, we simply didn't get the job done that night.

Had we tagged Butters or had we tagged Gulden, we have to change the way we want to win the ball, defend the wider ground and how we want to move the ball.

I think in a final we'd likely use a soft tag on Butters, because we haven't shown our hand in this space at all for close to two years now, so it's an option. But I wouldn't tag a Gulden. I might tag a Nick Daicos though. Fortunately, we may not have to deal with that prospect.

Goody's philosophy is pretty clear in the way he defended Clarry after the Hawthorn match.

13 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

I'm not convinced from looking at the vision that we did go +2 behind the ball.

Either way, I think it's something you can do on the SCG and would get massively exposed on the MCG, where the opposition can use their +2 at the contest or from their own half back to cut any defence to shreds if the ball use is good enough.

That was a move for the smaller SCG and nowhere else, if in fact we did actually play +2 behind the ball.

Sorry to quote myself, but just thinking further on this. The more players stationed in our defensive half, the easier it will be to generate scores in our forward half, because there'll be space if you win the contest in the defensive zone.

Without Daicos, I wonder if we do try something unusual like +2 behind the ball? I think it's very risky against Collingwood's kicking and run and carry game, but maybe if we win territory (which is likely), we can defend those counter attacks and slingshots with more numbers behind the ball.

Have we shown our hand to Collingwood? Very interesting...

Edited August 28, 20231 yr by Binmans PA

41 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

I'm not convinced from looking at the vision that we did go +2 behind the ball.

Either way, I think it's something you can do on the SCG and would get massively exposed on the MCG, where the opposition can use their +2 at the contest or from their own half back to cut any defence to shreds if the ball use is good enough.

That was a move for the smaller SCG and nowhere else, if in fact we did actually play +2 behind the ball.

I'd have to watch again because I'm taking the commentators word for it there. Thought we had one extra back but those comments did surprise me a little.

The good thing was it allowed us to be compact in defence but widen the field when we were exiting. I'm confident we'll have something different again for the Pies to keep them guessing.

Edited August 28, 20231 yr by layzie

49 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

Have we shown our hand to Collingwood?

We don't need to show them our whole hand.  The middle finger would suffice.

Our forward line must have teams confused no one know what we're going to go in with week to week, even we don't know so no chance of a leak to the press. 

18 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I’m not confident. Was a good win today but;

Our talls at either end are uncertain. Disco didn’t lock down the spot. No idea what our best available forward mix is. We need as many talls as possible but also as much pace as possible as we’ll get exposed for transition pace if the Pies get to the outside.

Hunter and Langdon both got killed by Gulden and consistently leave too big  a gap behind themselves in the zone with the half backs struggling to patch it up. Especially with Salo’s lack of speed.

Gawn is a liability at centre bounces if he can’t win the hit out and we look slow and top heavy in there. De Goey’s power and Pendles ability to hold space for himself are both going to cause huge issues. Oliver showed some good signs today but isn’t exactly in peak form and Gus is now getting squeezed out and having his weaknesses exposed by being more in space.

If the Swans kick straighter they might’ve had a match winning lead rather than 3 goals which would could peel back quickly.

Strong win, good win, no big reason for optimism in to next week 

Sometimes a facepalm just isn't enuff

Sydney would have to be concerned at their major last quarter fade outs against Adelaide and Melbourne.  Last week 0.1 to 4.8, yesterday 0.2 to 4.4, that's 0.3 to 8.12. Carlton should be feeling confident if they are close at 3 quarter time.  No-one seems to be talking about this in the media.*

* Saw this was highlighted on AFL Media's Access All Areas

Edited August 28, 20231 yr by old55

5 hours ago, Binmans PA said:

Kozzy can play anywhere.

I’d like him to play in the ruck on top of Smith’s shoulders 

34 minutes ago, old55 said:

Sydney would have to be concerned at their major last quarter fade outs against Adelaide and Melbourne.  Last week 0.1 to 4.8, yesterday 0.2 to 4.4, that's 0.3 to 8.12. Carlton should be feeling confident if they are close at 3 quarter time.  No-one seems to be talking about this in the media.

Haven't you heard... we don’t mention such vulgar truths in polite ( read afl sanctioned) society 😉

1 hour ago, Jaded No More said:

I’d like him to play in the ruck on top of Smith’s shoulders 

I'd rather him at the feet of our rucks. How often does he win that first possession in the middle?

It's that rare mix of agility and ability to read the play.

29 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

I'd rather him at the feet of our rucks. How often does he win that first possession in the middle?

It's that rare mix of agility and ability to read the play.

My guess is he will play a lot more midfield minutes in September. I reckon he will attend more centre bounces, and then push forward. 

6 hours ago, Binmans PA said:

Imagine Jimmy and DeeSpence in a room together discussing the MFC.

What a barrel of laughs.

38 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

My guess is he will play a lot more midfield minutes in September. I reckon he will attend more centre bounces, and then push forward. 

Melksham's injury might mean he has to play deeper for longer. We'll see. We've definitely got some weapons up our sleeve.

Just now, Binmans PA said:

Melksham's injury might mean he has to play deeper for longer. We'll see. We've definitely got some weapons up our sleeve.

I agree, but I think he can still be involved in centre clearances and then quickly push forward. If he can help get first use and then get the 1-2 back, he can easily stream forward and kick a goal.

But he would need to play deep at all other times. Can't see him around the stoppages, unless they are inside 50 of course. 

On 8/27/2023 at 6:49 PM, FireInTheBennelly said:

Sorry Uncle, that's probably a result of your recent BKK spiritual awakenings

what's a norwegian power company got to do with spiritual awakenings?

On 8/27/2023 at 9:58 PM, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Did the Swans have their supporters behind both goals? It seemed that way.

 

Yes, they did have their supporters behind both goals. This is because their cheer squad sits behind the goals up one end, but the Sydney Members section is behind the goals at the other end (Bradman stand end) therefore we can’t sit in that area, and instead we were positioned in the pocket.

As was expected, they overwhelmingly outnumbered us, but we got this feedback from their cheer squad this morning…

 

Edited August 28, 20231 yr by WalkingCivilWar

2 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Yes, they did have their supporters behind both goals. This is because their cheer squad sits behind the goals up one end, but the Sydney Members section is behind the goals at the other end (Bradman stand end) therefore we can’t sit in that area, and instead we were positioned in the pocket.

As was expected, they overwhelmingly outnumbered us, but we got this feedback this morning…

 

That's really nice! I'll always have a soft spot for Sydney because of Kenny Williams and Adam Goodes. They seem(ed) like thoroughly good people.

On 8/27/2023 at 8:33 PM, KingDingAling said:

Just a great lead up. Beating Sydney at home, in a meaningless game. Really important we won this. 

It  really cannot be under-estimated, Sydney is a tough team, to win and wear them down (that is what enabled us to play our game) and with the Dees players' resolve greatly improving across the game was very professional, skilled and represented tremendous, space-restricted ability to play team football. It has been a tough, competitive season for most teams yet we rise above at this critical time of the year - our infrastructure onfield is going to really upset opposition tacticians; it feels and looks like a golden year is about to be achieved.