2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

We saw Clarkson at hawthorn regularly change their game style in season

That's odd. In his last 5 seasons at Hawthorn they only finished in the eight once, and across his last 2 seasons they won a total of 12 games (finishing 12th and 13th). 

I wonder why he didn't just change their game style to something more successful.

On 24/03/2025 at 12:08, jnrmac said:

One of our big problems is where our players run to. I watched a few games on the weekend and it dawned on me that when we have the ball Melbourne players rarely get separation from their opponents. So we are constantly kicking to players under pressure or having to make flawless kicks or HBs to players that are immediately under pressure.

Other teams appear to be able to get clean space and can hit kicks of 20m r more because they aren't under pressure and they dont have to pinpoint a pass. Watch Hawthorn. They are manic running to create space when they have the ball

Our fwd line exemplifies this problem and we constantly bomb the ball to a contest because the fwd line get in each others way. The running patterns don't exist or they all seem to run to the same spot. Other teams seem to have all the space in the world in the fwd line.

Its not rocket science that when we have the ball players should run in all directions to open up the field. When the field opens up a kicker can kick the ball into a space for a team mate to run on to it. Instead we have a stop and prop mentality that invites pressure.

Our kick it to Max strategy went out with the arc. Memo Simon Goodwin: other teams have worked that out.

Our run and spread is basically non-existent. Either because we aren't fit enough or we aren't coached to do it.

John Kennedy the coach said there were only 3 phases of the game: you have the ball, your opponents have the ball or the ball is in dispute. We are ok when the ball is on dispute. We have focused on the other team having the ball but when we have it we are clueless

It is coaching coaching coaching. And player selection integrity

 

Nailed it jnrmac.

Although Simon and his mates have said they are/are trying to change our system it's still based in what worked in 2021 which worked so well because:

• our defense was no. 1 in the comp 
• we had the best bull midfied in the comp (Trac, Viney, Oliver) 
• possibly the best wing combination (Langdon & Angus) 
• we had the best ruckman in the comp (Max) who clunked marks all over the ground and he had a very capable understudy that had a different skillset (Jackson)
• our forwards could mark and kick (Brown, TMac, Fritsch)
• we had decent depth (Harmes, Sparow, Jordon, Jones, Jetta, Bedford, etc.) 
• it was still mostly a contest, defence and territory game

Not one of those things are still true, sadly...