deanox

This sums it up. He isn't displacing Oliver from on ball. Viney can't play elsewhere. Harmes is the starting run with player and can do a a bit of inside as well as finish. So his role for us is to rotate into the centre when someone else gets a rest. And he isn't clean enough to play on a flank/wing for 80% of the game. Last year, with Viney injured, he was able to play inside most of the season.

Goody is too safe? The coach who: - experimented with a 4 man "diamond defense" and an 8 man back line with 4 runners into the square; - went after the best intercept defender in the comp as part of an attacking zone game plan; - was willing to trade out a troubled but star key forward for a gun lock down defender in response to 666 changes; - was willing to back in a young KPF and a rookie instead of sticking wih the safe journeyman; and - was willing to reinvent players in different positions such as Frost to the back line, TMac forward and Lewis forward; is too safe?

I think this is probably right but completely justified. We were definitely in with a shot and came home like a steam train until we, well, ran out of steam in the prelim against eventual premiers. We knew things would be tough, but the struggle with recovery made it worse than expected. We collected injuries after Christmas and in early rounds (May, Jetta, Lewis, TMac, Melk, Smith, all happened close to our in season) instead of slowly getting healthier. We didn't get match tactic practice coming into the biggest rule changes in decades. May's injury in combination with the 666 change magnified our defensive issues, and 666 in combination with lack of opportunity for trial/practice, ruined our attack. The biggest issue is that a season this bad can be damaging for morale, belief and cohesion amongst a group.

Assuming we finish 16th we have picks 3, 21, 39, 57, 75, 93. We may only want to use 4-5 of those but still have 11 out of contract, so need to re-sign or upgrade 6-7 players. Pretty much certain to be retained (assuming they agree to stay): Frost, Baker, ANB, J Smith. Seniors who could retire: Jones, Lewis. 2nd tier players who may be re-signed: JKH. T Smith and Lockhart are worthy of upgrades. That means it seems likely that the following will be moved on: Maynard, Stretch, Wagner, plus one or both of Lewis/ Jones. I think Keilty needs to be upgraded if he is to stay on the list, so may be gone too. There aren't many out of contract next year who we would want to delist, with Bedford, Jordan and Nietschke the only who aren't best 25 or close and young (Hore, Sparrow, Spargo), but even they are all only 20. So we may see a couple of players given an extra year so we have outlasting to delist next year too.

Surely by winning a 1 on 1 contest you are stopping the other player from contesting? This it's a sensible rule that should only apply if a 3rd player stops a player from contesting or if you don't contest the ball yourself ie don't get the hit or don't try for it.

Largely agree with this. I think Brayshaw is the most expendable because he is one of the few players we can move on without "robbing Peter to pay Paul". He is our 3rd inside mid, and despite being good at this role is actively contributing to our major weakness: disposal by foot and decision making. We really need some disposal class through the midfield. I'd only trade him if we had a player lined up who filled this need though.

Oliver was fantastic today. His work in close was genius. It doesn't always come off, but the problem is typically the disposals after him, not him.

Spot on post, every point. I'll raise May's field kicking again because it was fantastic. Regularly hit great targets from tight positions, which is very important. He also set us up beautifully after the Jones 50 m penalty, directing players to position, but Frost made a mess of it with a clumsy attempted spoil. The uncontested possession focus was clear from the first quarter as we kicked quick but to advantage, to leading players. Was great to watch.

OMacs greatest strength was zone defending, where he could park in space and drop onto a contest. He's not Jake Lever but he isn't a hack playing this role, and it suits him physically as he gets to the contests and can use his reach to impact. He isn't a one on one defender, as he doesn't have the strength, the body on body awareness of where his player is nor the pace off the mark to stop the lead. I don't really understand why this place has been in meltdown this year when it was obvious that 666 was going to really test our gameplan which used runners behind the ball, numbers at the contest and a zone defense in the backline. Not only is that game plan but it's clear we had drafted/ recruited for that zone D50 play with OMac, Frost, Hibberd, Lever, and the use of Fritsch and Hunt down there. The spend on May was to try and balance this with a strong anchor down back, but his injury and our lack of preparation ruined any chance we had.

I checked this further. It is the conversion rate against a team since at least the 50s. And the 59% against Brisbane is quite high too, with 55-57% being more like standard over the last 5 years. Mind boggling really because unlike our own conversion rate (which is the accuracy of just our players) conversion against is an average of all the clubs we play against and their should average out, unless we are doing something to influence it.

Last year he was a promising coach with tactical ideas that were different than anything we'd seen in the AFL. This year the difference had been limited preseason, rule changes and injuries all of which make devising and introducing new tactics hard. Let's wait until next year to worry about this. That's what happens when you play the first half of the season with one of the youngest 22s in the comp, with an injury risked preseason that means you haven't been able to decide, train and teach tactics to address structural rule changes. The no runner rule affects younger inexperienced teams more than older, successful teams. Which of our players would you expect to be providing on field direction in our back 6 this year? Legiment issue and discussion from Goodwin.

What was the basis of the decision?

I like Spargo a lot. I'm not sure he'll make it and I agree he is probably lucky to get a game on current performances. What I see is someone who creates and adds value to our current possession situation. Last year he would only have 7-15 disposals, but they would regularly improve our position by opening up space, getting a player on their correct side, creating a bit of time, etc. His possessions often resulted in us having the opportunity to attack. This year it hasn't worked as frequently, with more turnovers and less possessions, he has been poor.

Look, at our best we know we can compete. And although our percentage is a good reflection of how we've been belted, we also should have beaten both west coast and adelaide, which would put us in a much better position. The last month has been nothing like the first, even if the results aren't any better. In an even year it's not ridiculous to think we can turn it around and have a dip, and a late season rally will do wonders for confidence and attracting recruits, compared to more of the same. Finally the more games we get with Lever and May together, learning to play together, the better we'll be next year.

I haven't seen them all but A) at least 2 of them were things that happen to him all the time and he doesn't get the free and also B) there is a fine line between trying to reimpose via physical presence and undisciplined behavior. Melbourne are often criticized for being soft so at least he is trying, even if poorly.

Hibberd out injured. ANB will come in for him as he's the next in line and we don't really have any defenders left uninjured unless we go with Petty. Keilty out for Smith or Preuss, both kicked goals today and will make us better: Keilty has had no real impact. Melksham and Lewis may not come up, if they don't no idea would come in.

How can we have no one home?

Wouldn't surprise me if he is still there in a leadership capacity. I suspect it would be unprecedented for an AFL captain to still be on a list 6 seasons after stepping down as captain. Hopefully he can snare a few more games before he's done.

Only thing I can think is that shoulder AC doesn't stop you running, it just stops physical contact and maybe overhead ball handling. First few weeks Viney seemed underdone fitness wise, hopefully he has been able to work on that.

That outside of thur not kick to Lochhart was sublime. Lochy's effort to waste 30 seconds, turn and kick to Melksham was the smartest piece of play all day. The umpires decision to call Melksham to play on, after he marked inside 50 and said he was going to have a shot was a disgrace. I think exploiting the 30 second rule goes against the spirit of the game, but it doesn't mean the umpires can choose to disregard it.

Jeff is the only quality small forward we've had in the last decade and he has been out of form since 2017. We have instead relied on a group of medium forwards playing small. They all play "taller" than they are (pretty good jumps and marks) and all have a bit of pace, but none are true crumbers and they get caught out of position in crumbing situations. They also have a tendency to all go up instead of staying down. This group has included the following players at times since 2017: -Melksham, Petracca and Spargo (still there) -Harmes and Fritsch (playing other positions) -Garlett, vandenBerg, Hannan and ANB (injured or dropped) -Bugg, Watts and Kent (all moved to other clubs). With talls in Weid, Tmac and Preuss (last year Hogan), we've needed three of these medium/small guys at any one time. The combined 7 players that either left the club or are injured/dropped leave a big hole in our options, especially with Harmes and Fritsch playing mid/back. We couldn't expect that we'd have these issues with the players we retained. Not many options to juggle right now! I think this also compounds with having 4 of our preferred ~8 defenders out (May, Lever, Lewis, Smith) plus a 5th (OMac) out of form. Finally, we have not had a tall player as a "winner" except maybe Preuss. Gawn, TMac, Weid, OMac, have all been out of form, dropping marks etc. *edit: which means that "crumbing" players definitely aren't on the right position because they expect thur contest to be different.

In their defense, 3 of the expected first picked back 6 currently aren't playing.

Just adding to this, the reason this will work is because coaches are instructing players to crowd the contest so that the above can occur. Players without the ball need to jam in close so that they canconstantly scrap for it (gather, takle, drop, repeat) without giving away a free kick until they manage to get a free possession. Players need to stay in close to support their team mates by jumping on them and a tackler quickly, to avoid holding the ball being paid against them. If you ping those things above repeatedly players will naturally stand further away from the contest in space so that they provide more options to get the ball out. They will also be forced to play man on man because you can't give your opponent space around the stoppage.

You've never watched old games have you? No one used to "showcase skills" they hacked it forward while punching each other and extracting themselves from the mud. The game has never stayed the same.

666 doesn't lessen congestion. In fact it may make it worse as teams are forced to play with 6 forwards, so although the midfield is more open, the 50s are automatically more congested. 666 only stops 2 things: 1) extra numbers back to defend a lead late in the game, and 2) coaches experimenting with spatial tactics and game style. An example of 2: last year we played a 4 man forward line with 2 extras behind the ball. But both of these extras ran in to compete in the square. In effect, we generated our run from behind the ball and kicked into open space forward off the ball. Now, all teams must play the same style and kick to 6 on 6 forward of the ball. I agree with this (although might be happy with 20). If you want to fix congestion around the ball you need to do the following: - Strongly enforce holding the ball / illegal disposal. Don't let players gather/drop, gather/drop. - Stop allowing a third player (ie a team mate of the player with the ball) to wrap up a tackler and keep the ball locked in. This stops holding the ball decions being paid. (It is just holding the man, so pay a free kick to the tackler) These tactics are coached deliberately and are designed to ensure stoppages are win or draw only (not lose) by creating a secondary stoppage if you cannot win clean possession and dispose outside to a team mate. If you want more one on one contests then play for "sheparding the making contest" free kicks against 3rd players who try to block or screen. At least 10 per game occur.