—coach—

Had all the dominance there couldn’t get score on the board turnover and goal to them. That’s the difference to when we’re at our best, we get value for our dominance

Ran around us at every stoppage there

Regardless of whether we win or loose today if they keep up the intensity they’ve shown so far it’s a big step forward

Good to see we’re continuing we’re we left off last week: - forward line playing on the wings - Max and BB competing for the same mark and spoiling each other - unforced error error after error at least we look more ferocious!

Loving Turner already!

Yes it can, but ultimately you would want all of your players peaking at the same time (September) so would want to provide a program that prepares all your athlete to peak at the same time. By running multiple schedules you risk a portion of your group being flat at the wrong time. Remember other factors affect the preparation, so if you add a layer of complexity (multiple schedules) and then cop injuries/illness you may not have the ability to effectively facilitate (due to budget/personnel constraints) so many variances. Plus it's often better for motivation (mental/emotional readiness) for the whole group to be roughly on the same schedule as the team pulls each other along to higher levels of training. Don't forget 'loading' is applied differently to different physiological types, Petracca v Langdon being a good example. They won't both increase load the same, so there will already be a layer of specificity applied to different groups of players.

Would agree with this statement and think you have a good point that our current form is not ALL to do with training loads. peak performance requires all three of physical, mental and emotional readiness to be in an ideal zone. At the moment I think we are below ideal in all three. it’s worth noting as a side note that we could quite easily have won the game on the weekend if our dominant patches in the third and four quarter resulted in scoreboard pressure which they did not for many reasons. I think we’ll be fine, just need to lower expectations for a few weeks then enjoy the ride.

It’s about prioritizing what’s important, if winning in September is important, you can’t be winning for the 27 or so weeks leading up to that (unless you are 20% better than the next best team and can win running at 80%). As the effects of preseason wear off over time and you need to top up the tank to finish the season strong. it’s kinda like a pit strategy in racing where you can’t run the full race on one tank of fuel, you need to have a plan for when you are going to pit which needs to be flexible enough that should the unexpected arise (like rain which affects tyre choice, or a minor malfunction, or pace car) you can adapt. In a footy sense, you choose when to pit (increase load) to fill of the tank, but need to adapt your plan for those who have had injury or illness.

It may not be post bye that we see the benefit as we may actually be building load through the bye and out the other side. Could take several weeks after the bye to see the effect. Only looking at the season in entirety will the result be fully known.

Very true

I have a degree in Exercise Science and 22 years experience in elite sport and agree roughly with Binman. Peak performance readiness only lasts so long. Teams in premiership contention try one of two (with variations) approaches: - Continue preseason for many weeks into regular season sacrificing peak performance in the interim, banking enough wins along the way (60%/40% is a good result depending on who they play) to keep them in and around top 8, then lightning the load and hitting their straps a few weeks later. This can be followed by a shorter block later in the season (around round 18), with final peaking occurring in finals. This all depends on list/age profile of course. - Train for a double peak which means they prepare to hit the season running and bank early wins (exactly as we seem to have done), before building load prior to and out the other side of the bye rounds (again sacrificing best performance and looking for a 60/40% win loss record) before hitting a second peak in the later half of the year. (Pre finals bye and pre Prelim bye for those top 4 who win first week allow reduction in game fatigue and increased uptake of train stimulus without negative effect (normally in the form of high intensity work like match simulation activities). Don't forget there's different forms of loading which have different outcomes. Aerobic Endurance, Aerobic power, Anaerobic endurance and anaerobic power are all types of prescription which have different outcomes. You can't do all at the same time, but tend to focus on them at different phases throughout the season. Not all have a negative effect on game day performance but all come together in the end (in theory) at the right time. Remember also, not every athlete is the same. Petracca (power athlete) will respond to increases in volume (running and gym reps) different to Langdon (endurance athlete). Hence each will be prescribed different stimulus to suit body type and training background and are monitored via gps for all metrics of volume, intensity and duration. During this time Petracca will likely get slow and heavy (and thus kick poorly), while Langdon is unlikely to suffer the same way and may in fact get better. If you add to that the influence of injury and illness, it can become quite a balancing act to make sure all athletes are doing what they need for their best performance. Sometime an athlete may need to extend their period of increased loading because they were sick or injured for a period during that time and actually dropped load whilst sick/injured. Having worked closely with a S+C coach involved in AFL for 8 years , I can assure you that teams do go through periods of increased training load throughout the season depending on where they sit on the table. Watching our boys in person the past few weeks they sure do look like they have changed training stimulus. In any event it's all speculation really as the club isn't about to come and hand out their IP to everyone by telling them what they are doing, so time and on field performance will reveal all!

Are you talking about the group of about 10-15 mullet haired boys of around the 18-20mark? If so, I noticed them at there freo game and they were definitely there purely to annoy demons members. Not one of them had a scrap of freo gear on

So from my view from level 2A dead center of the ground I noticed the following snippets of gold (or just middle aged man ramblings): - first point, for most of the night our forward forays started from defensive 50. I made particular note that at the start of those forays our entire forward line were positioned defensive side of the centerline mostly on the wings. As the ball moved forward our forwards had to turn and race for the forward 50. If the ball came down fast, instead of kicking it to the open space inside 50 (despite having 3 forward leading their men running forward) we slowed down chipped it sideways until all but 4 Sydney blokes were clogging up our 50. Or we played handball merry go round until we turned it over for a fast forward entry at the other end. Then when we eventually did kick it inside 50 we managed to find the lone syd bloke guarding space or the 3 on 1 contest with brown at the bottom being jumped all over. If the ball came in slow, and we pinpointed a leading forward, the kick was so [censored] it went over their head or to the lone syd bloke guarding space again. So my question is, if browns a leading forward, how is he supposed to sprint the 110m back to deep forward, then turn and lead out at the ball carrier. Same with Fritch. To do so they have to beat the ball which if kicked is moving twice as fast as they can run? Very little of our scores came from quality center clearance which is where our leading forward have their best chance of success. So my question is, why do we need our ENTIRE forward group playing on the wings? Why not keep 1 or 2 back a little so they have some chance at a one on one contest or don’t have to run back so far to then turn and lead out? We’re basically setting up for a quick entry inside 50 to forwards running onto the ball towards the goal but aren’t kicking it there when given the chance. - second point, we seem to be getting first hands on the ball around stoppages, but cough it up almost immediately due to handball merry go round again. Freo we’re very good with their first handball going to a guy 10-15m away rather than our tactic of handball going to a guy 3m away. Think we need to look wider than the immediate contest to avoid the constant turnovers in tight - third, our hack kicks go short and high, opposition hack kicks go low and hard (mostly). What this means is that a higher percentage of opposition hack kicks hit the chest of one of their own playing in front of their man. Most of ours go to a contest resulting in turnovers or null contests, very little result in us keeping possession. Anyway, that’s what I notice, hope the coaches have some solutions because atm we look poor. Off to watch Vermont under 10 girls playing at home today. Confident our forwards will stay in the forward line for some of the game and that there will be more kicking and less handballing that last night! stay well people

Bet your house on them paying a 50 for one of those late hits to them in the last quarter

Minor correction, Enter Sandman is the name of the song and boy oh boy does it rock when played live! Saw Metallica play live at the tennis centre last time they were in Melbourne….. what an experience!!!! ❤️💙❤️

On Saturday I sat in the bay next to the cheer squad and was going bananas most of the game. Had a great group of fans around me who were all in good spirits. Crowd noise was great in the first half but definitely dropped off after half time (when we were getting pantsed). I can an assure you the cheer squad were in fine voice and are NOT to blame for the the lack on noise. Think the fans of anyside who has 8 kicked against them in a quarter goes pretty quiet and the team kicking 8 goals gets pretty rowdy.

Buddy won’t be playing next week

Scroll down to press conferences here: https://www.afl.com.au/video

So was at the game with our middle child who did her best to try my patience but was outdone by the Narrm boys! Thoughts…. - Weid was comprehensively and categorically beaten in all but one contest. So often he is beaten before the ball even gets to him. I would much prefer M Brown as he at least competes with more vigor than limp tissue paper. - Why does a lead up forward (Brown) spend so much time in the middle of the ground or on the wing, only to have to run backwards into the forward line and then try to lead at the ball carrier? It doesn’t work. Can’t we leave at least one of Weid or Brown inside 50 when the ball is down the other end so somebody can lead at the ball? - That’s the worst game I think I’ve witnessed from Petracca, nuff said - Thought the crowd size was excellent for a Melb v Interstate team. Anyone know the exact number? - hope the boys realize they need to pull their finger out now and get serious. Could easily drop a few in the next month if we don’t pull it back together quickly

I can Weid just get after it rather than sitting back every time?!!!!

Fantastic banner WCW! 👍👍👍👍

We’re going to come out of this with some injuries, not great leading up to the tough games we have coming up. Langdon, Brayshaw, Petty, May, Bowzer all copped serious knocks so far

Got slammed on his back in a tackle, possible rib/s

What the heck is up with Tracs kicking?!!!!

Dunstan demonstrating why he’s not best 22 so far