titan_uranus

Gawn, Oliver and Viney pretty harsh to be the first three discarded!

The quote of mine in the middle post is correct. There is no evidence to support your argument that we lost those mid-season games because we were loading. It is possible we were loading, and it just didn’t work. But there is no evidence to support that argument because there is no evidence we were loading. All you have is your views on industry practice and the assumption you have drawn that we must have done it as a result. You might be right. But I don’t believe there is any evidence you are actually right, and us not running out games well late in the year does not support your argument.

No we didn’t. The majority of our MCG games were pre-bye (9 of our first 13 were at the G, then 3 of our last 9 prior to finals, or 5 of our last 11 including finals). We played at the G two times from Rounds 16-23.

Round 1 vs the Dogs, we were in front early, then behind by 24-odd in the second quarter but won by 26. Round 2 vs GC we built a 16 point lead early then pushed it out to 23 before two late Suns goals. Round 3 vs Essendon we built a 20 point lead early then won by 29. Round 5 vs GWS we jumped out to a 26 point lead then won by 67. Round 6 vs Richmond we had a 14 point lead early, fell behind, then won by 22. Round 9 vs St Kilda we got out to 48 points up, they fought back, but we won by 38. Round 10 vs WC, 35 up at quarter time became a 74 point win. Round 11 vs North a 20 point half time lead became a 47 point win. Round 15 vs Brisbane we went from 6 down at quarter time to a 64 point win. Round 20 vs Fremantle we were 32 up in the second and won by 46. Round 23 vs Brisbane was a 10-12 goal margin for the second half.

Impressive side, considering it’s 3 players short!

I agree. There is no evidence to support the argument that we lost those mid-season games because we were loading. Other than corroborative evidence from the club, which doesn't exist and didn't exist at the time, the only evidence that could have supported it was displaying superior fitness in the last 6-odd weeks of the season. That didn't happen. As such, IMO there is no basis to continue to run this argument.

Spot on. There is NO SUBSTANCE to this Pickett thing. Kane Cornes said this on radio yesterday morning (Crunch Time). He threw it out there, Sam Edmund asked him to clarify, and he conceded he had no inside information but that the two SA clubs would love to have him. In other words, he's made this up to start a fire. Why would he do that, you ask? Well, he's a Port Adelaide man. And he is a regular on Trade Radio, which stirs [censored] up on a daily basis to fill 8 hours of airwaves a day talking about pretty much every single player on every single list. This is A-grade tripe.

Then leave Petty in defence. Petty's played all bar 5 minutes this year as a defender after playing all of last year (when in the side) as a defender and winning a flag doing it. If he has the ability to be flung forward in a game for a surprise or changed tactic, fine, but let's perhaps try the natural forward as a forward and the established defender as a defender before we flip them around.

Here's a stat for you. We had an 11 point lead, or more, in all 24 games this year. I wonder if: that's ever happened before; and if so, whether the last side to do it failed to make a prelim. Could be a good question for Swamp on Twitter.

Everyone disagrees with you, so you're right? Presumably if everyone had agreed with you, you'd have been wrong? FWIW, I don't think we have a widespread cultural problem. As I posted yesterday somewhere else, I think our season ended the way it did for a number of reasons, not just one as this thread suggests. I think the issues here are largely summed up by a group of players who struggled to find the inner motivation to gut run, chase, tackle, repeat lead, etc. when faced with a brutal fixture, opponents treating their games against us as finals each week, less stability, and drop offs in form from the bottom 6-10 players (who, unsurprisingly, provide the pressure/running a lot more than the cream on top - players like ANB, Sparrow, Spargo, Hunt, Rivers).

Do we really ask for those early season MCG games? I wish we wouldn't. At least, not to the extent we had them this year. I'd much rather see us get the majority of our road trips out of the way in the first half of the season (no matter the difficulty of the opponents).

It's telling as to their horrendous list management, not so much to his ability. They want him off their books because they don't have a choice - they can keep paying him, and he can probably come back and play good football for them, but given Cameron/Cox, that won't help them as much as moving him on and getting in the mids they're targeting to help replace Pendlebury, Sidebottom and Adams who are all ageing. That's not to say Grundy's a lock to be an A-grader next year, and I agree that we shouldn't be falling over ourselves to pay for him. No matter what the motivation, if Collingwood want him off their list, we have the upper hand in the negotiations.

JVR's just put in a year of playing good footy for Casey as a forward. After all that, we're going to flip in into the backline? Not sure about that.

Injury/fitness wise, I believe only four players played all 24 games for us: Petracca, Brayshaw, Spargo and Fritsch. Last year we had 10: Oliver, Petracca, Gawn, Brayshaw, ANB, Lever, Rivers, Jordon, Pickett, Spargo. We weren't beset with long-term injuries as badly as some other sides, but we had much less stability in our 22 this year than we did last year, and with a coach/FD who want us to be stable and predictable for one another, I reckon that really hurt us.

Fixture-wise, I'm hopeful of the following: Travel being spread out through the season - I don't want three road trips in the first 14 games and then four road trips plus a Geelong game in the last 8 games Home games being spread out through the season - I don't want 10 of our first 14 games at the MCG but then only 2 of the last 8 Tough games being spread out - I don't want 2 of our first 10 games to be against finalists (and the two worst ones at that), but then 10 of our last 12 games being against finalists

I don't know if that's correct. I think, role-wise, his wing football last year was really strong.

We obsessed on here over whether 2018 was an "aberration" for us. I think it's abundantly clear 2021 was Collingwood's "aberration". Won finals in 2018 (a few minutes away from a flag), 2019 and 2020. Fell to pieces in 2021, but back at it in 2022. 9 of the 2018 GF side played for them tonight, with another two (Adams and Grundy) still on the list. 13 of the 2020 semi final side played. So they have a core of 9-13 players who were winning finals for three years, fell away last year, added some key youth (N Daicos, Ginnivan, Cameron) and bounced back to where they probably always should have been. Their side this week is precisely the same average as as ours, but with an average of 14 games per player less experience. But on here, no one talks about that, all we get is "they were 17th last year". The other interesting thing about Collingwood is that they won most of their H&A games despite being well beaten in most key stats, but in their two finals they've lifted in CPs, clearances, time in forward half, etc. They got in off the back of a lot of luck, but they played well last week and won tonight off the back of a style of game that is far more durable.

Agree. We need players forward of centre who can pressure and use the ball well. We have very few players who can do both (think Fritsch, Spargo, Melksham and Brown for players who can kick but don't apply enough pressure, and think ANB, Viney, Petracca, Oliver and Gawn for players who can apply pressure but are unreliable in front of goal or when delivering inside 50).

It might get easier. Or harder. We don’t know. It will depend on which sides we get for our repeat matches and what happens to them next year. Odds are it will be hard because we’re top 6 but we got unlucky drawing Fremantle and Collingwood for our non-top 6 repeat games and they both skyrocketed.

DeeSpencer writes a lot of very silly posts, but that wasn't one of them. For someone I've always considered to be very measured, you appear to be really sinking down a hole, rpfc. You've set the bar high for your own expectations and from what I'm reading today, you're almost lashing out at anyone who is posting anything which even remotely suggests there were factors for us bombing out that aren't simply ineptitude or things you had the prophetic vision to have seen weeks ago.

Very easy to get sucked into this sort of VFL performance the day after that sort of AFL performance. But surely we'll be seeing plenty of Bowey and JVR next year. Surely.

I agree with this (not necessarily that it was the "main reason", but that it was a reason at the least). Some will read it as a "cop out" but I truly believe this was a significant factor in our all too rapid demise. Not only did the fixture split into "easy" and then "hard" after Round 10, but the post-bye period was brutal not just for opponent difficulty but for being all over the shop venue wise. Brutal game after brutal game. No respite. No soft patch of games against some bottom 4 sides to just take the pressure off for a week or two.

You seriously want to argue our season ended early because of the contracts we signed?

Individual wise, the most alarming drop offs for me have been Salem, Jackson and Rivers (in that order). Salem might be playing through pain but if so that's not good enough from him or the club, he shouldn't have been playing, particularly with Bowey fit and playing well for Casey. If he's been fit and pain-free, his form has been diabolical and a mile off last year. In Round 1 Jackson looked like he was going to take a step as a forward this year when he clunked that mark and roosted that goal. Never happened. His inability to impact the game when not in the ruck made our lives much harder this year. If Rivers had anything in his first two years, he had composure. That seemed to desert him this year. Fumbly, panicky, making bad decisions. Again, not really excusable with Bowey playing VFL.

No we're not. We just want to focus on the real issues. Theoretically, if we win the flag next year, do you think this stat will still be meaningful?