Engorged Onion

Chooka who's 24, in my local league snagged 14.9 last weekend. I'm not sure his missus would be keen to head up to the big smoke though. When the midfielders "Smithy" and "Pubes" respectively, deliver the ball inside 50 to him on a silver platter, Chooka's often heard yelling across the dewey field, 'Great connection lads' or 'This is a functional forward line Goodwin, you muppett!' Anyway I'm off to send my curated Youtube highlights to [email protected] - hope Tim gets it.

SO what I take out of all of this. Angus Brayshaw ,whose parents and partner live in Melbourne wants to 'return home' because his younger brother plays in Fremantle and he has Grandparents there. However... Andrew Brayshaw, whose grandparents live in WA and parents and brother live in Melbourne and has an older brother who plays in/for Melbourne, want's to stay in Perth . Andrew sounds like a right jerk if he doesn't want to be near his parents or brother(s), let alone play with his older brother 🤷‍♀️ And Jackson is the unicorn to unlocking the Brothers Brayshaw from playing together....

A fine thread as any to place this observation.....I'm always intrigued as to why the more 'glass half empty' posters seem to have fewer 'reputation' points than posts...

only a melbourne supporter knows the feeling? 😇

And yet, there is so much love between the players, irrespective of whether they are staying, leaving or undecided. Welcome to the free market supporters - the players are 😎 with it!

Spoiling for a fight @Cranky Franky? I'll land a couple of jabs as a response. 🥊 1) This is a forward line that won a premiership 17 games ago 2) Optics are one thing, and the stats are, we are scoring more per game than last year.

Final option? Bayley still has a ball in his hand and honing the skills of not giving it off?

it's on like donkey kong ❤️💙

The release of a specific image, is presumably an orchestrated move to signal something positive about Jackson eh?

Steveo, I'm far more interested in his body language on game day. Some pundits on here feel as though that's the only place to really tell if he is invested and interested in staying!!

I'd agree... mostly for Tomlinson. Essentially he would be familiar with the 2nd tall up forward role, and has around 2-3 months to prepare for it. I'm not sure that has happened of course. He'd be looking elsewhere if he doesn't get a gig soon surely?

#isgoodwintherightguy?

So if this info is accessible and therefore known by opposition teams, then its fascinating to see how opposition FD's set up structures when they play the Dees... I'd give my left [censored]* for easily accessible data like this. *ha, I used a word not dissimilar to tentacle, and I was still censored... dial it down a bit @Demonland 🤙

hope that was deliberate 🤣 because he operates like a bit of a chad.

I'd also like to think that no one who is 'pro-loading' thinks it's the only contributing factor to losses. Those same folk who are pro-loading probably recognise that we had injuries in game post our 10-0 run. They like to ask questions around, how is it that we got to 30 points up and then got comfortably reeled in by Freo in quick time... what contributed to that... and then don't just dismiss it by 'poor form' or 'not hungry' or 'drinking-bathwater'. They recognise that Chris Scott (other coaches etc) and the FD did some things around midfield set-ups that we were either unable to or didn't counteract. The recognise Goodwin constantly talking about 'connection'. Serious question. What are the factors that contribute to the unoperationalised notional phrase 'poor form in your opinion? I for one am not a person to look at a bunch of matches and explain it away as 'merely' poor form. For me it is an overarching phrase that is ultimately meaningless. Players don't lose their skill all of a sudden...nor can they keep effort and pressure up every single game for the entire season... and what things impact on effort and pressure? Things such as health, fatigue, illness, psychological factors of willingness, being aligned to your values....what the other team brings on the day themselves in relation to the 5 things just mentioned. This thread ultimately isn't focused on outcomes of matches. It's a 'sense making tool' of how things have come to pass. It's using objectivity and science and the reality of what occurs within the industry. Loading wasn't spoken about pre 2020 when we'd be inconsistent as ferk, or at least consistently getting rolled by teams. The fact that we've had two years of 10-0 starts, slumps from rounds 11-19, (11-16 this year) is markedly different from years ( 2005-2018) when by round 10 we would probably 4-6 if not 2-8. So it's useful to start to inspect things and be curious. Things have changed, unless of course two years of 10-0 are explained as being lucky and or a fluke (maybe due to the draw?)...so then I become curious as to how did the 10-0 come to pass? It's good to be curious about how humans perform under scrutiny, particularly in extreme athletic environments. 🙂

??

Pretty sure Brad Miller wasn't reported when old mate Tom Lonergan had his kidney removed!

What are the possible reasons for the FD to be so seemingly rigid on this approach? What advantage is given to the team? What risk is reduced? Any thoughts?

Aged well...

For those (not necessarily you @DemonWA) that are dubious about loading somehow being an insignificant factor in performance, and label it as a theory. I'd argue it's about as theoretical as Charles Darwin's 'Theory' of Evolution...

I wonder if Goodwin and Co felt it had the same meaning?

@von, on a completely unrelated note. Whenever I see your name, I can’t help but think of the first album Von by Sigur Ros and this ripping song.

Please explain (I just enquired about that in another post).

I love this level of analysis. For me I am curious about about coaching decisions (or non decisions). Is there inflexibility and a steadfast refusal to change certain tactics - ie: cover the extra number? Is it simply - our system will hopefully beat your system? or in marking contests clearly spoiling the ball very long vs at the feet where our smalls set up or, say with Petracca operating more forward (thus removed from clearance situations) (doubly showing there is flexibility to choose to do something different) why aren’t these alterations done during the game? Is it Goodwin and co not seeing it as it occurring in game? Or is it optimistically the myth of, seeing their hand and keeping your powder dry?

We looked 'off' from the word go last night... I was at the ground and in the final quarter, I was pondering a comment made by @binman during the week in reference to Brisbane playing us at the MCG - they were presumably loading, and perhaps felt the % of a win at the G that night was 40/60% best. Thus, let's do some loading. I wonder from a scheduling perspective whether that was not dissimilar from our FD's perspective. It is worth the risk to be 'flat', within a 5 day window, and if we lose at Kardinia Park, then so be it. As a supporter, I don't buy into the need to make 'statement's, that's just emotional responses to either feel good, or feel quite [censored] as it justifies the weekly proposition that you are only as good or 'bad' as your last game. Goodwin (and all coaches) have been in and around the system and are shrewd enough to understand that Round 1-22 is merely the pre-season. The real season then begins. What feels like a more accurate reflection of what we can achieve from a performance perspective? Was it the games vs Saints/ Brisbane or vs Freo/Geelong. I'm either optimistic, or blindly naive. The question as always is why was our pressure and execution down....when there is plenty of evidence that we can perform a particular way. It certainly aint attitude.... If you like rudimentary graphs... here is one I prepared earlier (that's a nod to Gabriel Gate who did the menu at the presidents function). Scoring shots per round for the opposition.