Engorged Onion

I do wonder what the internal view of the club is vs supporters. Perhaps it’s not so black and white (good or bad). I also wondered about them, as the retirees were called out yesterday

Nice out of the box thinking. Even Cales brother Mitch is a discard and then premiership player. Anyway, if you were to think that Levi was the elixir for all your premiership contending ailments, at any time, you’d be deemed crazy. 
 

this thread is a great opportunity to whittle away some hours while your life is passing you by. And rather than take a pot shot, I’d rather the current incumbents than Levi. They know the system, they know their teammates and most importantly they probably won’t be playing unless there is an injury glut.

Just like an instagram influencer, this thread is brave and stunning. 🤩

38 minutes ago, Cheap Seats said:

There hasn't been any news on Harmesy, i suspect he will be in the red and blue next year.

.

2 hours ago, Dwight Schrute said:

I wonder if we'd have a look at Ladhams? he's more of a forward ruck and likely falling down the pecking order at the Swans 

Taj Wowoedin ‘likes’ this post 😇

1 minute ago, adonski said:

Yep

I've got Luke Jackson and Sam Weidemen ones lined up to, hearing whispers...

🥹 Brilliant… curt response was, I got my hopes up and then shattered! 

2 hours ago, Binmans PA said:

Thoughts on the term "inside slider" mate? 😄

Holy hell that’s euphemistic! What’s the definition of an inside slider (in a football context, rather than urban dictionary)?

59 minutes ago, adonski said:

(Not real btw)

Why the [censored] would you bother posting that? was it a vanity project to show off your photoshopping skills? 

5 minutes ago, old55 said:

I haven't run more than 2m for 10 years EO

But you weren’t an AFL umpire…. Or were you 🤷‍♂️😀

Newish jargon of a ‘cooler’, sounds naff.  Question for those hipster football analysts, what’s the difference between a ‘tagger’? 

Harmesy will be good for depth - the game moves on quickly eh… 

22 minutes ago, Deemania since 56 said:

Nice, realistic connection, there. Is it not time that they became professional and thus, more accountable across the board of their responsibilities? The AFL has deceived us for too long about their respective talents, skills and meritorious service to the game. 

Was discussing this whilst watching the first quarter (Bris and Carlton), they’re professional AND they are part time. That’s an important distinction to be made

On a side note, a good friend of mine was an umpire for 10 years or so with the AFL and post career (roughly 10 years) he has never run more than 2km since. The training is THAT effortful.

6 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

Probably the least excited I’ve been for a grand final. Very weak season and whoever is the eventual premier will be remembered as a weak premier alongside the Bulldogs 2016. 

I agree with the sentiment, and that’s not really how it works in reality, is it?

Anyway, tin foil hat time ,- I sat with 5 people last night, 1 Collingwood - 1 Freo and 2 Geelong supporters, and another Dees supporters, who all felt the game was umpired with a strong bias towards confecting to a particular outcome. 3 in particular had never previously harboured a sense that the AFL attempts to manipulate outcomes - although all agreed they do it off the field, be it tribunals, or Essendon, or the umpire that was charged with betting, or HR issues, or… They were gobsmacked about the first quarter and a bit.. about the non calls being made, and even the Collingwood supporter could reflect enough (female!) that GWS did not get the ‘rub; in the final quarter the night before.

Anyway - your comment got  me thinking about the Dogs - and how simultaneously in EPL there was also the fairytale story of Leicester in the same year… HOW Convenient! and then the Dees, winning in an already compromised (financially) Covid year… yep - I think I’ve gone off the deep end

Hey fellow Dees Devotees,

The air is thick with reflections pondering, and aggressive drive bys on the forum dressed up as ‘asking the crucial questions that no one else has the cajoles to do so’.

Anyway as we've witnessed our team maintain a consistent top 4 presence but not clinch the premiership. It’s a pivotal moment for our Football Department to reassess, strategically recalibrate, and capitalise on the strengths within our i list.

With our list’s flexibilty, we have the opportunity to control the tempo, and as evidenced, we seemed to win in different ways throughout the year, suggesting flexibilty and composure. Not just wrestling it back to our method.

Our squad boasts diverse talents allowing for a dynamic shift in roles. I’m interested in our teams adaptability and allowing us to exploit the identified weaknesses in other contenders strategies and setups.

Given the strength of our midfield unit, there’s a decisive advantage to be gained in contested situations. By intensifying our focus on mastering contested ball skills, we can disrupt and dismantle opponent play in critical match scenarios. We will have a new coach with new ideas, I am excited about what strategies and analytics are brought in.

Our forward line has the potential to elevate and intensify pressure, forcing critical turnovers and allowing us to capitalize on oppositions errors. We didn’t have the cattle at the right time of year - I think people genuinely forget it. 

With adept intercept markers, a strategic refinement in our defensive structures will help the ball carrying and ball movement out of the back to try to distrupt defensive structures of other teams…

By leveraging our squad's  fitness levels and endurance, which in my view was beyond most other teams,  can we continue to  secure a competitive edge and dominate even in the closing minutes of the game.

Some thoughts around the trends of the game going forward. is the explosiveness and quick ball movement is fine when you have it, and how do you best counteract it - and where do you try to cut it off - particularly if we tend to have lots of repeat inside 50’s… and that seems problematic with the density of the forward line - sure media pundits keep suggesting we bomb it long - as that is the only strategy - but [censored] it, so does every other club - and when it comes off its a great pack mark (see Cox last night) and that could have easily been dropped and rebounded, and thus interpreted as ‘dumb play’. 

What strategies are there to employ considering the list that we have. I look forward to some good input over the summer lull. 

Well done to Collingwood. They snuck through and took their chances. Seems to be the theme of the season for those teams in contention.

The industry is so tight, it could have been Us, or GWS into the GF. Not to be…

Game day moments matter - like us, GWS would reflect on a few and rue them.  

Bringing it back to us, overall though, our best is good enough, and to have been in the top 4 for 3 seasons, is an incredible feat, considering how tight the competition is and small the margins of error.

How is Don Pyke relevant these days?  *

Sorry if that was abrupt , Is he still in the industry?

17 minutes ago, BaliDemon said:

So according to your logic, unless a person has intricate, behind-the-scenes knowledge of decision-making processes in an organisation (sporting or otherwise), then they should just keep their mouth shut? Maybe you should re-read your posts because they seem incredibly closed minded. 

Blind faith is rarely a good quality to exhibit in any walk of life. Perfectly fine for members and supporters to ask hard questions of their football club when it’s more than apparent certain decisions were ill-conceived or poorly executed. They’re just questions EO. Words on a page. Perhaps ask yourself why you’re so sensitive about them and feel this constant need to sound off on the messenger. 

I’ll be disengaging, mostly because there is an infinite loop of trying to convince each other that our opinion is the correct opinion, and the other layer of me being sensitive, and you being sensitive to me being sensitive and feeling a need to be a condescending [censored]… 😎❤️

37 minutes ago, BaliDemon said:

Ahh that old passive aggressive chestnut 🌰 

Shhh … don’t ask any uncomfortable questions 🤫

Reread your posts - It’s not asking uncomfortable questions is it? It’s deriding choices made based on assumptions and things that you presumably have no direct knowledge about.

Apologies if the previous post was passive aggressive - I’ll be more direct in the future.

16 minutes ago, BaliDemon said:

Brown came for 4 years, not 3 as you’ve stated. 

You are correct about the two of them being crucial to premiership success in 2021 but by the end of 2024, a full three years later, both will have contributed next to nothing to our push for a second flag. THREE full seasons. 

’Let’s be honest’ - that’s not really acceptable. 

What are your terms and conditions for acceptability in those given circumstances. Now unless you were there, and either a player agent, a list manager, or the player themselves, you’re entitled to an opinion no matter how articulate , but actually have no idea about what got things over the line.

have Richmond made an unacceptable list management decision with T Lynch, considering there is a similar trajectory?

contributed nothing? That’s in the eye of the beholder - if you think that football clubs only operate in a vacumn for 2 hours of game day…

Send in your resume @BaliDemon you seem

to have all the answers retrospectively ❤️😎

3 minutes ago, BaliDemon said:

I wouldn’t say it’s mine and “a few others”. It would be the majority of our supporters and probably an overwhelming one if you were to take a poll on it. Media pundits as well. There was never this degree of talk about the Dogs winning at least two premierships with their list. 

You would be well in the minority with your view. If being the first side to exit in straight sets in consecutive years, losing four home finals in a row, doesn’t burn a fire in the pit of your gut, then I’m not sure (in a sporting sense) what would. 

A fire in the pit of my gut, or the FD’s gut or ‘shaming’ by media pundits or supporters, doesn’t help planning, training and game day outcomes in 2024. 

we lost 2 finals in 2022 because we were severely depleted by injury. Let’s not forget context and lump it all in together… sure it’s easy to do when you’re disappointed.

Happy to be in the minority - just because a majority has a populist view doesn’t mean it’s accurate to the specific circumstance- see Trump.

Let’s agree that we are both disappointed in the outcomes, and we see the factors contributing to it, and what it means about the club, and what to do about it - vastly different.

😎🙌🏼

12 minutes ago, BaliDemon said:

Sorry, but you’re completely wrong. Expectations and hopes are not uniform among clubs from season to season. Two consecutive straight sets exits for a side supposedly in its prime, coming off a premiership victory, is humiliating to the core and should be felt as such by everyone at Melbourne, from the coach to the orange cutter. 

Our club goes into 2024 high on the pressure index. Rightly of wrongly we have now been branded fragile chokers by the football industry, ‘an unfulfilled and wasted golden generation’ - a charge that will stick like mud unless and until we do something about it. 

I appreciate it’s different expectations for all clubs.

if you win a premiership then the expectation is that you’ll win a few more - ie: Richmond etc. This sounds like your and a few others specific expectation - it’s not mine though.

For me, it’s not nuanced enough analysis.
I wonder If those hardcore supporters of the Dogs think they have wasted their generational opportunities - but from other supporters perspectives, has it been wasted? Probably not. Charges sticking like mud? Holy moly Man…

different lenses I suppose 😎🙌🏼

6 minutes ago, BaliDemon said:

It’s extremely jarring isn’t it. It will either make or break the psyche of the MFC over the the 12 - 24 months. They can use it as fuel, or capitulate. 

17 teams are ‘broken’ every year. 

there is this weird supporters bollocks of the notion of using loses as fuel … it’s just a sense making tool as a post hoc analysis’s about our expectations.

anyway lets hope Goodwin decide to review the Collingwood and Carlton matches eh 😆

@Watson11 sport isn’t a place to relax 

its a place to have stress and discomfort and still execute.

id never ask a client to relax. That’s not helpful and if you interpret any of my posts over the years that anyone needs to relax then you are misinterpreting me.

The problem Is the NEEd to feel relaxed/comfortable/whatever because as soon as you don’t have it - you chase short term comfort (change in technique) at the expense of what’s useful

if you’re relaxed, fan[censored]tastic. If you’re not - have the discomfort and execute anyway. 
 

Perfect consistent practice doesn’t exist it doesn’t replicate game day stressors, so yes, look inward, get to know your own stories as to why you tighten up and change your technique and then do some good work in that space. 
 

all your examples alude to what goes on, the brain shifts it’s attention from task to fix issues that don’t actually matter in the moment. From an outsiders perspective it looks like technique - ball drop, bent too far over, spinning ball - theyre all versions of something called experiential avoidance. The desire to avoid unwanted internal experiences - thoughts, feelings and physical sensations. 

that’s the space  the psychs and the athlete do their best work in.

have the discomfort and kick ‘as you would’ anyway - and then lo and behold - If you kick a goal - you feel good (confidence) and then it comes easier the next time… 

knowing that your brain won’t ever shut up about how much it hurts when you fail or [censored] up or let team mates down or just in case you may embarrass yourself in front of 4 million people watching on tv with this shot you take 25 metres out on a slight angle that any person should kick, but the context of the game means it’s reaaaaaaaaaallllly important -  that’s the pressure stuff right there.

They have a sports psych Steve Rendell who has been in the industry for years. All good there. 
Things have moved on significantly since Bills time.

1 hour ago, BaliDemon said:

EngorgedO, if that is your ‘simple’ explanation I shudder to think what your complex analysis might be 😆

Apologies I’m a 🤓

It really is a simple as this.

if a player can kick the goal in training, then it means they have the biomechanical and technique means to do so in the game (taking out environmental factors such as wind and rain).

the only thing that changes in game day setting is ‘meaning’ and context about the person that of what does it mean if they fail to kick it. If it is evaluated as a threat, then the brain will ‘change’ the biomechanical and technique responses ‘on the fly’/during the action to have the athlete remain ‘safe’. 

In sports, understanding "meaning" and "context" is pivotal. Athletes excel during training, mastering their biomechanics and techniques for goal kicks. However, on game day, the dynamics shift. Increased pressure and the significance of the moment can alter an athlete's focus. Embracing their emotions rather than resisting them, athletes can stay present and committed to their values and goals, reducing external pressures. This approach enables them to maintain their skills, even when faced with an uncomfortable kick. 

Often, it is the uncomfortable kicking action in these moments,  that is the ‘correct’ kick.