kev martin

No one is playing positional football. They are all doing a "role". Chasing nothing to get to a zoning area. Skilled teams kill them as they can pierce through the holes. Hard at it teams beat us with chaos. We beat ourselves because players aren't where we expect them to be when we push forward. We need to create normal leads, space to play in and one on one pressure. Manic, up and back exhaust us. It is difficult to dispose of the ball without turnover as we have no plan for when we are under pressure to find any advantaged one on ones. The player could be a small or 2 on one when we clear the pressure. We also seem to be on the outside. We can't seem to hold the corridors. Very few pressured kicks to advantage. To many running to a field position, exhausting themselves. Our handball/running offensive game can't get going as we are tired from pushing to get to our zones. Do they know, who is in what position. A quick ball seems to always go to the opposition. We kick to mismatched or outnumbered. We can't hold the corridor and are always pushed wide. I think we need to go back to playing in position. Getting one on ones across the field. Let our midfield chase in packs and the rest play normal suburban set-ups. We are too complicated and the players don't know where the talls are positioned for a get out of pressure disposal. We have no patterns or instinctuals, so development as the season progresses is lacking. I want one on one play and for us to hold the forward and back lines in the 6 and 6 positions.

Great to see Sparrow in the team. Has a beautiful kick and is a strong bodied player. Hoping he gets lots of disposals and does the 1 percenters. Would love to see him add to O,iver's, Viney's and Brayshaw's game with shepard's and protection.

I think Oliver has the yips ever since he fluffed that short pass in the dying minutes that would have given us a chance to win. I think it was against Geelong or maybe Richmond, not sure. The media pressure was on him with repeated critiques. He is a beautiful long kick as his bombs show. At training his field kicking is great. He is still learning and getting over the yips is part of the process for players.

We have no flexibility in our game plans. "How a game of keeping off " cost the Dees, was the headline. I wonder if Goody didn't see it happening at the time or couldn't do anything about it. Both a bit damning though. I wish we had a team that could adjust to the opposition's game plan. A game plan isn't just what we bring, but how quickly we react to counter to the other. We are at the moment a "just about there" , kind of, nearly team. I am hoping we can become an intelligent team that creates space, so our connections work and we play a mentally harder game

@Lever08 Were the forwards, especially Weideman taking any marks inside the 50? What was the score in goals and points?

I noticed a few times the forwards playing a kind of 'ring a ring a rosy', before leading during simulations. The area was central and 10 metres from the goal square. It included two or three attackers and the defence. Running in arcs in a congested area, they'd pick off the defensive player, get in the way of a defender so as to get a step ahead, get a clear lead or get a mismatch. The half's were out on the 50 helping with the final connection. Plenty of fast ball movement around the outside of the fifty. Sometimes they set up the halves to be at the front and centre of the aerial contest often when Weids was leading to the boundary. Bombs into the forward area with this set up merely put the ball into the pack of defenders. With a defence that zones and sweeps then the lead is easy to spoil, especially if not precise on the delivery. In previous years they practiced in a line down the middle spaced 10 metres apart and led laterally and at different times, then rotated back to the central area and go again if they weren't the receiver. I didn't see much of this style. Another set up was with all players away from the forward line and the players leading back into that space. Seemed to work well when we moved it quickly or when in possession on the boundary line. The resulting mark was close to the goal for an easy conversion. (A sweeper on the last line would easily defeat this strategy.) Another set up was everyone in conventional spacing and giving short lateral leads to the space behind defenders, Fritch was an expert. Hope this helps, but of course it is only a bit of a guesstimate as to what was happening. There was plenty of set ups that appeared routine and I couldn't see the structure. Tag D4life

Merry Christmas to all on demonland. May all of our wishes come true for the red and blue. Wishing you all health, luck and making good decisions. From Kev

Having a tough run at it. I am a bit philosophical and warm fussy about it. The body reacts to what it needs. Perhaps his body some how knows it was not yet ready, so it broke. Another year out of the game and with plenty of gym work, his body will mature. With stronger muscles and bones, he will be better suited to the seniors. Though he will lose the learning curve and be well behind in experience. Hoping he picks lots up in an intellectual way and can apply it when he returns.

What a leap! Is that the ruck/goal kicking coach Stafford underneath him? Wow!

I thought his training was going well when I observed him. Reading the play beautifully. Experience will help him in decision making. Like ball disposal to the right area, turning into space and evading the tackler, and structuring and leading the defensive team. I believe his achilles problems are behind him now. This could give him confidence to push his body to a higher limit.

Anyone know about how Kade Kolodjasni is going?

He was in runners last week as well. Slipping when turning sharply. Must be foot management.

Jackson, looks like he will fit in. As he matures I expect him to be a difficult match up. Would love to see him kick goals. Picket looks like he wants to play and pressures the opposition. Great that he has family at the club, with Neville. Our indigenous program, is it led by Wonaeamirri? Anyway, it will make a difference within the group and the wider communities, welfare and acknowledgments. Can see May, Neville, Bennell and Picket forming a strong bond, and bringing others with them. Hope he can make goals out of nothing. Rivers will be a dream for Crossy (I rate as the best kick in club), Lewis and Vince with his accurate style of kicking, if they mentor him. Hope he can break lines with his precision and footy IQ.

Thank you Dieter, With Andy, it was more about his open house and the eclectic mix of people at the 'factory.' Lou and JJ Cale, made for the time and the changes into the 80's and 90's.

Aye yes, laughing. No pain, no gain, the sins of the past, in suffering we unite. As the Shia ashura, or the matryed saints, we carry Norm, Barassi and the board. Till the curse is broken we hurt.

I think your right! Got caught up in the boom.

Yes, I am probably more influenced by Americans and Central and eastern Europeans. Not much from Australia other than our impressionists painters and scientific endeavors. There is probably lots I don't know about. I am bad about acknowledging those from Australia. Berlin and New York, I'm told were amazing. Most British stuff for me is a bit funny. I've got a bit of a block in the old brain. The country kicked my family out then some came here and got the tenures in the influential position within Australia. A bit like MFC. Wished we were better at developing the draft selections.

Yes, not much humour in my lot. Closest is the quirkyness of some. Talk about Quirky, Milligan's name just makes me laugh. His part in my downfall.

Miller and White, tough stuff. Talk about open minded, though quite patriarchal in perspective. Love Heller, Nietschke I'm still wading through. I think if they really want to get into the heads of Boomers then it is PJ O'Rourke or wade through 'the factory', Warhol. Did Patrick White have some of his books censored? Haven't really read much of his. So retract the tough stuff and patriarchal label.

Hendrix and Beefheart, what dreams are made of! All that is needed is to sit around with Ginsberg, kerouac, Hunter, Baldwin and Burroughs. Or Robbins, Vonnegut, O'Rourke, Toole, Wolfe, Hesse. Would also love some Satre, Rouseau, Dostoevsky and Kafta (other generations). Entertainment, the opium of the masses.

Agree, the times are so, so interesting. The good, the bad and the inbetween.

It was a simpler time for us.

Many up market night places wouldn't let you in in a pair of jeans. Could have been because I didn't have much spending money, (frugal and going without). I really didn't care what you were wearing, more interested in who you are. I couldn't afford to be in competition in a material sense. Also happier to be sitting around at friends places talking and playing music, then joining the crowd of rejectors and wannabees. Really thought in the 70's we were pulling down the wall. I guess there will always be the three kind of classes, poor, middle and upper. Wish it wasn't so.

We all want to be loved and desired. They have to do it within the electronic revolution. Entitlement with aspiration, many are go getters. I question the small community romantic sense of belonging. You belong in those places if you have kids or take the alcohol at the public bar. I think most of us are still searching to belong. The angst of separation is universal.

I find most baby boomers are free spirits. Travelling, learning, partying, exploring boundaries, championing egalitarianism and challenging the norms of their parents. I also think, they are a generation that hasn't grown-up. The later generations are much more concerned with social appearance and reflect a life restrained by the peer group. They use labels to describe fellow human beings and are very socially hierarchical.