Gawndy the Great

23 minutes ago, layzie said:

The Giants just monstered Brisbane in contested ball and if that wasn't bad enough they worked harder on the outside and spread better too. It felt like Brisbane never had an easy touch and 23 tackles inside 50 for GWS probably explains why.

It was a replica game in terms of dominance when we played the Lions. We at least held them at bay wrt scoring.

1 hour ago, Viscount Cardwell said:

Don't post much but this is interesting, noting how poor Jackson was in his last year compared to his GF year. Totally agree with DOX, looks like he is deliberately downgrading his trade value for the team he wants to play for next year, our only hope is that Port enter the bidding.

That is an interesting take. We can walk him straight to the pre-season draft if that's the go and watch Norf who are in desperate need of KPD's snap him up. 

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

Once you acknowledge the bolded bit, I'm not quite sure I understand most of the rest of the post.

Yes, we are no longer dominating CPs and clearances like we did in 2021-23. Why are you then rhetorically bemoaning this? We have spent the past two years dominating CPs, clearances and time in forward half only to go 0-4 in finals. Very few people, if any, responded to that with "it's OK, let's just do it all again in 2024".

We have made concerted attempts to lower our reliance on stoppage scoring and increase our reliance on turnover scoring. It's therefore no wonder that we're down in those stats you've mentioned.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not quite at the @binman opposite end of the spectrum. IMO we're conceding too much territory to our opponents and spending too much time in our back half. We're clearly still elite at our back half defence and intercept game, and we're more likely to go all the way if we are reliably good at scoring off turnover than off stoppage. But IMO in our desire to shift the balance away from stoppage and towards turnover (or away from scores from front half and towards scores from back half), we've overbalanced. As has been mentioned so far, it doesn't help that we're down Bowey and Salem (and, from pre-season planning, Brayshaw) and have found ourselves with TMac (a terrible field kick) doing so well in most other parts of the game to warrant a spot in the backline. 

.Our dna is contested footy. Our list is built on this. Whilst I said what i said, I highly doubt our contested, forward half game is just being tossed out. That’s the recipe to win finals.
 

Our ball movement and scoring were the areas of concern in past years and moving it faster from back half intercepts is a great source of turnover potential. Also gives our forwards a chance as the old bomb it in and hope for the best doesn’t work. 
 

Clearances and stoppage dominance may not be the honeypot we want but it does give you territory, which is a key part of our dna.
 

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Just got back Cam Guthrie and will get Stewart back against us...

Cam will be rusty and no guarantees for Stewart. 
 

Their midfield and ball movement will make it really hard work for us - if we put up anything like the last 3 weeks of footy we are in a lot of trouble. 
 

Hopefully they are a bit bruised up after playing the Blues. 

Just now, DubDee said:

Lions 2-5. fkked

lucky to make finals

culture is broken 

Shot. 

8 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Losing to Brisvegas is an absolute embarrassment to this Club 

We have to get a lot better, they are cooked 

Makes the loss even more painful to bare. The only other team they have beaten is Norf. It’s not good company to keep for the time being. 

2 minutes ago, layzie said:

A goalless quarter for the Lions. 

Simply can't play on grounds like this one 

What’s special about this ground? 

First time watching Callaghan play. Would be great if we could get him to our club.  

45 minutes ago, binman said:

To be honest, it feels as if you are simply searching for proof we are no good.

Clearance numbers mean squat. It's about the score from clearances differential. 

As I noted above we have smashing teams for scores from stoppages.

I've no idea what yoy are talking about with our pressure.

We had one quarter out of 28 with a pressure rating of 150 and that's evidence our pressure had been off?

Apart from the lions game, when blund freddy could see we were gassed, it has been largely fantastic.

Go check out the stats file thread. The pressure numbers are there for every game.

And even less idea what you are talking about in terms of our last 3-4 weeks.

Poor against the lions, but we still only got beaten by 22 points.

Poor in the first half last night, we piled on 10 goals to 2 in the second half to win by 43 points (against the same team who rolled the swans a couple of weeks back).

We beat the crows. At Adelaide oval off a five day break.

And in one of the games of the season,  and arguably one of our best games since our flag, we beat Port at Adelaide oval.

But we all see what we want to see i guess.

You're not a Smiths fan by any chance?

It feels like we are no good, you yourself admitted to as much in the previous post. 

I’ll park it here for now and see how the next two weeks unfold. 

Just now, binman said:

We are 5-2 with a healthy percentage, with the most difficult part of our fixture in yerms of scheduling (eg interstate travel and breaks between games) done and dusted.

And we are not playing our best football.

The other big factor is we are trying to implement a changed method, which is always a challenge.

On that front we are number one for rebound 50s (tigers second, cats third). Laudable given better transition from the back half is the foundation of the new method.

You see doom. I see upside.

As clarry said in his post match interview, we started hot  in previous years and fell away.  He said they are focused on setting things up to plsy our best footy come finals.

I think I’m trying to find the stats that help put facts behind feelings. And what I can see is that  we are way off on the game we used to play. I’ll give Goody the benefit in that we have had double straight set exits and he has recognised the need to change.

Our contested and clearance dominance is significantly off and that for a large parts explains what feels like a huge drop off in our stoppage dominance. Is this a lull? A design change ? Who knows but it’s what our list was built on. 

Our pressure numbers are also really poor with another 150 quarter this year which is deplorable.  Top 4 teams are undone largely through pressure and whilst we are only at round 7, you cannot just flick a switch and expect it to come back.

I don’t expect to win every week but the last 3-4 weeks we haven’t played good footy and are lucky walking away with 3-1. I’ll eat my hat if we win even 1 out of our next 2. A lot will need to go right I think. 

Checking some of the champion data stats pretty much shows what a lot of the doomsdayers on here feel (including me)

- bottom 4 disposal eff 

- below AFL avg contested possessions ( yes that’s right) we are bottom 6 so far

- bottom 4 handball efficiency

- bottom 4 centre clearances ( yes my eyes don’t deceive me)

- below afl avg inside 50s

There’s a bunch of stats and it’s not all bad

- leading intercept matks

- top 2 expected scores 

Anyone have the pressure numbers from last night? 

No HTB against Daicos despite incorrect disposal 

3 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Do we have any forwards that can reliably take a contested mark in the forward line like Wright just took?

I’d give my left ….. for Peter wright. He is exactly what we need. 

5 hours ago, BDA said:

I've listened to Jenkins a few times on SEN. Loves to make controversial comments. I think he's a Kane Cornes wannabe but doesn't possess Cornes understanding of the game. wouldn't pay too much attention to him.

And he clearly has a bone to pick with MFC - never heard him say anything positive since he has been in radio. 

6 Gawn

5 Lever

4 Disco

3 May

2 Kozzy

1 Rivers 

Right now Oliver is a liability. Tag Trac and our midfield is all but worked out.

i know he is trying, but he is so far from his best it’s not funny. 

Give Hugh what ever he wants. We need some offensive midfielders who can hit a target. 

14 minutes ago, DemonWA said:

Hows all the 'supporters' hand wringing at half time like the world was ending. Turn off your phones in future.

Walked it in. 

Valuable experience for a heap of the young guys infront of a big crowd. 

No doubt room for improvement but bank the wins and keep working to get better 

Sorry but that was the most insipid performance - one I couldn’t have even predicted. Our midfield is seriously underperforming. 

10 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Yze has put together a game plan against us & it's working.

He knows how our players operate & being around Melbourne knows he we can also crumble 

And what about Mini for the tigers? Can he offer up anything?

Not an excuse IMO, we are bog ordinary.  

Looks like the Lions was not an aberration. Something wrong with this team.

I’m this close to going home

Petty donuts again. Not good signs at all. How much more time do we give him before we swap with TMac? 

Do we look as putrid on telly as we do at the ground. Where is our pressure? Our skills? 

8 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

For those of you not in Melbourne I can report that after a wet night, we are now bathed in glorious sunshine. From where I am (inner Melbourne) there's not a cloud in the sky. Hope it stays that way for the rest of the day.

Yep the cold front that was earlier predicted to come through later today/afternoon has already swept through. Plenty of time for the sun and wind to dry out the deck for tonight. 

Melbourne not mentioned yet again. Just once I want our club associated with a top end talent that is out of contract.

I loved it when we got Jordan Lewis as a free agent - it felt like such a great acqusition, Hibbo, Melksham also great gets too and Maudie / Lever (with draft picks) 

Go hard or go home.