Nairobi_Demon

Following on from my question: Can the panel discuss whether there are alternative, better approaches or strategies to fully utilise the list for these matches during the season when we know our best 22 will be 10% or even 20% below their usual output because of the fixture. For example, the following players were available this week: - Hunter (who has been best 22) was available, could he not have replaced Windsor who was understandably down on his past performance? - Laurie also available, could he not have replaced a tired and indeed injured Oliver? - He’s not “best 22” in normal circumstances, but could not Schache have come in for BBB who really looked exhausted this week (and that’s not to knock his performance the past few weeks)? You get the drift … Given the importance of fitness to the outcome of games these days as well as how well everyone is drilled on our systems, I just wonder whether we could more strategically use our second string of players to manage the long season.

Watched the game on replay this evening and I thought we looked slow and indecisive from the beginning. So much so that I started wondering whether we decided to take advantage of our 4-1 start and the upcoming bye to put some extra miles into the legs during the week. I went through the Sunday and Wednesday training threads but I couldn’t find any suggestion that they were heavy sessions with extra loads. Do the stats confirm our fitness was down and, if so, do you think it was because it was their third game in 13 days or is it possible they were also assigned extra running outside of the two main training sessions this week?

Could you discuss the loss of Yze in terms of his game day role in the box and how he seemed to complement Goodie in the sense that Goodwin seems a stronger strategist than tactician and perhaps Yze a stronger tactician?

After a long hiatus over the summer (necessary to recover from last year’s disappointment), I’m now ready for the season and am more optimistic than I was two months ago. Not as bullish as I was last year—I had predicted top-2 and a GF berth last year—but confident we can make top-4 assuming an average injury run. Four questions : 1. Which team is our greatest threat this year? 2. Who do you think will be our top goal kicker and who our most reliable goal kicker (shots to goal ratio)? 3. What adjustments to our on-field and off-field load management strategy do you think we’ll make or should make to get through the long season and peak in September? 4. Finally, at what round and minimum ladder position should I consider investing in the GF guarantee? 😁 Thanks and looking foreword to another great season of the podcast!

In the past two years, we’ve taken the first practice match seriously fielding our best team for at the least the first four “quarters” and used the second match to try new players. I was unable to watch Sunday’s match but from the post-game thread it seems we used this match to try new players in new positions etc. Do you think we may have reversed our approach to this year’s practice matches and will use the Carlton match to field a stronger team and really see where we’re at?

Back up for May, not the third tall IMO.

I hope Yze has got the job and thus can focus on this game. I think it was Sanderson that mentioned that he thought Goodie needed to visit the box last week so he could more quickly see how our shallow entries were allowing their rebound game. Made me think that perhaps Yze has been distracted with interview prep etc. the past few weeks. I hope your friend is wrong Max 😬

I was bemoaning the absence of our small forwards at the end of the first quarter last week, but Kozzie was one of the first players to step up in the second quarter. I hope he has a big one and gets more reward on the score board 👍

The capital I in the account name looks suspicious, I suspect not legit

I have three questions for the panel: 1. What happened to our pressure? Finals demand pressure and so does our game style. Can we win with an average pressure of only 176 like last week and without hitting levels of 200 for at least some quarters, and from who and where on the ground do we need more pressure? 2. What was our plan to nullify their rebound off the half-back? This is critical to the way they play, but our small defensive forwards seemed to be missing in action and our entries into our forward 50 seemed very shallow particularly in the first quarter or so, enabling them to waltz it out of defence and rebound multiple times in the first quarter. If they hadn't missed some gettable set shots from these rebounds they would have been much further ahead in the first Q. 3. Where's the running in waves that we saw in previous seasons and the faster ball movement we saw at the beginning of this season including our better kicks such as Bowey, Hunter, Salem, etc. taking on the corridor? As ABG pointed out above, there were opportunities to move through the corridor and move the ball more quickly, but we often opted for the safety of moving along the boundary line and slowed down our movements into our forward 50 allowing them plenty of time to setup defensively. Do you think we lowered our risk profile too much because of the weather which didn't seem to be as wet as predicted earlier in the week? Really frustrating and emotionally draining game on many levels (I really hope Gus is okay) and thus very much looking forward to your excellent podcast. And thankfully the weather looks perfect for our game against the Blues!

By period I mean a period of time, probably a block of a 3-4 weeks. By loading I mean additional blocks of mostly aerobic exercise between matches.

This is the biggest conundrum for me - where was our pressure? This is our pressure for the KB game. It’s not super high but I remember us all discussing that it felt higher and it was also period of loading for both teams): Here’s pressure from Thursday. We didn’t win one quarter and we never got above 182, in a final after a bye! Our game style is built on pressure and finals demand high levels of pressure. I can’t see how we can win if we can’t increase this from the start of the game. Thankfully this is something the team should be capable of rectifying for next week - only this (and some reversion to the mean on goal kicking) gives me hope.

I suspect Hibberd would have played today if not concussed, and that Turner would have been pre-warned that he’d only have one week. And assuming Melksham is indeed injured, it would seem TMac will get the call up. So Hibberd for Turner and TMac for Melksham But I do worry about TMac’s fitness. A long shot, but what do others think of Tomlinson playing forward instead of TMac? He’s much fitter than TMac right now and would therefore have the tank to get up the ground to support our exits from D50 and kicks along the wing, like TMac did when he was fit. Of course he hasn’t trained there all year - too much experimentation at this late stage in the season?

Good win - got the 4 points without exerting too much energy. That bodes well for next week but also keeps plenty of energy in the tank for finals. I can’t see Laurie staying in the side. He seemed to struggle with the faster AFL pace, which will only intensify further in finals. Spargo needs to return.

The way I see it, we still haven’t reached our full potential in those matches but have shown glimpses of those gears and what they can deliver. I’m confident we’ve got the fitness to use those gears come September this year. My biggest fear is a wet September 😬