Nairobi_Demon

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 😬

- Clarry’s holding the ball that wasn’t at beginning of the second half that gave them a goal - JVR clearly tripped in the last few minutes

Great show. One knock on effect of Goodies innovation and squad mentality this year (plus the inclusion of listener questions) is that there’s more to discuss and thus the podcast is now regularly 2+ hours - I’m happy with that, keeping me distracted for either two workouts or three dish washing assignments. Thanks for all your efforts and insights 👍

Bodes well for our game this weekend 😁

Fantastic and important win. I’d be curious for the panels thoughts on why and where we struggled in the third quarter. It seems we were beaten in the middle of the ground, were unable to move it forward and that we were only able to swing the momentum when Petracca moved to the middle late in the quarter.

Just home from work and literally refreshing my podcast app every 5min waiting for my demonland pod fix 😁

That was critical. I thought the other strategy we deployed was to really pressure everyone around the ball carrier. And I mean everyone. I assume that only pressure acts directed at the ball carrier count towards the pressure rating so this might not show up in the stats. But the pressure to surrounding players really stifled their game and may have made it feel higher intensity than the ratings suggest.

Interesting - I thought our pressure ratings would have been higher than that, particularly surprised they were higher than us in the third quarter.

Were there any signs that they were more fatigued than us? I couldn't find the pressure stats for the quarters, but I looked through the various tracker states on the AFL app and it seems we were pretty well matched with some notable differences: Total distance covered: 3 demons and 2 pies in top 5, but 4 demons and 1 pie at high speed Maximum speed: 1 demon (Kozzie) and 4 pies in top 5 Average top speed: 2 demons and 3 pies Sprinting: 2 demons and 3 pies in top 5 Average speed in attack: 1 demon and 4 pies Average speed in defence: 5 demons! It'd be interesting to look at the full team, but I can't find the data. But my general take-aways are that they matched us in bursts, we had more endurance around the ground generally, and that they prioritize speed in attack but aren't fast enough in defence.

Just finished watching the game. Fantastic stuff. With the exception of the first 15min, we really dominated. Suffocated their game. Could have won by a lot more. A few observations: Our pressure and toughness was incredible, all around the ground. We exposed them on the rebound but could have been more damaging Viney immense Gawn's marking back Fritsch clearly has gears Love having Salem back in the team Backline were in all in sync Loved Hibberd's work - clearly refreshed for this week Was it Sparrow who took N Daicos out of the game? Darcy Moore is very impressive Did the Dees just lay down a blueprint for beating the Pies? Will be interesting to see where they are at the end of round 19 after playing the Crows, Suns, Dogs, Dockers and Port.

I’ve not seen the Pies play but I often read that they bring 2 extras to the stoppage. From what positions do they usually take those players and who therefore is likely to be free for us and how damaging could they be, eg on the turnover/rebound? In 2021, we tagged I think Libba in our first game against the Dogs. Harmes did the work if I recall correctly. It nullified his influence at the coal face and, IMHO, that win really solidified our contender credentials. Do you think we’ll look to tag/run with Daicos and who could do the job?

Great post, @binman. One comment and one small request. I agree with all of the above, the only part I wonder about is the strategic advantage of targeting the King’s Birthday match. From the perspective of giving the team and supporters belief and living up to the hype, it makes sense to prioritise this game. But in terms of winning the battle and given current ladder positions, matches against Brisbane, Geelong and possibly St Kilda may be more important. The Pies are already three games clear — and although they do have a tough second half of the season — I wonder whether we should be targeting position 2 on the ladder rather than 1? P.S. Great if you could add a hyperlink to your note on the first act. I think I missed that. 😁

From the TV footage, Max was very unhappy at the end of Q3 and the commentators were suggesting he was naming names for poor effort. Anyone at the game have a sense of what Max was dirty about?

Such poor connection through the middle and into the forward line. I now just assume that players such as ANB and even Brayshaw will more often than not cough it up. Here’s disposal efficiency for those moving through the middle Viney 37% ANB 44% Brayshaw 52% Grundy 53% Petracca 58% Harmes 64% Pickett 64% Langdon 74% Sparrow 78% Salem 79% Gawn 87% In contrast, I could only find 1 Walyalup player on 50% and almost all were 60-70% plus and they were facing just as much pressure as us. The decision making and skill errors behind those numbers are killing us.

I’ve also felt that “bees to the honeypot” has crept back into our midfield over the past few weeks. I think the biggest culprit is Brayshaw when he’s in the middle / stoppage. I’m gonna watch for this and him carefully this week.

Was this a good match to lose? While we always want to bank the four points, I increasingly think that “it’s not enough to play 1 decent quarter to win” is a better lesson than “we can still scrape by playing about 1 good quarter”.

I was less frustrated that we kicked it to the same spot, and more frustrated that our stoppage work was so poor and it would just come straight back in

Our small forwards were missing in action

We rectified the clearance differential in Q3 and it made all the difference, particularly because if we lost the centre clearance and they got it in their forward 50 we couldn't for the life of us get it out. We managed to rectify clearances largely because Petracca spent more time in the middle.

Super excited that Salem is back - that is all I have to say 😁

This is certainly a valid point of view and worth considering. I guess it comes down to the intention of the name change. It could be about the club respecting the traditional owners but it also could be about popularising the use of aboriginal language and particularly place names amongst us all. My understanding—and I’m reaching back to my undergrad anthropology classes so happy to stand corrected—is that many important places have multiple names, some of which are more sensitive/secret and some public. My assumption is that narrm would be from the public lexicon and thus appropriate to use. As an aside, my understanding is that Geelong is derived from the aboriginal word jillong and relates to the location a certain bird is or perhaps was commonly found. We use quite a few aboriginal place names and other terms in our Australian English, often unknowingly.