Nairobi_Demon

I was thinking the same and posted similar thoughts earlier today in the postgame thread. It is quite a significant change in pacing for us. All last year we tended to go hard in Q1 and establish a lead, ease off in Q2, put our foot down in Q3, and then hold in Q4 (ex the PF and GF when we kept the foot on the pedal until the end).

Agree Jacey, it would be a change to how we pace ourselves more broadly not just the last few weeks. Generally we seem to start fast in Q1, ease off a bit in Q2, really put the foot down in Q3, and then hold in Q4 (except the PF and GF where we just kept the foot on the pedal until the end).

I agree that the core parts of game were back, particularly pressure. But it didn’t seem clear to me that they were present in the first quarter. In fact I was a bit worried early on. Were we just slow to get going or did we perhaps make a conscious strategic decision to just stay in it in the first Q (which we did) and then really up the pressure from Q2 onwards? That would not only be a significant strategic change from the past few weeks but our approach to pacing last year. Generally we would go hard in the first, ease off a little in the second, hard again in the third, and then hold in the fourth (with the exception of the PF and GF, where we kept the foot on the pedal until the end).

Any others think we applied a different strategy to how we paced ourselves over the four quarters? In our previous three matches, it seemed that our strategy was to go hard at the beginning, get a decent lead and then just hold it as the loading fatigue hit us in the last third. This hasn’t worked, partly because our defence has been disrupted making it difficult to hold our lead. Today it seems that we started slowly, conserving ourselves a little, and then turned it on the second quarter. Clearly we weren’t as exhausted as previous weeks, but perhaps this also helped us converse what energy we had.

Interesting Stu, thanks for posting your insights. I wonder who generally has handled the loading better and for which skills over the past few weeks? Unsurprisingly, it seems many of younger players have suffered the most, e.g., Jackson, Sparrow, etc. Certainly Trac has suffered, but that could also be because of the type of power-oriented play and therefore loading he’s assigned. Bowey is one of our most skilled players but his reliability has been uncharacteristically off. On the other hand, Gawn was amazing against Sydney and seems to have handled it quite well over the last few matches. Brayshaw also although probably in spurts. Petty also although I wonder if his multiple niggles meant his loading was lighter. Jordon has done quite well.

I’m also interested to see who we bring in and how we perform without Max, although I think we’ll have to wait until round 17 against Geelong to really see the impact of Max sans loading

We must be loading given our complete inability to run out the last third of games. The question I have for the sports scientists among us, is it possible we’re loading too much? Not only are we exhausted but we seem more injury prone. Could that also be a result of the additional stress on the body of loading?

Thank you, very insightful post. I think Andy, George and Binman just found their next guest on the podcast.

Two points on Goodies press conference stuck out for me: One, he emphasised our forward method as much as forward personnel performance. There were also some interesting observations in the demonland postgame chat about our forward entry quality depending on where the offensive push begins, eg full back vs half back/centre, etc. While I’m sure personnel performance will receive some attention, I’d be curious to hear the panels thoughts on forward method. Two, I was struck by how frank Goodwin was about M Brown playing better football than Weideman. He’s normally more encouraging let’s say, but it did make me wonder whether he’s lost patience with Weideman. Curious what you thought of M Brown’s game and whether he’s clearly playing better football than Weid or whether he’s more marginal.

Oliver incredible, again. Trac struggling to get in the game

Agree with this sentiment What distinguishes Aussie rules to other codes of football is how family friendly and female friendly it is, and I think the two are linked. Wednesday and Thursday night games undermine this unique ethos, which I think anyone who’s been to a soccer game in somewhere like London will appreciate

Agree - Lever and Petty know when to zone of their man to intercept or spoil when May’s opposition, which is usually the FF, gets away from him

Agree - and very indecisive

Thanks for these comprehensive responses - that’s re-assuring. Just listened to the podcast. Excellent as usual. The insights into the playing conditions particularly helpful. Unfortunately I won’t be able to re-watch before tomorrow’s game. I’m getting smashed at work at the moment 😁 Go Dees

I was a bit distracted when the game was screening live and haven’t had a chance to watch again, but I was wondering if you could comment on the stoppages, as we often seemed to get beaten. I was concerned that I saw a reversion to one of pre-2021 (bad) habits, namely the “bees to the honey pot” approach with too many going in for the ball.

Just noticed that the international memberships gives access to one home game if you happen to visit during the season - not likely to use it, but nice imagining I could!

I noticed this on replay too, Loges. Had to double check whose end of the ground this was - amazing he roamed that far up the ground!

I suspect that the club must get a pretty significant discount on the RRP for Watch AFL subscription, as they must also for tickets that they include as part of their membership packages that include admission to home and/or away games at the G. I hadn’t noticed this before, but I see there’s an $80 membership that basically gets you nothing but registration on the membership roll. I wonder if that amount is indicative of what a club would make across all membership options once the benefits are accounted for.

On the iPad and iPhone version I can watch all games back to 2017, but on the Apple TV it only has last year and this year. I did a bit more internet sleuthing prompted by the comments above and found this on the website: For the best quality streaming on the Watch AFL platform, you'll need a strong, consistent connection of at least 7.5Mbps. And according to this summary of Mbps streaming rates, a 7.5 Mbps requirement would seem to imply a HD resolution of 1080p:

Today I received my complimentary subscription to Watch AFL as an overseas MFC member (for those who aren’t aware, this is a fantastic subscription service that allows you to watch every game live and in replay, including the GF, but it only works outside Australia. Does anyone know what resolution it streams at? I’ve been wondering for a few years now and can’t seem to find any info on their website. I’ve bought myself a new Apple TV 4K as a Christmas present and hoping it goes up to this resolution, although for some reason I doubt it does. Merry Christmas all 🎄

I have to admit, I couldn’t believe Binman’s 47 point win tip and was very skeptical. Not that we wouldn’t win, but by such a large margin. Hats off to you @binman. You had the analysis and the belief!

Indeed we did. A come back and a smashing all in one game 😁

We’re having a family friendly viewing with big screen projector and BBQ in Nairobi 🇰🇪 BBQ at 11.30am with game set to start at 12.15 local time. If there’s anyone out there who’d like to join, get in touch.

Hi boys - I think you’ve uploaded last week’s podcast to apple podcasts. The blurb is correct (see below), but when I play the episode it repeats last week’s episode.

The other thing I noticed during our game last week, and went back to watch on BB’s vision to confirm, is that the umpire didn’t make an effort to inform the players it was touched. Normally they yell out “touched” multiple times. From what I can hear, the umpire only said it once just after the ball was kicked (and thus furtherest from Brown). There was no effort to repeat it. Even after he marked it and started to walk back for his kick, there’s no repeat call from the umpire but only noise from players and the crowd that it was touched. You’d almost think the umpire was happy for him to get snagged for holding the ball