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Needs on top of your selected Senior team - a senior KPF to fill the gap until JVR ready to go. Even if it’s a “Geelong style pensioner” for 1-2 seasons (and cover for BBB/TMac injuries) - smart player with kicking skills / class as midfield/wing depth - Classy small forward (with strong defensive pressure) to keep ANB/Spargo honest. Maybe Chandler/Bedford if they can step up to next level? Address the above 3 and it’s a premiership team

Apparently “if we focus on contest, pressure and defence our forward line scoring will take care of itself.” Is this mindset the issue? Have the players become too focused on reducing the opposition score, to the point that it affects our dare, willingness to take the game on and just attack the goals? Is it worth us trying a mindset shift. “Hey boys, this week as well as trying to keep the oppo under 68 (or whatever the magic number is) we are also going to try and score 110 points. Wolf of Wall Street comes out if we score 110” When we attack we look good. Premiership type good. I think this fact is why we are all so frustrated.

And his anti-inflammatory’s might help CP5 and other injured players get through games.

Goody quotes from AFL 360 ”You know your best is good enough, but we need to execute it for longer, we need to do the basics better for longer” “The last six weeks our forward line has actually operated the best it has for the whole year” “It’s a consistent theme for us that when we start to struggle in some games our forward line can have some trouble scoring at times. But that’s not what we focus on the most in our game. We focus on our contest, our pressure, our defence, and we get our offensive opportunities on the back of that.” ”We’ve got one of the best groups of forwards that creates defensive pressure and intensity that you need throughout the game” SIMON, 0 - 5, AGAINST THE BEST 3 TEAMS. THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING AND EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT. Please SIMON. & Sorry for caps.

He played as a genuine winger in 2021, who would run back and help in defence, then hold his position, rather than clog up our 50 when we were attacking. Played next to no time or games as a genuine half-back flanker in 2021, despite running back to help in that part of the ground.

Can picture it already. Gawn/Grundy/BBB all holding hands in the left hand fwd pocket before contesting the mark.

How many times this year have we heard players and coaches after a loss say something along the lines of “We won the contest, time in forward half and a lot of the key stats we care about, but just needed to be more efficient going forward” or “We had things on our terms for much of the game, but they just executed their game plan for longer than we did” It appears our “learnings” are always “need to be more efficient connecting with forwards” and/or “need to execute our game plan for longer” rather than “learning how to combat opposition tactics”, and/or “improve the method with which we play the game”

All good points. But we are 0-5 against the 3 clear best teams in the comp. Tough to argue we have been unlucky 5 times in a row.

Agree with you that losing the first final is not the issue. Especially with the pre-finals bye. The issue is the ease with which the best teams pick apart our system, knowing we won’t respond or change much.

Agree. Both Geelong and Collingwood played exceptionally well yesterday. Levels above us unfortunately.

We have 3 of the best 5-10 players in the comp, and 5 of the top 20. With that level of talent, I can’t accept that we are not capable of executing a better plan and/or game style.

Spot on. I don’t buy the theory that Sydney’s pressure forced us into the game style vs the free-flowing play against the lions either. We went into the game with the strategy

Maybe. Be a tough call to sub him off though. Especially when you know that even on 1 leg he still commands a quality player to try and shut him down.

Without doubt the loading camp (myself included) dismissed obvious game style issues (and player related issues) during the loading period, and got it wrong to expect those issues would simply disappear when at or near peak fitness. I have no issues admitting that. And to argue the contrary would be delusional.

Pretty confident Smith wouldn’t have delivered more than Trac’s 13 second half possessions, 9 contested, 3 clearances (despite being on 1 leg)

Just checking there is not an error in my AFL app :- M.Gawn 2 goals since R12 ??! (yes I understand he plays a role to bring the ball to ground, rather than solely focused on goals / score involvements)

And we don’t appear to recognise mid game when the safe slow mode isn’t working. Longmire / Scott / Mitchell / Clarkson / McRae and others would tweak things mid-game. Where as our supporters know to not even hope for mid-game changes, as they rarely come.

Agree. Maybe I don’t know enough about footy. But can’t get my head around the strategy of having Jackson/Gawn (or Gawn/Brown etc) together in a pack and bombing it to them from the wing or half back flank. Sure it’s predictable for us, and we can try and win a contest when the ball hits the ground (and get repeat entries) But it’s also incredibly predictable for the opposition, who can setup both defensive cover, and outlet players ahead of the ball (because they don’t have to defend the whole ground - just the area where our talls are standing together), for the times they do win the ground ball contest. I place little blame on Brown / Koz / Melk for their lack of impact last night, and most of it on our game style. Why did we abort what worked so well against the Lions??

I have woken up with 2 main thoughts in mind. a) We had the game on our terms, but then lost momentum when buddy sucked May in with a 50 goal. The players lack of ability to reset here and get momentum back was disappointing b) We were comprehensively out-coached. Lost the game in much the same manner to how we lost to Syd last time, Collingwood, and a couple of other top 8 teams. We reverted back to kick down the line, get repeat entries and expect to win the contest. This game plan doesn’t work against smart coaches, with skilful players who can move the ball well, and exploit our plan. It hasn’t worked during the H&A and it didn’t work last night. Was expecting us to play with the style that was successful against the lions last week - fast ball movement, switching out of defence, through the middle. Didn’t happen, and we paid the price.

I felt we had the game on our terms and won, until buddy sucked May into the 50. They got a sniff from that, and we didn’t put them away when we had the chance. Sure strategic, coaching and other issues. But we had a chance to put the game away early if we had the killer instinct.

Agree with all of this, and would take comfort from it if it was a H&A game. But it WASN’T. It was the first chance the players had to play a final in front of supporters (after winning the flag) Kills me more than anything to admit it, but Dermott is correct. We are missing the killer instinct ingredient.

Yep, we all just generally give way too much credit to the system / method / strategy. So many under 10’s style errors, just embarrassing.

“Goals to fuel the energy” what a horrific cheese platter loving comment that is…Dr you are absolutely on the mark. So sad to admit it.

Absolutely spot on.

Dermott Brereton said we are missing the “un-sociable” elements to make us a dynasty team. At the moment, unfortunately he is correct and we are wrong.