rpfc

53 minutes ago, SPC said:

Need to get him out of the ruck.. he is a good 2nd ruck, but you ain’t putting Winx in the Grand Annual Steeplechase.

He ain’t Winx and we don’t have a second steeplechaser worthy of a game besides Gawn. 

So chase them steeples, Jacob…

58 minutes ago, old dee said:

I hope you are right DS. It is early days I don't see it at present.  

Just turned 21. He has shown more than most in of his age. 

Now all we need to do is continue to change the way we play to ensure he continues to develop.

24 minutes ago, SthSea22 said:

The way he is going we might end up with a late 4th rounder compo pick for him LOL

20 hours ago, KingDingAling said:

Petty is a reasonable back man. He isn’t much chop as a forward though. For starters, he is a below average kick. In addition, he isn’t exactly clunking the footy. He’s a poor man’s TMAC. However, he is more of a key down back than TMAC was, and we will need that when May is gone. 

He’s ’reasonable’ as a backman. Then how is he going to replace May?

Petty is a good kick for goal. He is also a good mark - that’s what makes him a ‘reasonable’ defender…

‘Poor man’s TMac'… - I will just leave that, I assume you are just angry and afraid.

We don’t have the luxury of not playing Petty forward. And he shows good signs but we need to commit to it or forget about it. We also need to remember that he had no pre-season and we hope he is one of those players that gets better with match fitness.

This is where we are at.

32 minutes ago, SthSea22 said:

Looking forward to the week McAdam and Melksham are named. Just adds so much to our boring forward line

HF - McAdam, van Rooyen, Pickett

F - Fritsch, Petty, Melksham

ANB has to be there

2 hours ago, Binmans PA said:

It has to be an anomaly given it literally hasn't happened since 2020.

We have a young team, changing the way we play, and have question marks on some important players. 

This will not be an isolated problem for 2024. 

26 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

No we won’t. Richmond have an injury list as long as the Nile. We'll find out against Geelong and Carlton.

What if we lose, ATBOG? 

Yea that is your acronym.

ATBOG

Can’t win when your midfield gets smashed like that, and outworked around the ground.

We will find out 12 days whether it’s an anomaly.

2 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

The 2021 game plan of hugging the boundary and making the ground small (which got worked out by the opposition in the back end of 2022) did not really suit Brown's game because there was not a lot of space to lead and we move the ball slowly. It really only worked consistently at the back end of 2021 when our midfield was on fire and Brown was holding his marks.

The 2023/24 game plan is more dual sided and gives Brown more space.

But I think Brown was injured a lot last year and also we tried to use Gawn/Grundy in the forward line, which meant less space. We could not have both Gawn/Grundy and Brown forward because it was no good from a forward pressure perspective. Having JVR as the second ruck option means that Brown's poor pressure is covered to some extent.

This conflation of last year with this year is misguided - we may have opened up the game about late last year in an attempt to get us out of our connection rut but that was not what we are seeing this season. The Richmond game last year that some have mentioned was a contest and clearance domination in the second half - not a transition success. 76 points from clearances in that game attests to that. 

The final against Collingwood saw them get 37 I50s - so our ‘prevention’ strategy of non-exposure to our defence was in play there. 

This year it is different - we are more efficient with our fewer I50s, and there are less repeat entries.

@layzie Brown is able to come at the footy more and with less onerous requests to sit under ‘out kicks’ down the line which is how we have moved the ball for the last 4 years. We are moving the ball quicker and with more space to move - forwards are always going to appreciate that.

1 hour ago, Fat Tony said:

I think we have tried to play a forward half game this year. We’re winning due to the backline being so strong and our efficiency but I don’t think it’s by intention. 

Just can’t agree with this. We have set deeper, the high press isn’t so high, and when we have the ball or it is contest, we have kept our forwards deeper to allow more delivery to a leading target. 

When I have the time I will delve into the comparative stats but it’s obvious to the eye, and a cursory glance of the superficial stats.

Just now, Fat Tony said:

Goodwin has been saying that he is not happy with the amount of territory we have been conceding.

We had very good efficient wins against the Dogs, Swans and Eagles last year, which looked similar to 2024.

The big change in style we made was the start of last year when we started using both sides of the ground when attacking from the backline.

 

Ideally, we wouldn’t give 20 more Inside 50s. That is not good, because it puts pressure on your backline.

But there is a concerted effort to create from the backline and to be proactive. 2024 is different to 2023.

27 minutes ago, Demonland said:

You never heard of night driving glasses?

So he will see better in traffic?

I think this is the height of naïveté and hubris this decision…

The Kolt should not be playing in his sunnies?! Especially not at night

#reprehensible

4 hours ago, Binmans PA said:

But we've also had the support of our mids and high half forwards to clog up the defensive 50, and since we're happy playing in our defensive half, those ground balls are less dangerous to May and Lever as they have higher protection. 

There is now a trend of losing ground ball and winning on the scoreboard.

In fact, the only time we've won ground ball (+11) was against Sydney. Now the conditions may have made that a greater necessity, but it also meant the game wasn't being played on our own terms.

Conversely, we lost ground ball in all our wins. -13 against the Bulldogs (R1), -1 against Hawthorn, -22 against Port and -3 against Adelaide.

I'd still like a greater sample size, but IMO it appears to be down to the way we are setting up.

So whilst @Axis of Bob points out we've been protecting our A grade defence instead of providing our forwards with more assistance, I'd argue we're now providing both ends of the ground more assistance. The defenders have most of the team back defending plays and stoppages now, which eases ball movement as it's easier to hit targets in space, and provides more space in our own forward line.

But we have always had an extra behind the ball and allow teams to have an extra at the stoppage. To me, that always amazed me that we didn’t lean into the slingshot even more with that extra player with our Rolls Royce defence.

We still invariably have our extra behind the ball to release Lever by now we are unlocking what that means offensively.

51 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

I’d prefer Florent for roughly a $2.0m over a 5 year deal. Heading into his prime and is a Vic boy who may want to come home. 

You’d prefer to pay one of the best young players in the game a long term deal at less than the average salary?

[F M D], sons. You need to look at the CBA. In 2025, cap is nearing $19m (TPP + ASA).

https://www.aflplayers.com.au/app/uploads/2024/01/2023-2027-Collective-Bargaining-Agreement-FINAL.pdf

@Axis of Bob Yes! We have a Rolls Royce of a backline we have spent the last 3 years protecting… doesn’t make sense to me. 

Let’s take it for a test drive…

We are seeing the confluence of events that is demanding a change in how we play that I hope lasts for the rest of the decade; a change that leads to attractive football as well as winning football. 

Transition x2

With McQualter coming in there seems to be a real emphasis on something that we have never had a real emphasis on; transitioning the ball from the backline with speed and purpose.
(I wrote about this mid last season - that you can read about below - bumped post)

Where the ‘confluence’ comes in is the emergence of McVee, Howes, Bowey, and Rivers as the engine of the team.

This is where we need to ‘transition’ to this engine, which I will dub - The Transition, and away from the May and Lever driven Defence Only mindset.

Now this is already happening and that is great, but it doesn’t mean we are not a contest driven or Defence First team - we will be until further notice, but with this strong in the bow we can now win games in more ways, and avoid being out of games. 

For the neophytes - last two seasons we have been ‘forward half’ or ‘contest/stoppage driven’ to avoid as much exposure to our backline as possible. This means we kicked long to the boundary (May’s infamous kick out from FB) and progressive movement down the field through stoppage and rushed kick. This means that our forward pressure could kick in and we ‘won territory’ and we ‘won the I50 count’ and we ‘won the expected score’ but we didn’t win the games that matter…

Having a transition game and a comfortability with our defence getting footy kicked their way has opened up the ground and has allowed McVee and Rivers in particular to show their value and for our forwards to have space to exploit. Suddenly Fritsch has 1-1s and Brown is leading at the footy in dangerous spots. As an aside, this will aide in JVRs development…

So I for one thank Goodwin for his ability to adapt and I welcome… 

… The Transition.

(Demon emoji)

18 minutes ago, Pates said:

It's interesting their comments about game style, I have to imagine a lot of those who said it didn't watch the port game the week before. Has to be one of the games of the season as a neutral. The Crows game felt like they tried to bring the game down to a scrap to make it hard on us, we had to grind that win off the back of tired legs. It wasn't pretty but to use that as the game to say "they play a boring style" is a bit silly.

I'd say the style we are trying to play more of is what we did against Hawthorn (who admittedly aren't great). It's not high tempo, but it's knowing when to pull the trigger and getting men streaming forward with the ball in regular motion.

They must have nightmares about Gawn, he regularly seems to put in massive games against them. It seems silly to say but if he does it again I can't see us losing because it elevates so many other players into the game.

But overall their comments aren't over the top or disrespectful, I've never really had any bad experiences around Brisbane fans.

We have been boring the last two years. Fans of other teams don’t see things until the ‘narratives’ have got through or their team has played the teams in question. 

So we will come up against a bunch of fan groups that think we are just a dump it down the line, win territory team, that prefers repeat entries until we slingshot their team into Oblivion through the excellent law firm of McVee, Howes, and Rivers.

They are The Transition.

I believe it is Selwyn Griffith’s…

@Lucifers Hero - what a nasty, cheeky thread hitting a group of people when they are down.

….

Le Double Post.

1 hour ago, dimmy said:

Actually the articles by the "real" journalists at the Age seemed pretty complimentary & objective, but "Carro's contribution to "journalism" compares favourably with Channel 7's "current affairs" program. 

I do not think it is in her DNA to say anything positive about Melbourne FC.

Actually I feel that Collingwood should have to pay Gus' contract out of their "Player payments"  with no salary cap relief considering what they got away with.

What are you talking about? 

Caroline thinks we have handled CO13 expertly and have been unfairly brought into the drugs policy furore.

Her article today simply states facts about how we are trying to handle a situation. 

Burying our heads up our [censored] doesn’t work.

26 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Wow there are some absolute nobodies in that list taken by Adelaide. 
It’s no wonder they are where they are. 
Who is Fisher McAsey? 😂

Fisher? They barely even knew her?!

is that on the nose?

When we didn’t get anything after 2014 then no club ‘deserves’ to get any assistance ever again.

But NM gets assistance so WCE should as they are just as [censored]. 

On 24/07/2023 at 09:20, rpfc said:

I think it is a bit more counter offensive and aggressive with getting an extra to the defensive contest. We are happy to leave May one out against the best he is that good, but we won’t in the future. And I would lean into McVee and Rivers natural desire to run through HB, Salem and Bowey will still be there which is crucial if we want to quicken up the pace - they are elite kicks.

So without the footy; press with wings behind footy trying to cut off short kicks toward top of 50 mitigating Lever going full interceptor. You can do this from a stoppage too without the press.

Then with the footy; run from interception through HB line as quickly as possible. Have forwards deeper to stretch the field and create space left by the press (no one knows where anyone is on either side) for the initial kick off HB. It would be different from stoppage without the press in place of course.

Anyway, high level - lean into Lever and our HBs skill sets as opposed to May. I want opposition mids coming forward to think twice because of how hard they are going to have to work defensively immediately from turnover.

Bump. 

This is what I wrote about where we needed to go in 2024. 

After a closer than expected game against the crows. So partially bump because there are a few counting their chickens…

…but predominantly bump because I am prescient footy lord.

As ever

You’re welcome.