rpfc

Didn’t sound like those percentages, Mr say what…

The measure of the club will be to respond and go top 4 next year.

We’re all upset. And as someone who has been raising the alarm since even before the end of the winning streak, through the ‘loading malaise is a red herring’ months, and into the ‘we are struggling to move the footy’ month leading into finals; I can understand your frustration. We are not what we were and a lot on here didn’t want to hear it. That’s the way it goes sometimes. They’ll be better for the run, and be more understanding posters next year I reckon.

That may be. But our role for him and how we moved the footy was the skillet on which he spent his days at the Dees.

What do you want us to do? Round them up and smack their bottoms for every face palm of a post that noted how our pressure compared to last year was through the floor and I am on board… @1964_2 Get. My. Paddle.

I would love to see Brown’s last year (surely he won’t make it to the end of his contract with that knee) to be an actual lead up forward. That we allow him space in front of him and ball coming toward him in the 50. Instead of our slow, avoid dangerous spot, emptied out forward line where everyone defends in the web. Make some adjustments and we might see it…

I’m barely bleeding, his hearts not in it.

That’s ok. Yeah, head coach of Casey is real excited.

If it makes you feel better, those DID NOT SEE THIS COMING lol. So we are advanced in our stages of grief. Me, I am at bargaining, just said to the cat that I will get him more biscuits if he clawed my eyes out.

1. Ball Movement Coach installed. Transition game awful atm. 2. Forward pressure game reinstated. No excuses. 3. Use squad and not injured ‘best 22’ players. 4. Play forwards in forward line. If they can chop out mids great, otherwise bye-bye to the bench mids. 5. Get our stars right. They were slowing down at the end of the year. CP5 had an impact injury late of course but he, Salem, May, Petty, Lever, and Kozzie make up 6 of our best 10 players and they were playing injured this year at various times. What’s the point if this is the result. 6. Small r Review of the High Performance performance. Has to be done. Even if it is to confirm our injuries and struggles. 7. Just keep going. Best thing to do when going through hell.

It’s never there, they are always up the ground. Collingwoods forwards stay deep for a lot longer than ours do. We are always running with the ball carrier. It’s not sustainable as we found out.

70 point second half. When we talk about how bad our ‘defence’ is that doesn’t mean the back 6 - the whole team starting with the lack of forward pressure is to blame. Oliver had one uncontested possession in the 2nd half. He needed help with Berry but he was beaten badly. ANB tried to save his career but I feel just exemplified that we need a forward line, not a bunch of fit robots that do jobs. Sparrow, Harmes, ANB, and little Charlie is that because he can’t find the footy… Feel for Melksham who is probably done after that. Hibberd too. Addition to the coaching staff would be a Ball Movement coach that can get us kicking to a forward line coming at them. One thing I will say is that we can’t deviate from what we have built, the changes needed are only adjustments. Some are large adjustments but we had a long campaign, half our best 10 players had injuries, they weren’t managed well to perform when it matters and that happens, so we can bounce back. Make no mistake though - absolute embarrassment to go out in straight sets against the Lions.

Half then? Not to be flippant but I don’t see the point in running away from our MCC support.

Well they do make up a fraction. And that’s not just a maths jibe, the MCC is sometimes 3 qtrs of the Dees fans at a game during the year.

On a serious note, they should not have brought in Fullerton and stayed small. That was their chance to get behind us with Cameron letting loose.

Daniher out, this is the kind of massive fillip that the team needs. Lions a huge chance now.

A Burley? Seriously? Hope she doesn’t kick that on its point - it will break her foot! And forget about longevity - that thing is peeling in Scotland within a month! … God rest her soul. And get her a bloody Sherrin, I mean how hard is it. I don’t care that it’s from South Australia, what’s the point of being a Commonwealth if we don’t get that sorted…

Yes, but @Demonstonejust wants to help you. Demonstone… Vitriol away! Good vibe though Billy! Just explain to the members that the extra noise make the footballers play better…

Sooo, is it a bit pathetic they have to tell us to cheer? ‘Grumble play good footy grumble win a contest grumble kick the bloody footy grumble grumble fart’. I get all that but we have a future Demon God in Clayton Oliver playing for us, 2 AFL All Timers in Gawn and CP5, two Demon Knights-of-the-realm in Viney and Brayshaw, three generational backmen in The Demon Trident of Lever, May, and Petty. We also have the Demon Firestarter in Kozzie Pickett. You aren’t excited enough to cheer already? It’s like a team of the best few players from the last 4 generations rolled into one team. Just get up and cheer like a bogan for September. No one will know it was you, you can wear a fake moustache if you want…

Sort of. The name change is a bit on the nose tho…

Hardly revisionist. I remember talking about our lack of forward pressure or enterprising ball movement and that argument simply eschewed by a loading devotee. I don’t disagree that this board can be more nuanced than broadcast footy talk - my opinion is that it dominated the discourse on here to the detriment of actually seeing what might happen if it was wrong. And I am much more polite than JimmyG ;)

Panacea was wrong word, although you probably won’t agree with the edit.

And lastly, and this is the most laughable one - the existence of loading was seen as the reason for our ails and to the point where we couldn’t discuss anything around the performance of the team without it pivoting back to ‘loading means that blah’ or ‘well with our loading’. I understand that high intensity training loads will be placed on athletes at certain time to maximise performance, but that doesn’t account for what many of us were seeing even during our 10 game winning streak, or when good teams obliterated us in last terms. So this season is a good education in watching and synthesising footy for next year. If you have a simple answer, you haven’t thought about it long enough…

I don’t see the staid and ubiquitous practice of ‘loading’ to be flirting with our form. The real frustration for me was self-defeating playing of obviously injured players, some specifically playing through injuries (that always has a disbenefit at some point), the lack of desire to use our squad in a marathon season. The flirting of our form was the seeming abandonment of our forward pressure game and the reliance on our back 6 to repel and then slowly work it up the ground again. My gut feel it is because it is so taxing on the team, but I would have revolved Chandler, Bedford, JVR, and Melksham through there throughout the year. Who cares if you lose one or two, we might have been better against better teams in the run home.

Richmond know that while they have Lynch they need to have a midfield to get enough ball there. Bolton is just the cherry on top that can steal you a close one.