rpfc

Do you have to yell?

If we can reverse our form we can win enough games for top 4 and we can beat anyone, anywhere.

Max being imperious didn’t mean we won the Sydney game. Similarly, his injury does not mean doom. Daw can play a role or Weideman can come in. Jackson will provide a competitive ruck in there for the mids to work off.

Most Dees fans watch on the TV anyway so I don’t think it matters that it was in Perth. Also, try not to be so indulgent in your self pity - it’s not helpful.

As I said last week, you don’t go back so quickly without a change in direction from Goodwin and co. They way we played with the suffocating forward half turnover game is taxing and I said a month ago - you can’t just flick a switch and it is back. I think that they have flirted with their form so to speak and now need to concentrate on this basic and the rest can come along after. As for why they did this - our dominant backline and structure provides the allure of comfortability - most teams were waves crashing on the rocks and now the rocks are overrun (or drunkenly concussed and complacent). But this has now let bad habits further up the ground to seed and we are turning it over to far away from goal and with our forwards too high. Honestly, the better option to ‘save legs’ would be to rest players but due to ‘standards in hubris’ we don’t do that…

Yes, the players don’t trust themselves or their teammates as much as they did to run and to be there when they run.

That’s a red herring. Our pressure has not been up to standard most of the year. Now other things are falling down; connection and form of our stars.

Probably the same one that had us first last year. None of these metrics are perfect but they are indicative. We are playing with less pressure on the ball carrier and it is totally stuffing up where we get our turnovers, where our forwards are, and how quickly we can get the ball to them in dangerous spots.

Diagnosis: 1. Pressure is down and we are getting fewer turnovers in our forward half. This is by design I think and as I said for the last few weeks, ramping it up is not easy and even inevitable. Changing the way you play because it is taxing is dangerous and definitely ‘flirting with form’ Answer: Simple one, lift your pressure from the wings to the forward line. Spargo, ANB, Sparrow, et al. If not, Bedford will, Chandler will. Fixing this gets us in the hunt to win games against good teams. 2. Connection between players is breaking The singular reason we were so dominant in the finals last year was the culmination of the connection between the players. What this means is when there are 2 players going for the tackle, that means one of those players made the decision to not trust their teammate to make the tackle, that left a free opposition player free and away they go. You can look at a number of contests for the last 2 months and see this happening. Immature teams have this issue. Too many up for marks, too many guarding space instead of defending the player with the ball. Answer: This one is tougher, it’s about trust amongst the group. This is how ‘rope players’ become more than the sum of their parts; they are trusted to do the 2 or 3 things they can do well and release the best players to be expansive and damaging. Get this right and we should win against most teams. 3. Star players consistency. Lever is hurt, Petracca is down, Gawn is up and down this year, May is an [censored], Langdon is getting tagged, Fritsch is getting swamped - all these excuses may or may not be valid but this is the last piece to why we were so dominant - our star players were luminescent when it mattered. Summary So get back to valuing your actual gameplan (and rest players if they can’t execute), get trust back in the group, and get your best players back to health and form. It’s not hard to figure out and we did 11 months ago, but it’s also not easy at all…

That is a different structure than we have had for all of our success. And Bedford would just be a few poor games from being called ‘pathetic’ by you so what does it matter really?

Seriously, WTF?

And when she comes back after telling that bloke from Perth to [censored] off - she is back to being a 9 again…

You don’t give up on your structure that just won you a flag after a sub standard month of footy. Ben Brown is an established AFL player and he has earned the right to work through form issues. Especially when the forward pressure that made us the team we were last year with forward half turnovers fuelling Fritsch and Brown through the finals. Unfortunately there is no scape goat for our troubles. The team will decide whether we bounce back and everyone playing their role.

Classic Deeluded. Chauvinism or Boorishness? You decide!

I am going to believe my lying eyes. He was so good the 5x All Australian , Premiership Captain was the 2nd best ruck in the game. It was like playing with four power mids in there in the last 10 mins of the 3rd.

Hmmm. Perhaps, but getting stuck into Smith and then saying to Melksham the effect of ‘what would you know, you play 2s’ is not much better than that whole ‘you play, we lose’ palaver. Either way, he I usually quite measured and of course, well connected.

It’s not a challenging ‘connect the dots’ - we won’t need a Jan 6 Commission for this one. Of course, that’s about a former President…

This guy is upset May is missing a week. Talk about missing the forest for the trees, and walking into one. He was obviously drinking all afternoon after going to the boxing while on concussion protocols. He shouldn’t play for a multitude of reasons. I truly believe our culture is more important than the appearance of one player in an important game. That isn’t to say I want to play without our best players but our culture and respect for role players and their importance was more a reason for our flag than Steven May.

Pathetic. Mediocre. Why.. why are you like this?

Tomlinson looked like he was low on confidence in his knee and his ability last week. ACLs can take 18 months to get back to your best if you ever do. Poor bloke. Massive sliding doors moment last year in Tassie.

Why would anyone want to watch the Tigers tho?

Max Gawn thinks that [censored] talk. He has been up on his high horse across a bunch of different forums about the team and how they talk to each other and belittling Smith as having done nothing with his footy is absolutely poor. And worth confronting. Just not violently.

I tell my team; if you have 8 reasons not to do something, you don’t have one good reason not to do something. At 63, you have a generational opportunity to see an amazing team and support them to greatness. It will only last as long as our stars stay uninjured, re-signed, and (ahem) out of trouble. Enjoy it and get along - you’ll have a good time.

Trust your eyes too.

At least Mitch Brown stayed in front of his bloke which is a standard Weideman hasn’t set for himself. Have some respect.