rpfc

Happy we are not valuing ND65 over the fabric of the club. Progress. Some of you think like life is a video game, full of dispassionate decisions and inconsequential list changes...

His first challenge is to continue to get better with when he kicks and when he handballs. He struggles to punish the opposition with how much first use we get in the middle. I should watch tape of his mate CP5. I think he can be better ‘getting’ release hands from Viney and co. and doing something with his ability to find space to deliver. He’s still 1 dimensional in close ‘if I get it I will be doing all these things, if my teammate gets it... well off to the next contest where I can get it...’ That might be unfair but that is my opinion.

Fritsch is a handy player with a few tools. He is nowhere near being ‘an A grader’. Makeshift FFs have to move to another position in good sides and he needs to adapt to a flank further up the ground and I am not confident he can do it and provide what he needs to provide defensively.

Would love Smith on a wing; confidently getting into space and making good decisions into the forward line.

Meh

Umm, we have some very good players. 3 star mids, the best ruckman in the game, one of the best FBs, the best CHBs, the best wingers... As much as the hand wringers would like to avoid this truth - we underperformed in two games this season and it cost us a chance to play a couple of finals. We should be amongst the better teams in 2021. Plus we overpaid T Mac and Tomlinson and there is the crunch.

Do you reckon we are a chance on Saturday night? The bookies don’t see us as a realistic Premier this year... #believe

A well executed game plan the players believe in. Assuming our midfield is good enough. And it is.

Fritsch was a stop gap FF this year. He needs to realise what @Pollyannais intimating - there is no role for you unless you adapt your game to the skill set required. He needs to get out of the square, get up the ground, show defensive pressure, and deliver to forwards well if he is to stay in the 22. My 7 (in Brown scenario) Weid CHF up the ground. Brown FF Lead up Jackson isolated but outside 50 (Gawn deep when resting) Petracca/resting mid Pickett Spargo Fritsch/Hunt/Melksham - whoever can be good enough at delivering, pressuring, and getting out of Browns way.

We have had trouble understanding today’s player let alone prognosticating tomorrows player. So maybe yesterday is where we should be heading - 4th dimensionally speaking.

Same. If I am reading tea leaves it’s at the end of a very gritty tea experience.

Good idea for a thread. Having Stars May, Lever, Petracca, Oliver, Gawn, Langdon, and Viney are comforting group of players to have as a base to work from. We should be in every game. Genuine Small Forward Pickett is a genuine talent and if he can calm down his final two steps with the footy he will be amazing. Has a left foot, super quick, good closing instincts and can tackle. Genuine Full Forward [Text Missing] Desperation Everyone will be under the Sword of Damocles and I think that is healthy for our progression back to relevance to not be satisfied with 9th.

If I see that effing Jack Nicholson GIF again I am going to earn another warning point...

If this guy gets Fritsch out of the effing square then I am all for it. Balancing Brown and Weideman may be an issue, it may mean Weideman further up the ground which I think suits him. For the right price it is worth doing.

3 top 3 finishes in the B+F in the last 4 years. Quibbling over him getting $50-100k more than you think he should get is not worth pushing him out. He’s a leader, a CP machine, and will always give first use. He allows Oliver and Petracca to be more outside, and if Clayton wants to be as damaging as his mate in the 5 was in 2020 - he might want to take the assist that Viney provides.

No, just no.

He's not soft but he is a dumb footy player. He is the most infuriating player we have; it's not his fault he is the main forward alot of the time but he rarely leads at the footy, he tries to body out too much, he goes up for speccys with a childlike cadence, and he looks like a terrified kitten when lining up for goal. Apparently, he takes 50 shots before the game. It isn't helping - he should stop doing that - he is obviously putting the weight of the world on himself every time he lines up for goal. And he shouldn't put that pressure on himself - if he is the difference between us winning and losing then we don't have a very good team... I am always harder on forwards but he really gives me the [censored].

Wilson is a [censored] stirrer. And with us - there is a lot to stir... The thing I can't abide is the faction nonsense - making/keeping enemies is only self-defeating and it reads quite petty. I don't want change for changes sake but if removing any of Bartlett, Mahoney, or Goodwin gets us a better option then we have to seize the moment. Yes, I am looking at Clarkson but similarly for a President that unites or a football manager of higher quality and experience.

I don't think those two views are antithetical - it's a third of the team. The only reason I am not on here ranting and raving is because it is a 4 day break but make no mistake - we stank against the Swans and 7 changes doesn't fill me with confidence for tomorrow night. We should win well, but we should have won well last game...

I can buy that if it weren't for Oliver, Petracca, Viney, May, Lever, Salem, Harmes, Fritsch, et al We have enough talent - I think we let our coaches off the hook with that - I have better teams out of less talent. And lastly, that 3rd quarter against the WB does not follow the we are not good enough viewpoint - we were fine up until then - and then the wheels came off. You don't suddenly lose talent and skill over a half time break...

Of course it is - but all that work is to "ensure the players are ready on game day"... He's not a counsellor - he is trying to get a consistent performance out of group of blokes that have struggled to find it. I like the way we play and I don't care about not having a "Plan B" as I see that as a fallacy for good teams (diff tactics do not equal diff ways of playing) but where do they go at times? I can understand it if it skills, but it's not... I can understand if it's talent, but it's not... I would make minimal changes this week and see how the players respond. We can go in the other direction too - we have the style of play and the talent. Now to execute.

Very late to this thread - got a 4 month old so I won't be able to post in depth but some of the coaches that I talked to in the last few years up here in Canberra and around Coaching Clinics and the like is not only stealing from soccer in much the way @A F describes but also from basketball; the transition. The key thing from my point of view is that 'transition' in bball highlights defence and offence as important as each other and that (most) players love transition bball; it's open, it's quick, and involves the players more. It's pretty much: 'if you run enough, you will touch the ball' That's what I see now watching the Dees in the last few weeks (and of course the best teams) - Charlie Spargo works hard, gets into space, takes an uncontested mark 25 out. You don't have to be a world beater you just have to work hard, and trust your teammates to work hard.

Small v. From memory, he preferred it but Ainslie never wrote it properly. But I think that was more to do with the bloke who did the team sheets - lovely bloke but slightly dim and was a tough conversation. I guess that is the same at all clubs...