rpfc

The football gods will take care of this hopefully, we have a footy game to play and hopefully a career to continue in 2024 if Gus wants to keep playing.

This isn’t instruction, it’s execution but it’s the kind of execution you get when it is seemingly meaningless what you do with the footy inside 50. ’Defence first, defence first’ should be a quiet reminder, not a slogan. We essentially burnt our entries inside 50 last year to protect our mids and backs we were so banged up; long and to the pocket. I really think we are still dealing with the impact of that hubris and contempt for the game; ‘we can’t get anything near to our best with fit VFL players instead of first timers so let’s try to game the system hanging on to leads and ruining the natural instinct of creativity and boldness going past centre.’ I don’t see it being sorted out in the next three weeks and it’s so disappointing - we are the best team in my view in 2/3 of the game - defence and ‘in dispute’ - but bottom 4 offensively…

The rest is football with Micah Richards and Alan Shearer. Very funny. New.

As Gary Lineker recently said on his podcast “when I went to Barcelona I was chasing and tackling and the players stopped me at half time and said ‘what are you doing, you’re here to score goals.’ I said to myself ‘I’ll have a bit of that’ but when I came back to Spurs I had to do that nonsense again!”

I have found that with teams I coach - those that run and get into good positions and get ignored - they end up not bothering because why would you? Why would you do that extra running and effort only to get ignored? Team sports, and the roles within, are about empathy and trust - in yourselves and in others. And we talk about being ‘defence first’ too much - to the point where we do not trust ourselves to kick it to where we might advantage ourselves because it will also heighten the risk that it may disadvantage ourselves. May needs to stop yelling and screaming at mistakes, Lever needs to play on at all occasions, McVee and Rivers need to be assisted to drive us forward, Goodwin needs to stop saying the D word and we need to get it quickly to our best forwards - who are good enough to get us a winning score.

It is a wasted opportunity but the one glimmer and maybe it is for the Lions more than us but we are on the toughest side of the draw and one of Melb, Carl, or Bris will win the GF by 8 goals (Dees by 4 goals).

This high press does my head in; May and Lever won’t gamble on the counter by feet and hands but love gambling trying to get the footy 75 out. I am becoming more concerned about how we are built out of a selfish defensive system.

Hang on a second…

Yeah, First Crack isolated the stilted and stifling play off half back where we went sideways and didn’t reward blokes that got free in the middle - culprits were the backs and the wingers. This is not surprising and extremely disappointing that we seemingly didn’t use the last 6 weeks to learn new habits to win games at the risk of losing them. And now we have enabled our own demise not looking to expose and be bold. We are tight and worried and that is not the definition of a flag winning team. Can Goodwin release them? Is not this why you are on the bench like a soccer manager? Because one manager I know used to yell at his Celtic team to “pass it [censored] FORWARD!”

Not a Max issue… Wow. They both should be sharing the ruck and the sacrifice. We have a Semi Final we have to win - we are without options - can Max step up and sacrifice for the team to get to a Prelim in Brisbane? It’s a failed year if it doesn’t happen.

We must be in jail a lot the way we kick it down there… But yes, preferably he is deep on slow plays and on the wing providing hands on quick plays. The more I think about this - our forward line, the way we move the ball, I think we should refresh the assistant coaches especially if Yze is off to Richmond. We are so stale with the footy.

The rest of that water is coming fast…

Don’t ask me; ask the Footy Department. I didn’t want this trade and said as much at the time. They want to prolong Max’s career by making him progressively ruck less and become a fed who rucks. They shouldn’t have bothered. But we have to work with what we have got in 2023 and Gawn being deep may be our best chance to kick a winning score.

Mate, that is essentially what the FD wanted to do when they recruited Grundy last year. Max hasn’t shown the desire or ability to get it going. Having said that - it’s what we should do.

I think we need to play a bit of ‘AngeBall’ - what is the point of restricting sides to 60 points when we can’t get out of second gear to score enough to get 61 points. Stop May from marking and going back and ‘having a look’ because he is ‘such a good kick’, get Lever to have the same rule as Frawley at Hawthorn - ‘if you kick it, you’re off’, and look for McVee and Rivers with hand offs at all times. Blind turns allowed if there is no runner and kick to grass; Chandler, Pickett, Smith, and ANB will get there first. I know Goodwin and Chaplin want to minimise turnovers - prefer not to lose, than try to win - but can we continue this year of experimenting and adapting and try to win?

No. Also, he isn’t a midfielder.

Just go for the point. If we kicked a point for every entry inside 50 - we would have won by more than a goal.

Grundy should come in and share ruck duties. Gawn was immense in the ruck. But now he has to sacrifice for the team to get the most out of someone else possibly at the (hopefully minor) expense of his own game. Can he do it? From his rhetoric, he will ask Goodwin for Grundy to play - I just hope he knows that what that means for him. Those that want the Grundy Experiment to continue into next year - this is it, and it is on Max to make it work.

Like I said before the finals - the way we move the ball, enter the forward line, and the lack of forward craft and structure down there means that we just won’t ‘belt’ good teams. Unless Carlton don’t show up, expect another low scoring slog. We won’t be out of the game, but neither will they - we just are not efficient enough. Look at the Inevitable Premiers of 2023 Collingwood; we have smashed them twice and won by 4 points and lost by 7.

We need a forward line of actual forwards, in their prime, in all structural positions. We are making do with resting mids (CP5), out of position defensive runners (ANB, Spargo), youth (Chandler, Pickett, JVR), and injured talls (TMac, Brown). And before anyone tells at me for ANB - he is playing a box to box role that is inherently played away from the forward line… So Fritsch is a bit lonely as a forward who is actually a forward, in his prime, and (relatively) healthy. We are just so easily bottled up.

Forgive the pun, but it would be petty if we didn’t play Grundy now. Grundy for JVR Tomlinson for Brayshaw Rivers into the middle. Wouldn’t bother with JJ. Give Trent the time in a big game. And we just look better when Lever is free to intercept with AT there. You could look at TMac for Laurie/Spargo but I wouldn’t do that. TMac will play an important role.

It’s more than just ‘being offensive’ or getting a tall fwd in; it’s a team ethos of how to move the footy, we are a Rolls Royce with the handbrake constantly on, and then when we have to rev and go - it’s haphazard and sloppy. I talked about this earlier in the year, I think we need to move away from being ‘defence first’ into something more nuanced. By the end of next year, our best player in the backline will be Rivers. We need to not allowing Lever and May to dwell on the ball and remodel around Rivers and McVee and get aggressive and quick and allow our best forwards 1-1 time in space (Fritsch, Petracca, Pickett). Defence gets you in the top 4, not certain it wins premierships anymore.

I want to know how Gus is. Team selection is secondary

If we simply forced a point for every bomb I50 we would have won by 9 points. This is what I feared. The better team undone by it own lack of connection, forward movement, and inspiration.