rpfc

You are alluding to the focus of the team changing slightly and that leading to higher scoring and better conversion. That may happen but I am more interested in how it would happen; players need to alter behaviour and look shorter or with hands, we need to work into space and not sit in it in the forward line, and we need to make better decisions with ball in hand. There is no switch for that. It is being predictable, trusting your teammate to do adhere to the above, and trusting yourself to take the extra second that our pressure doesn’t allow others. These are simple concepts but I have seen teams flirt with form and be unable to regain the above. So much of this game is mental and there is nothing as simple as a switch when it comes to the collective mind of a footy team.

Thanks TU. Without the time to research this in depth, I would argue we would have a few missed ‘gimmies’ most games, leaving the shallow and wide shots the more considerable culprit. I would also argue against this growing point from a few that these are ‘reentries’ due to our high press. That is what you get with a high press. That is by design. Its a feature, not a bug. If we can’t maximise it and kick more than 70 points, we shouldn’t play it and we should sit back more and develop chains off half back. So ‘reentries’ is another excuse for our poor connection and delivery into the forward line.

I agree with the shake up, but not sure what Goodwin should be saying instead. CP5 and CO13 need to be sat down and told - we don’t dump the footy anymore. Kick to movement or to space. They are our window but they are the worst offenders. Jack Viney is half as good a kick but he has lowered his eyes and been so good this year. I fully expect us to finish 4th and make a prelim even without Fritsch, but we still need some agitation and a tall forward with forward craft in 2024 and beyond.

We should have won regardless, that can’t be the metric in this discussion. We should have been further ahead against Geelong at 3 qtr time and we should have been further ahead on Kings Bday and nearly lost. Freo and Carl were a mess too. We have had terrible conversion on I50s for 5 weeks now - got little reward for effort and it’s not just accuracy at the goal.

Who honestly cares about Gawn being ‘Gawn’? We dominate games and can’t finish - that is not on the ruckmen. Jumping at shadows all over the place… We need to commit to better decision making and delivery into the forward line, and create space and structure to maximise our strengths. Its not easy but it is simple.

It’s both, but don’t let ‘expected score’ fool us - we aren’t getting good looks.

Not as bad as last year with some exposure to JVR, Smith, Laurie, and Rivers going into the middle. Not enough though. But now they have added their ‘5th dimensional’ dropping of in form players like Brown in Rd 4 and Tomlinson last week. This FD needs to refocus on the simple; what is the most straightforward decision to make.

So this is the meat of the issue; we are not getting deep central entries. Our misses are as much a ‘red herring’ as loading is. We don’t get good looks so of course our accuracy is low. We need to address why we don’t get good entries. 77 expected score from 73 Inside 50s is not good.

But, again, 77 points from 73 I50s is not good. 45 is just awful but 77 is still revealing a poor connection forward.

So we were supposed to score 77 points from 73 entries into our forward line. BEEP BEEP BEEP. What’s that noise? It’s the forward line connection. Its dead.

I think this is absolute nonsense.

Why was BBB picked? It gets laughable when we can see these things days out and the Match Committee is playing 5th dimensional chess. They are a group of very smart men, losing at checkers. Footy is not easy, but it isn’t complicated. We complicate it, and we over think and it leads to dropping in form players for players coming back from injury, and playing talls in the wet.

Where is this ‘switch’ I was hearing about?

I think we are going to have to get around 85 Inside 50s to win this one…

Probably best.

Don’t know what @WheeloRatings would do with that one…

Here is a stat to warm the heart; in the last month, we have had 9 more inside 50s than total points scored…

He was omitted. it happens.

You were making a cogent argument until here - staying overnight down there so we could train on the ground is nothing other than an overt action trying to provide an edge to win the game. It isn’t an experiment, it’s going the extra mile to provide an edge. That last quarter may be an aberration caused by a litany of factors but as far as I can tell - it would have been seen as a disappointing way to end a game we were winning and prepared to win.

These last 6 weeks have just seen and embedding of bad habits in how we kick to JVR and how JVR goes and gets the ball. He is 19. It’s not the end of the world so to speak.

And maybe some @Nudgefor dessert??

JVR is just a kid and kids get dropped. We aren’t a teaching hospital anymore - we are in it to win it. As I have said through out the year - JVR is promising but he needs development and I just don’t think he is going to get that in the AFL. He may push out one of smith and brown and I think he will play more games but I think our best team has him outside the 22 this year.

I think @old55 was more looking at 15 wins not being enough for top 2 - and he is right.

Did school holidays start a day early?

Funny things happen down the pointy end amongst the best teams - ask the Tigers in 2018. That I can deal with, straight sets against teams that are worse than us not so much.