rpfc

You should probably apply the ‘rule’ in your last sentence to your first sentence; the FD don’t seem to care about ‘winning the trade’ if they get their targets. We may come out so far ahead in the Jackson trade that they don’t care about ‘paying too much’ for ND1.

Winning form is good form at this point, even if it means going to the Gabba. Having said that, we may prioritise resting May, Gawn, and some other stars.

No idea about talent (haven’t watched my usual 30 mins of YouTube highlights just yet) but getting Lamb and Taylor the capital to do something like this could be glorious. That is why we deathride💀 🚴

When the hamster that lives in @Nasher basement that runs the servers take a break - I often think about what I am doing with my life and where I am go- -Uhh, Demonlands back up!

I much prefer these people have some confidence. Otherwise, what’s the fun in breaking someone’s will that’s already broken?

rpfc with Jaded on that mountain:

Why are you still talking about snake fish eel things?

Nonsense word that ruined my post. Also, I have milk. No need to go up to the shops

Huh? I do two things; drink milk, and conjure the forces of good in this world to down Geelong and smite their ashes. And I’m all outta milk…

Yes, there’s only so much resilience you can build into Perry’s ribs…

Be Better

He ain’t a Goodwin fan so look for that

Heads up to footy fans, the tall bloke from Aunty Donna has a podcast this year called The Footy and it is quite good. More lighthearted and no depth but very funny. Broden is a Dees fan. And he left early last week.

Outs were predictable. Ins too. I am partial to KC.

@Demonland the last five mins: Andy on fire

Nah, his ribs

I guess we will find out the splits that Gawn and Grundy play in time. Im not to blame for the mixed messaging and splitting hairs by AR and SG. I never wanted Lobb and McStay. The opportunity cost was ongoing TPP commitments. But that’s done until 2027 so we should make the most of Grundy now. Think we’re done and I have refuted the ‘hysteria’ label enough for adjudication:

Ok then. I think that I have been quite measured with what this means for the FD, Max’s future, for 2024 and beyond, and for Brodie to have a future in the team this year. I have critiqued that the FD brought in someone with known forward deficiencies and have reversed course on which ruckman would play predominantly ruck. I have maintained that Max would be best placed learning to be a ‘forward who rucks’ over time. I have said this year is this year and that 2024 could look different with the role we have for Grundy. I have laid out the role and the base level craft Brodie would be taught by me if I had the job to get him functioning in this forward line in 2023. I don’t think that any of that is histrionics and the thing that some struggle to get past is that I am happy to own the critique of the initial decision to recruit him if this is where we are at 17 games in, and also that we have been disjointed in our communications on this situation which doesn’t help the situation (forward craft, no VFL, predominantly forward, not making him a forward). Also, I am in the ‘guys get dropped’ union too - so give me some credit.

Gawn just played a game indicative of his role and he played around 80-85% in the ruck didn’t he? So where this number of 40 mins each game for Max to go forward would then set an expectation that we simply won’t meet. Gawn is not going to spend 33% of gametime forward. Especially not after these recent decisions to drop Grundy, and with his performance on Friday night.

Excuse me?

As an aside, how poor are our comms on this? What is going on?

I think Goodwin has created a bit of a strawman there. We are not comfortable with Max playing a third of the game forward (10mins each qtr as stated) because he struggles to play that role atm and impact games. Brodie, if he plays in 2023 in finals, will be forward or on the bench for at least 75% of the game. So what role do you call that? ‘We are not turning him into a forward, we are just teaching him forward craft.’ Great. But for this year, to play finals, he is a what first? Anyone? Anyone? He is a forward first. Like JVR is, like TMac would be if they were back up.

I think this zone vs press is a matter of tense - is the ball ‘in play’ or are they just sharing short kicks that we won’t ‘press’ up onto. What I saw on Kings Birthday was the Demon Press of Death but it was not aggressive in getting up to the half backs it was just allowing them no other option than to kick it long. They really struggled to do what they like doing - crowd the footy and share and drive to another contest where they outnumber and share and wave it forward. My coaching head sees a zone as a fwd/mid structure from a kick in or turnover that ends at the first long kick that causes a contest, where as a press is the inclusion of the entire team marking space in an extended zone. To me it’s a press, whether they press ‘up’ or not. Anyway, I think we can agree that we were picked apart but that happens with these full team structures when 1 person screws up, when 2 people screw up you may as well just kick into their forward yourself…

I definitely think it is a workrate thing but it’s also just base decision making - in the second and third I just saw the Lions switch and pull it back and make the ground bigger and find those gaps in the first and second line and then run from coleman and the Irish bloke and then you are over the top of our press. I also don’t see the pressure numbers as a worry really, teams don’t want to play offensively through aggressive play that would invite pressure, they just want to avoid defensive turnovers with our press and so our games are a little more about possession and control. That all changes in finals when grounds get smaller and pressure gets louder.