rpfc

Whatever happens, the club has handled this in a very mature way that will be noticed by the players and the agents trying to help 20 year olds with life changing decisions. I hope he stays of course, am sure that we will be fine if he does leave which leads me to the only truth; if LJ stays, Brodie Grundy won’t be a Demon.

Now it’s on Thursday. So people get what they want and they have Saturday to read about on Sunday if they don’t want to pay.

Well as much I hate Murdoch, Fox does a good job with footy. Seven not so much. Really interested to see what their app looks like and whether I can get it ad free. Kayo is decent but I can see it degrading and skipping and struggling and (as someone in IT) I wonder if they are actually working to improve the app or have moved to ‘break/fix’ mode because it’s ‘good enough’ for people to not complain too much. This will drastically push up the salary cap in a couple years and this will have implications on our cap situation with so many players on long term deals. Some will soon say that it gives us a competitive advantage but I doubt it - I think the deals are tied to a percentage of the cap…

Fort and McStay will compete. Ironically, this makes the smaller and more dangerous up forward and better equipped to get around May, Lever and Petty.

To me, it looked like until the last few rounds and sporadic qtrs and halves that we de-emphasised pressure in the F50. That was borne out in the stats as well as the eye test. Now we up the pressure and we can’t execute; teams are dealing with it. We are not in sync; two will go to the ball, none to the 2nd attacker or the 3rd. Or the next line in the web doesn’t react as it should and they get an easy hit up. As our web/zone was deep we defended differently than to the last few weeks; notice how high up our HBFs have been the last month. Teams now slingshot against us with all the space behind us or before they get to May. Posters on here talk about not having a Plan B and that has always been such a misguided desire; teams need to be predictable to each other so they work like it is second nature. At the moment we don’t seem to know our Plan A well enough.

We sweet top 4 in pressure last year and now we are one of the worst in the league. Whatever the metric - they are applied the same this year as to last. Allowing teams out of our forward 50 is a specific weakness, we are one of the worst there too. I think it is direction, a choice to allow the water to crash against the rocks of our defence further up the ground. And now when we want to turn the pressure valve back on and then burn into our transition it comes and it goes - it is not second nature. What we are trying to play in the last few weeks of the season is different to what we have all year. As Boromir would say - it is folly.

Yeah, he has his 22 and it’s ride or die. ANB for a tall or a pressure forward in form is but a small change yet too large for those with a set mind. We wait for summer for change…

When your trust between your players is just a little off, it shows when you play teams (like us last year) that; don’t second guess a quick hand pass, make the effort to run past for overlap, leave their man to impact the contest. The boys have looked ‘tight’ all year and we have not prioritised our own pressure game all year and I would love to know why. Form is not to be flirted with; if it is such a taxing game style then rotate players through the forward line. That is my main critique of the FD this year, and tbh the whole club, we just seem rather arrogant in how we go about things. Altering your forward pressure game style because your defence CAN absorb it most of the year is, I am sorry, an arrogant and misguided thing to do IMO.

In fairness, we are already very young. However, watching Lever, Kozzie, and a couple others play through obvious injuries is something that I will not understand. Part of being this good is that you should be able to use your squad. I get all players play through ‘niggles’ but Lever for instance was in so much pain and discomfort he took his boot off at half time in games for a month there.

Reality will decide that soon enough. I hold out hope.

Our scrappy forward line can get us there but they need to lift their pressure and the whole team needs to execute skills better on transition. We aren’t doing that. It’s not cattle, it’s the cattle not doing what they did do last year under pressure.

I’m learning that contested footy isn’t necessarily King when it comes to finals footy. Pressure on that contested possession and what you do with it in transition when you win it back is now our true sire. All hail King Pressure Rating and Queen Turnover Differential! Long May they reign. Avoid weddings or drinking anything at weddings if I know my GoT…

Get over the Lions and get yourself to a PF and if that forward line can click and get good connection suddenly you are in a GF and we can beat anybody. It is so open this year that we should still have expectations on ourselves to perform in a PF. As a fan of this great collection of players that is all I ask; get yourself into a position to get to a PF and give it a red hot crack.

I’m sorry, I can’t recall that encounter. I can imagine the opinion though.

We can find the space, last and least of the worries.

Well how do you think Chandler or Bedford get in?? Getting there??

How is that? We had LJ money plus the cap is going up $600k, plus Tomlinson can be moved $500k, plus delistings/retirements…

I was waiting for this bump. I was worried earlier in the season with how we were playing and I said that loading was a ‘red herring’ and this is what I meant. Loading is a real thing that the best teams do, but you’re not meant to be revealed like we were revealed with some of those performances in 2nd halves in the middle of the season. We are not moving the ball well, have little dare and run, and our forward line can’t compete against defences that are set up. And they also allow the ball out too easily.

How did you wake up? Do you realise that we are not as good a ‘team’ right now as Sydney? I honestly don’t know what you are flagellating with me about. The fact I wouldn’t fire Goodwin? The fact that I don’t agree our galaxy of stars means we should automatically win? Teams win flags, not individuals.

Not really, he’s playing an important role for others. I would suck up that structural loss, simplify the game a bit and get Chandler or Bedford in.

You could put Sparrow into midfield more and bring another forward in. Too many mids in the forward line anyway.

The problem, and it is an actual problem, is that ANBs role is built into the structure of the team both offensively AND defensively. In essence, he does things to cover players in the D50 and he helps free up Petracca in the F50. He is so out of touch and low on confidence that he does need to be replaced but I don’t think we can replace him until the summer. He does this thing that players down on talent or form do where they will get the footy but trudge into players to avoid having to try (and fail) to get it to a teammate. If it were me, I would drop him and free up the forward line immediately and say to the team - we are playing an actual forward line so you won’t have protection or blocks in congestion - just get your dare back and get it moving.

Huh? Sydney are a better team. Might want to reread it, champ. And maybe calm down. Your stream of consciousness is weighing down the servers.

What a melt down by some of you, we weren’t great but wholesale changes after you lose a QF to a great team? You all drank your own bath water on this Demons team. Last year in Perth was lightning in a bottle. We are not some god team that will CRUSH. KILL. DESTROY. We are a good team with a scrappy fwd line that really struggles to move the footy in transition and good teams prey on us for that.