Stu

Max's mark and goal at the top of the square was able to happen because Tom did a great job of keeping his body between the contest and Sam Darcy. It doesn't look like much, but it takes a lot of strength and skill to do that and not give away a blocking free kick. If that's Weideman or another forward they probably try to fly for the contest and the mark and goal doesn't occur.

Out of all AFL teams we have one of the lists that will cause the Dogs headaches with their new approach. They will likely never use all 4 talls at once for various reasons already stated. We have 3 quality KPDs plus Gus who is a great mark for a medium sized defender. Max can float into defence if they’re getting on top offensively. There is also only so much space in the F50 available so it’s likely that a lot of contests will be large packs, and marks within them are rare. On the flip side, the dogs need to counter our dual AA rucks, and the 3 tall forwards when one of them rests forward with BBB and Tmac. That will mean Lobb giving English a break from the ruck, pulling one of their talls from attack, and possibly even requiring English or Lobb to float back to cover our resting ruck. The solution to their strategy is simply give them their own headaches to deal with. I believe we have the players and structure to do that.

Two things I loved today: Players taking time to assess their options, and not always handballing to the open player. Last year teams learnt to roll off their opponent to cover our outnumber. Today several players feigned to handball and then turned to open up the field. It was great to see. Pressuring ball carrier - last year we folded back a lot and let teams run the ball downfield. Today the team made sure to pressure whoever had or was about to take possession. The perfect example being when May made that huge tackle on the wing to halt a rebound by the Tiges. It was the result of 5 other players rolling off their man to pressure the next in line to receive possession. if was so good to see these adjustments 😁

Let's not let facts get in the way of a good ol' fashioned Demonland Mass Panic(TM) 😀

It’s certainly the case that they did well DESPITE missing Grundy not BECAUSE he was missing. People really struggle to process hypotheticals that go behind small simple variables.

He still says 'us' when talking about the Pies (understandably) so I think there's some history being re-written to justify the clubs decisions. He thinks that because Collingwood did well last year without Grundy, but they sorely need a key forward, McStay makes Collingwood stronger than if they had Grundy instead. He's not saying McStay is an objectively better player, just that McStay fills a need and that Cameron and the American fill the ruck 'need'. I disagree and think they could have played a lot better with Grundy in the side and that McStay won't be the silver bullet they think.

Good answer - it's probably the answer to both problems. We didn't have a problem generating F50 entries, but our conversion of them was very low. It's not surprising that when we lost, the opposition scored a lot from turnovers because we gave them a lot of opportunities to rebound from their D50 with poor decision making and skill execution. By having 4-5 accurate kicks in the team, for every additional quality entry into our F50 we're starving the opposition of a quick rebound. Even just the decision to be slower, more deliberate and not just a long bomb for McCarten, Howe, or Stewart to mark, reduces the volume of quick counter attacks we have to defend.

Sure thing Andy. I’ll repost this in the season preview podcast thread when it pops up. A question for tonight then… Based on Friday’s game, which player who has played 0 senior games for the Dees most excited you?

A question based on these points from last season: Our average points differential to round 10 was six goals (35.8 points), where a lot of teams chose a slower or a more contested style. We kicked two goals fewer per game and gave up three goals more per game from R11 onwards (point differential of 4.3 points), where a lot of teams adopted a faster style. Based on some subjective analysis I did on the style the opposition used to attack - the fast, risky style used by Collingwood, Hawks, Swans etc resulted in an average of 85 points against, compared to 60 for all other games where opposition attacks were less aggressive (over 4 quarters). If you could only choose one of the strategies below for the team to focus on which would it be, out of: Defending better against fast, corridor-based ball movement, such as with more intense F50 defensive pressure, or Attack more aggressively through the corridor, to generate better quality forward entries and (more than likely) score more goals. And you can't say both ok? 😄 Love your work guys! Note: Table showing breakdown of scores for and against Points For Points Against R1-10 93.8 58.0 R11-F2 81.9 77.6 Wins 94.4 58.6 Losses 71.6 91.1 Season 86.8 69.4

I expect him to show up on Home and Away as a surfer walking towards the bodacious waves.

I was standing in in the shady pocket at the southern end (wind was blowing towards me). My observations were: Hunter's disposal is going to be very valuable this year - he had some fantastic F50 entries, as well as some kicks into the corridor off half back that setup shots on goal. Max's ruck work was amazing at times Him and Grundy cover a lot of ground for big guys Ball movement was lightning quick at times, with a lot of quick hands There was some rusty moments, and brain fades as is expected for the first game of the year Lever looked in great form while he was playing JVR ensures he rarely loses a marking contest Our two way running was immense, especially in the heat We looked to have a 'slow it down' mode when the Saints built momentum McVee has great acceleration, lateral movement, and composure to go with good skills The Demon Army were in great voice, standing in the sun all game - @WalkingCivilWar you must all be pretty beat! Saw Tracc and Clarry leave the facility when we left in the 6th - I didn't expect them to drive out in a RAV4 and BT-50 with a taped on front guard 😄

But great signs for the season ahead if we win 😜

There was a few pretty basic mistakes in the list. I’m hoping that those mistakes don’t mean their predictions are similarly error riddled 😅

Zero Hanger have done 50 predictions for the 2023 season - this article shows their top 10 predictions. I'd just scroll down to number one ;) 50 fearless predictions for the 2023 AFL season: 10-1 - AFL News - Zero Hanger

I'm driving 80 minutes to be there 😊

Thanks @Action Jackson I have joined the league. Now to resist the temptation to load up on Dees players!

I’m keen to join

Me too! I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited for a pre-season game, and your training reports are a big reason why 😃

Looking at his reaction time, lateral movement, and acceleration, I think Kozzy could play at the elite level in any international sport. He's making top end AFL athletes look slow and cumbersome!

It is low effort content, but there's a very simple part of my brain that releases dopamine's when I listen to or read MFC related news, regardless of quality! 🤪

Yeah one of the media releases mentioned that the entire list will be rotated to play some game time (if fit). I’ll be going as I can’t wait another 5 weeks to watch a game 😂

I genuinely think that Hunter will be seen as our best recruit (if not the whole league). Not to say that Grundy won't be great, I just think having two genuine wingers operating on their preferred side, both who are very fit will be such a challenge for opposition teams to counter. Last year teams would tag Langdon (Hawthorn early in the season) and it would definitely make our run and carry more stifled. Now we can just push that traffic down Hunters wing and negate that strategy. I get the feeling that at least one of them will get 25+ possessions every game. He also helps in one area we lack in - accurate kicking inside 50.

I echo @Rodney (Balls) Grinter sentiment about really beating Collingwood and Sydney, two teams that seem to have to always beat us regardless of what form or talent they have. I can almost sense that expectation and privilege from their fans... it sickens me. Let's "slaughter" them!

It's great to see he's received about $7k in donations already 😊

I’ve watched this a few times now and I’m still speechless at the acceleration in each subsequent step.