KozzyCan

Turner really shouldn't play considering his performance in the practice match and the conditions.

Will be nice to get away to the tropics.

The thing about the Oliver trade scenario that raises an eyebrow for me is that teams also have a salary floor. You can't afford to not pay the cap. So having a $1m+ deal falling flat puts you in a bit of a precarious situation. The Bowes deal was also very weird. I remember the claim basically being that they spread his two year deal over four years. So this guy effectively agreed to work two years for free? And no other club could present a better deal than that?

A push in the back is illegal. You are allowed to place hands on the back of you're opponent without a pushing motion.

Hands in the back has not been a rule for years.

That article is literally rage bait. I have no idea why people keep getting sucked in to read it.

Yeah because a club has never had a public message contrary to what's actually being said behind the scenes. Trade period is a poker match, with bluffs and gambits aplenty and clubs will leak info to the media as part of the game. Both sides are hoping the other one folds. Oliver wasn't traded but it was certainly on the cards. It's fine, it's a professional sport, this sort of thing happens every year. If you're over the conversation you don't have to respond.

Play him midfield and Viney as a defensive forward. We have very little defensive pressure in our forwardline and it's something Viney could really add there.

Fantastic write up. It's like I'm there!

Roos was working with a list that had been decimated by Neeld. He was basically working as a trauma surgeon during those years. It was less about game style and more about staying in games for as long as possible. By the time Goodwin came in the bulk of the list had been overturned and we were ready to actually implement a gameplan to have a crack at finals. I don't doubt that we can change only how much we're willing to.

He is not saying he would be traded only that it was still on the table. Bit of weasel words to be sure but I'd hardly say this constitutes getting it wrong. Where did Barrett say it would definitely happen?

Harsh on Roos

Goodness.

We play safe football and have for a while. The high press is all about locking the ball in with the philosophy being if it's in your 50 you both get a chance to kick for goal and the opposition can't score themselves. At it's best even if the opposition get's the ball they essentially want to get it out of the forwardline as quickly as possible, so you see a lot of long up and under kicks out of defence which are easy to intercept. However as you mentioned, if you can break the lines you are basically left with a paddock to run the ball easily to goal. Transition games like this have become more popular in recent years, which is all about defending deep and slingshotting forward. Probably best executed by Collingwood in recent years. It's why (apart from last year) our games against them have been such arm wrestles, because both teams are kind of playing into each others hands. I think one of the reasons more attacking gamestyles are working more than they have historically is the stand rule. It's a lot easier to move the ball now that you can't defend the angles off a mark. It's also worth noting that you can play a high press and be more attacking. It's how we set up in 2017 and 2018 where we cheated forward out of stoppage and left our defenders on an island. I also think there's something to be said about how our gamestyle affects the team psychologically. I think it would be mentally exhausting to kick the ball inside 50 ten times for no goals only to see the opposition get out the back once and walk it in for an easy goal against the flow. I know I get exhausted watching it! I have no idea what Goodwin's ultimate plans are for how we go inside 50, from the two praccy matches it does feel like we are keen to move the ball by hand a lot more out of stoppage to potentially get better delivery inside 50 as opposed to just booting the ball out to win territory. It will certainly be interesting now that Chaplin has been given the forwardline to coach. What will he bring to the table and how much freedom Goodwin will give him? I found it incredibly frustrating last year where even when we got out the back had an open forwardline all our forwards ran to the pocket rather than presenting a lead and what should have been easy goals or at least decent set shots were easily defended by the opposition.

Did they ever say he was going to be traded to Geelong? They said we put him on the trade table and he was open to it which Oliver confirmed.

Matt Hill is quickly becoming my favourite caller. Beautiful golden radio voice, incredibly professional and knows how call the match to enhance the action rather than making it all about himself.

The four teams who have made the Grand Finals over the past three years all play more entertaining football than us imo so I think there's room to do both. I also think the football we played in 2021 was more entertaining than it was in the following years because teams started defending against us in a different way and we couldn't adapt.

I don't have the stats but our forward entries have an observable defensive intent to not allow the ball to get back into the oppositions hands for an easy rebound. As you say the pockets are deep and close to the boundary line, easy to crowd and keep the ball in contest, the trade off is you give yourselves a low chance to actually score. It's also very dull to watch. Was interesting listening to Hird the other night on FC. He worked with Goodwin for years and talked about how much Goodwin hates getting scored against and was never as interested in scoring as much as he was interested in contest and defence.

He's always come off as extremely awkward in front of the camera.

You're right about percentage in 2021, I stand corrected. I'm a little confused as to your overall point. You've posted numerous times that you don't think our forwardline is much of a cause for concern, so where do you think we need to improve to give ourselves the best shot at contending again? I would say our inability to capitalise on the scoreboard has been our greatest weakness for several years now and is the area that has room for the most improvement. I think that we could apply some relatively simple fixes to improve that area, such as cheating forward off the clearance and pulling our press back a bit to open up the forwardline rather than slowly kicking to contests and predictable safe zones like the forward pockets. I think what we'd gain offensively from those sorts of moves would outweigh what we lose defensively.

Has JUH started making friends with the wrong sort or something?

Indeed sample sizes from finals series will be small by definition. You don't think it matters that in 2021 we were far more dominant in finals than we were in the following years? That it may have been a factor in our success? You also haven't examined the form of the following premiers who were better at scoring and won more games than us throughout those seasons, where in 2021 we were the strongest team in the competition in both percentage and wins. That tells me we stagnated while other sides passed us by and we were unable to replicate the same kind of form that saw us win it all in 2021. You're saying our forward line doesn't need to improve because we won the flag on 2021 with fewer PF in the h&a season ignoring the fact that we were incredibly high scoring across the finals that year and it was the thing that held us back in the following years. We couldn't have done a great deal more defensively in those years so we have to look somewhere to improve.

Must be fake. People on Demonland told me Clarry was never considered for a trade and it was just a media beat up.

You don't think our scores in finals are worth looking at? The 2021 Finals series was one of the most dominant ever, where we averaged 119 points for and 56 points against. Compare that to the following years: 2022: 74 points for and 91.5 points against 2023: 62 PF and 66.5 Points against.

They don't even need to lace it out (although it would be nice) just get the ball in fast and hit it up to the advantage of our forwards in space. We make things hard for ourselves by bombing everything to the pockets or the top of the goal square onto the heads of our forwards.