Its Time for Another

I've been known to slip into an afterthought in my time. But I digress......

You asking for a friend?

Your priorities are the same as my wifes. Dog first, children second. And sometimes as an afterthought me.

KC

What he said. Thanks again. No issues at all with the audio. Appreciate the effort solving it and putting it together. Interesting to hear the clear separation in roles and functions with Ric. Have to have a closer look at Deakyn Smith after him pumping him up so much. Must admit I have had my doubts that he would make it.

I'm talking total points conceded up to round 7 of each of the past 3 seasons. Funnily enough we had conceded exactly 434pts in both 2021 and 2022. This year it is 536.

How has the game changed since he started playing. Does he think opposition teams have worked out how to play against the defensive structure we had in 2021 and have we had to adjust for that. The gameplan appears to be more attacking this season has this impacted on how effectively they can defend. WE have conceded 102pts more this season than the last two seasons. Can he give us some examples of the sort of changes they have made mid game to counter something different an opposition is doing.

The defence in 2021 was impregnable. It seems a lot more porous nowadays. Any thoughts on whether this is right or not and why. Have we been found out since then or are we just not functioning as well or is it a product of our more attacking gameplan.

My name is Peter Ring a Ding Bell and you have this very wrong. It was Melbourne that were not playing him to his strengths and were exposing his weaknesses. That's exactly why we got him. He is actually a gun forward who just needs to be able to lead one on one and he will beat any backman in the comp. Melbourne ruined him by just bombing it high to contests. As you can see we are now playing him to his strengths and it is working out so well. Isn't it.......?

Stan Alves didn't leave. He was sacked. Skilton became coach and advised him that he was going down a youth path and although he was the Captain he was sacking him. He got a call late in the pre season from the great Ronald Dale inviting him to join North. That Sept he was doing cartwheels on the wing as a Premiership player thanks to Skilton not him.

I think he's teaching the coaches and us the value in giving a player enough games to get their confidence up enough to overcome the yips so they can stop thinking every shot on goal could kill their career. He was still looking dodgy round one shooting for goal now he's over it and is starting to kick those across the body snaps that ever other player in the team misses except for Kossie and Fritsch. Plus his small forward defensive pressure is right up there with the best. His physicality leaves Bedford in his ashes.

I take it you've watched him play already this season. I haven't watched GWS. Out of interest how is Hogan going. From what I gather he should be finally in peak condition and have his head in the right space. This should be his year but I haven't read anything about him. As for Jefferson I did say he's half the size he needs to be but at least is showing signs he can put bulk on unlike some players who come in and can never bulk up to the right size. I don't expect to see him before 2025 unless some miraculous body bulking goes on between now and next season.

When they were drafted but it wouldn't be that much now.

Know what you mean about the past but think you're being a bit tough on Jefferson. He's already double the size he was when drafted so now only half the size he has to be. He's already put on more bulk than someone like Wattsy ever managed. He's also showing promising signs in competitiveness and contested marking. There's reasons to be a bit more optimistic than that.

Booing LJ ? You're kidding right. We should all be cheering him very loudly!!!. Grundy, Jefferson and something like picks 6 and 24 in a mega draft. Who's booing that. By time we play Freo in rd 11 they are likely to be 3-8. Their games up to then are Lions at Gabba, Hawks Home, Swans SCG, Cats Home, then us at the G. It doesn't get a lot better after that. Tigers H, GWS A, Dons H, Dogs A, Blues H, Pies A, Swans H, Cats A, Lions H, Eagles, Port H, Hawks A. I could see them ending up with 5-8 wins. Last year 6 wins = 16th. 8 wins = 14th & 13th. We've got to be a real show of getting something between pick 3 to 6 and picks 21 to 24 not adjusted for academy picks etc.

They're a feral bunch. The irony of relentlessly ferally booing a 30 yr old almost finished mediocre player who left, while cheering his replacement a 21 yr old, once in a generation player, who walked out on his club to go to them.

Thanks for another great DL interview. Got a lot of interesting info from him. Interesting now important his fitness training away from the club over the break was to his significant improvement and getting into the team. Also found it really interesting how much he had to do with the other WA boys in junior footy before being drafted even tough he was from Geraldton. Including playing with Riv even though he was drafted 3 years ahead of him and even knowing Kossie through his Geraldton cousins. He sounds pretty happy and settled in Melbourne

Love to hear what it has been like each step of the way moving over here. How hard was the move and the adjustment. Was it a hard decision to extend. And does he understand players deciding to fo home. Is there a special bond within the club between the WA boys or does coming from Geraldton make that irrelevant

I watched quite a few Casey games last season and it was very clear to me that although his running was good, he has a turn of pace and he got a decent amount of the ball, his kicking wasn't up to AFL standard. He continued to butcher it all season. Our collective kicking skills have improved so much IMO he wasn't up to making our first team. I have to admit the little I've seen of him this year he seems to have considerably improved but there's too many ahead of him now. Jordan is a better player and deserves to be consistently playing but I fear we might lose him because there are too many ahead of him for the roles he plays for us.

Anyone remember how Riv ended up at the Dees. 2019 was such a head scratching pick merry go round. We got pick 26 as part of Langdon trade. We gave Nth our 2020 1st rounder (became 2020 Pick 13 Tom Powell Nth) plus Freo's 26 (became pick 30 Harrison Jones Essendon) & Hawks pick 50 which we got for Frosty (which became Pick 46 Hugo Ralphsmith Tigers) and we got back pick 8. We gave pick 8 to Freo who picked Serong and they gave us 10 & 28 which got us Kossie and Riv. In fact there were another 8 picks involved in the initial Freo and Hawks deals which I won't even follow.

Out of interest do any of you guys have a handle on rotations while you're watching a game. I don't think I'd have a hope of tracking them. I've developed a fascination with the Stat of %Time On Ground. It gives a very interesting picture about how players are viewed internally, how they are managed etc. For instance Grundy is shouldering the ruck predominantly on his own while Gawn is out. He had a brilliant 22 disposals v Eagles to go with 33 Hitouts. I hadn't thought about it but I would have figured he's getting up around 85-90% game time. What would you guys guess ? It was actually the 3rd least of the whole team. Only 71%. Which means he was off the ground for a full quarter and a quarter of a quarter of the game. The only other players with less time were Jordan of course and then interestingly Sparrow with only 65%. The other interesting one was Trac with only 76% compared to Clarry with 87%. 14 players had more game time than him. The other one that's interesting is Viney who usually only plays around 76% compared to the other midfielders who are usually around 86%. My guess is his foot has to be managed. Rivers and Bowey before this year used to only play in the mid 60's. On the weekend it was 80% and 85%.

Who'd have thought we would be doing to a team what Collingwood did to us for all those years. Dawes Neeld Lumumba Howe Kennedy. On and on. Freo have a way to go but it's getting there. Hogan Jackson hopefully Jefferson and two mega stars in this years draft care of them. Although to be fair we can't really take the credit for it like Collingwood did. Peter Bell has to take all the credit.

Hunter 23 disposals 2 goals 467 metres gained DE% 73.9 Langdon 24 disposals 0 goals 298 metres gained DE% 70.8 Langdon 6 votes Hunter 1. It's all in the eye of the beholder. I maintain Hunter is going to be our added point of difference this year. Two Langdons instead of one.

Does higher scoring have to mean higher scores against. We are currently first for points for but 9th for points against. Last year we finished 1st for points against and I think second the year before. Is it as simple as deciding to have more players running ahead of the ball which results in more players being behind the ball chasing when the opposition get it back. Or is it something else. Do you agree that there seems to be a change in the connection i50 where forwards are leading more into the space in front of goals instead of leading out to the boundaries. I thought Chandler noticeably did this a few times himself and passing into that area. It also seemed there were more instances where players were looking into that space for options rather than having rushed snaps from acute angles.

Missed it. Anything to report.