Tony Tea

Welcome to Demonland, Josh. Always loved you. I hope I wasn't out of line with that crack about a spewing Nibbler.

Is LG trying to sneak back in?

Freo gave away Pick 1 and mid range picks to Hawthorn for Trent Croad and Luke McPharlin. Croad went back to Hawthorn and played in a flag with Hodge and Mitchell, who the Hawks got with the Freo picks.

Whitfield is what we need - clean sweeper, quick, beautiful kick.

If he ducks for us he'll lose his head, because there's no such thing as #FreekickMelbourne.

A blue & gold headband would look gross.

No pressure then.

I think there's an element of close loss in the Colliwobbles tag.

Spot on, DD. We most definitely need run-and-carry pace from half back to half forward. We need forwards who can find space for the kickers to kick to and kickers who can find the forwards in space. The backline and onballers are fine (although a speedy halfback would be nice) but as you say, we're a dead loss going from the middle into the forward line. We also need to work on our loose ball work around the contest. Winning the hard ball is made easier when the player who is approaching the hard ball knows what he is going to do with the ball before he gets it. There were several times against the Lions when we approached the footy unsure of what to do with it when we grabbed it and consequently fumbled or stood back. That doesn't happen if you know you're going to win it and give it. On the back end of the hard ball get is the spread. As soon as a Demon approaches the ball his teammates ought to be making position for the takeaway. This is aided by fast run and carry players who can run past an oncoming opponent rather than chip it of lob a handball over the opponent's head. The problem with chip and lob is it gives opponents a chance to either intercept, or spoil the intended receiver. We've got to keep the breaks to as fewer players and disposals as possible. I lean to the idea that we were physically cooked by the end of the season, with too many players carrying injuries and subsequently lacking condition and fitness. Fingers crossed we can find a way to deal with opposition run, carry & distribute, but it can't be easy playing a full court press against a fast moving opposition. No doubt our footy department will be honest about our shortcomings, and hopefully come up with solutions.

As the year wore on, teams clearly avoided trying to kick into Melbourne's zone defence and instead picked short targets until they could dump the ball into the forward 50 with a low kick instead of a bomb. This meant that we had to alter our defensive posture to deal with opponents intent on separating out defenders. This is League Defending 101. Were we able to make the adjustments? Clearly not. As nearly every game in the second half of the year showed, we were okay for half a game, but the effort required to defend a greater spread of opponents seemed to take it out of us. Was this down to our conditioning? Possibly. We should have anticipated something similar. Our seeming lack of fitness in second halves also affected our ability to break away, so it had an effect on our attacking game too. Throw in the pop gun forward line and we could only bang our heads against a brick wall for so long. Since attack is the best form of defence, we lacked a best form of defence. Kick more goals and everything falls into place. Struggle to kick goals and eventually you are going to get hosed the other way. Collingwood and Sydney hosed us the other way. Both had tight defences and lightning fast ball movement, which, once again, we were pushed to defend. Fingers crossed that since nothing happens in isolation, we are able to develop a better fitness level next year and find another clinical avenue to goal. In 2016, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 22 we have dominated inside fifties but been cleaned up the other way in an opponent's short period of domination. Does Goodwin over-commit to defence at the expense of attack? History would suggest maybe. If we can get fitter and our forward play organised next year we'll be in the hunt again, but we've got to, as a priority, find a better system in front half.

Sydney is my least worst option.

Inability to deal with opponents closing up space.

Inability to adjust to opposition adjustments.

CARNA PIES!!!

The flip side is even though Buddy is a champ, Horse sacrificed his heavy artillery to open up the Swans' forward line, whereas Milkshake is a pop gun by comparison so the loss of his potential impact is not much of a sacrifice, and as you mention, Milky did actually hit the scoreboard, even if they were flubbed hits. Plus, Buddy is not likely to explode when he runs away from the action. Oh, and I'm not attached to Milky. If he gets dropped he gets dropped, and if he stays it's because there is no viable replacement.

Buddy is being legendised (in a flawed suck-piece of an article, but that's another story) for dragging May away from the ball, so it should be a legitimate tactic to use Milkshake to drag McCartin away from the ball.

Turnovers are a two-way street. The bloke with the ball has to have someone in a good position to kick to. That's down to the target being able to make space and the coach organising the target structure. A lot of our turnovers are because the kicker has no one well placed to kick to.

I waz making zee leetle joke.

We play safe & slow when the other team brings the heat, which we often can't handle.

Sydney's quick gathers in congestion and quick gives to one, two or three handball chains, then break at pace clinically demonstrated to us how to turn pressure into attack. I've said it over an over on here, Twitter, my old blog, Facey, etc - if you know what you are going to do with the ball when you approach it in traffic, you will approach it with confidence, attack it, grab it, and use it with precision. Then, as your outriders see you are going to win it, they back you in an run to attack and provide options. We, on the other hand, don't appear confident in out first approach and then try to manufacture dinky taps and short gives. Longmire gave us a lesson in team methods, as well as consistently made adjustments to throw us off our game - for example, Buddy as lure to draw May away. Separating backmen is a - if not the - key aspect of team forward craft; especially in this ear of zone defence. We copped a lesson - I hope we learned from it. And hopefully, we didn't take any learnings from it.

Joe Daniher will win with another chest mark, this time on his own.

Plus "Geelong" is a Gaelic word.

Surely this is reportable.

One point.