Binmans PA

I've been critical of Jack at times over the journey, but there is no doubting his vital importance in turning our club around by driving standards and competitiveness. Congrats on 200, Jack. Let's hope he gets another flag or two.

I think Laurie will make it. Our development team have been second to none. I wonder if a centre bounce midfield role would suit him...

It was all team defence. Our post clearance pressure and ground level pressure was so good that the best they could do was kick to a congested forwardline or dump kick it to our free interceptors. Our defenders were great, but it was an all team effort.

We had a solid lead and they were kicking it back and forth to each other on our half forward line. We were literally just waiting for them to make an error and then slingshot on them. We didn't need to do anything else but defend. It was a very José Mourinho-like performance.

No, not as in gasping for air. See above.

Freedom of movement. My 75 year old father could outrun him today. As I said, he looked better down back and took that great pack mark in the first quarter, but otherwise his movement and agility seemed severely hampered to me and others around us at the game.

Where's the thumbs down button? Statistically he might be considered elite, but his disposal and decision making has gone through the roof. 5-10 times today he would have previously blasted away, but consistently made the right decision. He's started beautifully this season.

They look so smug though, even in defeat. I hate Hawthorn. Love you Hawthorn supporting wifey.

He looked slightly more comfortably down back, but he could hardly move in front of us a number of times.

I thought he looked deadset crook for most of the day.

This'll sound strange, but I think it's his best game in ages. He was 🔥

Our ball movement is getting better and better. We are building. Howes, McVee and Windsor are taking the game on really well. Rivers has struggled and is not the same attacking player he was in the second half of last year. If he can rediscover that form and we get Bowey back there too, we become hugely explosive off half back. Not only is our ground pressure and post clearance pressure excellent, we're definitely sitting our zone deeper and inviting the opposition to kick longer into our D50 or to try and kick around us with a quick switch before taking the angle kick back into the corridor. And it's that angle kick we deliberately place our quicker players like Koz near. We're then able to intercept or break up play and counter at speed. Then with ball in hand anywhere near the defensive side of the centre square or on the wings, we'd push players very high, to high half forward, so there was space in behind. Sicily's game of 13 marks (all unconstested) with 20 kicks sideways or backwards, was one of the most ineffectual games I can recall and yet despite having less possessions and nowhere near the influence on the game as Petracca (who had 11 score involvements), Silicy had an AFL Fantasy score of 116 to Trac's 109. AFL Fantasy is broken whatever the hell that is. May and Lever injuries are a huge blow, but I think we'll know a lot more about us after 3 more games. But so pleasing to see us go at 75% DE for a second week in a row. We'll need to go at something close to that if we're to beat Port next week. That efficiency is leading to scores.

He means that Lingers was right and that they were all duck, no dinner, but he's mixed his metaphors.

McRae was a spoilt sport in the qualifying final loss in 2022. He's another Damien Hardwick. Completely arrogant and full of himself. It's just a great pity they managed to get so much luck last year and win it. They're really very average when they're not going at 100% break neck speed. They're not great at clearance, so they often lose territory and if you can slow them down, their KPFs aren't really good enough to get you too often. I thought St Kilda's ball movement off half back and their work rate was incredible. I knew Wanganeen-Milera would be a star from his first game. He is going to be elite. You can't let him constantly run free off half back. His ball use and run and carry will split you apart. They've got some really good ball users at the back there now. A bit like how we've transformed our ball use in the back half with Bowey, Howes, McVee and Salem. But unlike St Kilda, we have May and Lever. Unless Brisbane really [censored] the bed, I'd be surprised if Collingwood aren't 0-4 after next week. That would be delicious.

But the leverage for getting a longer season is more dollars for the players. So that'll be the argument put to the AFLPA.

So as per @WheeloRatings, they had more time in forward half than us every quarter. To me we looked to either win the clearance or were happy to apply enough post clearance pressure to their clearance to bring our interceptors into the game. I wouldn't be surprised if we try and either win a clean devastating clearance or simply be happy to defend in our own half and slingshot back in behind to emptier forward lines. That is what often hamstrung us last year and last week. Having territorial dominance, but every player in your attacking half making scoring highly unlikely. I hope we sit back a bit and use pressure around the ball and slingshot. Be interesting to see if we attempt this most weeks.

$$$

He had 20 kicks, he's only ever had more than 20 kicks once. Brilliant game. If he can have 10-15 kicks a week and spread the way he did today, he'll be an integral player for us.

Indeed, I always underrate Trac because he gets the fumbles unlike Clarry, but Trac is just so explosive that he makes up for it eventually.

Super impressed with our set up today. We let them have +1 at contest and sat really deep all day, and because our pressure around the ball (outside of the first 10 mins of the game) was excellent, they dump kicked it back to us most of the day. Now that's our DNA, but what we've undoubtedly changed is we looked to move the ball really quickly with great spread from contest through the likes of Billings, ANB, Langdon and others along the wings and half forwards. We also looked to repeatedly use the width of the ground and switched the ball, like I don't remember us ever doing. If we can do that every week, we will be very tough to beat. It helps having better kicks behind the ball in Howes, McVee and Salem. Aside from one brain fade TMac worked really well as a defender, and unlike Tomlinson who is so slow to move the ball on, TMac goes straight away. Risk reward stuff. And that's what our current defensive system on slingshot/intercept is set up to do. We also managed to score more than the Bulldogs from forward half intercepts, despite them having many more forward half intercepts. As I note above, we sagged our defensive system right back and allowed them to run into our pressure and kick the ball back to us, then we'd slingshot. And today there were a number of times we were lightening quick on slingshot. The best I can recall. Looking forward to hearing how many points we scored from the back half @WheeloRatings. And how many inside 50s we had from the back half. Some stand out performances from Clarry and Billings, and I thought TMac too, Max and Viney as well. Our ball use was superb for the most part too. A little rusty at times, but I can't recall the last time we've gone at 76% DE. Now to do it against top 8 opposition.

Me too. What gives, boss? ( @binman)

So none of Langdon's running power, experience and discipline? You're then taking another kicker interceptor in Howes out of the back 7, so who's replacing him?

Petty is too important in the forward half, but if we were really struggling in game, he could go back. I like what I've seen of Adams, but I see him more replacing May or Lever. He's not really that dynamic hybrid who is fleet of foot and a good kick. Hore is a good interceptor, but I've never really liked the rest of his game, but you're right. He could potentially play the Tomlinson role.

Would have played last year, but injured his hand on the eve of being selected.

I think I wrote about Howes playing as the third tall in our defensive system this year, and if he plays like he did the other night, it only strengthens my view. But my overall point here is to win the flag this year, IMV, we need to give a little more defensively (in attacking rebound) to improve our offence without going too loosey goosey at the back. Despite our poor contest result against Sydney, we know that contest and defence are our real strengths. The problem last year was our ball movement became too predictable and easy to defend entering 50, which fails to capitalise on our contested dominance in games. What I want to see is more experimentation with personnel at the back and I'd be playing Howes as the third tall (191cm, essentially the same height as Curnow and JVR). And use Max to defend an extra third tall if necessary. But I'd be trying to get the ball to ground, winning contest with our mids and slingshotting with the likes of Bowey, McVee and Rivers, and using the pace of Windsor on the wings and Kozzy from stoppage. I'd set up our defence as follows: McVee May Lever Bowey Howes Rivers and... Melksham Melksham will hopefully play during the second half of the season, and his kicking could be a weapon back there. Particularly, as we have McAdam and Fritta up the other end taking his spot. This then allows Salem to play permanent midfield with Clarry, Viney, Sparrow and large cameos from Trac and later Kozzy. I'd be pushing Bowey as high as possible and giving McVee that freedom too. With the exception of playing Tomlinson (who played pretty well against ordinary key forwards), I liked the look of how we set up defensively the other night, but we were mostly having to defend slingshot or fast breaks, rather than defending our own back 50 and slingshotting out. I'd like more data on the bigger grounds and I hope we try Howes as the third tall and drop Tomlinson at some stage and give it some time to click if need be. I feel there'd be many Demonlanders who agree with a more attacking focus, but if not Howes as the third tall who can join in on offence with good kicking and has a strong intercept game, what other solutions are there to the problem?