Adam The God

No other supporter base would try and sack a coach who won a flag in 2021 and finished 2nd in 2022. Yep, nuffiness.

Calls for Hardwick to replace Goodwin are the height of nuffiness.

I didn't excuse the the inability execute, but there are some on this thread, maybe many going by the shallowness of some of the analysis that are denying fatigue is playing a factor. It clear as day is. As I keep saying, we need to be better though.

Just on Kozzy's dropped mark and his inability to hit the scoreboard in a big way, he is playing crazy high TOG for a small forward. 93% TOG today off the back of 4 straight weeks of increasing TOG 89% against Cats, 86% against Pies, 86% against Blues and 84% against Freo. This is worth considering when analysing his game.

Our inability to execute in the forward half today was simply not AFL standard. That's the 3rd or arguably 4th game we've thrown away in the last 6 with our inability to convert our hard work from contest and intercept slingshot. Fatigue is a factor, no doubt. You can stick your head in the sand all you like, it won't change that fact. However, as Goody said in last press conference, we need to be better. We need to execute basic set shots and snaps. The other contenders are getting it down under duress as well, and we're not. I thought Petty was better today and played a solid goalkeeper role for most of the day. Lever was solid. Viney was huge. Bowey and McVee so clean and involved. Bowey should never be out of this team again. A game high 14 intercept possessions and took his chance forward of centre when it was his time to score. But the basic skill errors by the mids and forwards, like dropped chest marks under no pressure (the Kozzy one may well have cost us the game), and our poor goal kicking isn't going to win us many games. If Fritsch is done for the season, he's the sort of player that may well cost us a shot at the flag. That's a huge potential out, when he's a guy that has kicked 6 in a GF before. He is the x factor, more than Trac and Kozzy. But we desperately need Oliver back in our midfield, so Trac can stay forward and have bursts in the midfield. That commentary is spot on. The only coaching question I'd have this week is who was responsible for Nick Haynes? He had the second most intercepts on the ground with 13 (1 behind Bowey and 2 more than Lever) and IMO was close to the best man on the ground. He cut us up and was so clean behind the ball (as was Bowey mind you). No one was within coo-wee of Haynes most of the game. I'd have played a defensive forward on him. Simple as that. And if we did, who was it? Because they definitely didn't get the job done. Here's the thing though. Our season isn't done and we're still first in line for 4th, with the 3rd best percentage. The margin for error is growing smaller now though, and the players have to get it done, but it's right there in front of us.

The Spargo role by the sounds of it, although I'm not watching the game.

Charlie Spargo is similar, but Charlie has the tank to go with it now and I wouldn't be surprised if he's back in the 22 over the next month.

Because it's easier to protect yourself if you hinge towards the negative.

It came in during a time where we were adding +1 and sometimes +2 (the so called inside sliders off the back of the square) at the contest. Interestingly, instead of trying to find other ways of adding numbers to contests, we went the other way, and used our superior contest players in Clarry, Trac and Viney to give up a number at the contest, to generate a +1 behind the ball. A potentially sliding doors moment that change to the rule.

I'm Liverpool, but I hope he does well, just not against my team.

6-6-6 came in at the start of 2019. 👍

I don't mind him as a journalist. I don't agree with half of it, but at least he's using some Goodwin quotes to back up some arguments. But, get Kade's name right FFS. It's not Kyle. He's not an American actor...

Sorry, this is nonsense. Kozzy has had heaps of CBAs since Round 1. * 6 against West Coast. * 3 against Essendon. * 11 against North. * 3 against Gold Coast. * 7 against Hawthorn. * 3 against Port. So up to the Port game in Round 10, Kozzy had a CBA in every game he played except Round 6 (remembering he was suspended for Rounds 2 and 3). Since then, his possession tally has gone down and his CBAs have stopped altogether. However, this has coincided with his TOG being progressively ramped up post Round 10 (see in bold below). I suspect we're not using him the bash and crash of the midfield, because he's already being asked to consistently cover more kms in transition forward than he was earlier in the year. R1 - 79% R4 - 79% R5 - 81% R6 - 72% R7 - 80% R8 - 84% R9 - 80% R10 - 66% R11 - 84% R12 - 86% R13 - 86% R14 - Bye R15 - 89% Kozzy takes a good and watchful opponent, so although it'd be great to inject him into the CBs more often, I suspect we won't see this until later in the year, if at all. If Chandler and ANB start hitting the scoreboard again, that probably allows us to throw Kozzy in at CBs.

Speaking of dedicated supporters, are you happy about the appointment of Ange? And hope the redlegs have a win for you today.

I reckon too much is being made of us being a poor wet weather team. I came away from the game last week thinking the same thing, but given I sat in it, and have had time to reflect upon it, we were ahead for 3 quarters when it rained, and lost the last quarter when it was dry... likewise against Port, we managed 7 goals in one quarter in the rain. I think it's a coincidence that it rained against Essendon when we were dreadful and it was slippery against Brisbane, but again, we were off that night. I'm sure people will disagree. It's more that our ground ball in defensive 50 needs to improve in all conditions. I'm fine with handball chaining out, because that's how we want to play in all conditions. I suspect today will see less handball chaining and more kicking to contests as an over-correction. FWIW, I'd much prefer chaining than kicking to contests. We can't really win on that front. People will complain if we kick to contests and get slingshotted on, and they'll complain when we chain out and potentially overhandball. The less risky play is actually chaining out with handball, because if we do turn it over, we have players chaining that then turn to defenders and can hopefully prevent the score the other way. Whereas, if we get through, we're likely to have good 1v1 contests or free players ahead of the ball. I'm fine with going to contests occasionally, but not every time. This was our problem last year. It's too predictable. I'd much prefer us to mostly chain out. What I'm surmising from the FD is they'd prefer the same thing.

Wasn't sure where to put this but @Bombay Airconditioning mentioned this hame from 2017 against West Coast in Perth. Highlights: West Coast v Melbourne https://www.afl.com.au/video/145001 It's really interesting to watch our ball movement and our we explode off half back and slice the Eagles' defensive set up. We ourselves are equally cut up with whole ground transition against us without touching the footy, but given where the Eagles defensive web went and their contest game that won them a flag in 2018 and then where our game evolved too in terms of defence, to now where it combines a strong structure behind the ball, along with scoring from turnover and exploding off half back. This game feels like the game has gone full circle since 2017. And I know we failed to make the 8 and West Coast took our spot that year, but ball movement wise in a high pressure game, it's a fascinating artefact.

We beat Collingwood without Oliver (the best contested player in the comp), Petty and Bowey (our premiership defenders). McStay is an ordinary footballer, but I'd give you Howe. So a week after beating Collingwood without our best player and with equal outs to Collingwood, you're saying we don't look like a top 4 prospect, so who's downplaying who here? I'm not shifting the goal posts at all. If we'd beaten a clearly fatigued and ordinary Suns sides that had thrown in the towel, I would not be going on about how good the win is. This is the difference between you and I. I would be acknowledging that we got the job done, not how good we were. That's your approach to sides that aren't Melbourne. But as soon as Melbourne are involved you become hyper critical and seemingly unable to analyse what's happening, outside of our ball movement lacks dare and we don't play with the same arousal levels, and I wish we had supporters that attended (meanwhile I'm in Europe not attending). It's like a constant chip on your shoulder about us. Nah, this is hedging in the extreme. My point has always been our ball movement (like everyone's) will improve at the back end of the season. However, unlike everyone else's, our ball movement earlier in the year was far more devastating. And it's why Collingwood mostly fell over the line against multiple opponents (St Kilda, Essendon, Adelaide and you could argue even Geelong who were down players but still managed 100 points against them), while we spanked teams. So now when things turn you can say, oh, I always said Goodwin needed to encourage the players to play with more flair. I've previously acknowledged (multiple times) that I admire what McRae has been able to achieve with his team in a short amount of time, but I've always said it's highly vulnerable and less sophisticated than our defence first system.

So do I. That's why being able to fit Harmes in the midfield over JJ, gives us good options. Leaving Clarry, Trac and Viney to play their game.

Port are very ho hum away from the MCG. Would love to get them there in a final. Butters is playing a complete outside game. 25 disposals for 4 contested possessions and 8 score involvements. If someone sits on him that's a huge part of their game nullified. And still, Essendon should have won.

I do still think Collingwood are over hyped. If we're not playing like a top 4 side and we beat them, then what does that say about Collingwood? Gold Coast on the back end of their fixture aren't great competition, but Collingwood did show really strong arousal today. No wonder they won.

That's it. I'd be quite happy to play the Suns between Round 16-24. Remember what we did to them at Marvel in 2021? They throw in the towel pretty quickly.

Hope we're talking about Hawthorn here... 👌

If we were doing this to the Suns, Demonlanders would say, well, it's only Gold Coast, this is the bare minimum. We love a good re-frame on Demonland though.

I do. It was my 30th birthday. So 6 years ago, 2017.

I reckon their game is built on outnumber and overlap run. Attack is their defence. Whereas, we're the opposite. Our defence turns into our attack. They're flag favourites for their consistency IMV, but their game style, again MO, is susceptible in finals, because of the high risk style and last year showed that.