Adam The God

Are we? Are we winning in the same way? Are we losing in the same way?

That's not really what David King means though. We backed our players to get the job done. As I've said elsewhere, Butters had 8 possessions in the last quarter, 4 of them were ineffective. We led at the 3/4 time break by effectively 2 goals, after playing 1 quarter. It's this sort of over simplistic analysis that is the very reason many find King to be a nuff nuff.

Melbourne supporters would call it bees to the honey pot...

Finals tend to be more 1v1 though. We tended to roll up a winger like Gus to back of stoppages in 2021, but I think if you'd chosen a H&A game, we'd have been going -1 at stoppages or finding ways of generating the +1 behind the ball.

All those losses happened in the first 9 rounds, when they were 5 and 4. So they lost all their games without him. But then won 13 in a row, with a soft home-slanted draw (especially for a preliminary finalist) in the second half of the season.

Disagree with the idea that Max is never going to tap goal side. He constantly tapped goal side, and does most weeks, and this is how we concede stoppage goals, because that tap draws pressure immediately and our mids never seem on the same page as Max. It cost us at least one goal the other night. Having said all that, it will be interesting to see if we tweak the system without Oliver. When you no longer have the best contested player in the competition, it's a risky move to go -2 or even -1 at the contest.

I'm pointing out that we're in the top 4 for pretty much everything, including the ladder itself, and the default, 'the sky is falling' position is not constructive and it's the easy position to take. Everyone could see defensive intensity issues in the forward half last year. That was not an oracle moment. The predictable ball movement was also widely and rightly lamented. But injuries are what curtailed last year's premiership defence IMO. Not being 'worked out'. Most of our important players were carrying injuries into the second half of the year and then Trac broke his leg in that first final. Both finals were narrow losses, that if fully fit, wouldn't have happened IMO. As we know, flags require a huge amount of luck and luck wasn't with us in 2022, whereas it certainly was in 2021. I think it's perfectly reasonable to argue during 2022 that we'd sort things out as we had done the previous year, but the injuries and niggles to key players (think Clarry having his finger kicked off by Selwood in that huge game down at Geelong) were unforeseeable. 2023 is a completely different year. I'm not saying we don't have issues either. Our biggest problem IMO at the moment is our inability to win ground ball at either end. When we don't, our game completely breaks down. We also need to find the right forward and defensive make up, but we still have time.

I reckon Turner will be a good player. I agree with the calls for him to take the second KPB spot to free up Lever. If Bowser misses due to concussion, we go one less small. If he doesn't I wonder if we simply roll Rivers through the midfield and/or even half forward to get some energy across half forward. I'm more confident we'll beat Freo than I was Port. Bookmark a win here.

And yet we were in the top 4 for scores from turnover, scores from kick outs and scores from stoppages leading into the weekend. Lose by 4 points and let's throw the baby out with the bathwater. We're all free to hold our own positions on this, but the exact same arguments were also being had during the middle part and even the back end of 2021. Injury curtailed us in 2022, this year we've made some tweaks and it has us in good shape. The easy position to take is the negative. I'd rather take the positive, constructive approach, but each to their own.

Chandler kicks his snap (he should have) and we win. Because he doesn't, our system doesn't work. It doesn't always work, but if you think it's going to win you a flag (2021) with some additional tweaks (2023?), you have to take the losses when they come at Round 10 when experimentation continues. In the meantime, Collingwood's system, which everyone seems to love, will see them lose games too and will it win them a flag? Who knows. Our -1 at the contest is fine, it backs our mids to be clean around stoppage and our forwards to create contests and win ground ball. It puts it on the players to perform. They didn't get the job done. We can't be perfect every week. I agree we'd like to get more out of stoppage, but there's still time. IMO, to abandon our intercept game (that has seen us lead scoring up til Round 10) would be an extreme folly. We need to find our best mix soon, but Round 10 isn't it. I'll back the FD and our players to turn it around.

You didn't feel Clarry stood up? 1st quarter - 11 disposals, 1 tackle 2nd quarter - 4 disposals, 4 tackles 3rd quarter - 10 disposals, 3 tackles 4th quarter - 5 disposals, 1 tackle. 30 disposals, 9 tackles, 8 clearances, 6 intercept possessions, 6 score involvements, 39 pressure acts (almost elite), 569 metres gained. All from 86% TOG. FMD, he gets a hard go on here. We are witnessing one of the greatest footballers of all time, running around in our jumper, and it's going unnoticed even by our own supporters. May was great, but if he'd kept his feet instead of inexplicably going to ground moments earlier, it may never have gotten to Rozee in the square for the match winner.

Sure, they should have been further up at half time, but we should have brought pressure and work rate for the first half and didn't. Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems. We're in the top 4 for most attacking and defensive stats. Yet, we have a lot of room for improvement. Given it's May, there should be some room for optimism. But you've already planted your anti-Goodwin flag, so that'll be harder to see past.

Butters had 8 disposals at 50% efficiency in the final quarter. We didn't lose the game because of Butters. We lost the game because of our inability to be clean at ground level and bring the pressure for the first half. And yet, if Chandler kicks the snap late, we win. Irrespective of Butters' contribution and the umpires to his scoreline, our system wins it, had the players been as clean as Port were. We weren't, so lost by less than a kick in hostile territory after basically playing a quarter of footy.

They are the one team that have a history of being really physical with Max. I wouldn't be surprised to see more teams do this now. Port have been nullifying him for years with the same, IMO, unsporting tactics. That said, there is a huge amount of knee-jerk twaddle on this thread.

For some reason I'd forgotten we'd played Saturday night, was thinking it was Sunday night.

I reckon it's a fitness thing. They play a very taxing aerobic role with lots of repeat sprints, and when we struggle, the first thing that usually happens is our forward pressure is off.

It's the 5th time actually. The first half was as bad as we've played all year or worse, and their ability to pressure and be clean when it mattered (the winning goal for example) was the tale of the night. I can only assume the 5 day break accompanied by travel was a huge factor in the game tonight. Have our fitness staff got it right or is it just too taxing a schedule?

For me it was more about our mids defensive running and lack of post clearance pressure, and the lack of work rate from our forwards to impact across half forward and the middle of the ground. IMO, it wasn't a personnel problem, but a work rate problem. Perhaps the 5 day turnaround accompanied by travel played into it, but that first half was almost as bad as we've played all season. Port were great in the first half, but we were horrendous.

I love him too, but tonight he was either brilliant or horrendous, with nothing in between. Loved his second efforts, but they usually came off the back of terrible errors.

Yeah, it's definitely the Adelaineans that are being odd in this sequence mate. 🤣

I was gonna say, we have a lot of 3.20 games on a Sunday, what the hell is going on? This explains it then. We've definitely had a lot more night games though. Lots of Saturday night games and certainly an increase in Friday night games. But you're right about those Friday night games. They've mostly been interstate matches.

@Dannyz all over the Salem move. Your excellent track record continues mate.

Yeah, huge. I thought the game had passed Ross Lyon, but maybe it's passed Clarkson.

Interesting that King comes out with this article a week after we were discussing the lack of MFC coverage despite being in the top 4 scores from stoppages, scores from turnovers and scores from kick outs. He's probably chosen the scores from kick outs as he can undertake a crude analysis of them and point to derpy derp May kick outs. Can you tell I don't rate King's analysis? :P The Diamond Defence is about the only analysis of his I've liked.

Rivers out of the back 7 and into Sparrow's midfield spot, and Salem into the back 7. Can Rivers run out as much midfield time as Sparrow? I thought we'd go Joel Smith for Petty, but reckon it'll be Melksham going by Goody's presser. That said, they might feel TMac's ability to go forward or back, may be an additional contingency that gets him a game over Melksham. Zero chance BB plays IMO. Bookmark it.