Adam The God

I watch Fox Footy, never the commercial networks and they're on about us constantly. Looking forward to 360 tomorrow night and On The Couch. The latter will involve Gaz and Healy fapping each other off over our performance. Love it. David King showed a bit more down the ground footage on First Crack tonight too involving our defensive set up. He's all over us, but isn't screaming from the rooftops just yet. You can tell he's reading the stats and analysing our performances and thinking if this was just about any other team, I'd be backing them for the flag. He's still got the Dogs as his flag favourites, but if we can knock off Brisbane this week and the Dogs stumble a bit over the next few weeks, I think he might get on us for the flag too. He's just burnt by 2019. Statistically though, our defence is in world record areas for intercepts (Lever has the most intercepts to Round 11 that have ever been tracked by Champion Data as per King tonight), we're structurally really difficult to break down and almost impossible if we bring a four quarter effort. Further, as much as I hate the betting commentary that has infiltrated the media landscape this year on Fox Footy, Daisy Thomas for Sportsbet said we're now into $4.50 flag favourites. The hype is huge on FOX.

I like the idea of building a dynasty and improving every year. That's why I like these sort of threads, even when we're in the position we find ourselves in now.

As Steve says, it's predictable to our guys most importantly. And I've said it before, Richmond's game plan for 2 or 3 years was, and probably still is to a degree, very predictable. Surge, long and high to contests and then a surge at the foot of those contests or take contested marks. As Steve again rightly points out, we're playing a system that suits our players. Richmond recruited a lot of quick smalls. We don't have that list make up. We've built a midfield that loves loves contest and contested possession and then we've built an intercept defence that can then ping back quickly the other way, so we play to our strengths. I'd argue, as others have too, that the kick out strategy is also about taking territory and by kicking to numbers, if we don't win the contest, we can clog up the contest to prevent it from pinging back in for an easy score. This protects our back 6 and immediately takes pressure off them by taking the ball to effectively centre wing. If we can take a little bit of extra territory (ie the opposition allows a shorter kick to Salem first), we can get it even further away from a dangerous area and psychologically take the pressure off. I reckon keeping defence as predictable as possible is the smartest strategy. We've heard the players mention on multiple occasions that this year the game plan is simpler, this is an example of that simplicity.

You've always seemed to like opposition players more than our own mate. I said Brayshaw was the better player and I'm not a big fan. Doesn't mean I'd say no to Adam, but in terms of doing what they do, Brayshaw has taken his game to another level this year and his level is significantly higher than Cerra's thus far. Doesn't mean it can't turn, but it is what it is at this point.

WA very similar situation...

Brayshaw is the much better player out of that Freo midfield. It depends what Cerra'd cost us. I know some of the WA posters like him, but I'm not a big fan. That said, we're clearly looking to add outside polished to our midfield (see Merrett), so if Merrett is a no go, maybe we do look at Cerra. He's got a great name. The one thing I know is the more we keep winning and the deeper we get this year, the more appealing we will be to a player like Cerra who might be assessing his future.

And to be fair, as soon as the ball hits the ground, Harry McKay is as soft as butter. Elite in the air, but after that is pretty ordinary. That persistent shoulder issue probably isn't helping though to be fair.

We lose too much offence if we play a negating role on the attacking wing. Unless we flip Brayshaw to the attacking wing. I think I prefer Gus playing defensive wing and Salem, Rivers, Hunt, Jordon or even Jackson or Hibberd playing the attacking wing. That said, I do like Harmes' ability to negate and attack, so maybe I'm talking myself into your idea. ?

I like this too, but I'd like to see Rivers vs Cameron. But I guess Hibberd could get the nod there. I hadn't heard this. Fascinating insight. I love the idea and it certainly makes sense for players to train two roles. In that case, I wonder what Salem's other role is.

Agree on Baker. I wonder if Salem might be the better bet on the wing and JJ to the quarterback role Salem has been playing. That said, if they'd thought Salem was even a potential back up wingman they would have tried him there by now. I hope JJs emergence as a clean, good decision maker allows us to play Salem up the ground a bit. If Salem's ball use can be utilised as the attacking winger it might be very dangerous for Brisbane. Langdon often plays that wide receive role, just as Salem does, but Salem's contested game has improved and could offer something a little unpredictable against Brisbane. I also don't mind @Nasher's suggestion of Hunt to the wing. My only questions about Hunt are not necessarily his ball use anymore, but his smarts, his positioning and spatial awareness. It would be nice to get him in the game a bit more though.

Tim Kelly got injured and sat out the second half. So not only were they down a rotation, they were down their best current mid. Essendon should have capitalised in the first half on their forward half dominance though. They deserved their win.

I like the team, but not the sentiment.

Oh well. Let's turn our attention to Operation Get Ben King. ?

Pity about Essendon. I really want Merrett in our line up. We won't get him now. The Eagles are undermanned and lack spark, but Essendon are very impressive. Handy win in the context of the ladder for us though. West Coast's top 4 hopes look shot.

I reckon last night's game to the neutral eye would have been a bit of a borefest too.

So there was a contest in the third quarter of the Brisbane game where Harris Andrews appeared to ping his shoulder and then grabbed at it. I couldn't be bothered watching the last quarter, but I take it he was alright in the end?

Is this a dig at his Catholic upbringing or have I missed something?

Me too. He also fails to understand how commentary on the TV is supposed to work. I imagine he's a bit like me at the footy. Constant commentary. He leaves no air for the audience to take the game in. It's a wall of Dermie rambling. I still remember when he was on an episode of my favourite Australian show ever (Stingers). Again, an egomaniac. And no, he's not a good actor.

We will because our structure is so good. Pressure helps, but the way we zone the ground means the opposition simply don't have easy uncontested possessions. And if they do get easy touches, they're not outside our offensive 50. Luke specifically said it was only 28 points but felt like a lot more. I didn't read it as ungracious. Quite the opposite in fact.

I thought ANB spoke beautifully on that show with Dermie this morning. Said all the right things.

Dermie is an egomaniac. He's either slightly on the spectrum or has narcissistic personality disorder. He talks and talks and others around him are awkward in their interactions with him and he never notices. As for his comments today, all ex Hawthorn hate Melbourne. Dunstall is the same, but the lack of insight into how we broke the Dogs down and made them play the way they aged is exactly what @binman often laments on the Demonland podcast. The lack of quality analysis in the footy media is very evident. King overdoes it at times in looking for trends that don't mean much, but on other occasions he has some great insight. I reckon he's back on the Demons too.

Yep, as Richo said during the game, we get such tremendous pressure on the ball carrier post clearance that even when we lose clearance, we almost immediately get the game on our terms or at least neutralise it.

We do this though. The other team usually comes at us in second halves. The modern game is about ebbs and flows of momentum and we have this incredible ability to take the game down into a scrap and an end to end scoreless battle. By this stage, we have the lead, so it's about maintaining it and where possible, hitting them going the other way. This doesn't bother me at all. And we have more gears to go to. This is what it comes down to. Stay healthy and I think we can play in a Grand Final. Lose a few here and there and we might struggle. See Richmond 2017 and their lack of injuries all year.

That was the prototype James Harmes negating game. He stops his opponent getting it at the source and then joins in on offence with gut run. It's not strictly a hard tag, but I'd argue it's still a tag. I reckon he's one of the best in the business at tagging and then kicking goals on his opponent. His return to form is a very exciting prospect with Viney still to come back.

He does seem like a muppet, but I wouldn't mind he and Kozzie buzzing about at the feet of our talls. We need another x factor small pressure forward IMO. Agreed. At least he used his body a bit more in this game, but we definitely missed a trick with the KPF in that draft.