Adam The God

There isn't a conspiracy behind every single door mate. It may well turn out that we're managing him through something, but what's the point of speculating? I certainly wouldn't want Goodwin telling opposition clubs why he's on reduced minutes. That's bloody stupid IMO.

It does say the police are investigating. I think if it turns out that they have made a false declaration and the virus spreads to the community in QLD and people die, well... jail is definitely the path I'd be going down.

Rubbish. His job is to coach the Melbourne Football Club. In this instance, he's protecting his player.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/coronavirus/2020/07/29/queensland-teenagers-virus/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PM Extra - 20200729 Two Queenslanders have spent 8 days in south Brisbane without quarantining having returned from Melbourne, via NSW and subsequently testing positive for COVID 19. Could be a second wave coming to Queensland now.

Even better that we go back to back at the Adelaide Oval. I think we've been done a favour by this one. Thanks Peter Gutwein. For a Lib, he goes alright that bloke.

We play very well on the Adelaide Oval. It suits our zone... and is a very quick deck, which suits our ball movement too.

By a long way in my books. I'd say 30 years.

I think it started earlier. I think modern zoning and defensive philosophy from the international sporting domain was first imported when Paul Roos returned from the US in 2002 and became an assistant coach at Sydney under Rodney Eade. When Eade was sacked, Roos was appointed, despite the Swans courting Terry Wallace for much of the year. Almost as soon as Roos took over the reigns, he transformed the team and the culture and by 2004, his old mate Ross Lyon had joined him as midfield coach from Carlton, having worked under Parkin and Pagan (the latter being more innovative than most in the 1990s). With Lyon's help, Roos revolutionised the sport with his defensive flooding, which lead to low scoring and was widely panned, even by then AFL boss Andrew Demetriou. However, the Swans' style became the vogue for 2005-2006 and saw them make consecutive grand finals. The interesting crossover between this period was a young midfield coach at Port Adelaide, who oversaw Mark Williams' premiership-winning midfield in 2004 and was appointed by Hawthorn the next year as head coach, in Alastair Clarkson. Throughout the 2005 season, he was tasked with 'rebuilding' the Hawthorn list, something he went hard at across 2005-2007. Meanwhile, by 2007, Sydney had played in two consecutive grand finals, winning one and losing the second in 2006. And by the start of 2007, Roos' philosophy had migrated to St Kilda when his former midfield coach Ross Lyon took the reigns of St Kilda. The Lyon gameplan very much focused on the contest and heavy flooding, perhaps even more so than Roos' side at Sydney. In that same year, Clarkson first implemented his cluster and by 2008, it had won him a flag at Hawthorn. Yes, they got lucky against Geelong in that grand final, but teams really struggled to break down the cluster. Over the next 5 years, between 2009-2013, the top teams played three major styles. The run and gun of Geelong, best emulated at times by Collingwood under Malthouse. The possession game of Hawthorn. The flooding game of Lyon at St Kilda and then Fremantle. I could go on, but I reckon you're right in that the AFL's press and zoning has changed a lot, in a very short period of time. Perhaps my statement that it's nowhere near as technical as soccer is incorrect? I'm always fascinated by trends in the AFL and it'll be fascinating to see where the game takes us over the next 5 years. I hope our club is at the forefront of it, because with innovation, usually comes success.

As Burgo says that's not how the club will measure it. They'll be looking at how we defend and attack across all quarters (within reason). If our defence remains as solid, I think that'll be a reasonable indicator.

I'm not sure you know soccer that well then. Playing midfield in soccer is incredibly physically demanding, particularly with the pressing game in vogue. Since Burgess left Arsenal, they've been very ordinary tracking back into defence. Yes, they're different sports, but I wouldn't underestimate the amount of running done on the majority of a soccer pitch. It may be a smaller pitch, but that doesn't mean there's not just as much, if not more, running.

I'd say he improved his kick to handball ratio last year. This year he's working on being more damaging with those kicks. I think the added fitness of our group is enabling our mids to run better both ways. I think Oliver has been one of our better mids at defending, even last year, but I guess that's just me. It is certainly great seeing him cover so many kms.

I wouldn't say Oliver's slow. I'd say Cameron is fast and Oliver's leg speed is decent enough, but he's quickest when he's entering a stoppage. I know this isn't you, Doctor, but bloody hell the Oliver bashing is getting tiresome.

Great article. Thanks for sharing mate. I got a lot out of it. This is probably too tangential but this is great also: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2020/feb/01/pioneering-reds-the-reds-jurgen-klopp-liverpool-pressing-unlikely-origin It's not something I'd thought of but it makes complete sense. That the ideas of a structural engineer could be used to break down defenses and create attacks in a sporting context is fascinating to me. It lives in a similar world to the Rand Corporation's beliefs surrounding game theory and how technocrats have applied this to form much of neoliberal thought. I find it all fascinating and modern tactics in the EPL I get swept up in and it's why I loved Clarkson's initial innovation of the clusters and then the keepings off game. That sort of ingenuity deserves reward IMO and similarly, our so called Diamond Defence was another really interesting progression on the modern AFL zone. I feel like the tactics of football/soccer are a mile ahead of the AFL/footy though, but perhaps this is partly because there is only one country playing our game and less ideas floating around. We have a different game of course, but the presss and zoning in the AFL is still particularly simple. I wonder whether with reduced list sizes, coupled with a strain on the draft pool post COVID, whether a new tactician will come to the fore. As for the Burgo interview, I really liked it. Seems calm, switched on and a great asset to our football club.

Fair enough. $600k is $500k in the old (pre inflation world) mind you, but I guess it's a lot. But he's still a guy playing every week. I think given the fact if one injury was to occur he'd be straight back in and the fact we don't know what his current KPIs are, it's difficult to assess whether he's worth that or not at the moment.

It's funny because when you and I agreed on this, I was worried about Jack's ability to still impact on the midfield contest. He's put that fear to bed, so I'm less likely to advocate too much shuffling through our midfield, but maybe that's what we have to do? Viney, Oliver and Petracca all playing minutes outside of the midfield, with Viney and Oliver playing forward and Gus off half back or on a wing. My feeling is though we should be playing two genuine wingmen. I'd be sliding Harmes through there too, so that gives us: Oliver, Viney, Petracca, Brayshaw, Harmes and maybe AVB when fit.

Do we know they're on very good coin? And I think sometimes that happens. You'll have players that were front and centre of what you did two years ago, who then become 'spares' as you put it. I don't have a problem with it.

Time with tell on Jordon and Sparrow, but they'll have to be pretty good if they're competing with Gus or Harmes any time soon. I think in any other era during the last 30 or so years, Gus and Harmes would be auto starters in the Melbourne midfield. I think we're currently blessed with Oliver, Viney and Petracca all growing together at once. As the club always intended. It's worth thinking about that 2018 season again though, because Petracca was a bit ho hum that year and promised big things, but never delivered. Whereas, Gus had shown a level of improvement through the middle of 2018 and Harmes had also come on leaps and bounds by the end of 2018. Both great signings IMO. Petracca's development over the last year and a bit has been brilliant and in some ways it's a good problem to have. I still think the forwardline could do with more x factor if we're to become a consistent powerhouse, but our backline and midfield set up is starting to look good and has a nice mixture of experience and youthfulness. We could do something big this year, but I reckon give our age profile, we really enter our prime window next year.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the 2021 fixturing. The AFLPA and the AFL would both get what they want if they got a longer season, but in that case, the quarters would probably have to be shorter. It's only posturing on my behalf, but I'd much prefer shorter game times, but more games and mid-week games like the EPL. As for Gus, I'm in complete agreement that if we look to trade Gus it shouldn't be for draft picks, unless that is somehow involved in getting a required player for us over the line in a trade. But I'm still inclined to see how the rest of the season pans out before we rule out Gus. He's a difficult one, because as I think you rightly point out, Gus is the one that can really only play one position (mid) or at a stretch, half back as well. I'd argue his long, reasonably accurate kicking from stoppage is a weapon that really adds power to our midfield if the midfield consists of Gus, Oliver and either Viney or Petracca. But to me, he's in a similar position that Brad Sewell was in at Hawthorn near the back end of his career and I guess, similar to Tyson's time at Melbourne as well. Being played out of position because Oliver, Viney and Petracca are stronger mids IMO, but I think the FD are persisting with Gus in a supporting role, because they know what you and I have both said, that one injury is all it takes and Gus is back in. He's also a more than handy midfield rotation. We may not be able to carry Gus on a wing all year, but we seem intent on trying to at the moment, at the expense of seemingly Tomlinson. He's definitely a better midfield bet than Tomlinson, but Tomlinson would offer us greater running capacity on the outside. It's a very tough balance and I don't envy being in the shoes of the FD on this one. I also wonder what Gus' internal KPIs are and whether he's meeting them.

This season, I'm happy enough to back in the defenders if they're taking the game on. They may a mistake or two, as long as they're creating more chances going the other way. This is what Clarkson would do. He'd expect boldness and if players couldn't execute, he'd eventual replace them with those he thinks would get the job done. That's the philosophy I'd be taking this year with our group. If there's a glimmer, pull the trigger and play bold. Use the corridor, play bravely and then, most importantly, be prepared to play slow and carefully where appropriate. I think this balance between slow and fast play is still a work in progress and we don't always get the balance right. If / when we do, there's no reason why this system and team can't be a bonafide top 2 team for a sustained period.

I like Gus and if Viney or Petracca were injured he'd be straight into my starting midfield mix. That said, I was proposing we trade Gus at the end of 2019 when his currency was a bit higher. I fear that if he continues on this trajectory we'd want to trade him, but wouldn't get enough for him, so may as well keep him as midfield depth. It really does only take one injury and he'd be straight in there though.

I'd argue our defence and team defence is way better than 2018, but our ball movement isn't as fluid forward of centre in 2020 as it was in 2018 IMO.

Look, I'm quite happy for the AFL to simply take away their licence. Put them in the bin.

I'd actually play Harmes on Gray.

I'm happy with Rivers coming in, because if it's experience we want, that is because we'd expect composure in important situations. The goal Nev gave away was the complete opposite. Nev's one of my favourites, but I'd be happy to have Lockhart, Rivers, Hibberd and Salem as the small/medium defenders, supporting Oscar, May and Lever. Lockhart is a reasonable kick. Rivers is a nice kick, Salem is a nice kick and Hibberd is a good dasher, so those latter three offer nice defensive rebound, something that was so strong in our 2018 game. May is similar really, so I like what we're building back there and Nev, unfortunately doesn't seem to fit that role anymore. I'd bring in Rivers and keep Nev as a back up. We'll definitely need Nev with the condensed fixturing this year, so maybe a fresher Nev picks that ball up last night? As for being in almost every stat, they didn't edge us in clearances. They mauled us. And our clearance game is what we pride ourselves on. I have no doubt even in 2018 (let alone 2019), if we'd been smashed in the clearances like that, we'd have lost by 7 or 8 goals easily. So our team defence has definitely improved and to me it's because we've got the balance of two tall KPBs and a tall interceptor in Lever. When we're losing clearance, our defenders (and I know this is hard to say but...) need to be bolder with their ball movement and taking the game on. This will generate scores for us despite losing contested possession. I remember watching that great Geelong side under Thompson. The team had such confidence in itself that no matter the situation, their defenders would take the game on. Once they've spent more game time alongside each other, that's the next step in our defence's evolution.

Pretty much my exact thoughts. I'm surprised we don't use a cluster up the ground, whilst still maintaining our defensive zone inside 50. It's not something I'd try every time, but if we can clear the ball to the middle of the ground and at the very least hold it up, that's a massive win and takes the pressure off our backs. Anyway, doesn't seem like we're interested in that sort of play and maybe it's too easy to counter if you do it too often. Completely agree. I actually think we can afford to be more attacking from forward fifty stoppage and occasionally from centre square stoppages, but everywhere else, we need to lock down. To be fair though, the times where we were horribly out of position that I recall were during stoppages inside our forward fifty. If you're going to attack from stoppage, your defenders need to be set up well behind the ball, which for most of the night we were. It's a hard adjustment to make around stoppages, because if you're not attacking with your stoppage set ups to your own dominant ruckman, you may as well pack it in to a degree. I've almost argued against myself there...