Adam The God

It does seem like we stuffed up management last year and we're possibly stuffing it up again...

What's this nonsense on Twitter and AFL Central about Clarry?

You'd think having Petracca play 70/30% forward/midfield, that'd help our contested play in the forward half.

Not for a while. Smith played (at times) on Moore and Stewart (Henry was the guy that killed us, not Stewart). I'm with some who believe Smith doesn't have the nous to play regularly on clever interceptors, because he gets lost in the system. If he stays in, I hope he is hyperfocused on the best interceptor in the air and runs off them to provide pressure or win ground ball when the ball hits the ground.

Trac should play the Fritta role. Smith plays as a dummy/decoy forward almost and certainly plays a defensive role at times too. Fritta is the guy they're really going through. I'd be trying to go through Trac and he's hopefully involving BB and JVR with his elite assist game.

Great post. Completely agree.

I didn't know that abiut Hibbo. Then I'd just play Rivers in the back 6 there or bring in Gus to that spot, and move Laurie into the sub role to get another ball user and good decision maker into the team.

Won't happen, but here's what I'd go with: FB: McVee Petty Hibberd HB: Salem May Lever C: Langdon Oliver Spargo HF: Bowey Brown Hunter FF: Pickett JVR Petracca R: Gawn Viney Sparrow I: Grundy Chandler Rivers Howes Sub: Brayshaw So that gives us: * McVee, Salem, Howes and Rivers as half back kickers. Rivers isn't great by foot, but would likely roll through there. * Spargo, Hunter, Bowey, Kozzy, Chandler and Langdon as forward connectors. With the exception of Langdon, these are our better ball users. * Petracca plays the stay at home forward role, essentially taking Fritsch's spot for now, and makes us far more dangerous at ground level. I want to see how Brown and JVR play together again. Brayshaw is a good sub, because he can plug just about any hole. Again, won't happen, but I think we need to risk moving Bowey out of the back 7 (he was brilliant yesterday) and bringing in a low possession player like Spargo who's a good runner and also a good ball user. He, Hunter and Bowey would likely rotate on that non Langdon wing in my world. I'd also look at using Grundy as a pure midfielder and only as a ruckman in small bursts (say the final 5-10 mins of quarters, ala Jackson). So he'd have to spend some time forward too.

We had 20 scoring shots in the wet. That's not a connection issue... I don't love our forward set ups. I'd change them. I've posted at length over the last few weeks about what I believe is our ball movement shift during the middle parts of the season, three years running now. We change our ball movement during the middle winter months when fatigue becomes an issue, because we play the percentages and it keeps us within reach. We did it in 2021 as well. The difference is that year, we didn't drop the games we've dropped the last few weeks. So we need to be better. As I've mentioned in this thread, I'd be relaxing our press, shifting it to the middle of the ground (see our game against Collingwood) and trying to allow space in behind turnovers that we can create in the middle of the ground. And to be clear, I don't think May is anywhere near the player he was in 2021, neither is Lever. But particularly May, who is a liability when the ball hits the deck. If we can't win 1v1s or ground balls behind the ball, it doesn't matter what tweaks or adjustments we make to the game style. We need May and Lever to lift and hold their marks, and also get it done on the ground. Petty back helps this, but I want to see some continuity with that set up now. I hope we don't shift Petty forward again to cover Fritta. We need to go BB and JVR, play Smith if you want, but then Kozzy, Chandler and I think Spargo. I'd also play Grundy as a more permanent forward or try something unusual like playing him on the ball when Max rucks.

I've this said ad nauseam though. It does apply to both sides. We're failing to get it done. But to throw the game plan out, the coach out, the players out, is missing the point. It's one of many explanations why our goal kicking has fallen off a cliff.

Well, what I'd say is accuracy is our biggest issue right now. As you imply, we're doing enough to win CP, stoppage and territory, but given the amount of work to maintain territory and win the contest, by the time we get it inside 50, we're failing to get the job done. I agree that there are coaching things we could do to potentially see a higher amount of scores scored against us, but also maximise our scoring potential. For example, relax our press to centre wing, be prepared to expose our defence more, to enable space in behind the middle of the turnover and maybe even shift Bowey forward, Hibbo back, Spargo forward and drop Smith for BB and JVR. But I don't necessarily see it as an overall game plan problem (it's a few tweaks), because we're generating enough scores to win every week, so our contest game is good (minus Clarry). We're just failing to execute in the forward half. As the expected scores had us winning yesterday easily. To answer your question, I'd say this. Either we're not AFL standard (dropping to second last for accuracy over the last 5 week stretch) or we are (as evidenced by our extreme accuracy earlier in the year) and there has to be a key factor why our accuracy has plummeted so significantly. IMV, it's more likely that the ability to win the ball is less taxing than finishing off our work. And this may well, I think most agree with this, be exacerbated by poor kicking technique for goal. It's never ever as simple as one thing and I don't believe anyone has ever stated it as such, but there are interlinking factors and fatigue is no doubt one of them IMO.

Have you watched any of the other games across the past month? Fatigue is clearly a huge factor. What I continue to say is we're not getting it done. But to suggest there's no link between fatigue and the trend of our scores below is nonsense. R1 - 17.13 R2 - 13.4 R3 - 21.8 R4 - 19.12 R5 - 11.11 R6 - 15.6 R7 - 22.7 R8 - 13.12 R9 - 15.13 R10 - 11.10 R11 - 10.12 R12 - 8.13 R13 - 8.18 R14 - Bye R15 - 8.15 R16 - 5.15 It is so marked that it's clearly having a big impact on us. If you don't see a correlation between Rounds 11-16, I can't help you. Maybe fatigue is not having an impact to the same extent on other teams, but look at the Sydney game on Friday night or the Port game on Saturday, or the Collingwood vs Adelaide game last weekend. Fatigue is a huge factor in the general fall in kicking standards across the league.

Re read the first few pages mate. It's sack the coach, x player can't execute a 15m pass, Kozzy is hopeless (he played 93% TOG - he was exhausted) etc etc and then TU, who I really rate as a poster says "It’s not loading, it’s not personnel (albeit we’re missing two of our 5 best players), it’s some combination of coaching and skill.". Well, I'd disagree that fatigue is not a huge factor in why our accuracy has plummeted in the last 5 games. I'd say it's a combination of everything, but if you disregard fatigue in the picture and say loading is not a factor, you're sticking your head in the sand IMO. And I'm not saying you're doing that @Lucifers Hero, but there's some real knee jerk reactions on here, that I get to an extent, we were horrible yesterday, but let's look at the whole picture.

Most sensible people would agree with this.

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. 👍