Binmans PA

Wasn't sure where to put this, but my son came home from pre school today singing the [censored] Carlton song. He said one of his friends was singing it. It also came up on the kids algorithm on Spotify when my wife was driving him home. I suppose it's possible to push the theme song out on Spotify. It's actually a very clever way of potentially getting new supporters. We should do this. Push Grand Old Flag on socials and Spotify.

The only thing I learnt here is that little nuffy Tom Morris has managed to land another job.

But I am dealing with the MCC ones...

I like Turner, but I think his issue at this stage is he struggles on the gorillas, so I'd be having him play on the big boys at VFL level. Take the biggest opposition forward. It's why I tend to agree with @Ollie fan and @Jaded No More that he's more likely to replace Lever or Howes. This is not to say he won't be a good KPB when he puts on more muscle and gains greater strength.

Exactly, but I see binners corrects it above.

I'm confused by this, binners. They became the Brisbane Lions at the end of 1996. Fitzroy folded at the end of 1996. So they did become Brisbane Lions from the get go. Agreed to a large extent, but I think we started this quicker transition (albeit not anywhere near as well) in the second half of 2023. When you think of our game against Brisbane in Round 18 last year, that was an out and out shoot out. Our game the following week against Adelaide was also a shoot out. And Round 20 against Richmond we showed a similar flair from front to back. But you're largely right, the sample size for opposition fans is smaller and they're more likely to have our 2023 finals in their heads, which were forward half territory games.

Nah, IMO they're smarmy.

But we've also had the support of our mids and high half forwards to clog up the defensive 50, and since we're happy playing in our defensive half, those ground balls are less dangerous to May and Lever as they have higher protection. There is now a trend of losing ground ball and winning on the scoreboard. In fact, the only time we've won ground ball (+11) was against Sydney. Now the conditions may have made that a greater necessity, but it also meant the game wasn't being played on our own terms. Conversely, we lost ground ball in all our wins. -13 against the Bulldogs (R1), -1 against Hawthorn, -22 against Port and -3 against Adelaide. I'd still like a greater sample size, but IMO it appears to be down to the way we are setting up. So whilst @Axis of Bob points out we've been protecting our A grade defence instead of providing our forwards with more assistance, I'd argue we're now providing both ends of the ground more assistance. The defenders have most of the team back defending plays and stoppages now, which eases ball movement as it's easier to hit targets in space, and provides more space in our own forward line.

Good post mate, it's what I and others have been writing about with the sagging defensive set up that enables us to slingshot in behind. But I'm not convinced McQualter's arrival is forcing us to play in a different way, because that makes it sound like we didn't identify him, as well as areas of our game that we understood we needed to improve. As well as centre clearance, we are now comfortable losing ground ball too. In some ways it's been a significant shift and in another way, it's merely tweaks.

It wouldn't even let me add an apostrophe. But you're right, I buggered that up.

Yep, all booked in, in amongst the interviews for the forthcoming biography.

Haha, um, what a thread.

Unfortunately, there's an archivist fee, @Chook. Loading or how I Learned To Love Fitness and Stats: A Binman Story will be on shelves later this year and available at the Demonland shop.

There isn't a spot for Turner, but he'll be good depth.

I think the poster is referring to the contract being up, not that JT is necessarily moving on. Although I could be wrong...

What a shambles. Then by that bar, Kozzy should get off. My view is Kozzy should get a week and Fogarty 3 or 4, but it's such a horribly inconsistent and poorly applied system.

Eh?

Dermie is a moron, but I said the same at the time...

Walker stuck the knees in a number of times and you have to remember that if you whack May, he will get you the next time you're in front for a mark. Not worth it.

We won't and shouldn't debut a player as a sub. And before you say it, Billings was not on debut when inexplicably made sub in Round 0.

I'd be staggered if we rest BBB this week. He'll get a rest the following week.

I'd be surprised if we don't see a debutant. Either Kolt or Brown, probably the latter if Koz is suspended.

TOG for our mids have been much lower this year than previous years. Oliver and Viney tend to play south of 80% now, whereas usually they both play north of 80%. I didn't notice the lack of numbers at the contest, but I think we were definitely playing an energy conserving system, which aside from the physical contest side of the game, is heightened, I think, by sitting our defence deeper. What is interesting is that we've lost ground ball gets consistently, which used to be a key indicator of success for us. If we weren't winning ground ball, we'd struggle. I think this speaks to the defensive set up that sags back. If we don't win clean clearance, we are so aggressive from stoppage that the opposition gets clean take aways back the other way. We rely on the inside sliders off half back to push up and impact that first post clearance possession, which enables our mids to get back into the contest.

In other words, he thinks we need to be winning more contest (I agree) and turning the ball over earlier (ideally in our forward half). But we're still really hard to transition the ball against. And when we're on, you can't get in behind us, because we're setting up our defence so deep and far less aggressive than we have in previous years.

Lol, Goody is certainly not a good politician. 🤣