bing181

People keep repeating this ad nauseam, but in actual fact, there's little evidence for that, either in the AFL or the across other sports internationally. Bringing in a new coach with a few new key players is a different story. Though equally, bringing in a few new key players in itself is a different story.

Can't. Not in the short term at least, and not without changes in the players they're playing alongside. Put Scott Pendlebury in that team and watch what happens to Clarry and Trac.

Change in personnel for one. e.g., across that period we had (mainly) May, Turner and TMac down back. We've swapped out a more-than-competent Tom McD for an underdone Lever. Not only is Lever not (yet) pulling his weight, the whole backline structure and system has been thrown out as we saw today. As for the key forwards, the revolving door up there is never going to help anyone.

You don't even need to doubt, changing coaches would achieve nothing. (Has been shown countless times.) Real change can only come through list change.

Accept the point, but there are players there who are coming back from longer term injury/out and are not back up to speed. Lever and Viney the main two, but McVee and Windsor aren't the players they were last year.

You watched the match?

We won a flag playing contested crash and bash, bang the ball forward footy, and built a list accordingly. Coming back to bite us. Death by a thousand turnovers.

Lever ...

Take a bow Tim Lamb for putting this together and getting it over the line.

This. Get in line boys.

This. But not just veterans or free agents.

Ah thanks. I presumed it was a GCS supporters' page. Won't delete it as people have replied, but could well be just clickbait with nothing behind it. My bad.

Having quality senior players is the difference. Pendlebury and Sidebottom have 750 games between them. They're smart with ball in hand and very clean and effective with their disposals. They're also both high-disposal players, against us 29 and 25 respectively, so they have the ball in hand a lot. And it all rubs off on the other Pies players. The nearest we have to them in Melksham, but unfortunately he's not a mid. Equally unfortunately, none of our main on-ballers have those abilities, as Petracca's errant handball and Oliver's OOB at critical moments late in the game showed. And when things are close, it's all about critical moments.

Sure, but they also have to come up with a huge offer for De Konig.

If this gets done a lot of the credit should go the club of course, but especially to Goodwin. From Kozzie’s POV, you don’t make that sort of a commitment to someone you don’t believe in.

I went with a mate to the Ess Carlton game on Friday night, and Caddy hardly even looked like taking a mark. The difference with Curnow at the other end was stark.

Not to mention, we won more 4th quarters under Griffith in 2023 (18) than we did under Burgess in 2021 (16).

The players are fit. Or fit enough. The rest is all between the ears - you're always fitter when a win is within grasp, and less fit when you're losing. For those into cycling there was a great example in the Giro last weekend where Wout van Aert was able to go above and beyond and put in a "one-hour career-best performance" because he knew that if he did so, his team-mate Simon Yates would win the Giro. It's not just Red Bull that gives you wings. Personally and with no actual evidence, my guess is that the players have been pushing themselves since the Fremantle game and in particular the Lions + Swans games, and sooner or later they were going to run out of steam. You can only go to the well so many times.

"Everyone's trying to crack the code in terms of goalkicking," Goodwin said ahead of the King's Birthday blockbuster against Collingwood. "There's certainly a skill to it and there's a mindset to it. "We believe that we've done the work to get the skill set. "It's now making sure that mentally we believe that we're capable and we finish the plays."

Of course it is. The greatest enemy of in-game skill execution is fatigue.

Because there are other things to focus on as well. No point practising skills (or goal kicking) if come gameday you're too stuffed to execute them.

The reason Tom's playing as a defender is that he was struggling to get a game as a forward. Not the answer, that ship has sailed. The last season Tom was really effective as a forward was in 2018 I believe. He had a few cameos in 2021, but leading into the grand final he'd managed 4 goals in 6 games.

Good luck with that.