binman

Really? Asking for a friend.

Unfortunately this forum is a microcosm of the broader community, albeit skewed male in terms of demographics. What we see out there, we see in here- positive and negative. And the sad reality is there are plenty of people who enjoy upsetting and winding up other people.

Could describe Stev May as well.

Do your mates often sweat profusely for 30 hours a week and share showers and change rooms with 43 other similarly sweaty men?

Our biggest issue in a nutshell.

Yes, as given in Victoria we are running out of companies who can build new houses we will have to rebuild it ourselves - so we can train it down again.

That's how bad we were - there were mutiple tides to turn!

2018-2013? Luxury. Sheer luxury. Try 1975 to 1987. Now that's football wilderness.

I thought about it, as cornes didn't mention that likely improvement either. Oliver is covered under the better preseason and less injuries catch all - but you're right, if clarry gets back to anywhere near his best that alone would make us significantly better than last season. I mean, bloke is one of the best players I have seen play, one of tge best of the modern era.

It's actually a really measured analysis by King. Cornes on the other hand is just flat out embarrassing for a bloke paid to discuss footy. I mean, his lack of knowledge is mind blowing. Just so lazy I don't mind he picked us to win less than 11 games in and of itself. But, honestly who could respect or take that analysis seriously? He asks a reasonable question - where will the improvement come from? And he's right that we didn’t strengthen our side in any major way with our trading. But he doesn't mention we added two first round draft picks, one being a a top 5 pick who will almost certainly play round one - and improve us. He doesn't mention the natural improvement of young players like Windsor, Turner and Kolt. He mentions gus and notes we didn't have him last year. But doesn't note we were down 4 senior players (smith, spargo, gus and brown) all last season, so basically played with a list of 40 not 44 (and didn't have melk for more than half the season or McAdam for much of it, or as King noted tracc from round 13). At this stage we are starting the season with a list of 44, which is a big improvement right there. And most of all he doesn't mention the two obvious areas of potential improvement- a much better situation in terms of injuries and a preseason that is miles better than last year in terms of the percentage of players doing most sessions and a much smaller rehab group. His comment about us having a 'brand new' game plan this year reflects his laziness - just two days ago the Hun had a huge interview with goody who said that we implemented a new game LAST SEASON, only reverting to the old method at the butt end of the season. I get cornes is all about clicks and controversy but that discussion was nominally supposed to be some sort of analysis. Just pathetic.

I've always rated King's analysis.

Is Van Ruin a Blue Ruin cover band:

There is indeed - hence my confusion.

Spot on. And you can add Benny Brown to that list- and probably McAdams too given how few games he was available for. Four (5 if you count McAdam) seasoned, hardened AFL players with mutiple preseasons under the belt not available for a season. Very hard to cover.

What on earth are you talking about? Did you read the article?

I don't quote my own posts.

I'm Brian, and so's my wife.

Nor do i.

At speed is the key. Goody didn't invent defnsive zoning, but he arguably perfected it. Now all teams, bar port (which is bizarre) zone super well. Most (all?) team's defensive lines push up high now. But still zone (getting back hard after turnovers) - meaning forward lines are often clagged up and have no space. Fast ball movement from the back half is the only way to beat the zone. I think that's the key reason Windsor will play off the half back We have to get that right. If we do JVR, Turner, Fritter and Jefferson (assuming he gets selected in the ines), will get good looks and some space to lead into. All are good one on one too and will get more one out opportunities. Our kicking still worries me. It's not as if every player has to be elite kicks - every team has their butchers. And even the best kicks miss plenty of targets. But the players who are frequently involved in transition chains need to reliably hit targets otherwise teams, as happened to us last season, get smashed on turnover. I think a key factor this season is whether Salem and Bowey play most games. Mcvee is also key and Billings might also be important. And hopefully spargs can get back into the team (we really missed him last year I reckon). I wonder if part of the thinking of langers playing as a mid and half forward is his kicking. Wingers play an important role in transitioning the bal from the back half and the last kick inside 50. Whilst langers running power and smarts makes him one of the best wingers in the AFL, his kicking, which admittedley has improved, is still very hit and miss. Moving him off the wing means they can use better kicks on the wing, say Billings and XL

That's right.. I wasn't meaning all team Fitness in the sense of fitness aggregated across the board - well, that's a part of it I guess (for example, the sort of heaviness and angst that goody describes is not really conducive for a high performance environment and culture) Poor phrase. The factors you rightly highlight are all part of the mix, the biggest part really. So, whilst they shouldn't be immune from criticism, I'm not blaming the fitness team for last year's fitness issues. As you suggest there's too little data (frustrating) and too many variables and unknowns (inevitable) to fairly assess their performance over a single season.

Yep - and as you say we had mutiple players who for one reason or another were either never at optimal fitness or were, but got injured.

Yep, the youth of the team was definitely a factor - as of course were injuries to senior players as they forced us to play young players that otherwise might not have played senior footy (eg kolt, brown, AMW). But even without the injuries to senior plsyers we had young guns who were best 22 locks like Windsor, JVR and Turner who started to hit the wall in the second half of the season.

Indeed. That is precisely why all team fitness is such a critical success determinant now. I've long been amazed how little the impact of injury is factored into how the game is analysed and discussed. It's nuts given it has always been the key determinant of success. So it should be no surprise that fitness levels barely register as a factor in how the media and fans assess a team's performances and likelihood of success. No surprise, but very frustrating given its significance. For example, any assessment of our capacity to implement the fast transition method last year is of no value if it doesn't consider our fitness level. A good example of the importance of all team fitness to successfully implementing the transition method is the pies' 2024 season. The pies won the flag in 2023 on the back of the transition method they started using in 2022. Yes, like us, they had lots of injury issues and missed key personnel. But they never looked fit enough in 2024 and simply couldn't effectively implement the method they were previously the benchmark for. A key reason the lions won the flag was their fitness. We saw first hand the impact of the fitness gap between us and them in our second meeting - we blitzed them in the first half, but ran out of gas in the second half. Conversely they had plenty left in the tank in the second half and completely ran over the top of us.

Thanks TU. I hope that puts the whole we are implementing a new game plan this season myth to bed once and for all. What goody says above is almost the same as what I wrote a few weeks ago - we implemented a transition game lastseason, struggled to get it right - particularly defensively - got opened up several times as a result and went back to our old model to stem the bleeding. Goody notes our injuries, but not what i think what was our biggest challenge implementing the transition model - our fitness in the second half of the year was miles off. That model is incredibly taxing and requires elite all team fitness and running power. To be fair to goody, we would have been pulverised if we hadn't reverted to our down the line style in the last third of the season. And would have copped it big time on here - even more than we did. 2024 was very similar to 2019 in terms of trying to implement a new method- the big difference being we didn't revert in 2019.