binman

That presser says all you need to know about the state of football journalism A nine minute presser. Five minutes of which involved questions about Grundy. That despite Goody being crytal clear about the situation in answering the very first question. And despite Goody addressing some of the stupid media talking points, they continued to ask stupid question (the very first question, which was about Grundy, was a good question - the rest were a joke as Goody had already answered them). Goody was finally asked a football question - about the lions second and third quarters. A vague question got a vague response. What i would have loved to hear being asked was what what actually happened - what did the Lions do differently, what did the dees do not so well.

That's a good question and really interesting observation - one i hadn't considered. Well not in terms of us having more of the ball decreasing our chances of accruing pressure points. I don't know for certain, but ,my assumption is pressure points can only be accrued by the team without the ball in hand and/or when the ball is in dispute ie neither team has the ball in hand. So logic suggests you are onto something ie if one team dominates possession the other team has more opportunities to accrue pressure points. Somewhat surprisingly, in the final quarter possession % differential was only 5% (42 - 37, with i presume the ball in dispute 21% of the time) - the diff in pressure was aprox 10% in the last (174-192). By the by the numbers for the last 10 minutes of the game are fascinating - 24% for the dees and only 13% for the lioins. Show our domination in that period. But i assume it also means the ball was in dispute for 63% of the time. That is a lot of contests and contested footy - which is exactly what we love; the dees DNA. As goody loves to say we got the game looking like a Melbourne game - get it forward and back the players in to win the next contest. But it also shows the Lions kept scrapping and running hard, otherwise the numbers would have looked more like the tola game time in possession stats.

A very good point. Their passing in that period was surgical. And i'd add that some of their kicking for goal in that period was also brilliant. They go 50 50 for accuracy in that period and they don't look nearly as dominant. The same is true for the first 20 minutes of the game with our crazy good accuracy, and to a lesser extent in the last with Melk's two beautiful shots at goal - particularly the one from the boundary which is easily forgotten given his match winner. On the boundary, on his non preferred leg and around the body from 40 metres. That was pure skill. The game was such a good example of the difference accuracy makes and how important it is to take chances. There was some brilliant kicking for goal from both teams: Tracc's bomb from outside 50 Bailey's set shot from an angle from the 50 metre arc BB's set shot from outside 50 Woey and Ashcroft's goals from almost the same spot in the pocket at the Punt road end Fletcher's beautiful goal on the run after outpointing Hunter in the air Daniher's set shot goal from near the boundary at the end of the first q Kozzie's set shot from a similar spot at the opposite end of the ground in the first Gawn' clutch set shot from 40 Tracc's clutch bannana (after a brilliant handball from kickett) soon after Viney's clutch snap under immense pressure on his non dominant foot And of course Melk's two match winners. Firsts class football. It's worth noting in that context that we had one more scoring in the Pies game than we did Friday night - and scored 34 points less because of our inaccuracy.

Damn - we only needed 747 more steps to make it a nice round 20, 000 step podcast. I blame myself - i forgot to highlight Whatley's ridiculous call as the siren went when he said with great fervor - "Melbourne rescue their season'. Sheesh. And what about the 'how did the Lions lose that game" narrative the media are pushing. Coz the dees didn't have anything to do with it did they! If it was the Pies reeling in 5 goal deficit it would have all been Daicos this, Pies that, never count them out this, have my baby Nick that blah blah blah.

Calm down? A bit of poetic licence from me. Chill bro Mono. For what it's worth I expect him to be picked this week and to play.

As a tall defender?

Haven't watched the presser - but it sounds more like grumpy goody than laconic goody. I like grumpy goody.

The other complicating factor for tomo next year is disco Turner, who may well be ahead of tomo too.

I have a different take. Our effort was first class the whole game. I don't think our work rate dropped much, if at all. Def a four quarter effort. They are very good side, who also worked hard all game, and there is no chance we would have won that game if we only showed up for only half a game. And really the game started turning our way half way thru the third. I don't think we are quite there yet with our collective running ability cover the ground quickly. Which impacts ability to get back and also cover off those short leads. But we are def much closer to overall optimal fitness and I think have a fitness edge over tge lions. And used that edge to grind them into the ground And as their energy fell away they had to abandon the short kicks because it takes a huge amount of energy for mutiple leads, most unrewarded that method requires. We were doing something similar in the first few games.

That is fascinating observation about the correlation between oppo mark differential and score. One of the questions for the podcast is what happened in the second and third quarter in terms of the lions getting on top. I watched the replay with that question in mind, and part of my answer was that the Lions really stretched the G and used the switch more than in any game since i could recall since the first half of 2022 when teams were desperately looking for ways to get past our defence the first Port game being the best example. Teams gave up on that model because it became very clear that going fast was the only way to consistently trouble our defence because it makes it hard for it to get set. Credit to McRae because he obviously gerried to this before the rest of the comp and made fast ball movement the foundation of their method. But Brisbane used a variation of the slow ball movement and keepings off method teams use in the 2022. They switched and chipped it around - which of course involves lots of uncontested marks. But they didn't go overboard on that and combined it with incisive 20 -30 metre kicks going forward to lead up players. Again lots of uncontested marks. And we seemed to allow many of these kicks - partic the switch kicks (which we always do). Our defence was set deeper than against the Pies, in part becuase Danhiher dragged May back to goal. And unlike against the Blues and Pies we didn't seem to look create density and congestion, and didn't apply much frontal pressure, or close down space. So there was a lot of space - which the Lions took advantage of with lots of sharp passes. My feeling is part of the strategy was to separate our key defenders to isolate May and Lever one out (because they are both vulnerable one on one i reckon, partic lever) and limit the ability of lever, may and Petty to intercept mark - which is key driver of our scoring. The strategy worked really well, as not only did it blunt May, Lever and petty and give their tall forwards good one on one looks, they were able to tic tac over our zone wit kicks and create overlap that way. The goal Ashcroft kick was the perfect example of what i mean. I';; check the stats for our previous three games against the Lions, but my gut feel is their uncontested marks numbers would have bene high in those games too - and its worth noting they are one of the few teams who have been able to regularly open us up. Another interesting part of all that using uncontested marks is clearly as they they have used specifically for the dees. It is it likely the Pies would try and follow suit? I din think so becuase every person and their dog have them on a pedestal so their conceit would be they don't need to try such a strategy to beat us.

Yep. So beautifully symmetrical

Yes, you can can just scan in. But you can only sit in in general admission area. But there is heaps of them, and there wont be more than 30k there so finding a decent GA seat won't be hard

Doesn't sound ridiculous at all. A good team, who have genuine leg speed, quality across all lines, potent forward line as evidenced by their crazy good percentage, a strong sytem dialled to run and carry like the pies and buy in. They won't be as flat against us as they have been for the last couple of games, and I expect them to be running on top of the ground on Sunday and present a real challenge. My expectation is they will attack, and look to run at as with handball chains and wave running a la the pies. If they can beat us or port next round, I think they’ll make the 8. I don't think they'll beat us, but I reckon they're a huge chance of beating Port, as Port will struggle defensively with the crows speed of ball movement from the back half (as do we if not on).

I just watched that too. Good question by robbo asking if playing Hockey helped his defence. Yes was Judd's answer.

He seems to find a way to get smashed every game. Not conducive to a long career as a key defenders.

Good call - he really is a smooth mover. And such a smart user of the ball. Big upside as he starts to get bigger and stronger. He'll be a beast with a few more preseasons under the belt.

The cats are def the best team outside the top 4 and Scott has once again made clear they are all about peaking come finals. I know the game is at the gabba, but ad a way of demonstrating how good the lions are and how good our win was, the lions are currently 1.48 to beat the cats this week. By way of contrast we are 1.35 to heat the crows.

Based on tbe bookies odds for the next two games and my estimate of the likely odds in the remaining games, the odds of us winning our remaining 6 home and away games is a tick over 9-1.

If the pies do beat Port, and go 2-2 against the other top 4 sides, It us worth noting that both their wins are against Port. Whereas we have beaten the pies and the lions, and the lions the pies and us.

Right. As funny as the loading jokes are, I wasn't making a case a factor in the crows form is fatgue - though I believe that to be the case (i watched the whole gws game and it was crystal clear halfway thru the third they were out of gas - and they basically stopped to a walk in the last. They had a 17 point lead at 3 quarter time and were always going to get reeled in - they lost by 14, meaning a 5 goal turnaround, and could only manage 1 scoring shot, a point, to the giants' seven scoring shots). I was making the point that an article that discusses their drop in form that doesn't at least ask the question if fatgue from loading might be a factor is doing crows fans a disservice. Particularly when Burgess is their fitness guy. I mean c'mon. You have at least had the opportunity to consider if fatigue from loading is a factor because of the discussion on here. And you have decided it isnt. Which is your prerogative. But surely if you were a crows fans you'd like to get a sense of the possible causes of their drop off. The closest that article comes to positing any theories of the cause is 'the declining form of Rankine and the undisciplined actions of Rachele' and noting Tex didn't get a touch in the second half of the gws game. Otherwise it is just a typical shopping list of stats that point to the symptoms not the cause. Maybe you are right, and the issue is simply that the Crows are not that good, their talent is young or very old and that fluctuates. Maybe, despite the fact you could see with your eyes they were gassed and the clear parallels to the impact of loading on the dees under Burgess and his acolyte,Selwyn Griffith (eg accuracy drop, scoring drop, losing games when fav etc etc) you are right and fatigue from loading is not a factor. But surely it is worth including the possibility it might be so readers can decide for themselves and perhaps do what you have done and reject the idea loading is a factor. Or perhaps think, gee that's interesting - I'll give that some thought Otherwise it is not even in the conversation.

id be happy with a draw

Did you watch the gws crows game?

I agree with all that - but i was actually making a gag

"Suddenly, the Crows are not the inside 50 marking team that they were in the first half of the year, they are losing more 1v1 contests and have lost their accurate touch in front of goal" Mmm, i wonder what might explain their drop off? Struggling with 'connection issues', scoring dropping off, losing one on ones, their elite accuracy strangely gone? Not sure why, but that all sounds very familiar. In all seriousness, this article makes my point about why it is so ridiculous the footy media don't factor in fatigue into their analysis of where teams are at, PARTICULARLY when trying to explain a seemingly unexpected, difficult to understand, sudden drop off in form and scoring power. If the author of that article had at least included the possibility fatigue from loading might be a contributing factor in their form drop off, at least Crows fans (and anyone else for that matter) could choose to consider and/or reject that idea. And for pete's sake, their head of fitness is Burgess and the dees had exactly the same drop off when he was our fitness guy, so it hardly takes much of leap of journalistic logic to at least speculate about fatigue and loading.

From the article: "Demons legend Garry Lyon has conceded he thinks its “unlikely” Brodie Grundy will remain at the club next year after he’s fallen out of favour in his preferred No. 1 ruck position..... Given the nature of Gundy’s exit from Collingwood, former Magpies coach Nathan Buckley suggested the dual All-Australian would have his head around the nature of the business. “One thing that we know is Brodie Grundy is not under any illustrations about how cutthroat and professional this game is,” Buckley told On the Couch." I think they are drawing the wrong conclusions