binman

It's a silent h

It would seem lobb is heading their way too. I assume they have a third tall, second ruck role in mind for him. But if naughton stays they will have a surfeit of talss many tall forwards - Darcy (though played back in his first game) naughton, Lobb, Bruce and JUH. They need a gun defender. Perhaps naughton is worried they'll send him back.

Thank your mother for the rabbits.

He had his worst game for some time I thought.

Yep, all good pints CD.

Two of whom were commentating the game and loved it. Darcy couldn't stop banging on about how it turned the match. He was lauding cripps.

I hope they do. And I hope they get it down to one week. Purely because I want them ti beat the pies in round 23 as we might end up needing them to. That, and it would infuriate pies fans.

I get that. Feel the same way. As noted above, noone is going to be proven right or wrong. It's not binary. I think most accept AFL teams use peridiodisation training, with goal of peaking at a particular point in time. Loading is just part of tbat program. For realistic premiership contenders, that peak is preliminary final day, or perhaps gf day. We are 7 weeks away from that. We ran out of steam a bit near tbe end, but that's no great knock - it was the closest home and away game to a final like intensity I can remember. We are trending the right way. If we aged the pies three weeks ago and they brought thst incredible level of sustained pressure they would have beaten us by 5 goals. As it was we really should have won that match. Which is why I am so gutted we didnt. There's no guarantees Selwyn Griffiths and his team has got it right. It is a science. But I am assuming from what coach has said that getting it right for an AFL team with 44 people on the list is way more complex than say individual program for Olympic athletes or elite cyclists. There are just so many variables - injuries, covid, each game is different in rhythm, motivation, impact of travel, unforeseen events etc etc. If we don't run our games in the finals that is evidence they have got the program wrong, not that we didn't load fir two months.

Ah cheers might also have to miss our game. Not sure how it works, but it is a mandatory 12 day break posy concussion. Day 12 is tge Friday we play them.

Ugh. I had forgotten about that. In fact thatt was the tale of the day. We screwed up a all but certain goal in the second and ot went straight up the other end and tbey scored a goal. Because of course they did.

I too have avoided all media since the game - the first time all season, such is my frustration. But it's crazy - bb marks on the wing with about 2 mins to go, we control the ball and probably win. And in that parallel universe, I lap up every second of media I can. Ugh. By the by, spoiler alert, the short version of why we lost is tbe same as yours. Bad kicking is bad football.

Exactly. And we already have a non traditional KPF, third tall or an oversized flanker in JVR. I totally get the knock on McStay. He's no world beater, but he competes hard in the air and would complement BB and/or TMac pretty well. Personally, I'd love to see a two tall set up, with JVR as a super dangerous high half forward, who can occasionally play as a defensive forward if required. So a forward line with Tmac, BB, JVR, Fritter, Kossie, Spargo and Nibbler (the latter two rotating through there)

Ouch. The bears don't seem to be great at stopping teams pile on quick goals!

But what is the metric? Which pressure related stat are you referring to? There are a number of pressure stats, including the secret champion data one that gets bandied about.

That's it lord nev, I'm putting you on ignore. You can join a very small number of posters, like Dr D and stuie (a poster who loved nothing more than to bait other posters) in that exlusive club. I'm well up for debate, as you well know. And I'll put my hand up when I've got it wrong. But you seem only want to get into some sort of puerile gotcha discussions with your selective use of quotes. And this time you've taken that childishness to another level and completely made stuff up. It is way past being disingenuous. It's aggressive, and frankly flat out rude to to make things up and post that I have said things I have NEVER said. You put your made up comments in quotation marks despite the fact they are not actually quotes. You made the comments up. You can quote this - I have lost respect for you deliberately making things up to score some silly point. And you can shove any comment like you were paraphrasing, interpreting, taking poetic liscence blah, blah, blah. So for all posters who have read Lord Nev's post I have quoted above - as he well knows, I have never said, or even implied (cue selective quoting from Lord nev) that: 'Well we lost to the Pies because we're still 7 weeks away from optimal performance' In fact, to be clear, despite the fact lord nev uses quotation marks, I never said his first quote either.

Fixed.

We ran out of steam in the last 10 mins against the pies a team who was playing brilliant, finals level football - and still nearly won. Yes, the lighting break was no doubt a factor, but we ran out of steam against the Eagles, a team.who did not make the finals and was in a poor patch of form, in the last 10 minutes of the corresponding game last year. We almost got run down in that game - having been level at half time and only playing one short patch of dominant football in the third quarter. We were WAY more impressive on Friday night. I'm not changing my narrative nev, and frankly do not appreciate the suggestion I have. This is last time I'm going to bother engaging with you on this topic.

Still feel sick about losing on Friday night.

No, that's how I believe the science works from what I have read. Read coaches informed post on this very point earlier in this thread. Loading is a phase in a periodisation program. Tapering is part of that same program We ARE mirroring last years program. We played incredibly well on Friday night. Better than any of our last 4 games in the home ans away last year. The fact we lost doesn't change that. Last year we didnt come up against a team on a 10 game winning steak- or indeed even a finalist. In the corresponding game we just got over the top of West Coast. I completely reject your comment that I'm saying it is different this year. What I have said, and hav been proven wrong about, is that we would win all our remaining games post finishing the loading phase. Anyway, nev I'm not going to go back and forth any more with you on this. Happy for everyone to have their perspectives on this. But i would prefer I'm not ridiculed for mine (not saying you are doing so).

Agree.

I agree. And I also 100% agree it was a big factor on Friday night. It was incredible atmosphere actually, and as much as I hate the carry on of fans on the train afterwards, I couldn't help but be jealous that the opposition fans, at our bloody home game could be such a force. I think their energy created almost a vibe of inevitably and absolutely would have had an impact on their performance and probably ours too. Maybe even the umpires too.

Um, no it's not. Think of an Olympic swimming gold medal race. Do you think the winner is swimming the same times seven weeks our from the final?

I think that is a very good point. Bottom line teams know they can't beat us if they allow us to control the tempo. Few teams have the ability to disrupt that. But doing so, foe example by going fast, taking risks, using the corridor etc, is the only path to victory. Maybe goody has decided that we need to be better at thst ballistic style ourselved to counter the opposition teams who employ those tactics. How else to explain our decision to sy super high temp footy ahsonsy the dogs and lies? The pies were brilliant at it - better than I had expected them to be. They have 8 weeks go sustain tnst level, but if they cam, they ate a legitimate flag chance.

Nev, I'm not. And please, I'm not interested in a back and forth argument. If you are a 'loading believer' then you also understand we are weeks away from our optimal level as tapering is a critical part of the program. I thought we were fantastic against the dockers and also the pies, the loss notwithstanding. We are clearly more powerful and have more energy. That is evident to the eye, the scores we are putting on the board and in the stats. That is awesome. We can see the benefit of the program. With every week we get closer to our optimal level. And we are at our peak on preliminary final day. Which of course what the loading is for.

We are factoring in loading, or should if we are interested in understanding what happened, because we are in the tapering phase of the program. And in aprox week two of that phase we are still seven weeks of our optimal level. We were flying, but couldn't maintain that level right to the end. That was a a finals like game and we don't have finals like readiness yet. And the pies do. I'm hoping like he'll they can't maintain that level, because if they can tbey are obviously a real contender. I was wrong about the level the pies were at. Their ability to maintain the rage right to the end of the game was fantastic. They look super fit and very focused. I felt even that say 75% of our optimal readiness we would be too good and too strong for them and would smash them. I was thinking I had got it correct unti about half way through the third, when it became obvious things had levelled up. But a positive was that it was only really the last 10 mins of the game where we were clearly looking gassed. I found it super strange we never tried to play tempo footy and take the speed out of the game. You make a good point about the resilience and mental aspect. It is impossible to really know how much an impact Burgess had in that space, but it felt like he was an extra coach, and a psychologist as much as a sport scientist. To be fair, last year we had very few issues to test that resilience. This year we have mutiple injuries, in game injuries the may melksham saga, the Bartlett saga, tbe goody drinking with the boys saga and the Jackson fugazi. To be clear though, lest posters fell the need to launch at me, we didn't lose that game because of loading. In my opinion we lost it for tbe reason I have been complaining about ever since I started posting in demonland - our appalling kicking for goal. We missed so many goals we simply should never have missed. They kicked accurately from set shots and took their chances. That's the game right there. Good kicking is good football. And we have so many [censored] kicks it's not funny. And once again it cost us a game of football. We take our chances in the second quarter, we then control the game in the third - and our fatigue levels never comes to the equation.