binman

My wife's family and many of our friends are in Germany. A long, long way from life as normal. Unless of course you count the rise of right wing nationalism in rhe east

Are we playing one short?

Given we are playing gc next week why have we not headed to qld?

Game on. No crowd

Good call. Was excellent for the dees. Smooth mover and accumulator. Good kick too, which is my number one metric! Who did he paly for before us? The saints?

You must have a set against burly ex roos.

Rubbish. Way too late.

For clarity, I had my second az dose in Monday. Have had literally no symptoms. And no blood clots. I reckon anyone who has had two doses of vaccine should be able to go to the footy. And that is not a joke.

Sorry Kent, not specifically footy related, but as of Monday I'm double AZ dosed . Not a single symptom. Apart from my recent blood clots. Jokes. I had a runny nose

Once you get past Super's say top 25 - 30 then it is diminishing returns in terms of contribution to the demon cause. It's a reminder though of how much more movement between teams there was back in the 70s and eigthies. I hate to say it, given his talent, but i would Harley Bennell at the bottom of that list just about. And for me thee is one glaring omission, a player i have in my top 10, almost top 5. The 1982 Bluey winner, Steven Icke. Awesome for the dees. Such a competitor and never left anything out there. My favorite type of player. As primarily a center half back at the dees, in a period where Templeton was the protoype build for a CHF, played out of weight division every game. He kicked 13 goals in 1983 so must have played forward that year a bit (something i had forgotten - thanks demonwiki. I do remember him being a forward at the Roos) and polled 12 Brownlow votes. That year he also came third in the bluey behind Alan Johnson (one of all time fav dees) and Robbie.

That's all true, however IIRC correctly we doubled our play on rate in the second half, which had to be a conscious reset as playing on can be done even when the opposition is set ahead of the ball. We played into their hands in the first half by not playing on more often and holding it too often an for too long, meaning the game was played more on their terms. I can't recall the game, but there was another with an almost identical dynamic.

Agree to an extent, particularly in regard to the importance of winning contests (perhaps the key part of our game plan) and the opposition not using a sweeper role, or holding defenders deep (which few do really because it means you are down one player somewhere). But they can also create overlap by playing on quickly and either kicking long or having a player run past for a handball. And also by using more handballs to move the ball. The phrase the players most used in when talking about the first half of the Lions game was they played too safe. In the second half they played on much more quickly, had a real focus on players running past for a handball and had heaps more many handballs. They were much more aggressive and played much less 'safe'.

Wow. Just wow.

Perhaps. But i reckon in the pies and GWS games the issue was not the forward line, it was that our ball movement from the back half was was too slow and we were not creating any overlap. And we were also not creating any of that swarm pressure that generates so much of scoring when we are on. As i have noted before i reckon this was a function of fatigue, rather than abandoning the game as such, that's to say were no physically able to properly implement the game plan In the Lions game fatigue wasn't an issue. However we were 20 odd points down at half time, and in trouble, in large part due to the fact that we were not generating enough scoring opportunities. A heard a number of players say after that game that we had been too cautious and slow in the first half and Goody had encouraged to get them the ball moving more quickly. It was really noticeable that we did so - we played on more quickly and handballed more aggressively and often. And swamped the Lions. When we play like that, as we did against port for much of the game, opposition defenses often get all out of shape and we get goals out the back like two of traccs goals (or even friiter's long range goal - they had no one at all inside our 50 metre arc when he marked that ball leaving a completely open goal - and he actually had Spargo running toward goal he could have elected to give it to) The other thing i think is worth considering is the idea of what being more attacking. It seems counterintuitive, but perhaps kicking to he pocket IS the more attacking option as it gives us two bites at the shots at goal cherry. First bite is we either mark it in the pocket, it comes to ground and we crumb it or it goes over the boundary and we score form that stoppage. Second bite is the opposition desperately try to clear the zone and dump kick it under pressure and we intercept that kick and come back inside (often with a little 20 metre kick to an open player) for another scoring opportunity. With kicking it to the hotspot this second bite is less likely as it is harder to defend a dump kick from the corridor. Much easier to defend a dump kick from the pocket as as i noted they really only have one option which is down the line and so we can saturate the likely drop zone with players pushing up.

I remember hearing someone talk about this on the radio a few years ago (and again a few months back). Specifically they were talking about the crows (maybe Neil Craig) coming to the realization (because someone tracked him?) that even though Ricchiuto was getting the ball 30 plus times a game and was their best player, in 120 minutes of football he only had the ball in his hands for 2 mins. The comment was that this realization changed football because from that point the crows, and then the rest of the competition, had a much greater emphasis on what was happening for the other 118 minutes. And this shift ushered in the era of all team defensive running and spread that is a fundamental of today's game. And key position players, like forwards, staying in the one area all game for that matter. Which in turn has shifted the game away from one on one battles so many people seem to pine for.

Max has played forward enough this year to provide enough evidence of how Goody, Yze etc assesses those percentages. And on that evidence the answer is no, the percentages don't change enough in our favour to kick it to the hot spot, because they don't' do so even when max is there. Which make sense because even with max there statistically we do not take many contested marks inside 50. The percentages might even favor a kick to the pocket because with max there there is an increased chance that the ball will be at least brought to ground, which is what we want and are set up for. On that, if a defender spoils a marking attempt in the the pocket it would almost never be hit toward the corridor. The first option is hitting it towards the boundary, or if that is not possible at least no worse than directly in from to the pack. Again this is predicable and we can practice it. And when the ball hits the ground in that scenario, it is the defence that is under most pressure. Even the best defenders can panic a bit and try and hack kick it out, or give away a free to one of our smalls. The free and goal Spargo got against Port was the perfect example of the benefits of our system. I reckon one of the strengths of our back six (and helpers like Langdon and Gus) is that they don't often panic. They are quite comfortable working it to a player under less pressure with handballs to work their way out of the defensive 50 and avoid a dump kick. But when that is not possible they are also ok with the dump kick because they are confident of winning the next contest, or if they don't, getting back into shape quickly to protect the re entry kick

I don't mind them. But I'd rather the dees didn't play in them. Was weird not having a game over the weekend. I'm a footy fixturing equivalent of a NIMBY

The prequel. Part two of a trilogy. Or is is part one. I get these things confused

And even more after losses when the trolls come out from under their bridges

Who?

MFC wesbiste says general members tickets available from 4:15. So try to buy. Ticketek says not valid until 5pm All to get a single seat in the open. In a spot i don't want to sit.

Honour the work.

I like how my badge matches perfectly matches the time frame of my avatar photo of me in my halcyon days

How about a quality over quantity badge? Noting of course that i will never get that badge