binman

What he said.

I'm confused. What's your point?

Day before. Which is crazy. So ours don't come out till Saturday at 6pm. Pre covid (which IIRC was the pretext for the change) my memory is that final teams would come out for Friday night and Saturday games on Thursday just after 6pm. And 25 man squads came out on Thursday just after 6pm for Sunday games. And i thought, but might well be wrong, that last year the squads for a Sunday game out on Friday.

Is there anything stopping the dees announcing their team tomorrow night? It would be great publicity for sponsors and cost nothing. And then on Saturday they could change it! More publicity

To be perfectly frank i reckon much of this post is load of old cobblers. And it feels a bit disingenuous to boot. The title of the thread is Goody's five big changes. But that is not what it is about. It feels like these so called 'five big changes' that have supposedly 'helped our team' are really a pretext to create a conversation/discussion about this question: 'who was responsible? Should Goody get all the credit?'. And not credit in general sense, but credit for a list of arbitrary 'changes' that are are presented as facts, when they are all highly contestable (and for what its worth i disagree with almost all of the assumptions in them. If i were to pick 6 things that have been key factors in our success this year they would be completely different). Perhaps this is unfair, but the opening post seems more about creating another opportunity to knock Goody and diminish his contribution. As opposed to generating the discussion implied in the thread title about what changes have been factors in our success. But what those factors might be is a different discussion than one related to the question 'who was responsible? Should Goody get all the credit?' Which to be honest is a much less interesting discussion, because really, as It's Time points out why does it matter? Is anyone debating how much credit Hardwick should get compared to say Leppa or Williams? Of course not. Does anyone talk about Clarkson's assistants other than in broad terms. No What about Longmire - how much credit for Cox? Or when Roos coached how much credit should Longmire have got. Or Goodwin under Roos for that matter. Perhaps goody was the mastermind and Roos a puppet (joking)? As JG rightly notes it is a team performance. The best coaching groups work in harmony with each person playing their role and to their strengths. They seem to have got that synergy right this year. As an example, i love Goody coaching from the bench as it seems to really play to his strengths. And yze in the box seems smart move too. And choco as pre game motivator seems to be working. But at the end of the day the head coach is the captain of that team. Besides the conversation about which coach or football department employee should get credit misses a key point. Surely the people who deserve most credit for our incredible performance and level this season is the players.

Excellent point. I had not registered that spread. Perfect opportunity to optimise recovery. For example, rivers is running out of gas and needs a freshen up. Don't pick him for the lions or pies game. Tbst would give him a four week break. Probably too much I guess for most. So even resting a player for the pies game gives them a 3 week break

Both very good points, particularly the first one

And he is still out of competition i assume? If so, no issue. The courts will deal with it. Or not. he might just have to pay a fine. Club would be annoyed but really it is nothing.

Who has suggested our turn around is mainly thanks to Goody? I never venture into the is goodwin the right coach thread anymore, but the prevailing thinking in other threads on DL seems to be that Yze and Choco should be getting most of the credit for our 'turn around'. Goody seems to get precious little credit. And Richardson none I agree JG that it is a team effort and all current, and previous assistants etc, for that matter deserves credit for where we are at. Impossible, not to mention futile, to assign percentage to their contribution, including that of goody. That said I am more than happy to say Goodwin deserves the lions share of the credit of where are we at. All of it? Of course not. As you say that would be silly. But it is equally silly to suggest our coach since 2017 (who had key responsibilities as an assistant coach for the two previous years) is not the key architect of where we now sit as a club. He would certainly take the lion's share of the criticism and blame if we were going poorly, as was the case in 2019 and 2020 with many here on Demonland. Speaking of silly, i reckon there are more than a few silly posts in the is goodwin the right coach thread. When we win a flag, I will enjoy revisiting it for some light entertainment.

Yep, fair slice of backhanded compliment in the phrase: Person responsible for making Goody see the light If that is the starting point not much room to credit goody for anything.

Am i right in thinking cannabis has been, or will be taken off the WADA banned list of drugs?

That is so true. The soldier out, soldier in, injuries are not blame palaver is one of the enduring myths of football. Of course a robust structure and system help mitigate the impact of losing players, even key ones but as you say you cant replace a Gawn, Petracca, May, Kossie with a player anywhere near their ability. One would hurt. Any more and we are in trouble With Tomlinson we are lucky we had Petty becuase he will do as good a job i reckon (though perhaps not as good on the really big forwards thommo took, like Hawkins). Just look at the impact on the tigers of having Vlasutin and Cotchin out. And Dusty being not 100% for that matter too.

Short answer: all things considered it reasonably likely we will drop off at some point, but if we do lets hope it is not at finals time. Long answer: As is always the case for any contender, much will depend on injury. And luck (eg who gets injured, when they get injured, opposition issues) We have had an ok run with injuries thus far (though that should not be overstated - we have lost thommo, our two first pick forwards were unavailable until recently, our small defender back up has been out, we lost a very handy defensive back up in Hore for the season, Viney is out for a bit). But we can expect some more. Our game plan has pressure as its absolute foundation. It is a very taxing style to play for a full season. Physically and mentally. It is likely intensity will drop in some games and we will lose a handful of them. So I think we will definitely dip a bit. Which is no bad thing. Gone are the days of teams going through seasons undefeated (how insane does that sound in reference to a discussion about the dees!) The key is to replicate what the Tigers have been so brilliant at: banking enough wins to make top 4, not being overly fussed if they are scratchy wins and peaking at finals time. As Hardwick and Goody have noted (perhaps taking a cue from the NFL) there are two seasons: Home and Away. And Finals. Get through the first in good shape and with a strong ladder position. Peak in the second Our system and game plan is robust and I am super confident it will stand up in finals. And our list is in the perfect stage of its development. Make no mistake we are legitimate contenders for the flag this year, as evidenced by the fact we are currently EQUAL FAVOURITES (with the Dogs, Tigers and Port - all $5.50) for the flag with the bookies. I hope they go all chips in in the next two games (was four games when i made this comment previously, so we have the first two pieces of the puzzle) and do all they can to win the them both. That includes picking the very best side they can. And not resting players unless really necessary. If we go 10 zip we are a top four lock as 15 win gets us top four, meaning we 'only' need to win half of our remaining games. Do that and we can plan around the bye to rest players. So rest players between rounds 11 and say 15. That includes possibly not having our best team against the dogs, port and/or lions. All three games are not as important at they might have been without our brilliant start to the season. If we happen to lose any, those clubs will know we were not at full strength. And dees fans we will be the ones who can smugly say premierships are not won in July. Give Gawn a chop out, manage Tracc and Oliver for a game or two, perhaps Jackson, Rivers and Jordan too (but not not kozzie - he would hate it too much!). Get some experienced players like Jones and maybe Jetts in for the tough mid winter games. And give the Bowey, Swallows, Chandlers and Bedfords, maybe even Rosman and of course Weed their shots. Fresh, motivated players will bring an energy just when we need it. And actually might help us win some games we might otherwise lose. Our flying start has created this opportunity. But we need to win to next two to get get full value from it.

Fair call. Against the roos the lack of pressure was an issue. And against the swans there is no doubt we missed viney. But we looked a bit off, I agree. They have some good mids it must be said though

And really its pretty rare a ruck, even one as good as Max gets the perfect tap to a moving player for a unpressured kick from the centre.

Good post. In all the years i have followed the dees i have never seen one of our players play better over a sustained period than max has in the first third of this home and away season. And that includes Robbie. And that is off the back of an immense 2020. His athleticism has gone up a level, as has his ball handling skills, particularly when the ball is on the deck. There was a brilliant example in the Swans game (i can't remember if it was the second or last quarter - we were kicking to the Punt Road end, which is where I was sitting). Max collected the ball off the ground right in the pocket, only a meter or so from their goal. From the distance i was watching it took me a sec to register that it was max, such was the way he smoothly picked it up, took some steps and delivered the ball by foot. The ball tic tacked up the ground and went out on our goal side of the wing. Max ran from the back pocket to take the ruck. I think he got a free from the throw in (or if not grabbed it) and kicked a perfect pass to Harmes who somehow dropped it over the line on our HF. He then went to the next throw in and tapped it brilliantly to a moving Oliver who if memory serves got it to Salem who kicked it to brown 20 meters out. Incredible skills. Incredible work rate. And the key actor in a critical goal. All while looking not 100% fit. And as occurs every week with how we play, after getting physically smashed in aerial contests and taking his turn tackling and being tackled. And again copping hits to the head from opposition players who know they can hit him with impunity. Max is a million miles away from being the problem. He is the solution.

One thing we were definitely doing is setting up our mids closer to the center circle when the ball was bounced. Another, related, structural element was Max was not hitting to space as often (high risk, low reward as our mids are close to him). Which meant that bulls like Viney, Trac an Oliver were great chances of winning any contested ball that dropped close to the circle, as often happened (and still does - eg no clear tap, the opposition ruckman doesn't want to hit to space etc) - particularly when max is looking to tap it down directly to one of them. So we "won" lots of clearances with that structure. But often those clearances were messy and shallow because they were under pressure. Which goes along way to explain why we had such a poor inside 50 to score ratio, often winning inside 50s but losing the match. It also explains why we all got sick of seeing opposition defenders like McGovern take easy intercept marks. Did our collective heads in. Just as it must do for fans of teams that play us this year. And as many people on Demonland pointed out last year, opposition teams often started sweating on our players on the outside of the ring that our bulls were trying to handball. Basically allow us to do all the work to the win the ball and pick it off. When this worked they won the ball out in space an could hurt us with unpressured inside 50 kicks.

Yes, in part. But mainly it show show good our all team pressure is. If Max, Jacko , the mids and anyone sliding into the square (eg Nibbler off HF or Langdon or Gus off the wing) do apply strong pressure on the opposition player who first gets hands on the ball, anyone else who receives the handball and the player kicking inside 50 then they have time and space to kick to the forwards advantage. And in that scenario it doesn't matter how good our defence is tam will hurt us, particularly the top sides. Our whole game plan is predicated on pressure. We will lose if we don't bring it. Pressure means they scrub a kick (often shallow) inside 50 and players with the nous of lever, hibbo, rivers and may can read it better than their opponent an either take an intercept mark, create a contest (which often we win, or at least create a stoppage) or win a ground ball. O course it helsp to have guns like Lever and may, but pressure is the key reason we are miles ahead in intercept marks, top the table of of least marks inside our 50 and are the best at stopping opposition score when they get inside 50. And once we win the ball - as we are doing more often than any other team from our back half - we control it, transition effectively and get territory. And once we do that we combine all of the above will more pressure and keep in trapped in our forward half as well as any team in the game.

Because 'winning' a clearance that under pressure you are forced to kick a mongrel, scrubby, shallow entry kick that gets picked off by a defender and goes straight down the other end is not actually winning. But, say Oliver getting the ball in space, perhaps after a couple of quick high risk handballs (that when they breakdown often result in an opposition clearnce), at pace, with time to run a few steps and kick deep inside our 50? That's winning a clearnance.

Heads up. Steve may about to be interviewed on abc footy

I meant total clearance differential - stoppages AND centre square

Total clearance differential table. Again, as I said abive (and in mutiple other posts about this topic) you don't want to lose centre square clearnces. But break even is fine. As evidenced by the stats about the tigers in your post. 15th, 11th and 8th in the last 3 years shows tbe shift in tbe game. I assume those rankings correspond to about break even?

100% agree. Which is why I said you don't want to lose centre square clearnces. But break even is fine.

Exactly. Put yourself in the shoes of a swans supporter. They smashed us in centre clearances. And had more inside 50s. And lost. How frustrated would you be? Well, we all know the answer because in most games we have lost under goodie that has been us. We now have beaten last years two grand finalists, a side that won a final last year and a side sitting fourth this year after round 7. All have super midfields. And all very good teams. Yet our defence has held up. And we have prevailed. No reason why it won't against future opponents, assuming we apply our base line all team pressure as we did last night (and didn't do in the first half against the roos). Again, you don't want to lose centre square clearnces. But break even is fine. Whereas we used to aim for winning that metric, as evidenced by being near the top of clearnce differential tables under goody. In that same period the tigers have been bottom or near bottom of that table. And won three flags. This year when we are mirroring the tigers. And ate unbeaten after 8 rounds for the first time in 56 years. As problems go, it's fair to say the dees have much worse ones than our current clearance differential numbers. Our emphasis on clearances has changed. But one thing that hasn't - and won't- is the importance of pressure and winning the contest. As goody said in his presser - contest is king

Ironic. Because I have called us the Redlegs all my lifetime