binman

Here's a likely change: The odds for our Suns game. Remarkably we are $1.80 favorites. That will surely change.

Gawn was awesome gain. That said a growing concern is how often opposition teams are sharking his taps, particularly after a quarter or so. That is not his fault as such, it is down to getting our set up at stoppages right. And at the risk of putting everything at the coaches feet it is their job, well specifically Mathews as the mid coach, to get the set ups working right.

I have a confession. I am not Garry Baker. I am Gary Lyon. And I'm also redleg. At least I think I am as I could have written this post and spoke the words Gary is quoted as saying. Both spot on x 1000. Red you make a very good point about our game plan. We had a window when that ballistic style could work for us. But since 2018 the use of zones has accelaterated and now clog up the ground in a way that makes every kick forward a challenge because your targets are always outnumbered (by the by the 666 rule was supposed to address this - and has failed) - which is the key reason scores are so low. (The zones and ability for teams that run hard to get back have also almost eliminated our coast to coast goals we got so many off in 2018. And the zones also punish turnovers ) This kick forward requires skill. To escape the zone teams have to work the ball back and across the ground and stretch the opposition. And eventually hit an attacking kick and then the next one inside 50. These kicks are often under no pressure, but still require skill, even if if kicking to a free man as long kicks (eg crosses to the dat side) need to be low and flat, some need to be kicked between players onto pockets of space, some need to be sideways and when they finally bite the bullet, for example a kick to the corridor, they need to be fast and accurate. We simply do not have players with those skills. And as Tim Watson said there is no easy fix. Richmond have a similar, though not identical, game plan. The difference is they have players like cotchin, houli, Martin, constagania and rioli who are all elite kicks. And most of their list is at least average standard. And most important of all they have few absolute butchers.

So roos said. Illustrates the same problem though as roos would have selected billings, an in and under mid, ahead of a silky, outside player who was an elite kick even then. And besides, as it turns out, I'd rather we took billings anyway. For full disclosure i supported the decision at the time. But that doesn't change the fact it has proven to be the wrong decision. Fact is they should have chosen Kelly. Not because he has proven to be a gun. But because the roos Goodwin game plan built around contested ball has proven to be redundant and they have both failed to bring elite or even above average kicks to the clubs.

I hope he would acknowledge our issues are in part due to the players he recruited. For a start the decision to take Salem and Tyson rather than Kelly

To quote the commentary on NBA 2K20, 'we've seen that movie a few times'

You can't coach skill errors? What does that even mean? What you can do is recruit players who will make skill error for their whole careers. And choose not to recruit barely a single elite kick in 8 years. And then you can marry that decision with a game plan that, like any game plan, relies on players hitting targets inside 50 (or if bombing it in at least kicking it to a forwards advantage) and not making dozens of ridiculous turnovers every game (because of the decision to recruit players who will make skill error for their whole careers). And then you can go to post match press conference and wearily answer the same question about connection going inside 40. And promise we will work on it. Unlike you Saty i don't blame the players. If you don't have the skills, you don't have the skills. You might improve a bit (or like Salem and Oliver you might go backwards) but there is no magic fairy dust that is suddenly going to make a rubbish kick into a good one. Again, both Roos and Goodwin are to blame for our list and our current problems as their recruiting strategy as been to weighted towards contest ball winners at the expense of skill.

Sure, but the point remains is that a player who comes to the AFL as a poor or even average kick will rarely get much better, particularly their field kicking. The reason of course is like golf swing it is all about technique and by the time they get to the AFL they have kicked it hundreds of thousands of times. Very hard to change a golf swing and very hard to change kicking technique. I can count on one hand dees players who have improved more than marginally. Jones is one, who gtes much more penetration than when he first started Set shots are easier to correct because it is more mental, they have time to gather themselves and they can develop a set routine. Cassboult is good example. This is the key reason i feel so concerned about where we are at as club. As i have been banging on about we are simply a terrible kicking side, at a time in footy's evolution where kicking in the skill that separates teams as all teams now compete and defend. All clubs have our one wood. But the best ones have mix of a few elite kicks (like say bot Kellys), above average kicks (like say Heath Shaw), mostly average kicks and very few, if any real butchers (insert 15 dees players here). I don't care what game plan is employed if you have team full of poor kicks then you are stuffed. And it will take years to recruit and draft ourselves out of this problem. Again as i have noted before i put the blame squarely at the feet of Goodwin and Roos for almost exclusively chasing competitive ball winners and getting no elite ball users. Viney is the prefect example. As is Brayshaw. Oliver is becoming one.

Can't imagine Simon would find it that funny. Though i'm sure he would find some learnings from the experience

When the story of this match is written lets not forget they didn't have a bench in the last

The story of our team I'm afraid.

Total respect for Hibberd.

Fair suck of the sav. At training we rarely miss a target. Yes I know it is pretty well known that in an AFL game there is usually a fair bit of pressure but hey let's get training right first. The key thing is that there is lots of learnings. That our players could expect pressure in a game of footy is one of those learnings.

It might be both

Levers running is so lazy. Got himself caught in no mans land then and allowed dusty to kick under no pressure

Smith has to be dropped for not manning the mark properly. Unforgivable

That was the worst decision i have seen all season against trac

Good Lord I hope bennell gets fit soon. We need his kicking skills more than we need competitive beasts. Am I right in thinking Bedford is a a good kick? If so I'd put him straight in. We work so hard for so little result. But we kickec two great goals through agaggresse kicks. I hope they keep it up. Rather lose attacking then lose in a scrappy game of rugby

Reminds me of one of more depressing sledges i yell at the footy when the dees are being flogged and their fans are giving it to us (which Ive noted on here before): Shows how rubbish you are (insert team here) - a half decent team would be 10 Goals up (or 15 if they are already 10 up)

No, their slow ball movement was primarily a tactic to ensure the game was not played fast as clearly with our selections and their lack of leg speed a fast game would have been to our advantage. They had 60 more non contested marks than us. That has to be close to some sort of record. And 54 more uncontested possessions. The game was played on their terms and in a way that negated our relative strengths As you point out they only scored 7 goals. I thought the defence played pretty well but i wouldn't be too quick to pump up their tyres as the Cat's game style also meant they only had 38 inside 50s (we had 46). And with 12 scoring shots they scored with close to every third entry and with 9 marks marked it every four times they came inside 50.

I don't thin it has an expiry date. At least i hope not as i plan to buy some stuff (and checked the email i got to see if there was an expiry date and there wasn't)

Yep agree. And clever coaching in terms of maximizing their chances of winning. A big part of my frustration is I think we should have spanked them. And leaving that aside it was a dreadful game to watch. As I noted elsewhere a noun point would at least provide some incentive to score

Yes that is certainly a possibility, as I noted in anorher post on this topic. But i would argue we didnt really work our way into the game as such. We were never out of it. We simply played the game on their terms. How uninspiring for a team promising to play fast exciting footy on a perfect day for footy at the g. And tactically surely the point was to expose their lack of leg speed by playing to our strength. That was why we picked a fast team after all. But more importantly the ends didn't justify the means. We lost. Who cares how close we got. Goodwin was specifically asked about Scott's ploy to play slow in the post game presser. He said a key learning was that we needed to press up and not allow so many uncontested marks. And they would look to do next time when faced with that tactic. That suggests to me that he wasn't happy with how we responded to Scott's tactics. And to be honest I have a different take on what Scott's tactics mean. Sure they were designed to combat our preferred game style. But there is little proof that style is a strength for us - apart from one quarter of football we have barely scored this season. And I also worry that the tactic was in part employed because Scott believed, with some justification, we would be unable, or unwilling to counter it.

Because knowing how we planned to play Scott simply implemented a go slow, keepings off game plan aimed to stymie our strategy (fast ball movement, lots of inside 50s and trapping it inside 50) and stopping us playing the game on our terms. And we seemingly did nothing to disrupt Scott's strategy.

Agree. Given this don't you find it strange how we allowed the cats game to play out?