binman

As you note a long way out, but the weather looks ok atm on the BOM. Rain will clear by game time:

Spot on W11 Your comments mirror a point i've made a few times about Fritter, namely everyone talks about his importance in 2021 and the fact he has been leading our leading goal scorer for 5 seasons - which are valid points. But it not as if he's never applied pressure and just swanned about the forward line just being the finisher. Far from it - leaving aside his first season (2018 - career high 57 tackles but only 17 goals) and 2019 (he played a big chunk of the year at HBF that season) there is a correlation between his tackle numbers and goals scored: The most goals he has scored in a season is 59 in 2021 - he laid 47 tackles The second most goals he has scored in a season is 55 in 2021 - he laid 37 tackles Leaving aside 2018 (his debut year) and 2019 (played in defence for multiple games) the least goals he has scored in season is 22 in 2020 when e also laid the least tackles of his career (17) The second least number of tackles is 27 in 2023 and 2024 when he kicked 39 and 41 goals respectively Short version - the more tackles Fritter lays the more goals he scores.

We're in furious agreement jnr. I'd add that fritter is a senior player now and should be showing eadership and role modelling defensive effort.

I think we posted at the same time

Snap

It's an issue for two key reasons. One he is being asked to play a different role to the one he played in 2021-2024. That role was basically a lead out from the goal square traditional full forward, with lots of one on ones. Still important to apply some level of defensive pressure but goals were his number one KPI. And there were plenty of players around him doing f the defensive grunt work Now he's being asked to play a different role - half forward flank, a role that demands a much greater level of defensive intensity, not to mention preparedness to set up goals instead of kicking them. His number one KPI now us more likely to be score involvements than goals. And his KPIs would 100% now include pressure acts, 1%, tackles defensive gut running etc. Given his height, he's probably also expected to impact aerial contests to ensure key defenders don't intercept mark. (on that front there was an aerial contest at the punt road end below where o was sitting- fritter chose to sit out the back rather than impact the contest, looking for the spill and easy collect. That might fly, pardon the pun, when goals were his key metric, bit now. And in this instance a tiger's defender took an intercept mark - poor defensive effort from fritter that won't have gone unnoticed by goody). The second point is as muchthe game has morphed nto a transition game, pressure is still king. In 2021 no team applied as much pressure and intensity as we did. Now, on any given day, every team does. We could carry a few players who were in the team for their silk - we can't now, every single player has to bring the defensive heat. There's an argument that goody should play Fritter in that lead up forward role again given its arguably his best position But even if he did, applying pressure will remain a non negotiable. And besides, he should embrace whatever role he's being asked to play. I'm a huge fritter fan, but I don't think he should have been called up after one average game at Casey. And I'd drop him this week as his two goals don't balance our his lack of defensive efforts imo.

Six two? Didn't realise he was that tall. Pretty big lad. He's not far away - if he can get super fit he has the tools to make it. And he has a bit of x factor about him I reckon, particularly with his kicking - hits really nice darts on the angle. He's looking ok down back, but I reckon long term he'll be a forward, which I'm pretty sure is where he's played most of his footy.

Very accurate as they use a GPS tracker. But I reckon average speed and repeat sprints are better measures of a player's pace (and fitness to a lesserdegree). Quickest can be misleading if, for example if the player only does one such sprint for the game. But if he can do it once it's more about development and building an AFL tank After 2 more preseasons I don’t reckon people will be talking about his pace - he's going to be a beast.

Spot on They played completely differently the previous week against the suns - fast attacking, transition footy for the rhe first 3 quarters. For whatever reason (i sespect because they were gassed), they set up to minimise a loss not in - hence the uncontested mark.and disposal differentials, not to mention how hopeless they were offensively. In regard to the latter point, It's worth noting that of the 9 goals they scored 2 were in the last minute of the first and four in the last 5 minutes of the game

It took all of two games for there to be an example of this occurring. Much like us, Freo put the Crows to the sword in the 3rd (5 goals to zip) and were 42 points up at three quarter time, a team they will be competing with for finals position (meaning percentage is partic relevant). But with game in the bag, Freo's pressure (the key reason for their 42 point lead) drops off, the Crows score 5 unanswered goals in the last quarter and the winning margin is only 18.

Huh? He's an excellent kick - which is the key reason we why we drafted him

Dorothy Dixer right there.

'Get on a roll, who knows, but I'm less concerned with percentage than I am with game style.' Yep, and get games into Windsor, Kolt, Lindsay, Langford and Mcvee - individually and as a collective. That's the future right there.

Spot on ATG. Though I thought the tigers did a good job negating our efforts to run and carry and go thru the corridor- albeit they were very negative. On percentage, how many people complaining about us not adding 4 or 5% think we are a realistic chance of making finals?

No, I don't think so. We won after all. And apparently our pressure rating in the third quarter was 237. That's nuts. After that we were never going to lose that game in the last quarter. How many games have we all seen where a team where has the game wrapped up with 20 minutes on the clock only to give up easy goals late As a punter who often backs the over 39 Line ne for value I can tell you it happens ALOT - for me most recently the port hawks game (I backed port for the win and over 39) Could we have gone up a gear in the last if needed - I think so. Did we need to? That's another discussion - but as frustrating as it was I understand why we might have put the cue in the rack. Taking Gawn off was the right thing to doing my opinion. And besides but for some inaccuracy and poor decisions we would have equalled their score in the last. And whilst I take your point about young players its not as if we didn't have our fair share of first and second year players too (four).

Straight to the stats file.

Spot on - though of course they were off a 5 day break too. Big difference between us and them though is we had had a season high pressure rating in our last quarter and they completely stopped to a walk in their last quarter. Big reason for resting maxy too no doubt. In 2025 do people still not understand the impact of factors such as 5 day breaks and the playing in hot and/or humid conditions (not saying we played in the heat last week - though if you weren't there it was really hot tonight)?

I thought this note was interesting: 'Others, like Geelong in recent years, have manipulated form across the season through careful loading and tapering phases.' I reckon that might be a factor contributing to how variable and volatile results have been this season and last season (particularly around the bye periods) Also perhaps supports my comment about us targetting particular blocks of games to be in optimal shape - like tonight (by the by Casey looked way fitter than the tigers today)

BI - binman Intelligence (And like AI sometimes 'hallucinates' eg my Phil Jackson comment)

I'm here. Trigger warning- small handful of dees players on the ground in a circle - kicking around a soccer ball.

Hello, is that me? I was going off last week about the inconsistency - does my head in

They must have been going off against freo.

We only scored one goal in the first, so 20 in the ladt 3 quarters including 6 or 7 into the wind in the 3rd.