binman

Yep. Heartbreaking result. But a fantastic performance. Most on here gave us zero chance. Lucky to get within 5 goals and all that. On that logic we smashed the expectations of most posters. I haven't read this thread yet - I hope those that had such expectations are acknowledging how good our performance was and not taking the loss at yet another opportunity to just pile on. Any in the 'we are so hopeless we wont get within a bulls roar camp' who still choose to pile on are showing their true colours. And they aren't red and blue. i was bullish about our chances and was confident of a really good performance. I was not in the least surprised that's what we got. My expectations were we set ourselves for this game and that we would see a much more dynamic team running over the ground better and being better in the contest. They met my expectations as that's what we got. So much better in the spread, so much more gut running (which is why our all team defence was so good for most of the game - and why it dropped off in the last as we tired). The intensity and contest was great - though the pressure wasn't as good in the first as it needed to be. We we were lucky they only had a 15 point lead at quarter time. Viney was immense. Clarry was terrific, and worked himself into the ground. As did chin and others. Koz was simply brilliant. The second quarter was our best quarter of footy for a long, long time. We ran out of gas in the last, but not too badly - certainly not as bad as last week. (In terms of running out the game, it's worth noting we only had a six day break to their seven). Not helped by petty rolling his ankle or goody not bringing pup on early in the last, or even late in the third, to inject some fresh legs and run. Losing bowey really hurt, particularly given salo was out too. Woey struggled down back and would have been sub if bowey played. And would have been a much better sub option than pup. More flexible in terms of role, more experienced and stronger. Goody would have brought him on earlier. But the biggest he issue was once again our inability to kick clutch goals. 2.8 in the second half was why we lost. Same story Poor kicking is our biggest weakness - and really the evidence is mounting up we have issues under pressure (which by the by is exacerbated by poor technique). The other big factor was we couldn't generate enough intercept marks - though they are less relevant in the transition game we were playing for much of the game. On the free against nibbla, he was unlucky because he was tripped. But the free was probably there and I want umpires to pay frees they see regardless of the point in the match. But what drives me insane is that free was in the context of us not receiving mutiple frees during the match and late in the game, that were also there. Where were our holding the bloody ball frees (made worse pinging us in the middle fir tge htb). Or May's mark that wasn't paid. Pay them for God sakes. And was that 50 to rivers against rayner at the end? Marginal perhaps, but so was nibblas. We are still well in the hunt this season. As goody had said all season, we want to be playing our best footy in August and September. The second quarter looked like our best footy. We need to see that for longer in games - and I expect we will. To misquote Paul McCarthy, reports of our death are much exaggerated.

I was channelling Scotty 'keep punching' Palmer.

It's a point I made before the season started ie how young our list is and how many best 22 are 22 and under. The idea we are suddenly 'playing the kids' because we have conceded the year and are looking toward 2025 is ridiculous. Yes the kolt ans brown came in. But apart from tracc who came out? Laurie, who is 22.

I'm in the drop tomo this week camp. But someone suggested dropping Howes instead, which isn't such a bad idea. The issue as I see it, is as a defender, tomo needs a one on one match up. He's too slow off the mark for the intercept role in my book. Is hipwood too quick? If not he could take him, freeing up may and Lever to wax on Daniher - or may to lock Daniher down and lever intercept. My concern though about the lions forward line is nor the talls, it's the medium forwards - Mccluggage, Bailey, Cameron and McCarthy. And for that reason, I think Howes will keep his spot. On tomo as a forward, I've long thought they should try him up forward. Perhaps in a defensive forward role on opponents intercepting defenders.

Our top 10 pressure players against the roos (which was a very high pressure game - the roos' contest and pressure was terrific). By the by, of all the stats I am 99% sure the correlation between winning the team pressure rating and winning is the highest - by some margin. A curious thing about the pies last year was that for much of the season they were able to win games when they lost the team pressure rating. They were a complete outlier. That changed come the end of year and finals when the game becomes all about the contest. Most Pressure Points Note: pressure points are the weighed sum of pressure acts. Physical pressure acts are worth 3.75 points, closing acts are worth 2.25 points, chasing acts are 1.5 points and corralling are 1.2. ( https://www.championdata.com/glossary/afl/ ) Player Pressure Acts Pressure Points Season Average Alex Neal-Bullen 33 80 54.4 Kade Chandler 23 61 47.2 Trent Rivers 23 52 24.9 Jack Viney 19 45 60.0 Tom Sparrow 20 45 46.0 Ed Langdon 24 45 31.2 Caleb Windsor 21 44 33.5 Koltyn Tholstrup 15 41 40.0 Clayton Oliver 15 38 45.3 Kysaiah Pickett 20 35 42.0

Say what you want about clarry, but even in his current form he is a better option than any mid running around at Casey. They're using AFL matches to get him fit. We might still see clarry somewhere near his best by seasons end.

From 13:03 of this link: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/best-of-abc-sport-podcast/lingy-the-legend-will-may-be-fined-for-staging-/104012664 Key points: 'Look at the results this weekend' - it's a tough comp Focus when Roos were closing in - addressing some of the poor posture and body language in last couple of games If you look at the vision 'id hope you'd see' some improvement in that space 'They got within a kick with 4 mins to go (actually was 4:35), we were able to hold up in the last 4 mins' - good 'defensive actions' The Roos attacked and we were looking to 'score too much' in the last The Roos 'brought a couple of numbers to stoppages late' which we 'probably didn't react quick enough' to Clayton has been playing a defensive midfield role this season - 'people don't see that', but he has been 'playing a completely different role' which frees up other mids and explains his drop in possessions He was freed up to be more attacking this week, but got tagged Handled it ok after the first 15-20 mins Clarry tried to go to Davis Uniake, freed up Jack to play his game Clarry working super hard and hopefully will get back to his best 'in the next few weeks' Next week's game - 'i left last night really, really pumped' to play Brisbane 'I'm really pumped' for Friday night (he said this twice) We have a rivalry with the Lions He's 'set it up so well, Goody, that i think we are going to see a strong effort from our club up there' 'I can get a bit too personal' in terms of focusing on his ruck battles Winning clearances critical at the GABBA Not 'concerned' about our forward line Still haven't seen Tracc - still in isolation Where do you see this group in terms of playing your best footy in the back half of the years?: Love to be where the Swans are but 'we've been there, in 2022 we were 11 zip and went out in straight sets' Its all about being in form in the right part of the year, referencing the Blues and Giants last year as examples of teams hitting form at 'the right part of the year' Excited to try to get there - 'not there yet, but hopefully with a couple of little tweaks and we keep smacking in on the contest and our defence side of our brand and hopefully get there by the back half of the year'

Indeed. We have struggled pre and post bye since burgess was made high performance manager (well, from 2021 - we didn't get a proper bye in 2020 because of covid) 2021: post bye we could only manage 68 points in a scrappy 11 point win over an average bombers side. In the lead up to the bye we had two 'uncharacteristic defeats' in our previous four matches. 2022: post bye, we came out running on top of the ground, and in a shock result flogged the lions by 62 points at the gabba. It was a shock because prior to the bye we had been in terrible form, losing 3 on the trot (having won our first 10 games) - freo flogged us at the G by 38 points, the swans rolled us the g and we could only manage 56 points against a very average pies team, who won by 26. 2023: post bye, in a super scrappy match, we led the cats by 7 points at 3 quarter time (6.11 to 5.10), but stopped to a walk in the last quarter and gave up 6 goals to go down by 11 points. In the four pre bye games we lost to Port at AO (but played well), lost, again, to freo at the g, had a scrappy win over the blues (who were 15th at that point) and a good win over the pies. 2024: after our first bye we we were woeful in the first half, and not much better in the second, in a scrappy win over the tigers. After our second bye, we again stopped to a walk in the last quarter and were lucky to hold off the lowly roos. In the 3 pre bye games, we played pretty well in our win over the saints, we were woeful against freo and better than the scoreline suggests against the pies, but still very scrappy. For context, it's important to note that in spite of (arguably BECAUSE of ) of those performances we finished top 4 in 2021, 22 and 23.

They clearly hope so. Same goes for petty. That's to say both players had severely interrupted preseasons. And they have made the decision to try and get them somewhere near optimal fitness come finals by playing them in the ones. Risky move, in so far as we have two underdone players in the 22. But they obviously think this approach is better than playing them at Casey. Petty was moving the best he has foe ages, so hopefully we're starting to see the results.

Many Demonland posters are too negative and should drink some concrete and harden up.

Awesome vision. Yze seems a genuinely good bloke. I loved Brown dog's expression too. Sick with nerves. I could relate.

Max gawn about to be interviewed on abc radio.

Thank God.

Huh? No, I'm asking where is the advice, that I received, for the posters pouring scorn on the club to just 'enjoy the win' and not create bad vibes in a post match thread. Of a game we won.

Are you being serious? Playing the man? You just accused me of relying on stats and not watching the game. That's not playing the man? Give me a spell It's been a very long time since stats were not used by coaches to help understand the game. Hell, AFL clubs employees full time stats analysts. Ours, like at other clubs, sits on the interchange bench and feeds info direct to the coach the whole game. The players have a screen in front of them with key data, eg pressure rating. The players are advised at the breaks of key data, eg time in forward half, contested possessions etc I watch the game pearl. Live at the ground when we play in Melbourne, then on replay. I also analyse stats post game. Helps me understand and contextualise what I've watched. Others may not. And just 'trust' their eyes. Each to their own.

How old is your coach?

Unless his classmates are Demonland posters for whom a win is still a loss.

Apply Occam's razor. Why would so many players have such low TOG post bye? Why would we stop to a walk in the last quarter (and struggle in the 2nd quarter) after a bye? Why have we generally struggled around the bye period and post bye since burgess became high performance manager (with Selwyn following a similar model)? Why are there so many strange results around this period every year? (eg lions flogging port by 80 points at AO, dogs flogging freo by 70 points - after having beem flogged by the lions the previous week - roos going down to the pies by a point, the suns only managing 48 points against the saints under the docklands roof, the blues flogging the cats etc etc) Why did we look so flat and have such poor skills in our win over the tigers after our first bye this season? Now, there is likely to be multiple factors. But a key one is almost certainly that clubs, and in particular rhe dees, use byes to increase the intensity of their anaerobic and aerobic training. Which impacts their post bye performance because they are fatigued. It is worth noting that after the pies game the players got their break straight after the game and then came back and trained for the roos game. If they wanted to maximise freshness for this game they would have trained and then rested. They took the same approach in our first bye period. And came out flat against the tigers. It's also worth noting that arguably our best performance of the year came in the second game after a bye - our win over the cats. A six day break into Friday night's game against the lions means they are likely to have a light week on the track. And so will be fresh and ready to roll. Winning will be a tall order (when was the last time we were $4.55 to win a game?) but I suspect the dees will surprise a few people next Friday night.

Personally, I find it ironic. I think it was after the hawks win, my first post game post praised the team, but also referenced the haters on this site. @Moonshadow was quick to call me out and give me some advice to just enjoy the win, allow others to do so too and not create bad vibes. Plenty liked the advice. Well, we won last night. I might have missed it, but I don't recall reading a post from @Moonshadow imploring the many haters pouring scorn on us post game to enjoy this win and not create bad vibes.

I met a mate and his young son after the game and walked into town with them. The young fella, decked out in his signed Steve May jumper, was [censored] a hoop. Loving life, kicking his footy, talking about the game and loving his team. Wise beyond his years, he knows you celebrate and enjoy the wins when they come.

This x 1000. Bank the four points and get set for the lions. Go redlegs.

Gee, I wonder.

A good reminder of one thing we call agree on - the ladder doesn't lie.

Which is why I don't bet on dees games.

'Tis the season for funky results.