binman

I've been very impressed by Sharp's running power and speed - not to mention his goal sense. As much as i loved Nibbla, i think Sharp is an excellent replacement.

Yep, fair point. But the speed i'm really referring to is what they call striding speed - ie the ability cover territory, say 150 meters, at good clip. Teams now need multiple players with elite striding speed to bolt back to defend turnover and on transition run hard to get ahead of the ball and provide a link up or inside 50 option. Nibbla is the exemplar of that sort of player.

Yep, fair call (though i'm not sold on Salem, Oliver & Rivers having decent enough pace) - and Spargs is not slow. But May, Lever and Tmac are all pretty slow which can expose us defensively when those players push up high and the ball is turned over.

Personally I think the biggest challenges we have in terms of implementing a new, more agrresive method, in order of importance are: - our defensive system - our propensity to turn the ball over - leg speed And obviously fitness is a key factor as attacking with fast ball movement and aggressive transition, and of equall importance defending the same, is impossible for a whole game without elite fitness and running power. We saw the perfect example of the above in the pies gws game. Surely to goodness the pies blew up with the humidity or some such - how else to explain them stopping to a walk in the last quarter of their first game of the season. If the issue is they are simply not fit enough they are toast this season. The pies run fell off a cliff in the last quarter (and late in quarters) and they couldn't transition the ball. But more worryingly for them they couldn't defend transition. Evidencing that issue, the giants outscored the pies by 8 goals from defensive half transitions, a big chunk of that in the last quarter. It looked so similar to many of our losses in the back half of last season. It's ironic given the pies were the masters of transition footy, winning a flag just 18 months ago with that method. We've now had two preseasons drilling in more offensive transition and practicing strategies like long forward handballs that many teams seem to be implementing. And signs are positive that we have the fitness to implement a more attacking transition game. But we took years to implement a zone based defensive system, the best in the AFL for much of 2021 to 2023. Now we have to retool that system, which is no easy thing given defensive systems rely on every player (including non-defenders) instinctively understanding the structures and their own role. And have complete trust their teammates do so too. The other challenge we face defensively is our relative lack of leg speed. If we don't play the deep anchor role we have traditionally used to defend turnovers (or use it less often -or perhaps set not as deep) our defenders have to have the wheels to get back when we turn it over. And we are not blessed with speed. On that front I've been very bullish that tmac plays, but perhaps Howes gets the nod as he is considerably quicker than tmac. And I've no doubt this a big factor in Windsor going back. Turnovers were a key factor in most of our losses last year. They killed us, both in terms of breaking potential scoring chains and exposing our defence. We have targeted players who are good kicks in the last few years - for example Laurie, Sestan, Hunter and Billings. Windsor, Langford and Francis obviously have other positive attributes but all are good kicks. Turnovers are always going to happen. Even the very best kicks miss targets and turn it over. And all teams turn the ball over regularly. The difference is in the margins. We only need to reduce our turnovers by a relatively small percentage to get a big improvement. Can we do that? I'm not convinced we'll radically reduce turnovers, but again we don't have to. Another preseason of drilling transition will help (for example because players will more instinctively know where teammates should be) and the addition of Langford and in particular Lindsay helps. And I think we will see goody continue to use the strategy of chipping it around in the back half, particularly against quick teams, to reduce turnovers (and control tempo, helping ensure games don't become end to end running fests). By the by, on a related note, the focus on Billings missed shots at goal is a complete furphy - as frustrating as those misses are, kicking goals is not his role. Being a link in transition chains and defending turnovers is his role. And key to both is reducing turnovers. I can't see Billings not being selected- he's quick enough, looks super fit and crucially is reliable by foot, particularly those boring, but critical 20 metre kicks that if turned over (hello Mr May) cost us goals both ways.

You have hair extensions? Too soon?

I see you skipper.

G'day punters. There won't be a Demonland pod this week due to the site reboot that has absorbed 99% of the boss' time, energy and focus in the last week (the other 1% was spent with his family, who had started asking each other 'where's pappa Demonland' trying reassure them he hadn't up and left - and yes that's what they call him). Thanks for all your work skipper, ditto Nasher. Massive thanks also to Mrs Demonland and Demonland juniors for your patience - pappa will be home soon. The Demonland pod will return next Monday night at 7:30am to dissect our game against the Giants. In the next couple of days I'll post in this thread my preview of the match.

I can't open this thread.

Are you referring to the freo game? If so, whilst he was pretty quiet he kept working had and ended up kicking two goals. What do you mean about the conditions? Both games were played in very hot and windy conditions- particularly the roos practice game. Hardly ideal conditions for a big key forward.

Interesting how similar our method against freo was to how the hawks played - particularly in terms of the uncontested marks and chipping it sideways in the back half until a good option to go forward appears.

And even if he does play he's not going to be fully fit - he's been off legs for weeks. From the giants' website: Meanwhile, Tom Green (calf) has returned to running and will be pushing for an early return in round one. Which by the by points to an important consideration when assessing the impact of injuries on individual player's and team's preseason - not all injuries are created equal, so to speak. Any injury in preseason that limits how much running a player can do has an outsize impact because if players don't get the optimal miles in their legs they will never reach optimal fitness - and they can't make it up in season. The pre Xmas break is particularly important because that's when they do the bulk of their running. They might start off ok but as the season wears on the impact of a sub optimal preseason will kick in. For that reason, I suspect Nick Daicos will hit the wall at some point late in the season because his planta fascia injury severely limited his running pre Xmas. If a team has too many such players they are in trouble at the back end of the season - which is precisely what happened to us last year (by the by that's where I got it wrong in my prediction right before the season started about where we would finish. I failed to factor in how many players had injuries that impacted their running - off the top of my head that list included tmac, spargo, McAdams, Lever, Petty, Salem, Brown, May? and clarry - well not really an injury as such, but certainly no running). Injuries that don't impede a players capacity to get the miles in might impact their ability do specific strength training or participate in drills but don't have the same impact on their aerobic capacity. (On aerobic capacity it's worth noting that it is iterative - that's to say with each preseason players go up a level, building on the aerobic base developed in previous preseasons. That means the impact of a sub optimal preseason carries forward to the next one). Take Maxy's larynx injury. Apparently that was a pretty serious injury. Maxy couldn't do match sims, drills and the like, and presumably some strength training. But he could run - and by all accounts run he did. Maxy reckons aerobically he is the fittest he has EVER been - which is remarkable given how fit he has been over the last 6 years or so.

We could help it along by having someone lean over the players race with a dees jumper with his name on it when we play freo. @Demonland can you please photo shop that image

That's a great analysis Harvey, I'll discuss it next week. My thought was perhaps it was in part about trialling strategy to mitigate frees big advantage over us - their leg speed. That may well be the case but your post highlights another possible purpose - to minimise our turnovers. When it is all said and done our biggest issue implementing the transition game last season, and the key cause of most of our losses, was how frequently we turned the ball over in the middle third of the ground. It killed us. So given there is no magic bullet (ie we are not magically going to improve our kicking skills - the players we have are the players we have) it makes perfect sense to develop strategies to reduce the risk of turnovers. Think of how many games we lost last year by a goal or two - even a small reduction in the number of turnovers will have an outsize benefit. Controlling the ball in the way you describe decreases the risk or turnover considerably. One, the focus is on getting the ball in the hands of the right players And two, it means you don't go forward until there is an option, reducing the need for the long bomb (and therefore less aerial contests for Max to get smashed in) and/or high risk kicks. It's worth noting that controlling the ball with short kicks to a lead up target has long been a key feature of the Lions' method (albeit less side to side).

Any chance you could sling me some of your meds - they sound fun.

A case could be made the High-Performance Manager is now the most important nonplaying role in footy, including senior and assistant coaches.

Chandler's TOG was 84%. Woeful disposal numbers, with 3 kicks and no handballs. The AFL stats are a joke, for example, like hits outs, the clearance number is a rubbish indicator - it just measures quantity not quality, impact or outcome. The key clearance related stat is scores from clearances - which is not on the AFL website despite them owning a share in Champion data. There's no sugarcoating Chin's disposal numbers but playing as the small forward (playing Koz's old role) his key KPI is pressure. And the AFL site doesn't have that data (though i'd note he only laid 2 tackles, only one of which was inside 50 - by way of comparison Clarry and Fritter, yes fritter, had 2 inside 50 tackles). The other important stat for Chin (that the AFL actually does have, but not for this match) are the total distance he covers in a match and the distance he covers at speed. That data is available, though frustratingly only for the for the top 5 players at the Telstra tracker section of the AFL app. That data is really important as an indicator for our high half forwards, a role Chin played last year, given how important those players' defensive and offensive running is (ie to defend turnover and provide options ahead of the ball on transition). it is less relevant if Chin is playing a true small forward, but important, nonetheless.

We have def struggled against freo in the last few seasons, though the timing of the games hasn't helped as most have been just before or just after our mid season bye. I think our biggest challenge against freo is their leg speed. I'll be interested to see how we go on that front today. Improvement in leg speed won't really come from our new draftees or trades though Sharp is, well, pretty Sharp (but so was nibbla). It will come from their training regime - whether they have they had a focus on building leg speed, if yes has it been successful and how fit are they (critical because it's about ability to maintain speed over the whole match). That said, having koz as a mid helps as he we can utilise his speed all over the ground, and the same is probably true of langdon. Anf Windsor at half back means he will be in the game more and be better placed to use his speed to provide defensive cover on turnover (something we struggled with in the back half of last year).

I hadn't opened this thread, so started post from last September. Some interesting takes. This post will age a lot better than some of the other takes - you nailed DS. Great comment about the similarities to Kelly, I hadn't thought of that comparison - it's a good one I love this kid, and think he has huge upside. As you note can play mutiple roles, is tough, and is exactly the sort of player we have been crying our for. And seems like he is a natural leader.

Can I take a Mulligan?

Where's the thinking emoji when you need one!

Don't do it to me Goody.

Sure, but its padded out with players who are ready to go - Chandler played last week, ditto Koz, Trac could have and will play this week, ditto Viney. And it's kind of weird including suspended players. Key is how many best 22 are on the list i reckon. Leaving aside Chandler, Viney, Tracc (who are all good to go) and Koz by my reckoning there are only two best 22 locks - Windsor and Mcveee (Kolt is probably close to best 22 too i guess).

What are you reading atm? I've heard Lord of the replies is good.

Nibbla.

Yes I'm quoting this post but I didn't read it. Don't bother replying.