rufus

It's starting to feel like, despite moulding ourselves around contested ball, we just struggle really badly in more physical games. Some of our more highly rated players, e.g. Petracca, just get massively fumbly in high intensity games. I thought we were the 2nd best team in it last year and should have made the GF...but maybe we finished up where we belonged. We might just have caught a lucky break in 21 getting 3 teams in the finals that weren't playing really physical football. Who knows...but Sydney, just like Collingwood, are a terrible match up for us as they'll fight physically from start to end...and I'm not sure anymore that our guys are up to that kind of contest. Success in this sport is hugely aligned to your ability to apply and absorb physical pressure.

Personal opinion is that it's the talent of your top 6 that dictates whether or not you CAN win it, and then the buy in and application to the process/roles of the whole group that dictates your chances of actually getting it done. That's why player movement outside the top few players at each club is much of a muchness for this sport IMO. We have the talent, but we absolutely didn't stick to the discipline that took us all the way 12 months ago. Geelong played our 2021 style while we veered away from it (they applied huge pressure around the contest, we didn't. They worked hard to shut down ANY outlet from marks/free kicks for the oppo trying to move out of their half, while we let them advance too easily). Gee it would have been a great GF had we brought our intensity from 2021 to the Cats of 2022. If we get back to it next year, we are a chance to have a crack at another GF.

I am probably massively in the minority, but i really love the conceptual idea of a 2 conference comp. 10 Victorian teams play their season and 10 of the rest play their season (maybe with a smaller set of cross conferences matches). Winner of each conference to the national championship game. Would probably see all the national talent wanting to get to the Vic teams to play on the big stage though. Atmosphere is just leaps and bounds better for any Vic vs. Vic matchups.

Reckon the deal is pretty fair for the player that he is and will be. Don't think that Luke Jackson was moving the needle upward for us much this last year, so we move on and look for someone new. WA is in danger of becoming a state where only their absolute elite junior talent end up in the AFL. Surely Vic teams will start to become hesitant to take these guys on. Bit concerning to think that if JVR for example just explodes and becomes a star, he's probably just going to want out and back to WA. Best case scenario for Vic teams with these guys is that they be solid bottom 6 guys so they might not get lured back to WA.

In the first Sydney loss, he got exposed in some 1v1's that really hurt our chances of winning. They are the kind if contests that decide finals. Think he may have been dropped coming off that. Ultimately our mid/small defenders aren't great in the contest, which is why Hibberd should as is going around again. Neither Hunt nor Smith are good enough in 1v1's to help us win a final IMO, so if he leaves I don't see it hurting us if we make it into the finals next year.

You're quite posdibly right there.

You have 100% perfectly summed up what wins finals, and in reality what wins any game between decent sides. And also summed up how we failed this year. Good thing is, in theory these things should be easier to fix than other problems (like huge talent gaps). Our players have shown they are capable before, but are they prepared to go to the level required to do it again?

Honest question about where AFL football is at. Why can seemingly no players kick with their non preferred foot any more? Or are they advised not to because of some analysis of the likely outcome of using it? So many times players are breaking in a certain direction and have to stop and double back to get on their preferred foot. Why has this skill fallen away so much over the last 20 to 30 years? These guys are now full time footballers...

One thing that Geelong have done brilliantly is that they shift their zone across and setup beautifully down the line, but that is only useful if you block the kick into the corridor and restrict the switch. They have given teams no switch outlet and have defended the corridor. I think we got too cute with our defesive structure this year. I heard some players, when questioned about why we let teams switch and just walk the ball up to center wing, say that 'there are times when you want teams to switch'. I guess the coaches know best, but it just didn't look like allowing teams to advance so easily to the halfway mark was going to work for us. Really opened us up to the ball getting brought back into the corridor too.

Are we really too small bodied between Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw, Viney and Gawn?

Not sure how our midfield got handled by this Swans outfit. Hate the Cats, but credit to them. Amidst all the jokes about the 'retirement village' they walked the walk while the other teams that might have challenged them talked the talk. This is a pretty poor advertisement for the game in general. Two 12+ goal grand finals in a row. If the Swans are the second best team that could be served up it's a worry.

Swans one trick ponies. Stand up to their physicality with your own physicality and let the game be decided on talent. Cats doing themsleves proud and Swans being exposed for what they are.

Would prefer to see Syd win but realistically given them no chance. Reckon Geelong by 10+ goals. Geelong are a class above everyone else this year, and I think the Swans are the last standing of a pretty ordinary cast of contenders this year.

Reckon I am still in a bit of shock that we bowed out that way. Normally not that confident coming in to games, but having watched the Bris v Rich game the week before, I thought their lack of physical pressure, and poor skills under pressure, would give them little chance against us. On reflection, it is absolutely staggering to me how much we let our own pressure, particularly forward pressure, drop off for the whole season. After having seen it be the main ingredient in winning a flag, I just don't know how we allowed it to drop off like that. I honestly thought we might have been foxing and would flick it on again when the finals started, but we didn't. Maybe it is a difficult thing to maintain physically (and maybe mentally too). But I was really hoping the softish underbelly of the club was a thing of the past...but it seems it's still there. It's the coaches job to motivate the players and get them doing what is needed to win, and unfortunately Goodwin failed in that. But it sits with the players even more IMO, as in the end it comes down to a pride thing as to whether you really are desperate to do what needs to be done to win. I'm not saying the players weren't trying hard to win. But at some point you really get challenged and you need the desperation to rise up a gear. We couldn't or wouldn't go to that gear many times this year. Honestly I have no issues losing to a better team and tipping my hat to them. I thought Geelong were a significantly better team than us this year, and if we brought the physical pressure and took all the intangibles off the table, and let the game be purely decided by the talent and form of the players on the park, that they would handle us when it mattered. I just don't feel like the last 2 weeks got decided that way (moreso this week). For the season to finish with a punking from Dayne Zorko on the MCG in front of 60k fans might drive a renewed attitude next season. Can only hope.

Well we were a laughing stock for 56 years so it's only appropriate for us to go out this way. $1.20 favourites on your home deck against an interstate side and give no yelp. Normal service resumed. Completely arrogant season from all involved. How about talking about how we are still trying to change the culture and it is a work in progress instead of spouting off about this great culture we have after one good season. This club just doesn't understand what it takes to be at the top. This season was a complete and utter failure. From the players to the coaches it was not only a lost opportunity to have another crack at a flag, but a terrible regression in our attitude to competing when things aren't falling into place for us.

Last year we were the number 1 ranked pressure side. This year we have hovered around 17th. We are not getting the ball off our opponents in situations where we can move it forward quickly and into space. I am 100% confident that this is the reason for our forward struggles. It's also why I believe that the idea some hold that we should maybe drop players like ANB or Spargo, or we should bring in McDonald or JVR is just missing the point. Get the pressure right, and ANB and Spargo will look just fine. Having said that, the fact that we couldn't have seen any clearer what applying pressure to our opponents brought us last year, and yet we have given it up in such a huge way so quickly, says we probably aren't getting it back in the next week or so. Looks to be a huge opportunity missed for us.

Having had a chance to calm down and really think about, there's just no escaping the feeling that this has been a pathetic premiership defence from us. A few months ago you had multiple respected football people (including David Parkin) saying they may have never before seen a team so good and committed to each and to winning the contest. Honestly, only at the MFC could the wheels fall off so completely so quickly. Despite our 'changed culture', we're getting beaten every time an opponent brings high pressure on us. And we seem to have no will to dial up the pressure in response. Just like 'old Melbourne', this season is going to return a result that is less than what it should have been. Although our opponents are stronger this year than last, this is still a weak period in terms of really high quality dominant teams. A massive opportunity wasted by these guys. So grateful for the flag in 2021. Had we not got over the line last year, this capitulation would be soul crushing. It's looking like 2021 was an absolute heist where everything went our way. We are looking like real flat track bullies right now. And now we have massive pressure on us next week, against a side to whom we've given huge ammo to want to roll us. Brisbane are ordinary and we should beat them, but a win of any magnitude now tells us nothing about who Melb are. All it would do is again confirm that we are quite ok when playing on our terms (against a side that lacks physicality at a ground they don't play well).

Both almost concede contested ball and pressure us on the way out...works well when we don't apply the same level of pressure back. It nullifies our biggest strength.

We've lost every game we've played against the other 3 teams in the top 4 this year. We can dream, but you can't really argue with the fact that we just aren't as good as those other sides. Most of those losses on our home ground. Really thought we'd have Sydney's measure tonight, but I have overrated us too. We are being beaten in the physicality stakes by the big boys and that hurts.

Amazing that Brisbane won that game. They just didn't seem to play that well. That chain (highlighted by the commentators) in the last where Richmond kicked short along the boundary to uncontested marks all the way from full back to inside 50 and for a goal was shocking. We allowed a bit of that during the season...really hope that's all behind us now!

Will be watching Bailey Fritsch very closely tonight. Last year, his increased physicality and attack on the ball and man from the start of the finals told me that through all levels of the group they knew what was going to be required to win it all, and they were prepared to do it. It's going to take that level of pressure, and probably more because our opponents are stronger this year, to get it done. In my mind, if we match or exceed Sydney's pressure around the ball tonight, we win. Wouldn't surprise me if they follow Collingwood's tactic of almost conceding the in close contest to us, to try and harass us and turn us over on the way out. We need to put them under massive pressure whenever they are near the ball to counter this.

What a magnificent performance. High pressure applied around the ball. Something we have barely done all year. Result is that we can move the ball forward in a way that our forwards like Ben Brown look good and we are much more able to score. General hardness at the ball, both air and ground, was where we want it to be as a club week in week out (and it hasn't been there consistently this season). Also loved the odd kick out going down the guts, and some f50 entries coming in lower to lead ups. If we play with that level of intent and hardness and we don't win it all this year, then so be it. We will have made another team earn it big time, and it will be something to be proud of for us.

It really feels like we went away and did all this analysis of scores achieved and conceded from various positions on the ground and through various scenarios, identified the best outcomes, and have gone with the idea that things will only arrive out those statistical outcomes if we do it that way every single time. We might have missed a trick in that it seemed to have opposition sides stumped last year, and a bit early this year, so maybe we should have mixed things up just so we can pull this plan A out when we really need it. Now that plan A has been analysed so much by opponents, it's not as effective anymore. Having said that, our way of playing is hugely reliant on us applying pressure around the ball, and we have been extremely poor in that area this year. If we can somehow switch that on, all of a sudden teams will be inherently kicking the ball to the spots we want them kicking to, rather than having the time and space to cut through us and generate good deep entries. Our game will go from painfully boring to watch, back to the more exciting stuff we saw at times last year.

Game will be decided the same way every other AFL game is decided: pressure on the player with the ball. If we bring our A level pressure and force their inside 50s to be haphazard and landing 40+ metres out, we will be fine. If we let them walk across and up the field towards our folded back zone, and they get their entries within 35 metres then we're dead ducks. There's no way we can handle all of Rayner, Cameron, McCarthy and Bailey if it's played on their terms.

On reflection after being pretty disappointed with our last few weeks, i like the way we're starting to win the i50 battle. It means our mids are starting to win more ball, which is our biggest strength. Even if our forward line isn't humming, the pure weight of numbers of entries will give us a shot. However, i do question whether we have been physically hard enough this season. We 100% have been timid in the air, though that was present at times last year too. I wonder if other teams are coming off the ground hurting from the way we've hit their bodies around the contest. It hasn't looked like it. I'm not saying we haven't been trying, but to be the best means digging deeper and going harder than you maybe thought you could for longer than your opponent. If we switch that on, we are in it up to our necks. If we can't lift it, we will struggle with the sides that are unconditionally hard like Syd and Coll and even Rich.