Ted Lasso

Definitely agree with all of that. but i would also say that while our coaches have done a brilliant job, we still aren't a particularly skillful team, and so when fatigued we do revert a little bit to old habits when the options aren't immediately available to us. I think our poor conversion inside 50 is a result of our forwards being fatigued and not being able to create gaps as easily with their opposition, and the players further afield being slightly fatigued and not being able to run and carry quite as far before being rounded up, so they end up having to kick long from further out, resulting in shallower, and more predictable entries. I feel like we had a similar issue at this stage last season, i remember commentators saying if we can't find a way to score we can't win the flag.

I think you should look closer. they've been scoring, but their scores against have risen dramatically. so it's pretty clear to me that loading fatigue has caused the less natural game phase for both sides to fall away slightly. we've lost our offensive game a little bit, and they're struggling to transition back and defend. 117, 96 and 99 have been their last 3 scores against, and important to note 2/3 sides are outside the top 8 pretty comfortably.

The interesting thing is that the Brisbane Lions are in exactly the same boat as us. they've won 1 of their last 3 games, been beaten by Fremantle and Hawthorn, and had a very narrow win against the Giants that could have easily been a loss. but they're not getting the same media attention we are. I think both teams have done a great job banking early wins without an enormous injury list, and only doing that really allows yourself to load to the extent that may offer a really serious advantage in the back end of the season. It's a really interesting topic to discuss on here because we've been awful for so long, that we've not been in a position for decades where this sort of thing is something that's even been relevant to us.

It's really interesting topic to discuss on Demonland because there is so much varied knowledge poster to poster on the topic that it's almost impossible for the conversation to play out productively. For the record, i am almost certain out training is in some sort of loaded phase at the moment, to what degree that impacts is impossible to tell because it's different player to player, some players performance won't change at all, some will fall away 5-10% due to fatigue potentially. it's a hard thing to balance. I'd say the loss of Steven May has had a bigger impact on our two most recent results than anything to do with training. i think we would have definitely beaten Sydney if May played, and likely would have beaten Fremantle had he not gotten concussed.

I assume you're an expert within the fitness industry?

Geez a fully fit Joel Smith would be handy.

I surely can't be the only one curious about who was winning the fight? May is a beast, but Melksham is a more than handy boxer.

I'd say that Petracca was pretty selfless against Fremantle when despite feeling like S@#$ he still took the field, granted it was clearly misguided but i don't think it's fair to suggest the selfish tendancies are back, the wheels aren't off, we just need to re-set and we will be fine. Honestly i don't know if it's MFCSS but if we all got offered at the start of the year to be 10-2 and a game clear on top of the ladder at the conclusion of round 12, at the start of the year, i'd suggest all supporters would take it and be thrilled. Potentially it's us fans who bought into the rubbish about us going undefeated who are a little bit sour with the reality check and need to remember how young this group is, we will be down in patches, but we know our best is the best and all that really matters is that come finals we're playing our best footy.

This is a terrific post, and i know for a fact we adopted a similar plan and had a drop off in performance at exactly the same stage last season, and it allowed us to absolutely peak when we needed to. This is something we've only as recently as the last 2 seasons started doing, we balance our pre season out with a lot more skills and game plan focus and work more carefully with in season training loads to try and absolutely maximize our conditioning advantage.

It's definitely high time for the leaders of the club to step up, stop the bleeding and get us back on track. we've had 2 flat weeks due to injury and poor form after a 10-0 start to the week and suddenly all the wheels are falling off. Queens birthday we need a statement win and nothing less. go into the bye with some momentum and the league getting a firm reminder that the MFC is still the team to beat.

Given he's been our mr fix it, i see the only logical option as playing Angus Brayshaw as our towering key forward.

Oh i completely agree. he's as out of form as a player really can be. Sam Weideman really has a massive opportunity if he can find his best form

Last year at a similar time we went into a heavy training phase, and our form dipped along with it, due to increased fatigue from the players. What i know about Selwyn Griffiths program which is admittedly very little, is that it's quite running heavy and designed to help us run teams off their feet heading into finals, similar to last year, I suspect something similar is happening and why our form has dipped slightly, combined with unavailability and injury to key players. I think this is also the cause for our reversion to Bomb it long and hope for the best demons. the coaches would never admit this publicly i don't think

i'm sure a component of Browns form is him not getting to the right spots, as well as a really poor forward structure, as well as diabolically kicks inside 50 we seem to have reverted back to the bomb it long and hope Max or Fritsch takes a screamer.

i don't personally remember a single occasion of Brown being outmarked one out, i may be wrong, but from memory the McCartins took a lot of marks in pack scenarios where blocks were provided, I think those situations speak a lot more to poor forward structure than anything else.

I would suggest really strongly that the number 1 KPI for key forwards in a team like ours is to simply not get outmarked, and the stats you've supplied really show that the other stuff is pretty close between the two, so it's a fairly easy decision to persist with the forward who doesn't get outmarked, and clearly has upside as his form returns.

The biggest difference for me LN is that even with Brown this out of form he doesn't appear to get outmarked nearly as often as SW does, which is a huge concern for him. I suspect if we're going to win the flag we will need one, but probably both of them to find some serious form heading into finals

I hope the club considers bringing in an external person like Jonothan Brown as a consultant to work with the forwards on their forward craft and spacing, it's a mess down there at the moment.

I think our defense is our strength, we can find another target but it'd pointless if we compromise that.

I have a controversial call, Tommlinson to CHF, in his underage years i rated him as a forward, due to his endurance running, i think he could play the Tmac role. I'd like to see Hibbo back in as well for another experienced head. Outs probably Mitch Brown and while he's stiff, Jayden Hunt

Being outworked all over the ground, not sure if the Swans can maintain that sort of effort. geez we are struggling to organise without May back there

Tommlinson is not an AFL standard defender. he's making a very average player look like Wayne Carey

Hearing Tommy macs injury could be worse than first though, anyone able to confirm?

Interestingly i just realized the other day that i am actually very close to my 10 year anniversary on Demonland, which is pretty incredible, means i've spent most of my adult life on here! Werridee couldn't possibly be older than 18, love their work though.

the thing with the dogs, and to an extent Richmond as well is they probably don't need to make top 4 to make a serious run at the flag. Last year the Dogs finished outside the top 4 and ended up 19 points up in the 3rd quarter of the Grand final, which may have been enough against lesser opposition. I'm certainly not counting them out as a threat if they can sneak into the 8 but it's certainly Much much harder, I think for us it's nice we will actually see our true top 4 advantage given we potentially would play 3 finals in a row at the G if we manage to win the qualifying final which would make us really tough to beat for just about anyone.