bornadog
17-07-2013, 10:53 AM
16 July 2013
People have mentioned that our performance on Sunday was spirited. I think it was more than spirited. Spirited has a connotation that you just run around and hope for the best. There were a lot of good signs on how we went about our work. The result was having a lot of opportunities to score, which sometimes we were able to take and other times we weren’t. We again tinkered with a bit of a different look in our forward line, different shape and different size, and it did show up some potential for the future. We felt it was better than spirited; it was a really big step in the right direction and a much more sustained snapshot of what this team will look like in the next 18 to 24 months.
As in most games, there were parts we were pleased with, and some that we can improve on. When we lost possession of the ball, we were better at getting it back in dangerous parts of the ground and we were better at scoring from those opportunities. That is something we have been working on. We also showed that when the game stopped, and it stopped for three or four stoppages in a row, each time we set it up even better. So if the first one didn’t work and it didn’t clear the area, we went to work again.
On the other hand, one of the keys things we spoke about pre-game was we wanted to deal more effectively with the start of the game and we still felt we fumbled a little and were nervous with the ball early. So the growth there is that when you are a little bit nervous, you can’t get out to six goals behind, it’s two or three at most. That was the wash up for the rest of the day — it was that five or six goals that was the buffer we were always making up.
We noticed our fans and just how supportive and boisterous they were on Sunday — even as we came off the ground without the result we wanted. It shows me that a big percentage of our supporter base is becoming more in tune with where our team is at. The reality is there has been a massive change in our team and how it looks over the past two years. We now have a group of supporters who have the opportunity to grow up with a brand new team in essence, and that is a good thing.
Now our responsibility is to play a brand of footy that our supporters appreciate and respect — a brand of footy that wins games and is able to beat good clubs. Our supporters have a real opportunity to align themselves with a team that has a little way to go yet, but the bones are there and they are clearly heading in the right direction.
The style we showed on Sunday, there will be more of that for longer patches of time against good opposition clubs. We played a really good club and almost got it done playing the type of footy we want to play, but we have to add some polish, some finesse and some better decision making in the forward half of the ground to get to where we want to get to.
This week in readiness for Hawthorn, we will get as much training in as we can, and we will keep tapping into the players thoughts about what they are feeling and seeing on the ground. We will also keep working on our core drills that have really quickly come out in how we have played recently — it’s another good test for our group this week, against a very good opponent.
See you at the game,
Brendan.
People have mentioned that our performance on Sunday was spirited. I think it was more than spirited. Spirited has a connotation that you just run around and hope for the best. There were a lot of good signs on how we went about our work. The result was having a lot of opportunities to score, which sometimes we were able to take and other times we weren’t. We again tinkered with a bit of a different look in our forward line, different shape and different size, and it did show up some potential for the future. We felt it was better than spirited; it was a really big step in the right direction and a much more sustained snapshot of what this team will look like in the next 18 to 24 months.
As in most games, there were parts we were pleased with, and some that we can improve on. When we lost possession of the ball, we were better at getting it back in dangerous parts of the ground and we were better at scoring from those opportunities. That is something we have been working on. We also showed that when the game stopped, and it stopped for three or four stoppages in a row, each time we set it up even better. So if the first one didn’t work and it didn’t clear the area, we went to work again.
On the other hand, one of the keys things we spoke about pre-game was we wanted to deal more effectively with the start of the game and we still felt we fumbled a little and were nervous with the ball early. So the growth there is that when you are a little bit nervous, you can’t get out to six goals behind, it’s two or three at most. That was the wash up for the rest of the day — it was that five or six goals that was the buffer we were always making up.
We noticed our fans and just how supportive and boisterous they were on Sunday — even as we came off the ground without the result we wanted. It shows me that a big percentage of our supporter base is becoming more in tune with where our team is at. The reality is there has been a massive change in our team and how it looks over the past two years. We now have a group of supporters who have the opportunity to grow up with a brand new team in essence, and that is a good thing.
Now our responsibility is to play a brand of footy that our supporters appreciate and respect — a brand of footy that wins games and is able to beat good clubs. Our supporters have a real opportunity to align themselves with a team that has a little way to go yet, but the bones are there and they are clearly heading in the right direction.
The style we showed on Sunday, there will be more of that for longer patches of time against good opposition clubs. We played a really good club and almost got it done playing the type of footy we want to play, but we have to add some polish, some finesse and some better decision making in the forward half of the ground to get to where we want to get to.
This week in readiness for Hawthorn, we will get as much training in as we can, and we will keep tapping into the players thoughts about what they are feeling and seeing on the ground. We will also keep working on our core drills that have really quickly come out in how we have played recently — it’s another good test for our group this week, against a very good opponent.
See you at the game,
Brendan.