What is our 'edge' in 2021?

If we just do what everyone else does, we're just going to get what everybody else does.

If we remember 2016 a large part of the magic was "handball club". Other teams weren't prepared for it and it was just enough to get us the flag.
Prior to that, the Hawks won a threepeat largely on the back of left-footed kicking skills that were a notch above every other team in the competition.
In the past few years, Richmond have had "the swarm" which apply manic pressure to the ball carrier.

Every premiership team need a unique aspect of play, something they do better than 17 other teams. In 2021, what are we going to do?

Looking at the side we have two areas we might be able to get an edge:

1. Our midfield, especially our "b" rotation. 12-15 minutes into quarters when other teams have their second rotation mids on ball, our rotation may look something like Dunkley, Macrae, Smith. We have to take advantage of those moments.

2. Tall attack. Adelaide made the Grand Final in 2017 with four legitimate marking talls, owing largely to how mobile Jenkins and Lynch were (Greenwood was considered a "4th tall" despite his current midfield form at the Suns).
We could feasibly have Bruce and Naughton (both top 5 for contested marks in 2019) with JUH very capable overhead, English resting forward at times, while Wally is very good at 'stand and wrestle marking and Mitch Hannan also capable overhead.

So just what is our USP, and how do we get an edge on the rest of the competition?

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Originally Posted by Mofra

If we just do what everyone else does, we're just going to get what everybody else does.

If we remember 2016 a large part of the magic was "handball club". Other teams weren't prepared for it and it was just enough to get us the flag.

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You might be correct but I can remember commenting to someone halfway through the finals that the Dogs had finally emphasised kicking. This allowed Smith, Picken, Dixon... to stay in position and take strong one-on-one marks near goal.

I think handball got us to the finals but kicking got us the premiership (and could again).

The kick the goal club. Critical that we convert better considering the chances we give ourselves to score.

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Originally Posted by 1eyedog

The kick the goal club. Critical that we convert better considering the chances we give ourselves to score.

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So the second part of that might be it - win the inside 50s count more than other clubs? That sounds like result of the stacked midfield strategy

What about the most play on and bounce club

No one will keep up with or half backs and half back mids this year

Men of mayhem and 3rd man up were bigger than handball club

Richmond took men of mayhem to the next level, that could work again but I think our ace is the number of elite mids we have

West Coast had a repeat stoppage strategy to get their hands on the ball again via their mids in the forward line, that could work now we have a decent ruck

We have a stacked midfield, and if they decided to defend properly at stoppages and figure out who should attack and who shouldn't we'll be in a pretty solid position. Additionally, if we don't press too high up when it's in our forward fifty we can then invoke the handball game to make sure we find the appropriate outlet on the turnover and hopefully find a forward option that's in a bit of space.

Our mids really need to protect our defenders, there's no excuse for continual goals out the back as we certainly have enough experience and know how to hold our defencive lines without being sucked forward. And we should be experienced and disciplined enough to ensure everyone knows when they're in the offencive mid rotation versus the defencive one.

It's time for all of Dunkley, Bont, Jacko, Hunter, Libba and now Treloar to lead the way and get our midfield organised and disciplined defencively. There's just no excuse for laziness, material lapses in concentration and attitudinal indifference to doing the team thing. The club has literally put the ball in the court of these guys to be our strength, I'll be pissed if they don't step up.