Did you hear them scoff when they brought up Boyd's name on Friday night as a comparison? I think it was Ling who was the quickest to dismiss him. I'm happy with what Boyd has done so far and glad media clowns don't rate what he's done. I haven't forgotten how happy the arsewhipes seemed when that dark week in October hit. So many lined up to sink the boots in! My memory isn't so short.....anyway I'm going off course.....
One stat I love from Boyd is his 3 tackles per game but by all means keep on overlooking him.
If you kicked five goals and Tom Boyd kicked five goals, Tom Boyd kicked more goals than you.
Formerly gogriff
I'm racking my brain to think of the significant differences in game plan between what we're seeing now versus the very good games we played in 2013-2014.
There's definitely a psychological difference in the playing group that is evident. They seem to be willing to do the hard stuff, plus the creative and daring things we couldn't sustain during the above mentioned period beyond one or two weeks.
As some others have mentioned there's a difference in structure in that we actually have a genuine 200cm key forward opposition defenders are wary of, which has straightened us up and made it easier for us to move the ball directly towards something tangible.
Another structural benefit we've seen this year is the form of Talia, who after watching live in the VFL qualifying final at Whitten Oval, I thought was really struggling. He's really come out of his shell and is playing great football supported by a solidified defence supported by the veterans Murphy, Boyd and Morris/Wood.
Boyd really should have at least 3-4 more goals for the season so far if he'd been paid a free kick at any stage.
I guess we just have to be patient and wait until things turn with the umpires in regards to Boyd.
Greystache said it best I think when he said that the umpires had chosen to give him the Barry Hall treatment, rather than the Nick Riewoldt treatment.
Structure has a lot to do with it, but I think allowing the players to play their natural game also goes along way to the change. By this I mean, not just drumming into the players head they must be defensive all the time, but rather they can play on and take the game on. I feel lots of players were stifled under the previous game plan. Guys like Talia, who is a ball accumulator was asked to strictly stick with his man at all times.
One of the biggest factors is we now don't all tackle at once. In the past few years there would be three players jumping in the pack and tackling, and leaving no one for the spread and quick ball movement. Now we take turns in tackling and leaving other players on the outside to get the ball when it's fed out. We are moving the ball much quicker and finding other teams out.
Another Bevo tactic is not trying to win every position on the ground. It didn't work very well against Hawthorn due to injury, but what Bevo tried there was , let's leave Hodge do his thing and we will win the ball in other areas of the ground. It fell apart once Wallis and Morris went down. Similarly last week, Bevo wasn't worried about winning hitouts, he was more concerned about the next move and getting the ball back. At half time last week, I was amazed by the stats. We were winning only a couple of stats like tackles, and there were lots of players with only a hand full possessions, yet we were smashing them on the scoreboard.
This year we don't have a one or two players dominating the ball, but rather a more even overall team effort.
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.