Three things you've learned. Round twenty one 2022 v Fremantle

[EasternWest]

Mark West was athletic?

Those shoulders still upset me.

[Danjul]

If we finish 9-11 th position ( kinda ironic ) then we need to cut the list hard and start building the list with quality. We cannot hang on to list cloggers and players with deficiencies. Cannot end up like Richmond for a decade where they continued to threaten to finish 9th. We need to find player with good disposable ( like hawks do ) .

McComb: yes he can find the ball, but he can't kick.
McClean : love his speed and run, but he does not have the size or strength to match it against the opposition mids, Maybe as a tagger ?
Butler: why is he on the list ?
Roarke: we are not playing him this year.

I have no idea what we are going to do with Schache. Has all the attributes to become a decent AFL player, but just can't swallow angry pills.

Examples above these are just to name a few. Not single them out, as I love to have ALL and ANY of our players to become AFL grade, but realistically most won't make it.

In the loss against Adelaide he played very well both back and forward. One of our better contributors- dropped from the 22 so he could not participate in the loss to Port who weren’t travelling well at the time.

After a match winning performance for Footscray he got back into the firsts. He got 4 games, in two of them he led the team in marks and played reasonably well in all. Now back at Footscray he has kicked 10 goals 4 in the last two weeks. With Bruce now having kicked 1 goal in the last four weeks I think we can assume that Schache won’t be able to break back into the Team.

Is it true another team is looking at him because he will be very cheap?

[whythelongface]

In the loss against Adelaide he played very well both back and forward. One of our better contributors- dropped from the 22 so he could not participate in the loss to Port who weren’t travelling well at the time.

After a match winning performance for Footscray he got back into the firsts. He got 4 games, in two of them he led the team in marks and played reasonably well in all. Now back at Footscray he has kicked 10 goals 4 in the last two weeks. With Bruce now having kicked 1 goal in the last four weeks I think we can assume that Schache won’t be able to break back into the Team.

Is it true another team is looking at him because he will be very cheap?

He will play next week

[Bulldog Revolution]

Those shoulders still upset me.

16 of the most promising games!

[Bulldog Revolution]

1. We just aren’t very good - and it hurts me to say it because I’d hoped we could turn it on when it mattered
2. Richards has really arrived as a player
3. So we aren’t very good and it’s not like we are missing a whole slew of senior players - a strong internal review and a massive summer is needed. There should be no sugar coating how wasted a year it has been. We need some real desperadoes in the side.

[MrMahatma]

The issue is defence

Do you mean defenders? Or defence in general?

Our mids continually allow clearances out the front of the square and so often at critical moments. We rarely exit out the front and are often getting clearances via hook kicks from the back of the square or being pushed wide.

And if we were so good at getting decent centre clearances, are the mids not also to blame for not hitting targets up fwd?

It just can’t be that the mids get a free pass cause of a few stats. They’re not working well enough together or for the team. I’m not saying they’re no good… but to use a stat to suggest they’re #1 is taking just a quantitative view of footy, and ignore the quality aspect.

[1eyedog]

No doubt our mids are looking at each other hoping someone else will do the heavy lifting at the moment.

[GVGjr]

Do you mean defenders? Or defence in general?

Our mids continually allow clearances out the front of the square and so often at critical moments. We rarely exit out the front and are often getting clearances via hook kicks from the back of the square or being pushed wide.

And if we were so good at getting decent centre clearances, are the mids not also to blame for not hitting targets up fwd?

It just can’t be that the mids get a free pass cause of a few stats. They’re not working well enough together or for the team. I’m not saying they’re no good… but to use a stat to suggest they’re #1 is taking just a quantitative view of footy, and ignore the quality aspect.

Good points.

All parts of the ground are linked and they must all make some sacrifices for the benefit of the team.
It's definitely not just on the back line and it doesn't matter what the stats say.
We play some attacking defenders in Dale, Daniel and Richards to get the ball moving forward. They're not just there to lock down on opponents because that's not necessarily good for the team. They'll get burned occasionally but that's the set-up.
We do this so that we can get the ball into our midfielders hands and then to the forward line quickly. It's on the midfield group to help the backs and forwards and it's on the forward line to ensure the ball just doesn't rebound out of there quickly when we aren't scoring and undo all the hard work done to get the ball there.

This is a huge change from footy over time and I sense we can look at stats in isolation and make assessments based on that but we need to understand that most back lines will get caught out more than they should if the mids and forwards aren't playing their roles well.

We now have attacking defenders and at times use defensive focused forwards which was unheard of years ago and finding the right balance for the benefit of the team is the challenge the coaches face. The mids need to be able to generate both an ability to not only get the ball into the forward line but also drop back and assist the defensive unit. The mids also need to contribute to scoring and we ask a lot of them.

Put 6 defensive minded and accountable players into the back line and the area will improve from a stat perspective but all it's effectively going to do is clog up the scoring chances for the forwards because the ball will take a lot longer to get there and the opposition will have the chance to flood back. You need a balance of attack and defense and be prepared to occasionally get stung.

When people say our back line is the problem I don't think it's 100% accurate. We might need to improve the quality of the group as we should all over the ground but it's partly by design because we are continually trying to start the drive forward from the back line to help the team score.

[Grantysghost]

Bevo loves that zone defence with quick rebounders so we can move it quickly on turnover, get it in and lock it in.

So defence to attack, that transition is a big part of our game plan. So no surprise Jones is a target to fit into that quick spoiling tall defender intercept role. I wonder if we are even looking at a bigger type defender.

The way we concede clean clearances at stoppages is a bigger problem for me, no defence can stop those.

[Danjul]

Good points.

All parts of the ground are linked and they must all make some sacrifices for the benefit of the team.
It's definitely not just on the back line and it doesn't matter what the stats say.
We play some attacking defenders in Dale, Daniel and Richards to get the ball moving forward. They're not just there to lock down on opponents because that's not necessarily good for the team.
We do this so that we can get the ball into our midfielders hands and then to the forward line quickly. It's on the midfield group to help the backs and forwards and it's on the forward line to ensure the ball just doesn't rebound out of there quickly when we aren't scoring and undo all the hard work done to get the ball there.

This is a huge change from footy over time and I sense we can look at stats in isolation and make assessments based on that but we need to understand that most back lines will get caught out more than they should if the mids and forwards aren't playing their roles well.

We now have attacking defenders and at times use defensive focused forwards which was unheard of years ago and finding the right balance for the benefit of the team is the challenge the coaches face. The mids need to be able to generate both an ability to not only get the ball into the forward line but also drop back and assist the defensive unit. The mids also need to contribute to scoring and we ask a lot of them.

Put 6 defensive minded and accountable players into the back line and the area will improve from a stat perspective but all it's effectively going to do is clog up the scoring chances for the forwards because the ball will take a lot longer to get there and the opposition will have the chance to flood back. You need a balance of attack and defense and be prepared to occasionally get stung.

When people say our back line is the problem I don't think it's 100% accurate. We might need to improve the quality of the group as we should all over the ground but it's partly by design because we are continually trying to start the drive forward from the back line to help the team score.

Only partly agree.

From where I was sitting on the wing it was obvious that Freo had a much easier time taking the ball slowly from end to end.

Our players were not close enough to put any pressure on the ball carrier, who kicked to teammates in the clear. When the uncontested mark was taken a forward ran 5-10 metres behind the mark giving the opposition player a bonus in distance and an easy chip kick to the next unmanned link in the chain. End result- an easy delivery into a very mobile forward fifty.

our defenders don’t get the easy mis-kicks coming in to defend.

The members around me were going ballistic calling out this loose style of play.

[Grantysghost]

Only partly agree.

From where I was sitting on the wing it was obvious that Freo had a much easier time taking the ball slowly from end to end.

Our players were not close enough to put any pressure on the ball carrier, who kicked to teammates in the clear. When the uncontested mark was taken a forward ran 5-10 metres behind the mark giving the opposition player a bonus in distance and an easy chip kick to the next unmanned link in the chain. End result- an easy delivery into a very mobile forward fifty.

our defenders don’t get the easy mis-kicks coming in to defend.

The members around me were going ballistic calling out this loose style of play.

The five metres back insanity had to be tightened up the way they were playing.

But most coaches believe in their system and their planning during the week and I almost feel like they’d rather lose the game than lose their system.

[bornadog]

The five metres back insanity had to be tightened up the way they were playing.

But most coaches believe in their system and their planning during the week and I almost feel like they’d rather lose the game than lose their system.

Very rarely does the 5 metres back make any difference. Just watch the player with the ball, they still kick it from the mark.

Freo play a possession type of style and are very patient in their ball movement. Once they find an out, they can take it quickly from one end to the other.

[Grantysghost]

Those shoulders still upset me.

How did he miss. HOW!?

[Grantysghost]

Very rarely does the 5 metres back make any difference. Just watch the player with the ball, they still kick it from the mark.

Freo play a possession type of style and are very patient in their ball movement. Once they find an out, they can take it quickly from one end to the other.

Pushing up hard to the mark forces the player back and consumes time and puts some doubt in their mind.

Watch the good teams, they do it.

[bornadog]

Pushing up hard to the mark forces the player back and consumes time and puts some doubt in their mind.

Watch the good teams, they do it.

No, the player just runs around the mark and you stand their like a dummy and can't do a thing. Worst rule ever.

PS: I notice alot of teams have now adopted the same strategy.

The only time I don't like it is close to the 50metre mark