Why have we lost ground to the Saints?

[Bullies]

We haven't they're terrible.

Probably had an easier draw.

Agree. I also wouldn't want that crap each week the way Lyon coaches. It will not win you a flag but keep you in every game.

[Scorlibo]

They did a lot more running than us during pre-season and got a fair jump on the competition over the first two months.
They were brought back to the pack pretty quickly but those early wins got them into the 8

This makes some sense to me. That game in round 2 made me question our aerobic fitness base because we were getting outworked on the spread consistently. Felt like they had three or four more players on the field.

[Twodogs]

In short they got their structures better than we did when it matteref most.They defended well and their forwards worked hard to keep the ball in their zone on the odd occasion it got into their forward 50.

I couldn't cope with watching Rossball week after week though. I like winning but their gamestyle is just turgid at times.

[GVGjr]

They did a lot more running than us during pre-season and got a fair jump on the competition over the first two months.
They were brought back to the pack pretty quickly but those early wins got them into the 8

There could be something in that for us to consider. Granted it's hard to maintain but we did fade late in the season anyway.

[Stevo]

Did we get as fit as the Saints or even other teams? The new facilities cant come along quick enough for us.

[Grantysghost]

Did we get as fit as the Saints or even other teams? The new facilities cant come along quick enough for us.

Footscray trained at the same place.

[bornadog]

Footscray trained at the same place.

Yep. Not an excuse

[GVGjr]

Footscray trained at the same place.

It took a while for Footscray to get on that run though but the no home ground to play on couldn't have helped.
I suspect training at Skinner wouldn't have impacted Footscray listed players like it did with the seniors given their training sessions aren't as long or intense but they would have have had less Bulldog list players to choose from.

[GVGjr]

Did we get as fit as the Saints or even other teams? The new facilities cant come along quick enough for us.

I think it's a fair assumption that a few teams jumped ahead of us in the fitness stakes and the niggling injuries we suffered in the preseason training on a harder than ideal surface wouldn't have helped us to have a fast start for the season.
The elite surface of the upgraded WO will be welcomed by the players.

[jeemak]

They had two All Australian defenders control their defence this year.

We couldn't get any continuity from our best two defenders in Jones and Richards. And outside of that we missed a lot of JJ and had patchy input from everyone else.

I don't know how many teams that have had two All Australian defenders have had non-finals years.

[Happy Days]

We play them tomorrow we win by 6 goals.

Callum Wilkie served me my coffee this morning.

[Grantysghost]

I think it's a fair assumption that a few teams jumped ahead of us in the fitness stakes and the niggling injuries we suffered in the preseason training on a harder than ideal surface wouldn't have helped us to have a fast start for the season.
The elite surface of the upgraded WO will be welcomed by the players.

Have we changed fitness staff?

[GVGjr]

Have we changed fitness staff?

I'm not aware of any announcements about changes to the fitness team.
Until this season with all the niggling injuries I've always felt like our teams have been fit enough. Is it a one off season or we potentially behind some other teams in terms of being at the cutting edge of training programs?

[GVGjr]

They had two All Australian defenders control their defence this year.

We couldn't get any continuity from our best two defenders in Jones and Richards. And outside of that we missed a lot of JJ and had patchy input from everyone else.

I don't know how many teams that have had two All Australian defenders have had non-finals years.

You might be on to something here.

Last year we had Dale and Daniel as quality contributors in the back line as well.
Daniel got moved around a bit to plug some holes and Dale had a good enough season.
JJ has had a tough two years with injuries and only played 8 game in 2022 and 11 this year.

Probably a lack of continuity in the back half didn't help our season.

When we compare our forward line to the Saints we were able to keep our main 4 on the ground for most of the season (Naughton, Marra, Lobb and Weightman) where they struggled with the availability of King and Membrey only getting a combined 18 games from them.

[1eyedog]

Even Henry chose them over us.